Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations

Dust Ball could feel the burst of flavors exploding in her mouth. The meatball slid down her tongue and down her throat like silk. The flavor was refreshing with a tinge of spiciness. The texture was smooth with a hint of springiness.

“This is … delicious!”

Dust Ball’s loyalty had increased by 10 points.

Dust Ball’s loyalty had increased by 10 points.

Dust Ball’s loyalty had increased by 10 points.

“Is it really so good?” Matcha’s eyes were glued to Dust Ball’s exaggerated expression. Matcha sank his teeth into the meatball as his pupils dilated, “This is simply too good!”

Roly Poly had hurried over with a smile dancing on his lips, “Can there actually be anything that’s more delicious than fried chicken in this world?”

Roly Poly’s loyalty had increased by one point.

Roly Poly’s loyalty had increased by one point.

Roly Poly’s loyalty had increased by one point.

Even Elizabeth, the only one amongst them who was totally indifferent to catmint, could not help but come over and took a few sniffs of this well-received cat rice. She could not help but take a gobble of it with the explosion of flavors bursting in her body.

The perfect balance between the meat, fish, vegetables, and catmint waltzed on the tip of her tongue. Immediately, her tail shot upwards, reflecting just how happy she was with the food.

Mango, Lightning and even Rice Cake managed to quell their computer addiction and came over for this amazing dish. Soon enough, the cats had almost polished off the entire pot of cat rice.

Dust Ball crept towards Zhao Yao and began rubbing her body against his calf as she flirted with him, “Zhao Yao, Zhao Yao! Do you have any more new recipes? I want to try all of them!” She could not help but lick her lips at the thought of more delicious cat rice. This dish infused with catmint had hooked her completely.

Meanwhile, the horde of supercats had completely surrounded Zhao Yao. Some were rubbing against his calf while others immediately pounced on his lap and buried their heads in his belly. All of them wanted more. They simply were not satisfied with one bowl.

The corner of Zhao Yao’s lips curled upwards when he saw how popular his dish was and remarked, “What new cat rice? This is no ordinary cat rice. I have spent the past few months pouring my heart and soul into this perfect recipe. Do you think it’s easy to make this? The ingredients include catmint that must be grown inside the extradimensional belly. I cannot make another batch for you guys today.”

Despite his words, he was actually throbbing with happiness, “Haha, I bet all of you have succumbed to my culinary skills. The loyalty points had instantaneously exploded.”

Disappointment sagged through all the cats as Zhao Yao’s voice rang in their heads. Dust Ball stared at Zhao Yao with her pair of glistening eyes, “Then quickly go and plant some more catmint!”

Zhao Yao immediately swept his eyes away from Dust Ball and made no response to her request. He simply let out a long and loud yawn before muttering, “Sadly, growing catmint is such a tough and laborious job. I’m sure I can’t grow too many if I do it alone. If only some cats volunteered to help me.”

Dust Ball reacted by sliding Zhao Yao a condescending glare and rebutted, “You will have more than enough time to do it if you just cut down on your computer gaming.”

“What do you even know?” Zhao Yao retorted, “I am gathering authentic battle experiences through these games. All my positioning and battle instincts were accumulated from my hours toiling in the game.”

Dust Ball could only roll her eyes when she heard these nonsensical complaints. However, she could not help but salivate at the thought of that mouth-watering cat rice. Left with no options, she said, “Alright, where are the seeds for the catmint? I’ll help you with them.”

A contented smile appeared on Zhao Yao’s face as he took a glance at the catmint crops inside of the belly and thought, “It’s a pity that I grew so little at the very start. It will take at least a week before the new batch mature and I can use them for the new recipe. A week from now, I’ll be busy collecting the 100 experience points every day!” Zhao Yao could not wait for the new abilities awaiting him.

At this moment, Zhao Yao’s ear gave a slight shudder as he heard a series of soft meows coming from the door.

“This sound. Don’t tell me it’s Yellow Mud?” Zhao Yao swung open his door and saw a tiny yellow tabby standing by his doorstep. He stared nervously at his surroundings and seemed to be shivering. This was the previous cat king of Zhao Yao’s district.

However, what caught Zhao Yao attention was not his appearance but the phone dangling from his jaws.

Zhao Yao bent next to him and asked curiously, “What’s that phone for?”

“This was given to me by the organizers of the cat king competition. They will use this to announce any announcements, rules, and prizes for this competition. It can even be used to communicate with other cat kings.”

Zhao Yao’s right eyebrow shot up as he thought, “It has finally arrived, Jiangmen City cat king competition.” He stared at the tiny cat crouching next to his feet as a tinge of pity flashed across his eyes when he saw him shaking like a leaf.

It was almost winter and the weather was growing increasingly unbearable by the day. This was especially true for the stray cats living in the wild.

Zhao Yao pinched the bridge of his nose and decided to just open his gate and asked, “Do you want to spend a night here?”

“Thank you!” Yellow Mud jumped up and down and dashed straight into Zhao Yao’s apartment.

Zhao Yao reminded him, “Do not pollute my place with your poisonous **.”

“Yes!” Yellow Mud was greeted by the scene of Roly Poly and Matcha hugging an empty bowl with their tongues licking all over it. He knew who they were. They were the ones who barged into his home and beat him to a pulp. The memory was as fresh as ever. He suppressed a scream and hid under the couch.

Zhao Yao stared at the phone in his hand curiously.

“Every cat king was given a phone? How are they supposed to charge it?”

The phone was coated with metallic jet black paint, with no visible brand logos on it. Zhao Yao tried weighing it in his hands and found it significantly heavier than most phones.

“This phone? Don’t tell me that this was custom made?” Brimming with curiosity, Zhao Yao extended his finger towards the home button before stopping millimeters away. He thought, “What if they track my location with GPS?”

Preferring to stay on the safe side, Zhao Yao went to a small garden in his district before tapping on the button. Seconds later, a mixture of colors flashed across the screen before a set-up screen appeared. It required the user to input details such as the name, species and the area he resided in.

“Hmph, it’s automatically connected to this webpage the moment I switch it on. It has internet on the phone itself?” Zhao Yao’s pupils constricted as he breathed a sigh of relief. Luckily, he didn’t switch it on back in the apartment. From now on, he had to be extra careful with this phone. He considered switching off the phone for most of the day.

Zhao Yao glanced at the webpage and found it extremely user-friendly and aesthetically-appealing. It felt so refreshing to the eyes. There was even a simple note at each paragraph’s containing a simple explanation. A voice prompt would be activated if you hovered at a portion for too long.

“Is this to make it easier for cats to operate? However, supercats had acquired basic literacy skills since awakening their powers. Hence, it should not be too much of a problem for them to register.”

Zhao Yao then proceeded to fill in his information.

Name: King George

Species: LiHua

Gender: Male

Age: 2 years old

…

…

After filling in this laborious information, a pop up prompting for a facial recognition appeared. Zhao Yao’s eyebrow shot upwards as he muttered, “So high-tech?” He rested the phone on a tree branch before calling down Matcha. He even reminded Matcha, “Remember to fold your ears. It will act as some kind of disguise.”

“Matcha replied smugly, “I have always been a Jiangmen Fold.”

Matcha began posing before the camera. In the blink of an eye, he had successfully registered and was brought to the newcomer’s tutorial interface. From now on, it required Matcha’s face for the phone to even unlock.

“Hmph … this had instantly collected all the information of every single cat king in Jiangmen city. The organizer has spent quite a lot of money on this.”

Seeing the bright blue words, tutorial, printed on the screen, Zhao Yao confidently chose to skip it. He knew that this was specially prepared for cats that were unfamiliar with phones. Naturally, Zhao Yao did not need it.

Other than the basic interfaces and applications inside the phone, there was a special application pre-installed on the phone – Cat Web.

Zhao Yao skimmed at its content and realized that it was a forum. There were close to ten threads inside the forum, with a few particularly popular ones. More than one thousand comments had been posted on this forum each day.

“If a cat king is behind every single account, the organizer behind this is truly sick.” Zhao Yao tapped on a random thread and his attention was immediately attracted to the words, introduction to cat king competition’s rules and rewards.