Cathulhu Online, MUNYA!

Chapter 13 – Cat Dad's Shop

WHOOSH

A catopus character manifested from thin air. Xiaomao appeared where he had logged out from the game.

As soon as Xiaomao got back to the game world, he looked around in confusion.

So many players had been gathering here. When Xiaomao had left, nobody was around since this place was not a good hunting spot for the newbie – It was a stone cliff with nothing but a vast sea and rocks.

The players were strange as well. They ignored Xiaomao and gathered by the cliff. Some of them had been diving into the sea while a few high-level players came with their rafts, fishing boats, rowboats, and speedboats, carrying giant nets as if they were fishermen.

Curious, Xiaomao approached the players and asked them.

"What's going on, munya? Why are so many people here, munya?"

A human warrior turned around and noticed Xiaomao. He smiled and picked him up and let him sit on his head.

"Are you here for a quest, too?"

"Quest, munya?"

"You didn't know? Yesterday, there was a seaweed outbreak. Everything in the sea around here is covered by seaweed underwear, and it has been mutating low-level fishes. Now, the sea is full of mutated monsters."

"…"

Xiaomao started sweating when the warrior mentioned seaweed underwear.

The player continued, "A few players in the game forums found the source of the underwear seaweeds, and they posted the picture of this cliff. Have you seen the community forum and the world chat?"

"No, munya…"

Xiaomao realized what went wrong.

In this game, edible items never vanished after they had been discarded. Instead, they slowly decayed and remained in the environment, allowing smaller creatures or other monsters to consume them as food.

However, there was a problem with this system. Sometimes, the discarded edible items developed curses during the decay process. If monsters consumed the cursed food, they became stronger. Creatures and beasts also mutated into savage monsters if they touched the food as well.

The dropped items that Xiaomao got yesterday were mostly edible items. Even though they were underwear, they were made from edible seaweed.

As Xiaomao didn't collect everything, he left them floating in the sea!

He had forgotten about them as he was eager to log out.

In a shaking voice, Xiaomao asked the player, "A-And, how is the quest going, munya? H-How many fishes have mutated, munya?"

"It's an event quest. So far, we've found about 2,000ish units of cursed seaweed. There are still about two to three thousand in the sea, but we only need to collect 1,000 more to finish the quest. It should be finished soon."

"O-Oh."

"In case you don't know, everybody in the town will receive Contribution EXP depending on our contribution. One seaweed is like one EXP. You should get as many as you can. Oh, don't eat it or sell cursed items to random NPC. They will become crazy and attack you. If you get one, hand them to the event NPC with gold armor."

"…"

This mechanic foreshadowed the main story quests, which hadn't been discovered yet. Xiaomao was reminded of the first main story quests, which started from the clues of the corruptions and curses.

Xiaomao was also aware of the importance of Contribution Level and EXP.

Contribution EXP in this game was hard to earn as it could only be acquired from quest rewards. Many players prioritized earning Contribution EXP as level up Contribution Rank could earn him PACT.

As the warrior had been explaining, the players on the boats shouted, "No more cursed seaweed here!"

The crowd near the cliff whined. They sighed and began leaving the area.

As for the players on the boats, they navigated their ships away from the cliff.

The warrior also put Xiaomao down, "Welp, the fun is over. The other seaweeds are probably somewhere in the ocean. Only those guys with speedboats can find them."

"Too bad, munya."

Xiaomao was relieved. At least, these people didn't come here to fight for hunting spots around here.

'I wonder how many monsters are in the sea now.'

He ignored the local event and rechecked his items in the inventory. The quest items were still there, including the new cleaver and wok shield.

Since Xiaomao had no other business here, he rushed back to the city. He hoped that the NPC's quest was still there.

He jumped into the sea right away.

For Xiaomao, traveling in the water was faster than running on land because of his short tentacle legs.

Strangely, with more STR attributes, he could exert more tentacle strength. His tentacles could propel him better in the sea, but he still struggled to fight the sea current.

Unless Xiaomao had more AGI and DEX, his traveling speed would still be as slow as a turtle.

'I'll boost my AGI and DEX with fishes after the quest delivery!'

…

Pang Pang's Inn

Xiaomao finally reached the inn after swimming in the sea for 50 minutes. He dashed from the beach to the city.

While his fur was still soaked in seawater, he jumped on the counter, wetting the wood furniture of the inn.

"MSG Seaweed is here, munya!"

The NPC, Pang Pang, widely smiled at Xiaomao. He gave him a towel to dry his fur.

"Please place the MSG seaweed on the tray," Pang Pang pointed at the large plate on the counter.

Xiaomao put 100 MSG seaweed on the plate next to him. Although he was wet, the items were dry.

Pang Pang counted the seaweed with his eyes. He petted Xiaomao and gave him a piece of paper, "Thank you, my little friend. As promised, I'll give you the recipe."

Ding

<You have completed Pang Pang's Request.>

<Pang Pang has a favorable impression of you. Current Favorability: 2 Stars.>

<You have earned 10 Contribution EXP.>

<You have obtained MSG Seaweed Salad Recipe.>

<You can rest in this inn for a week for free.>

Xiaomao purred in happiness as he read the recipe. It required one piece of MSG Seaweed, any salad dressing, and three kinds of vegetables. The result of the food depended on the vegetable combination.

Unfortunately, only NFT characters with related lifeskill could use this recipe at the moment. If Xiaomao wanted to use it, he needed to wait until his real body and game character were completely integrated or assimilated.

Xiaomao glanced at Pang Pang. The innkeeper only smiled, but there was no other quest remaining for him to do.

As Xiaomao had nothing to do here, he excused himself and left the inn. He rushed toward the marketplace at the town plaza, where many players loved to gather.

Once again, as soon as Xiaomao appeared in public, female players flocked around him and petted him, messing with his fur.

Xiaomao got through the crowd. He found an empty opened cardboard box and sat in it like an abandoned cat. Then, he opened a private stall and created a public sign on top of his head.

[Barter Trade]

[Will Trade Monster Cards with Fishes!]

[No Petting Allowed!]

[Accepting Cat Food as Tributes!]

The game shop menu that Xiaomao created only contained two stacks of items – Nephew Seaweed Card and Niece Seaweed Card. A total of 998 of them was in stock. As for the other two, Xiaomao had already put them in his encyclopedia book.

Only players with at least five blue-rarity fishes could exchange them for one of the cards.

As soon as the shop was opened, several players came to look and pressed the sign on top of Xiaomao's head. Then, their game panels showed the items that Xiaomao had.

"Oh, monster cards for blue fishes?"

"Are you sure, kitty? Monster cards are rarer than blue ingredients."

Xiaomao pretended to act cute and meowed, "Cards are worthless to me, munya. Give me fish or feed me, you peasants, munya!"

The surrounding players laughed.

"He's so cute!"

"Damn. Are you role-playing a cat, bro? You're pretty good!"

Although they said that, only a few of them had a rare fish in their inventory. After all, not all players were interested in fishing or found rare fish from monsters. The majority of them only browsed Xiaomao's shop and gifted him some pet food.

But soon, several players, who had been participating in the seaweed event quest, returned to the market. One of them randomly checked the local player's shops to see what was in store for fun.

Then, he found Xiaomao's store, which required blue-rarity fish to trade instead of gold coins.

"Hmm? One monster card for five blue fishes? That's quite expensive. These monster cards are low level, too."

He pondered as he opened his monster encyclopedia book. He checked if he had the monsters yet.

Completing monster encyclopedia pages and sets of monsters could give permanent bonus status attributes, traits, and perks to the collectors. The majority of players collected them.

The player checked his inventory slot.

"Oh, I have a few. I'll take two of your cards."

Ding

<You have sold 1 Niece Seaweed Card and 1 Nephew Seaweed Card.>

<You have obtained ten goldfish.>

"Thanks for your patron, munya!"

The player giggled and left. He went to his friends, who had been browsing items in the public marketplace. They turned toward Xiaomao and walked toward him right away.

One of the players was a red-skinned archer with a huge longbow hanging behind his back. He also manually carried a net with cursed seaweed on his shoulder.

"Kitty, are you buying fishes with monster cards?" The archer asked Xiaomao.

"I only have two types of monster cards, munya. Do you have fishes, munya?"

"I do. How many cards can you give me?"

"If they're blue-rarity fishes, one card per five fishes, munya."

"Kinda expensive, but whatever."

The player sorted his game inventory slots for a few minutes. Then, system notification windows appeared in front of Xiaomao.

<You have sold 3 Niece Seaweed Card and 3 Nephew Seaweed Card.>

<You have obtained 12 sardines.>

<You have obtained 3 bettas.>

<You have obtained 7 tunas.>

<You have obtained 8 koi.>

30 fancy fishes entered Xiaomao's inventory. He grinned from ear to ear, "Thanks, munya!"

"Wait here. I have several friends that don't know what to do with their raw fishes in their warehouses."

…

10 minutes later, a dozen players came to the marketplace.

Instead of heading toward the NPC that had been managing the public market, they rushed to Xiaomao instead.

"Are you trading cards for fishes?"

Everybody asked the same questions.

"If you don't mind low-level cards, do check my wares, munya!"

"Okay!"

It didn't take long before they started exchanging their items.

Ding

<You have sold 45 Niece Seaweed Card.>

<You have sold 29 Nephew Seaweed Card.>

<You have sold 20 Niece Seaweed Card and 20 Nephew Cards.>

<You have sold…>

Xiaomao grinned. Although he knew what they might be doing with the cards, he didn't care.

In reality, golden-rarity monster cards could be sold easier than food ingredients. Moreover, they were usually sold for 2,000 to 1,000,000 gold coins per card, depending on their levels, difficulty, the monster's strength, and the bonuses from the encyclopedia.

In this case, a level 2 monster card like Niece and Nephew Seaweed Cards could only be exchanged for 2,000 to 4,000 gold coins each. However, good traders could sell them for more if they ran into high-leveled card collectors or pro-gamers, who vied for every bonus status attribute.

On the other hand, a blue-rarity fish could fetch 1,000 gold coins to 2,000 gold coins on average regardless of their levels. Moreover, as cooks and chefs players often created their alt characters to fish for their ingredients themselves, not many players purchased raw fish.

Secondly, no one put their fish in the NPC marketplace!

Food items could decay and rot if players put them anywhere other than their game inventory slots or premium warehouses, which was the only method to preserve their freshness and quality. Players avoided putting the items in the public marketplace as they might decay before any player could buy them. Thus, they tended to search for players that needed them or let them freeze in their inventory slots.

Xiaomao gave them a chance to release the hard-to-sell items to him at a bargain price. They immediately rushed to him to exchange their worthless fishes that plagued their limited inventory slots for something that could be sold in the public market.

"So many fishes, munya!"

Xiaomao laughed as he watched the number of fish in his inventory gradually increased.

He had more things to eat and increase his permanent status attributes now.