The System Mistook Me for a Cat

The materials in this water gun battle game were quite familiar. Chu Tingwu had heard that it was developed by an employee with minimal assistance from the company.

Simple games, as long as they are entertaining enough, have partners and opponents to play with, and seize the right timing after the editor's release, can easily become a hit.

The internet in Antarctica was a bit slow... but everyone seemed to be having a great time.

Chu Tingwu knew that each game's map was randomly generated, with a simple algorithm, which prevented experienced players from memorizing the map and ruining the experience for newcomers.

The slimes seemed to glow on their own. Although there was no map in the maze, they could illuminate the area within a radius of about ten body lengths. If one had a strong sense of direction and good memory, they could probably memorize the maze layout.

However, assembling a team of five such players was a bit challenging.

Well... that was usually the case.

Chu Tingwu reunited with her teammates.

She didn’t need to say much. Her sense of direction and hearing abilities were somewhat weakened in the game, so she simply followed the captain’s instructions, wandered around to explore the dark map, and waited for her teammates to arrive.

"Tian Se An" was the last to arrive, but as soon as he looked up, he saw four slimes stuck to the wall, slowly sliding down.

Tian Se An: "What are you guys doing…"

Nan Ji Wang: "What do you know? We’re practicing our moves. You can’t make it up here with just one jump. Don’t believe me? Try it yourself."

Tian Se An: "?"

Try it, then.

And so, the number of blue slimes on the wall increased to five.

Although most games would allow players to customize their appearance, especially in this semi-holographic mode, doing so would require too much data. Thus, this game only allowed players to customize "slime expressions" and "accessories." For example, Chu Tingwu’s expression was (>v<), and she wore jelly-like cat ears on her head.

Others had halos like angels or hats made of water droplets… Once an accessory was chosen, it couldn’t be selected again, which helped differentiate players without making things too complicated. Their IDs weren’t floating above their heads but stuck closely to them, bouncing along with the slimes as they moved.

After regrouping, the team eagerly decided to take down the Red Team.

At that moment, perhaps due to luck, only one member of the Red Team encountered Chu Tingwu and was killed twice. On the Blue Team’s side, "Ji Zhou" somehow rolled right in front of the opposing team and was taken out once without any preparation.

Ji Zhou: "Avenge my life…"

Chu Tingwu: Alright, alright.

She picked up a sniper rifle, feeling satisfied, and even discovered a new movement route—

"Kitten": "Look, you can bounce from the left wall to the right wall, and keep bouncing back and forth to move forward along the walls!"

Xi Ming: …I told you guys to stop chatting in the public channel, dammit!

Yes, the Blue Team’s messages were visible to the Red Team.

The Red Team was utterly speechless.

Because the opposing team, which looked like a group of beginners (and indeed, they were all level 1), had already regrouped, while some of their own members were still lost, resulting in a 3-1-1 formation.

Xi Ming’s friend, Lu Tinglan, had met up with his slime teammates, and the three of them were advancing together. However, there was one player in their team who hadn’t said a word and seemed to be hopelessly lost. Xi Ming himself only had one life left, so he didn’t dare take risks and hid in a corner, trying to guess the positions of the five enemy players.

Of course, he wasn’t just sitting around. He was waiting for the first wave of random resource spawns.

At the start of the game, treasure chests could spawn at the end of each path. Ten minutes later, the edges of the maze would gradually crumble and disappear, and the second wave of resources would spawn.

By then, most players had already left their starting points, instinctively heading toward the center of the map to start the battle. Usually, no one would return to the respawn points, but to maintain fairness and give weaker players a chance, resources were concentrated near the respawn points, allowing inexperienced players to pick up equipment as soon as they respawned.

Xi Ming was quite calm about it: So what if he was a noob? He accepted it. As for the game developer… he had no idea who that was!

While the battle raged in the center of the map, Xi Ming peacefully collected a batch of proximity mines. He initially planned to place them at key intersections, but then he remembered what the Blue Team had said in the public chat—

Damn it, these slimes don’t follow the usual paths. They move along the walls!

Then maybe he should stick the mines to the walls…?

As the Red Team in the center of the map fought and retreated, with one player dying twice and another eating a self-destruct fruit, Xi Ming was diligently working on the walls.

His teammates kept urging him in the team chat, and Xi Ming quickly replied, "Lure them over here. I’ve set up an ambush! Trap items won’t trigger for teammates, only enemies!"

His teammates were deeply moved and asked:

"Where are you, though?"

Xi Ming: Crap.

Sorry, I forgot this was a maze.

But it didn’t matter. As the game progressed, the map continued to shrink. Ten minutes later, the second outer ring of the maze would also crumble and disappear, triggering a "flash" event. The entire maze map would be revealed for three seconds, showing the positions of all players.

Xi Ming quietly cheered his teammates on, while they loudly cursed their way through the maze. Finally, the "flash" event occurred, and Xi Ming quickly glanced at the map—

The Red Team was still in a 3-1-1 formation. Lu Tinglan and the others weren’t too far from him, just a couple of turns away. The silent teammate, however, was huddled in a corner, almost falling off the edge of the crumbling map.

The Blue Team, on the other hand, was in a 4-1 formation. Although it was a 5v3 situation, Nan Ji Wang had died twice, and Tian Se An had also died once, showing that the Red Team wasn’t completely useless. At that moment, Nan Ji Wang was on his way back from the respawn point.

Xi Ming muttered, "If I weren’t the developer… I’d suspect your team was using hacks to see the map."

Their movement speed was as if they had X-ray vision. How did they do it?

As he pondered this, the "flash" event ended, and the map went dark again. But Xi Ming had already spotted Lu Tinglan, who had a small bowtie on his chest and a "=0=" expression.

He excitedly reunited with his friend, only to hear the screams of his teammates.

The "flash" had allowed them to see each other, but it had also revealed their coordinates to the enemy.

"Duck Duck": "Goodbye…"

Duck Duck, who had run out of lives after being ganged up on, was the first to be eliminated, turning into a plump water droplet-like soul floating beside his teammates.

Dead players could still talk, and Duck Duck marveled at the proximity mines hidden along the edges of the walls.

Meanwhile, the remaining teammate had already led the enemy over.

A bullet "plopped" into the red slime’s body, as if puncturing it, causing its body to deflate slightly.

Xi Ming quickly refilled it with water while urging them to retreat—along the walls, of course.

But then, the blue slime chasing them didn’t climb the wall.

Xi Ming: "?"

Xi Ming: "Why not?"

His cry of confusion might have been sent to the public channel, as "Kitten" explained:

"Bouncing between walls is for dodging bullets. It’s too slow for chasing."

If you’re bouncing on the walls, we’ll just shoot you!

The water guns started firing with a "biubiu" sound, and Xi Ming soon realized—though he didn’t want to admit it—that the enemy team was indeed more familiar with the map than they were. The Red Team was being herded like sheep into a dead end.

But it was fine!

He had picked up other items.

…If all else failed, they could self-destruct and respawn at other points to block these slimes’ retreat.

The player he most wanted to eliminate was "Kitten," who had killed him twice. But Kitten was holding a sniper rifle, hiding at the back—

No ambition! In their team, those who died the most were usually shielded at the back. For example, he, the kitten, hadn’t died even once, so why couldn’t he step up to the front and take the lead?

Look, it was Nanjiwang, who had died twice, charging ahead the fastest, and unsurprisingly, he turned into a ghost again.

And why was there even close combat? What’s the point of you two slimes fighting hand-to-hand—

Next life: "Do you know how boring scientific research is? Do you know how cold Antarctica is? You don’t even know how many species of penguins there are in Antarctica, yet you mock me for drawing characters that look like penguins!"

Lu Tinglan: "=0="

How did he know all this? Wait, he never mocked anyone!

The kitten on the other side seemed to have had enough and silently gave the red team a quick death, but the bullet damage wasn’t enough, leaving Lu Tinglan with a sliver of health.

Xi Ming: "I—"

Lu Tinglan, unusually fired up, said, "No need, let me do it. I’ll self-destruct and take them out!"

Xi ​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌‌​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​​​‌​​​‌‌‌​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​​‌‌‌​​‌​‌‌​​​‌​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌​‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​​‌‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌‌​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​​‌‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​​​​​​‌‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​‌‍Ming: "I—"

The teammate’s slime exploded in front of him.

Perhaps inspired, another quietly dedicated teammate also got excited: "Then it’s my turn!"

Xi Ming: "Wait, I—"

Another teammate exploded, and the three souls gathered around him. Now, it was probably the stage of three ghosts commanding one living player.

Xi Ming couldn’t take it anymore: "I told you I’m out of bullets! Couldn’t you have left me a couple before you self-destructed?"

He looked ahead in frustration, and Chu Tingwu’s gun was already aimed at his helpless body.

The blue team still had three players alive, with a total of eight lives, while he only had one. How could he possibly turn the tide—

"Bang."

Xi Ming died.

Game over.

Red team wins.

Xi Ming: "?" How did we win?

Lu Tinglan: "?"

Duckie: "Uh… did anyone else notice that the blue team’s avatars seemed to glitch for a moment? Was it lag?"

So, the internet in Antarctica really lagged? It actually kicked the entire blue team offline in an instant?

Xi Ming: "But we died too. I remember my death notification popped up first…"

Lu Tinglan: "Wait, aren’t we a five-person team?"

-

"Ah, I won!"

"Huh? Did you win? How do you even play this game? Let me try too!"

"I don’t know. I heard it’s a team game, but I didn’t see anyone. I just walked through a dark maze and picked up stuff… and somehow won after half an hour? Hmm, I think it’s kind of boring, and the maze is really dark and scary. You might get lost. Why don’t you go play the piano instead? I’ll figure out how to play properly and then teach you!"

"But I scored 100 on my fifth-grade test yesterday, and Mom and Dad said I could play for two hours. Let me try first, let me have a go…"