Do You Have Any Opinion on Mechanical Cat Ears? (CAT EARS)
Wen Xu felt like there might be a ghost haunting him.
He always seemed to sense something "slippery" following him and secretly watching.
This happened in all sorts of situations—when he was at the mission center analyzing world data, when he bought a boxed meal from a player-run stall on the roadside, when he stared at passing robots wondering if he could take one apart for research…
Well, except when he was in the bathroom.
The ghost had some respect for privacy, at least!
Sitting on the toilet lid, Wen Xu pondered.
The creepiest part was that this feeling of being watched came and went.
That wasn’t a good sign—it was far more terrifying than constant surveillance.
One moment, he’d be paranoid, the next he’d convince himself he was overthinking it, only for the eerie sensation of eyes on him to return before he could relax. Over and over, until his nerves were frayed.
No matter how hard he looked, he couldn’t find the stalker.
The Main System’s space was supposed to be the safest place—ghosts and monsters shouldn’t even exist here. Wen Xu had to conclude that he was probably hallucinating from the sheer terror Ji Yiwei had instilled in him.
Speaking of Ji Yiwei… that brought him to the other reason for his deteriorating mental state—
The pressure of impending death.
Ji Yiwei had unilaterally decided that, late this weekend night at 11 PM, he would visit Wen Xu’s warehouse to inspect his long-term research results.
Wen Xu didn’t know why the time had to be so late as he didn’t dare ask and he didn’t dare refuse. All he could do was accept and then scramble to do one thing—
Hide the robots that had been used in his virus experiments.
Wen Xu had stolen many of the Main System’s robots. He had his own methods—adding his name to the highest authority field in their programming without the Main System noticing, even placing it above the Main System’s own name, effectively claiming them for himself.
The robot that delivered fruit platters to Ji Yiwei had been acquired this way. But repurposed robots could only perform their original functions—if it was designed to deliver takeout, it could only ever deliver takeout. Wen Xu wasn’t exactly skilled at writing new command programs.
By now, he’d accumulated five or six hundred of these robots. Half were reintegrated into the main robot workforce, ready for him to summon at any time, while the other half remained in his possession for research. He kept them in a secure warehouse.
All of this, he could openly explain to Ji Yiwei.
But among them, over a hundred had been implanted with an experimental virus.
Though the virus was designed to target the systems, so far, it had only been successfully tested on robots.
The infection spread through the robots’ internal network, causing program malfunctions. Upon encountering an operator with the highest authority, the infected robots would attack first—and if that failed, they’d even self-destruct.
The virus was still in the testing phase. Wen Xu had planned to trigger the attack mode only once enough robots were infected, maximizing the chance of a fatal strike against the Main System.
Both he and Sheng Songshi believed that, aside from the Main System, the robots and systems within the Infinite Space should operate under the same framework. If the Infinite Space was treated as a massive game, two separate frameworks would conflict—though the systems was undoubtedly more advanced.
But after Zhou Yuechu took him down the elevator shaft and he learned that the system possessed its own intelligence, Wen Xu realized this virus would never work on it.
His research had just been reset to zero.
Whether the system itself was an intelligent life form or a consciousness implanted into a mechanical cat ball, it was already technology of another level—higher-dimensional, something beyond his reach.
Wen Xu speculated that the Main System must be a product of higher-dimensional technology, which was why he never even considered infecting or controlling it and instead planned to destroy it outright.
Standing in the warehouse, Wen Xu directed the robots to enter the hidden storage room one by one.
Watching them gradually swallowed by the darkness, he felt an inexplicable sense of relief, as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, now that he knew the virus no longer affected the system and his research had come to nothing.
Why was that? Perhaps because 1234 had always lived up to his expectations, always bringing him treasures like a kitten proudly presenting its finds and speaking in rigid mechanical tones yet never abandoning him.
If it truly was an intelligent life form, then his attitude all this time...
Wen Xu didn’t dare dwell on it any longer.
After working through most of the night, he finally finished organizing the small storage room. Hidden behind a secret door that blended seamlessly into the wall—without even a visible seam—and lined with soundproofing, it was nearly impossible to detect.
The room required a password to enter. But just as he confirmed the code to close the door, Wen Xu once again felt the unsettling sensation of being watched. He spun around, only to find nothing there.
After a moment of thought, he cautiously swapped two adjacent digits in the password on the touchscreen.
Below the window, unseen by him, a small figure with cat ears hurriedly floated past.
Aha! He’d finally found it!
System 2333 was overjoyed.
Excellent—he had now pinpointed the location of the robot warehouse. The thought of those hundreds of robots made his screen practically glow with excitement!
Moreover, his observations revealed that Wen Xu had secretly stashed away around a hundred robots separately. These had to be the best ones, which was why they were hidden away!
He never intended to steal all the robots anyway, so he decided to only take the premium batch from the secret room. Truly, this was a case of "honor among thieves"—or rather, "conscientious blackmail."
1234’s host was preying on the Main System, and he was preying on 1234’s host. A perfect food chain!
System 2333 planned to make his move after lulling Ji Yiwei to sleep before his shift ended. However, considering he was outnumbered and already carrying a large cat-eared companion in his storage, he figured it’d be best to bring some backup to haul all the robots.
And so, as night fell, three cat balls lined up outside Wen Xu’s warehouse.
This was a remote area of the host living quarters, primarily used for storage.
Dim streetlights flickered overhead, but they were sparse, leaving the surroundings shrouded in darkness—only the silhouettes of the three cat balls visible.
The silhouette on the left trembled with excitement as its cat ears kept twitching.
"Senior Three! What are we doing next?"
Senior Three had told him they were here tonight to "eat" robots. He’d never eaten a robot before! Senior Three always had such novel activities—first unclogging drains... then elevators, and now robot feasts.
In stark contrast to the left silhouette’s enthusiasm, the one on the right seemed far less motivated.
"Honestly," the silhouette grumbled, sounding thoroughly unenthused, "I really didn’t want to come out. I just worked three jobs today. It’s so late... I’m exhausted."
Not caring at all about the negative attitude of the silhouette on the right, the middle silhouette let out a few "meow meow" giggles.
"You guys have no idea—this warehouse is packed with premium goods! It's like gold just waiting for us to scoop up with our tails!"
Hearing this, the drowsy silhouette on the right immediately perked up its ears and said eagerly,
"Big bro, this job's tricky—you'll need my sharp eyes to keep watch for you!"
With that, the three balls reached a consensus as their fighting spirits soaring as they excitedly floated forward—
Only to let out a collective "meep!" as they all dropped straight down.
A moment later, angry meows echoed from the sewer.
No sense of public decency! Who the hell steals manhole covers around here?!
Abandoning any grand, dramatic entrance, the three balls flew out of the sewer one after another and slipped into the warehouse.
System 2333 had dug a hole here earlier—the gap blended seamlessly into the wall and was just big enough for cat-balls to pass through.
...A little too seamlessly that, in fact, he’d spent ages finding it himself.
"No big deal—found it! Let’s go!"
He charged in first.
The moment they entered, the other two cat-balls were stunned—the place was full of robots!
6666 had just let out a "meow-wow!" of amazement when the experienced 1818 swiftly covered its speaker and lowered his voice expertly.
"Shh. Warehouses storing important items usually have surveillance. There might even be someone watching remotely."
An exclamation mark popped up on System 2333’s screen in shock.
"Old Eight, how are you so good at this? How did you and your host even get started?"
1818 humbly waved his tail.
"Nothing special—just robbing the rich to help the poor, you know."
The robots outside were already tempting enough, but System 2333 didn’t even glance at them. Instead, he hooked his tail and boasted to his friends,
"Follow me—there’s even better stuff this way!"
He led the other two cat-balls to a hidden door, fiddled with it, and a password keypad appeared.
Having watched Wen Xu input the code earlier, System 2333 instinctively moved to press it—but then paused.
He recalled Wen Xu’s final dragging motion, a subtle adjustment that likely meant swapping two adjacent digits. After a quick calculation, he expertly corrected the reversed numbers.
[Password correct. Alarm deactivated.]
"Cast out nines," 1818 nodded approvingly before turning to 6666 with earnest advice.
[TL Note: "Cast out nines" is a mathematical method for checking calculations, often used in verifying arithmetic operations.]
"You’ve probably covered some of this in your system math classes. Math is crucial for us cat-balls—whether it’s cracking passwords or calculating the shortest route. Your senior 33 here aced system math every year."
The praised System 2333 puffed up with pride.
"You can also use it for pursuit problems—like when hosts get chased by monsters, screaming and asking, ‘Will it catch me?! How long till it catches me?!’"
6666: "..."
Jiang Zhuo asked that a lot, but with all the environmental variables, he still couldn’t calculate it smoothly. He could only say, "Sorry, please upgrade system functionality," and watch helplessly as Jiang Zhuo scrambled away in panic.
Sorry, host.
He’d study math harder from now on.
Back at Wen Xu’s residence, he finished his evening research and glanced at the warehouse surveillance feed.
The surveillance footage was crystal clear, showing no suspicious figures.
Wen Xu scrutinized it for quite some time before finally feeling reassured enough to hand over monitoring duties to the smart AI for automatic watch. He then busied himself with tidying up and mentally preparing for what lay ahead.
In just one hour, he would be heading out to meet Ji Yiwei and visit the warehouse together.
Little did he know, shortly after he stepped away from the monitors, the AI detected some unusual shadows.
Wen Xu had trained this AI exceptionally well—it could identify most objects and cross-referencing them against the warehouse inventory. If anything seemed out of place or illogical, it would immediately trigger an alert.
At this moment, the AI swiftly compared the captured images with its stored database.
Pointed ears, a round head, a mechanical shell…
[Conclusion: Cat-eared robot (head only)]
[Conclusion: Matches stored inventory (partial component)]
[Conclusion: Logically consistent. No intruders detected.]
Author's Note:
Human service vs. artificial stupidity.
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