The System Mistook Me for a Cat

Just as Cheng Cai finally arrived at the scene and spotted the cats and dogs, her peripheral vision caught the two feline tour guides suddenly scattering.

The cats moved with both elegance and speed. A gray shadow then plummeted from the sky, landing on a horse's back before taking off again—

A collective gasp of surprise echoed around her. Cheng Cai turned her head and noticed the bird gripping a tuft of horsehair as it flew away, its red crest flickering like a glistening gem in the sunlight.

It was a wild—no, semi-wild—Crimson Gale Falcon, here to steal a bit of horsehair.

Then, Cheng Cai heard Three-Five-Five's colorful curses.

Three-Five-Five turned her head and meowed to the Yorkshire Terrier: "Even though these birds are part of the park, they are still despicable thieves, meow!"

The Crimson Gale Falcon was both timid and curious. When they tried to swoop down and snatch a bit of Three-Five-Five's fur, she simply dodged, treating them like fools.

Then, one of the Crimson Gale Falcons stole some chicken shreds that Chu Tingwu had made for her—only two strands, and it dropped them halfway.

Three-Five-Five: "......"

It dropped.

That day, the tortoiseshell cat perched atop a "Do Not Enter" sign in the restricted area and cursed those birds for half an hour.

The visitors, allowed to observe from the outer perimeter but prohibited from using flash photography or making loud noises, with a limited visit time of only half an hour, could only respond with: "=="

People couldn't make noise, but cats could, right?

A student who had accompanied an expert couldn't help but twitch his mouth at the sight. He wanted to pick the cat up, but when he saw the tag around her neck, he hesitated.

It was said that on that day, the Crimson Gale Falcons hid behind the forest huts, with only a few daring to peek from the rooftops.

And so, the "feud" between the cat and the birds was set.

At least these little birds still had some innate fear of cats. After that day, they finally recalled that Three-Five-Five belonged to a natural predator. So whenever she patrolled by the lake, the birds would hide. But after a few encounters, realizing that Three-Five-Five wouldn't actively come in to "hunt," their courage grew again, and they started venturing out to steal things.

For the most part, everyone just turned a blind eye.

The visitors, on the other hand, were all eyes: unable to get a spot to view the birds up close, finding a national treasure swoop down from the sky while casually strolling through the ranch was a pleasant surprise, wasn't it?

Of course, no one dared to get too close to these little creatures. After someone accidentally tried to feed the birds and got a warning on their wristband, everyone gained a new understanding of the park's surveillance coverage.

And today, with the appearance of the projection eggs, the audience also gained a new appreciation for the AR projection effects within the ranch.

True showmanship is silent showmanship—

We can do it, and we do it effortlessly, so the egg is truly an "egg," without any planned activations or shills (Cheng Cai: I'm actually an employee, wait, I really am an employee!). If the visitors don't trigger the egg, then sorry, the interaction ends, and the egg vanishes.

Seeing the intense discussions online, the official finally stepped forward to debunk the rumors:

The news is true; there are three more eggs, and the visitors who trigger them can receive the corresponding character's limited golden signed card and an annual pass to the ranch. If the cards aren't distributed, they will be directly destroyed.

Fans erupted in anger:

[Are you crazy... the event only lasts for three days? Aren't you forcing me to take a vacation!]

[Don't waste a vacation just for a piece of paper! And the annual pass isn't even expensive, not enough to cover the cost of the train tickets, but I live locally, and I’ve already booked tomorrow's tickets, everyone wish me luck!]

[Also, since there are four eggs and each corresponds to a different character, does that mean each card is globally one of a kind?]

While someone was asking this question in the comments, Chu Tingwu was with Cheng Cai, sitting on the second floor of the hotel, watching Huangdan and Cheng Cheng's first interaction.

As a local dog, Huangdan was younger than Cheng Cheng and several times bigger, making it look like it could start some disrespectful behavior at any moment, which made Cheng Cai nervous.

So even though the audience on the live stream urged her to take advantage of her employee status to show everyone the Crimson Gale Falcons, she still followed her dog, slowly walking behind Three-Five-Five and Cheng Cheng.

Three-Five-Five was now bringing this new underling to the meeting.

Her usual spot was the raised platform on the first floor of the Lego Hotel. Huangdan was there sunbathing. When she saw Three-Five-Five approaching, its tail immediately wagged in a friendly greeting.

Cheng Cheng also wagged its tail. The little dog and the big dog soon sniffed noses, exchanging scents and starting to communicate in "woofs," not knowing if growing up in different provinces would cause any accent issues.

Seeing Huangdan take Cheng Cheng to the kitchen for snacks, then giving it a toy and sharing half of its sunbathing mat, Cheng Cai finally relaxed. She sat on the long bench on the second floor, smiling as she watched the dogs interact.

Meanwhile, she saw Three-Five-Five looking at the two dogs like they were fools, but after confirming they weren't fighting, she trotted over, deftly using the protrusions on the outer wall to climb up from the first floor, hopping onto the second floor... Indeed, the Lego Hotel's outer wall was designed for parkour, cleverly integrating the grip structures a parkour enthusiast might need. Upon closer inspection, it felt like a rock climbing wall, highly artistic.

Cheng Cai thought Three-Five-Five wanted to talk to her about something, so she smiled, lowered her head, and reached out her hand to pet her. But Three-Five-Five jumped onto the chair, putting her paw on the thigh of someone sitting next to her—wait!

Who was this person next to her?!

Chu Tingwu: "=="

Chu Tingwu: "I was here before you."

Just as Huangdan had a sunbathing mat, Chu Tingwu also had a fixed spot to watch the sunset, right here.

Cheng Cai: "Uh..."

QvQ

The ranch's owner, who had been in the frame the whole time but somehow got ignored, explained the audience's question for his employee:

"Yes, each character only has one card, and we've added special anti-counterfeiting marks on them. Simply put, using our app's scanning feature on the card, you can see special AR animations."

Some viewers were worried about scalpers hyping up the price of this card, knowing that anything labeled "limited" would inevitably inflate in value.

Chu Tingwu also thought the same, but she wouldn't repackage or reissue the cards, turning one into tens or hundreds, because that's how professional scalpers made money.

Multiple identical items would inflate the prices of the scalpers' stocks, but making each item globally limited meant it was worth its price. Because even Chu Tingwu couldn't produce a second one to sell for profit.

As for the lucky visitor who might get their hands on it and could flip it for a high price—

That was their own choice, and perhaps getting the card was a "lucky egg" in their life.

As soon as Chu Tingwu left Cheng Cai's frame, the second egg was discovered—this time, not by the visitors, but by one of Professor Mi's students, who was eating at the themed restaurant.

The ranch's themed restaurant was quite generous. Apart from the meals, it allowed visitors to DIY meals on the open exhibition stage because, at the same time, the game also launched a "Great Tang Restaurant" event. So visitors could get stamps by completing food challenges offline.

Of course, the ingredients provided were simple, so you couldn't cook anything too complicated, with the requirement to finish everything you made.

The student, already starving when he arrived, got familiar with the staff and asked them to prepare him a simple fried rice, extra spicy version. During the cooking process, he accidentally added the wrong seasoning, making the final product taste strange, causing his nose to sting after just one bite. But knowing he couldn't waste it, he still forced down the big bowl.

Other visitors also noticed this scene, aware of his blunder, and some kindly asked: "Do you need a glass of juice?"

The student took the thanks, but just at that moment, a young woman dressed in ancient chef's attire appeared next to the DIY cooking station, her smile carrying a teasing glint.

This was the second character in the "Easter egg," Shan Zu, a legendary chef from the Tang Dynasty.

Only after her appearance did everyone finally understand what the slightly more extensive equipment near the cooking station was for.

Kind Tourist: "……"

Professor Mi's Student: "?"

Kind Tourist: "Give me back my juice."

What followed seemed like a culinary-themed light and shadow performance, full of color and aroma. When the lights faded, everyone realized it wasn't just a show, as the chef from the backstage really did bring out the soup Shan Zu had cooked... no wonder they could smell it. And since they encountered the Easter egg, the soup was free.

However, everyone's expressions were not great. Cheng Cai, standing outside, glanced at the scene and decided to quietly detour.

Perhaps it's better to let the restaurant's tourists digest this a bit more, both in their stomachs and in their feelings.

But the next day, the ranch's tickets were sold out again.@@novelbin@@

Originally, due to the upcoming end of the collaboration, there were usually some tickets left daily, but with only two Easter eggs remaining, some self-proclaimed veteran players came for a second round.

They discovered some design details:

Imperial Consort Yang appeared in mid-air because, in the game's dialogue, she has a final line: "Then this concubine will return to the heavens."

Some also noticed that half a month ago, someone had already captured the location where the phantom of Imperial Consort Yang appeared. Directly below it was a sign indicating "shy grass," but at the time, everyone thought it was just an ornament, as no one saw any "shy grass" planted in the park. It happens to correspond with the legend of Imperial Consort Yang.

As for Shan Zu's part, it could also be found in the game's details, or more precisely, in the character introduction.

And! The most terrifying thing is that players noticed that the question bank of "Cat Study Diaries" included questions related to "shy grass" and Shan Zu—in other words, the kind of questions teachers say they’ve covered in class. So, how could those who consider themselves top students accept that less-skilled ones got the answers right just by guessing!

Thus, Cheng Cai took her dog and went for a walk with the newly arrived peacock. She found a group of people holding cameras and AR scanners, taking photos of the peacock and making strange gestures, then arguing about which character's legend the peacock was related to.

Cheng Cai: ...Hey!

No matter what legend it's related to, this peacock is brand new!

Just as she was thinking about how to explain, someone shouted, "Something special was spotted by the lake!"

What was spotted? The previous announcement had said that Easter eggs wouldn't be in restricted areas, so surely no one would try to trespass, right? She nervously opened her phone to check the photos just posted by tourists in the visitor communication area—

And then she saw Chu Tingwu, who had her feet wrapped around a vine, with a red Falco tinnunculus on her head and two more perched on her shoulders. By using her shoulders and feet, she anchored herself to the rock wall and was holding a camera, filming the birds for a documentary.

Everyone: "……"

This, is this really considered something special?

Someone whispered, "Do you know any legends related to cats?"

Cheng Cai: ==

Hey!