[Your "Hunting lv0" has upgraded to "Hunting lv1"]
In the dream classroom, the system displayed this message and then remarked: "Training in dreams can only help you grasp basic techniques. Using the knowledge in reality is what makes your body remember it... so skill improvement in the dream classroom will be quite slow."
Chu Tingwu opened the hunting skill upgrade details and, looking at the tiny increments in experience points, fell into contemplation: "So my fight with the tiger counts as hunting too?"
Who exactly was hunting whom==
System: "Felines can hunt animals larger than themselves. You're just getting some early practice."
When Chu Tingwu practiced military boxing and other activities, they surprisingly counted toward hunting experience. The most generous experience points came from helping people catch mice—though Chu Tingwu noticed that the first mouse catch gave the most experience, with the next three attempts giving half each time, and recent catches only yielding token points.
That's why her hunting skill was only at lv1 even now.
Chu Tingwu had thought she would at least rank as proficient in hunting among cats.
System explained: "I set the experience values based on your size."
For example, just as a tiger hunts antelopes, Chu Tingwu would need to hunt something at least waist-high to her with the ability to fight back—like a dwarf—to be considered basically qualified.
The system simply sent Chu Tingwu the developmental requirements for a kitten—
[When all skills reach lv3, you'll be a kitten who has fully mastered your species' techniques.]
[Currently unfulfilled skills:
Visual lv2, Hearing lv1, Hunting lv1 (Comprehensive), Perception lv1 (Comprehensive)]
Skills marked "Comprehensive" were influenced by other basic abilities, meaning the fastest way for Chu Tingwu to level up was to improve her weaknesses.
However, Chu Tingwu was still most interested in the hunting skill, but where would she find such a dwarf...
"Knock knock"
Chu Tingwu opened the door to find Cao Meng, who only reached her waist.
Cao Meng: "Sister Chu! There are groceries hanging on your doorknob!"
After seeing them, he immediately came to knock, wanting Chu Tingwu to take the groceries inside before they spoiled!
Chu Tingwu took the bag, rummaged through it, found a pack of chocolate, and shared two pieces with Cao Meng: "Remember to brush your teeth after eating."
Only after watching the little one go inside his home did she regretfully look away.
System: "..."
System: "Those with negative combat ability don't provide experience points."
Chu Tingwu: "Then I guess I'll try to improve my hearing and vision first=="
This bag of groceries was bought and delivered by Man Xing.
Man Xing was a very diligent life assistant who created work for herself even when there wasn't any.
After starting to work for Chu Tingwu, she didn't immediately stick to her young boss's side, but first conscientiously handled Three-Five-Five's school pickup and drop-off, and in her spare time watched all of Chu Tingwu's videos.
Man Xing kept a notebook and learned more about her young boss:
For instance, although her presence wasn't strong, essentially, Chu Tingwu's video account belonged to two people: herself and her foreign friend who went by "System."
This friend was also connected to a reputable video post-production team, though it wasn't clear whether as an owner or core member.
On another front, Chu Tingwu had already started her business, providing core technology while her friend You Zhenzhen handled company operations. Though the APP hadn't gone viral yet, it was operating well and could follow a path of long-term development. Man Xing made some inquiries through her contacts and found that the APP had a high chance of attracting quality investment.
Currently, the only investment was friendship-based, from Director Yang of Little Sun Hospital.
After taking these notes, Man Xing set them aside and didn't immediately involve herself in her young boss's work—though young, her boss was clearly not foolish and had arranged her career well. As a life assistant, knowing this information allowed her to proactively take on work she was better suited for.
Man Xing first called Chu Tingwu to ask if she needed grocery delivery service:
From the videos, she noticed Chu Tingwu had two ways of obtaining ingredients when cooking. When school ended early, she'd buy ingredients herself the day before; when school ended late and homework was heavy, she'd order directly from supermarket delivery. But either way, freshness would be compromised, and it was clear the young boss cared about ingredient freshness.
A person might enjoy the cooking process or the ingredient selection process, but probably wouldn't enjoy time spent commuting.
Of course, if the young boss preferred, she could also provide driving service.
After receiving an affirmative response, Man Xing began purchasing various ingredients daily according to her young boss's spreadsheet checklist—
For some reason, looking at the spreadsheet made Man Xing feel her young boss's image was somewhat disconnected: "This spreadsheet is too detailed... and these are fixed delivery channels from certain private restaurants... these rows are online rumors like 'this place is really delicious but doesn't deliver,' and these rows... why do we need to pull vegetables directly from farmers?!"
Where did the young boss collect so many strange food sources?
It was as if the young boss had always wanted to try these tastes but thought it would waste time to go specifically for them, and with no one to delegate to, she could only keep them in mind for now.
Of course, Man Xing carefully fulfilled the spreadsheet requirements, and her young boss was generous with money, giving her a supplementary card with all expenses deducted from it.
So much so that when first invited into her young boss's home for dinner, Man Xing felt somewhat nervous—
She mentioned it in the secretary group chat.
Others chimed in: "The Boss probably hasn't even been inside."
So what was the young boss's home like?
Sister Shi had once taken Man Xing to the Big Boss's home, but though they were mother and daughter, the two gave very different impressions.
Rather than a home, that place was more like a house where the Big Boss often rested, not far from the company, quiet, with strict security, decorated without particular style, using bright and generous colors, with cleaning staff regularly maintaining it.
The Big Boss hated noise when resting. That day she sat in the study having a meeting, her voice calm but brows furrowed like a knife.
The young boss's home was quite... fascinating?
Man Xing certainly wouldn't mention any details in the group chat. When she entered, she first saw felt balls made of cat fur displayed in the entryway, two feathers sealed in frames, a ceramic miniature badminton court scene, a hamster-shaped clock, and a small box of used disinfectant wipes.
Man Xing couldn't help but smile, and walking further in, she saw more cat-themed decorations. She recognized many as merchandise from the 365 Cat Census APP, and these practical items had all been put to use by the young boss, making the house quite colorfully decorated.
The kitchen was spacious, various school uniforms hung on the chair backs in the study, and a cat jumped down from the table, glanced at her, naturally walked to the door, which opened, and the tortoiseshell cat slipped out.
Man Xing hurriedly stood up: "Chu Chu, the door isn't locked—"
Shouldn't it have been locked?
Chu Tingwu, busy in the kitchen and not letting Man Xing help, casually said: "It's fine, the door can recognize cat faces, it opens automatically."
Man Xing: "?"
Then the front door opened again before her eyes, and the tortoiseshell cat led a long-haired orange cat inside, who raised its front paw.
Man Xing: "..."
Somehow divinely inspired, she pulled out a disinfectant wipe from the entryway and cleaned all four paws of the orange cat.
The orange cat gave a "meow" that seemed both thankful and greeting, then followed the tortoiseshell cat to the food bowls near the kitchen to get some food.
Chu Tingwu: "It's a stray orange cat from the neighborhood. The weather has gotten a bit cold lately, so residents who have cats created a group chat and decided to take turns providing food for the strays."
Some choose to leave bowls by their doors, others go downstairs at night to feed them, while Chu Tingwu simply lets the cats come to her door for food, which makes it easier for her to clean and collect the bowls afterward.
When the cat was halfway through its meal, dinner for the humans was served.
Smelling the aroma, Man Xing understood why her young boss was so particular about ingredients—
The better the ingredients, the more they enhance already delicious food.
After tasting such meals, how could one accept ordinary food... especially when there's no shortage of money for groceries.
After dinner, discovering that cleaning wasn't part of her duties (thanks to the smart home automation system that left little need for manual cleaning), she asked, "Chu Chu, how do you usually maintain relationships with your past collaborators?"
Indeed, Man Xing was trying to find a third thing she could do.
That would be visiting with gifts—no, helping her boss maintain relationships with business partners.
—These partnerships hadn't yet reached the level of "close friends" where every detail would be remembered, but they weren't strangers either. There might be secondary or deeper cooperation in the future, so they couldn't just be cast aside.
Therefore, life assistants often take responsibility for recording company partners' birthdays, their relatives' birthdays, and sending well-wishes during holidays and special occasions. For important individuals, they would personally visit.
Particularly important matters would need to be brought to the boss's attention, as everyone has moments of forgetfulness, and a life assistant's duty includes making the boss's life more convenient and smooth.
As Man Xing was describing this.
Chu Tingwu listened, and the system recorded.
Although according to the system's thinking, the little kitten didn't need to worry about these matters... but it recalled that there were indeed "second and third collaborations," such as Teacher Wang introducing Boss Zong, the Culture and Tourism Bureau, and the Pet Communicator certification. The Culture and Tourism Bureau had hired her for promotional videos, then as a judge, and later there was the connection with Mu Lou's film.
It searched and found that humans had complicated personalities with many twists and turns, and relationships indeed needed maintenance—sometimes success or failure seemed to hinge on a decision-maker's momentary whim. Humans had written many works suggesting that subtle emotions could influence important decisions, but where did the "picking up paper balls during interviews" example come from?
As a system, it really wanted to find the original instance.
It secretly sighed to Chu Tingwu in their shared consciousness: "It seems humans all need to suddenly mature at some point... fortunately, you're just a cat."
Its evaluation of Man Xing also improved slightly, from "at least she's human" to "seems to be somewhat useful."
Let her handle the "maturity," while our little one can stay young forever.
Chu Tingwu nodded silently.
After dinner, she went to the study to print out a "Social Circle Personnel Information" booklet.
Man Xing wore a smile, but felt somewhat bewildered—
Was it her own initiative to find new work content, or had the young boss prepared everything in advance, just waiting for her to take over this part of the work? Otherwise, who would prepare detailed spreadsheets of all their acquaintances like personnel files!
Moreover, the information was quite comprehensive, including all important data that could be found through normal channels, leaving almost nothing for Man Xing to research.
The young boss, a mysterious high school student.
With slight awe, Man Xing returned home and began carefully reviewing the document: "...This even includes the boss..."
Are you two mother and daughter distant relatives?!
As for the young boss's father, who was also the boss's ex-husband, he didn't even qualify for an entry—fair enough, that relative was even more distant.
After reviewing the entire document, Man Xing discovered that Three-Five-Five and "the system" weren't included.
...But why were Teacher Zhang's crow and cat from Luofeng City included? So how was she supposed to send gifts to a crow and a cat? Was this really a relationship she could help maintain?
Young boss, could you handle this yourself?
-
While Man Xing was reviewing the "files" Chu Tingwu had provided, Chu Tingwu was also looking at the information the system had given her.
Although she self-deprecatingly claimed her "dream was to become a teacher and live an easy life," Man Xing's resume was actually quite impressive. She grew up in a small city with limited educational resources but still managed to get into a top-tier university. She started acquiring various certifications while in school, joined Lu Cenyin's branch company right after graduation, gradually worked her way up to headquarters, and never stopped improving herself.
After some thought, Chu Tingwu sent Man Xing another message, saying she was learning Russian and needed conversation practice, suggesting they could study together if she had time.
Man Xing replied with a [raising hand.jpg] emoji, adding "Okay, but I have no foundation and will start from zero, so progress will definitely be slow at first. Please don't look down on me, boss!"
She seemed very energetic.
Chu Tingwu put down her phone, crouched against the wall, and quietly observed the passing crowds.
This was Jin City Wanbei Airport, the city's only airport. People from several nearby small cities often came to Jin City to catch flights, resulting in large daily passenger flows, with people frequently rushing past with their rolling suitcases.
However, Chu Tingwu wasn't here to catch a flight. She hadn't started winter break yet, with final exams still half a month away. This was a weekend, and she had taken her second monthly exam half a month ago.
In this monthly exam, her class ranking had dropped one position, but her overall ranking hadn't changed at all, staying within the normal range of fluctuation.
After three exams, Teacher Yuan had a good grasp of the students' abilities, and according to the school's arrangement, they would switch from having two days off to one day off in the month before final exams, with students coming to school on Saturdays for teacher-guided review.
—This semester's regular classes ended after the third monthly exam, with the final month dedicated to review.
Everyone figured this was meant to outperform other schools in the final exams, as other schools had the same idea.
However, good students had privileges. For instance, in the neighboring Class 2, a student who had tutoring with another teacher on Saturdays and couldn't attend the school's extra classes was granted leave by their homeroom teacher.
The same applied to Class 1, where two students had been granted leave, so when Chu Tingwu opened the office door, Teacher Yuan waved his hand: "Granted, go have fun."
Chu Tingwu: "?"
Teacher Yuan: "Of course you're not going for tutoring, but I feel a bit guilty keeping you confined in the classroom."
Mainly because he'd heard that Three-Five-Five also had weekend classes, and when Three-Five-Five rushed home after class only to find the child wasn't there, having to track her down to the classroom door, that look was far too accusatory.
Receiving the decree, Chu Tingwu obediently went off to "have fun."
She decided to use the weekend to level up her "visual" skills.
According to the system: "Ordinary kittens don't have the issue of strengths and weaknesses, they adapt to their bodies from a young age, and most skills improve gradually with time... but you're a special human-cat, little one, your abilities awaken gradually, some earlier than others."
System: "When you get used to using more powerful abilities, it becomes harder to train the weaker ones."
For example, getting used to identifying people by smell might cause one to overlook a cat's visual advantages.
Being accustomed to communicating directly with cats through cat language meant that visually observed information would only be instinctively received, often forgetting to analyze it personally.
So today, learning that Chu Tingwu wanted to level up, the system temporarily sealed her level 3 sense of smell.
The world became somewhat unfamiliar when her sense of smell was sealed.
Chu Tingwu: "It feels like it's missing many layers."
She tried running on the rooftop and was surprised to discover—she actually used her sense of smell during parkour too. When doing parkour in unfamiliar environments, although the system had already checked the environment's safety, Chu Tingwu still relied on her sense of smell to judge her footing.
Every stone, every wooden board, actually had its own unique scent.
And so much information was too much and too complex, like air, lingering around Chu Tingwu until it disappeared, and only then did she realize she had actually remembered the smell of the wooden board... remembered it instinctively, without needing to categorize or distinguish it.
She had stepped over that wooden board many times, and she had stepped on that brick many times, so the smells mixed together and became new smells, which made Chu Tingwu feel both strange and peculiar.
With this unfamiliar mindset, Chu Tingwu sent Three-Five-Five to school and then went to the airport alone.
Today's extra class was "finding with the eyes."
Chu Tingwu had previously discovered that her eyes would change—
Her eyes were originally a normal dark brown, but they had now stabilized into a more obvious light brown.
And sometimes, the color of her eyes would become even lighter, a light golden yellow.
Of course, if you didn't pay special attention, this wouldn't be too obvious, and the change only lasted for a moment: the moment a cat hunts.
Chu Tingwu didn't understand the principle behind it, and when she asked the system, it would only say, "Because you're a human-cat."
Very unreliable.
Just like during a hunt, before Chu Tingwu could react, her eyes had already helped her capture the traces of the prey—like when catching mice: her eyes were normal before and after the moment of action, but at the moment of striking, her eyes would turn yellow.
But there were also drawbacks.
That is, when Chu Tingwu focused, she could see very far, but at that time, things very close to her would become a bit blurry.
She found it convenient to observe moving creatures, but stationary ones were almost invisible to her.
After squatting in a corner of the airport for a while, Chu Tingwu suddenly stood up and walked forward.
In front of her, a college student was looking confusedly at his ticket and then looking up to find the check-in counter. He was carrying a large backpack and dragging a suitcase.
There were many people coming and going on this holiday, and many people were carrying suitcases. Someone walked behind the college student, and just as their phone vibrated, as if they had received a message and were about to check it, in the second they raised their hand, the phone slipped from their wrist, smoothly opening the college student's bag, taking out a tablet and headphones from the outermost layer, and then kindly helping him zip it up before turning around and leaving.
During this time, the person was wearing a hat and a black mask, hiding half of their body behind the college student while performing the entire action. After getting what they wanted, they stuffed it into their own bag, while the college student was still looking at his ticket, completely unaware that he had already been robbed.
Nowadays, people rarely carry cash with them, especially young people, but electronic devices are not few. Losing a phone is easy to notice, but other devices are harder.
The airport is still a good place for thieves to work. Some people might suspect they forgot to bring their electronic devices when they notice them missing, and if they are in a hurry to board the plane, this time is enough for the thief to complete the process of disposing of the stolen goods.
Chu Tingwu brushed past the thief.
The thief was standing there, looking for another target. After observing the surroundings for a while, he turned around and opened his bag to see how today's harvest was, but his actions suddenly paused:
The tablet and headphones he had just stolen were gone.
Thief: "……"
Thief: "?"
He began to doubt whether he had stolen anything at all.
He subconsciously looked at the college student, whose backpack's zipper was open, and from a distance, he could see the edge of the tablet protruding.
Someone passed by and patted him: "Hey, you forgot to zip up your bag, be careful!"
College student: "Ah? Ah! Oh my god! Thanks, thanks!"
The college student zipped up his bag, thought about it, and turned the backpack around, hanging it directly in front of his chest.
Thief: "?"
He no longer just doubted; he was now certain.
There must be something wrong with his memory... forget it, he could steal something else.
With a faint sense of doubt and anxiety, this thief now targeted a woman who had left her bag on a seat to go to the bathroom.
Although there were people on both sides of the seat, one was playing with their phone and the other was listening to music, he still felt confident.
He walked over calmly, dropped his own bag on the ground, took off his coat and draped it over the back of the chair, then started to bend over and search for the coat pocket.
The coat blocked the view on the left, and as he bent down, he used his arm to block the movement of his other hand, easily opening the woman's bag, taking out a watch and wallet.
This time, he used the posture of putting on his coat to directly stuff the stolen goods into his own coat pocket, then picked up his bag and quietly walked forward.
He walked to Area D, where there were more people, and the crowd in front of him began to push towards him, so he subconsciously took a step back, searching for a target with his eyes, but suddenly felt a sharp pain in his heel!
Then he lost his balance and fell backward.
"Hey! Are you okay? Hey!"
The people who squeezed over and those behind were a bit surprised, and the closest one instinctively wanted to help, but the crowd gathered, making the thief feel inexplicably uneasy. He got up by himself, waved his hand to indicate he was fine, and then put his hand into his pocket.
...The watch and wallet he had just gotten were gone.
No, it wasn't just that...
He opened his bag and saw that most of today's gains were also gone!
Thief: "!?"
"You..." He swallowed the curse, "Don't let me find you!"
It wasn't the police, definitely not. If the cops had found him, they would have just taken him away. This technique, this proficiency, this must be a fellow thief!
He understood: the tablet and headphones in the college student's bag were probably fake! This fellow thief must have had an accomplice who had prepared fake goods in advance, and when they noticed him working here, they played a trick on him. In the underworld, being outplayed by someone's skills meant that this place had been claimed by them, warning him to leave quickly.
The thief looked around, saw the police at the security checkpoint, and for a moment, he actually felt the urge to report the incident, but then he gave himself a slap: report what! He didn't believe that after practicing his skills for so many years, he could be outdone by someone else?
Thief Old Ba began to roam the airport looking for opportunities, and then, he was caught.
Yes, very quickly.
Old Ba wasn't caught because of a mistake; he was accidentally caught on camera showing half his face.
As a "veteran" like him, he had definitely been in jail a few times. Now, with the advancement of camera recognition technology, they could catch familiar faces like his for questioning.
Even if they couldn't catch him red-handed, detaining him for twenty-four hours was enough to look into his old cases.
For this kind of petty theft, even if he had been in jail and gained experience, it was really hard to change after getting out. If he couldn't find opportunities here, he must have committed crimes elsewhere.
He was escorted by the airport police to the nearby Wanbei Police Station, and Chu Tingwu also "got off work." She rubbed her eyes and prepared to go home and rest, but the system was still paying attention to the follow-up.
The police at the police station saw Old Ba, their old acquaintance, with disdain and helplessness, and didn't waste words: "So, how much this time?"
Old Ba: "……"
Old Ba raised three fingers: "Can I reduce my sentence if I report a fellow thief?"
"Oh?" The police officer who had already started recording looked up, "Tell me?"
Old Ba then recounted the incident of failing to steal and being stolen from today.
He was also helpless. If he hadn't been so angry at the fellow thief, he wouldn't have been so careless. Since he was going to jail, that fellow thief shouldn't think of getting away!
The police officer at the police station: "……"
The officer could see what he was thinking at a glance, but if the situation was true, it really needed to be taken seriously.
According to Old Ba's account, if it was really a gang, they had to investigate it seriously! There hadn't been any gang crimes in Jin City for a while, and they had to crack down!
With the mindset of catching a big case, the police first contacted the airport and found the college student who had been stolen from through surveillance. When he landed, they called to ask if his tablet was real.
College student: "What police, what about my tablet again? You guys aren't scammers, are you?"
Police: "……"
It's good to have anti-fraud awareness, but they had to go through some effort to prove themselves, only to find out that the tablet was indeed original.
College Student: "Wow, it was actually touched by a thief!? Does that mean I can't touch it! Should I get someone to collect fingerprints!"
College Student: "Are you guys flying over, or should I take it to the police station!"
College Student: "Um... will you check the contents inside? Can I open it and delete some stuff first..."
"I want to leave a clean slate in this world!"
Police: "We won't be coming over for now, just put it in a sealed bag to protect it, and we won't check the contents inside."
These days, there aren't any thieves who can alter the contents of the stolen items!
College Student: "..."
For some reason, there's a bit of disappointment.
As for the police, they can't just fly to another city just because of Old Ba's words. They are currently reviewing surveillance footage.
In the end, after a half-day's work, the police sat in front of Old Ba.
Old Ba showed an expectant expression.
The police gave a forced smile.
Old Ba: "..."
Police: "Sorry, but you've always avoided the surveillance cameras when stealing, so we didn't capture any footage of you taking the item, nor did we find any footage of the item being returned."
So, there's no way to prove that Old Ba stole it, and how can we prove that someone else stole it from Old Ba and returned it without leaving any information... What's the point! They even called the passerby who reminded the college student to zip up their bag!
Old Ba showed another expectant look: "Then... can I get a reduced sentence if I didn't steal that much?"
The police had a blank expression.
In theory, it's possible.
But the colleagues were upset about being fooled, so they worked overtime for three days, digging up other cases of his, and adding them up to bump his sentence to the next level.
So.
Off you go!
