Playing the Foolish Beauty in a Deadly Game - Chapter 47
Lin Qiao gently wiped the bloodstains off the small orange kitten with a soft, damp cloth. He found a new box and a soft blanket, and carefully placed the kitten’s body inside once again.
Lin Qiao’s voice was muffled: “Can you accompany me to return it?”
The black cat nudged Lin Qiao’s arm with its head. Its golden eyes showed little emotion, but its tail quietly wrapped around Lin Qiao’s wrist.
The Doberman had a more independent personality and wasn’t usually that clingy to Lin Qiao. It wasn’t as enthusiastic as other dogs, but it was very considerate.
Sensing Lin Qiao’s sorrow, the Doberman quietly got up and walked to the door, expressing its feelings through action.
“Thank you,” Lin Qiao said, holding the box in his arms as he walked towards the direction of the breakfast shop.
Along the way, cats and dogs kept stopping to watch Lin Qiao. They observed from a distance, perhaps paying their respects to their fallen companion, or perhaps sensing something amiss.
Lin Qiao, surrounded by a crowd of cats and dogs, felt somewhat uneasy.
Whenever an animal tried to approach, the Doberman and the black cat would become vigilant.
They guarded Lin Qiao and the box in his hands. Strangely, they were not only wary of the pets that wanted to come closer but also of the unrelated passersby.
“Why are you so nervous?” Lin Qiao, puzzled, tried his best to soothe the black cat and the Doberman.
Could it be that because he was carrying the body of a pet, he would be attacked by other pets?
Lin Qiao had a vague suspicion that needed confirmation, so he steeled himself and continued walking.
“I guess I was too naive,” Lin Qiao hesitantly said to the system, “I’m a bit upset.”
The system’s voice remained as emotionless as a machine, but compared to the first dungeon, it was much richer in emotion: “The murderer targeting pets is inevitable.”
“Don’t blame yourself; it didn’t die because of you.”
“It’s not just that,” Lin Qiao replied ambiguously, “I’ll soon find the answer to prove my guess, a rather unpleasant one.”
The breakfast shop owner was still busy. Upon seeing Lin Qiao, his expression changed slightly, likely due to the overwhelming promotion and compilation of what each streamer had done in the “Best Streamer Competition.” Not only could players from different cities see the actions of all streamers, but other NPCs in this dungeon could as well.
The owner, embarrassed, said, “It’s you. I’ve seen your news; you’re quite… I mean, you’re very impressive.”
Lin Qiao handed over the box: “This is your cat. It was killed and left at my doorstep.”
The breakfast shop owner took it and set it aside: “Alright, I got it.”
Lin Qiao didn’t leave: “Don’t you have anything to say?”
The owner, curious, replied, “What else is there to say? Oh, right, thank you for bringing it over.”
“I’ve been thinking about getting a different pet anyway. On the contrary, you, the reports said it seems like a sacrificial item has targeted you. Be careful.”
“You have both kinds of pets, so you should know. The frequency of cats giving protection values is too low. Although they give a lot each time, it’s quite inconvenient. I plan to try getting a dog in the future.”
“Um, can I come to you to exchange knowledge about raising dogs in the future?”
Lin Qiao, looking small in front of the tall owner, asked, “Do you still remember when you warned me about the stalker? Have you noticed him abusing small animals…”
“How could I have noticed?” The breakfast shop owner interrupted Lin Qiao but dared not look him in the eye: “You look so good, why do you speak so unpleasantly?”
The owner tried to salvage his image in front of Lin Qiao: “I care about you so much. I usually don’t keep my cat indoors; that’s real abuse. I feel sorry that the cat died too…”
The breakfast shop owner continued talking, but Lin Qiao couldn’t hear anymore. He turned around and left the shop, taking the box containing the small orange kitten’s body with him.
He remembered the owner’s words before: “Our little orange cat is still young and not very experienced in its duties.”
At that time, he thought this sentence was the owner’s love and indulgence for his own pet, explaining to others why his little orange cat made mistakes.
But it turned out… it was just a sign of disdain. He really thought the kitten was not good at its job and wanted to replace it.
Lin Qiao deeply realized that this was not just a dungeon, but a world of dungeons.
A very realistic problem was right in front of him. If the people here couldn’t casually adopt pets and could only be chosen by pets, and only by one kind of pet, then trouble would follow one after another. For example, some people didn’t want to keep pets at all.
Some people wanted to keep cats but not dogs.
What if someone originally wanted to keep a cat but later changed their mind and wanted a dog?
Should they go to the church to make a switch? But pets can only choose humans.
Lin Qiao found a patch of open ground in the park and buried the small orange kitten’s body there.
“What would people do if they wanted to change pets?”
“What would people do if they didn’t want to keep pets but had to because of the ghosts?”
“If a pet gets old, will the protection value it provides change?”
“In an emergency, if the ghosts suddenly arrive and the protection value is not enough, would humans kill their pets to save themselves?”
“After all, being killed by the humans who love and care for you at a critical moment of life and death, the emotional fluctuation must be very great.”
It’s not that Lin Qiao wanted to think so much or be so sensitive.
But even among humans, even among lovers, relatives, and friends, it is possible to push each other out to take the bullet at a critical moment of life and death, not to mention between humans and animals.
For the people in this world, the protection values finally provided by cats and dogs are different, each with its own convenience.
If the protection value is not enough, cats are small and easy to kill, and dogs are loyal to humans and must provide a lot of protection values when killed.
Lin Qiao couldn’t help but hug his black cat: “Some humans don’t like you that much, do they?”
“I found out when we took a bath together. You have a long scar on your stomach.”
“You didn’t choose humans in the church but were wandering.”
“You’ve been hurt…”
Betrayed or hurt, but still choosing to appear in front of Lin Qiao and becoming his cat.
The black cat licked Lin Qiao’s ear and looked at him intently.
The Doberman slowly came to Lin Qiao’s side and then lay down next to him.
They seemed to understand what Lin Qiao was saying but still chose to stay with him.
Lin Qiao closed his eyes, waited for the tears to subside, and seriously promised: “I will not hurt you to get emotional values.”
Lin Qiao’s phone kept beeping with notifications: “Protection value increased by 80, protection value increased by 20, protection value increased by 100… Congratulations, your protection value has exceeded ten thousand.”
When he first arrived in this dungeon, Lin Qiao thought this dungeon was very beautiful.
Every human had their own cat or dog. Every human had to love their pet to be protected by it.
It was a world where humans and pets loved each other and fought against ghosts together.
How beautiful it was, just like a fairy tale.
Here, cats and dogs are not leashed; pets receive subsidies from the government; and these cats and dogs are never abandoned.
Pets are paramount; this is a paradise for cats and dogs.
But in reality, it’s not like that.
There’s a bitter taste in the sweetness, and behind the beauty lies deeper secrets.
Some things, once revealed and seen, can cause discomfort.
It was at this moment that the countdown for the “passing line” announcement ended, and the system reminded: [Players with less than 150,000 affection values are eliminated.] [Your protection value is too high; consume it as soon as possible.]
Opposite the park where Lin Qiao was, there was a skyscraper with a giant display screen on its wall, showing the status of the “Best Streamer Competition.”
Out of a thousand, only fifty streamers continued to compete, including both NPCs and players.
The eliminated NPCs breathed a sigh of relief. They had participated in the Best Streamer Competition for money, merely to guide the sacrificial items; they didn’t really want to gain the affection values of evil spirits.
However, the eliminated player streamers were singled out by the “Best Streamer Competition” and deliberately displayed on every screen in the world.
Like surveillance, there were large and small square screens, each showing a player’s live-streaming screen, with over a hundred in total.
Clicking on any of them would reveal players’ terrified faces.
The moment their protection values were reset to zero, evil spirits swarmed in.
The usually invisible and intangible evil spirits appeared out of thin air, not caring whether they were captured on live-stream.
They were only interested in the fresh flesh and blood in front of them.
Some players immediately killed their pets to buy some breathing time, while others released their pets and used props to defend themselves.
As players were besieged by evil spirits, cheers from NPCs near the park where Lin Qiao was could be heard.
Lin Qiao overheard the NPCs’ conversations: “Great, it’s finally started. I hope this month passes quickly. I don’t want to see those fools on the internet and TV every day.”
“Although we can’t watch the live-stream directly, everything that happens to them will be reported.
It’s like watching the live-stream. I wonder if any of them are from our city. I hope our city’s sacrificial item has a high affection value.”
“Yeah, the higher the affection value, the more delicious it is for the evil spirits, and the more power they gain after consuming it.
If our city’s sacrificial item has a high affection value and is eaten by an evil spirit, the evil spirit won’t come out to cause trouble for a long time, benefiting the local people.”
“I hope these sacrificial items can put in some effort. I remember last year there was one with an affection value of over 500,000. It attracted all the ghosts in the city. The evil spirits ate their fill, and that city didn’t have any paranormal events for nearly half a year.”
Lin Qiao’s head buzzed. Since he had arrived a day earlier, he realized that the NPCs in this world were aware of the players’ existence.
Combining what he had just heard, Lin Qiao understood why the evil spirits in the live-stream knew that players with insufficient affection values would be eliminated and devoured by the evil spirits, yet they still continuously tipped affection values.
It was for the delicious taste and power. Players with high affection values, once consumed, would appease the evil spirits and bring a moment of peace to the NPCs in this dungeon world… No wonder players were called sacrificial items.
Lin Qiao took a half-step back and tightly held the Doberman and the black cat.
This dungeon was highly deceptive and full of misleading information.
In this world, it seemed that only by being kind to pets could humans gain their protection.
It sounded like humans were at the bottom of the food chain. On one hand, they had to live in fear of being eaten by evil spirits, and on the other hand, they had to please their pets to gain protection values.
It seemed that humans were the ones who had the worst luck, struggling to survive in the crevices, living a miserable life.
However, the real bottom of the food chain was the players, the sacrificial items.
Even the seemingly “divine” cats and dogs were tools for humans.
The “weak” humans were actually the ones with the most power.
Was the only entity above humans the evil spirits? No, humans would turn into evil spirits after death.
It was a cyclical and delicate balance. Cats and dogs provided emotional values to protect humans, humans could harm pets, evil spirits could harm humans but were bound by the pets’ emotional values, and humans would turn into evil spirits after death.
What about the players? Besides being sacrificial items, did the players have any other roles or uses in this world?
Lin Qiao recalled the system’s prompt earlier: [Your protection value is too high; consume it as soon as possible.]
If high affection values made one a sacrificial item, would high protection values turn one into something else?
Lin Qiao didn’t stay outside for long and returned to his villa with his pets.
However, as soon as he entered, he heard the system’s cold prompt: [Another player has infiltrated.]
Lin Qiao’s heart tightened, thinking it was the murderer he had encountered in reality.
[They have left.]
Still uneasy, Lin Qiao inspected the entire villa inside and out.
The Doberman sniffed the ground and then came to the balcony of Lin Qiao’s bedroom, which was a bay window.
Lin Qiao immediately changed bedrooms, considering the possibility of moving.
Lin Qiao tried to contact several real estate agents, but as soon as they heard his name, they refused.
“You are a contestant in the Best Streamer Competition, and it’s probably not suitable for you to live in a crowded place.”
“Please don’t make it difficult for us. If you move in here, the nearby residents will complain.”
“Mr. Lin Qiao, right? Are you currently participating in the Best Streamer Competition? If so, we can’t provide you with our services for the time being.”
Even the real estate agent who had introduced Lin Qiao’s current residence was unreachable by phone.
After all, the higher the affection value, the more it attracts evil spirits, and no one wants to be accidentally harmed by them.
Lin Qiao settled down cautiously, and for several days, everything was calm, with nothing happening.
However, due to the ongoing Best Streamer Competition, more and more players were being watched, and with the NPCs’ attitude towards players, Lin Qiao hadn’t gone out for a long time.
The black cat and the Doberman by his side became increasingly nervous, following Lin Qiao wherever he went, no matter what he did.
Lin Qiao didn’t mind this at all; instead, he felt very reassured and even took the initiative to stick to the two pets, wanting to be close to their furry bodies every day.
What Lin Qiao didn’t know was that the black cat and the Doberman were so sensitive because someone was watching him from the shadows, observing him getting up, feeding the pets, and taking walks every day.
The person in the shadows always thought that Lin Qiao, who lived a carefree life like an NPC and didn’t take live-streaming seriously, finally opened the live-stream website today.
The person in the shadows sat up straight and became more focused.
After the first round of elimination based on the passing line, the competition among players became even more intense.
Lin Qiao opened the live-streaming website and counted. So far, there were only fifty streamers. Among them, six were NPCs, and the rest were players. Out of these 44 players, seven had never live-streamed and had survived by hunting players from the opposing faction. The remaining 37 players either had ways to please the evil spirits, like the Perfumer, or had very well-hidden locations and factions, or relied mainly on torturing their pets.
Currently, the first place was held by Nelson, the second by Yatagarasu, and the third by the Perfumer. In fourth place was the Happy Sè Sè Paper扎Shop, and in fifth place was a pale-faced male player named Dao Zhang. Dao Zhang must have been in a team with someone, as his teammate was ranked much lower, beyond the fortieth place. In sixth place was Izutsuro, and those ranked after him were either players who had given up on live-streaming or those who tortured animals.
Lin Qiao deliberately dropped his ranking to twenty-ninth, which wasn’t a very safe position. With a general understanding of the dungeon’s rules, the players were quite relaxed. They were desperately accumulating affection and protection values. This time, the passing line was 150,000; next time, it might be 250,000 or 350,000. Compared to their sense of shame, their lives were more important.
In another city, the veteran player ranked fifth, Dao Zhang, said to his new teammate ranked forty-fifth in the same faction, “Bian Yi, you’d better not touch your pet.”
Bian Yi wanted to say something but stopped himself. He was quite unlucky, as his first dungeon had such a high death rate. Fortunately, at the beginning of the dungeon, Bian Yi met a kind-hearted veteran player and managed to latch onto him. However, seeing the fierce competition in the dungeon, Bian Yi became impatient. He was still young in reality, having just found a job and not yet married, when he encountered this situation: “Dao Zhang, other players have killed their pets, and nothing bad has happened. How about this, I’ll go kill stray cats and dogs instead of touching my own pet, okay?”
The player named “Dao Zhang” was not actually a Taoist priest but a pale-faced man with medium-length hair. His age was unclear due to the beard on his face, and his voice was often suppressed, making it hard to tell his exact age. Dao Zhang glanced at Bian Yi and said, “I said, you’d better not touch your pet.”
Bian Yi was a bit angry but didn’t dare to show it: “But I’m ranked in the forties. I’ll definitely die next time! You’re already secure in fifth place, but what about me? Don’t be mad at me, bro, I’m just anxious.”
Dao Zhang scrolled through the live-streaming website and analyzed, “The fourth place, the Paper扎Shop, is an NPC. He will definitely go down, and a spot will be vacant.”
“Before the time for the next passing line is announced, if your ranking is too high, you will be taken out by Yatagarasu.”
“No, he should be able to tell that you are with me, so he will look for someone else…” Dao Zhang scrolled down to Lin Qiao, raised his eyebrows slightly, and then tapped the screen with his finger: “He is even worse off than you.”
With a high ranking and looking somewhat naive and defenseless, Lin Qiao had not encountered any trouble yet, which meant he must have a considerable amount of protection value. Such an easy target would be irresistible to any player who would want to take a bite.
Lin Qiao, who was also analyzing the situation, realized after looking at the rankings that he was in a rather dire position. Some players had already gotten close to him and even infiltrated his room, though it was unclear whether they had discovered that he had both a cat and a dog. If it were just an NPC with both a cat and a dog, they could gain a large amount of protection value. However, for a player, having both a cat and a dog meant not only a high protection value but also being associated with two factions.
Lin Qiao felt uneasy. Did this mean that if he were killed by any faction, it would provide them with points, and similarly, if he killed anyone from any faction, he would gain their points?
Lin Qiao hugged his cat tighter as his phone prompted: “Protection value has reached 30,000…”
Since the protection values provided by his cat and dog were so frequent and substantial, Lin Qiao had turned off the protection value notifications, only receiving alerts when it reached 10,000.
Lin Qiao frowned and said, “Now the rankings only show affection values. I wonder how much it would be with the protection values added. If the protection values from those who abuse their pets are high, it might lead to even more animal torture.”
The black cat looked at Lin Qiao’s phone, then at Lin Qiao’s head. It licked Lin Qiao’s ear and nestled comfortably in his arms, raising its chin at the Doberman.
The Doberman got up and began patrolling, checking every room and not missing a single corner. It stopped at a certain shelf, bit off a doll that looked somewhat like Lin Qiao, licked the doll, and put it back in its original place, adjusting it with its mouth.
Suddenly, the Doberman stopped and looked out the window. Not far away was a lush, leafy tree, but there was nothing on it.
Lin Qiao placed the black cat on his stomach and petted it, saying, “What kind of live-streaming should I do? Should I be like before? I’m not very good at that…”
“They always tell me ghost stories, and after listening, I have to have you and Doberman with me to sleep.”
“I’m so useless. I’m a little idiot. I can’t live without my cat and dog. I need to cuddle with my cat to survive.”
The black cat, pretending to be impatient, lightly stepped on Lin Qiao a few times. It wasn’t very satisfied when it heard Lin Qiao wanted to live-stream like before and purred discontentedly. But it became happy when it heard about cuddling and reluctantly gave Lin Qiao a kiss.
The black cat didn’t want Lin Qiao to live-stream. Every time Lin Qiao did, he would be haunted by nightmares, sometimes even crying in his sleep, forcing the cat and the smelly dog to increase their protection values.
Just then, the black cat’s ears twitched, and it meowed.
Lin Qiao got up: “Are you going out? Then come back early.”
The black cat was about to walk towards the door when Lin Qiao grabbed its tail. The black cat looked back, and Lin Qiao said embarrassedly, “Can you take me to Doberman?”
The black cat meowed, glanced at Lin Qiao, thinking he was really useless and clingy. But it still gracefully led Lin Qiao to the Doberman, meowed at the dog, and then jumped out the window.
The Doberman stopped patrolling and stayed by Lin Qiao’s side instead.
Lin Qiao repeated his earlier words: “I’m so useless. I’m a little idiot. I can’t live without my cat and dog. I need to cuddle with my dog to survive.”
The Doberman hadn’t done anything yet when the person spying outside “tsk”ed.
“Huh!”
Lin Qiao heard someone mocking him and thought he might have heard wrong.
The Doberman suddenly got up, crouched towards the window, and looked fierce.
The system coldly said: [It’s a player.]
Lin Qiao, hiding in the shadows, immediately blocked the Doberman, fearing the player would harm his dog.
“Huh.” The mocking voice sounded again. This time, Lin Qiao saw clearly—a white snake was crawling on the white window.
This was… a player?
Before Lin Qiao could react, a black cat suddenly jumped from the side of the window, pressed down on the snake’s head, and bit it.
The white snake quickly swelled and broke free, transforming into a completely naked teenager with a light pink mole on the tip of his nose.
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