Cathulhu Online, MUNYA!

Chapter 113 – Cat Dad’s Promise

Xiaomao called Shepherd and the three new guys to talk. He stared at the group of shady men, who had the names of a religion’s famous saints.

“Could you introduce yourselves, munya?”

The three men looked at Shepherd. The latter nodded at them.

The dwarf, who seemed to be the leader of the group, stood up and smacked his chest. However, he didn’t utter a word.

His name was Peter. He was a dwarf fisherman, and his character’s rarity was rare. However, only Magdalene knew as Peter couldn’t utter a word.

Peter pointed at his tongue and crossed his arms, telling Xiaomao that he couldn’t talk. The other two men also did the same.

James was a rare character like Peter, but his class was a marine. His muscles looked toner than the others, and he seemed to be capable in fights.

Like James, Johan was a human. However, John stood out from the rest as this supporter was a super-rare NFT. His class was a teacher, which seemed to be lackluster at a glance.

Xiaomao stared at Shepherd, demanding an explanation. The supporter smiled and pointed at Magdalene.

The catopus sighed. He sometimes hoped that his supporters could talk.

<Magdalene explains that these support characters wish to visit Cernun, and they will work on the ship in exchange for the trouble.>

<Magdalene vouches for their trustworthiness.>

“Okay. What about their masters, munya?”

<Magdalene believes it won’t be a problem.>

“Are you sure? If I remember correctly, their masters know where they are. They will be pissed if we kidnap them, munya!”

<Magdalene laughs and assures you that the issues have been dealt with.>

Xiaomao glanced at Magdalene’s name. It was still green, but she had a red border around it.

She had been killing people.

Xiaomao shrugged even though he had no shoulders. He didn’t care how many players or NPCs she killed as she and Shepherd were his retainers.

“If you say so.”

.

Pangu Universe Incorporate

At the customer support department, two hundred employees’ expressions were always dark as customer complaints never ceased.

“I heard about the recent scandal about your company. Is it possible that the players can die in real life if they die in the game?”

Most of the callers doubted the game’s safety, but the customer service employees robotically replied with dull voices.

“Our game is perfectly fine-tuned, and there is no danger whatsoever. The players that died in the news used a pirated version of game capsules. We always advise our customers to use genuine game capsules from our company.”

They repeated the phrases from 9 to 5. And when the night-shift employees came to work, they also used the same excuses.

Sometimes, relatives of the victims yelled at the employees.

“Bullshit! I bought the game capsule from your company, but my son died!”

The employees once again replied in a monotone, “We will transfer your line to the insurance department.”

BEEP

The line was transferred to the insurance department, which was internally nicknamed the Hush Department. The employees there would negotiate with the victim’s family members, which usually resulted in compensation in cash. 99% of the time, the victim’s family stopped whining and accepted the bribe.

A few smart people took the bribes and attempted to discredit them on social media and official news stations. However, they soon went missing a few days later along with their published articles.

The employees knew about the shady things that their company did, but they chose to keep their mouths shut. After all, they valued their lives.

The dull days continued until one of the callers informed them of something new.

“Hello, one of my support characters has stopped responding to my orders and gone on a trip on his own. He also ran away with my gold coins and PACTs. I want a refund.”

The operator was curious. She collected the player’s information and passed the details to the game moderator department.

It didn’t take long before similar complaints came from their customers.

“My in-game name is Butter Tank. I received a notification that an unknown NPC has freed my support characters from a curse. After that, both my support characters disappear from my game. I want them back!”

“One of my retainers stole my gold coins and fled north. I commanded them to return, but they ignored my order and disappeared from my retainer list. I need help!”

“My support character stops responding to my orders and runs away. Is this a bug?”

“The loyalty of my support character never changes, but they refused to follow all my instructions. Today, she ran away from me. What’s happening? My support character is a UR angel. I don’t want to lose her! I paid a lot of money to get that booty!”

As the flood of new complaints piled up to the moderator department, they began to see a new trend – All retainer complaints came from World 3!

The mods investigated the log files as well, and they found something in common.

Every missing or disobeying support character comes in contact with a certain support character by the in-game name [Shepherd]. Secondly, the retainers, who were removed from the player accounts, all had met with the following NPCs; [Cernun], [Ohuhuhohohu], [Emerald Hopea], [Fang Meirong], [Mao Xueyan], and [Ma Moxie].

The results of the investigation were passed to the developer team, which was managed by the son of the company’s owner. However, Pan Mei and Pan Xian were not in the country, and nobody was here to deal with the issues.

The problems piled up, and the company’s executives continued to ignore the anomalies, but the employees already caught wind of it. Soon, a few moderators decided to visit these NPCs by using their game characters without the permission of the developer team.

.

Because Xiaomao avoided getting his ship too close to the shore or too close to civilization, the trip further south was smooth.

No player came for him. No NPC found him. Although the beacon and the global announcements repeated once every hour, nobody dared to chase him in the open sea.

The beacon of light was annoying to both Xiaomao and Fu De. They complained every time the light appeared, but nothing harmed them.

During the long trip, Xiaomao finally found out how Andrew raised his level and acquired the title [The Manly].

On the gun deck, Andrew worked like a machine, packing gunpowder from the kegs into small bags, which could be inserted into the cannons.

The action didn’t give Andrew EXP. However, what came after that was the cause.

While Andrew was minding his own businesses, a 100 feet (30.48 m) long Rhino Shark trailed after the frigate and rammed at the hull of the frigate, swaying the entire ship.

The dwarf dropped everything in his hands and peeked out of the port side’s window. Then, he saw a giant sea monster.

Instead of panicking, the dwarf smirked and loaded the harpoon gun. He fired the harpoon and hit the back of the Rhino Shark, causing 20,000 damage.

Xiaomao was surprised to see such high damage from a simple harpoon gun. He also peeked out of the window to see the Rhino Shark.

Rhino Shark, Level 120

“…”

Xiaomao glanced at Andrew, and their eyes met. The dwarf gave Xiaomao a thumbs up and mounted the nearest cannon. Doing everything alone, he pointed the cannon downward, aimed, and fired at the shark.

BOOM

The iron cannonball hit the massive physique of the shark, dealing over 200,000 damage and causing a massive wound.

The shark stopped resisting and flipped upside down, showing its tummy.

DING

Andrew’s body glowed in bright light, and his level rose to 69. The dwarf puffed his chest while Shepherd, John, Peter, and James clapped their hands. After celebrating enough, they went to the harpoon gun, pulling the Rhino Shark closer.

Without Xiaomao’s permission, Shepherd brought out a fishing boat from his inventory and dropped it into the sea. He and Peter got on the boat and brought out saws and cleavers.

Meanwhile, James pulled the sail up, and John went to the helm and steered the wheel, commanding the ship to sail around the prey.

The team harvested the skin, meat, and body parts of the Rhino Shark while Xiaomao could only give them moral support from the deck.

“Wow, they’re competent, munya!”

<Magdalene concurs. She brags that these boys have been practicing when you’re away.>

Xiaomao nodded. Although he was lonely that he didn’t get to participate in their game, he noticed that the support characters had bright expressions as if they were enjoying what they were doing.

Looking at these supporting characters, Xiaomao had a bitter smile on his face. He was happy for them, but he also pitied them.

During the first invasion, these guys were the first to die. Although Xiaomao didn’t know how they fought, he could imagine the unwillingness in their eyes as they had no choice.

Xiaomao glanced at Shepherd, who seemed to be close to the men.

‘I promise, guys. I won’t mistreat you. I’m not like those heartless players and local NPCs.’