Cathulhu Online, MUNYA!

Chapter 15 – Cat Dad's Challenge

Once the preparation was ready, Xiaomao took a deep breath.

What he was about to do was risky. He glanced at a certain item in his inventory.

…

Unidentified Black Stone x 1

A strange stone with a mysterious ominous aura. It cannot be identified with regular scrolls of identification. Give it to an expert to find out about its usage.

Effect: Unknown

…

Although the detail of the item was hidden, Xiaomao remembered the icon of this black stone well.

In the future, this item would be called "Corrupted Spirit Stone"!

These items could only be dropped from elite monsters, field bosses, world bosses, and dungeon bosses. However, the chance of getting one of these was less than 0.1% as this item had a deep background.

In the main scenario quests that Xiaomao had learned from the previous life, a Chaos Demon God purposely spread these corrupted spirit stones to the world to weaken the foundation of Pangu Holy Church and their god.

After the truth about the stones had been discovered in one of the main scenario quests, players were divided into three major factions.

The first faction was the Pangu Faction. All guilds, companies, and player organizations that followed Pangu's doctrine considered themselves protagonists or heroes of the people. They fought to cleanse the corrupted spirit stones from the world. Everybody nicknamed this faction "Mainstream Faction" as not all players enjoyed playing as a good guy.

The second faction was the Neutral Faction. Newbie players were a part of this faction by default, and they didn't have to oblige or follow any rule until they joined an organization. Most craftsmen and non-combatants remained on this side as they didn't want to get involved in the war between the two major factions.

The last one was the Evil Faction, which every player and Pangu Faction's NPCs treated as antagonists of the game. They served Chaos Demon God, who threatened to eradicate the worlds of Pangu. Edgy players loved them and vied to become one of the servants of the so-called evil god.

Xiaomao vaguely remembered the items as it was one of the main EXP sources for Evil Faction's players.

In the past, many necromancers, liches, and players from the Evil Faction collected these corrupted spirit stones to boost their strength. By holding it in one's hand, the player could slowly absorb the power from the corrupted spirit stone and increase their level and EXP instantly!

In addition, it also gradually corrupted humanoid NPCs, beasts, and plants, transforming them into mutated monsters if they were left alone in the wild. Many Order Faction's players always collected them and offered them to the Pangu Holy Church in local province capital cities.

Once purified, the corrupted spirit stone would become a normal spirit stone. The Order Faction's players could use them to increase their EXP and levels. They also gained contribution EXP by offering the corrupted stones to the church.

Xiaomao had no idea how the first scenario quest was triggered as no player revealed their secrets on social media and forums. He could only rely on the only clue, aka the unidentified corrupted spirit stone in his hand.

For now, Xiaomao needed to travel to a provincial capital city of this northern region to offer this stone to a priest of Pangu Church to identify them.

However, to get there, Xiaomao needed the town passport to pass a checkpoint, which was located between this town and the province's capital.

Even though he bought the premium membership of the adventurer guild, merchant guild, and labor guild, he still needed the approval of the town mayor, adventurer guild's branch manager, or merchant guild's branch manager first.

"Annoying, munya!"

Xiaomao hopped down from the lamp post. He jumped and walked toward a golden counter, which belonged to the local's adventurer guild.

A dozen players had been queuing and waiting for their turns to talk to the adventurer's receptionist NPC. Everyone also held either a quest paper or bags of quest items.

Xiaomao went to the last person with the last queue sign. He meowed at him.

"Give the sign here, munya. I'm after you, munya!"

The player was surprised and turned around. However, he couldn't see anyone behind him.

"Look down, munya!"

"Oh."

The player looked down and found the head-sized catopus with chubby tentacles.

Nobody could hate a cute creature like a catopus. He squatted and petted Xiaomao, "This is the line for adventurer guild. Have you bought the premium adventurer pass?"

"I have one, munya!"

"Good. Make sure that it hasn't expired yet. Otherwise, the NPC will shame you in public."

"I know, munya!"

Xiaomao snorted as he didn't buy the temporary ones. He HAD the permanent pass.

"I'll hold the sign since you're too short."

"How about I sit on your head and raised the signboard, munya?"

"That's fine, too. Hahaha."

The player was kind. He allowed Xiaomao to sit on top of his head and passed the signboard.

Xiaomao raised the wooden sign with two chubby tentacles. He waved it around to kill time.

Unfortunately, his action attracted animal lovers again. Many free players swarmed around Xiaomao and took several screenshots.

"So cute!"

"Give me blue fish if you like me, munya!"

"…"

CHA-CHING

CHA-CHING

For some reason, female players gifted Xiaomao several blue-rarity fishes for free. He also collected everything and purred a few times to give them a fan service.

After a while, more players queued behind Xiaomao and got in the way of Xiaomao's fans. The cat lovers stopped petting him and dispersed.

Xiaomao managed to pass the wooden sign to another player. He let out a sigh of relief.

"You're quite popular huh?" The guy that Xiaomao had been sitting on laughed.

"If you have a cat avatar, everybody will love you, munya."

"Yeah, I wish I had one. How much does it cost for your NFT?"

"300 PACT, first roll, munya"

"…"

"Is it good, munya?"

"Get the heck down, you cheeky cat!"

The player put Xiaomao down. He turned around and snickered.

"Next please."

It was the guy's turn. Xiaomao would be next.

"It was nice talking to you. See you later."

He didn't even bother sending a friend request to Xiaomao. He rushed to submit his quest and grabbed the gold coins on the table.

Xiaomao also didn't care about the guy. He only remembered that the player wore a cloak with a claymore sword insignia, which was a symbol of a player's guild.

"Next please."

It was Xiaomao's queue at last.

Xiaomao rudely hopped on the counter and stared at the receptionist.

Normal players wouldn't do this. However, Xiaomao was a catopus, so he could act like a jerk, and nobody could get angry at him.

"I'm here to register my name to the guild, and I wish to request a passport, munya!"

The receptionist smiled at Xiaomao. She glanced at Xiaomao's name and spotted the active buff icon in front of his name.

The icon was a sword and a wing. It was the symbol of the premium adventurer buff.

Upon confirming Xiaomao's status as a premium user, the receptionist widely smiled, "Please fill in the registration form. Also, what is your current level?"

"One, munya!"

The receptionist's smiling face turned stiff. Her warm expression became cold, "Your level must be over 10 before you can apply for a town passport. Please come back when you're stronger, okay?"

"I will take also use my right as a premium adventurer to participate in the guild challenge, munya!"

There were five ways to acquire the right to cross checkpoints and borders in this game.

The first way was the slow-but-sure way. The players simply needed to complete 100 quests that the townsmen, adventurer guild, or merchant guild had issued. Then, the players could freely travel anywhere in the province.

The second way was another steady way. The player's Contribution Level must be higher than five. Then, the player then could permanently acquire the rights to use the trade routes from this town to the other cities or regions by paying PACT. After the trade routes, cities, and regions had been unlocked, the players could access the regions without a passport.

The third method was the outlaw way. Players could simply sneak through borders, checkpoints, or gates without getting caught by the border NPCs. Players with passports could even smuggle fellow players by using vehicles or cargo horse carts to cross the checkpoints. However, if they were found, a bounty would be put on their heads, and other players would be able to accept the bounty quests from the adventurer guild to hunt them down for rewards.

The fourth way was the simplest way. Players simply needed to increase their levels to the minimum requirement, which was level 10 for this town.

However, the method that Xiaomao picked was the worst method. Xiaomao needed to prove his capabilities by taking on one of the guild's tests.

The receptionist narrowed her eyes, "Are you sure?"

"Yes, munya!"

"Okay."

The receptionist stood up. She walked toward the back and notified a warrior, who had been sitting at a table with his party members.

The warrior was a muscular man in leather armor. He was as tall as the biker gang leader, and he carried a bastard sword behind his back.

He stared down at Xiaomao, "Are you sure that you want to take on the guild challenge?"

"Yes, munya!"

"You sure are ballsy for a kitten. What kind of challenge do you prefer? Strength, speed, defense, magic, or crafting?"

"Combat, munya!"

At that moment, all NPCs in the town hall stopped what they were doing and looked at Xiaomao.

The warrior smirked, "Come with me to the courtyard."

The NPC led Xiaomao to the back of the town hall. It was a training area with dummy scarecrows, an archery range, a track field, and a stage for sparring.

The warrior got on the sparring stage. He waved his hand and gestured for Xiaomao to get there.

"Come here, you little kitty. This daddy will show you that you shouldn't underestimate the world!"