The System Mistook Me for a Cat

The smell spread as the lake water was stirred, and Zhou Qiang caught a whiff of it too. She frowned slightly at first, then said, "It's not entirely the fault of the previous tourists for their poor behavior. This small lake is connected to the Qishui River."

Between the river and the lake, there was only a grid net blocking the passage, and that net, having gone years without maintenance, was now merely decorative. The river carried all sorts of debris from its depths through here, dumping the trash into the lake.

However, the Qishui River itself wasn't as problematic as this lake, as workers regularly dredged the riverbed to clear out the silt. This lake, on the other hand, had been abandoned by its previous owner.

Given the former owner's money-driven approach to everything, they might as well have been called "Boss Money."

The system pondered thoughtfully, "This level of pollution seems to meet the minimum standards for human requirements."

—When purchasing the property, they must have hired assessors to evaluate the water quality. While trash could never be fully cleared, the water quality was deemed acceptable.

If it weren't for Chu Tingwu's keen sense of smell, she wouldn't have paid much attention to the minor water pollution.

But, after hesitating for two seconds between "putting up with it" and "screw that," the system rolled up its sleeves first:

"...But this doesn't meet the minimum standards for the Cat Kingdom!"

Chu Tingwu: "..."

Stop establishing kingdoms behind my back!

These days, the boat was equipped with a mechanical net for collecting trash. Chu Xiao went to operate the net, while the three of them watched from a distance. However, a problem quickly arose—where should they dump the collected trash?

Chu Tingwu suggested a spot: the old sightseeing vehicle on the ranch.

These sightseeing vehicles were usually open on all sides, seating six to eight people, and ran on electricity, requiring charging. The ranch's vehicle was old, and she had already planned to replace it, so using it to hold trash didn't bother her at all.

As for manual labor, they could deploy cleaning robots, the same ones previously used to clean up cow dung. The robots arrived with odor-blocking garbage bags and began helping to pack the trash into boxes.

The large lights by the lake and the boat's searchlights were all on. Night had fallen, and the camera, mounted on the railing, silently recorded the cleanup process.

The audience found it oddly satisfying.

Though the thought of so much trash underwater was a bit nauseating, watching the bags of trash being packed, transported, and the small cleaning robots systematically completing their tasks was strangely mesmerizing.

It was similar to watching excavators or carpet cleaning—seeing something messy gradually become organized. It seemed like the whole world had a bit of a cleaning obsession: even if they didn't tidy their own rooms, watching someone else's space become neat gave a sense of vicarious satisfaction.

[By the way, where's Master Chu?]

The camera had shown Shao Lingwu watching from nearby, Chu Xiao trying to dismantle a robot to see its structure, and even Zhou Qiang passing by with a cup of coffee, but Chu Tingwu hadn't appeared once. Just as everyone was wondering, the camera panned upward—

They saw Chu Tingwu crouched on the top railing of the houseboat, wearing a mask.

Three-Five-Five was beside her, also wearing a smaller mask, idly scratching the railing with its claws.

The next morning, the live stream switched to a fixed camera, showing the process of replacing the filter net at the junction of the lake and the river. Then, it continued with trash cleanup and water quality testing. Finally, Chu Tingwu announced:

"We've hired a professional team to handle water purification."

Her professional team was currently on a plane, en route.

Of course, they were alive—humans.

-

The system couldn't win against the young one, so on the second night after discovering the lake's issues, it opened a simulated dream classroom for her.

Chu Tingwu decided to dive in.

In reality, she had no experience with underwater work. Zhou Qiang and the others would never let her go down, and even with assistance, Chu Tingwu didn't think she'd outperform those with experience—otherwise, Three-Five-Five would be unbeatable underwater too.

But after pulling out the trash, her first thought was: I want to go down and see!

It wasn't about the environment or a sense of responsibility—it was simply her own curiosity.

Since it was a simulated dream classroom, the system could, of course, turn its young one into a fish or make her not need to breathe. After all, it was essentially just an active stream of thought.

But it didn't want the young one to confuse reality with the dream and risk an accident in real life, so Chu Tingwu still wore a full set of diving gear.

Chu Tingwu muttered, "This is the first time I've felt so clumsy."

The system: "Hmm?"

Chu Tingwu stood by the dock, looking down at the lake's surface. The system had simulated nighttime, so the water below was pitch black, exuding an unfriendly aura even to a cat's eyes.

Chu Tingwu: "Even though I haven't entered the water yet, I already feel like I'm sinking."

This was a sensation she hadn't felt even while sitting on a sailboat. Was this the difference between a lake and the sea?

Through the diving gear, the smell's impact was reduced, but she still took a moment to mentally prepare before diving in.

Whoosh—

It was dark.

The water seemed to absorb all light. After reaching a certain depth, Chu Tingwu had to rely on her own light source to see, but in return, she could see farther than others.

There were still plenty of fish underwater, having gone through several generations of survival of the fittest amidst the trash. As they swam past Chu Tingwu, some even tried to nibble at her. She waved them off, signaling that she wasn't interested in eating fish.

She hadn't felt like eating fish for a while now.

She avoided the seaweed and floating logs tangled in the water. The trash at the bottom had been there so long that it had happily merged with the soil. Some had decomposed, while other non-degradable materials stubbornly remained, keeping the lake company. She initially wanted to take a closer look, but the underwater currents were inexplicable—

Almost instantly, Chu Tingwu lost her balance in the swirling water. She didn't know when she had been caught in the undertow, but after the initial scare, she didn't feel nervous anymore. Instead, she tried to fight the current—if she couldn't resist it, she'd minimize the damage and go with the flow.

After all, this was just a dream.

But a cat's sense of balance didn't seem very useful while diving.

In the early stages of diving, experience seemed to matter more than natural talent.

And she was still completely clueless.

So, Chu Tingwu decided to throw caution to the wind and fully opened herself to the sensations—

The worst that could happen was respawning at the dock.

For a moment, the world seemed to go silent, and then, a flood of information rushed into her mind!

In reality, Zhou Qiang turned over in her sleep.

Chu Tingwu instinctively reached out in the water and felt an even stronger pull... and an overwhelming cacophony of noise. Was the underwater world quiet? No, it was loud, vibrant, every current seemed to be playing music. She couldn't describe the sound, but it felt like she had been thrown into a symphony—and the musicians were fighting with their instruments!

She wasn't an audience member; she was the instrument itself, stuffed into a pipe and vibrating with the air.

She wanted to cover her ears and shout for them to stop—but that was just her initial reaction.

In the next moment, her instincts kicked in.

She raised her hand, barely blocking a piece of wood that came hurtling toward her face, then curled up, hearing the dull thud of impact amidst the water's roar—Nôv(el)B\\jnn

At that moment, Chu Tingwu made a split-second decision, following her instincts while also tuning into the distant sounds.

She heard the sound of a boat moving and the faint hum of human footsteps and chatter.

The system recorded some data.

The young one's hearing had surpassed her previous limit, detecting sounds six kilometers away. But she hadn't neglected the sounds nearby, and her evasion rate had actually improved. Instincts were the body's "comprehensive data," gathering and analyzing all information to issue warnings.

At this moment, although her experience points in the dream classroom were significantly lower compared to reality, Chu Tingwu's hearing ability gradually caught up with her sense of smell.

The whirlpool slowly came to a stop.

She ​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌‌‌​​​​‌‌​​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​‌‌‌​‌‌​​​​‌​​‌‌​‌​‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​​​‌​​‌‌​‌​​​​‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌‌​‌​​​​‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌‌​‌​‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌​​‌‌​​‌​‌​‌‌​​‌​‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌​‌‍didn’t stay underwater any longer but chose to float up on her own. After climbing onto the dock, Chu Tingwu sat on the edge, taking off her diving suit.

She felt an astonishing silence around her ears.

But it wasn’t that she had suddenly gone deaf—it was more like...

As soon as she willed it, the sounds around her began to return: the chirping of birds, the rustling of insects, the gentle swaying of vines in the breeze, and the lapping of the lake water against the shore. However, unlike before, when her hearing had been unstable, she could now decide which sounds to hear. Moreover, even before she could identify what the sounds were, her brain would instinctively tell her which sounds were meaningful and which deserved special attention.

For instance, just sitting here, she could hear the sound of a vehicle colliding with a human body several kilometers away.

Chu Tingwu frowned.

The system: "I’m simulating real-time events from the outside world, but there’s a five-minute delay. A car accident did happen five minutes ago, and the ambulance is already on its way."

Chu Tingwu: "Hmm... but I’m wondering, is this even useful?"

The system, unusually puzzled: "Why would you suddenly think that?"

Wasn’t becoming more powerful a good thing?

Chu Tingwu: "I can hear the warning signs of a disaster, but by the time I get there, the disaster has already happened."

If she were a wild beast, this kind of hearing would be a dream come true. She could become the most formidable hunter, able to avoid danger in advance, know when to join her fellow creatures in battle, and be the nightmare of her prey.

But this was modern society, and apart from flooding her brain with an overwhelming amount of redundant information, it seemed to serve no real purpose.

The system pondered: "Then disrupting communication should suffice."

Chu Tingwu: "?"

The system: "I’ve studied humanity’s apocalyptic fantasies, and one common scenario is an electromagnetic pulse that destroys communication systems, plunging human society into chaos. In such a scenario, the Cat King, with her exceptional individual abilities, successfully forms a team, resolves the crisis, and restores order—"

Chu Tingwu: "..."

Maybe you should stop thinking.

Chu Tingwu: "Take that back."

She suddenly felt that the current situation was just fine.

Even if she wasn’t saving the world, at least she wasn’t destroying it.

Today was still something to be proud of.

She decided to reward herself with an extra portion of food at every meal.