The System Mistook Me for a Cat

When she opened the door to go out, Freckles was having breakfast, taking two bites before staring blankly at his phone screen, lost in thought.

Freckles had dark circles under his eyes, and Chu Tingwu could tell with just a glance that he hadn\'t slept last night.

Upon seeing Chu Tingwu, Freckles stood up: "Wu, need any help?"

He followed her to the car and helped the ranger unload the boxes, including a box of coffee—they had run out recently, and everyone had been anxiously waiting for it.

Freckles tried to take the box from Chu Tingwu\'s hands, but as soon as he supported it, he nearly toppled over.

He was stunned for a moment, then noticed the small girl beside him reaching out to support the bottom of the box, using her other hand to steady the edge, and walked back inside quite naturally.

Freckles: "?"

The contents of Chu Tingwu\'s box were drone parts for assembly. Because there were so many items, she laid out a waterproof cloth in the corner of the living room and began assembling them on the spot.

After laying everything out, she thought for a moment and took out her previous fixed-position camera to film herself.

When she chose to start streaming, both her domestic account and overseas platform account began broadcasting simultaneously.

—This was set up by the website staff after her last livestream.

The staff were working on a program in the backend to make the comments from both platforms display on screen simultaneously, or show them in two separate locations, even with a few seconds\' delay would be acceptable.

...Even the system wanted to help them.

Of course, this wasn\'t really the streamer\'s concern.

She could now open two screens and watch comments from both platforms simultaneously.

Her domestic friends skillfully greeted her and asked:

[Master Chu, why are you filming indoors today? It\'s morning there, right?]

Chu Tingwu: "Because it\'s raining outside—"

She moved the camera to show everyone the grey-white sky outside, then said, "This rain will stop at 2 PM, so we decided to head out after that."

Freckles, who was making coffee nearby: "?"

They had only planned to go out in the afternoon, how could she be so precise about when the rain would stop?

The overseas friends were also very enthusiastic. Although Chu Tingwu\'s livestream title was "Rainy day, staying in for a chat," they joined quickly.

[Good morning, dear streamer, hope we can catch the wolf pack this afternoon, best if we can see Michelle!]

This was a streamer who could broadcast from the protection zone—watching her livestream was much faster than getting wolf news through normal channels!

[Huh? Didn\'t you all call her \'goddess\' yesterday? Why change the title today!]

[When she streams outdoors—she\'s the goddess of wolf-finding!]

Chu Tingwu: "That\'s not necessary."

She wasn\'t very familiar with these new overseas fans, so she usually chatted more with her domestic friends, but fortunately, they tended to ask similar questions.

Like what she was doing now.

Chu Tingwu showed them the tools in her hands:

"I\'m trying to manually assemble a drone, which I\'ll use for streaming later."

[But isn\'t drone use prohibited in the protection zone?]

[If you encounter birds of prey, it could easily crash, right? Not only could it affect the animals, but it would also be hard to recover.]

The Red Stone Protection Zone had very strict requirements for drone use, generally only allowing drone flights in special circumstances.

Chu Tingwu was indeed a special case, and she showed them her phone screen: "My application was approved."

Everyone: "?"

She had gotten approval based on her drone\'s quality and the system\'s capabilities—after signing the contract, the flight trajectory data had to be uploaded in real-time to the Red Stone Protection Zone\'s central control system during flights, subject to manual review. Plus, if the drone crashed, she would have to pay substantial compensation.

These details didn\'t need to be explained to the viewers one by one. Chu Tingwu continued her handiwork while chatting with others, and although they couldn\'t go outside, everyone was curious about life in the camp.

"A bear did approach last night, but after pawing at the door, the grizzly left," Chu Tingwu said, "Um... my hearing is quite sensitive, I heard the ranger getting up to look for tools. If the bear hadn\'t left on its own, considering camp safety, the ranger might have had to drive it away."

At that time, Chu Tingwu had rolled over, contemplating whether she should find a way to completely muffle her ears.

Next door, Lian was sleeping peacefully, her posture very proper, hands placed flat on her stomach, completely still despite the noise outside.

"Our food? Actually, the protection zone provides us with food, we just need to collect it regularly, so there\'s no food shortage issue... though the variety isn\'t very rich. I don\'t think that\'s the protection zone\'s fault, well, anyway, I cook whenever I have time."

[Cook... yourself (drooling)]

[How cruel! I\'ve been following your streams from the beginning and never got to taste your cooking! Do I really have to wait until next life and reincarnate as a cat?]

[For reincarnation, you have to pick the right map too. Fallen Phoenix City is the luckiest, Jin City second best. If you\'re unlucky enough to end up in the protection zone, they won\'t even answer when you come knocking!]

Chu Tingwu: "=v="

"A wolf did come knocking this morning..."

Shane and the grizzly seemed to have developed a rivalry—not long after the grizzly had been prowling around last night, Shane showed up too.

And it happened just as the ranger was driving up but hadn\'t yet entered the camp.

The protection zone rangers weren\'t too nervous about seeing wolves, indicating they shouldn\'t open the door, planning to wait for the grey wolf to leave on its own.

But Shane stared at their car for a while, hesitantly lay down nearby: "Awoo—"

Chu Tingwu heard the sound and after some consideration, confirmed that this grey wolf actually harbored no hostility.

After a standoff, the other humans realized this too, and after making shooing gestures, Shane left, only watching from afar as the vehicle entered the camp.

Chu Tingwu: "He might have been seeking our help."

She suspected that this wolf might have lived in an area with frequent human activity before arriving at the protection zone, and had previously received help or feeding from humans, so he believed seeking human help again would be useful.

The wolf\'s morning visit was like a small interlude. By noon, the rain had lessened considerably. Freckles kept coming out to check the rain every so often, seemingly wanting to head out now but not feeling entirely confident, so he came to ask Chu Tingwu\'s opinion—

"Maybe we could try going out to stream now? It would be good for attracting followers too!"

Lian was crunching on small round cookies nearby.

Chu Tingwu had spent the whole morning just finishing assembling the flying drone ball, but she held the ball without speaking, seemingly listening to something, and finally waved at Freckles, pointing to the ranger\'s room.

As Freckles turned his head, the ranger suddenly pushed open the door, pulling on his coat while cursing: "Damn it, isn\'t the interaction zone enough? They just had to drive into the core area themselves!"

Another professor heard the commotion and came out to ask: "What\'s wrong?"

Ranger: "Some young people drove here and now they\'re probably lost! Their last distress signal came from about five kilometers away from us, seems like they\'re out of gas. I need to drive over and check."

Chu Tingwu interjected: "Drive carefully, the rain will get heavier in half an hour."

The ranger looked at the drizzle outside, seemingly skeptical, but after hesitating, still asked: "How do you know?"

Chu Tingwu: "The air pressure told me."

Ranger: "Oh, your weather app must be pretty good then."

He mumbled something, unclear whether he had taken her words to heart.

Freckles made a surprised sound: "How many of them are there? Should we take our car too?"

The ranger nodded, and the three of them got into the car one after another.

Two vehicles drove out of the camp one after another. Although Freckles was still driving, he looked much more excited than before.

Before getting into the car, Chu Tingwu released a drone and connected its feed to the livestream, minimizing her own camera view to a corner.

The livestream channels on both platforms immediately became active.

Earlier, some viewers felt like they had stumbled into an ASMR stream while watching the host doing crafts (which they couldn\'t understand at all) and chatting with her, even managing to finish their homework in the process.

Now they could finally see the outdoors, and with rare drone footage too. Fans eagerly urged:

[Go higher! Fly it higher!]

The drone began to ascend.

The earth appeared in a murky mix of green and yellow, with the camp being the only splash of blue and white in the landscape. A stream cut through it, and animals could be seen moving beneath the forest canopy.

Droplets of rain transformed into misty haze, and at sufficient height, the entire scene appeared to be shrouded in a smoke-like veil.

Even from this height, there were no signs of human impact on nature. Herds of wild buffalo wandered through the rain, with no buildings or power lines in sight, no planes overhead. The wild animals ignored all humans, going about their own lives, making the vehicles appear strikingly out of place when the camera panned to them.

Freckles drove attentively, following the ranger\'s vehicle.

Although the straight-line distance was five kilometers, they couldn\'t travel in a straight line.

There were no roads in the core area, so they had to take a long detour, and they couldn\'t drive too fast, having to be careful not to hit any animals.

Just as he was thinking this, the car ahead stopped, and Freckles turned his head in confusion as he heard a wolf\'s howl.

"That sound..." he mumbled, "is that Shane?"

After hearing the same wolf\'s voice so many times, one could probably identify it by sound even without seeing the wolf.

He contacted the ranger ahead, who confirmed: "Yes, it\'s Shane. He\'s blocking the road ahead."

Chu Tingwu: "Perhaps Qiula is injured."

Qiula had been injured before, and they hadn\'t seen him today.

Due to the rain, Chu Tingwu\'s sense of smell was slightly affected, but thinking back now, she realized both the bear from last night and Shane today carried the scent of Qiula\'s blood.

Yesterday Qiula\'s injuries should have been improving, but today, they had probably worsened.

The ranger started his vehicle, saying coldly: "I\'ll contact the nearby veterinarians and let them decide how to handle it."

His current mission was to pick up those reckless young people.

Shane continued to linger near the vehicles but didn\'t block their path. When the cars started moving, he followed for a short distance, then gradually slowed down and finally stopped.

The drone faithfully recorded this footage, and viewers in the chat felt sad—

[Why can\'t they stop to help? Maybe Qiula is really badly hurt, unable to recover in the rain, and before leaving their temporary stop, Shane promised his little brother he\'d find help...]

[But not only did he fail to get human help, he also wasted a morning without hunting for food.]

How disappointed Qiula must be.

Chu Tingwu: "=="

Although everyone\'s imagination was indeed sad, but—

She instructed the system to stop following their car and instead aerial film Shane\'s situation.

In front of the livestream audience, under the watchful eyes of Chu Tingwu and Lian, Shane dug out a plump opossum from a burrow and carried it into the forest.

Everyone: "..."

This wild wolf apparently wasn\'t going to starve anytime soon.

The wolf\'s figure disappeared from the camera, and the drone turned to fly back, but the rain seemed to be getting heavier in front of the lens.

With a clap of thunder from the sky, Freckles took a deep breath and looked straight ahead.

After driving for half an hour, the light rain had indeed turned into a downpour as Chu Tingwu had predicted, and visibility had decreased.

He had to slow down the vehicle, then asked: "When will the rain let up?"

Chu Tingwu: "In about twenty minutes."

That\'s good, twenty minutes should be fine, right? But soon, he changed his mind as the ranger ahead asked them to stop and wait for the rain to lighten while he continued driving forward.

Ranger: "Once the rain lessens, you can either come join me or just head back."

After finding those young people, he would still have room for a few more in his car.

Freckles made an "ah" sound and slowly stopped the car: White had left the protected area, but according to protocol, even though Freckles had become the leader of this small team, they should still have a ranger with them when going out.

Now, the ranger\'s car was getting further away, soon disappearing completely in the rain.

Freckles looked out the window.

Then, he turned to look at Lian, and finally rested his gaze on Chu Tingwu: "Do you have any suggestions?"

Chu Tingwu climbed from the back seat to the front: "Keep driving to the left, maintain current speed, I\'ll tell you when to stop if we encounter wildlife."

Freckles: "..."

He actually got a suggestion=-=

In fact, he had only asked Chu Tingwu out of a sense of "shared responsibility," as he was also somewhat eager to prove to White that they could complete the work on their own. But after glancing at Chu Tingwu\'s expression, Freckles just shut up and drove.

The young girl seemed to know everything, yet looked as if she didn\'t care at all.

They completed some marking work along the way, retrieved videos from infrared cameras, and completed the recording transfer in the car. At exactly two in the afternoon, the weather cleared up on schedule, sunlight breaking through the clouds. Freckles looked up at the sky, then at the distant deer herd, suddenly realizing that not only had they been unaffected by the weather today, but their task completion efficiency was actually slightly higher than before.

The difference seemed to be... White\'s absence? No, no, no, it was Chu Tingwu\'s directions!

He curiously glanced at Chu Tingwu\'s livestream screen set aside, able to see others\' comments saying—

[For some reason, I feel like the chances of finding wolf packs are higher when White isn\'t around?]

[Yes, yes, although there wasn\'t livestreaming before, they would update the blog daily, right? Is today\'s luck especially good?]

[It\'s obvious you didn\'t watch yesterday\'s stream, it\'s because the Goddess is amazing! She can tell which paths the wolf packs have passed through, and Lian can identify which pack it is and count all the wolves in it at a glance...]

During the livestream, since Chu Tingwu wasn\'t yet too familiar with the local wolves, Lian mainly did the commentary.

Her commentary voice was calm, and although she didn\'t have a broadcaster\'s tone, it had an educational quality that somehow kept many people intrigued.

The system updated the livestream mini-program, importing real-time data of the wolves they encountered into clickable floating boxes, and even updated a small wolf pack map—surprising the "inexperienced" viewers on the overseas platform.

That\'s what domestic viewers watching both platforms\' comments simultaneously thought.

Chu Tingwu suddenly felt there might be no need to let the two platforms\' comments interact—

See, even without interaction, they could still argue.

[It\'s just adding new mini-programs to the livestream, haven\'t you seen videos of Chu Kitty playing with real-time livestream effects? Although there are still recordings now, recordings don\'t have the same feel as live!]

[Hmph! Doesn\'t this just show that this website\'s livestreaming system still has many shortcomings? The host\'s abilities are her own merit, but the platform itself isn\'t providing a suitable platform. She should come stream on 3C instead!]

This was currently one of the world\'s hottest video platforms, having produced global celebrities with hundreds of millions of followers.

[Aren\'t all livestreaming platforms basically the same? 3C just has higher traffic. Our Chu Meow is doing great on Fenhua, why should she switch to a new platform?]

[@CCC, when are you going to update the system? The content of the streamer\'s current broadcast definitely has an audience, and why are you suddenly using proverbs and idioms? Please speak normally.]

[...Not arguing with an illiterate @Fenhua Network Video Platform, didn\'t you guys develop a new program? Why aren\'t the other UPs as sharp and intelligent as Chu Mi, otherwise you could just throw a link at them. Are your programmers not working hard enough!]

The staff of the two major video websites: "……"

The system: "Ah……"

It seems like it can make some more money for the younglings again.

Chu Tingwu, at this moment, patted Freckles on the shoulder—according to their tacit understanding, this was the signal for him to stop the car.

Freckles: "Are there wolves?"

He had now become accustomed to following Chu Tingwu\'s advice, after all, what she said... was always right.

Chu Tingwu glanced at the sky, then told the viewers in the live stream: "The battery is running low, so today\'s live stream ends here."

Freckles: "?"

He didn\'t know how Chu Tingwu\'s drone was made, but the drone\'s battery was clearly very full.

—And the fans, based on common sense, assumed the drone really needed charging and said their goodbyes.

Just a few minutes after the live stream closed, White, who had just finished a meeting in another state, opened his phone and entered the live stream room—

【The streamer you follow has gone offline~】

White: "?"

He flipped through the recording and murmured, "What a coincidence."

However, today\'s recording seemed fine, and the team could handle the work smoothly on their own.

They should be on their way back now, right?

-

Chu Tingwu: "Let\'s find a place to camp."

Freckles: "……ah, ah?"

But the ranger isn\'t here!

Chu Tingwu: "White didn\'t say we couldn\'t camp alone, he only said we shouldn\'t go out without a ranger."

And now it\'s the ranger who left us, not us who left the ranger.

Chu Tingwu also sent a message to the ranger who stayed behind, stating that they had taken camping gear and driven a bit far, likely returning tomorrow.

The ranger who went out to escort tourists didn\'t return, creating an information gap. Lian didn\'t object, Freckles hesitated but didn\'t object either, and the three successfully stayed overnight in the wilderness.

Chu Tingwu knew that the first step of her goal was accomplished.

She was curious about Qiula\'s current state—and after several days, the team hadn\'t been able to put a satellite tracker on Qiula, which Chu Tingwu felt was a bit too slow.

They chose several camping spots on the map, and finally Chu Tingwu picked one.

She could be sure the two wolves were nearby.

Of course, she wouldn\'t walk into the reserve alone to look for the wolves.

She just, fell asleep at the temporary campsite.

Since there were only three of them, they all slept in the car. Freckles slept in the front seat, which wasn\'t very comfortable, while Chu Tingwu and Lian slept head to head, looking very peaceful.

Freckles turned over, actually quite curious about how Chu Tingwu\'s hearing worked... Wouldn\'t she be disturbed by noises?

And at that moment, the drone ball placed on the roof slowly lifted off, with a satellite tracker hanging below—

The humans who were awake didn\'t notice this at all.

-

At the limit distance of the dream resonance, Qiula and Shane were pulled into Chu Tingwu\'s dream.

The dream map was still their familiar world, with no change in location, just the time had turned into morning, as if they had just laid down and it was already time to get up.

The grey wolf howled slightly in dissatisfaction; his stomach was flat, and after sniffing the air, he found there was no scent of prey.

It seemed like all the prey had moved away overnight!

Shane felt a bit uneasy.

If they couldn\'t find prey nearby, they had to go to a new hunting ground immediately, which meant he might have to leave the injured Qiula behind.

After stealing food from the grizzly bear, they were retaliated by the bear the second time they met.

Shane escaped, but Qiula was more severely injured.

Shane: "Awoo—"

He smelled... the scent of humans?

That scent was full of human aura, but also a bit strange, like the scent of a house cat Shane had smelled in human settlements.

But no house cat would give off a feeling of being "very, very big."

When Chu Tingwu saw the two wolves, the wolves also stood up, wary of her.

Shane seemed to recognize her as part of the "human-containing vehicle," specifically the "human-containing" part, and in the dream, Chu Tingwu looked at Shane and continued to approach the wolves.

Wild wolves and the wolf named Qingfeng in the zoo were obviously different; their gazes when looking over were assessing whether it was worth hunting, but Shane\'s gaze was a bit complicated. He let out a low "awoo" and nudged Qiula\'s head with his.

Getting this close, Chu Tingwu also noticed that Shane\'s neck seemed to have a slight indentation, as if he had long worn a collar.

She made a mental note of this and then approached to check Qiula\'s injuries—

Qiula seemed to feel threatened and suddenly lunged to bite Chu Tingwu.

Then Chu Tingwu snapped her fingers.

"Snap," and Qiula\'s mouth bit into a large piece of venison, the meat between Chu Tingwu and him, and he could see Qiula, in shock, instinctively chewed.

Shane: "?"

Qiula: "!"

With food in their mouths, the two grey wolves momentarily ignored the human beside them, and the next second, Qiula seemed to want to take the food and leave. With plenty of food, he wouldn\'t choose to fight another large animal.

And his instinct always told him that this seemed to be a... formidable feline?

But after taking two steps, the meat disappeared.

By repeatedly using food as bait, Chu Tingwu managed to keep the two wolves at a not-too-close, not-too-far distance from her.

She also saw Qiula\'s wounds, which had turned gangrenous and were beginning to ooze pus, but for wolves, this injury wasn\'t completely hopeless.

Animals\' self-healing abilities are often stronger than humans\'... If there was a tracker, the vet could find them faster.

Aliali: 6749083ac4f3f33ac4814cd4

And outside the dream, in the dark, the system controlled the drone to put satellite trackers on the two sleeping wolves.

Inside the dream, the two wolves feasted, and after they finished eating, Chu Tingwu said, "Let\'s retreat."

Even in a dream, it could give wild wolves a wrong perception of humans; she wouldn\'t stay too long.

As she disappeared, a kilometer away from the temporary campsite, Shane twitched his ears and opened his eyes.

He first smacked his lips a couple of times, then let out a "awoo," realizing there was actually nothing in his stomach, and there was a slight discomfort around his neck, which he couldn\'t shake off no matter how he tried.

Shane: "……"

While looking for food in the rain, Shane wasn\'t as sad as the bullet screen comments made it out to be; after all, wild wolves\' lives were like this.

But at this moment, he looked incredulously at his belly again, letting out a long howl.

"Awoo—"

After howling, there seemed to be a glimmer of tears in the corner of this wolf\'s eyes.