Chapter 173: They Were Born
Real-world time AM 06:54
Mo Tan, who had kicked himself offline, did not reconnect but chose to exit the game.
“No matter what, I must buy some ice-cold cola today.” Leaving the game pod, he listlessly opened the refrigerator door, looking at the shelves full of Dr. Pepper with exasperation.
After a struggle, he gave up the idea of grabbing a cold drink to refresh himself.
Mo Tan was now very aware that his purchasing behavior under his 'chaotic neutral' personality was very dangerous, because it would not only significantly increase the nearby vendors' hatred towards him, but also bring a large quantity of Dr. Pepper and other unconventional foods, plus even more unconventional ingredients.
Although the cost would be kept at an extremely low standard, it was still not a good thing.
However, Mo Tan also knew that whatever he thought now was useless, because when he was truly in another personality, he would not feel that anything was amiss.
It was like suddenly getting a crazy idea last night to do eight hundred push-ups and run around the neighborhood seven or eight times, only to wake up this morning with the expected body aches and despair.
At most, you could complain a bit and regret it, but ultimately, you just had to swallow your pride.
After all, you can only carry your own burden…
Incidentally, Mo Tan was currently in his 'Absolute Neutral' personality, while just a few minutes ago, when he was forcibly disconnected from the game, he was still 'chaotic neutral'.
Mo Tan slowly ambled into the bathroom, splashing cold water on his face while sorting out what had happened in the game.
The main points included: safely arriving in Hofur City, possibly developing feelings for Yu Cheng, missing Cordova’s farewell due to a blackout, eating a tea egg, spectating the Headless Dragon, fighting a brat in the Arena, unlocking the Premonition talent, learning about the monster suspected to be one of his personalities from Yu Cheng, agreeing to be Yu Cheng’s training dummy tomorrow, and continuing his journey to the Violet Empire…
“The amount of information each day is truly massive.” Mo Tan looked at his rather handsome (subjectively speaking) face in the mirror, feeling a bit mentally exhausted, and couldn't help but quip, “So many messy things happened in just one day.
If I were to write an autobiography, I probably wouldn’t finish it in three lifetimes.”
Then he brushed his teeth, returned to the living room to change clothes, and walked into the… kitchen.
【But the Premonition talent is truly strange no matter how I think about it; every character has it.】
Mo Tan skillfully flipped the eggs in the frying pan, thinking to himself.
Yesterday, after he and Yu Cheng parted ways, he returned to his room in the chapel.
After staring blankly for about ten minutes, he suddenly felt a strong sense of incongruity, and three seconds later, the system forcibly disconnected him.
Then, he logged in again under the 'lawful good' personality.
As soon as he appeared, the system prompted him that he had unlocked the Premonition talent, with a description identical to the first one he saw, except the duration in the effect had changed from three seconds to four seconds, which was clearly related to the 'growable' aspect of the talent.
Another system message notified Mo Tan that his previous two-person battle mission was complete, and based on the experience and rewards, it seemed he had… won.
Mo Tan immediately checked his friend messages and found that Ji Xiaoge had indeed left a message telling him that they had won the previous battle.
The specific process was as follows:
The opponent, a young ranger, unexpectedly killed Mo Tan, which ignited his hope.
In a burst of effort, he quickly depleted most of Ji Xiaoge’s health.
The suppressed winged girl, holding her cutting board, desperately tried to close the distance with her opponent, and the calculating A Mao seemed to have judged that he would win a 'blood trade', so he continued to stand still and shoot.
Finally, Ji Xiaoge managed to get close to A Mao when her health was less than 20%.
Then, she swiftly put away her cutting board, took out the egg bucket, and removed the lid.
At this point, the girl’s health was already less than 10%.
And then…
Ji Xiaoge wasn't quite sure what happened next, only remembering that even she felt a little pain from the eggshells that burst out like a torrential downpour.
Even with the damage reduction from the 【Self-Sufficient】 talent, the girl actually felt a bit of pain.
Mo Tan remembered that he had only sighed at the time, then looked into the distance with a rather pained expression: “Save the child…”
In any case, they eventually won that battle, and Ji Xiaoge also initially completed Lu Wei’s assignment to her: 'An assessment of the practical effects of fragmentation tea eggs for human use'.
However, this girl seemed to have logged off early today without playing the full twenty-four hours of game time, so she hadn't replied to Mo Tan’s subsequent friend messages.
Soon after, there was a disconnection caused by the 'chaotic neutral' personality.
Mo Tan gained the Premonition talent again after logging in, then continued his journey, finally disconnecting a few minutes before the game was about to shut down…
“This is not relaxing at all.” Mo Tan finished his breakfast by cycling through four or five rounds of fried egg and coffee, then slumped softly on the table, expressing his feelings: “It’s even a bit too rich.
Hmm, it’s definitely easier to live a real life where you don’t have to leave the house…”
…
Five minutes later
The temporary birthing room in the southeast corner of Mo Tan’s residential complex.
Mo Tan, wrapped in a black down jacket, stood rooted to the spot as if struck by lightning.
He stared at the four clearly newborn kittens not far away, looking utterly bewildered.
They were born…
The children of Devil Commander and Whirlwind Charger were born…
And they seemed to have been born a few days ago, as there were no umbilical cords…
All four of them were currently nursing in Whirlwind Charger’s embrace…
“I was wrong!” Mo Tan bowed deeply to Whirlwind Charger, saying sorrowfully, “I shouldn’t have been lazy these past few days!”
Whirlwind Charger lazily lifted a paw: “Meow?”
Then Mo Tan carefully observed the four kittens, whose colors were pure white, pure black, black with white stripes, and white with black stripes, and nodded approvingly to Devil Commander, who was standing by: “No green!”
Devil Commander tilted his head, not quite understanding: “Meow?”
They weren't wary of Mo Tan at all, after all, the wooden birthing room the couple was in was built by Mo Tan himself not long ago.
So, despite being in a sensitive period, they still meowed twice at Mo Tan in a very friendly manner.
Mo Tan didn’t get too close, nor did he try to pet the four kittens.
He just carefully placed two clean small blankets and a large basin of health supplements (high-nutrition and easily digestible feed) at Devil Commander’s feet.
These were all things he had prepared earlier when he was in his 'lawful good' personality.
“I always feel like I should do more for you.” Mo Tan, who had known this couple for a long time, felt that he and the two of them should be considered old friends, so he began to ponder what else he could help them with.
Two minutes later
“That’s right.” Mo Tan suddenly chuckled and clapped his hands, “I’ll give the little ones some names!”
Whether it was an illusion or not, Devil Commander and Whirlwind Charger seemed to bristle for a moment.
Pioneer, who had just ambled over (Devil Commander’s brother-in-law), froze there, his vertical pupils seemingly speaking as he glanced sidelong at his sister and brother-in-law not far away.
The content of his gaze was very likely — save the children.
But Mo Tan was already meticulously examining the four kittens.
“Let’s go from left to right, okay?” He first pointed to the leftmost white cat with black stripes and announced loudly, “You’ll be called Little Black!”
The highly intelligent Pioneer was stunned.
He first looked at the black kitten on the far right, then at the white cat with black stripes that had just been given the nickname 'Little Black', and finally meowed at Mo Tan with a rather complex expression.
It probably contained one dialect word and six foreign words—Are you kidding me?
Mo Tan, however, didn't notice that, and even if he had, he probably wouldn't have cared.
He immediately looked at the pure white kitten to the right of 'Little Black': “You’ll be called Little Mo!”
Then came the third one, black with white stripes.
“Little Tan!” Mo Tan said without hesitation, but when he looked at the fourth pure black kitten, his face became a little bitter, and he smacked his lips for a long time without a single word coming out.
I’m sure everyone has guessed by now that this guy was using his three character names from Innocent World as inspiration to mess with these kittens.
Incidentally, when he was in his 'chaotic neutral' personality, he liked to give these small animals rather chuunibyou names, such as Whirlwind Charger, Devil Commander, Deathwing, Uther King, and so on.
When he was 'lawful good', he mostly used names with rich historical allusions, such as Arthur, Merlin, Nightingale, Vlad III, Hercules, etc.
And now, he was more inclined to names like Little Black, Little White, Little Xia, Little Gang, Little Lan, Little Ai, and so on…
So, when he first met Ji Xiaoge and Ji Xiaodao, he felt that he and the father of the two sisters might get along quite well.
However, at this moment, he was troubled, staring at the pure black kitten, at a loss for words.
The first three were derived from his character names, so what about the last one…
This was clearly the rhythm to drive an obsessive-compulsive person crazy.
But Mo Tan was, after all, a flexible and clever person, so ten minutes later, a flash of inspiration, a stroke of genius, and a sudden realization made him clap his hand: “I know, you’ll be called…”
The little black cat seemed to sense something and turned its head, but at this moment, the little fellow’s eyes weren't fully open yet, so it couldn't comprehend anything.
Of course, even if it did, Mo Tan would definitely not understand it.
So…
“You’ll be called Xia Yuhe!” Mo Tan happily gave a thumbs up.
“Are you out of your mind?”
At the same time, a cold voice came from behind him.
Mo Tan turned his head and saw a long-haired girl in a black trench coat looking at him as if he were a madman, her grey eyes flashing with tons of, capital, and palpable disdain.
“Student Xiao Dao?” Mo Tan effortlessly remembered this low-pressure girl, who was at least eighty percent similar to Ji Xiaoge but had a completely different temperament, and asked curiously, “Why are you here?”
Ji Xiaodao seemed not to have heard him, looking at the kittens for a long time before answering faintly, “I was passing by that street outside and heard a familiar voice, so I came to take a look.”
“Uh.” Mo Tan scratched his hair and gave a wry smile, “It seems you have a deep impression of me.”
“Not bad.” Ji Xiaodao nodded indifferently, then looked at the kittens nestled and wiggling in their mother’s arms, saying meaningfully, “I’m more impressed with your naming skills now.”
Mo Tan immediately felt embarrassed: “I just made it up casually…”
“Alright.” Ji Xiaodao nodded expressionlessly, giving Mo Tan a deep look: “You can take it as a compliment if you want.”
Mo Tan shrugged and casually changed the subject: “Speaking of which, I met your sister when I was shopping last time.”
Ji Xiaodao nodded again, her pleasant voice showing no fluctuation: “Yes, she told me after she got home that she met a guy who was so directionally challenged he was almost cute, and then she laughed to herself for half an hour.”
“I really caused her trouble then.” Mo Tan sighed, smiling wryly, “I feel a bit sorry.”
Ji Xiaodao remained silent for nearly five minutes before gently shaking her head: “No, I should thank you.”
Mo Tan was stunned: “Huh?”
“Because you seemed to have expressed some doubts about the ingredients my sister purchased earlier.” Ji Xiaoge’s mouth seemed to twitch faintly, as if recalling something terrifying: “So after she came back, she didn’t start cooking immediately, but discussed it with everyone first, which indirectly saved me and Dad.”
A pile of dishes, represented by the fragmentation tea eggs for human use, quickly flashed through Mo Tan’s mind.
He also remained silent for a while before saying with a heavy heart: “You… also have it tough.”
“It’s alright, I’m used to it.” Ji Xiaoge said lightly, then glanced at the family of cats in front of her and asked, “Are you their owner?”
Mo Tan shook his head and smiled, “Not really.
They are all stray cats that live here permanently.
Although I occasionally go out to feed them, I certainly can’t claim to be their owner.”
“I understand.” Ji Xiaodao nodded slightly, her expression suddenly becoming a bit hesitant.
It wasn’t until a while later that she whispered, “I really like the black one.”
Mo Tan waved his hand: “I’ll give it to you when it gets bigger.”
“That wouldn’t be good.” Ji Xiaodao shook her head, pointing at Whirlwind Charger and saying, “Their mother wouldn’t want to part with it.”
“Perhaps so.” Mo Tan replied casually, then shrugged, “But it’s better than letting them wander in the wild.
Although there are occasionally people like me who take care of them, there is still about a 50% mortality rate, understand?”
The girl frowned slightly: “Is that so?”
“Exactly.” Mo Tan nodded, smiling, “So, birth, like death, is both the most fair and the most unfair thing.”
Chapter 170: The End