CHAPTER 382: CHAPTER 379: [THE CHOSEN ONE]

Chapter 379 [The Chosen One]

Human and cat gazed at each other through the windowsill for a while, and Chen Nuo smiled before turning back to the bed, leaning back against the headboard.

The Gray Cat agilely leaped, jumping directly from the windowsill onto the bed, and after spinning around twice, it lay down beside Chen Nuo’s hand.

Chen Nuo smiled again and reached out to stroke the cat’s fur.

The creature immediately squinted its eyes, making a contented purring sound.

Stroking a cat feels great for a moment, but stroking one continuously is everlasting bliss.

"I’ve been back for three days now, and it seems like you’ve been avoiding me?" Chen Nuo flicked the Gray Cat’s forehead gently with his finger.

"’MEOW...’"

"Don’t deny it, it’s obvious." Chen Nuo hummed. "I barely see you most of the day, and only at night when I’m asleep, I hear you sneaking down from the rooftop to eat."

"’MEOW...’"

Chen Nuo flicked the cat on the head again. "Speak human."

After a moment, he shook his head. "Everyone at home is asleep; there’s no need to worry about scaring anyone."

But the Gray Cat just lowered its head and remained silent.

Chen Nuo thought for a moment. "Are you afraid to answer some questions that you can’t respond to?"

"’...’"

"Can’t answer? Don’t want to? Or are you scared?"

The Gray Cat, as if surrendering, lifted two paws and then covered its face. "Don’t ask any more, please."

Chen Nuo’s fingers touched the back of the Gray Cat’s neck, gently pinching the skin there.

"Initially, I wasn’t too eager to press you for answers. Your origins are too dubious, as if you’re hiding many secrets. But I thought since you don’t have any hostility or ill intentions towards me and you haven’t tried to hurt me, it would be fine to keep you by my side and eventually learn something from watching you. However, on this recent trip, I encountered some things and feel more and more that this world is just too dangerous. So..."

The Gray Cat peeked out from the gaps between its paws, asking pitifully, "So, you don’t want to be a cat owner anymore?"

Chen Nuo smiled without saying a word.

This cat... is too suspicious.

Back in the Brazilian Rainforest, through several fierce battles in the Relic World, this Gray Cat seemed the weakest and appeared as if Chen Nuo had tricked it many times.

The so-called sacrifice of companions for boundless magical power. This Gray Cat had been duped by Chen Xiaoguo no less than three times.

But on the flip side, this also precisely illustrates that every time, the Gray Cat would coincidentally appear at the most critical place.

The battles in the Relic World were exceedingly brutal.

So many Ability Users died.

The Sea Monster, known as the number one being under the Controller, died. The Golden Bird, who possessed the Golden Bloodline, died.

From the Cultivator Association, the Wizard’s powerful lieutenant Bonfrey also died.

And yet, this seemingly mediocre Gray Cat managed to escape with me in the end—it always appeared in the right place at the right time.

Plus, this fellow’s mysterious origin...

I originally thought it was a human who could transform into a cat using shapeshifting ability. But then I found out that this guy is just a cat, not a human disguised as a cat...

A cat? A cat that has lived for at least a few thousand years. And it can grant its owner strange gifts.

If I follow this line of thought, after Brazil, I woke up from the Body Seizing ordeal. My Consciousness Space was full of holes, with seventeen fractures. When I was clueless about what to do, how did I find the direction to mend it? The first to merge spiritual power with me was the Gray Cat! Merging with the Gray Cat’s spiritual power completed 1/17! That gave Chen Nuo a very clear method and direction for repair.

Looking at this point... Was it by pure chance that I stumbled upon this method due to the Gray Cat’s carelessness? Or... was it consciously guiding me?

Another important matter was that Chen Nuo had discovered quite early on that the Gray Cat liked to feed off the bits of spiritual power that inadvertently leaked from him due to the fissures in his Consciousness Space.

It was as if this was a significant benefit the Gray Cat sought by staying by his side.

"I can continue to be your master, and I can continue to nourish you with my spiritual power. But... you’ve got to show me some real benefits, right?"

As he spoke, Chen Nuo brought a finger close to the cat’s nose and then drew out a trace of faint yet pure spiritual power from his Consciousness Space, slowly emanating from his fingertip.

The Gray Cat’s eyes immediately lit up, its nose eagerly moved forward, sniffing with contentment and greed.

As the thread of weak spiritual power was absorbed into the cat’s nose, it shivered with pleasure and then its body relaxed lazily, sagging onto Chen Nuo’s palm, its chubby feline face gently rubbing against him, making comfortable purring sounds.

But Chen Nuo immediately cut off the flow of spiritual power.

The Gray Cat lifted its eyelids reluctantly, looking at Chen Nuo with a pitiful gaze.

Finally...

"First, I’ll ask you a few simple questions. You answer me, and then I can consider keeping you around temporarily."

The Gray Cat thought carefully, then slowly nodded.

"What exactly is your origin?" Chen Nuo asked. He quickly added, "Don’t say again that you don’t remember anything, and don’t say that you’re just a cat. Cats don’t live for thousands of years!"

The Gray Cat was silent for a while. Then, this time, it replied.

"There was a very fierce and cruel competition. Some very powerful beings were participating. I am very cowardly and didn’t dare to contend with the other beings, so I always hid away. But as I hid, more and more competitors died, and the numbers dwindled. And then, I unexpectedly found myself in the final contest... It troubles me, and I am very scared."

Listening, Chen Nuo furrowed his brow and asked, "And then what happened?"

"Then... I was afraid I would die, so I forfeited."

Chen Nuo’s gaze turned stern. "What exactly was... what kind of competition?"

The Gray Cat sighed.

"A competition for the highest position in existence. This ultimate position represented the highest being—omniscient, omnipotent, the leader of all things. It was a unique position, whether in terms of life’s form, breadth, length, or meaning of existence. That was the competition."

"Could there only be one victor in the end?"

The Gray Cat looked up at Chen Nuo. "I’ve already told you, it’s unique."

"Could two victors not share the prize?"

The Gray Cat thought deeply, then shook its head resolutely. "No."

"What would happen?"

"There can only be one; that position can only have one, otherwise it would violate the rules."

"Who set the rules?"

The Gray Cat looked up, gazing out the window at the sky.

There was the moon and there were stars.

Chen Nuo also followed the Gray Cat’s gaze, looking out the window at the sky for a while.

Then, he asked, "So..."

"You said simple questions. Your questions are getting more complex, harder and harder..." the Gray Cat complained, scratching its head. "I remember very little, and every time I think about these things, it’s very exhausting. Every time I recall these things, I get very tired... I have a feeling that if I remember too much, if I think too much... I’ll die."

"Just one last question," Chen Nuo pressured it with his gaze.

The Gray Cat cowered, its head retracted, its breath seemingly weak. "Alright, truly, this is the last one."

Chen Nuo sighed. He felt that this time, the Gray Cat wasn’t lying.

It seemed genuinely difficult for it to recall those answers, and it didn’t know why.

In fact, Chen Nuo had two questions he wanted to ask. One was: what exactly did the Gray Cat mean by "forfeiting." However, after thinking about it for a while, Chen Nuo gave up on this question and chose to ask the other instead.

"What are the ’Chosen Ones’ all about?"

The Gray Cat’s eyes widened with a look of utter disinterest. "This... this is too complicated. If I say too much, I will die..."

"Then try to say what you can."

The Gray Cat squirmed uneasily, then, as if in fear of something, it shrank back, cautiously looking around before staring at the sky outside the window for a long time.

Finally, it began to speak.

"The competition was too brutal. In the beginning, everyone’s way of competing was to kill each other, to kill their opponents. Everyone thought that by killing off all the other competitors, the last one remaining would naturally be the victor. The result was... you kill me, I kill you... And many died. But later, everyone realized that the contest wasn’t like that at all. There was a critical problem that remained unsolved; even killing all of the competitors was futile. Thus, the strongest few, after killing off the rest of the competitors, sat down to decide on a different way to compete. This way of competing was to solve that critical problem."

"What way of competing?"

"Find a target that one has chosen as suitable, and place a bet on it. The target that has been bet on will then be known as ’the Chosen One.’ Chosen Ones are picked after thousands of selections—the existences most likely to solve that crucial problem!"

Chen Nuo’s gaze became resolute!

To solve the critical problem... That... "one"! To resolve the most fundamental flaw in the evolution of the Mother! To become a... ripe, delicious tomato that, once eaten, can repair the defect!

A group of competitors... essentially, some seeds. A few like Seed, aspiring to become the Mother among the seeds. The seeds discovered the greatest defect after evolving into a Mother was a fatal flaw in the evolutionary rules, so they stopped killing each other. Their goal became to find that "one." And the way to search was for every seed to find their own tastiest, most promising "little tomato" among humans. Finally, when the tomato matured, they would eat it in one bite, hoping this tomato would help them repair the flaw.

"Then, whose Chosen One am I?" Chen Nuo asked.

The Gray Cat: "YIKES!!! This, this, I can’t say this... I dare not!"

The lazy cat suddenly lunged forward and hugged Chen Nuo’s arm, wailing, "I can’t say it, I really can’t say it! I’ve said too much; the other competitors will think I’m no longer forfeiting, think that I’ve rejoined the competition... Then I will die! I will definitely be killed!"

Chen Nuo’s heart suddenly shook!

He stared at the Gray Cat and slowly said, word by word, "I’ve already figured it out. I... am... Seed’s Chosen One, right?"

The Gray Cat: "..."

It stiffened for a moment, then suddenly shuddered and plunged headfirst under the covers, its chubby body trembling, a pair of paws pathetically holding its head. "I didn’t say it, I didn’t say anything, I didn’t say anything..."

On the sofa in front of the TV, Seed and Fox sat there. Fox, bored to death, kept pressing the remote control, quickly flipping through the channels.

Finally, they stopped on a news channel and, absorbed by the news, watched it attentively.

In the news, a local guy who had just won a huge lottery was ecstatically holding up an oversized check on the TV station.

"One, two, three, four, five, six... seven zeros. Nine million US dollars." Fox let out an envious sigh. "This guy is really lucky."

Saying this, the girl turned to look at Seed and asked, "Why do you think such strange things happen in the world?"

"What strange things?"

"A person can receive a huge reward without having done any work or suffering." The girl’s tone was full of confusion, and of course, even more envy.

Seed watched the lucky fellow on the TV for a while and sighed. "There are stranger things than that."

"Stranger? Like what?"

"A lottery ticket you’ve never bought, never placed a bet on. Yet, it just flies into your hand. Then, looking at it, you see your own name—indeed, your own signature. But you can’t remember ever placing that bet or doing any of it. You have no idea when you might have made that bet... And the funny thing is, this lottery ticket looks like it has a really high chance of winning! Tell me, isn’t that strange?"

"..."

Fox frowned at Seed, looking at him for quite some time.

Then, the girl sighed. "Seed, you’re talking about things I don’t understand again."

Seed laughed and suddenly stood up from the sofa. "Let’s go!"

"Where to?"

"To buy lottery tickets! I feel like after watching this news, you seem to really envy that lucky guy. So, let’s go buy lottery tickets!"

Fox rolled her eyes at him. "Winning? It’s very unlikely!"

"I am a God, and you can make wishes to Gods."

Fox’s eyelids twitched, and she immediately jumped up excitedly from the sofa. "Really, I can make a wish?"

"Really!"

"Alright!"

Fox, without hesitation, placed her hands together, closed her eyes in front of Seed, and silently wished for a while.

After opening her eyes, Fox, beaming with a smile, pulled on Seed. "Let’s go, let’s go!"

「Two hours later.」

At the supermarket lottery ticket stand, Fox looked dejectedly at the lottery tickets and cash in front of her.

Seed frowned. "You won, didn’t you? Why aren’t you happy?"

"But it’s just so little." Fox sighed, though her tone was very odd.

Seed shook his head. "The lottery on TV is the kind you have to buy and wait a long time for the draw, and the prize money is very large. The one we bought, you buy it, you scratch it, you see right away; the amounts won’t be that big."

Pausing, Seed smiled. "We spent six hundred Pesos, and we won more than twenty thousand Pesos. That’s quite good already."

"Okay then." Fox nodded reluctantly.

"With twenty thousand Pesos, let’s go buy some cookies. The kind with icing," Seed said with a smile, heading first towards the dessert area.

Fox followed behind Seed with a dim expression, looking at his retreating figure.

What an annoying guy... My wish wasn’t to win the lottery at all... It was... that you wouldn’t leave.