With a pen and paper in his hand, Old Cat was immediately thrown into solitary confinement within the extradimensional belly.
Now, Zhao Yao was left with the troubling task of bringing Xiao Ming and Red Packet back to Jiangmen City.
A few minutes later, hordes of military trucks started streaming into the place. In a split second, Chuan Xiao District bad been completely locked down by the military. Finally, Zhao Yao was no longer responsible for anything within that place.
With Xiao Ming slung across his back, Zhao Yao slowly walked to his car before disappearing into the highway back home. For the first time in the last few months, Xiao Ming could finally look forward to a better tomorrow.
Those days spent in Chuan Xiao District were definitely the darkest periods of his life. However, things were about to change. He was finally going to return home.
Just the thought of it caused the corner of his lips to curl upwards as he looked towards Zhao Yao.
He threw his body forward and clasped tightly against Zhao Yao's hands, "Master, thank you so much. My future would have been gone if not for you."
Zhao Yao simply responded with a nonchalant nod of his head. His eyes were glued to his BOOK as he began planning his next move.
By bringing Xiao Ming back to Jiangmen City, he had earned another 1000*2 experience points, instantly turning his BOOK to lv5(17108/10000).
Just one minute later, the car came to a sudden halt by the road shoulder. Zhao Yao slammed open his car door before throwing Xiao Ming out with a kick to his butt.
"Master? What are you doing? We haven't even reached yet! There isn't even a bus stop nearby!"
"You are old enough to think of a way home. I still have some business to attend to, so I don't have time to send you back."
Xiao Ming's hopes were completely dashed when he heard the revving of the engine. However, Zhao Yao suddenly unwound his windows which brought a giant grin across Xiao Ming's face, "Master …"
"Do not forget about the RMB 50,000,000. You can forget about the interest on account of our friendship but try to return the money ASAP."
A muscle twitched in Xiao Ming's jaw as he replied, "I think … I would need quite some time to raise that amount …"
"Why do u need quite some time for this? Stop immersing your head in those silly ideas about superpowers and what not. Just look at you now, these stupid thoughts landed you in Chuan Xiao District. Just focus your attention on returning me my money."
With that, Zhao Yao had already winded his windows as his car disappeared into the horizons in the blink of an eye.
Looking at Zhao Yao's taillights disappearing from his sight, Xiao Ming could literally feel a ten-ton weight sinking into his body.
"RMB 50,000,000 …"
This was an astronomical sum even for Xiao Ming. Furthermore, Zhao Yao was someone he could never default his payments from. His originally bright and promising future had instantly morphed into a gloomy and hopeless one because of this piece of bad news.
Xiao Ming felt the weight of this news crushing through his body as he let out a long sigh, "Why do I feel that I was happier when I was back in Chuan Xiao District …"
Zhao Yao's Panamera sped through the highway as he made his way home. He didn't even bother to stop by his café. After all, he had already applied for an entire day of leave. One thought had completely occupied his mind at the moment: to return home and pump his points to his BOOK and cats.
With his Panamera parked in the usual spot, Zhao Yao sprinted up the staircase with a spring in his steps. The scene which greeted him when he swung open his door left him flabbergasted. The place was in a complete mess.
Lightning was cuddling with a stray cat inside a pot Zhao Yao used to prepare their meals. Their bodies were totally intertwined together as they continued their public display of affection.
When the sound of the swinging door rang in their ears, both cats immediately swept their heads towards it. Lightning felt as if a gust of liquid nitrogen had just blasted through his body, freezing his blood in an instant.
Bam! Bam! Piack! Piack! Poom! Poom!
With a shrilling shriek, the stray cat had escaped from Zhao Yao's apartment. Meanwhile, Lightning had collapsed to the floor with his face swollen beyond any recognizable means. Lightning looked towards Zhao Yao and explained, "I can explain. This stray cat suddenly appeared in our house and tried to steal our belongings. I immediately retaliated and fought against her with every ounce of strength and energy I could muster. We fought from the living room to the bedroom, from the bedroom to the kitchen. Our fight finally culminated in the cooking pot …"
Bam! Zhao Yao's palm flew across and landed squarely on his swollen cheeks. Casting a death glare at Lightning, Zhao Yao instructed, "I want you to clean the entire apartment and restore it to its usual state. From today onwards, you are not allowed to bring any stray cats home. Do you understand?"
Lightning was writhing in pain but managed to squeeze out a smile as he answered, "I understand."
Zhao Yao gave an approving nod as he watched Lighting began to clean up the apartment with a tiny broom sticking out from his tiny mouth. With everything under control, Zhao Yao retreated to his bedroom for the main event - upgrade time.
Firstly, he took a look at the contents of his BOOK.
BOOK: lv5(17108/10000)
Matcha: lv6(1270/10000)
Elizabeth: lv6(500/10000)
Dust Ball: lv6(1350/10000)
Ares: lv5(500/5000)
Lucifer: lv5(500/5000)
A thought flashed across his head as he pondered over the situation, "With this amount of experience points, I am able to simultaneously upgrade both Matcha and Ares. However …"
His eyes darted towards his BOOK and his mission panel as he reflected, "However if I upgrade my BOOK, I would be able to recruit another cat into my team. This would be another mission completed, netting me another 2000*2 experience points."
Currently, Zhao Yao's main mission would reward him with 2000 experience points for the sixth cat recruited into his team. With the 'X2 Exp Card' in effect, the points would instantly skyrocket to 4000. Including his current experience points, he would be able to upgrade either Matcha or Elizabeth after upgrading his BOOK.
"I guess the smarter move would be to upgrade the BOOK first."
With his decisions all panned out, Zhao Yao tapped on the upgrade button next to his BOOK. Instantly, he felt waves of electric currents pulsating through his body. His heart began to pound rapidly against his chest, causing a layer of sweat to accumulate on his skin.
This unique phenomenon only lasted for not more than a minute. Soon, he was totally oblivious to the feelings already. Currently, his body had infused Lucifer's body qualities as well. He could acutely detect the difference in the speed of his movements and reactions. Other than his keen sense of awareness, his strength and speed had also exceeded the limits of the human body.
"The effects were not as significant this time around. I guess my body had truly gotten stronger. I am no longer as exhausted from this ritual."
Zhao Yao had finally acquired 'five is better than four'. His attention was channeled back to his BOOK as he realized a new section appearing before him. Other than the mission panel, cat panel, and the diamond hall, he could finally access the delegation panel.
"Delegation?" Through the upgrading, his BOOK had earned another new power. This piqued Zhao Yao's interest as he started to read through the description.
A wide and broad grin crept up Zhao Yao's face soon enough. To put it simply, the delegation panel allowed Zhao Yao to assign one of the cats recruited under him to take his place in the missions.
In other words, Zhao Yao could hand over the authority of completing the missions to any supercats in his team. However, the points earned from completing these missions could only be spent on the cats themselves and could not be allocated to the BOOK.
However, their involvement was slowly confined to the execution of the mission. The pumping of the experience points and choosing of the ability branches were still exclusively restricted to Zhao Yao.
"This is interesting." Zhao Yao muttered with a beaming smile, "This means that I can simply relax at the café while I dispatch the cats out for a mission. All I have to do is to upgrade them when enough points are accumulated."
Joy filled him like sunshine at the thought of him relaxing at home while his cats were slogging their guts out in the wild, acquiring some hard-earned experience points.
However, he was immediately brought back to reality when he realized just how unruly Matcha, Elizabeth, Dust Ball and Ares behaved. To be able to send them out for missions would be a herculean task.
"Some proper planning must be done to ensure the smooth execution of this." Zhao Yao whispered to himself while he focused his attention back on his BOOK.
"Next, I have to choose which cat to recruit to the team."
Suddenly, the combination of all the cats' unique abilities started to flood his mind. All the different combinations and groupings started to form a distinct picture in his head.
After much consideration, Zhao Yao concluded, "Sphynx Cat's power is still the strongest amongst them all."