Chapter 53 – Cat Dad is Slavemaster

The moderator office

Wang Mang, the staff who was in charge of Xiaomao’s irregular activities, was now monitoring the catopus’ every move. He even put on a moderator’s VR headset to observe Xiaomao’s activity in-game in real-time.

As soon as Wang Mang noticed how Xiaomao utilized his skill combo, he took off the game helmet and looked at his co-workers and manager.

“Say, guys.”

“Yeah?” The staff members sweated profusely while the manager leisurely sipped hot coffee and gazed at the window.

“Can a slave master’s [Enslavement] tame boss monsters?”

“Boss monsters have a fixed 0.01% taming rate even in a critical condition. Why? Is that special ID causing trouble again?”

“He… just enslaved a level 50 boss monster.”

“Did he use a special skill that increases the taming rate?”

“Yes.”

“The tamed monster is not the dungeon core’s guardian, right?”

“Just a floor boss.”

“Then, nothing to be worried about. Leave him alone.”

“…”

Wang Mang still hesitated. Even after he secretly installed the Hegemony Patch’s A.I. on every gnoll in the dungeon, he believed that Xiaomao’s character was beyond broken and in need of adjustment.

…_.

The Gnoll General’s eyes brightened. He struggled to stand up while he shoved the other gnolls out of the way. Several other gnolls also had the same reaction.

A group of 20 gnolls got the abnormal status “Charmed”. As for the boss, he was permanently tamed and already became Xiaomao’s slave.

His name changed from red to green. He looked around and glared at his subordinates.

“CEASE ATTACK, YOU MAGGOTS!”

“???”

The gnoll soldiers and shaman gnolls looked at their leader in confusion.

“Stop attacking! Stop attacking!”

All gnolls stopped attacking. They climbed down from the tower and looked at their leader in bemusement.

Unfortunately, the gnolls were not stupid. Some of the elite shamans pointed at their leader and screamed.

“OWOWO LOLOLOL!”

As if the other gnolls understood the WOLOLO language, they bore fangs at their general and began attacking him. The few charmed monsters also turned at their colleagues and attacked the non-charmed targets in response.

The Gnoll General bellowed and swung his bastard sword. With one swing, five armored gnolls in front of him were sliced in half!

Chaos ensued. The charmed monsters attacked the hostile gnolls as if their lives were on the line while the general wreaked havoc in the middle of the crowd.

Meanwhile, Xiaomao stopped sniping the gnoll as he was out of MP. He returned to the safe zone to recuperate and restock his MP potions from the marketplace.

While he was at it, the quest menu updated.

DING

<Congratulations. You have discovered an alternate way to protect the safety zone!>

<You have completed the Emergency Quest!>

<You have gained 100,000 Contribution EXP!>

<Your Contribution Level has increased by 1!>

<You are the MVP of the event! You have received an SR-grade weapon ticket x 1!>

<The quest has been updated!>

…

Hidden Quest: Coup d’état

Who could have thought that you can actually tame the local boss monster instead of defeating him? Although you’ve managed to tame the Gnoll General, he is still trapped inside the dungeon because of a strange curse.

To truly free the Gnoll General from this ill-fated dungeon and the curse, you have two choices. You can either defeat the Warg Lord or remove the source of the curse yourself.

Quest Objective: Kill Warg Lord or remove the source of the curse.

Quest Restriction: Gnoll General must survive.

Failure Condition: Gnoll General dies.

Quest Reward: Unknown

Failure Penalty: Gnoll General will be permanently removed from your retainer roster.

…

Another annoying task appeared to trouble Xiaomao, but he welcomed it nonetheless. After all, it coincided with his initial goal.

‘I need to get rid of the shamans first. The rest will be a lot easier.’

As the safe zone protection quest was over, Xiaomao was free to leave the area. He rode the flying sword and jetted out, circling over the shaman group.

The shamans looked at Xiaomao with hatred. They WOLOLOed and raised their staffs, sending fireballs toward the cat.

Xiaomao maneuvered the sword and evaded the fireballs by a hairbreadth. His eyes shone in red light, designating the target zone. Then, he loaded a bolt and fired in the general direction.

One Man Thousand Arrows!

This skill was utterly broken when he had a legendary weapon. The thousand flame bolts looked like a firework. But when they landed, someone would have mistaken them for white phosphorus bombs.

In one volley, one thousand explosions were enough to delete the elite monsters. The healers and soldier gnolls went down, unloading the burden on the general.

Without the healers, Gnoll General smashed the gnoll soldiers with ease. As if Lu Bu had possessed him, the general sent countless monsters flying and raining blood.

In 10 minutes, both Xiaomao and the general wiped out the monsters on the boss gate’s side. However, the quest was not over yet.

Xiaomao’s inventory slot was full, yet so many items rolled on the ground. He gathered them and ordered the gnoll general to pile them in front of the boss room.

After they were done, Xiaomao looked at the gnoll general, who was sitting and wagging his short tail.

“Good boy, munya!”

“WOOF!”

The general no longer talked. He acted like a dog and stared at Xiaomao with puppy eyes.

Unfortunately, Xiaomao was a cat person. He didn’t fall for the gnoll’s charm.

“Sit here and guard the items, munya! I have something else to do.”

The gnoll general whimpered. He lowered his head and sat still, waiting for Xiaomao to change his mind.

The catopus jumped on the flying sword. Next, he navigated the sword and flew toward the cliff.

…

Wang Mang observed Xiaomao’s fight and sneered. Although the cat overpowered the mobs and triggered the hidden quests, he believed that Xiaomao would eventually fail.

After all, the Warg Lord was an anti-range mage. It had a skill that could inflict fear and cripple non-melee fighters. The developer teams designed the dungeon boss to be strong against mages and ranged attackers while it was weak against melee combatants.

A small catopus like Xiaomao couldn’t possibly defeat Warg Lord!

‘Go ahead. Enter the boss room and fail, so that all your key items will be lost in the dungeon!’

Wang Mang rubbed his hands, looking forward to seeing Xiaomao’s demise.

Betraying his expectation, Xiaomao did something different.

“WHAT THE HELL?! HOW DOES HE KNOW?!”

…

The flying sword continued to descend into the abyss, but Xiaomao kept flying away from both sides of the cliff. His golden pupils shone in the darkness.

As he descended, he found several caves along the cliff. However, most of them were occupied by high-leveled monsters.

Xiaomao spotted one of them, who was minding her business.

It was a floating mass of water with a purple name.

Water Slime, Level (???)

The monster seemed to notice Xiaomao, but it was out of range.

Xiaomao wiped his sweaty wet fur. Had he flown closer to the cliff’s side, he might have accidentally gotten into the monster’s attack range, and he would have been instantly killed.

He kept going lower. Now, he had descended 500 meters.

At the bottom of the abyss was a massive green lake in the middle of the canyon. Xiaomao spotted a thousand mermen, swimming on the surface of the mysterious lake and holding tridents.

They looked like oversized salmon, but they had two arms and two legs like a human. From a glance, they were simply giant fishes with human limbs.

Although it was far away, Xiaomao could see their names and levels.

Chang’e Sanctuary Guard, Level (???)

Again, Xiaomao couldn’t identify its level! These monsters were not something Xiaomao could defeat!

These sanctuary guards were a part of another dungeon, which was not the hidden dungeon that Xiaomao was looking for. The hidden dungeon featured another monster, which was a lot weaker than these guards and the gnolls.

However, their presence indicated that Xiaomao had come to the right destination as he had to activate an event here first. He approached the guards and brought out a key item.

It was a jade plate that Xiaomao had bought from the dungeon vendor.

…

Strange Jade Plate

This ancient jade plate contains profound energy. As for what it is for or what its usage is, only immortal cultivators might know.

Item Type: Key Item

NOTE: You cannot keep this item in your premium backpack, warehouse, or store inventory. This item is guaranteed to drop from your body if you died.

[???????? Instinct]: You might want to treat this plate as a jigsaw piece. Try putting it in a suspicious gate or something to find out. Maybe it can open a path to a secret place.

[???????? Instinct]: This item has a hidden effect. No trap in Chang’e Sanctuary will harm the item bearer.