The System Mistook Me for a Cat

This was Chu Tingwu's fourth time disembarking to join the scientific sampling team.

After spending a long time in Antarctica, the animals that one could usually only see in zoos no longer felt novel. Instead, everyone preferred the moment before going ashore, when they would ride a small boat through the blue ice.

As the weather changed, the blue ice floating on the sea melted into various shapes. The sea was incredibly calm, with almost no noticeable waves, so the broken ice didn't shift much—

As the small boat passed through, it felt like sailing through a maritime art gallery, with the Antarctic ice floes serving as a massive art installation.

Of course, not everyone on the boat had an artistic mind.

And the penguins on the island certainly didn’t.

Seeing the humans approach, a few young chinstrap penguins left on the rocks didn’t shy away. They simply tilted their heads, watching the humans at work, occasionally flapping their wings and making duck-like noises that were hard to decipher.

At times like this, her elusive senior would pop up and ask Chu Tingwu, "What are they saying?"

Chu Tingwu: "They say you look weird."

The senior would retreat in embarrassment.

Of course, Chu Tingwu couldn’t actually translate penguin language, but as she learned more languages and gained more practical experience, she had encountered many different animals and naturally developed some intuition—animals were much simpler than humans, with fewer words and fewer thoughts. Just as animals that spend their lives thinking only about eating, mating, and raising their young wouldn’t ponder video games, she found it easy to discern their simple emotions and interpret their meanings.

Of course, other experts on the team had been studying Antarctic animals for over half their lives and could do the same.

The difference might only be that their hearing wasn’t as sharp as Chu Tingwu’s, so they might need to listen more carefully.

But "Junior Chu" could also rely on intuition to improve her accuracy... So, not just her senior, but others also noticed that while she might lack some professional knowledge, her insights into animal behavior were always spot-on, and they enjoyed asking her a question or two when passing by.

When Misha passed by, she warned Chu Tingwu not to tease the penguin chicks or stray from the designated path.

Misha: "The current route has been scouted by the research team, but outside of it, the area is covered in snow. You can’t tell if it’s solid snow or a hollow layer."

One step forward might be a cliff, but the snow would gently press down on the surface, and only when a human stepped on it with their full weight would they plunge through.

Experienced team members knew this well, but Chu Tingwu was new, and Misha and the others were worried about her.

Chu Tingwu nodded and followed Misha as they continued forward.

Even with her abilities, she couldn’t distinguish real snow layers from hollow ones just by sight. Perhaps she could sense the subtle changes in texture and vibration underfoot when approaching a hollow layer. And if she prepared in advance, she might even adjust her steps to safely cross over a hollow layer.

But there was no point in that. It was easier to just follow the markers.

As they walked, a fearless penguin chick waddled past, leaving a trail of tiny footprints in the snow. It tilted its head as it passed the two of them.

Misha instinctively smiled.

Whether they liked animals or not, the research team members felt a certain warmth toward the native inhabitants of Antarctica. Though they couldn’t communicate through language, every time they came to this land, they spent a long time in each other’s company.

Most of the time, humans didn’t initiate contact with the penguins, but occasionally, the penguins would approach the humans.

Up ahead, Roman was crouched on the ground taking photos, and a few penguins had gathered around his camera, curiously peeking at the lens.

Chu Tingwu glanced down and quietly lowered her presence—her scent was faint, almost imperceptible, aside from the smell of her clothes. The fluffy penguin chick nearby moved a little closer, and as Chu Tingwu turned, the chick stepped over her feet one by one, waddling off in another direction.

Misha: "Hahaha."

Chu Tingwu raised her hand to shield her eyes from the light. In a place where no one could see, her eyes subtly changed, allowing her to see distant scenes clearly, even the movement of people’s lips as they spoke.

Even in the Antarctic summer, it was still cold. Chu Tingwu’s cold resistance was stronger than most, as her improved physical condition seemed to give her an invisible layer of fur... But she still pulled her hand back and continued following Misha, occasionally reaching out to steady her as they walked through the snow.

Her senior, who had been crouching and working for most of the day, looked up and glanced around:

How did Junior Chu manage to walk so steadily on the snow? Her silhouette vaguely reminded him of the Pallas’s cats they’d seen in snowy mountain forests.

-

In the game, it was also winter.

Games like *Cat Logic* had already released limited winter outfits and interactive items, with the in-game background changed to a snowy winter scene. They even introduced random skin dye systems like "Siamese Cat’s Blessing."

The game forums were buzzing with activity, as players shared their cats’ new skins and outfit combinations, creating a lively and harmonious atmosphere.

However, while some people played *Cat Logic* as a cat dress-up game, others decked their cats out in rare and flashy items—but this wasn’t just for show. In *Cat Logic*, rare appearances were tied to the player’s learning progress.

A cat wearing wings and a crystal crown? Respect—that must be the top-ranked player in Beijing this season. A cat in a Christmas costume with a cluster of balloons floating behind it? Clearly a high-IQ grinder who had already collected all the event rewards shortly after it started!

Unlike *Cat Logic*, *Flying Birds* was a single-player game and didn’t receive updates tied to seasonal changes. It only participated in discount events on major platforms, and while its price dropped, its sales didn’t spike.

...Because *Flying Birds* had already been at the top of the sales charts for a long time.

Now, *Cat House Simulator* was getting more attention, but that didn’t mean *Flying Birds* had faded from view. The release date for *Cat House* hadn’t been set, and the teasers from the beta tests only whetted people’s appetites. The more mysterious it remained, the more *Flying Birds* continued to sell steadily.

When Liang Ling participated in the beta test at Huan Yu Company, she overheard employees saying, "If we made our own game platform..." If they created their own platform, with their current level of influence, they could definitely make even more money!

After all, the technology was in their hands, and they had a monopoly on it.

Of course, while the employees were thinking this way, the higher-ups were considering something else: how to reduce production costs and further promote simple VR devices and experience pods.

If they were selling hardware, they’d want the software to sell well, so more people would buy the hardware to access the exclusive software.

If they were selling software, they’d want the hardware to sell well, so more people with the devices would consider buying the software.

...But since the company sold both software and hardware, even if they wanted to promote both, they didn’t have the energy or resources to do so.

Lian Tong initially thought this way.

The company’s top decision-maker was Chu Tingwu, but she rarely got involved in day-to-day operations. Management was handled by the system, which never appeared in person but was rumored to know everything. No one in the company dared to deceive it.

Lian Tong considered himself third in command, having gone from managing hospitals to overseeing drones, and now handling all the company’s hardware. The drone company had even expanded and rebranded... While Man Xing was closer to Chu Tingwu, the importance of the charity foundation’s work was different from his own responsibilities.

As for You Zhenzhen, she seemed even more inexperienced to him, using software to softly promote the company but unable to go much further.

After "Xue Bu Tong" got on track, Tian Shi took a step back, focusing only on technical and design aspects, leaving the operations to more specialized professionals. She continued to enjoy a high salary while comfortably drawing her fan comics... um, which still featured the company's big boss.

So, Lian Tong pondered, it seemed like the work he was responsible for had more prospects. The only competitor, Huan Yu Game Company, now had the system as its big boss.

That one didn’t participate in the competition—it was the referee.

But he was still wrong.

Just one day before Christmas, the system organized a remote meeting to inform them about the next focus of their work—

After a long, stable, and observation-based collaboration, Wu Voice Group's hardware development company was about to transition into a semi-state-owned enterprise. The government would provide subsidies and further promotion, aiming to increase the penetration rate of VR live-streaming devices to 60% within a year and promote VR experience pods to households within five years.

The government's determination to make this decision, along with increased oversight, seemed to be due to the system hinting that once the technological breakthrough was achieved, the currently purchased VR experience pods could be upgraded at a lower cost to the full-scale holographic pods that everyone envisioned.

This piece of insider information was something he had dug up.

But the system never revealed this to them!

In the long run, this business wasn’t a loss... Only Lian Tong felt the most conflicted. Was this a promotion or a demotion for him?

However, the blissfully unaware players had no idea about the behind-the-scenes struggles, nor did they know what changes the future of this world had undergone that night.

Especially the beta testers of "Cat House Simulator," who were nervously waiting for the update to complete and eagerly logging in—

The update announcement mentioned that this time, there would be a skeletal adjustment and a new model selection module! They were also updating the in-game chat interface!

As soon as the update completion message appeared on the screen, Liang Ling immediately sprang into action and chose to enter the game.

She glanced at the models and noticed, "Not just tortoiseshell cats, they’ve added all the pet cat breeds that exist in real life to the selection interface!"

Only pet cats, though—no black-footed cats or other protected feline species. But it was enough for everyone to pick freely. However, Liang Ling was decisive, selecting a calico cat and starting to tweak its patterns. She didn’t mess with the skeletal structure and then chose to enter the game.

With a practiced roll, she strutted cat-like to the mirror in the cat house, admiring her new calico skin. Then, she licked the little calico kitten awake and happily told it, "Look, you’re definitely my biological child!"

They looked exactly alike—how could it not be her child?

The calico kitten: "Meow?"

She pushed the napping kitten to her belly, wrapped her front paws around it, and put on a recently made yellow vest—while snowflakes drifted outside the window.

The game had a normal passage of time, including seasonal changes. It seemed players only had one in-game month to prepare for winter. If they didn’t secure their house and supplies within that time, both the big and little cats would freeze.

She opened the chat interface.

Of course, a single-player game could have a chat interface—after all, even non-interactive games like match-3 puzzles had communities and team features. What’s wrong with adding a chat interface?

The chat interface was already buzzing with activity.

Since there were fewer people, no ads, and no studios, everyone was just chatting casually. Many were asking about issues they encountered in the game, and some kind players were helping out with answers.

The interface was right next to the storage interface. Liang Ling lifted her paw and accidentally pressed on a pot of cat grass in the storage, dragging it into the chat bar and sending it out.

[Would you like to enable "Message in a Bottle"? The "Message in a Bottle" mode is still in testing. You won’t know where your item will drift to or how it will arrive.]

Liang Ling: "?"

She mentioned this in the chat, and others noticed the small bottle icon in the corner of the chat interface. It seemed everyone had five free bottles to use. Once opened, you could place one complete item from your storage into it—and only one!

There were no other ways to get more bottles for now.

[Rat Juice]: Let’s try it!

This ​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​‌​‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌​‌​​‌‌​​​‌​​‌‌​​​​​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​​​​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌‌​‌​‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌‌‌​​​​‌‌​​​‌​​​‌‌​‌​​​‌‌​​​​‌‍rodent friend was quite generous, suggesting that if others were hesitant, he’d go first. Whoever received the item could match it in the chat, and everyone would know where it drifted and in what form.

Liang Ling was also curious, frequently checking the chat to see if anyone had received a bottle, hoping she might be the lucky one—

[Sheep Sheep Sheep]: [Image]

[Sheep Sheep Sheep]: Just logged in. Do you guys know what this is? I was shoveling snow at my doorstep, and suddenly a part of an electric cockroach and its blueprint fell from the sky.

[Sheep Sheep Sheep]: ...Even though we’re trash collectors, these people in the neighborhood are getting more and more inconsiderate. Why not throw it in the trash? They just dropped it on my head!

[Rat Juice]: I put in a fully assembled one!

[Sheep Sheep Sheep]: ?? Take your cockroach back!

It’s unclear how they negotiated, but in the end, the four sheep reassembled the electric cockroach and stuffed it back into the bottle.

The chat room was on edge!

Liang Ling: ...I’ll pass on this kind of luck.