Chapter 119 – Cat Dad is a Marked Man
After Xiaomao took flight, the battle became one-sided. Lucky killed Butter Tank and slow players while Shepherd and James took care of stragglers on the ship. As for Xiaomao, he picked off healthy-looking combatants one by one, leaving James and Shepherd some injured fighters to kill.
Andrew, John, and Peter rested their hands from the battle as there was no target to shoot. Even though they saw cog ships on the starboard side, the fight over there was over.
When the dust settled, ownerless fishing boats, sunken ships, broken planks, corpses, and random junks remained in the sea while Wellerboy circled around the junk, collecting trash and war loot.
On the main deck, Fu De gathered the dropped items of the players there while James and John sorted the equipment from the consumable items. Andrew and Peter transported crafting materials to the gun deck, and Shepherd collected gold coins into chests. Lucky and Xiaomao were in charge of scavenging the usable items from the sea.
Magdalene did nothing but maintain the ship’s course around the battle site and watched over the rescued slaves.
10 surviving support characters from Yarr Guild, Claymore United Guild, and Bounty Hunters Guild were salvaging usable cogs and fishing boats from the sea, reluctantly following Fu De’s order. The ships changed into small item icons in their inventory menu, and they gave everything in their possession to Xiaomao.
As for Fu De’s puppets, they stripped their equipment and ejected their items from their inventory before they committed suicide by the vampire’s order.
The three guilds were annihilated. Only a few lucky survivors, who fell into the sea early, managed to come back and tell a tale.
.
The looting took a while. By the time Xiaomao’s party finished looting and collecting usable sea trash, dawn arrived.
Fu De, as usual, retreated to the bottom deck and hid from the sunlight like a typical vampire. He fell asleep in the dark humid place without a word of complaint.
The 10 rescued supporting characters were brought to the main deck of the ship. Shepherd and John stood before them and taught them something with their hand-sign language. Andrew and Peter hit it off, and they began working together to repair the ship.
James, who contributed a lot during the fight, sat in front of Magdalene. The fairy and the spearman stared at each other and communicated in their mind.
Xiaomao looked around and sighed. The ship was getting crowded, and most of the crews were not his real subordinates. Being insecure, he sat on Lucky’s lap while her huge bosoms rested on his head.
Lucky sat on a wooden chair and controlled the wheel, resting after a long night of hard work. She wanted to sleep, but hugging and petting her master’s fluffy head took priority. She took off her leggings armor and let her master sit on her firm thighs.
Xiaomao didn’t notice. Lucky kept sneaking glances at his plump and squishy tentacles, which touched her thighs. As she was wearing a short skirt with thin fabric, one of the tentacles got in between her legs.
Her face flushed. Her breathing was short and fast. However, Lucky gritted her teeth, praying that Xiaomao’s tentacle could go deeper.
Unfortunately, Xiaomao didn’t pay attention. He was mentally exhausted and was in the middle of contemplating life.
As Xiaomao was about to temporarily log out and feed his cats, the hourly global announcement sounded. So far, the global announcement always came with the beacon of light to inform all players about Xiaomao’s location and his precious artifacts. Even after the battle had ended, the beacons returned every hour.
However, after the sun rose, the messages changed.
DING
<Criminal Xiaomao possesses multiple legendary artifacts!>
<Criminal Xiaomao is last seen in Siren Sea, 10 kilometers northwest of Siren Port.>
<Criminal Xiaomao is wanted by Yuan Empire. Current Bounty: 530,000 Gold Coins.>
Fortunately, no quest was affected because of Xiaomao’s criminal record. He could still visit Siren City and check on the shipyard that Xiaomao had commissioned to build.
Still, Xiaomao’s bounty was pathetic. He laughed at it since he could easily pay the fine and remove the charge.
But the next global message shocked him.
<Criminal Xiaomao’s karma has dropped below minus 5,000. He is guaranteed to drop all items in his inventory.>
“…”
That message was unnecessary. It would only create trouble for him.
“Alright. I’m taking a long break, munya. Maintain the ship for me, Lucky. I need to start cooking dinner IRL and feed the cats.”
Annoyed, Xiaomao ordered Lucky to maintain the ship’s course and logged out.
.
Three minutes after Xiaomao had left, Shepherd finished educating the new recruits. He turned to Magdalene.
Magdalene smiled at Shepherd and gave him a thumbs up. They then looked at Lucky, who seemed to be frustrated by something.
The dog girl adjusted her skirt and put on her leggings armor. She pouted and complained, “If anything goes wrong, it’s your fault, and I’ll tell master for it.”
<Magdalene promises you that there won’t be a problem.>
“What about the ship’s durability and the captured fishing boats?”
<Magdalene ensures you that every captured ship will be intact.>
“Meh, fine. Let’s do a quick trip and don’t let him notice.”
Magdalene was satisfied, but the corner of her eyes noticed that the wooden chair that Lucky had been sitting on was strangely wet.
She caught the clue. Magdalene smirked at Lucky.
<Magdalene wonders if you need help or assistance for your relationship with your master.>
“None of your business!”
?[0)??? Lucky screamed in embarrassment. She turned the ship 180 degrees. James, Shepherd, and the new prisoners turned the sail while Magdalene manipulated the wind, sending the entire frigate flying to the sky.
.
Cernun Island
Three players, who were the game moderators in real life, were busy rowing their cog ship to Seaside Town. Their expressions were ugly and dark as if they had seen something unbelievable.
They had inspected the island many times when they were monitoring the movements of the NPCs in the company, but the island chain developed too quickly.
At least a thousand level-750 mermen patrolled around the island, blocking the entrance to the island.
The party of moderators attempted to get closer, but one of the mermen threw a skill at them, breaking their ship’s mast in one hit.
The moderators had no choice but to row the ship away from the monster den, retreating from the patrolling units of mermen. But while they were retreating, shadow silhouettes of a massive sea monster lurked under them, glaring at the party from below.
Everybody sensed the glare and looked down. Then, they regretted that they came here.
They recognized the massive eye of the monster, which was unique among all sea monsters. It had two massive round eyes, red sclera, golden pupils, orange fluffy fur, a long tail, two cat ears, and countless 100-meter long tentacles.
“Cathulhu!”
“Dammit!”
Their faces became as white as a sheet, and their knees turned into jelly. Their scalps were numb, and nobody could think straight.
One of the orange tentacles shot up and wrapped around the cog ship. It pulled the entire vessel into the sea, dragging all moderators along with it.
The mods abandoned the ship and swam away from the Cathulhu as fast as they could. However, the surrounding seawater turned black.
DING
<Meowmeow has cursed you.>
<Warning! Your game system has been changed!>
<Some of your game features have been removed.>
“NOOOO!!”
“WHY IS MEOWMEOW HERE?!”
They regretted coming here to take advantage of their knowledge. They thought that they could befriend Cernun and earn the crocodile god’s blessings for their future superpowers. However, nothing went according to plan.
The mermen were supposed to lurk in the elusive Mermaid Kingdom, but they came out too early. Moreover, they had never expected that the Apostle of Chaos Seraphim would be awakened so soon.
One of the moderators cursed a certain NPC out loud.
“MAO MIAOMIAO! MU-NYANG! YOU AND YOUR GOONS WILL NEVER DEFEAT PANGU!!”
DING
<You have been poisoned by Meowmeow.>
<You have died!>
DING
<Your log-out feature has been disabled.>
<Your resurrection feature has been disabled.>
<Your soul has been consumed by Meowmeow.>
The giant Cathulhu dragged the corpses of the three moderators down to the sea. The black ink of Meowmeow vanished, and the shadow sank into the bottom of the sea.
.
“Yes, what? Yes… yes. I understand. Alright, I’ll explain to their families.”
In an office, Dong Junya, the moderator director, looked at his phone and ended the call. He leaned back and kicked the table, spinning his leather seat.
After playing with his office chair like a child, Dong Junya reached out and pressed a few buttons on his laptop.
BEEP
The large LCD screen displayed a bird-eye view of the Cernun Island Chain.
Dong Junya scrolled his mouse, zooming on the map. Looking closer, he bitterly smiled. Not bothering to count the number of mermen, Dong Junya opened his email and sent a report to Pan Xian.
‘Cernun is making a move, and Meowmeow is sighted nearby. Someone has awakened the Chaos Seraphim’s apostle.’
It was a simple message. He pressed the SENT button and shut down the computer.
Dong Junya looked at his phone next. Swiping through the contact list, he found the name that he was looking for. He pressed the name to call his business partner.
“Problem Solver”
BEEP
Someone picked up the call.
‘Junya? Who is it this time?’
“Families of my idiot subordinates.”
‘Ah. Are your underlings dead or alive?’
“Dead. All died in-game.”
‘As usual then.’