Chapter 1 The Less Free Time

Ever since signing that labor contract, Hao Ren felt his days of leisure at home were dwindling, and most of his life was being spent traveling around – diligently like a state minister concerned about his country and people, receiving an imperial decree and running around the world. Occasionally, when he went home, even the cat he kept almost didn't recognize him…

Leading a large group of travel-worn companions back home, Hao Ren saw "Gun" squatting on the coffee table, intently watching TV. The silly cat immediately jumped off the coffee table when it heard the movement at the door, scurried to everyone's feet, and then stared blankly at Hao Ren, dumbfounded. It tilted its head, recognized him for a long time before meowing once, and Hao Ren was shocked by this reaction: had this silly thing forgotten him?

"Big Cat?" The cat-girl circled Hao Ren lightly, reaching out to rummage through the latter's pockets, "You're not dead?"

"Stay where you are!" Hao Ren woke up from his daze and pressed down on the silly cat's head, "What was that just now? I've only been gone for a little over a month, and you've forgotten who's been feeding you?"

"I want snacks, I saw you have snacks, I just touched them! You definitely bought them for me!" The silly cat struggled under Hao Ren's hand, its howling loud enough to be heard half a street away, "I was just confirming your scent, who knows if you're real or fake – I thought you were dead since you've been gone for so long!"

"I'll be damned… how come this thing thinks I'm going to die every now and then," Hao Ren was stunned, watching the silly cat rummage through his pockets, grabbing all kinds of snacks and pastries (which he had indeed bought for her), "In a cat's mind, are humans such easily dying creatures?"

"What do you think," May crossed her arms and watched the fun, "Sometimes when you're gone for too long, she gets up every morning and scratches on everyone's doors, grabbing anyone she sees and asking 'Is Big Cat dead somewhere, why hasn't he come back, should we divide up his belongings?' We're all used to it."

Hao Ren felt his pure heart had been severely wounded: "That ungrateful thing… what else did she say?"

Nangong Sanba also chimed in: "I pressed her, and she said she'd avenge you first, and if she couldn't avenge you, she'd go into your room and move things out, divide up the family property, and then wander the world."

Hao Ren: "…"

"Big Cat, you're so annoying," the cat-girl stuffed her mouth with dried small fish, rolling her eyes at Hao Ren, "Why didn't I realize you were so melodramatic before – haven't I said the same thing to you every time you were gone too long?"

Hao Ren was a little dazed: "You said that before… wait, you were just a cat before, how would I know that's what you meant!"

He felt his heart had been hurt even more than before: there was a time when he thought the cat he kept was not bad in nature except for being naughty, lazy, and greedy. At least every time he came home after a long trip, this cat would enthusiastically come over and run around him several times and meow for a long time, although after she meowed, she usually fluttered around asking for food, but Hao Ren was very touched at that time…

Never did he expect that's what this thing was meowing at back then!

Hao Ren was very angry, but the consequences… the consequences weren't too serious anyway. The cat-girl had her own set of indestructible and well self-protected worldviews, and she could have fun playing by herself even if no one paid attention to her.

And Hao Ren didn't have time to continue messing with the cat; he had important work to do.

The first thing he did after getting home was to send the information sample recorded by Anthony at the moment the Great Rift Valley opened to the drone swarm that was exploring deep space in the Dream Plane.

That information sample could be said to be the only clue to the whereabouts of the crystal core, and the drone swarm was Hao Ren's widest eyes and ears in the Dream Plane. If even those swarms couldn't find the source of the information sample, the core probably couldn't be found.

Obviously, Hao Ren was extremely concerned about the missing crystal core.

The reason for his concern had nothing to do with the "eight hearts and eight arrows" that Duya 12345 claimed. One of the real reasons was that there might be a legacy of the Creation Goddess where the crystal fell, and the second reason was that he really needed a new "Gate to the Mortal World." Besides that, he had a concern.

That crystal core was too powerful.

That was a true artifact in the real sense. Not only was its attribute an artifact, but even the power it contained was at the artifact level. It had the ability to penetrate the Wall of Reality and destroy the ordered world. The thought of this thing falling into the already fragile Dream Plane was enough to make one's bones chill and body tremble. Moreover, Hao Ren now knew that there was an "Ancient Dark Hand" lurking in the Dream Plane. Would this Ancient Dark Hand also notice that a thing so awesome that it could instantly escape its cage had suddenly fallen into its prison?

Duya 12345 usually looked careless, but after learning that the crystal core had fallen into the Dream Plane and its whereabouts were unknown, she did show a worried expression, which was enough to show the seriousness of the situation.

Hao Ren estimated that if he couldn't retrieve the crystal core, things would inevitably worsen and eventually lead to Duya 12345 being forced to take action herself. At that time, the Dream Plane would be in big trouble.

He carefully organized all the things he had seen and experienced on this business trip into a report, including the current situation of the Nine Great Kingdoms, the Origin Ark, the Ultimate Amnesty, etc., and sent them all to Duya 12345. Then, while waiting for a reply, he processed various information sent from the drone swarm, the Purgatory monitoring equipment group, the Surun Gate factory group, and other places at home.

When the data terminal handed him a newly compiled general report, Hao Ren suddenly realized that he had unknowingly expanded his footprints and deeds to such vast, distant, and numerous places.

In the Surface World, in the Dream Plane, among the stars, in the depths of the universe, tens of thousands or even millions of monitoring points were returning massive amounts of information every minute and every second. Some were monitoring a ruin, some were recording ecological evolution, and some were observing civilization operation and racial development. This vast sea of data was uploaded to drones, then to listening posts and space fortresses, and finally aggregated in front of him. In this process, the data climbed like on a pyramid network, eventually reaching the top.

Then he looked at the report at the top with a blank face, exclaiming every five minutes: "Damn, there's still… damn, there's still?"

He wondered if other Inspectors were like this during their first few years of work.

Hao Ren lay on the table looking at the report, while "Gun" squatted beside him, obediently playing with a fluff ball. The cat-girl didn't know why Hao Ren hadn't paid much attention to her these past two days, but she felt that as a cat, a proud, superior, clever, and super-cute cat, she must have her own restraint. So if Big Cat didn't pay attention to her, she couldn't take the initiative to tease Big Cat. But to be honest…

It was so boring to squat there dumbly!

The cat-girl squatted on the ground, seriously rolling the fluff ball back and forth, but she found that this game she usually liked the most was now dull and tasteless, and not even as interesting as watching humans argue on TV. She secretly looked up at Hao Ren, and seeing that he was seriously looking at the report, she tiptoed and quietly moved a few centimeters to the side.

Hao Ren still didn't react.

"Meow?" Gun tentatively called out softly, and then immediately felt remorseful for her indiscreet, self-lowering behavior. But after feeling remorse, she found that—Hao Ren still didn't react.

So she decided to try scooting over a little more, and if that didn't work, she would throw the fluff ball on Big Cat's legs.

"What are you doing?" Hao Ren finally couldn't stand this big living person swaying back and forth next to him like a thief, and couldn't help but look down and glare at the silly cat.

In fact, he had noticed the other party's actions as early as when the cat-girl first scooted over, but this cat usually had a lot of brain-dead and off-the-wall behaviors. When her cat nature broke out, it was almost the same style as Lily's, so he was too lazy to care about what she was doing beside him. But seeing that the silly cat was getting closer and closer to him, and was holding the fluff ball in her hand with a look of eagerness to try, Hao Ren couldn't stand it anymore.

Could this cat be thinking of killing her master because she had been neglected for two days? Wouldn't using a fluff ball as a weapon when killing her master be a little weak?

Hao Ren's greeting startled "Gun," and the cat-girl immediately arched her back and took half a step back, her tail standing up like a lightning rod pointing at the ceiling. She stared straight at Hao Ren, and suddenly a thought popped up: This was Big Cat taking the initiative to speak!

So the cat-girl felt that she had won a great victory. She became satisfied, scooted over to Hao Ren, and rubbed her head against the other party's leg: "Well, you can scratch my ears now."

Hao Ren couldn't understand this cat's thinking at all: "Crazy…"

But he didn't plan to delve into a cat's mental journey, nor did he plan to stop working, so he simply held the data terminal in one hand, and drooped one hand from the armrest of the chair, just pressing it on "Gun's" head.

"I'm too lazy to move, you rub yourself."

"Gun" thought for a while and began to shake her head vigorously.

In this way, a cat's little melancholy passed.