And sure enough, this recording came in handy now.
"So what exactly is going through that Hakimi brain of yours? If I wanted women, would I need to resort to coercion? How embarrassing. Don't say you know me when we get back."
Kal'tsit: "... ..."
"Look at this black history. What a pity—I laughed too early. I should've waited until you, Kal'tsit, neatly folded your clothes to the side and then gave me a dogeza before laughing."
Otherwise, Kal'tsit's black history could've gotten another +1.
Chen Ran felt rather regretful. As he spoke, he turned to look to the side. "How about I give you another chance, Savior Kal'tsit? Shall we do it all over again? This time, I promise I won't laugh."
Kal'tsit: "... ..."
Kal'tsit did not quite understand why this evil... Lord God had added the words "Savior" before her name, but she did not care.
Kal'tsit had already left Chen Ran's palm and sat on a table beside him.
Expressionless and silent, she simply kept putting her clothes back on.
There was no helping it. While she had been completely naked, not only had this Lord God refrained from using her as a cup, he had even pointed at her and burst out laughing. "Hakimi, this cat only thinks about herself."
No matter how she thought about it, Kal'tsit could only conclude that she herself had misunderstood, rather than that Lord God merely teasing her for amusement—
Because only then could she preserve a shred of dignity and avoid dying from social embarrassment.
Still, Kal'tsit kept a straight face and silently dressed herself amid Chen Ran's laughter. Yet when she turned her head, she discovered that, for some reason, her shoes had vanished.
Surely this Lord God had not secretly hidden them, right?
Having already misunderstood the divine will once, Kal'tsit naturally would not be foolish enough to act presumptuously again.
So she could only stand barefoot on the tabletop and raise her head to look at Chen Ran once more.
"Lord God."
As though she did not understand shame, even after that socially fatal ordeal, Kal'tsit's expression did not change in the slightest. Her tone remained calm. "I apologize for misunderstanding your intentions and allowing you to witness such a farce."
"Oh? You're not calling me an Evil God this time?" Chen Ran asked deliberately.
"You jest." Kal'tsit had weathered great storms before, and her composure was rock-solid. "How could someone like me judge an existence such as yourself as I please? I was merely awed by your magnificence, which clouded my mind for a moment and caused me to utter a few foolish words."
"What an official-sounding speech." Chen Ran seemed to lose interest all at once. "I thought I'd at least get to see Savior Cat completely break down from social embarrassment."
"In your presence, I naturally would not make such a spectacle of myself."
More importantly, Kal'tsit was rather curious how her name had been shortened to "Savior Cat."
"Oh, then that's quite a pity." Chen Ran turned his head. "Skadi! Little Orca! The red one! Come, connect the phone you're holding to—what are you doing?"
When he turned, he discovered that Heart of the Corrupted Skadi had somehow stolen a pair of shoes and was drifting toward him with them in her hand.
Though Heart of the Corrupted Skadi raised her little head with a puzzled expression upon hearing him, that did not stop her from placing the pair of shoes in Chen Ran's palm as though they were priceless treasure.
After setting them down, Heart of the Corrupted Skadi even put a hand on her hip, as if she had accomplished something incredible.
Meanwhile, Kal'tsit stared expressionlessly at the shoes in Chen Ran's palm, then lowered her head and looked at her bare feet.
Chen Ran roughly guessed whose shoes Heart of the Corrupted Skadi had stolen.
But what did I need these shoes for? That Hakimi might even think I had some kind of strange fetish.
As Chen Ran thought this and slipped the shoes into his pocket—
Heart of the Corrupted Skadi was also trying to explain. "I got them from that glowing little box..."
"Alright, alright, you don't need to say any more."
Chen Ran cut her off with a wave of his hand before she could finish.
Who knew what exactly Heart of the Corrupted Skadi had been poisoned by?
Ever since she had learned how to surf the internet, she seemed to have stopped wearing shoes entirely.
All she thought about was how to stuff her little feet, wrapped in black stockings, into Chen Ran's mouth.
What? So this was a rule you set, Heart of the Corrupted Skadi? No shoes allowed once you came to the Lord God's playground?
After watching for a moment and making sure Heart of the Corrupted Skadi was not planning to find a pair of stockings and put them on Kal'tsit—
"Come, Red T." Chen Ran spoke again. "Connect the phone to the projector, then project this Savior Cat's black history from earlier into the living room... no, project it across the entire universe and put it on loop."
Kal'tsit: "... ..."
Kal'tsit's expression did not change, but she took a deep breath. She said nothing, merely turned her head away and clenched her little fists tightly.
This one... even if he was not an Evil God, he definitely was not any kind of proper god.
Kal'tsit took several deep breaths before she managed to keep her spiritual resolve from crumbling.
"Lord God." Only after steadying herself did Kal'tsit speak again. "If doing this can satisfy you, if it can persuade you to show mercy and grant humanity a sliver of hope, then I have no objection."
"Back to the survival of the human race again?"
Didn't I tell you it was about having children?
Remembering the previous misunderstanding, Chen Ran thought for a moment before reaching out toward Kal'tsit.
Though Kal'tsit did not understand Chen Ran's intentions, with her previous experience, she did not choose to resist.
Although Chen Ran's palm was rather large, and whether deliberately or accidentally, his touches and strokes brushed against places that made Kal'tsit bite her lip more than once, she was fortunately soon placed back onto his palm.
"I can help." Chen Ran looked at Kal'tsit standing barefoot on his palm. "So what's the price, Savior Cat?"
Kal'tsit dearly wanted to say that she could offer everything she had.
But on second thought, this question seemed to have returned them to the very beginning.
So Kal'tsit would not foolishly repeat what she had done before, undressing while saying something like, "Then I shall offer you my loyalty."
Kal'tsit had learned her lesson. She asked instead, "What does Lord God desire?"
"Very simple." Chen Ran replied, "Just meow once."
Kal'tsit: "?"
Doctor: No Hope, Wait for Death
Kal'tsit froze upon hearing that, then revealed an utterly incomprehensible look.
As though uncertain whether she had heard wrong, Kal'tsit remained silent for a long while before cautiously asking, "You... what did you just say?"
"Meow once."
Chen Ran gave her a definite answer. "Meow once, and I'll give you food. Meow twice, and I'll give you spring water. Meow three times, and I'll give you houses and shelter—so on and so forth. Easy to understand, isn't it?"
Kal'tsit: "... ..."
It was, indeed.
Just like getting a red envelope for kowtowing during New Year, or getting a hundred yuan for calling someone 'Dad' during an argument. Very easy to understand.
Her rationality told her this was practically wealth falling from the sky.
Yet her emotions told her that, just like offering loyalty before, this was definitely another trap.
But Chen Ran had not thought that much about it.
After all, bestowing food and providing spring water were truly effortless for him.
He just had to crush a biscuit, sprinkle it into that model planet, unscrew a bottle of mineral water, and pour it into the model planet.
And that was it.
How difficult could that be?
At worst, he could just make a food planet by hand and let these survivors become neighbors with the Sea Creatures.
But Chen Ran did not want to be taken for a sucker, nor did he want them to treat his help as something they were entitled to. Otherwise, once these survivors ate and drank everything away, whenever they were hungry or thirsty, they would just stretch out their hands and cry, "Lord God!"
Then they would not be survivors. They would be unruly ingrates, and they would need a heavy fist.
So they had to pay a price, though it did not need to be much. Something harmless would do.
"So? Have you decided?"
After waiting for a while, Chen Ran asked again, "Will you meow or not?"
Kal'tsit raised her head and looked at Chen Ran, who seemed to have her completely in his grasp. Then she turned to look at Heart of the Corrupted Skadi, who sat dutifully on Chen Ran's shoulder with the phone in her arms and the recording function already on.
Kal'tsit: "... ..."
... ... ...
... ...
"Doctor! Doctor, aaaah!!!"
The Doctor was not one of the long-lived races, so in order to indirectly extend his lifespan, he had long since begun frequently sleeping in stone coffins.
Normally, unless something extremely serious happened, no one would dare wake the Doctor so easily.
But today, the Doctor was awakened by a sound that resembled both funeral wailing and someone calling a soul back from the dead.
When he opened his eyes, he found that the stone coffin's lid had been removed.
Several medical operators were clinging to the edge of the coffin, crying and shouting as they tried to wake him.
Ah... the last time... Amiya had seemed to wake me like this too...
Where was Amiya? Amiya, she...
The Doctor thought that subconsciously, then fell into silence for no apparent reason.
Until—
"Doctor, aaaah!!!"
"I'm awake... really awake... stop yelling..."
The Doctor felt his head buzzing and had no choice but to interrupt the medical operators' wailing.
The Doctor also knew what being awakened meant, so he did not waste words. He went straight to the point. "What happened? Where's Kal'tsit? What's the situation now?"
Upon hearing that, the medical operators hurriedly began explaining the situation.
But they all spoke over one another, creating such a racket that the Doctor had to extract the key information himself.
"God! We saw God!"
Oh... a revival of theology.
"A fanatic said the Sea Creatures were the correct path of evolution, then Doctor Kal'tsit kicked him out!"
Oh... the rise of religion.
"Then the Sea Creatures really returned! They took that fanatic away!"
Oh ho, the Sea Creatures had returned.
"Then Doctor Kal'tsit was taken away by a god!"
Oh ho, a god appeared... wait a second?
As though sitting bolt upright while dying of illness, the Doctor interrupted him. "What did you just say... Kal'tsit was taken away? By whom? Taken where?"
"By God! God! A real Lord God!"
That medical operator seemed to realize something and hurriedly pointed outside. "That moon! The moon is the Lord God's eye! Really! If you don't believe me, Doctor, go look!"
"No... an eyeball as large as a moon isn't merely a god. That is at least a creator-level existence..."
The Doctor did not quite believe it. Gods... they were far too vague and intangible.
Maybe it was just some Great Beast?
Thinking that, the Doctor rose from the stone coffin with the medical operators' support, walked to the window, and looked at the moon in the sky.
Then the moon blinked at the Doctor.
Doctor: "... ..."
The Doctor did not say a word. He had needed assistance to stand up just moments ago, but now he turned around by himself, returned to the stone coffin, lay down, and reached out to close the coffin's lid again.
"Doctor?! Doctor, what are you doing?!"
Before you continue