You can’t put the cat in solitary confinement!

Inside, Bai smoothed and molded a panel, guiding herself through graceful S-curves through the air.

Outside, the murmuring discussions gradually faded into silence.

“You call this ‘no different from an ordinary cat’?”

“Why didn’t she use this ability before?”

“I don’t know, but we can certainly rule out the possibility that she just learned it.”

“Was there some specific trigger that activated it?”

“It’s hard to say. After all, with such a unique and intelligent anomaly, we can’t rely on rigid definitions anymore. Perhaps she simply didn’t feel like using it a few days ago? Cats, you know, occasionally act on a whim. It’s perfectly normal.”

“Oh… you have a point. So, what do we do now? Should we continue observing?”

The researcher found this particular anomaly utterly perplexing.

They had been in close contact for several days with no signs of abnormality, and everyone was almost ready to label it harmless and leave.

Then, she decided to perform an impromptu aerial display.

What the hell?

“Observation is definitely necessary, but we need to…”

Outside, the fervent discussions flared up once more, making it impossible for The Cat to remain confined within the room.

Before, it was fine; if they wouldn’t let her out, they wouldn’t let her out.

The Cat didn’t have any particular desire to go outside.

But now, The Cat could fly!

To be denied the chance to soar through the sky and take a stroll?

That was unbearable!

At least, Bai couldn’t bear it.

Her feline curiosity was reaching its breaking point, on the verge of exploding.

“Meow-ow-ow-ow!”

The Cat clawed at the main door, emitting the loudest sound she had ever made since arriving in this world, protesting vehemently that she needed to go outside.

…

( ᗜ ˰ ᗜ )

No one paid her any mind, and no one opened the door for The Cat.

Bai, displeased, thrashed her tail vigorously.

Her ears drooped in dejection, and even her whiskers hung a little lower.

‘What if they can’t understand me?’

Bai suddenly remembered Reincarnation, that tabby cat who spoke human language, and a glimmer of new hope ignited.

Her ears instantly perked up.

The Cat attempted to speak.

“Meow~ mm-hmm~ goo… woof-ooh!”

Bai let out a string of peculiar noises.

It seemed that speaking wasn’t something one could master in an instant.

She would have to try a different approach.

Bai’s pupils contracted as she recalled the sensation of activating her ability when seeing Old Zhao off for the last time.

Heart’s Pure Land, wide-range, undirected mode, activate!

A wave of mental fluctuation spread outwards, only to encounter a slight obstruction upon hitting the walls.

“Wee-oo~ woo~ wee-oo~ woo~”

An alarm suddenly blared in the monitoring room.

The people, still deep in discussion, abruptly froze.

Before they could even react to what was happening, The Cat, with her generous spiritual power, amplified her input severalfold.

The mental wave instantly enveloped the monitoring room.

…A dividing line of a group of people collapsing to the ground with a clatter…

“Where is this?”

A bewildered voice echoed in the strange space.

The researcher looked around in confusion at the black particles, dried meat, fish, and… uh… why were there also mice everywhere?

“I don’t know,” another researcher replied, studying the sky.

It was covered in dense, meaningless patterns and lines, along with some blurry images suffering from severe double vision.

“You’re Xiao Li, right?” the researcher observing the ground asked.

“Yes, and you’re Wang Di, aren’t you? Also, don’t call me Xiao Li,” the sky-gazing researcher responded without turning his head.

A researcher lying on the ground rubbed his forehead as he stood up.

Looking around, he realized everyone was present.

“That was the psychic impact alarm just now, wasn’t it? Have we all entered a shared hallucination? Can these things even be shared?”

“Given that a highly intelligent anomaly has appeared, anything is possible,” Dr. Sun remarked, appearing completely unfazed. “A collective hallucination, then.”

As he spoke, the doctor paused his observation of the distant forest and oddly shaped buildings.

He adjusted his glasses, then straightened his clothes, noticing with surprise that even the wrinkles were rendered in such meticulous detail, causing him to raise an eyebrow.

The researcher examining the ground seemed to have discovered something.

“These black things on the ground are cat food, aren’t they? I feed my cat, and its food looks just like this.”

“So this is related to that cat? No wonder there are also mice on the ground…”

As they discussed and pondered solutions, an abrupt voice suddenly rang out from beside them.

“Did Bai invite you in?”

A cute, lively little girl suddenly appeared before them, a stubborn lock of hair on her head refusing to lie flat, bouncing with her every step.

The researchers startled, exchanging glances.

The child was adorable, but it was probably best not to touch anything within a hallucination.

“Who is this ‘Bai’ you speak of?” The doctor showed no hint of apprehension, crouching down to try and communicate with the girl.

“Hehe, big sister, Bai is here,” the girl giggled, avoiding the question, and then vanished as suddenly as she appeared.

Indeed, no sooner had the girl disappeared than Bai materialized in her exact spot.

The neatly squatting cat emanated a faint white glow, and the surrounding environment twitched and distorted unnaturally.

That was right; because Bai wanted to gather these people together, she hadn’t created an illusion.

Instead, she had used her own inner world.

Since the world’s owner was intensely lucid, the world was somewhat unstable.

“…” The doctor faced the cat before him, and The Cat met his gaze calmly, not flinching.

The atmosphere instantly grew tense, compounded by the eerie surroundings and the flickering, twitching visuals, like a television with bad signal.

The researchers nervously swallowed.

The next second, a small girl’s voice, emanating from The Cat, shattered the tension completely.

“You… meow… hello, everyone.”

The soft, ethereal, stuttering voice, punctuated by a meow, and even starting with a greeting, was indescribably adorable.

“Cat… I… I want to go outside to play… can you… open… the door?” Bai haltingly expressed her desire, her voice sounding utterly pathetic.

!!!!!

“Holy crap!”

“What the!”

“Damn!”

The researchers were stunned, their reactions culminating in a single exclamation.

“You can talk!?”

The sudden, loud commotion nearly made Bai jump out of her skin, causing her to shiver violently.

‘What does this mean? Are they yelling because they won’t let me go out and play?’

“You have a name? And you possess some understanding of human society?” The doctor was clearly more interested in other matters.

Hoping that answering this man’s questions would earn her freedom, Bai painstakingly and honestly replied, “Cat… name Xuan Bai… yes, Liu, gave it. Cat and them… lived for a long time.”

Her already jumbled words were made even more disjointed by The Cat’s stuttering.

This wasn’t The Cat’s fault; Bai knew many, many things, but speaking was not something she had learned.

For Bai, describing the vast amount of information constantly churning in her mind using simple, concise language was incredibly challenging.

Furthermore, this was a simulated voice produced through other means within an illusion, creating a slight delay with her thoughts, making it even less smooth.

“Who is Liu? What are you, and how did you get here?” The doctor, seemingly struck by an idea, appeared excitedly agitated, pressing for answers impatiently.

Bai suddenly fell silent.

She had used her All-Seeing Eye and realized that the man had no intention of letting her out!

This wicked man!

Having completed a one-sided, ineffective communication, The Cat indignantly dispelled the illusion and began to ponder new ways to get outside.

With the illusion canceled, the members outside gradually awoke and clambered to their feet.

Massaging their unfortunate bumps and bruises, they convened an emergency meeting.

This was quite serious; The Cat had not only suddenly appeared from the main base but could now use containment-breaching methods to affect the stationed personnel.

Confined within the containment chamber, Bai quickly devised a new method.

The Cat turned her attention to the newly acquired system.

Reincarnation was about recycling souls destined to dissipate.

The meaning of Reincarnation was something The Cat hadn’t told Bai.

After a soul passed through Reincarnation and its residual mental energy was absorbed, it retained no memories… Perhaps more mental energy was produced when the Reincarnation soul merged with the original soul?

The key point was that Reincarnation’s essence was to distribute information through information channels.

As an information construct, Bai could cross worlds using the Reincarnation channel, so surely, teleporting within this world should also be possible?

Hooray! Teleportation!

Bai happily selected Gao Xin, the counter-agent with whom she had the most contact in this world, as her target channel.

He wasn’t in the containment chamber right now, and their causal link with him was the strongest due to their extensive interaction.

At this moment, Gao Xin was in the meeting room, participating in a re-discussion about the harmlessness of the ‘tranquilizing cat’ and strategies for dealing with this unique, communicable, intelligent anomaly.

Suddenly, a distortion slowly shimmered beside him, and in the blink of an eye, Bai was sitting neatly on the conference room table.

Bai’s sudden appearance made it seem as though she had been there all along, staring defiantly at everyone in the room, utterly fearless.

Gao Xin: “…”

Wei Hongzhi: “…” (Counter-agent Captain)

Dr. Sun: “…” (Doctor)

Other members: “…”

Bai: “…”

The Cat quietly shuffled backward.

“Well, at least we know how this little darling appeared in the laboratory,” Dr. Sun said humorously, shrugging his shoulders.