Humans can play gas, but cats have far fewer entertainnt options.
When Teacher Zhang erged from her ga, she heard the sounds of "thud" and "pat" downstairs—the forr was the sound of Shikuai landing on all fours, while the latter was Three-Five-Five landing on the carpet. Although Shikuai had gained so weight, she was still much lighter than Three-Five-Five, yet her movents were louder.
Without needing to look (and indeed, she couldn’t see), Teacher Zhang knew that Three-Five-Five was training Shikuai.
In Jin City, a mother cat is often accompanied by other stray cats, parading through the streets and alleys. At the ranch, Three-Five-Five, apart from her mutual dislike with Egg Yolk, had the obedience of all the other cyber kittens and ponies. But after moving to lmos Town, where the population was sparse and pets even rarer, and the cold weather kept everyone indoors… if it weren’t for Shikuai and Wu Classmate keeping her company, Three-Five-Five would probably feel even lonelier.
Just as Teacher Zhang was thinking this, the screen on the table lit up, and the ringing of an incoming call prompted Three-Five-Five to imdiately let go of Shikuai and leap onto the back of the sofa.
Aunt i answered the call using voice commands, but it was Man Xing’s voice that ca through.
Three-Five-Five: "ow…"
She settled back down on the sofa backrest, listening to the humans chat.
Not long after, Man Xing knocked on the door, braving the snowy chill to step inside, and didn’t forget to first pull out the snacks she had brought for the little animals from her bag—the mont the sound of rustling reached their ears, Shikuai darted out from under the sofa, while Three-Five-Five remained aloof, lying still.
Man Xing chuckled: "The boss said they won’t be coming ashore until after the New Year, so I’ve brought the New Year gifts early—oh, Three-Five-Five, can you even understand what ‘boss’ ans?"
Different people referred to Chu Tingwu with different titles, and Three-Five-Five could actually distinguish between them. When Man Xing ntioned "boss," Three-Five-Five turned her head, ears perked up. But upon realizing Man Xing was teasing her, she licked her paw and lay back down.
Aunt i: "Three-Five-Five is so clever. I told her the first room upstairs by the hallway is reserved for Chu Chu, and she’s been sleeping there every day without us needing to worry."
But this year, they probably wouldn’t be spending the New Year together. Most people were busy during the holidays, and Man Xing was no exception. She had co by early, bringing two VR pods as backups, and after exchanging greetings, she left.
Three-Five-Five sneezed and waited until evening, when they finally received a video call from Chu Tingwu.
On the other end of the call, the person’s eyes sparkled, her complexion rosy and healthy, and she was eating ice cream on cara.
Aunt i silently diced so beef, and sure enough, the sound of "ow ow" soon filled the room as the two cats and two humans engaged in a owing conversation, soon joined by a crow.
Aunt i: "Pfft."
After everyone had finished their practiced owing, Chu Tingwu switched languages, seemingly discussing academic concerns with Teacher Zhang, before switching to Russian to talk about her experiences in Antarctica… the call lasted over an hour, during which Shikuai even took a trip to the litter box to take care of business, the sound of scratching litter accompanying the conversation until both sides ended the call with stifled laughter.
When the voice from the screen faded, Teacher Zhang leaned back in her recliner, her wrist resting on the belly of the purring cat, listening to the howling wind and swirling snow outside the window: "lmos Town… is quite quiet."
-
On the icebreaker, however, it was quite noisy.
As the year-end approached, a ti when billions of people worldwide were taking breaks and holidays, work on the icebreaker had slowed down. During their free ti, no one went out to watch the "ice-breaking" anymore; instead, they were all engrossed in board gas.
Chu Tingwu had brought an AR projector on board, hosting several rounds of board gas with over ten players, always acting as the ga master.
During this ti, her senior brother and others had tried to persuade her to join the gas, but she always refused—
Because she couldn’t explain why she had maxed out all the attributes on her character card, even though she could prove she truly possessed such abilities. But that would be too overpowered and ruin the gaming experience for others.
By the end of today’s session, almost everyone had been wiped out, leaving only Misha as the last hope, piloting the icebreaker away from Antarctica and into the world of a thousand years ago.
If there were a sequel, it would probably be sothing like "How to Survive in the World of a Thousand Years Ago with an Icebreaker and 21st-Century Technology," but no one was in a hurry to start the sequel because having only one survivor was just too tragic.
They were aiming for a perfect victory!
Chu Tingwu: "=v="
Next door, Misha was still muttering, seemingly eager to discuss with Chu Tingwu, the ga master who knew the story best, how to help everyone else survive. But Chu Tingwu turned over, closed her eyes, smiled, and said "Goodnight," her breathing steadying almost imdiately.
Misha: "…" Such enviable sleep quality and speed.
Well, she might as well sleep too. Maybe she’d dream about the tabletop RPG scenario.
Chu Tingwu, anwhile, opened her eyes in her dream.
She stood on the deck of the ship, surrounded by frozen snow and air, waiting for her to select "Start Ga."
Chu Tingwu created a new save file.
She gestured to the system, took a deep breath, and as the door opened, she leapt silently to the top of the doorway—just like those cats that perch on doors, leaving their owners searching for them in vain.
She crouched there as an ard crew mber slipped into the room, scanning the area before slowly backing out.
Chu Tingwu didn’t descend—
Because she could hear the breathing of another person outside the door. The crew operated in pairs, checking the ship’s rooms for intruders.
Like the Viking raiders who had boarded the ship, Chu Tingwu was also an "intruder."
The second crew mber covered the room with his gun, and if Chu Tingwu moved now, the person outside would react imdiately.
During the first playthrough, many newcors had been killed by this door-opening ambush, as the "players" didn’t log in at the mont of awakening but after the crew had already encountered Viking raiders and suffered losses, making them shoot first and ask questions later.
Crew mber A backed up to the door, and Crew mber B made space. At that mont, Crew mber A’s hand rested on the door handle, his gun hand relaxing slightly, having confird the room was empty.
Similarly, Chu Tingwu could tell from their heartbeats and breathing that they were at their most relaxed.
So, like a boneless creature, she dropped from the door into the arms of Crew mber A, delivering a punch to his chest that left him breathless and unable to make a sound.
Crew mber B only saw a shadow but imdiately realized his colleague’s body was being used as a shield, preventing him from firing.
He hesitated for a mont, instinctively about to shout a warning.
But in that instant, he t the "enemy’s" eyes, and the next second, his wrist hurt as Chu Tingwu clamped a hand over his mouth and effortlessly flipped him over her shoulder.
Then, he knew nothing more.
Chu Tingwu knocked out both n, confiscated their guns and walkie-talkies, and locked them in the room.
She hadn’t suddenly decided to turn against them—if she wanted a perfect victory, she couldn’t waste ti gaining the trust of the local NPCs. She could cooperate later, earning their trust through actions before spinning her story.
She hurried toward the engine room.
She didn’t need to gather information specifically—during the day’s board ga session, soone had discussed what to do if the icebreaker lost power. The Russian icebreaker used a nuclear power source, and while they hadn’t considered ti travel, the situation was similar: the system would lock itself in case of an ergency, and a manual restart in the engine room would suffice.
Chu Tingwu was heading there to stop the Viking raiders from sabotaging the entrance and exit, rescuing the icebreaker from its frozen predicant.
As for the Viking raiders, she wouldn’t hold back.
Not only would she not hold back, but she’d also practice her language skills on them.
…Mostly swear words, but isn’t that how you start learning a language?
-
When Captain Yamos arrived at the engine room with his crew, the first thing he noticed was the blood sared on the door.
His heart sank. Pushing the door open, he saw the body of a man who had taken his own life with a gunshot. The bullet had passed straight through his mouth, and aside from the blood on his face, there were no other wounds on his body. His eyes were wide open, frozen in an expression of shock.
Further inside, amidst the thick sll of blood, another body—this one belonging to a Viking pirate—hung from a beam, tied with the very ropes they had brought with them. Every corpse along the way seed preserved in the state it had been in at the mont of death, untouched by the killer or the other pirates.
Or perhaps the other terrified pirates hadn’t had the chance to disturb anything.
Because the "killer" had been far too fast.
Being modern people, so of the crew had likely never even seen blood before. Captain Yamos noticed that so of his n were visibly uncomfortable and gestured for them to step back—the killer was just ahead.
Chu Tingwu was wiping her hands on soone’s clothes, but without water, she couldn’t quite clean the bits of flesh stuck under her nails.
If *Viking Pirates* were ever made into a full-imrsion ga, its rating would definitely be 24 , given the complete lack of censorship… Chu Tingwu didn’t ntion it, and the system didn’t seem to think there was anything that needed censoring.
After all, the species she belonged to had always been natural "hunters."
Blood and gore didn’t unsettle her, and no matter how real it felt, killing virtual programs didn’t make her hands shake.
From a distance, several gun barrels were pointed at her vital areas. Chu Tingwu raised her hands and began with an introduction:
She gave the na of the icebreaker she was on in reality, ntioned a few nas that the Russian captain would likely recognize, and then stated that she was a retired special forces soldier from Hua Country.
In the ga, your identity is what you make of it, and she had decided to take on the role of a retired elite soldier.
"We encountered the sa solar storm as you did. Perhaps my companions are waiting for to find them. Let’s work together."
The captain said stiffly, "Your Russian is quite good."
In this thousand-year-old world, Chu Tingwu, also a modern person, was clearly better suited to communication and cooperation than these pirates. Though her thods were excessively brutal, having soone like her on their side was sowhat reassuring.
Later, they interrogated a surviving pirate and learned information Chu Tingwu had already known from her save file:
These Viking pirates had no idea how they had ended up in this sea (Chu Tingwu: "Hmm…"), but they were certain that without capturing this icebreaker, they wouldn’t survive the icy ocean.
This was a fight for survival, and neither side would back down.
…Because they couldn’t understand each other.
Even within Hua Country, different regions had dialects so distinct that conversations between locals sounded like encrypted ssages. The language the Vikings used was as different from modern Norwegian as northern and southern Hua dialects. This ancient Norwegian could only be learned through historical texts, making language study akin to archaeology. If Chu Tingwu hadn’t been there, only crew mbers who understood Norwegian could have communicated with the pirates through gestures.
Having completed the most urgent task, Chu Tingwu didn’t object to the captain’s subsequent arrangents for her, as their goals aligned.
And the captain quickly realized… Chu Tingwu was incredibly useful!
How could soone be so capable at everything, completing tasks quickly and efficiently, and even helping others in her spare ti? How did Hua Country train its soldiers? Were they all like her?
With these questions in mind, they eliminated the pirates, replenished their supplies from the pirate ship, and used the backup nuclear power source to leave the Antarctic Circle, heading toward the unfamiliar South Arican continent.
What puzzled the system was this: while Chu Tingwu showed no emotional reaction to killing pirates, treating them like re data, she genuinely felt happy when another set of data successfully escaped… as if it wasn’t just about clearing the ga.
Hearing its confusion, Chu Tingwu smiled, "Because your 'ga' feels so real."
During her efforts to clear the ga, she had even morized everyone’s nas and personalities, trying to understand their thoughts—
Gars were a peculiar breed. They could rcilessly slaughter entire villages in one mont, yet be moved by the smallest details in the storyline, hoping for the NPCs to achieve a happy ending. These two mindsets could coexist.
With the satisfaction of "finally clearing the ga before the New Year," Chu Tingwu woke up and was imdiately caught by an excited Misha.
Misha: "Wu, you’ll never guess what dream I had last night!"
Chu Tingwu: "?"
Misha: "I dread I traveled to that icebreaker, and this ti, everyone made it out of the Antarctic Circle alive—I need to tell you all the details before I forget them!"
It seed that what you dwell on during the day often appears in your dreams at night.
Misha: "By the way, what were you dreaming about last night? I saw your hands clenched into little fists—"
It was adorable, like a kitten’s.
In reality, she had been sticking her fingers into a pirate’s eye socket. Chu Tingwu: "I don’t really rember… probably a good dream, though?"
"Haha," Misha linked arms with her, feeling that her little companion was still a bit too thin. "Well, listen to this… in my dream…"
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