Cathulhu Online, MUNYA!

Chapter 6 – Cat Dad is Popular

"Somebody help me!!"

Xiaomao inwardly cried as he struggled to get out of the game.

After getting stuck in the game for 10 minutes, everything started moving again.

Ding

<Proceeding to the Pangu Universe's Mortal Planet Number 3.>

"Finally!"

Everything brightened as if Xiaomao was blinded by a flash-bang grenade. When he could see things again, he found himself inside a shrine.

The shrine was deserted. Yet, many new players were spawned in here.

Xiaomao looked up and saw a statue of a barbarian man with a large ax. He only wore pieces of clothes to cover his crotch, but his massive refined muscle, messy full beard, and long dark hair looked impressive.

This was the statue of Pangu, the supreme god of this game world and the main protagonist of the franchise.

Xiaomao had seen the trailer of the game. It was a scene, where Pangu fought against 3,000 giant monsters and their leader, the Chaos Seraphim, who looked like archangels from Diablo Series.

He narrowed his eyes as he remembered the storyline quests and the progress of the game in the later years.

Right now, no main story quest had been triggered. The first one would come out a month from now, and it could only be triggered after a certain global event.

Xiaomao looked around. Within just a minute, five players were spawned here, including him.

'Obviously, there will be new players. The NFTs and gacha are cheap right now. Non-crypto farmers are hopping in.'

He left the shrine and found himself in a forest, near a shore town.

As Xiaomao walked out with his small tentacle legs, he attracted glances from other newbie players.

"Oh, hey. What kind of Poring is this?! He's cute!"

"Isn't that a UR character? He looks weird."

"It's expensive though. The cheapest one is 75,000 PACTs."

"Nah, it's quite cheap right now. How much is a PACT? Four or five cents? He must have bought it."

"That's still 3,750 USD, dude. It's still expensive."

"At least, it's cheaper than a few months ago. I pity those rich idiots. Hahahaha!"

"My stomach hurts just to think about those insane rich gamers. Who invests in UR character anyway?"

Xiaomao eavesdropped on the conversation. He grinned and waddled toward the nearest town.

But as Xiaomao was walking with his tiny legs, someone grabbed him from behind.

"OMG, he's so cute!"

A female player lifted him up and hugged him.

Xiaomao had goosebumps. He bellowed and waved his tentacles, "Let me down, munya!"

He widened his eyes as he couldn't believe what he had spoken. He accidentally ended his sentence with MUNYA.

The MUNYA part came out automatically. Xiaomao didn't mean to mimic Mu-Nyang's meowing voice.

"Hahaha! Even your name is Xiaomao. Are you roleplaying?"

"Munya! Unhand me, munya!"

Xiaomao wiggled his tentacle legs to free himself. Unfortunately, a level 1 character was too weak to resist an old player's strength.

The woman was a level 10 character, who came here for personal business and met Xiaomao by chance.

Xiaomao pouted and checked his status menu to allocate his initial status points. A window that only Xiaomao could see appeared.

…

Name: Xiaomao

Rarity: Ultra-Rare

Race: Catopus (Evolvable)

Job: Slavemaster (Evolvable)

Unique Skills: Enslavement, Slave Training

Racial Skills: Fish Gourmet, Catnap, [???]

Add-On Skill: Protein from Fish

.

LEVEL: 1

EXP: 0/100,000

PACT Weekly Income: 0/100

EXP: 0/100,000

.

Status Attributes

STR: 1

DEX: 1

AGI: 1

VIT: 1

INT: 1

WIS: 1

Allocable Status Points: 25

.

Spiritual Roots

Fire: 1

Water: 1

Wind: 1

Metal: 1

Wood: 1

Lightning: 1

Darkness: 1

Light: 1

Allocable Status Points: 25

.

Enslavement (Active, Upgradable) – 100MP

Brand a slave seal to any regular monster or NPC that is critically injured. They will be forced to follow your every instruction.

Slave Training (Passive) – Mastery 0%

When you are near your slaves, your slaves will gain mastery and EXP faster than usual.

Current Effects – 1% Increase to EXP gain and 1% speed increase in mastery.

Fish Gourmet (Passive) – Mastery 0%

You can eat as many fishes as you want even though your satiety bar is full. Every fish you eat may give you random effects, such as restoring your HP or increasing your status attributes temporarily. (Current Limit: 500 Fish per day.)

Current Effects – Restore 1 HP or temporarily increase a random status attribute by 0.5 per fish you eat. Effects can stack.

Catnap (Passive) – Mastery 0%

After you take a short nap, you will get gain Catnap Blessing, which increases your max HP and MP temporarily.

Current Effects – Increase your max HP and MP by 10% for 60 minutes.

Protein from Fish (Passive) – Mastery 0%

Your status attributes permanently increases whenever you eat rare fishes or rare fish monsters.

Current Effect – Increase any status attribute by 1 per fish. (Max 50 Points per attribute).

[???] (Bloodline Passive) – Mastery Max

Munya-munya munya munya munya. Munya munya munya munya munya munya munya munya munya.

.

Xiaomao was about to allocate his status attributes to strength to break free from the player, but he forgot everything when he saw the new mysterious skill.

He was astonished. His round eyes and mouth opened wide.

What is this munya language?

He didn't remember having this skill on his NFT character.

In shock, Xiaomao blurted out in a cat voice.

"Munya, munya?"

"Hahaha! He's so cute. I want to take him home."

The girl carried Xiaomao around and ran toward the town.

He was being abducted!

But Xiaomao was in a daze that he forgot about his situation.

Soon, the female player brought Xiaomao to her friends, who had been checking the auction marketplace menu in the public market.

"Look, look. I found a catopus player!"

The party of middle-aged warriors frowned and stared at the girl, "Why are you bullying a newbie? Let him go. Look at him. He's confused."

"But I love this avatar!"

"HIS avatar. This is his NFT, not yours. He's also a player like us, so you can't take him everywhere! That's kidnapping!"

The muscular warrior of the party gave the girl a sermon. Then, she let go of Xiaomao.

The party leader gave Xiaomao a wry smile, "I'm so sorry about my colleague's behavior. Please don't mind her."

Xiaomao came back to his sense. He dryly laughed, "Oh, okay, munya. I don't mind, munya."

"Are you new, or is this your alt avatar?"

Alt was a jargon of gamers. It referred to secondary characters that the players used for specific purposes, such as farming, crafting, storing items, transporting, or trading.

"Nah, this is my main, munya."

The party leader chuckled, "You must be rich for using that character. How much does it cost?"

Xiaomao thought of something and smirked, "300 PACT, munya."

"What?!"

"First gacha roll, munya. Is this NFT good, munya?"

"…"

The entire party had a blank expression. This stupid cat just flexed them.

At first, the middle-aged man wanted to help this newbie by providing some second-handed equipment. But now, he changed his mind.

"Good for you. Well, good luck, Mr. Kitty cat."

"Thanks for the help, munya."

Xiaomao hopped away from the party. He looked for a secluded place so that he could take a breather.

But as Xiaomao wandered in the newbie town, NPCs and players kept looking at him as if they had seen a cute mascot. Some of them petted Xiaomao while several female players took screenshots with him.

For 10 minutes, Xiaomao was never left alone.

At this point, Xiaomao had enough. He opened the game menu and set up a trading stall.

An announcement signboard appeared on top of Xiaomao's head.

[Will Hug You for Gold Coins and PACTs]

"OHHH!!"

Suddenly, more players surrounded Xiaomao. Before he could even set a price for his service, a female player already opened a trade menu and gifted Xiaomao 10 gold coins.

In this game, gold coins were the primary currency to trade between players and NPC shops. As for PACTs, they were premium currency, which could be used to purchase NFT characters or items from Cash Shop.

On another note, one million gold coins could be exchanged for one PACT. Gamers could farm cryptocurrency by gathering enough gold coins in-game!

Currently, Xiaomao started with zero gold coins. He had no choice but to accept.

The female elf archer immediately carried Xiaomao into a hug. Then, she took several screenshots and recorded a video.

"Look, look! I found a catopus player. Excuse me, can you speak something?"

Xiaomao's expression was blank, but he played along. However, he inwardly cursed her.

"Munya! (THOT, be gone!)"

"See? Isn't he cute?"

"Munya, munya! (Unhand me, you little bitch!)"

"Aw, he's so fluffy," The girl kissed Xiaomao's head.

"Munya! Munya-munya! (My fur! My precious smooth and silky fur!)"

"AHAHAHAHA!"

"Munya (Kill me)."

…

For a whole hour, Xiaomao got stuck in the crowd.

Fortunately, the excitement died down after all cat lovers got their screenshots. They dispersed to play the game at their own pace.

Xiaomao's was in a mess. He looked like a stray cat with disheveled fur, and he smelt like puke because of other players' dirty hands.

Those players never washed their hands as they never treated the game like their real bodies. This was the reason why Xiaomao hated being touched.

In exchange for the trouble, Xiaomao got 1,000 gold coins as starting cash. It was a small amount, but averagely, level 1-5 players could get about 10-20 gold coins per day of pure grinding without doing quests. Therefore, it was a good amount for a new player to start out.

In his game inventory, he had five cans of cat food. He didn't know when he got it.

"I made it, munya…"

Xiaomao staggered toward an inn. He was mentally exhausted, and he wanted to take a bath and log out now.

He entered the inn. Fortunately, the door didn't have a doorknob, so he could freely open it.

As soon as Xiaomao entered, the inn owner greeted him while he was tending the counter bar.

"Welcome… Oh, my. What a cute guest."

Ding

Suddenly, a golden question mark appeared on top of the inn owner NPC's head.

A golden question mark indicated a quest. It was only visible to players, who had met the conditions to trigger it.

Xiaomao suddenly regained his mental strength. He hopped on the counter bar, "I would like to book a room, munya. Also, is there I can do to help you? You looked troubled, munya."

The NPC nodded, "Actually, merchants haven't visited us lately, and we are lacking some food ingredients. You see, our town is famous for seafood and seaweed dishes, but we run out of seaweed. Dear customer, if it isn't too much, may I ask you for a favor? Since you're from the catopus tribe, I would like to ask you to gather some MSG seaweed for me. I need 100 pieces of MSG seaweed. In exchange for the trouble, you can rest in my inn for free, and I'll give you something in return."

Ding

<The inn owner, Pang Pang, has offered you a quest.>