Cat Seven

"What? You gave up the Year Eater skill?" The cat-shaped relief heard Jiang Yue's explanation and was so shocked its eyes nearly popped out.

"Kid, did you hit your head or drink too much?"

"I've never seen anyone turn down their starter gift. You'll understand later: Spirit Intelligence rarely gets this generous, and you went and treated it like junk, trading it for points? What good are points, anyway?"

Although he was the previous one, after Spirit Intelligence restarted, all the settings were brand-new. Naturally, he had no idea what points were even for under the new setup.

But he understood the words "treated it like junk." A perfectly good skill, treated like junk—what kind of mind-numbingly stupid move was that?

Jiang Yue didn't regret his choice.

Stealing someone else's years to extend his own life was something he simply couldn't do.

To be a dragon-slaying hero one moment and a dragon the next was a kind of shady move Jiang Yue couldn't accept, either.

The former, the cat-shaped relief, kept lecturing him.

Jiang Yue wasn't upset. From the other's point of view, his decision really did have plenty of flaws.

"The Hundred Evils Immunity Halo is great, sure, but it only lasts three months. It's a temporary skill, nowhere near as useful as the first one. That one was permanent. They gave you a permanent skill right at the start, and you actually turned it down. Spirit Intelligence rarely gets generous, and I bet you made it so mad it laughed."

"Kid, you've started off racing down the road to your own destruction. Keep this up, and I feel like becoming a former one is only a matter of time."

"Stop calling me 'kid.' I have a name. Even if you've lived for thousands of years, you should respect the current one. Don't forget, your freedom is in my hands."

"You? Hmph..." The former cat-shaped relief snorted, clearly unconvinced.

"What about me? Can't you tell I'm the successor you've been waiting for?" Having just completed the Year Eater mission, Jiang Yue was feeling thoroughly optimistic.

"Heh. You've just completed the starter mission, so you're getting a little carried away and saying cocky things. I can understand that." There was a hint of sourness in the former one's voice.

"Enough! I know you're jealous. Let's start over. I'm Jiang Yue. Don't call me 'kid' again. I've still got the strength to swing a hammer." Jiang Yue grinned.

"Uh..."

The former one was momentarily speechless. He swore this was the most arrogant successor he'd ever met, and the least respectful of his elders.

Before, when he'd served as the guide, every successor he met had treated him with reverence as soon as they first encountered Spirit Intelligence. They couldn't have been more respectful.

No matter how sarcastic he got, they'd always imagine it meant: The senior is nagging because he cares about me.

But this one didn't play by the rules at all.

He was always threatening to swing a hammer. Did respect for the elderly and care for the young mean nothing anymore? What about seniority and rank?

"Hey, I asked your name."

"Forget it. I'm a has-been, so there's no need to mention my name and bring shame on my ancestors. I'm Spirit Intelligence's seventh bridge. Call me Cat Seven."

His tone made it clear he deeply resented Spirit Intelligence's habit of replacing the old with the new and abandoning its bridges once it had crossed.

"Cat Seven? That's a nice name. By the way, have you been hanging on the wall as a relief for these past two thousand years?"

"Are you rubbing salt in my wounds?" Cat Seven sounded mournful.

"I'm just curious! Honestly, if I could, I'd help you out of this. Being imprisoned for over two thousand years is just cruel."

"You mean that?" Cat Seven sounded surprised.

"Believe it or not. Ever heard the saying, 'When the rabbit dies, the fox grieves'?"

"No. I'm a cat, not a rabbit."

"Fine, fine. You get the idea. You said this villa was only built a little over a hundred years ago, so I'm curious: what did you look like before?"

"Sometimes I was a mural, sometimes a pattern on a carpet, sometimes a design on a piece of furniture, and sometimes a wooden statue... It's been so long, I can hardly remember all the forms I've taken."

Clearly, these were painful memories. Jiang Yue decided not to rub it in.

"Let's talk about something more cheerful."

"Cat Seven, this villa belongs to me from now on, right?"

Jiang Yue had been assuming as much, but no one had confirmed it.

"Anything connected to Spirit Intelligence belongs to you. I don't want to admit it, but that includes me."

That sounded wrong no matter how he looked at it. The more he thought about it, the more it seemed to suggest moral decay and a distortion of human nature.

You're a cat, and I'm a normal man.

"So I can live here whenever I want?"

"Of course. It's your territory, so you make the rules."

"And I can bring anyone I want here?"

"Obviously." Cat Seven sounded a little impatient.

"But what if I need to talk to you? Wouldn't it be inconvenient with other people around?"

"No need to worry. With Spirit Intelligence here, we can communicate without speaking. Unless something unusual happens, I'll just be a quiet relief."

"Mm-hmm. You've done a good job as a relief, too. You deserve credit for that. Cat Seven, let me ask you one more time: haven't you realized that I'm the successor you've been waiting so patiently for?"

"I don't know if you're the successor I've been waiting for. But you're definitely the most arrogant, conceited, brazen, and shameless successor I've ever met."

"That's all? Then I guess I haven't tried hard enough." Jiang Yue sighed.

"What do you mean?" Cat Seven was baffled.

"Mean, picky, flirtatious, mischievous, and petty. I still need to work twice as hard on all of those. When you can use every one of those words to describe Spirit Intelligence to me, too, maybe I really will become the successor you've been waiting for."

Jiang Yue finished speaking, laughed, and headed straight upstairs without waiting for Cat Seven's reaction.

Cat Seven was dumbfounded.

What kind of thought process was that? How could anyone interpret it that way?

Though it was Jiang Yue's first time at Villa No. 9, he already considered it his home, so he made himself comfortable. He went upstairs and picked the largest room for his bedroom.

The villa really was something else. Just in terms of how open and airy it felt, it was far beyond an apartment building.

The bedroom Jiang Yue chose had its own bathroom, walk-in closet, and a small sitting room. Just one room had everything you'd find in a super-luxury hotel.

After washing up, he collapsed onto the bed. It was already past one.

Jiang Yue took out his phone and saw a string of missed calls.

A bunch of chat messages had popped up on WeChat, too.

His sister, Jiang Ying, in particular, seemed furious. Angry or not, she still had to look after her little brother.

There were seven or eight missed-call notifications and more than a dozen voice messages on WeChat.

Jiang Yue thought for a moment, then typed out a message.

"I'm at the Daozi Lane Villa. Something came up tonight, but I'm all right for now. I'll come back tomorrow morning and explain."

He figured his sister wouldn't be reassured by a text, so he recorded the message as a voice note instead.

Then he sent his location, too.

Sure enough, WeChat replied almost immediately.

"Jiang Yue, what on earth are you up to?"

"Sis, I can't explain in just a few words. I'll be back tomorrow morning and tell you everything at home. Don't worry, I'm fine. Nothing will happen to you guys, either."

Jiang Ying wasn't unreasonable, even though she'd spent the whole night worrying for nothing. She knew her brother always had a good sense of what he was doing, so she figured something important must really have held him up.

She didn't press him any further.

Jiang Yue leaned back against the bed, his mind racing. He had no hope of falling asleep anytime soon.

It had only been two days, yet it felt like two years.

On his way back to Daozi Lane just now, he'd passed the entrance to the Elm Street night market. It had been brightly lit and bustling with activity. Though it was late, the noisy city clearly hadn't settled down yet.

Everything seemed more or less the same as usual.

People were still drinking, dancing, hanging out in bars, flirting, gaming, and scrolling through their phones...

But how much longer would these seemingly peaceful days last?

The answer probably wasn't encouraging.

Bored, he picked up his phone again.

He saw a message Li Yue had sent a few hours earlier.

Li Yue: Do you believe those videos Du Yifeng posted this afternoon?

The world had really changed.

Li Yue, a shy, quiet nobody who almost never reached out to anyone, had contacted him twice in one day.

That was more times than she'd contacted him in the past two years combined!

How should he answer?

After thinking for a moment, he decided to be honest.

Jiang Yue: I do.

He'd expected the message to disappear into the void.

But, to his surprise, Li Yue replied almost instantly.

Li Yue: I do, too.

Jiang Yue was a little surprised. Li Yue was still awake at this hour? And given her personality, shouldn't she be the type to refuse to listen, look, or believe when it came to something like this?

Jiang Yue: Yeah. We should take it seriously. Maybe the changes ahead will surprise us even more.

Li Yue: Mm.

The conversation had reached the point where it was basically over, especially since it was with Li Yue.

Jiang Yue didn't mind. Suddenly disappearing was just part of his deskmate's usual style. He'd long since gotten used to it.

He scrolled down through his WeChat messages and checked the group chats.

Most of them were quiet, but the group Du Yifeng had created had already racked up several thousand more messages.

Jiang Yue opened it and scrolled through a little. There weren't any new videos, so he didn't feel like reading through everything. Several people had tagged him in the meantime.

The most recent tag was already two or three hours old. It was the middle of the night, so Jiang Yue couldn't be bothered to explain himself.

He was about to put down his phone and go to sleep.

Then it chimed again.

Could Li Yue have sent another message? That didn't sound like her.

"Han Jingjing: Jiang Yue, what are you doing? Are you asleep?"

"Han Jingjing: Why aren't you replying when I tag you in the group? Are top students always this busy?"