The man walked up to the cardboard boxes and stopped.
Cen Yao's heart stopped for a beat.
She lay flat in the shadow cast by the rags and cardboard boxes, not daring to move even the tip of her tail.
The crackle of the stun baton buzzed not far above her head. The occasional flash of blue-white light illuminated the gaps between the cardboard boxes.
The man bent down.
A filthy hand reached over, its fingertips nearly touching the edge of the outermost cardboard box.
Cen Yao stared intently at the hand.
Her claws dug silently into the floor, her body pressed as low as possible.
The moment this man lifted the box, she would pounce.
She would bite his wrist. She would bite his throat. She would bite him anywhere. No matter what, she could not let herself be captured alive.
Just as the hand was about to touch the box, a shout suddenly came from outside the door.
“Lao Liu! There's movement over here!”
The man's movements paused.
The person outside shouted again, “Hurry up! It looks like it ran into the warehouse area!”
“Dammit.”
The man standing in front of the boxes cursed under his breath, swinging the stun baton through the air with a harsh crackle of electricity.
Still seemingly unwilling to give up, he lowered his head to sweep another glance over the pile of cardboard boxes.
Cen Yao's entire body was tense, like a bow drawn to its absolute limit.
One second. Two seconds. Three seconds.
Finally, the man turned and strode out.
He pulled the wooden door behind him, but it didn't close fully. It creaked and swayed a couple of times, leaving a narrow gap once again.
The footsteps outside gradually faded into the distance.
But Cen Yao didn't move.
She remained flat on the ground, her ears pressed against the edge of a cardboard box, listening to the sounds outside.
People were cursing, people were running. There was also the heavy thud of capture nets hitting the ground. The noises drifted closer and then further away, like a net constantly tightening and loosening.
She didn't know how much time had passed, but by the time the outside finally fell completely silent, her legs felt entirely numb.
She waited a little longer.
Only after confirming that no footsteps were approaching did she cautiously poke her head out from behind the cardboard boxes.
The inside of the shack was very dark.
The light filtering through the gap in the door fell diagonally onto the floor, where dust motes drifted slowly in the beam.
There was no one.
Cen Yao let out a sigh of relief, but she didn't leave immediately.
The NPCs outside might not have gone far.
Her stamina hadn't recovered yet either. If she rushed out and ran into someone again, she would truly be asking for death.
So, Cen Yao obediently curled up in the shack, planning to lay low for a while first.
Only now did she finally have the time to look around this crude little shack.
The room wasn't large. It was piled with discarded cardboard boxes, rags, iron barrels, and a few rusty iron chains.
The floor was so filthy that its original color was unrecognizable. A layer of dark brown stains had accumulated in the corners—a mixture of what looked like blood, mud, water, and other substances that had dried over time into an indelible mark.
Cen Yao had only intended to glance around casually, but soon, her gaze locked onto something.
There were scratch marks on the wall. Many of them. Row after row of varying depths were frantically carved into the wooden planks.
Some were very shallow, only scraping off a layer of bark, while others were extremely deep, nearly embedded into the wood, with tiny splinters sticking up along the edges.
The scratch marks were chaotic. It looked as though something had once been locked in here, unable to escape or break free, left with no choice but to scratch at the wall claw by claw in its moments of deepest agony.
Scratching until its claws broke. Scratching until its paws were a bloody mess. Scratching until it could no longer make a sound.
Looking at those marks, Cen Yao suddenly felt her own paws begin to ache.
It wasn't the sharp pain of being struck by a stun baton, but a finer, duller, more prolonged ache.
It felt as though an Asian palm civet had once been pinned down here, forced to swallow indigestible coffee cherries until its abdomen swelled with pain and its throat filled with a sour, bitter, rotten taste.
It wanted to vomit, but couldn't. It wanted to escape, but couldn't.
The cage was too narrow, the room too dark, and the human footsteps too close.
So, it could only scrape its claws against the wall. Once. And then again.
Splinters pierced the gaps between its claws, and blood smeared onto the wall, but that pain was not even the worst of it.
The most painful part was that despite being alive, it was used merely as a tool.
Eating coffee cherries. Excreting. Eating again. Excreting again.
If it couldn't excrete them, it was electrocuted. If it fell ill, it was left to suffer. Covered in wounds, its digestive tract festering, its body gradually broke down until it died of rectal cancer a year later, ending a tragic, absurd, and commodified life.
Cen Yao's breathing grew heavier.
So, they were actually locked in shacks and abused by humans?
Looking at the dense scratches on the wall, she slowly clenched her tiny cat fists.
“Fuuuck! (A type of plant)”
Just wait until she changed back.
She would absolutely make those evildoers pay the price.
She meant what she said! And she would absolutely get it done!
Cen Yao forced herself to calm down.
Anger was useful, but anger alone was pointless. She needed to find clues now.
Since this shack was so abnormal, something had to be hidden here.
Taking a deep breath, Cen Yao temporarily suppressed her raging anger and began to diligently search the room.
Inside the System Space, the orb looked at its host and nodded in satisfaction.
It had thought the host would need its reminder.
To its surprise, even while suppressed by the dungeon, the host still subconsciously made the choices most beneficial to her.
As expected of a talent destined to become the greatest witch in the universe!
The orb felt a surge of hot-blooded excitement in its heart.
Cen Yao's little cat head had absolutely no idea.
She only knew she needed to find clues.
Behind the cardboard boxes—nothing. Under the rags—nothing. Inside the iron barrels—only a foul, rotting stench.
There were a few clumps of blackened fur in the corner. Cen Yao only had to glance at them to feel a heavy, suffocating sensation in her chest.
She continued searching.
It wasn't until she overturned a half-collapsed old wooden cabinet that she finally discovered a crumpled ball of paper covered in cobwebs and dust beneath it.
The ball of paper was tightly crumpled, its edges yellowed, looking as though it had been left there for many years.
Cen Yao's eyes lit up.
She immediately pounced on it, clawing at it.
But cat paws were truly difficult to use.
After clawing for a long time, she only managed to drag the paper ball out of the dust slightly.
Refusing to accept defeat, Cen Yao used all four paws, pulling and stepping on it, and with great effort, she finally managed to spread open the crumpled newspaper.
The yellowed newspaper lay flat on the floor, covered in dust, with a few holes eaten away by insects.
Cen Yao lowered her head to read.
The first thing that caught her eye was the date on the newspaper.
April 17, 2017.
Below it was a bold news headline.
Multiple Cat and Dog Carcasses Unearthed in Green Belt of Coffee Community; Some Already Decayed and Foul-Smelling, Suspected Long-Term Deliberate Abuse and Killing
[Staff Report] On the morning of April 17, 2017, property management staff at Coffee Community discovered multiple cat and dog carcasses near bushes and abandoned flowerbeds while cleaning the eastern green belt of the residential area.
Some of the carcasses showed obvious signs of decay, and the scene emitted a strong odor, attracting a crowd of onlookers from the community.
According to community residents, pets including cats and dogs had been repeatedly going missing within the residential area over the past few months.
Several residents had posted lost pet notices and sought help in the homeowners' chat groups, but none had been successfully retrieved.
Among the animal carcasses discovered this time, one household identified their pet dog, which had been missing for several days.
The dog's carcass was severely decayed when found, and the body bore obvious marks of external trauma. At the scene of identification, the pet owner lost emotional control, after which multiple residents who had lost pets filed a joint police report.
Following police intervention, the perpetrator was locked onto and apprehended on May 3, 2017.
It is understood that the suspect is a male resident of Coffee Community, aged 15.
According to preliminary investigations, the youth admitted to repeatedly luring and trapping stray cats, dogs, and residents' pets in the neighborhood, taking them to hidden locations to abuse them.
Images and physical evidence left at the scene indicate that some of the victimized animals suffered from intentionally broken limbs, sharp-force trauma to the eyes, mutilated tongues, severed tails, and peeled fur.
Police stated that although the nature of the acts was egregious, because the suspect is a minor and current relevant laws regarding companion animal protection remain incomplete, they ultimately reprimanded and educated his guardian, ordering them to strengthen supervision.
Following the exposure of the incident, numerous residents of Coffee Community expressed anger and anxiety.
Some residents stated they could not accept the outcome of "mere education" and worried that similar behavior would occur again.
Other residents called for the improvement of animal protection laws to prevent more innocent lives from being harmed.
Below the newspaper text, several photographs were printed.
The photos were printed dark and blurry, and due to their age, many details were no longer legible.
Even so, Cen Yao could still make out those tiny, stiff bodies.
There were cats. There were dogs. Some were curled up in a ball. Some were covered with filthy plastic sheets.
In another photo, a woman knelt on the ground, cradling a small dog carcass whose original appearance was unrecognizable, weeping so hard she could barely stand.
Cen Yao's fur puffed out all over her body once again.
She paced back and forth in the room, filled with rage and frustration.
Cats and dogs were so good. How could anyone be so malicious? How could they abuse them?
Those animals had clearly done nothing wrong. They were just living, just trusting humans, just too small, too weak, and too easily harmed.
If she didn't help them get revenge for this, she, Cen Yao, would never be able to appease the burning fury in her chest!
Just wait. Once she changed back, she would let the NPCs of this dungeon know the true meaning of hell!
Rate on N.U.
