Monster?

The class drifted by in Zhou Bai's daze. When Dr. Zhuang finished and was about to leave, Elsa raised her hand and shouted, "Teacher! Zhou Bai had a nightmare yesterday! Please help him!"

Hearing Elsa's words, everyone turned to look at Zhou Bai.

Alice asked with concern, "Zhou Bai, are you okay?"

"Are you still scared? Want me to come sleep with you tonight?"

"Haha, Zhou Bai, you're such a grown-up and you still have nightmares?"

Listening to the concerned words around him, Zhou Bai showed a faintly helpless expression. The strange atmosphere in the base had left him undecided on whether to tell Dr. Zhuang about what had happened yesterday, but Elsa had told him for him.

Zhou Bai could only smile awkwardly. Seeing the cold, grim look Dr. Zhuang gave him, his heart tightened slightly. Before he could say anything, Dr. Zhuang said directly, "You had a nightmare?"

Dr. Zhuang's stern gaze surprised Zhou Bai. Before Zhou Bai could answer, Dr. Zhuang continued, "Remember: don't open the door at night, and don't leave your room. Come with me to the storeroom later and get a stick of incense. Light it before you sleep tonight. If you still have nightmares, tell me tomorrow."

Zhou Bai's heart skipped a beat. Dr. Zhuang gave him the feeling that he seemed to know something.

When Zhou Bai lay in bed again that night, he looked at Elsa in the bed beside him and found himself unable to sleep.

The white-furred monster face he had seen last night kept replaying in his mind.

Was it really a dream? If it wasn't, could Elsa have turned into it?

After lying down, Zhou Bai kept his eyes fixed tightly on Elsa, unable to calm himself for a long time.

Elsa, lying opposite him, had long since fallen into a deep sleep. Her mouth hung open as she bit down on her own blanket, as though she had dreamed of something to eat again. Drool kept flowing out, soaking the bedsheet.

Zhou Bai: This girl... she can't be that kind of monster, can she?

Zhou Bai continued staring at Elsa as the scent of incense steadily filled his nostrils.

As time passed, nothing unexpected happened that night. Zhou Bai only felt his eyelids growing heavier and his mind increasingly exhausted, until he drifted off in a haze.

In his half-conscious state, Zhou Bai felt something soft and furry rubbing against his cheek.

He frowned and slowly opened his eyes, only to see a strange face covered in white fur before him, staring straight at him.

Zhou Bai was instantly startled again and quickly recoiled. But as he drew back and saw the monster face's entire body, surprise filled his heart, and his terror gradually faded.

Before him was a long-haired white cat. Its eyes reflected a red glow as it stared at Zhou Bai.

Could the thing I saw yesterday have been this cat too? Zhou Bai thought. Because its face was pressed against mine, I couldn't see it clearly and mistook it for a monster?

Zhou Bai glanced toward the door and Elsa, only to find that the door was still shut and Elsa was still asleep.

The man and cat stared at one another. Though the cat looked adorable and eased Zhou Bai's fear somewhat, the thought of a white cat somehow entering their locked room at night in an underground base still filled him with vigilance. Yet because it was a cat, he had no idea how to communicate with it.

With a thought from Zhou Bai, invisible Primordial Spirit power once more emerged from his mind into reality, guarding against the strange cat before him.

Just then, the long-haired white cat blinked, and a woman's voice suddenly appeared in Zhou Bai's mind.

"You're Zhou Bai?"

Zhou Bai was startled. He looked around, then glared at the cat and asked, "Y-you... are you talking to me?"

The cat revealed a disdainful expression, its blood-red glowing eyes narrowing slightly. "Your divine aura is blocked, your Dao transformation does not manifest, and you are ordinary to the absolute extreme. Why would the one fated to me be you? Did you pull strings?"

Zhou Bai said, "Who are you? What do you mean? Wait... you're that, that woman?" His thoughts shifted, and he suddenly realized that she seemed to be the female voice he had heard when he obtained the Auxiliary System.

There was still confusion and hesitation in the cat's eyes. After looking deeply at Zhou Bai, it said, "Mm. I was the one contacting you before."

Zhou Bai immediately grew excited. "What exactly is going on? Where is this place? How do I go back? Why did I become younger? Why can't I use Laziness Qi?"

Hearing the string of questions, the white cat frowned. "Never mind those for now. First, you need to find me and rescue me."

"Rescue you?" Zhou Bai asked doubtfully. "What do you mean?"

"What you're seeing now is merely a dream I sent you with a thread of my Primordial Spirit power." The white cat said, "If you want to activate your cheat... if you want to understand the whole story... you must find my true body... it's beneath this underground... base..."

As she spoke, the white cat's voice became increasingly broken and intermittent. In the end, she and her body vanished into the air together.

Zhou Bai frowned. The next moment, he abruptly opened his eyes and sat up in bed. Looking at the empty space before him, he slowly lay back down and closed his eyes in thought.

The next morning brought physics and chemistry classes, while the afternoon was still Demonology Class.

In this Demonology Class, Dr. Zhuang pointed at a twisted, grotesque humanoid statue and said, "This is the Hundred-Armed Demon Child. Countless arms and heads grow from his body. Every pair of arms possesses the strength to overturn rivers and seas, and so long as any one head remains, he cannot die or be destroyed. In addition, he holds several different weapons in his hands..."

Zhou Bai looked at the vividly lifelike child heads above, each with a ferocious face and bared fangs, as though they were staring at him.

But both today's Hundred-Armed Demon Child and yesterday's Three-Eyed Demon Wolf General gave him an eerie sense of familiarity.

Zhou Bai thought, Come to think of it, this looks a little like the Erlang God and Nezha. Were they recreated from Chinese mythology? He turned to look at several other twisted, malformed statues and muttered inwardly, The others look a little like the Giant Spirit God, the Fire God, the Water God, and so on... they're just too ugly.

After class, Zhou Bai found Dr. Zhuang and asked about talking cats.

"Talking cats?" Dr. Zhuang frowned slightly. "There are indeed such things. They are monsters. Why did you suddenly think to ask about this?"

Zhou Bai had already prepared an excuse. Hearing this, he said, "I saw a talking cat in the outside world before. What are monsters?"

"A monster is a monster." Dr. Zhuang said solemnly, "They are all creatures that want to eat humans, monsters born as mankind's enemies. If you see one in the future, you must be extremely careful. After some time, I'll begin introducing monsters in Demonology Class. You'll understand then."

"Could they find the base?"

Dr. Zhuang looked at Zhou Bai in confusion. Zhou Bai hurriedly said, "I'm worried that the demons outside might find the base. What if they come here?"

Dr. Zhuang said flatly, "Then all of us will die. And human history will truly come to an end."