By imagining the tragic ends of those NPCs, Cen Yao managed to suppress her anger.
She lowered her head again, wanting to see if there was any other content on the newspaper.
But strangely, except for that report just now, the rest of the newspaper was completely blurry.
Clearly, the words were still there.
Yet whenever she looked at them, the words seemed to be shrouded in a layer of mist, making them impossible to decipher.
Cen Yao: “...”
Cen Yao: “╰( >_< )!”
Furious, she raised her little kitten paws and stomped on the newspaper several times.
She was still angry even after stomping on it.
But the newspaper wasn't going to spit out more clues just because she was angry.
Cen Yao could only continue rummaging through the cabin.
She searched very thoroughly.
She searched from under the cabinet to the cracks in the wall, and from the pile of cardboard boxes to behind the iron barrels.
She searched until her stomach began to growl, but she didn't find anything else useful.
Cen Yao finally stopped and looked up through the gap in the door at the sky outside.
With this glance, her heart instantly skipped a beat.
The sun outside was already sinking in the west.
Golden-red light fell diagonally onto the ground, casting very long shadows.
It was almost sunset.
Terrified, Cen Yao's tail stood straight up.
She hurriedly squeezed out of the cabin, looked left and right, and after confirming no one was nearby for the moment, immediately ran toward their agreed meeting point.
She ran in a great rush.
But during the day, the coffee plantation was like a maze, filled with smells, forks in the road, and dizzying coffee trees everywhere.
Several times, Cen Yao almost ran in the wrong direction.
Fortunately, she still remembered a few landmarks, such as the overturned baskets of coffee cherries, the empty barrels she had knocked askew, and the smelly drainage ditch along the base of the wall.
By the time she rushed back to the meeting point, the sun was almost touching the horizon.
But the meeting point was completely empty.
There wasn't even a single cat's shadow.
Cen Yao froze.
Where was Zhu Lingxi?
Where was Pei Tinglan?
She stood in place and looked around.
Unfortunately, the kitten was too short, and with weeds, wooden crates, and coffee trees all around, she saw absolutely nothing despite looking for a long time.
Anxious, Cen Yao spun around in place twice.
In the end, she had no choice but to climb a nearby coffee tree.
The trunk wasn't high, but it was enough for her current size.
Cen Yao scrambled onto a branch with great effort, stabilized herself, and looked into the distance.
With this look, her entire cat body stiffened.
In the distance, inside the breeding area, a familiar civet cat lay weakly in a filthy, narrow cage.
It was Zhu Lingxi.
She had been captured and put in a cage.
Her originally smooth, glossy fur was now a disheveled mess, stained with dust and dirty water, and there were several obvious wounds on her flank.
Some of her fur was matted with blood, and judging by the marks, she looked to have been whipped.
Cen Yao's mind went blank with a loud buzz.
Hardly hesitating, she immediately jumped down from the tree. She stumbled slightly upon landing but quickly regained her footing and ran straight toward the cage where Zhu Lingxi was kept.
The sun was about to set.
There were far fewer staff members in the breeding area than during the day.
But there were still quite a few civet cats in the cages.
Among them, several players who were still lucid spotted Cen Yao.
They had been lying listlessly in their cages, but upon seeing her, their eyes instantly lit up.
“Save me!”
“Save me first! My cage door is locked tight!”
“Over here! There are players over here too!”
“Hurry up, it's getting dark!”
Those voices drifted out from the cages, urgent, terrified, and filled with a desperate desire to survive.
Cen Yao didn't stop.
She of course heard them.
But they were still some distance away from Zhu Lingxi.
Compared to those players she had only met once or barely even spoken to, Cen Yao would naturally choose Zhu Lingxi first, whom she had spent the day with and had a very good impression of.
What's more, part of the reason Zhu Lingxi ended up like this was because of her.
If she hadn't told them to split up and run back then, Zhu Lingxi might not have been captured.
Cen Yao clenched her teeth, picking up her pace even more.
The cries for help from the cages continued.
Some players realized she wasn't heading in their direction, and the hope in their eyes instantly turned to resentment.
Why wouldn't she save them?
Didn't she warn them last night?
Why was she leaving them to die today?
Since she had already chosen to help, why not see it through to the end?
If she wasn't willing to save them, then she shouldn't expect to live either!
In the next second, one of the player civet cats suddenly craned its neck and let out an incredibly shrill, agonizing shriek.
The sharp sound pierced the dusk like a knife, ruthlessly tearing apart the brief silence of the breeding area.
Right after, another one started screaming as well.
Their cries were too tragic, too ear-piercing.
Triggered by the sound, the surrounding ordinary civet cats, whose nerves were already stretched to their limits, also began to cry out in distress.
One.
Two.
Dozens.
Soon, the entire cage area descended into chaos.
The cries of hordes of civet cats overlapped—sharp, terrified, and miserable—instantly carrying far into the distance.
Cen Yao's heart sank.
Oh no.
She hadn't forgotten that yesterday around this time, a cat-headed NPC carrying a stun baton had appeared and patrolled the cage area before leaving.
There might be one today as well.
Moreover, this howling was practically screaming to the NPC that something was wrong here.
Cen Yao couldn't help but speed up.
She had no time to be angry right now.
Nor did she have time to look back.
She must rescue Zhu Lingxi first.
It had to be said that Cen Yao's intuition was highly accurate.
Those cries indeed drew the cat-headed NPC over.
In the last rays of dusk, a tall shadow slowly emerged from the end of the cage area.
It wore a staff uniform, with a massive cat head sitting on its neck.
Unlike the human staff during the day, its eyes glowed a bright yellow, its pupils slit into thin lines, and it dragged a stun baton in its hand.
The tip of the stun baton scraped against the ground, dragging with a harsh crackling sound.
The moment it appeared, it spotted the civet cat running nimbly between the cages.
The cat-headed NPC tilted its head.
In the next second, it violently swung the stun baton.
Crackl—
A blue-white flash of electricity struck right past Cen Yao's side.
Cen Yao rolled hard, narrowly avoiding it.
The stun baton slammed onto the ground, a scorched mark instantly spreading across the floor.
She scrambled back up and kept running.
The pathways between the cages were narrow and filthy, littered with overturned food bowls, dirty water, and coffee cherries.
Cen Yao's body was small, allowing her to barely dodge using the cover of the cages, but the cat-headed NPC was also extremely fast.
With every step it took, the ground seemed to shudder.
The stun baton swung again and again, carrying the burning sound of electricity.
Cen Yao darted between the cages, dodging left and right.
She could hear the terrified screams of the ordinary civet cats, as well as the panicked shouts of the players.
“Save me quickly!”
“Open my door first!”
“It's coming over!”
“Don't run this way!”
Cen Yao didn't reply with a single word.
Her eyes were locked onto Zhu Lingxi's cage.
Almost there.
Just a little further.
Zhu Lingxi saw her too.
She weakly raised her head, her wounds splitting open slightly from the movement, beads of blood seeping down her fur.
But she didn't cry out in pain, nor did she call for help.
She simply stared quietly at Cen Yao, as if trying her best to remain conscious.
Cen Yao's chest tightened.
Time was running out.
If she didn't get Zhu Lingxi out soon, once the sun set and she was still trapped in the cage, the iron bars would cut into her flesh the moment she turned back into a human.
No.
Absolutely not.
Cen Yao clenched her teeth and charged forward.
She was too focused.
All her attention was on Zhu Lingxi's cage door, and she failed to notice that the cat-headed NPC had already caught up behind her.
In the next instant, the stun baton slammed down heavily from behind.
Crackl—
A violent electric current instantly coursed through her body.
Cen Yao's vision went white, her entire cat body convulsing violently before she collapsed limply onto the ground.
Rate on N.U.
