Thump, thump, thump.
The Nightmare Cat Lamps, each stuffed full and more than twice as fat as usual, patrolled the completely darkened fourth floor, mirror shields hanging from their left paws and hammers or pickaxes dragging from their right, all fluffy and round.
As Cat Lamps, they were professionals. They were professionals at catching mice too. Nearly every stretch of the way, they caught Nightmare creatures hiding in every shadowy corner.
In the dim fourth floor, there was only the glow from the Cat Lamps, the faint light of lanterns, and the scorching radiance of the smelting furnace still rumbling away.
"..."
"I hope you have an explanation, Cat Bo."
Jiang Han's voice was gentle as she raised a finger and pointed at the clanging smelting furnace.
"If I understood correctly, destroying Tomorrow Hope City's entire core district was a prerequisite of our cooperation. This seems to have gone a little beyond that."
The plump Nightmare Cat Lamp Cat Bo had already evolved into a Nightmare Giant Cat Lamp. She had three pairs of enormous cat ears, three thick, savage cat tails that gave off a nightmarish impression, exquisite Nightmare mirror shields fitted over her paws, and the mining pick in her right hand had become an enormous wrought-iron hammer, with a chain set with black gemstones at its end.
This was Jiang Han's first time seeing a Cat Lamp that could become a Giant Cat without Meow Yi Ao's blessing.
At the same time, she had pieced something together from Cat Bo's words.
Though the Nightmare Cat Lamps revered Meow Yi Ao, their relationship with her was probably not as close as that of other Cat Lamps. Instead... the Nightmare Cat Lamps seemed to be closer to Cat Lina—to Jiang Han herself—in something like the relationship between a deity