The System Mistook Me for a Cat

In the game's setting, players are given three days to prepare and adapt, during which they build the basic framework of their little den before the kitten is delivered.

As a single-player game, if it were solely about building and collecting, it might feel a bit dull. But by adding a nurturing element, the kitten becomes like a hostage of the game—no matter how busy players are with work or school in real life, they’ll always remember to log in and feed their cat.

This is exactly how the game *Cat House* works.

It has elements players care about (the kitten), antagonists (mischievous children), randomly spawning NPCs and events, achievement systems, and even management aspects.

Liang Ling discovered this while worrying about having too much furniture.

Although she stored the excess in the "warehouse," once the warehouse was full, the furniture she placed outside piled up into a makeshift cat tree. The old and new furniture didn’t match, which somewhat ruined the overall aesthetic of the cat house.

Then, while out searching for food, she spotted the stray cat from the Pet Lovers' Community at the end of the road.

By the tenth day in the game, she had already collected about half of the NPCs in her guidebook. Besides the residents who played on the lawn, she also encountered a few stray cats and dogs living in the Pet Lovers' Community.

The cats seemed to have their own territories and were careful not to intrude on others’ spaces. Noticing that only the dogs approached her, Liang Ling made an effort to leave more friendly pheromones.

It took her about three days to lure the unfamiliar stray cat closer by expressing friendliness through daily pheromones. The cat crouched on a high spot near the garage and meowed from a distance:

"Can you sell me your furniture, meow?"

[The "Pet Market" has been activated! Congratulations, you can now trade items!]

The system prompted her to move unwanted furniture to a small open space next to the trash bin and label it with a price.

The Pet Market’s currency was cat food, dog food, and bird food. After placing the items, she could also see the prices of other items in the interface.

For example—

[Ball’s Favorite Ball (Damaged)]: Though it’s been chewed up, Ball still can’t bear to part with it. It’ll take 200 pieces of dog food to convince it to let go.

Liang Ling: "Who would buy that?!"

[Painted Birdcage (Includes a Bag of Parrot Feathers)]: A beautiful decoration that increases the coziness of the room, indirectly boosting mood recovery speed. Requires 300 pieces of bird food.

Liang Ling: "...This one might actually be useful."

After finding seeds and starting to grow vegetables on the lawn (…), Liang Ling wasn’t too short on food to replenish her stamina. Though she felt that cats, being carnivores, probably couldn’t get full on vegetables, the community lawn wasn’t exactly suitable for grazing either.

While growing vegetables, she also discovered a new "enemy," or rather, enemy birds—a group of wild crows that occasionally stole her crops.

But defeating the crows rewarded her with shiny "glass gemstones," which could be used to bribe human children or sold for profit.

However…

Defeating the crows was hard.

Liang Ling: "No one told me this game had a PvP mode when I started streaming!"

She thought she had mastered controlling the cat, at least to the point where she could run on all fours, jump onto roofs, use items with her front paws, and even pick things up with her tail to play with the kitten!

But when she actually started battling the crows, she realized just how uncoordinated her limbs were.

[Behind you, there’s one behind you!]

[Ling, maybe we should just build a gun and shoot them all. With your skills, it’ll take a lifetime to defeat all the crows…]

[Times have changed! We’re not real cats—we can use tools!]

Liang Ling: "...But I’m just a crafty cat!"

Aren’t there cats that are good at hunting and those that aren’t? Though her viewers insisted that the less skilled ones were probably bred to be that way, and a calico like her could totally become a feline mercenary… she was really just a peaceful life-sim player!

So, after some serious reflection, she decided to build a greenhouse for her vegetables!

If she had the blueprints, why not?

However, after setting up the greenhouse, she noticed that the number of dogs and humans visiting the lawn had decreased.

[The residents of the Pet Lovers' Community find the lawn less appealing… They’re visiting less often, but on the bright side, fewer people are coming by to dump trash.]

Liang Ling: "Hey!"

Alright, so she had to work on the aesthetic appeal of her territory, huh?

The aesthetic score seemed to depend on both the cat house’s rating in the garage and the lawn’s environmental score. Right now, her vegetable garden was dragging down the lawn’s score… While Liang Ling worked diligently, her kitten had also grown a bit and was now old enough to go out and explore.

When the system notification popped up, indicating that the kitten wanted to venture outside the territory, Liang Ling was caught off guard:

"But you’re still so… small?"

Wait, compared to when it first arrived, barely able to open its eyes, it had already grown chubbier!

The calico kitten happily licked her, wagging its tail like a propeller. Liang Ling, feeling conflicted, brought over the kitten’s backpack, unsure what to pack inside.

With the warm little body snuggling up to her, Liang Ling really wished she had blueprints for a gun. What if the kitten got bullied outside?

It just felt so vulnerable!

In the end, she packed food and toys for the calico kitten and let it out.

The sun moved from the top of the first building to the middle of the second, then to the platform on the third building’s second floor, before finally setting behind the fourth building.

By the next morning, the calico kitten returned, bringing back a ball—a dog-slobbered tennis ball placed in the middle of the house. Liang Ling stared at the description: "Ball’s favorite ball" and fell into deep thought.

Liang Ling: "Where did you get this?"

Calico Kitten: "I found it, meow!"

The trash bin was home, so when it found the ball nearby, of course, it could bring it back!

Liang Ling: "..."

She checked the Pet Market—

[Bounty: Ball wants to retrieve its lost ball for 200 pieces of dog food.]

Liang Ling: "Good job =="

-

As players shared clips from the game’s beta, it became clear that the kitten’s personality was influenced by the player’s actions and upbringing.

Unlike games where you make choices to guide your child’s development, in *Cat House*, the kitten learns and mimics the player’s behavior as the "adult cat."

If the adult cat is skilled at hunting, the kitten is more likely to practice hunting when it goes out. If the adult cat is cautious, the kitten might delay its first outing.

This also indirectly affects the items the kitten brings back and the companions it chooses.

Player Liang once commented: "Isn’t this just a glorified loot box?"

As long as the loot boxes don’t repeat too often, it’s hard to resist staying logged in!

And of course, players want it all!

They want their kittens to be cute and affectionate, but also unbeatable and never at a disadvantage when they venture out. As a result, some hardcore players spend all day in the simulation pod, trying to raise the perfect "kitten."

The system, watching from the sidelines, thought they weren’t doing a great job.

Of course, the system wouldn’t step in to provide a perfect walkthrough—it couldn’t raise other cats, not even virtual ones.

But while it diligently raised its own kitten, it noticed that Chu Tingwu’s past videos had suddenly gone viral again—

Chu Tingwu’s streams were just too comprehensive!

Though she was no longer active, her legacy lived on in the gaming world. As the company’s founder, with plenty of video material and a reputation as a popular YouTuber with millions of followers, she naturally became a meme among gamers.

The game is still in its closed beta phase, with fewer than 200 players participating. As a result, many cloud players can only watch live streams or read text and video recaps, scratching their heads as they offer suggestions.

Someone suggested that Liang Ling check out Chu Tingwu's live stream, hinting that there might be an Easter egg related to her in the game this time.

Meanwhile, others genuinely learned something from the streams.

Sun is one such diligent PVP player. A veteran with a small following of tens of thousands, his fans affectionately call him "Old Sun."

Old Sun is a methodical player. While he stumbles when discussing theory, he can rattle off skill descriptions like a pro. After discovering that cats in the game could attack humans, dogs, and even crows, he developed a whole new playstyle.

He spent two full days confirming that fighting against AI in the game qualifies as "PVP."

Old Sun explained, "The difference between PVE and PVP is that the former is about fighting monsters. Once you figure out the patterns and boss mechanics, you can defeat them. The latter is about fighting people—human players, even with predictable patterns, can surprise you with unexpected moves or flashes of brilliance... Logically, a single-player game should be PVE, but I feel like these enemies are learning."

He wasn't sure if it was due to overly sensitive AI or intentional design, but after repeated testing, he noticed that the enemies in the game rarely fell for the same trick twice. When they did, they even displayed clear signs of frustration and surprise.

Each enemy reacted differently. If this was all by design, then... while everyone was excited about the game's evolution from 3D to semi-holographic, and eagerly anticipating full holographics, Huan Yu Company had quietly upgraded the content as well.

And what he discovered seemed to be just the tip of the iceberg.

Of course, the cat combat techniques he learned from Chu Tingwu's streams paled in comparison to the excitement of the game's design innovations.

After finishing his video, as usual, he included a bunch of links in the description, like academic references—except this time, among a list of nature documentaries, he slipped in two clips from Chu Tingwu's streams.

Viewers: "...?"

Chu Tingwu: "Achoo!"

A Russian man with thick hands slapped Chu Tingwu on the shoulder, his gaze questioning whether she was feeling unwell.

Chu Tingwu checked her status and shook her head. She wasn't afflicted with the "sick" debuff—it was probably just the "Freezing" icon below her health bar.

In this dream-language teaching game, the icebreaker had been forced to stop. Besides the ice, the ship's heating system had also malfunctioned.

She raised her gun, feeling her body losing warmth.

She ​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​‌​‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌​‌​​‌‌​​​‌​​‌‌​​​​​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​​​​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌‌​‌​‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌‌‌​​​​‌‌​​​‌​​​‌‌​‌​​​‌‌​​​​‌‍had to eliminate all the enemies before her health bar drained due to the debuff.

-

The next morning.

Misha shifted slightly away from Chu Tingwu.

Her senior brother initially walked toward her but changed direction midway, sitting down next to Professor Mi instead.

Professor Mi: "What's wrong?"

Senior Brother: "Nothing... it's just, don't you think Junior Chu has been exuding a particularly murderous aura lately?"

Professor Mi glanced at Chu Tingwu, who was eating. She looked sweet and well-behaved, her cheeks puffing as she chewed beef, her healthy appetite bringing joy.

Professor Mi: "Nonsense!"

The senior brother, frustrated, decided to casually strike up a conversation with Chu Tingwu. They stood on the deck as Professor Mi walked by. Ahead, penguins darted across the water, and Chu Tingwu's gaze followed them.

Senior Brother: "What are you thinking about?"

Chu Tingwu: "The scope isn't very effective in the polar regions... Did we bring enough firearms on board?"

Senior Brother: "..."

Why would we need firearms on the ship? Are you worried the penguins might storm us?

Chu Tingwu clapped her hands together: "Hmm... Sniping is doable, but I'd like to try close combat..."

She muttered to herself as she walked away.

The senior brother glanced at her retreating figure, then shot a look at Professor Mi:

Professor, look at her!

I told you she's been extra murderous lately...

She even wants to attack penguins!