"Come here and take a look at our unique swimming programme!" A supercat announced with a stack of pamphlets bundled on its back, "With the effects of our superpower enhanced training, you can turn from a tiny kitten into a giant Siberian tiger in one month's time!"
Roly Poly felt an invisible force pulling him towards it. Suddenly, he felt a familiar hand wrapping its fingers around his neck before dragging him away.
"Roly Poly, I need you to concentrate." Zhao Yao reminded, "There is no room for failure. I need to bring those two fools back." In the midst of his search, Zhao Yao was alerted to a notification in his BOOK. Instantly, a new mission had appeared across the page.
Mission: Two terrible twos
Objective: Locate both Lightning and Red Packet
Reward: Locating Lightning would earn Zhao Yao 5 experience points while locating Red Packet would earn Zhao Yao 500 experience points
Reward: Nil
Zhao Yao's eyes squinted into a hard line, "I must bring back Red Packet."
Roly Poly jumped to his own defense and clarified, "Zhao Yao! Zhao Yao! I wasn't looking at all those advertisements! I was just trying to behave like those two and see from their perspective. I'm trying to find out where they would escape to."
"Hmph, so what did you manage to find out from that?"
"The two of them have been acting very strangely. It's not like them to just travel hundreds of miles to this place for nothing. There is definitely something important that we're missing. Maybe, they're hiding a secret from us! Zhao Yao, do you agree with me?"
"Agree my ass." Zhao Yao scoffed as he sent a tight slap across Roly Poly's cheeks. Zhao Yao's eyes swept past the entire market only to see Sphynx Cat stopping at another shop.
"A fur implant technique passed down from generations to generations! Not only that, my family has been dying fur for the past 100 years! We are your one-stop solution to all fur related problems, be it long fur, short fur, golden fur, silver fur."
Sphynx Cat was intrigued by the strands of fur carefully arranged on the table. He asked, "Are these all real? Just look at this beautiful golden fur."
"We supply both real and synthetic fur. However, the price will be dependent on the fur you're interested in." The salescat knew at once that he had successfully hooked Sphynx Cat. Hence, he continued to dangle the bait in Sphynx Cat's face by saying, "We are having a promotion now! 40% off! Are you interested in trying it?"
Suddenly, a hand swept across Sphynx Cat's eyes, intercepting the transaction, "Thanks but no thanks."
Zhao Yao fixed his eyes on Sphynx Cat and reminded him, "Sphynx Cat, I need you to stay focused! We are on a mission. Today's world is vastly different from the one you were used to. Danger lurks around every corner. Red Packet and Lightning have close to zero combat powers. Without us protecting them, God knows just what is going to happen to them. Every second wasted on this frivolous stuff might be the difference between life and death!"
Suddenly, the focused gaze returned to Sphynx Cat's eyes as he muttered, "I understand."
With their renewed focus, the trio sped down the lane with Sphynx Cat's nose leading the way. A familiar scent assaulted Sphynx Cat's nostrils. At once, he knew where they were. Sphynx Cat bolted towards a van and shouted, "Both their scent ended in this van!"
Currently, the driver had already gone for lunch, leaving the fat cat alone inside. Slobber slung in white strings from its jaw as its eyes stared attentively at the moving images on the screen. Evidently, it was watching a live stream.
From time to time, a sly smile would spread across those chubby cheeks as it muttered, "This bunch of fools! Why would anyone donate to these broadcasters? Humans are really so stupid!"
Suddenly, he felt a gust of cold air assaulting him from behind. It swept his head around to see an enraged Zhao Yao staring straight at it.
Fear splintered its heart at the sight of this mysterious man. However, the fat cat immediately translated his fear into annoyance as he remarked, "We are closed for the day. Please go somewhere else."
However, Zhao Yao turned a deaf ear to its words. Instead, it led Sphynx Cat and Roly Poly up the van before slamming the door shut.
Immediately, the fat cat's chest tightened with fear as it retorted, "What are you trying to do? I'm warning you! My boss is Yellow Ass. You definitely wouldn't want to get on his wrong side."
Zhao Yao simply whipped out his phone before flashing photographs of Lightning and Red Packet in his chubby face, "Have you seen these two cats?"
A brief moment of hesitation flashed across his beady eyes. Even though the Pallas's cat in the photo was coated in a body full of silky long fur, there was no way it could have possibly forgotten about those two. However, the fat cat began to shake its head violently and answered, "Nope, I don't know any of them."
Sphynx Cat then whispered into Zhao Yao's ears, "This guy's heartbeat just increased from 80 to 120. He is lying."
Zhao Yao's devil-like laughter echoed down the tattered van as he reached his arm towards this fat cat. His fingers ran along his head, all the way to his butt. The fact that the cat even bothered to lie about it meant that things were not looking too optimistic.
A violent shudder ran across the fat cat's body as it felt a snake-like presence slithering across its meaty body. With Zhao Yao's perverted smile staring at itself, the fat cat asked, "What do you want from me? I told you I have never seen those cats in my life!"
Just when Zhao Yao was about to continue his interrogation, a blaring ringtone echoed into the surroundings. Apparently, Inspector Ho had received some information.
Hence, Zhao Yao left the van after instructing Sphynx Cat and Roly Poly, "I'll be leaving this fatty to the both of you. Ask him about Red Packet and Lightning's whereabouts. I need to answer a call."
The fat cat could finally breathe a sigh of relief. With its earnest gaze staring straight at Roly Poly, it reasoned, "Come on, we are all from the same cat family. Why should we even fight against each other because of this nosy human? Isn't that right?"
Sphynx Cat could not be bothered by his b*llshit. However, Roly Poly jumped on this opportunity and raced towards the fat cat before asking, "Hey, do you enjoy watching live streams? Have you ever seen Roly Poly's channel?"
While explaining, Roly Poly had snatched the phone from his meaty paws and began to sieve through the applications on its phone.
The fat cat felt somewhat relieved to see this fellow plump cat behaving all courteous and decided to play along with him, "Nope. Normally, I prefer to watch food channels."
"In that case, I'll help you subscribe to the best channel in the whole of China!" Roly Poly's plump paws darted across the screen before tapping on the 'follow' button, next to his channel. Obviously, this channel was created by him to stream his PUBG games.
"Hey, how come you have zero credits inside your account? Come on, why don't you charge it? How can you watch streams without credits?"
The fat cat's already distorted face was contorting into a frown as it explained, "Please don't do this."
Roly Poly responded by shooting Sphynx Cat a glance. Immediately, the chair which the fat cat was sitting on was torn to pieces.
"I'll charge! I'll charge! I'll charge!"
A few minutes later, Zhao Yao returned to the van to a ridiculous scene. The fat cat was on its knees and begging, "Please stop sending the rockets. Please! I have run out of money!"
Roly Poly immediately reverted to his mission and asked, "In that case, tell me about those two cats which you pretended to have never met."
"I can't tell you. I really can't. If I tell you, all of us will be dead!"
Seeing his pathetic behavior, Zhao Yao bent down and snatched the phone from its hand and scoffed, "How much did you charge? What? Just RMB 5,000? Did you ask him for his bank account password? Save yourself some trouble and get him to do a bank transfer!"
An ear-piercing shriek reverberated in the tiny van, "No bank transfer! These are all my hard-earned money! Every single cent of it! Please empathize with me! Please don't do this to me on account that we are fellow cats!"
"Sorry, but I can't empathize with you since it's not my money we're talking about." With a shrug of his shoulders, Zhao Yao had ruthlessly transferred the money over, "Look at it. Money can come and go in a blink of an eye. Oh, you've reached the daily transaction cap?"
The fat cat tumbled against the ground, struggling to catch its breath.
"Zhao Yao, just look at him! He's so pitiful! Can you leave him some money?" Roly Poly added, "Why don't we invest his money in some stocks? I heard the market is doing quite well!"
Bam! The fat cat felt the pain searing through its body as it pounced onto Zhao Yao's feet, "No!"
"Or how about we invest in cryptocurrency? Roly Poly continued, "I heard there are a few ICOs coming up. We can turn this cat into a millionaire!"
Its deafening scream continued to reverberate throughout the tiny van. For a moment, the fat cat thought that its heart had stopped beating, "Alright, alright. I'll tell you where they are. Just don't touch my money!"