Chapter 33: The Game of Cat and Mouse

All supernatural entities are dangerous, and those capable of manifesting a "Spirit Domain" are exceptionally lethal.

Take, for instance, the Mother Spirit that Xia Tianqiong encountered previously. Its Spirit Domain could isolate an entire apartment building, preventing anyone from escaping and even blocking mobile signals. And that was merely a rudimentary form of a Spirit Domain.

The most formidable Spirit Domains are those that form a world unto themselves, evolving all things as if they were miniature universes. Such domains can envelop tens, or even hundreds of thousands of people at once. Every time such a domain appears, it signifies the mass death of humans.

Unfortunately, the domain manifested by the Cat Demon Spirit was exactly this type of self-contained world.

Xia Tianqiong sat on a bench, his eyes fixed intently ahead. He watched as the Cat Demon Spirit spread its arms, and a faint red glow drifted from its body, expanding outward with the entity at its center. From a distance, a hemispherical red light curtain rapidly inflated, and anyone caught within it vanished instantly. Through the translucent curtain, one could vaguely perceive a vast expanse of ancient architecture.

"Xiaoya, run! Mr. Xia, let’s go together—this spirit is extremely dangerous!" Guo Sheng jumped up and turned to bolt, not forgetting to call out to Xia Tianqiong.

"It’s too late!"

The spherical curtain expanded with terrifying speed. Before Xia Tianqiong could finish his sentence, he was engulfed. Guo Sheng and Liu Ya, having taken only a few steps, were likewise swept inside. The curtain continued to swell, quickly transcending the boundaries of Starry Night Plaza. Everything in its path—pedestrians on the street, drivers in their cars, people inside buildings—simply vanished, as if they had evaporated from the world of the living.

About ten seconds later, the curtain stopped, spanning three or four city blocks and claiming tens of thousands of people. This was destined to be a catastrophic event that would shock the nation, if not the entire world.

Xia Tianqiong felt a flash of red light before his eyes, and the scenery shifted instantly. Where there had been the spacious Starry Night Plaza, there was now an endless expanse of Hui-style architecture. Everywhere he looked, there were white walls and black tiles, with horse-head gables rising and falling in an orderly, picturesque fashion, resembling a classic ink-wash painting of the Jiangnan region—classical and poetic. Standing on the bluestone-paved street, one might have felt as though they had traveled back in time, were it not for the panic-stricken, screaming crowds that marred the beauty of the scene.

And they could hardly be blamed. Some had been at home, mid-meal or watching a show, chopsticks hovering over a dish, only to blink and find themselves here. Others had been on the toilet, pants still around their ankles, suddenly dumped into the center of an ancient street, mortified to find themselves surrounded by strangers—including several neighbors. Some had been driving, foot on the gas, about to overtake another car, when in the next instant, they found themselves in an ancient courtyard, assuming they had died in a car crash and arrived in the underworld.

Nearly seventy thousand people were scattered across this ancient landscape. Just as the panic reached its peak, a voice echoed from the sky.

"The game of cat and mouse begins now."

The voice was thin and sharp, like the meowing of a cat, yet it also carried the cadence of a woman. "Each round lasts two quarters of an hour. The first quarter is for the mice to hide; the next is for the cat to hunt."

Everyone looked up at the sky, gasping in terror; some children and women began to wail. A pair of enormous eyes hung in the pale red sky. They were deep blue, with vertical, slit-like pupils—not human eyes, but unmistakably those of a cat. Everyone who looked at them felt an intense, deeply unsettling sensation of being watched.

This was not the most terrifying part. As the Cat Demon Spirit finished speaking, everyone within the domain began to change.

The majority grew pairs of black, velvety triangular ears; their mouths protruded, and their front teeth elongated, jutting out past their lips. Their hands transformed, becoming thin and sharp, like the claws of a rat. They looked like humans who had mutated into rodents.

A small minority grew orange-red triangular ears, twice the size of the black ones. Their mouths did not protrude, but three long, white whiskers sprouted from each cheek. Their hands also turned into claws, though their nails were longer and sharper. They looked like cats, bearing a striking resemblance to the Cat Demon Spirit.

"The first round begins! Mice, go and hide!"

The Cat Demon Spirit’s voice was filled with mockery and excitement, as if it could hardly wait to play this game. As soon as it finished speaking, the vision of everyone who had turned into a cat went black. Total darkness fell, triggering a wave of chaos and screaming.

The people who had turned into mice, however, remained unaffected, and they noticed that the giant eyes in the sky had closed.

"Chief Guo, I can’t see anything," Liu Ya said, a hint of panic in her voice. But as an agent of the Supernatural Affairs Bureau, she had seen many horrors and managed to keep from screaming.

Guo Sheng frowned, staring at the eyes in the sky. "Don't worry. You’ve become a cat-person. According to the rules, this is the time for the mouse-people to hide. That’s why the cat-people have lost their vision. Once the quarter-hour is up and the hunting begins, your sight should return." He was experienced and remained relatively calm.

"Chief, is there any information on this spirit in our database?"

"No." Guo Sheng gave a heavy answer after careful thought. Although the Supernatural Affairs Bureau had existed for a thousand years, supernatural incidents had historically been infrequent, occurring only once every few years or decades, so their archive was limited.

He turned to Xia Tianqiong. "Mr. Xia, this entity is extremely dangerous. If we act together, we can assist one another. What do you think?"

Xia Tianqiong was examining his own hands, which had turned into rat claws. He had initially intended to refuse, but he realized that these two were clearly capable hunters. If they caused a scene, it might interfere with his own plans. He nodded in agreement. "Let's work together, then."

Liu Ya and Guo Sheng looked relieved. This man had contracted at least three spirits and had forced numerous wild spirits to back down at the Wujian Restaurant; his strength was considerable. In this strange domain, having a powerful ally increased their chances of survival.

Seeming to want to display his expertise, Guo Sheng began to analyze the situation for Xia Tianqiong. "This game is called 'Cat and Mouse.' Based on the habits of such spirits, the cat-people who catch a mouse-person survive, while those who don't are killed. The mouse-people, if caught, likely face death as well. The cat-claws are larger and sharper, implying they are meant for attacking or killing. The mouse-claws are smaller, but they have sharp teeth; they can likely dig or retaliate. Among the people here, the ratio of cats to mice seems to be about one to nine."

Liu Ya listened silently, then added, "To 'catch' a mouse must mean to physically seize them; just seeing them shouldn't count."

"You're right. That's likely the case. Spirits are fond of linguistic traps. I also suspect that killing a mouse-person might count as catching one." Guo Sheng glanced at Xia Tianqiong.

Xia Tianqiong nodded slightly. "I don't know much about this, so I'll defer to your judgment."

Time slipped away. Thousands of people were scattered across the ancient town, and the vast majority were panicked. They did not hide according to the rules, nor did they stay away from those who had turned into cats. Instead, they gathered in crowds, chattering and arguing about their predicament.

When faced with danger, humans tend to congregate—it is a survival instinct, a belief that there is safety in numbers. But they did not know that in this era of supernatural manifestations, gathering together only made them more vulnerable. A few younger people, however, having read various horror and supernatural stories online, began to actively follow the rules of the game.

Fifteen minutes passed quickly amidst the panic and debate.

"Hiding time is over. The hunt begins."

The Cat Demon Spirit’s voice resonated again, and the giant cat eyes in the sky slowly opened, fixing their gaze on everyone. At that moment, the cat-people who had been blind regained their sight.

Now that the hunt had begun, most of the cat-people and mouse-people remained huddled where they were, very few taking action. Seeing this, Xia Tianqiong decided to probe the two officials.

"Chief Guo, if they do nothing, a large number of cat-people will die when the time is up. Don't you want to warn them?"

Guo Sheng’s face was solemn; he did not answer immediately. Liu Ya, having regained her sight, also remained silent.

After a moment, Guo Sheng finally spoke. "Based on our experience, no one will believe you at this stage. They will only believe once people start dying. Furthermore, the game has just begun, and we haven't grasped all the hidden rules. Warning others blindly could trigger a death penalty. Mr. Xia, although we are an official organization dedicated to protecting the public, we must ensure our own survival before we can hope to assist others."

The answer surprised Xia Tianqiong slightly. They would not blindly sacrifice themselves to save others—it was no wonder the Supernatural Affairs Bureau had survived for a millennium.

Liu Ya added, "Only through these events can we summarize the rules and find a glimmer of hope, which allows us to lead more people to survival. Their deaths have value."

Xia Tianqiong smiled faintly. "No need to explain. I was just asking."

For now, he was satisfied with these two officials. If they had blindly tried to warn others, it would have only created chaos, led to more deaths, and disrupted his own plans.

Another fifteen minutes passed.

"Ah!"

"People are dying!"

Cries and wails erupted. The cat-people who had failed to catch a mouse-person died on the spot. It was as if a bomb had detonated inside them; with a wet thud, their bodies exploded into gore and viscera, which drifted upward to merge into the pale red sky. The giant eyes immediately took on an expression of excitement, as if savoring the process.

The tens of thousands of people present screamed in terror, the scene descending into absolute bedlam. Only then did everyone realize that this was a death game: if the cat-people didn't catch the mice, they died, and if the mice were caught, they died as well.

Liu Ya had not died. Seconds before the time limit, she had reached out and grabbed the arm of a nearby mouse-person. When the time ran out, the mouse-person exploded. At the same time, a single orange-red hair drifted down from the sky, which she caught.

"This is a reward!"

A look of joy crossed Liu Ya’s pretty face. She quickly took out a hundred-yuan spirit note, and with a focused thought, the note transformed into ghostly energy that seeped into the strand of hair.