The System Mistook Me for a Cat Chapter 197

Chu Tingwu spent New Year's Day on the ship.

After all, it was an icebreaker from Hua Country, and on a day like New Year's Day, there were bound to be celebrations.

In addition to an expanded nu and a hearty al, there were also performances organized by the crew. For example, two crew mbers tead up to perform a cody skit, and everyone applauded enthusiastically. Even though Roman and others might not have fully understood the jokes, they still clapped politely.

When Roman moved, Chu Tingwu had to lean back slightly to avoid being accidentally hit by his enthusiastic gestures.

These past few days, wherever Chu Tingwu went, Roman followed with his equipnt. To an outsider, it might have seed like he was her personal photographer.

But the truth was, this was because Chu Tingwu had "saved" his life a few days earlier when they were on the island.

While on the island, although they knew they couldn't stray too far from the marked path and had to follow the footsteps of those who had gone before, Roman, in his quest for the perfect shot, had taken a few steps back while holding his cara near the flag. He thought the distance wasn't too great and shouldn't be a problem. But just as he was about to take another step back, Chu Tingwu, who was passing by, grabbed his arm, preventing him from moving.

Roman, annoyed at being interrupted, instinctively tried to break free but found that he couldn't. In fact, he felt as if he was pinned in place by a firm but not overly forceful grip. The next mont, the world seed to spin.

Other witnesses later said, "Chu Tingwu literally lifted him off the ground with one hand."

With just one motion, Chu Tingwu had pulled the grown man to her side. The other team mbers, realizing sothing was wrong, quickly brought over a probe and poked it into the ground.

The snow layer shifted slightly, and the several-ter-long pole sank into it without any resistance. When it was pulled out, the snow layer seed unable to hold its shape, and the surface quickly collapsed and slid away... At the steep edge, there was half of Roman's footprint.

The onlookers gasped, but Chu Tingwu remained calm. "You were in a dangerous situation, so I acted imdiately," she said.

After that, Roman didn't dare to step outside the footprints of others when they were on the island.

He thanked Chu Tingwu profusely and, like anyone with a curious mind, couldn't help but ask her, "How did you know there was a hollow layer beneath the snow?"

It was normal to be aware of the dangers around them, but her precise judgnt was sowhat miraculous.

Chu Tingwu gave her usual vague answer, but Roman wasn't entirely convinced. However, he didn't press further—instead, he started filming her whenever they weren't on the island.

Chu Tingwu: "?"

Roman: "Maybe the footage I'm capturing today will be part of a docuntary nad after you in the future."

Chu Tingwu, of course, would have a "docuntary" made about her, whether as the CEO of Wu Voice Group or for her other achievents. She might even produce it herself. But Roman seed to be looking at her from a different angle. He said:

"Throughout history, there have been many people with extraordinary abilities. During my university years, I studied their images and, under my professor's guidance, created psychological profiles of them. So were arrogant, so lonely, so self-destructive, squandering their talents, while others beca the 'geniuses' recorded in history... If I had t you on land, I might have focused on how your societal identity influenced your abilities and character."

"But now we're in Antarctica."

In this desolate place, amidst the ice and the endless daylight, with no internet and few familiar faces, he was curious to see if a person's true nature would reveal itself under such conditions.

Chu Tingwu didn't stop him, only asking that he share the footage with her afterward and that he couldn't use her image without her permission. Essentially, she had hired a professional photographer for free on the icebreaker.

Chu Tingwu: "I can use this footage in my own docuntary soday."

As for whether that "soday" would be in ten years or fifty, she didn't know.

-

When Roman arrived at the conference room on the sixth floor with his cara, he found Chu Tingwu there, as expected.

She stood by the projector screen, explaining the images displayed on it, which depicted an icebreaker.

—Life on the ship was dull, and while Chu Tingwu wasn't particularly outgoing, she didn't shy away from social interactions. She worked efficiently and got along well with the younger crew mbers. Roman knew that today's weather wasn't great, so no one had gone out on the deck. Instead, Chu Tingwu had gathered a few of the less busy crew mbers in the conference room to "play a ga."

He joined in and discovered that it was a text-based strategy ga, similar to a tabletop role-playing ga.

They were discussing a scenario: if a solar storm caused a Russian icebreaker to travel back in ti to Antarctica before global warming, and if the ship lost power and encountered Viking pirates—with so Vikings already onboard before the crew woke up—how would they survive?

Roman: "..."

This is what you're playing?

After listening for a while, he realized that the ga wasn't as simple as it seed. It wasn't just a casual discussion or research exercise—

It was a full-fledged text-based role-playing ga, with Chu Tingwu as the ga master.

The crew was trapped on the damaged icebreaker, and each player was essentially playing themselves. So were skilled at lock-picking, others at using tools, and one even claid to be proficient with weapons. The ga didn't require dice rolls; instead, the ga master directly judged the likelihood of success.

Despite being the youngest, Chu Tingwu had everyone's trust. If their actions or choices failed, she would provide a logical explanation, as if she had personally tried them herself.

Not only that, but she also described the Vikings' attack patterns, behaviors, and even the misunderstandings that could arise due to language barriers with remarkable clarity.

This was a ga master and players of extraordinary skill tackling an incredibly challenging scenario.

So, even though Roman didn't fully understand so of the technical terms or the finer points of the gaplay, he managed to follow most of the story as he listened from the sidelines.

And when the ga ended, the others were left wanting more... though that might have been because they had all died in the ga.

One of the senior crew mbers suggested, "Chu Tingwu, you've put together a pretty complete story here. Even though so parts aren't entirely realistic... I think you could turn this into a full-length tabletop RPG scenario. Why don't you write it down or record it when you have ti?"

He felt a bit embarrassed saying this, as if he were exploiting Chu Tingwu's free ti for their entertainnt.

But everyone really wanted to continue playing and figure out how to win. Since they couldn't always gather this many people, it would be better to have the scenario written down so anyone could run the ga when they had ti.

Chu Tingwu didn't seem upset. During the latter half of the ga, she had been deep in thought, occasionally pulling out her laptop to jot sothing down. Now, she closed her laptop and said, "I'll write it up tonight."

She decided to create a small program for it.

Writing out the text was simple, but she had noticed that among the players, no one was particularly suited to be the ga master. The ga master not only had to narrate the story and judge the success of actions but also had to improvise when players tried unconventional moves, cheated, or even attempted to bribe their way through.

Outside the porthole, the snowstorm raged. Chu Tingwu curled up on the couch, typing away. She decided to split the "Icebreaker Ti Travel: Viking Pirate Crisis" ga into three parts.

The three parts were: "Searching for Pirates on the Ship," "Repelling Boarding Pirates," and "Repairing the Icebreaker." These events could happen simultaneously but wouldn't interfere with each other.

——This was also the experience Chu Tingwu gained from using save files in her dream ga: even if she were a superhuman, she couldn’t do these three things simultaneously without neglecting one or the other. So, in the early stages, she kept reloading her saves, negotiating with Russian NPCs to learn how to quickly gain their trust, secure command of the ship, and delegate suitable NPCs to handle the two tasks she couldn’t manage herself.

Under the system’s guidance, she wrote a simple program. But after finishing this text-based ga and its countless branching endings, Chu Tingwu stared at the screen, deep in thought:

“Maybe I can add sothing else?”

She got up from her bed and went to the room where the VR pods and VR live-streaming equipnt were stored.

These devices had been uploaded along with her, but they weren’t for her use. Instead, more specialized researchers were using them to record VR footage for archival purposes.

Chu Tingwu knew there were two backup sets of equipnt, just in case.

“Although everyone seems pretty satisfied with the current text-based tabletop RPG…” Chu Tingwu discussed with the system, “professional tabletop RPGs often include models or images to enhance imrsion. What if we could add VR visuals? Wouldn’t that make the experience even more imrsive?”

Of course, she didn’t an adding VR to the entire process—that would be no different from creating a full VR ga. But Chu Tingwu thought it might be possible to shoot corresponding footage for key monts and actions.

Players would wear the equipnt while playing the tabletop ga. As the ga master narrated, visuals would appear before their eyes, and their bodies would feel the realistic feedback of the actions.

Chu Tingwu didn’t know how much this would enhance the tabletop RPG experience… but at the very least, she thought it would be fun.

She wanted to share the experience she had in her dream ga with others, even if their imrsion might only be 5% of what she felt.

She first recorded a test segnt with the equipnt, then went to consult her senior brother, Misha, and others the next day. To her surprise, they were all supportive.

“New Year’s Day has passed, but the Lunar New Year is still far off,” her senior brother said with a smile. “Isn’t this perfect? Can we join in too?”

-

Professor Mi took a sip of tea.

“It’s rare for the ship to be this lively.”

The Antarctic expedition, while seemingly exciting, had its fair share of dull monts. What Chu Tingwu did wasn’t just sharing a new ga or coming up with a script… she had brought all the young people on the ship together, united in a single-minded pursuit of a common goal.

Chu Tingwu herself, however, seed unaware of the impact she had made. Surrounded by the group, she calmly answered questions, switching effortlessly between languages, her expression serene, with only a faint smile on her face.

“Perhaps it’s because the initiator’s intentions are so pure—simply wanting to make the ga more fun,” Professor Mi thought. “That’s why everyone’s actions and thoughts are so pure as well.”

Isn’t that a good thing?

The icebreaker would dock next week to replenish supplies, and the team could rest at the research station and contact their families. He thought it might be a good idea to suggest that Chu Tingwu talk to Monica, the representative of the sponsoring team.

There could be different ways to promote Antarctica.

On January 10th, after a long period of silence, Universal Company released a link and a trailer for a new ga, which was simultaneously shared by the Antarctic Conservation Committee.

Before even clicking on the video, experienced viewers had already guessed—

[Master Chu went to Antarctica, so this must be a ga related to Antarctica, right?]

[Will there be crossovers with other gas from the company? Maybe so Antarctic-thed items? Or at least an Antarctic skin for to spend money on? Not too interested in the new ga, though—there’s already so much to play, and I’m eagerly waiting for the public beta of *Cat House*!]

[See that ‘VR’ logo? The promotional text doesn’t ntion semi-holographics, but knowing Universal, they’re definitely using VR equipnt… Wait, what? This link lets you play directly? The ga’s free?]

Soon, people noticed that the link below the video led to an online mini-program, similar to *Cat Box*, which could be played instantly.

It didn’t seem to be a semi-holographic ga after all, and everyone was disappointed.

But since they were already here, why not give it a try?

Half an hour later, players who had been dying repeatedly in the solo tabletop RPG, too preoccupied with the endless dangers to even notice the Antarctic scenery, were left wondering:

“…Master Chu, what on earth did you do in Antarctica?!”