Pet King
Pet King - Chapter 1074-1075: Defeat

Many people at the age of 20 did not fear heaven or earth. They weren’t really afraid of anything, especially when they were in a group of people. If they even lagged behind by a few steps, they feared being mocked by their friends.

The guy in the baseball cap brought a group of wealthy, second generation heirs to the place where he had heard the laughter. They were standing near the wall that bordered an older community. The community was open, and bicycles and electric cars were often stolen from there. There were a few broken bicycles that had not been ridden for many years. There were also several shared bicycles that had been locked up.

It was very humid near the wall, and it was covered in dark green moss. There was the slight smell of human waste.

“Big brother, are you sure it’s here?” someone asked.

“I think so…” The guy in the baseball cap couldn’t be sure because the lamp was dark, but his ears were still very keen. The laughter had surely come from that area, but there was no way forwards unless he went over the wall.

“Big brother, you definitely heard it wrong! Ai, I don’t know about you guys, but I can’t hold it anymore!” The other person laughed. He walked in front of the foot of the wall, then unzipped his pants and started began to urinate. “Oh, oh! Feels great!”

The rest of the guys did not want to be left behind. They chuckled as they stood in front of the foot of the wall, then lined up and started to pee, too. The strong, disgusting smell of urine overtook the area.

“The f*ck! Are you heaty? Why is your urine so smelly?”

“Do you want to come over to help me disperse my heatiness?”

“Get away!”

The urine at the foot of the wall flowed horizontally, and the guys who had just finished peeing were very relaxed.

“Let’s go. We’ll go back now!” They were just about to return to where they had stopped their car when they suddenly heard light laughter not far away.

That time, they had all heard it. They looked over at the same time, but it was too dark. They could not see anything clearly.

“Who is it? If you have the guts to, come on out!” the guy in the baseball hat increased his voice and shouted. He felt safe with his group.

It was very quiet; there was no response.

They switched on the flashlight function on their phones, but the light could not reach far enough. It could not show them what was happening.

“It can’t be a ghost, right?” someone muttered. Everyone looked at him angrily, so he hurriedly added, “I’m just joking, brothers. Don’t take me seriously! It’s broad daylight. How could there be ghosts…?”

He had yet to finish speaking when he immediately thought about how it was not broad daylight––it was actually late at night, and it was the best time for ghosts to be out. He forcefully swallowed his words back down.

“Such a scaredy-cat! Ghosts aren’t real!” the guy in the baseball hat said loudly.

There was someone who said, “It’s probably some loser who hates the rich and is jealous that we have money. They are pretending to be a ghost!”

“Of course! It must be like that!” The others agreed.They all felt extremely angry. “That group of stinky losers! What right do they have to be jealous of us?”

They were not in the city center, but the area was still quite populated. There were a lot of lights on in the nearby residential buildings. No matter how it seemed, it was not a place that would be haunted.

They prepared themselves and walked over towards the laughter together, their phone lights shining all over.

“Aiya? It’s a few cats!”

There were no ghosts there, and there no people there, either. It was just a mother stray cat and a young kitten; they were probably scavenging in the trash cans. Their eyes reflected the light from the phones.

“Like I said, ghosts don’t exist.” The guy in the baseball hat spit.

The others relaxed, then scolded the person that said there was a ghost severely.

“But… Can cats smile?” someone asked, having a bit of a big mouth.

The rest of the people quieted, as if they had been splashed with cold water. That laughter really did not seem like it was made by a cat.

“…I’ve never owned a cat before. How would I know?” the guy in the baseball hat said impatiently. “If you want to know, isn’t there a readily prepared cat here? Won’t you know after trying?”

He even shocked himself when he said that. The sentence didn’t go through his mind at all; it just naturally left his mouth.

Try…? Try how?

The female stray cat seemed to see that their group was not well-intentioned, but they were standing in the way of the kittens. It looked around helplessly, trying to find a way out of the encirclement. It was easy for it to break out of the enclosure alone––it could just jump up to the wall and run away––but what about its children? It could only pick up one of them and run away, but as for the rest…

“Right! Big brother is right! It just happens that there’s a cat. We can try to see if a cat will smile or not. How’s that?” someone added.

“Haha! Good idea! When we go back we can boast to girls!”

Some people with them hesitated, saying, “This… this isn’t very good, right? I think we should just stop delaying. We need to hurry to the second ring…”

Suddenly someone fiercely jumped up and said, “The f*ck is the second ring? I want to know if cats can smile!”

As they were arguing, there was the third round of light laughter.

The stray cat suddenly raised its head when it heard the sound. Humans’ eyes were blind and dull at night, but its eyes were keen. The cat saw a light, smoky figure passing by in their vicinity. It laughed when it was closest to it.

Even though it was between spring and summer and the temperature was comfortable and a bit warm, it felt that there was a chill in the air. It felt like they were in an ancient tomb.

The rest of the people did not notice that figure, and that time, they were sure that it was this stray cat laughing, not some kind of ghost.

“The f*ck! It’s so evil! Even cats dare to laugh at me?” The guy in the baseball hat was actually quite cowardly in his heart and was all talk. He might have been scared of humans and ghosts, but he was definitely not scared of a cat.

“Watch carefully. Today I want to see if cats know how to smile or not!” He folded his sleeves up and walked towards the stray cat quickly.

The mother cat and the kittens could not escape. They could only wail bitterly.

At that moment, a fierce wail emitted from the darkness. A few seconds after, a second wail sounded loudly, and it was obviously much closer than the first one. A third one and a fourth one sounded, all coming from different directions.

Sou! Sou! Sou!

Suddenly, quite a few stray cats appeared on top of the wall, their eyes flashing as they stared at the rich, second generations heirs. Their calls were continuous. Moreover, loud whistling sounds rang continuously, proving that even more stray cats were approaching.

“The f*ck! What’s going on? Are these stray cats elfins?” The rich, second generation heirs watched in shock. The stray cats’ eyes stared at them until their hearts felt cold.

“I… I think that we should probably just go race to the second ring?” someone asked shakily.

That time, he said what everyone else was thinking; no one disagreed. They did not know who led them, but everyone ran off in a herd. They had not run that fast since secondary school.

When they returned to the roadside, they were panting. They were bathed in the light of the street lamps again. They suddenly smelled the piercing smell of the urine from under their sports car. The smell was even stronger than their urine by ten times over, and the smell refused to go away for a long time.

It stood on the roof of the three-story building, observing the racers who only knew how to brag. It felt extremely disappointed in them. They had actually been scared away by a bunch of strays just like that? They didn’t even talk about how silly they looked as they merely flipped their hoods open, cursing and screaming at the gift of cat pee that they had received.

Useless!

It didn’t bother with those useless things anymore. Stiffly raising its head, it judged the time by looking at the moon’s position.

The nights were becoming shorter and shorter. It got dark later than before, and became bright earlier than usual. The night had almost half passed, and yet it still had gotten nothing.

This situation had happened often recently. Sometimes it could roam for the entire night, unable to find a suitable target. Even if it did, its plans were ruined by a bunch of strays that had come out of nowhere, just like today.

Something didn’t seem quite right.

It tried its best to recall how smoothly everything had been at the beginning. It had stalked Binhai City at night as though there was no one there to stop it. It could easily find weak-willed targets and successfully influence their thoughts, using their hands to torture and kill strays. It would sit nearby enjoying the show, basking in the feeling of its strength improving.

Just a little bit more time…

It raised a front paw, keenly observing it.

Its body was still a little heavy and stiff, far from an actual cat’s—flexible and agile. It would still make a sharp sound if you knocked on its skin, making it clumsy in its every action.

Just a little bit more time and it could be completely renewed, changing the heavy skin for a better one. Then it wouldn’t have to make use of other people and could instead do the dirty work itself. Even though it didn’t really need the help of humans, it could kill the old, young, and injured successfully. But if the other was an adult healthy cat, it could barely catch up, unless it was an ambush.

But its previously successful plans had been taking a nosedive recently. It didn’t know what had gone wrong, but the cats seemed to have achieved some sort of cooperation. The moment they heard the cry of help from one of their mates, they no longer ignored it or walked away as they had used to. Instead they gathered there from all directions and used their utmost speed to bring aid to their comrade.

It couldn’t think of anyone that would possibly give them such courage to do such a thing, even if it used all of its limited brain capacity.

It observed the group of strays in the dark. They surrounded the queen and its kittens to keep guard, keeping their distance so they didn’t stress out the queen too much. Only one of the cats got close to the queen, seemingly trying to explain or advocate something to the queen with gestures.

The queen was initially wary of the strays, but not too long later, she seemed to be taken in by the other stray’s words as its eyes shone with a different glint.

It wanted to go closer to have a listen instead of hiding in the dark, wanting to know what these strays were preaching to her. Instinct told it that it would be closely related to the change in situations recently.

But its gut was warning it not to go closer to listen, since it might just bring more harm to it than good.

It was just words and gestures. How could those possibly harm it?

It didn’t understand.

After some time, as it was still debating whether it should go ahead to listen or not, more pitiful meows came from the distance.

The meows were extremely heart-rending and sounded far away. If not for the silent night, they definitely wouldn’t have been audible. Humans wouldn’t be able to hear them at all—only animals with acute hearing would.

It narrowed its eyes at the distance, the pitiful meowing akin to the most beautiful piece of music to it.

What was happening?

It was still here, so what was with the call from far away?

It quickly understood that there was some human torturing strays of their own accord, without its influence and guidance, but through their own effort and want.

Its lips twitched up in glee. It loved such initiating humans. They gave it so much more power than the puppets that it had to control.

Those puppets often got cold feet at the most important time. What was the point of torture if you didn’t kill eventually? Such spoilsports.

The strays on site had heard the calls too and panicked for a moment, but one of the cats called loudly, getting them to quiet down. It was the cat that had been communicating with the queen earlier.

The cat quickly split the strays on site into two, one group to stay behind to protect the queen and its kittens, and the other to rush toward the calls. They clearly intended to go there to save the tortured cat.

Interesting!

It became excited, euphoria bubbling up in its heart.

These cats didn’t have to split themselves into two—it had already lost interest in the queen. There was clearly a better target waiting for it.

So it tailed after the strays, running toward the calls.

Slower!

It called in its heart: Just a little slower!

It wasn’t to get the strays before it to run slower, but calling at the brave warrior torturing the cat. The essence of torture was “slowness” to let the strays taste the suffering to the maximum before dying, just like Ancient China’s “Death by a Thousand Cuts,” or Ancient Egypt’s mummification of live cats. There was no point in killing them directly.

It wished for the brave warrior to be a little slower, or at least leave the best part till its arrival so it could graciously give pointers to the brave warrior and gain more strength, too.

Since it had not gotten new energy for the past few days, it could feel its powers gradually slipping away. If it continued on this way, it would sooner or later end up back as a copper statue, so it viewed this mission with utmost regard, hoping to turn the tides.

It had even decided that if the brave warrior who hadn’t shown their face yet had exceptional performance and could impress it, it was willing to groom it long-term so it could help start a more effective torture movement—going on at least until it had completely evolved. It had had enough of this life, not knowing when its next full meal would be!

As to how it would take care of them after its goals were met…

One thing was for certain—it was a god, and a god only needed offerings. It didn’t need owners!

It excitedly made its plans, running toward the east with the bunch of strays.

The cries got closer and closer, clearer and clearer, and it was getting more and more exciting too.

Hm?

This…

Where was this place?

Why was it so familiar?

It stopped, observing its surrounding buildings, lost, its memories from not too long ago resurfacing.

The Amazing Fate Pet Shop’s sign was tall and unyielding, stopping it right in its tracks.