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Chapter 88: Ratting Them Out
🕑 Added 2024-12-01 20:51:53 +0000 UTCChapter 88: Ratting Them Out
“This is really weird,” Pumpkin muttered to himself, creeping close to the ground with his nose to the floor, following the distinctive and unmistakable scent of prey.
Will hadn’t noticed anything, but that was to be expected; the scientific consensus held that a cat’s nose was anywhere between nine and sixteen times more sensitive than a human’s, capable of picking up a level of granular detail that was simply unimaginable for a man. This wasn’t always pleasant, and Pumpkin had made a name for himself in his younger years for scratching any lady who favoured a particularly pungent perfume, but it was undeniably useful for when he was on the hunt. What was strange in this instance, however, was that all of the scents he could pick up were old; there wasn’t a single fresh rat nearby, which was remarkably odd, given their ubiquity wherever humans gathered in large numbers. Sure, he could smell a handful of other cats wandering around, but there was no way half a dozen moggies could keep this much ground clear; there was no doubt about it, something foul was afoot.
Following his nose, Pumpkin quickly found himself wandering further than he’d first intended, scampering along at a sedate twenty miles an hour as he watched the surrounding houses and people’s attire degrade further with every step he took. By the time he saw his first furry companion in mischief, a round old tomcat as black as the void, the streets were already mostly empty; the few commuters that remained going about their business with hunched backs and shoulders stiffened by tension.
“You a local?” Pumpkin asked, coming to a halt next to the other cat, who was gnawing on the remains of a porkchop he’d pilfered.
“Sure am, the locals call me Ralph! Are you new around here?”
[Ralph - Level 1 Cat]
The System confirmed the truth of his words, though the specifics of how names were assigned escaped Pumpkin. It didn’t matter anyway, as the important thing was less the name and more what it implied: the System’s recognition of the individual so named, because there were plenty of animals in this world, some of them more equal than others. The System would not accept users incapable of accessing its core functionality, and actively upgraded their minds until a certain baseline was met; because of this, anybody with a name tag had at least human-adjacent intelligence.
“I’m just passing through, I managed to get adopted by a merchant’s caravan. A bit boring at times, but there’s never any shortage of food.”
Neither of them bothered to take the conversation somewhere more private, being content to chat away by the roadside. Why not, when onlookers would only hear two cats meowing at each other?
“Sounds nice,” Ralph admitted. “There’s plenty of food to go around here, but I have to work for it. Gotta go fast, and can’t stay at the same market for more than a few days at a time, otherwise they get annoyed and start chasing me.”
Ralph then proceeded to undercut his tale of hardship and woe by belching loudly, spraying bone fragments in a wide arc that forced Pumpkin to backpedal in avoidance.
“You must be starving,” Pumpkin deadpanned, turning his nose at the display. “Never mind that. What I meant to ask was, why aren’t there any rats around? If you’re eating from human stores, and there’s only a few other cats within scent range, what’s gobbling them all up?”
“Oh, them,” Ralph huffed. “There’s a bunch of impostors running around, if you can believe it. Fake cats, not a single brain cell between them, scarfing up all the small critters and even debasing themselves by eating insects on the side. They’re all dumb as a sack of rocks, can’t even speak our language, but they leave us real cats alone, so we live and let live. You might spot them if you hang around for a bit longer, they don’t tend to come out until the deepest part of the night; antisocial cretins, one and all.”
“Interesting,” Pumpkin purred, feeling the anticipation of an entirely new hunt, not for food but for information. “So they’ve never tried to hunt us cats? We’re not that much bigger than some of the rats, when you think about it.”
“They wouldn’t dare,” Ralph scoffed. “I know I don’t look like much, but that’s just cause I never bothered levelling up; too much effort for my taste, but believe me when I say there are some strong Cats who live higher up near the Wall, strong enough to rain hell down on anyone making a nuisance of themselves.”
“Oh?” Pumpkin’s ears perked up. “How strong are we talking? I’m from a small town, so I’ve no frame of comparison.”
“Strong enough to be recorded as a special military asset by the Kingdom. We rarely see each other, but there are the occasional gatherings where we catch up on current affairs. If you’re around next time, I’ll bring you along?”
[Ralph wants to add you as a Contact. Yes/No?]
“Sure,” Pumpkin agreed, accepting the Contact request easily enough, making it his second after Will himself. “Now then, it was great meeting you, but it’s best I return to the hunt. Those rats aren’t going to eat themselves after all.”
Cats weren’t the kind to belabour themselves with long goodbyes, so before long, Pumpkin was back on the trot. Truth be told, he didn’t really care about the rats, but more what their absence represented. Whatever was going on here definitely felt unnatural, and Pumpkin was determined to get to the bottom of it. Thus far, Will had been the focus of all the weirdness, so he was determined to bring back a good story of his own.
[50 XP gained for stumbling upon a conspiracy.
Level up!]
Even the System seemed to agree, putting him in a very good mood indeed as he considered his options.
