Chapter 31: Cat TV

This was good news for Ying Su. At least she wouldn't have to deal with a second boss or anything like that.

She spent another night inside the keyboard, waiting for her master to wake up the next day, put on her bra and panties, change into her school uniform, and leave the bedroom.

From her corner, Ying Su watched her do all of this, waiting until some time had passed after the other girl had left the room.

Ying Su glanced at the black cat. It was resting, curled up in its own little bed, still asleep. It seemed particularly relaxed, probably because there was no one it needed to keep watch over for the time being.

Ying Su cautiously crawled out of the keyboard, then crept up along the corner of the wall, like a big black spider.

Once she was close enough, she suppressed her aura. At a certain distance, she launched a sudden pounce.

"Mrowww—!"

The black cat, caught by surprise, cried out. But when it tried to swipe at the thing on its face with its paws, it couldn't catch anything.

"Mrow-ow-ow—!"

Immediately, it felt an intense, agonizing pain in its nasal cavity. But it didn't last long. The cat stiffened, then toppled over to the side.

"Whew, finally took it down. Who would've thought I couldn't win in a head-on fight, but managed to pull it off with a sneak attack."

Ying Su, who had been wildly churning inside the cat's brain, let out a sigh of relief. She cut open the cat's head, lifted the skullcap, and wiped a non-existent sweat with a tendril.

'Wait, why didn't my 'Feast' skill trigger a kill notification?! Damn it, this thing isn't dead yet?!'

Ying Su stabbed into the brain cavity a few more times. 'Forget it. Since things have come to this, let's eat first.'

Ying Su began to 'swim the dragon' inside the black cat's body, restoring herself to her previous state.

But before long, Ying Su felt a squeezing sensation all over. The black cat cried out again, started scratching all over its body, then stiffened again after a few seconds.

"Recovery time is about half an hour. Controlling it shouldn't be a problem if I time it right." Ying Su had basically figured out its recovery mechanism. It refreshed its state every half hour, going directly from a broken state to a fully restored one.

'Just need to control the brain and spinal cord.'

Ying Su couldn't compress herself like Olivia could. Only after actually getting inside another body did she realize how amazing Olivia was.

Whenever Ying Su moved, she caused a large bulge on the surface. And why was the wiring inside this body so messy? It was all over the place.

After some more time, having finally familiarized herself with the black cat's body, Ying Su began trying to operate it.

"This is a bit troublesome... Whoa, shit!" One careless move, and Ying Su fell flat on the floor. "Damn it, the bone got twisted. How do I reset it... This way? No, no, it's the opposite direction."

Thinking about how effortlessly Olivia had taken over her own body, Ying Su felt like a complete failure. Right now, she was literally grabbing the black cat's bones to move forward. She lifted the skullcap again to check the front, reached out a small hand, and straightened the cat's crooked eyes.

"Okay, that should do it." Piloting the cat mech, Ying Su took a step forward. "Wait, I'm moving the same-side legs together. I remember cats step with their front paws first, right?"

"Then be a bit more elegant... There, there... Ugh, you're alive again? Stab you to death, meow!"

The clarity in the black cat's eyes lasted less than a second before it was killed again.

"Alright, time to go online and browse some... unsavory information." Having dealt with the black cat problem, Ying Su was finally ready to start her grand undertaking.

She tried a few times using the cat's body, but the paws were just too clumsy. She simply gave up and extended a hand from the cat's mouth.

After watching the lengthy boot-up animation, Ying Su couldn't hold back when she saw the screen full of junk software.

"Why is everything installed on the C drive?! What's with all these adware viruses?! Where's the antivirus?! Why are there five of them?! Forget it, start them all. We'll use whichever one survives!"

After a lot of fiddling, Ying Su finally got the computer sorted out. She deliberately left the desktop icons and files. "There, that's much smoother. Launch! Damn it, why is that bird wallpaper still there?!"

After using the stiff cat tail to record for a while, and seeing that the time was about right, Ying Su hurriedly restored everything and ran back to her nest.

When the master returned, she was as cheerful as before. But this time, she had brought back two new little things.

Two small birds. They looked like sparrows or something.

After tossing them into a cage, she continued with her daily routine.

Following the black cat's previous behavior, Ying Su climbed onto the table and lay down, watching the girl play with the little creatures she had caught from who-knows-where.

"Disobedient children are bad children! Bad children get eaten!" Saying this, the master shrank one of them and tossed it into her mouth. The other one immediately stopped chirping.

"Then listen up! If you want to live, you must follow my rules.

One, you must finish your food. Wasting food makes you a bad child.

Two, you must exercise every day. Neglecting your body makes you a bad child.

Three, you must be obedient. Disobedience makes you a bad child.

Four, you must not run away. Running around makes you a bad child.

Five, you... are a bad child."

"Understood?!" After saying this, the master didn't care about the other's reaction. She threw it back into the cage and put it away. It seemed she was in a relatively good mood today and didn't torment this poor creature she had snatched from somewhere any further.

After finishing this, the master washed up as usual and went to bed.

It was safe. She hadn't noticed that the black cat's behavior was a bit odd today, seeming somewhat uncoordinated.

'But I've heard about this thing so many times these past few days. Could her ability to shrink people and turn them into animals be hidden inside it?' Ying Su wondered.

However, this didn't seem to have much to do with her. After all, her situation was quite different from those children in the cage. She hadn't been transformed by the other; she was originally a bird.

Over the next few days, Ying Su watched as the girl brought back a few newcomers every two or three days. The ones from before would be killed off by her through various means—either eaten or crushed to death.

Ying Su was numb.

If she hadn't already gained some abilities, she probably would have ended up the same way. What a monster.

Finally, due to Ying Su's tireless troublemaking, some commotion erupted outside one noon. Ying Su extended a tendril to take a look, then hurriedly crawled out of the black cat's body.

Soon after, several police officers in formal attire opened the door and came in. The master naturally followed behind. When she saw Ying Su standing on the computer keyboard, her eyes filled with confusion, then her face puffed up in anger. But she didn't lash out; she just stared at her.

"We'd like to inspect your computer, is that alright?"

"Go ahead."

"That's correct. These illegal materials, as well as the tip-off letters, were all sent from here. Did you send them?" the police officer asked the master.

"I have absolutely no idea about this," the master said pitifully, shaking her head.

"Alright, please come back with us for now. Don't worry, it's nothing serious. It might just be a virus or something." Looking at the cute child, the officer relaxed his tone. In his view, a child like this wouldn't be looking at such乱七八糟的东西.

"Can I bring my cat and parrot with me?"

"Uh, that might not be appropriate..."

"Please... I'm all alone at home... I... I'm scared..."

"Well... alright then. But they mustn't run around..."

"They definitely won't. They are... good children," the master said, her voice lowering.

But when she went to grab Ying Su, Ying Su had already fluttered her wings and landed on the police officer.

In front of everyone, the master couldn't very well make a scene. "It seems she likes you more, Officer."

"Oh, really? She's very beautiful. Does she have a name?"

"I am Ying Su!" Ying Su declared.

"Oh my, what a good girl. Would you like to come with us?"

"Of course, dear Officer."

The master could only glare venomously at Ying Su. When she picked up the black cat, she found it was already stiff. Furious beyond measure, but with no other choice, she placed it in its bed and followed the police out.

She didn't take it?

It would recover in half an hour. Was she worried about being found out? Or could it only recover here?

But this had nothing to do with Ying Su anymore. After being taken to the police station, Ying Su happily admitted to everything, causing quite a stir.

Not long after, she was put in a cage and taken to a shelter.

The familiar white ceiling, the familiar surveillance camera, the clean room—Ying Su instinctively began observing her surroundings.

However, unlike the large room she had lived in before, this one was much smaller. Of course, that comparison was based on a human's perspective. For her, still in parrot form, it was absolutely spacious.

Then, people kept coming to inspect and deliver food and water.

To avoid raising suspicion, Ying Su reverted to her initial state. But her organs now were just for show, with no actual digestive function.

Her daily task was to pretend to eat the stuff,

then mold it into poop.

This situation continued until Ying Su's old acquaintance, Sylvia, arrived.

"Gah!"

Ying Su was thrilled to see a familiar face. She circled around Sylvia several times.

Ah, compared to all those monsters and demons, Sylvia, who only plays little tricks and still messes up, is just too adorable.

"Ahem. During preliminary assessment, we believe you possess sufficient intelligence to communicate with us," Sylvia said.

"Of course... my intelligence is..."

Ying Su paused. What was the human standard again? Forget it, just pull a number out of thin air.

"Three hundred! My intelligence is a full three hundred, gah!" Ying Su squawked.

"Oh, oh, three hundred, right." Sylvia nodded, then wrote it down on her report. Ying Su's eyes widened. Wait, that's so casual?

Uh, I guess it was like this before too... Her tests for me were just padded with extra stuff and glossed over, like a college student padding a term paper.

Come to think of it, even though Sylvia dresses more maturely, styling her hair and wearing perfume, she doesn't seem that old...