When Elysia opened her eyes, she found herself sprawled across a wonderfully soft bed, hugging something bouncy and squishy, a pink magical bubble shaped like a cat.
She rolled over.
Out of pure instinct, she rubbed her cheek against it. Soft, fluffy, like a marshmallow. The pink piggy cat, head aching slightly, was just about to drift back to sleep when something suddenly felt off.
Elysia: (⊙_⊙)
Wait a second.
Wasn't I fighting the Herrscher of Ice's companion Honkai beast, and then Inori-chan suddenly decided to slap a blessing on me for no reason?
After that, everything got hazy.
Only a few key phrases floated up in her mind:
"Herrscher of Ice, I have brought you destruction!"
"The mastermind behind the destruction of the world is Inori-chan!"
"The mastermind Inori-chan harbors ill intent toward Elysia. She started strong, pinning Elysia down and kissing her, but later the sickly girl ran out of stamina and got instantly counter-killed by Elysia!"
"What is this nonsense! Why are all the memories so weird, meow! At least remember the important stuff properly! What even were those first two!"
The pink piggy cat grumbled.
As the foggy memories slowly sharpened, of course the clearest part was the most useless one, making her little face flush bright red.
Th-this, this, this!
This is absolutely one hundred percent Inori-chan's blessing malfunctioning, right!
Thinking about it carefully, Inori-chan had always been suspicious! Summoning a beautiful girl into another world out of nowhere, turning her into a cat, then later chatting with her across worlds.
Getting all excited about giving a blessing, only for it to work like some knockout tea, filling a battlefield heroine's head with nothing but bizarre nonsense!
By the time she snapped back to reality, the fight was already over!
Her face red as a bubble tea kettle, the pink piggy cat finally reached enlightenment. Turning into a cat, knockout tea… wasn't this basically body modification!
Elysia: (╯>д<)╯
But.
Looking purely at the outcome, there was no doubt she had won! The Herrscher of Ice was dealt with, and the naturally evil little Inori who dared to modify beautiful girls' bodies had also been kissed into submission.
Winning on two fronts at once.
Didn't that mean she was a piggy cat genius!
Absolutely not!!! Why was the final boss fight resolved in such a ridiculous way! No matter how you looked at it, this had to be the negative side effect of Inori-chan's knockout tea blessing!
She rolled around on the bed a few times.
Then Elysia noticed something was wrong.
Sure, the bed back at the Fire Moth base was already very comfortable, basically peak human nest and climbing frame levels. But the comfort here was on an entirely different tier.
Taking a closer look.
The bedroom décor was simple, yet every detail screamed thoughtful design. The space was used perfectly, and everything about it felt high-end.
"A… luxury hotel?"
And not just that.
A luxury hotel styled exactly like Fire Moth dormitories!
Why was she staying in a place like this!
Could it be that the Herrscher of Ice hadn't actually been defeated, that the eruption of its extreme cold domain affected three continents, plunged global temperatures, triggered climate disasters, caused crops to fail, and humanity ended up holding a grand reunion in the afterlife!
"Nope. This is the new dorm they assigned to you."
A lively blonde girl with a high ponytail pushed the door open, rolling in several suitcases filled with Elysia's belongings. "Ah, Elysia, you're finally awake."
"Dystopia?"
Elysia blinked.
After the Fourth Honkai, the new recruit who joined Fire Moth alongside Kosma.
The two of them got along surprisingly well. With a bit of encouragement from Elysia, Dystopia once used a megaphone to broadcast "The things Kevin and Kosma absolutely had to say during the Fourth Honkai" to the entire base.
The end result was Kosma, who talked too much, and the cheerful Kevin both dying of social embarrassment on the spot.
"How did the Fifth Honkai go? Are we still alive? And why am I living here, meow?"
The pink piggy cat dumped all her questions out at once.
"Uh… where do I even start?"
Dystopia set down the luggage, pulled out her phone, and said, "This is your new place. The Fifth Honkai is already over. As for how you ended up here… just watch the video I recorded back then."
"What kind of cat is this? A ragdoll?"
"So fluffy. It's hard to believe a cat beat a Herrscher and a Honkai beast."
"Hey, can we take it back to the dorms and raise it?"
"Doesn't this belong to Elysia…?"
These were Fire Moth's female warriors, crowding around a cat and doing their best to block its line of sight. The cat let out a cool, aloof meow.
"Damn it! I want to see the cat too!" Kosma's voice came from farther away, but since it was all girls, the young man was too embarrassed to squeeze in.
"The Rosentina Exploration Team has located Elysia. There is also a cat of unknown strength on site. Elysia is unconscious. Suspected that the cat defeated the Herrscher and the Honkai beast." Captain Hen was reporting to higher-ups.
Th-this is!
That overexposed flaxen hair, those clear ice-blue eyes, that gentle yet slightly chilly aura. Elysia's eyes sparkled.
Inori-chan!
Ha! Ha! Ha!
Maybe she should be called Inori Cat now? Whatever! You bad cat who fed a beautiful girl knockout tea blessings, now it is time for the fairy lady's punishment!
Elysia could not wait to start petting the cat.
"Where is the cat from the video?"
She whipped her head around and asked eagerly, startling Dystopia.
"Uh… after arriving at the base, it checked in at your place, then ran off to Mobius's lab on its own."
"Huh?"
The pink piggy cat was full of question marks.
"Doctor Mobius! Your arm is broken! Broken!"
"I know! The replacement limb is already being prepared! Stop shouting! If you interfere with my experiment again, get out!"
That was the first time Elysia overheard a conversation while passing Mobius's lab.
"Doctor Mobius! My arm is broken! Broken!"
"I know! Here, have another sedative shot. Stop yelling! If the experiment fails, I will just break it again!"
That was the second time.
Mobius was an expert in biology, currently in a rather awkward position within Fire Moth, since her experiments involved biological modification and evolution, both explicitly forbidden by international law.
After the Second Honkai.
She even attempted to study the corpse of the Second Herrscher, dreaming of mastering a method to transform humans into Honkai beings like Herrschers.
"Haha, I know it sounds worrying to leave a magical-power cat with Mobius, but that cat refused to go to Doctor MEI's lab and insisted on Mobius's instead."
"Still, it beat a Herrscher, so everyone could only let it have its way. Anyway, it is willing to undergo examinations, which is a good thing, Elysia."
Dystopia poured her a glass of water and tried to reassure her. "Don't worry. Your cat is very strong. Doctor Mobius is just a frail scholar. She cannot do anything to it."
As everyone knew.
Doctor Mobius often referred to herself as a snake.
Spouting edgy lines like "By my hand, let humanity ascend to godhood" and "Snakes are creatures that never submit to death."
But… in nature, snakes versus cats have terrible odds. Cats react far too quickly, several times faster than snakes. Only a few large or venomous snakes stand a chance.
Dystopia tried to calm Elysia by citing examples from nature.
But—
The pink piggy cat: (⊙_⊙)
Mobius equals studying Herrscher corpses, plotting to evolve all humanity, running bizarre experiments daily, and replying to Elysia's warnings with that edgy "By my hand, let humanity ascend to godhood" speech.
Kiyono Inori equals turning beautiful girls into cats, calling across worlds, force-feeding knockout tea across worlds, now also a cat, teaming up with Mobius to research who knows what!
The pink piggy cat: (╯⊙?⊙╰)
These two together looked dangerous no matter how you sliced it, right? Maybe tomorrow all of humanity would turn into cats! Sure, cats were cute, but this was still terrifying!
"The Cat Virus Crisis"
Anyone who came into contact with cats would turn into a cat. Eventually, the virus would infect all humans, leaving only cats behind!
Elysia thought of a cartoon she had watched before!
"No! I have to stop them!"
The pink piggy cat, glued to the bed just moments ago, suddenly jolted upright like a dying patient revived by sheer will and bolted out the door.
"Uh…?"
Dystopia was left staring, a big question mark floating over her head.
…
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Let me know if I got a name wrong. I know basically nothing about MyGO.