The System Mistook Me for a Cat-Chapter 187

Curiously, the streamer herself has never actually beaten the game.

She streams gameplay primarily for leisure, as her usual work involves editing videos related to cute pets. Moreover, her fans clearly prefer watching her explore different regions in the game to find various feline characters. This aligns perfectly with her own intentions when playing the game.

Some fans have tried to replicate her actions but always fall short of perfect imitation. Amid the chat messages urging Chu Tingwu to give it a try, everyone believes she can easily activate the "Cat Language Module."

After watching the video, Chu Tingwu chuckled and chose the female photographer character, then began typing her ID:

“355-1”

[Huh? Why not just call it "A Chu"?]

[This naming style… feels like something used in experiments, right?]

[355-1… does this mean the first little cat born from 355?]

Unfamiliar viewers might think it’s just a random number, but those who’ve followed Chu Tingwu’s previous videos and character (cat) settings can guess the deeper meaning behind the name.

Most viewers just laughed it off, but Qiao Lulu, still in the livestream, sent a long string of question marks. Unable to resist, he privately messaged a few friends with the same series of question marks:

At first, he thought a new gaming expert had joined their group chat.

But then you tell me you're the real-life prototype of the game's protagonist!

Isn't that like having Bear Grylls play a survival simulator?

While Qiao Lulu was busy looking at his phone, Chu Tingwu had already skipped the opening animation and controlled the protagonist to push open the window of the building.

The hotel door faced the corridor, but due to the unique design of the building, the window provided access to the rooftop below, reminiscent of stacked building blocks. Players could attempt parkour along the exterior walls if they chose to.

The game’s depiction of the building’s unique design actually led many players to vacation at the real-life counterpart, a ranch.

Viewers watched as Chu Tingwu controlled the protagonist to climb out of the hotel but didn’t immediately start moving. Instead, she made the character perform various actions and combinations, seemingly to get a feel for the controls.

Meanwhile, they noticed her constantly refreshing the in-game internet interface to check news updates about the red-rain falcon migration.

The sky gradually darkened.

[Why is the in-game time advancing… and Chu hasn’t started the main storyline?]

[Clearly, you don’t know about the game’s time design. The game has two time progression systems: if you follow the main storyline, time will naturally advance as you reach each city—but if you want to pull off something unconventional, like hiring someone to film you without ever leaving your starting point, you can adjust the game’s time by repeatedly checking news updates…]

[Basically, every time the protagonist clicks on a news article about the red-rain falcon’s current location, time advances by half an hour. Some people have tried endlessly refreshing the news to force the falcon to reach Yu City… which is the midpoint of the game. At that point, you can either choose “do nothing” or “upload the footage you’ve gathered,” both resulting in different endings but with the same 30 rating.]

[That’s the one! I remember seeing the ending animation!]

One ending is “You thought about it, but never started.”

—You sit in your study, scrolling through those videos and reading the comments, contemplating writing “I almost got footage too,” but you ultimately give up. You can’t join this frenzy now because you were supposed to be one of the creators of this frenzy.

The other ending is “You inappropriately reminisce about the beginning.”

—Someone likes your video, but they say, “Isn’t this just a reupload? The red-rain falcon has long since moved on!” With so many people capturing the falcon, even your amazing footage of its departure gets lost in the crowd.

The viewers assumed Chu Tingwu, rarely livestreaming, wasn’t aiming for either of those endings. So, as she continued to switch between actions, the in-game world transitioned into night.

Chu Tingwu stopped her “news-refreshing” routine, but the viewers remembered that the news had reported the red-rain falcon had left Qihe City hours ago.

Chu Tingwu raised her index finger to her lips: “…Shh.”

Of course, the viewers’ voices couldn’t reach her, but her gesture made the livestream audience pause for a moment of silence. Then, as they watched her adjust the computer volume to its maximum, they heard…

The protagonist’s breathing, faint laughter and chatter in the distance, the subtle hum of machinery, the sound of wind rustling fabric, and… and…

Was that the sound of wings flapping?

No bird appeared on the screen, but the viewers could clearly hear the sound of wings drawing closer. The invisible bird seemed to soar just above the protagonist’s shoulder before angling up toward the top of the building, attempting to cross over—

Suddenly, the photographer character moved.

It was the standard third-person perspective, but the photographer’s actions were almost frantic. She leapt up to grab the railing, accompanied by the rapid clicking of Chu Tingwu’s keyboard as she pressed key combinations in rhythm. To the beat of the keys, the protagonist zipped across the outer wall of the building—

Sensitive listeners could still faintly hear the bird’s flight, though it seemed a bit farther away now.

The buildings below and ahead faded into the distance, forming a wave-like pattern behind the protagonist. Chu Tingwu’s rapid movements caught the chat off guard, with many viewers frantically typing fragmented messages, accidentally hitting the enter key in their haste.

[That’s the real chase!]

[I almost thought I wandered into the stream where Chu was chasing red-rain falcon footage—oh, wait, I didn’t!]

If earlier chat messages about “going to the wrong stream” were just a joke, everyone now felt the atmosphere truly resembled that previous stream weeks ago.

Back then, no one knew if they’d succeed. Viewers waited eagerly every day, hoping to see signs of progress, worried about Chu Tingwu’s well-being while chatting with her, and most importantly, tracking the red-rain falcon’s news—

Every day, without fail.

Even though Chu Tingwu’s account automatically pinned a daily update on its position, viewers still actively searched for the information themselves.

It was through this real-time involvement that they realized—time was indeed slipping away.

Time slipped away with every news search: because human time sometimes feels meaningless—working, resting, or scrolling through one’s phone all day—but the red-rain falcon’s migration happens once a year or even a lifetime, moving from city to city every day, leaving a trail of conquered landscapes behind.

Viewers who had followed the previous stream were still lost in thought when they saw the protagonist step onto a trash can for leverage, then jump onto a railing outside, landing on a parked car’s roof in the next second.

Chu Tingwu’s expression remained unchanged, as if fully focused on listening—

The viewers also subconsciously tuned their ears, realizing they could still hear faint wing flapping sounds. Was the bird still outside the frame? Or could it be that Chu Tingwu had a bird in her room?

Before they had time to ponder, the photographer character sprinted out of the ranch but kept running further. It seemed like she was just running aimlessly, but the viewers noticed her stamina bar fluctuating, controlled by Chu Tingwu’s precise timing of actions and pauses to catch her breath, allowing the character to push through.

[I thought Chu was going to show us how to parkour in the game… but she’s not even heading for the rooftops.]

Her speed was slightly faster than normal, and her movements over obstacles were more efficient.

[Yes, and some parkour moves, I suddenly feel like I could do them in real life too... I haven't practiced parkour, but I do a lot of exercise, running every day.]

Chu Tingwu's fingers moved across the controller, but she explained casually, "Because the protagonist's stamina is terrible."

The stamina bar was so short, a game mechanic, not something her skills could compensate for. But—

When the stamina bar was almost completely depleted, and the protagonist's mood changed from "excitement" to "blank," Chu Tingwu finally stopped.

The protagonist now stood on a quiet street at night, surrounded by few people. She was perched on the head of a decorative stone horse in a pedestrian street, gasping for breath.

"Whoosh..."

Leaves rustled as they fell with the wind. At that moment, the sound of flapping wings was hidden within the rustling leaves. The protagonist lifted her upper body and instinctively reached out—

A young red-rain falcon landed on her palm.

The young falcon, either tired from flying or treating the protagonist as just another part of nature—a rock, a tree, or some other natural structure—laid itself flat like a bird pancake, utterly at ease.

The most uptodat𝓮 n𝒐vels are published on freёnovelkiss.com.

The human watched the bird in silence for a long time before gently flicking its head with her other hand.

On the radar map representing the coordinates of the red-rain falcon flock, a small red dot lit up in the lower right corner.

【You’ve encountered a young red-rain falcon that left a bit late. It chirps once, and you guess its name is "Diandian." Anyway, it's so adorable, so it is now called Diandian...】

【You wonder if Diandian can catch up with its siblings who left earlier. You don’t know, but you want to capture this moment.】

【You’ve acquired "VCR: First Encounter"】

【Congratulations, player! You’ve triggered a hidden easter egg and unlocked the achievement collection panel. Revisit your gained easter egg videos by opening the panel!】

The viewers were momentarily silent:

On the screen, Diandian clearly needed to rest and wouldn't leave the protagonist during that time.

So, there was no need to worry about running out of footage. As long as the player wanted, they could capture a lot of material for the final edit or select some to post online and earn travel funds. It was practically an easy mode once the easter egg was triggered!

Qiao Lulu: "It turns out that mimicking the prototype really does unlock a special clear path... Zhou Qiang missed out, that's too bad."

His friend had also tried to imitate the prototype and successfully completed the cyber check-ins in the first few cities. But later, they found that the time didn't align with real life; considering the requirements for clearing the game, they had to give up on the remaining cities.

Was it really necessary to synchronize the departure time as well?

While the audience on the live stream was alternately shocked and eager to try, a system screen in front of Chu Tingwu was showering her with fireworks.

The little one found the game’s easter egg. The little one is great!

The others didn’t find it, so the others are dumb!

The little one was the first to find it, so the little one is... the best!

Chu Tingwu pursed her lips, smiling.

Luckily, she hadn’t turned on the face-cams aimed at her, so the audience didn’t notice. But when they asked how she had found it and if she had used a strategy guide, Chu Tingwu still answered:

"Because I heard the sound of wings flapping in the background when my friend was playing like this before."

While Zhou Qiang was holed up in the game as a shady merchant, buying and selling, Chu Tingwu hadn’t raised the background volume. That’s how she heard the sound of wings from outside the window.

In real life, that would be normal, but for a game, there should be no "useless information."

But she hadn’t been in a hurry back then. Even if she guessed it might be related to the easter egg, she didn’t care until today, on the sailboat, when she felt a sudden urge to check.

And just as she confirmed the content of the easter egg—

【Your [Intuition lv1] has upgraded to [Intuition lv2]】

The system was delighted: "My dear, one of your skills is now lv2... Huh, how come you got two bars of experience at once?"

Didn't Chu Tingwu’s intuition level up because she figured out how to trigger the hidden game easter egg?

Chu Tingwu’s eyes curved in a smile.

"There ​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌‌‌​​‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌​​​‌‌​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​​​‌‌‌​​​​​‌‌​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​​‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌‌​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​‌​​‌‌​​‌‌‍must be something else that got confirmed as true, right?"

For example—

At the moment she "decided to go back and play," she not only thought of how to trigger the easter egg but also suddenly picked up on something else in that "hmm" from the system.

Like the fact that the system really wanted her to trigger this easter egg and had predicted through its data analysis that someone else might discover it first.

But the system's data could only predict human behavior patterns... It couldn’t foresee the actions of a cat.

However, Chu Tingwu realized that the system might have prepared something special, a little extra gift, for her in the game.

She opened the easter egg interface, moved the mouse to the first video, and a prompt popped up above it:

【Please wear VR equipment for the complete viewing experience.】

【Note: Your actions during the viewing won’t affect your future game progress or scoring.】

What kind of action did they mean during the viewing?

In other words, they wanted players to use VR equipment. Chu Tingwu had one, and some viewers did too. Since Chu Tingwu was live streaming, she could choose to enable the "one-click sharing" feature in the live stream.

She got into the VR experience pod that had just arrived yesterday and only then clicked to open the... VCR.

It was the familiar VR viewing perspective.

But the image seemed a little... unreal?

There was an odd sensation of transitioning between 2D and 3D, a mix of VR gaming and VR recording.

She found herself standing in a room made of building blocks. But this was the protagonist's starting room in the game, not Chu Tingwu’s own.

Outside the window, the night had fallen. "She" was looking at the night view.

And then, someone appeared in front of her, as if jumping directly from the rooftop. The wind lifted the hem of their coat and stirred the hair. With the sound of flapping wings approaching, the person suddenly turned their head—

Those slightly paler-than-normal golden eyes, shining faintly under the moonlight, swept over the camera in Chu Tingwu’s hand and then glanced at the part of her exposed, clearly well-trained muscles.

"Want to chase after it?"

A red-rain falcon chick flew past her.

Chu Tingwu fell into momentary silence.

The "person" in front of her was a NPC created by the program, but it was also herself—Chu Tingwu herself, who had never appeared in various forms in the game. However, it was slightly different from a real person, like the difference between a movie and a 3D animated movie.

But as she looked at "herself," she realized for the first time:

"At this moment, should I be smiling?"

There was no expression on her face, but when she extended the invitation, her eyes seemed to be smiling.

The wind stirred once more. The inviter didn’t care about the answer, already leaping from the platform. The moonlight bathed her head, Chu Tingwu felt a sudden impulse, and she saw a line of text flash in front of her.

[Action restrictions lifted]

The next second, she placed one hand on the windowsill and leapt out.

No, this wasn’t VR recording. It felt more like—

If VR recording only allowed her to attach to an avatar, then now, she had completed a full host takeover!

This was an incredibly close full-dive VR experience!