Do You Have Any Opinion on Mechanical Cat Ears? (CAT EARS)
In the days following the collective efforts of the Cat Ball squad to clear the elevator shaft, the Main System remained eerily silent.
Not only were the routine morning and evening meetings—which typically contained no substantive content—canceled, but even the mandatory unpaid overtime was temporarily suspended.
The silence was absolute.
System 2333 pondered for a moment before decisively provoking and testing the waters by breaking a robot, yet the Main System still showed no reaction.
Optimistically, System 2333 thought the Main System might just be dead.
These past few days, he had been trying every possible way to glitch his way up to the surface, often dangling from the ceiling like a wall lamp—but to no avail. The ceiling of the underground first level had not a single crack or seam that could be exploited for a glitch.
This felt like a direct challenge to the God of Glitches.
Undeterred, System 2333 doubled down, drilling through the entire ceiling of the underground level like a tiny diamond drill bit. But with no entry points to exploit, it became clear that glitching alone wouldn’t get him up there. He’d have to find another way.
The Main System had repeatedly emphasized with strict enforcement, that the surface housed the ecological maintenance devices for the entire Main System space—the core stabilizing center of the Infinite Space—and that Cat Balls were absolutely forbidden from going up.
This low-tier rhetoric was as laughable as claiming that disguising Cat Balls as artificial intelligence would drastically improve work efficiency. Even rookie systems wouldn’t bother with such nonsense.
Anyone with half a brain could tell there was something fishy going on!
Still, despite his glitch-hunting endeavors, System 2333 remained wary of the Main System’s sudden death-like silence.
During his last visit to his personal Restricted Zone 306, the peach blossom tree still stood while being encircled by bricks.
The Gobi Desert remained scorching and arid, littered with haphazardly scattered contraband and construction materials.
System 2333 spat out the last batch of weapons he’d borrowed from Xiao Er for safekeeping, twitched his cat ears, and looked up at the only new addition to the barren wasteland.
Originally, he had wanted to take the entire amusement park with him, but unlike the Restricted Zone 306, the park didn’t seem to meet the conditions for relocation. So, he had only managed to scoop out a single portion—
This fountain.
Under the blazing sun and endless sandstorms of the Gobi Desert, where the climate was brutally dry, the eerie fountain had no visible water source yet flowed endlessly. Though the fountain had once exuded a chilling aura, in this extreme environment, it now radiated nothing but refreshing coolness—like a giant central air conditioner.
Wearing a straw hat and lazily waving a palm-leaf fan, System 2333 sat on a small folding stool under the fountain’s awning and sipping on an ice-cold watermelon-flavored supplement. Gazing into the distance, the desolate expanse stretched endlessly under the scorching sun.
Of course, the fountain’s water wasn’t drinkable, but it was perfect for cooling down and even improving the soil—almost like a mystical spring tailored for System 2333’s alternate space. It was fantastic.
—Well, except for the despairing, tearful opera singer ghost sitting beside the fountain, who probably didn’t share the sentiment.
System 2333 observed the ghostly lady and realized that supernatural entities must have an automatic respawn mechanism. Despite traveling untold distances—perhaps even millions of miles—she had unfortunately been reset right back into the fountain. In just a few days, she had returned while being covered in dust and eyes brimming with tears, dreaming of going back to the amusement park.
Tragic. Absolutely tragic.
“Aaaaah Aaaaaaah”
The singer’s mournful BGM swelled in the background.
Adhering to the principle of making the most of every resource, System 2333 decided to give the ghostly singer a new career—like supervising robots in construction work.
However, this plan would have to wait until after the major inspection. By then, he'd figure out how to poach some robots from management to build houses, with the ghostly singer acting as foreman.
Construction sand could be dug from nearby and water sourced from the fountain—perfect!
The ghostly singer: "..."
Not perfect at all!
But the fountain had already taken root here, leaving her with no escape. This smooth, hairless black cat head was more ghostly than her, even resorting to threats!
"Be good now," System 2333 said amiably. "If you don’t behave, I’ll have to ask Ji Yiwei—you know, the one who cleared out the entire amusement park last time—to reason with you."
The ghostly singer: "..."
The sky was falling!
Such misery in ghostly existence!
System 2333 removed the last prohibited acceleration module from Restricted Zone 306. Now, even if the Main System turned him inside out, it wouldn’t find any contraband. Without acceleration, he drifted leisurely through the darkness, cradling blissful visions of a bright future and a grand house, before dimming his screen and falling asleep.
Tonight, the neighboring cat balls hadn’t had time to start their usual fights, leaving the charging room in peaceful silence, with only the occasional soft smacking of lips in dreams.
But System 2333 slept restlessly, tossing and turning on his charging dock.
His dreams flickered between flurries of paper birds and the twitching mechanical ears of cat balls, chaotic and unsettled.
In his dream, he thought, If I can’t sleep, I might as well wake up and watch a cartoon or something. With that, System 2333 slowly brightened his screen—no, he didn’t. Instead, he opened his eyes.
The sensation of blinking startled him so much that he choked on the thin, lightweight fluid around him, and caused his screen to flash to life.
The charging room was silent, save for the faint tremble of his ear tips, as if he’d just woken from a nightmare.
What was that just now...?
Before he could recover from the lingering unease, a piercing alarm blared throughout the system living quarters.
The corridors echoed with thunderous noise as swarms of robots—some gliding, some floating—descended, sealing off the charging room under their control. At the center, surrounded by machines, the Main System hovered with its metallic face expressionless, and only the white glow in its eye sockets flaring.
The Main System had already been reducing the number of cat balls sent on missions these past few days. Now, nearly all of them were gathered in the charging room. Though the loss of potential mission points pained it, the Main System was willing to pay the price for a thorough investigation.
With the highest authority, it broadcast a message across the entire Main System space:
"Major inspection commences tonight."
"All systems will first assemble in the underground level before proceeding to the inspection chambers in groups."
"No exceptions."
The cat balls jolted awake one by one. They’d known about the upcoming inspection, but no one expected the Main System to conduct it at night—like a sudden midnight drill during military training.
Chaos ensued as the cat balls scrambled to comply. They yanked charging cables from their left ears, hopped off their docks, and began piling together in disarray.
Amidst the chaos, System 2333 instinctively searched for his friends first.
His gaze swept over the sea of cat-like orbs until he spotted 1001 and 1818 , who was taking the opportunity to beat up 2222, while 6666 silently watched from the sidelines—unusually not stepping in to break up the fight.
Serves you right for being such a jinx!
1234, however, seemed to have known about this in advance, showing no signs of panic or confusion. With his cat ears painted black standing upright, he organized everyone into formation just like countless times before when maintaining order.
Perhaps his intimidating makeup was effective, or maybe the sudden inspection by the Main System had truly unsettled the cat orbs. Or perhaps... the cat orbs had already come to view 1234 as the Main System's feared spokesperson. This time, they all obediently lined up in formation, following one another out of the charging room and heading to the underground level.
System 2333 communicated remotely with his companions through text displayed on his screen.
[Everyone okay?] he signaled.
[We're fine.] The calm reply undoubtedly came from 1001.
[(OK hand gesture)] This was from 1818.
[(Seems to have replied but text is too blurry to read)] 6666's number was too far back, placing him too distant from the group.
[What the hell is this in the middle of the night huh huh can't we just live normally? I was sleeping so well, why not inspect during the day instead, so annoying so annoying seriously annoying if you ask me this is just...] This was 2222, whose screen was crammed with so much text that each character looked like tiny flies, creating a screen full of dots.
Having confirmed everyone was alright, System 2333 relaxed and lined up according to his number, following the other cat orbs to the underground level.
The underground level was originally designated for inspections.
Typically, after being examined by robots, the cat orbs could return from the Miniature Garden or host living areas to the system living quarters. Since no other facilities were arranged here, there was a vast open space. Now, with the Main System ordering the temporary removal of inspection checkpoints, the area became even more spacious.
Yet even with so much room, the space still felt cramped with all the cat orbs gathered.
They weren't allowed to hover and were instead forced to spread out flat on the ground with their tails tucked in, bellies pressed against bellies, mewling like an overcrowded pot of ear-shaped glutinous rice balls.
The few cat orbs on missions were being individually guarded by robots and would be brought in for inspection as soon as they returned. The rest had already assembled.
Robots surrounded the perimeter, ensuring none could escape. In the distance, the Main System observed the sea of cat orbs with its mechanical face expressionless.
"Let them stew for a while. I need to observe if any systems show abnormalities."
"While we're at it, make them squeeze tighter to clear a path for me to pass through."
The robots immediately obeyed, adjusting the formation to create a passageway. This only made the crowding worse, causing some of the ear-shaped rice balls to deform under the pressure.
System 2333 was being squeezed unbearably tight, with robots shoving relentlessly. He felt on the verge of being pushed out of the formation entirely—and once that happened, the force from the intense compression would send him hurtling toward the first target he collided with.
Since being squeezed out was inevitable, System 2333 struggled to rotate his body, adjusting his initial trajectory to ensure he'd face the leadership.
Main System: "..."
By the time it realized the sinister intentions of System 2333, it was already too late.
"Boom!!!"
System 2333 launched!
Learning from its previous failure when blocked by the rings, System 2333 continuously adjusted its trajectory mid-air and narrowly slipped through two rings to land a perfect hit right on the leader's head!
The Main System: "..."
Its head was left ringing.
This sudden impact completely diverted the Main System's attention to System 2333, causing it to miss the faint sound of a door opening just above the abandoned elevator shaft at such close range.
Outside the abandoned elevator shaft in the Miniature Garden, the outer door creaked open, allowing a sliver of light to pierce the darkness within.
Author's Note:
In a way, Three-Three turned out to be the lucky star of the White Bird Project.
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