Happy the Little Black Cat

When Su Bai first encountered the little black cat, he had thought the little creature was strange. First, she had tried to pull him away from Room 402, even following him out. But once they were outside the door, she had wanted to go back inside.

Perhaps she had already sensed that the dead stray cats and the shadow inside Room 402 were unnatural beings, but after leaving, she had realized that the shadow carried the scent of the owner she loved.

After all, that writhing shadow bore all the dead cats' complicated, intense feelings toward their owners.

But when the writhing shadow reached out to the little black cat, Su Bai still felt her burrow hard into his arms. She was clearly reluctant.

And... from what the shadow had just said, Su Bai gathered that "she" let the cats that roamed in search of food out of hunger rest inside "her" own writhing, shadowy body.

If the little black cat in Su Bai's arms was merely an ordinary wandering cat spirit, then the writhing shadow before him and the cats inside "her" body must have been mutating beneath the Red Moon for a long time. Like the bloody marks on the hallway walls outside, they were filled with pain, hatred, and distortion.

Yet amid that pain and distortion, the writhing shadow seemed more rational and easier to communicate with than other evil spirits and vengeful ghosts, because she bore the cats' complicated feelings toward their owners and had to care for them. And even as those cats were consumed by pain, hunger, and hatred, their complicated feelings toward their owners made them choose to return to the shadow's side. They would even quiet down at "her" command.

The writhing shadow and those cats were clearly separate individuals, yet they seemed bound together by chains.

It seemed similar to the Vengeful Ghost Puzzle, but in truth, it was entirely different.

Su Bai could not let the still-untainted kitten be devoured and assimilated by the writhing shadow and the other cats, becoming a suffering Strange Creature driven by hatred, love, and hunger.

So the instant "she" extended a tendril, Su Bai took a step back toward the long-handled umbrella, holding the kitten in his arms.

He had intended to fight all along. Taking the little black cat away was merely incidental.

"The residents of Rooms 403, 404, 405, and 406 were eaten by your cats." Su Bai laid out his theory. The shadow had already said that the cats went out to forage when they became desperately hungry. Combined with the bloody paw prints and scratches on the fourth-floor hallway walls, and the inscriptions clawed to pieces by animals on those gravestone doors, it was not hard to guess what the cats had hunted when they went out.

"..." The shadow fell silent for a moment before her fragmented voice rang out. "Those residents weren't human. When the cats swallowed them, they simply turned into black mist and dispersed. They had no solid substance, unlike the bread."

The bread the shadow mentioned was, of course, the stale chunk of meat that the bread Ning Yan had made had turned into. And the black mist did indeed indicate that the residents killed by the cats were not humans, but relatively weak Ghost Creatures.

"They tried four times, but those things could never fill their stomachs." The writhing shadow sighed again. "Even if they ate that thing in Room 401 too, it wouldn't ease their hunger at all."

"But when those residents were killed, both you and the cats were in a state of Memory Confusion." Su Bai did not seem particularly pleased that Ghost Creatures had killed other Ghost Creatures. "So at the time, you really thought killing humans didn't matter, didn't you?"

"I tried to stop them, but all I could do was keep them on the fourth floor."

Holding the little black cat in one arm, Su Bai had already picked up the long-handled umbrella hanging beside the door with his other hand. Perhaps the shadow was still reasonably rational while speaking to him now, but if "she" took in more dead cat spirits and bore more painful emotions, if those cats and "she" lost all restraint and reason, they could become something even more terrifying.

The Nightmare World beneath the Red Moon was almost as vast as the human world, but the areas players entered in the Nightmare World often corresponded to their locations in reality. In other words, as long as Su Bai remained in Honghuai City, where his mother lived, he might well encounter "her" after she had completely lost control in a future game.

Rather than leave behind a bomb with an unknown detonation time, he might as well eliminate the threat now.

"Are you going to kill me and them?" Although many of the strange beings in the Nightmare World were no longer alive, or had never lived at all, they still understood the concept of "being killed." They knew it meant being utterly obliterated.

"I'm sorry. As you are now, you should still be able to understand that you can't keep those cats quietly inside your body forever." Su Bai turned his right wrist, and the black long-handled umbrella pointed at the shadow before him like a longsword slicing through the air.

"I know." Though the shadow's voice was fragmented, it remained calm. "But at least I can still keep them under control right now."

"So?" Su Bai did not understand why the shadow continued talking to him. After all, whatever "she" said, he would not soften and allow this bomb to remain in the Happiness Residential Complex.

"So..." The writhing shadow sighed out of habit. "While you still can, kill me and them together."

That caught Su Bai off guard.

"They were troublesome when they were alive. Perhaps it was precisely because they were so troublesome that humans abandoned them. They're just as troublesome now, constantly crying, constantly complaining that they're hungry, constantly wanting to leave this place and search farther afield for food." The shadow wrapped her extended tendrils around herself, as though embracing the cats "she" kept inside her body.

"But aren't they suffering now, too? They were so cold and in such pain when they died, yet even now, they still miss the humans who abandoned them. They miss them, but can never see them again. They were so hungry when they died, unable to find food, yet now, no matter how much they eat, they can never feel full. Hunger keeps tormenting them."

"I love them, so I won't abandon them. I love them, so I can't bear to watch them suffer."

"So, while I can still hold them, please kill me and them together." A plea filled the writhing shadow's voice. "Please, Xiao Bai."

Su Bai sighed just as "she" had, hooked the long-handled umbrella over his wrist, and shifted the little black cat to his right side. Only then did he extend the brand on his left hand toward "her."

Xiao Wu's advice to Su Bai had been that driving Ghost Creatures into fear and despair would make it easier for the brand to absorb Ghost Creatures stronger than him. But "she" before him already wished only for death. There was no need for him to do anything more.

"Death isn't necessarily the end. Especially not in the Nightmare World." Su Bai took a few steps forward and reached out with his left hand to touch the writhing shadow on the rocking chair. A smile appeared on his dark face. "I'll take you somewhere you'll never go hungry again."

The writhing shadow lowered her head. "She" no longer cared whether Su Bai's words were true or merely a final comfort before death.

"Thank you. You must be wondering why I've said so much to you." The shadow suddenly laughed, a strange but sincere sound. "The truth is, both they and I are really happy someone came to see us. Really, truly happy..."

"And that child, too. I'm sorry for the trouble." In the end, "she" was still worried about the little black cat in Su Bai's arms. "I remember her name was... Happy."

As "her" voice faded, that complex body, like a writhing shadow, dissolved beneath Su Bai's left hand into a cloud of blood-red mist, then dispersed in every direction.

At that very moment, Su Bai returned the puzzle's power to Black Umbrella. The lights in the hallway outside became as bright as daylight again, and the incandescent bulbs' ample light illuminated the living room of Room 402 almost instantly.

Unfortunately, there were no longer any cats on the sofa or the carpet. All that remained on the rocking chair beside the window was the paper bread bag Su Bai had given "her."

But Su Bai knew that "she" and the cats had not died completely.

Another bead on the Blood-Red Bead Bracelet around Su Bai's left wrist had turned black and red. He would take them back to the Mist Shop and make them into one or several little ceramic cats that would never go hungry again, keeping them beside the cash register on the counter, not for sale.

"May they rest here forever." Su Bai stroked that black-and-red bead, unable to help reciting the epitaph from the gravestone.

As he left Room 402 carrying Happy, the little black cat, Su Bai looked at the little creature asleep in his arms and suddenly had a strange thought. According to what "she" had said, all the dead cats had blended together in the Pet Cemetery. Even if they could become different individual cats, they were all the same at their core, with no distinction between them.

Why was this kitten named Happy the only one who was different?

Was it simply because this little black cat had been the last to join them?

Or had "she"... long known that the cats were steadily slipping out of control, and already decided to find a way to die with them? Had she therefore separated out the purest, happiest memories from the complicated emotions of the cats in the Pet Cemetery at the very end?

"She" and the cats had prepared themselves for death, yet hoped their joy and happiness could be set free.

"Maybe that's how it was." Su Bai, too, preferred that version of the story.

Su Bai had originally planned to take Happy, the little black cat, back to the Mist Shop first. But as he stood in the hallway holding her, lost in thought, he heard an awful violin melody coming from beyond the hallway window. It was "Ode to Joy."

It was also the signal for an emergency gathering of Room 204's temporary team.