Chu Tingwu carried a basin out the door, able to hear the sounds of small animals scurrying in the fields.
She placed the basin at the doorstep and made a few long, breathy calls. Soon after, two or three cat meows of varying lengths came from nearby.
A tabby cat and a pure orange cat jumped down from the wall. They eyed Chu Tingwu somewhat curiously before burying their heads in the food bowl.
The basin contained steaming hot cat food.
Since there were no cats in the house at the moment, feeding these village strays wasn't a waste.
Having always lived in the village, even though Chu Tingwu wasn't the one who usually fed them, the cats still came to eat without hesitation. Chu Tingwu stood by, listening to the two cats bicker in simple language as they fought over the food.
The cats' conversation wasn't very complex. Translated, it went something like:
"This is delicious!" "Fatty, get away!" "This is better than what we ate yesterday!" "Yes, yes, it's good!" "I told you to get away!"
After eating, they first groomed themselves, then groomed each other. Finally, the tabby cautiously approached to sniff Chu Tingwu, followed by the orange cat, who smelled the food scent on her sleeve and affectionately pawed at her knee.
"That's all for today. I'll make more tomorrow."
She said this and then translated it into cat language. The two cats seemed startled, jumping back a couple of steps before returning with puzzled expressions. They seemed curious about how this creature, emitting the scent of a kitten, could be so large and provide such delicious food.
"I want more, meow~"
The orange cat reacted first, excitedly rubbing against Chu Tingwu's ankle. She gently lifted her foot to nudge it away, repeating this a couple of times until the orange cat reluctantly left.
The tabby jumped onto the wall, stretched lazily, and said slowly, "You're a very fragrant, very big kitten, meow~"
Chu Tingwu: Thanks?
After sending off her two feline neighbors who helped with kitchen waste disposal, Chu Tingwu began tidying up the room. After some thought, she set aside a portion of the newly bought ingredients, deciding to make cat food on-site at the rescue house tomorrow. It wasn't too difficult, after all.
...Although Chu Tingwu hadn't realized it, she had already started treating Three-Five-Five as her own cat. The neighbor cats had tasted her cooking, so how could her own cat not try it?
System: "Little one, you can sleep early today. There's a class tonight."
Chu Tingwu: "?"
Only after closing her eyes did she understand what the system meant—
Chu Tingwu opened her eyes in the dream realm to find that she had shrunk... No, it seemed the dream world had enlarged!
[This is the scene of your adopted cat, Three-Five-Five, fleeing and jumping around in the rescue house. Host, you are now a kitten who doesn't know how to use your body's instincts, and you can't achieve the same effects as the adopted cat. But you can observe and practice in the 'dream classroom' to familiarize yourself with your body's instincts—]
A more detailed panel opened up, and Chu Tingwu saw that her skills now included cat language, balance ability, and jumping ability. There were also a bunch of pixelated text that seemed yet to be unlocked.
[Cat Language: lv1]
[Balance Ability: lv0]
[Jumping Ability: lv0]
The system enthusiastically explained: "I've considered what kittens your age like most and displayed your current data in a way you can better understand. In reality, balance and vision, jumping ability and perception are all interconnected and mutually influential. But after simulation, I found that you're not ready to accept instinctive pupil perspective, super smell, hyper-perception, etc., so let's start with the basics!"
Let's begin with learning how to jump and run like a cat!
[Host, please note: To improve your learning enthusiasm in the classroom, when you complete a full learning trial in the dream classroom, your experience points and level will increase. However, if you complete trials in reality, the experience gain rate is 10 times that of classroom learning!]
The frozen scene began to flow. Chu Tingwu looked up to find that the rescue house environment had been three-dimensionally simplified. The complex boxes had become very intuitive geometric shapes, and the spacious interior only contained one cat: "Three-Five-Five".
Chu Tingwu: "Have I been shrunk to the size of a kitten?"
She was now shorter than the drawer that held the cat food, and the cabinet top that Three-Five-Five was standing on seemed about seven or eight meters high to her.
System: "You could originally jump onto platforms three to five times your body length in height."
Chu Tingwu: "...You mean cats originally could."
However, now it seemed she had a cat's physique too?
The Three-Five-Five above moved!
A cat-catching net appeared in mid-air. Three-Five-Five, dragging its injured leg, jumped from the highest cabinet top to a cabinet about three meters away in mini Chu Tingwu's perspective. Then it kicked off the wall, successfully changing direction mid-air, landed on a table, quickly passed under it, and once again clawed its way up to the top of the initial cabinet, poised to dash towards the iron door that wasn't currently visible.
— And then it was caught.
This series of images was first played at one-tenth speed, then at one-third speed, and finally at normal speed. Then, Chu Tingwu saw Three-Five-Five's escape route traced out in pale green light points in mid-air. The system then eagerly urged Chu Tingwu:
"Little one, go for it!"
Go for what? Conquering the big refrigerator?
If there were a physical education trainer present, they would surely think it was insane to have a novice attempt such movements. Chu Tingwu hadn't even done any basic training, let alone tackle high-difficulty tasks directly.
She stood numbly in place for two seconds, then looked up, ran to the initial cabinet, and leaped up, trying to grab the drawer handle to climb up.
In this enlarged world, the little figure kicked off the ground, raising both arms to grab the drawer handle. But in the next second, her body naturally curled up, easily surpassing the expected height. Instead of grabbing the handle, her feet landed on it, her hands pressed against the drawer, fingers curved and seemingly adhered tightly.
Chu Tingwu's eyes widened slightly.
Now, she estimated she was about three meters off the ground — even a high jump athlete couldn't jump three meters high from a standing position — and she felt she could jump even higher from this rather awkward posture.
...In the dream classroom, her feline jumping and balancing abilities seemed to be fully unlocked.
Chu Tingwu took a deep breath, no longer looking down. She stood on the drawer handle, released all four limbs, and pushed off hard. This time, she jumped onto the second drawer. Then, somewhat boldly, she ran to the edge of the handle, jumped from the edge, skipping the third drawer entirely and landing on the fourth.
This cabinet had a lower drawer and upper cabinet layout. The bottom only had four drawers, while the upper cabinet only had one vertical handle. The "task starting point" was at the very top.
Three-Five-Five had only taken two steps to jump from the ground to the top — one step kicking off the upper cabinet handle, and the second step already reaching the top. Chu Tingwu thought for a moment, looked up, and jumped—
But this time, it seemed she hadn't chosen the angle well. She hit the cabinet before reaching her chosen landing spot. Instinctively, she reached out to grab the cabinet door, her paws sliding down twice before Chu Tingwu fell completely!
She almost thought she would exit the dream, but in fact, she was caught by a soft, warm body.
The light trace points in the void suddenly coalesced into a real Three-Five-Five. The adult calico cat easily leaped beneath her, cushioning the scary fall. Chu Tingwu grabbed the big cat's neck and sat up, then the big cat moved.
She was buried in the calico's long smoke-gray fur, watching the perspective change rapidly. On the ground, the calico used a diagonal kick to push off the cabinet handle, gripping for a moment. At the same time, the fur on its belly cushioned the impact and slightly altered the cat's mid-air angle. Then the cat leaped again, gracefully landing on top of the cabinet. It even kicked the cabinet door with its hind legs, adjusting to an angle more convenient for avoiding human capture.
[[Switched to experience/guided teaching mode]]
A massive cat-catching net descended from above. Chu Tingwu instinctively ducked her head along with Three-Five-Five. Then, she felt a lightness that almost threw her off balance—
Three-Five-Five quickly slipped through a blind spot in the cat net, leaping into the air. She jumped over the non-existent tall humans in this dream world, landing on a slightly lower cabinet opposite. Then she snarled, kicking off the wall to avoid the net. The angle changed terrifyingly again, becoming a 90-degree downward view!
The big cat jumped down from the cabinet top, using the table to cushion her landing before sliding under it. She then repeated her climbing maneuver.
But Chu Tingwu knew that this series of moves had the humans spinning in circles. If they weren't so fixated on the iron door, Three-Five-Five wouldn't be so easy to catch.
And she was even injured, so this wasn't her best performance.
"It's just a dream, I won't get hurt anyway," Chu Tingwu thought, rubbing her wrist. She did some warm-up exercises, jumped in place a few times, then stood on the ground facing the cabinet. She sprinted and leaped—
She jumped onto the handle of the second drawer in one go!
For a kitten... no, for a human with a cat template, this was quite impressive.
Next, she jumped to the fourth drawer, pushed off hard, and grabbed the handle of the upper cabinet with both hands. Using all four limbs, she climbed up and caught her breath.
Her body seemed to have changed too. When she wanted, the friction between her skin and other objects would increase, allowing her to cling to surfaces more securely, like a mountain goat standing on a 90-degree cliff face.
The system was going crazy setting off fireworks for Chu Tingwu, even though she had only made a small improvement.
[Baby, you're amazing, so brave and smart!]
Chu Tingwu: "Uh..."
This time she successfully climbed to the top of the cabinet. After gauging the distance to the opposite side, she launched into another sprint without hesitation.
Without the big cat beneath her, Chu Tingwu could clearly see herself in mid-air, like those extreme sports performers doing dangerous stunts, leaping across two buildings more than three meters apart.
She successfully jumped across, her legs bending slightly. She nearly had to roll to absorb the impact but managed to stop herself by instinct.
I think I'm starting to get a sense of what a cat's balance is like.
The feeling of being able to control every part of her body was intoxicating. She lay on the edge of the cabinet, looking down and then across to the other side, feeling a sudden urge to try again—
The sensation of flying through the air was equally mesmerizing.
Jumping is humanity's wings for flight.
As if breaking through some limitation, Chu Tingwu performed the subsequent movements well. Although not as quick and agile as Three-Five-Five, she completed a full set of moves, only stumbling a bit when jumping down 90 degrees vertically, but it didn't hurt.
After she had completed three sets, improving her speed and efficiency from the start, the system happily informed her: "Baby, the difficulty has increased."
This time, a cat-catching net appeared behind Chu Tingwu.
The net swooped down with a whooshing sound. If she had cat ears now, she suspected they'd flatten in fear!
Chu Tingwu, hands on her knees, panted: "Phew..."
She always failed at the first step; it was too slow.
Jumping two levels at a time made her an easy target!
The cat-catching net slammed down, flipping over and precisely scooping her into the net. Then it was game over, and she appeared on the ground again.
But the difference between humans and cats is... humans can think.
The trace of completing a set of moves didn't include climbing from the ground to the cabinet top; she could choose a completely different route.
This time, Chu Tingwu decided to reverse the course.
But a problem quickly arose. When jumping from the lower cabinet top to the starting point on the higher cabinet, she failed two out of three times. Once, she could only climb up using all four limbs. Going from low to high was much harder than high to low.
[Baby, your jumping ability and balance have both leveled up to Lv1! You're now a kitten with basic mastery of these two skills!]
[So, you can now improve all three skills simultaneously, and we can make the course more interesting!]
Chu Tingwu: "Three skills..."
Oh right, cat language!
Suddenly, cats appeared all around her field of vision. They were lounging on cabinet tops, lying on tables, flicking their tails in corners, or with their tails entwined.
Some were stray cats she had seen before, some were from the rescue center, and there were even the two she had just fed tonight.
Clearly, these were all just data projections collected by the system.
The cats started meowing and chattering, turning the room into a noisy marketplace. Chu Tingwu couldn't be bothered to engage, focusing instead on how to complete her exercise. However, when she started to jump—
"What clumsy moves, meow!"
"Whose stupid kitten is this? So embarrassing, meow!"
"Mee-mee-mee-mee, nyah nyah nyah!"
Chu Tingwu: "..."
Even the two cats she had fed joined in.
The orange tabby raised its paw: "Those paws aren't nearly as nimble as mine. Is its brain not working properly, meow?"
The mackerel tabby that had previously praised Chu Tingwu now said sarcastically: "In human terms, would this be what they call a kitten with mental issues?"
Her claws were out now!!
