Am I A God?

“Huh?” Roly Poly couldn’t believe his ears. The pit of his stomach fell as the word, infinity, continued to echo in his head. Struggling to no avail, he exclaimed, “Are you sure you calculated correctly?”

“Of course, if I include the potential medical fees I have to incur from the physical and mental ordeal, infinity sounds about right.”

Disappointment sagged through Roly Poly as he muttered, “That means I can never repay the debt which I owe you?”

“Not necessarily. My infinity is a subjective term which changes according to my mood. If you make me happy,” Zhao Yao started to stroke his chin thoughtfully, “The sum can be reduced to just a few RMB. You might be able to repay your debt in no time.”

“Really?” Roly Poly could literally see the silver lining beyond the clouds. Tears welled up in his eyes when he realized just how forgiving Zhao Yao was.

Suddenly, the smile was wiped from Zhao Yao’s face as he replied sternly, “Obviously not.”

“As for the rest of you …” Zhao Yao started to eyeball the remaining cats. His intent gaze was reciprocated with the most amiable smile.

“You don’t have to return me any money, but a physical punishment is still necessary. All of you will stay on your crucifix for the next three days.” With a snap of his fingers, a wave of ‘five sense deprivation’ had already swept to every nook and cranny of the belly. He then instructed Dust Ball to expel those crucified cats out of the belly.

The primary reason for using ‘five senses deprivation’ was to prevent the burdensome ghost from escaping.

With that, five crucified cats stood in the living room, adorning the place.

As usual, Mango began prancing around the room as his eager gaze met the five crucified cats. Meanwhile, worry continued to gnaw at Dust Ball as she wiped the sweat off of her forehead, “Thankfully I only collected a token sum from them. From the looks of it, Zhao Yao had already forgotten about it.”

“Dust Ball!”

Zhao Yao’s roar scared the living daylights out of Dust Ball as she jumped to her feet and responded, “Yes?”

“I won’t crucify you like the rest of them because you have to clean up after these fools for the next three days. You will clean them, feed them and clean their shit. Understand?”

She wanted to turn down Zhao Yao so badly but she couldn’t. Hence, she simply nodded her head and agreed.

Hanako was greeted by this peculiar scene the second morning – five crucified cats standing in the living room. She slapped a hand over her mouth and screamed, “What happened to all of them? And where did this white cat come from?”

With two tiny shreds of tissue paper stuffed up her tiny nostrils, Dust Ball began to push a bowl of cat litter towards Matcha. She instructed, “Stop wasting my time and just shit. I still have to feed all of you.”

Matcha took a deep breath before exerting with all his might, but it was to no avail. Nothing came out. Despondency sagged through him as he lamented, “This is a work of nature. I can’t simply force it out. I need the feels to do it.”

“Oh, the white cat over there is Roly Poly. I decided to dye his fur white.” Zhao Yao slid the five cats a condescending glare before responding to Hanako’s question, “The five of them came to my bed last night and started to shit all over it. Hence, they will be crucified for the next three days as punishment.”

“Oh my god, that’s disgusting!” Hanako dared not imagine how Zhao Yao survived the previous night, “What happened to your bed then?”

“I have already thrown the mattress and blanket away. The new one should be delivered soon.” Zhao Yao then whipped out his phone and started sifting through the local news.

“Light show? Hmph, that’s not a half bad explanation.”

Naturally, Zhao Yao was looking at the government’s official response to last night’s disaster. He then gathered Hanako and Baiquan together before instructing them, “I won’t be going to the café for the next few days. Hence, both of you will be responsible for everything there.”

A flood of queries crashed through Hanako’s head when she heard the news. She instantly asked, “Huh? Zhao Yao, why aren’t you coming to the café?”

The corner of his lips curled into a smile as he replied, “Some of my new friends are coming over to visit for a short period.”

Obviously, there was only one thing which Zhao Yao had to attend to – the ghost in his belly. Firstly, he enveloped the entire belly with ‘five senses deprivation’. Then, he instructed Dust Ball to expel every single thing out of the belly except for those two Japanese.

Then, he attached his unique collar to Ishida’s neck. The illusion sealed within it prevented anyone from seeing, hearing or touching him. Simply put, Matsuo would be oblivious to Ishida’s very existence. He wouldn’t even notice if he touched Ishida’s hand or leg.

With that, Zhao Yao had truly created a space completely removed from the outside world. It had no computers, no phone, no internet. Even though there were two people inside, Matsuo wouldn’t even be able to detect Ishida’s presence.

Dust Ball executed Zhao Yao’s instructions to a tee. Then, she clarified, “What am I supposed to do now?”

“Let’s just keep them there for two weeks first and see how they respond to it. Remember to feed him regularly. Do not starve him.”

As for the remaining cats in the belly, they simply sought refuge in Zhao Yao’s apartment. Their toilets, phones, computers were strewn all over the floor, turning the entire living room into a mess.

Hence, Baiquan and Hanako returned to a completely different home that night. The place was in a mess with all sorts of cats running all around the place.

In one corner, the original cat kings of Jiangmen University, Airplane and Lion Head, were engaged in a tussle.

Smacked in the middle were Dust Ball and Uncle Egg which were completely absorbed in the catmint resting in their paws.

Huddled between their computers were Gaia, Fūjin, and Lucifer. They were obviously playing PUBG.

However, the most eye-grabbing cats were definitely the five crucified ones. They could only stare and watch their counterparts reveling in their favorite pastime.

Catherine was oblivious to last night’s incident and was rather curious as to what had happened to them, “Why are all of you tied up there?”

Caesar immediately dashed over and whispered into her ears, “That’s their punishment for offending Zhao Yao.”

Those words simply didn’t make sense as Diana retorted, “But isn’t King George supposed to be extremely strong?”

“I heard that Zhao Yao had long dethroned King George as the strongest individual around,” Caesar responded, not forgetting to keep his volume down for fear of offending King George.

“Oh, look at all of them! So many ragdolls!” Joy bubbled up in Hanako when she saw the family of ragdolls. Three beautiful ragdolls huddled together was definitely something you don’t see every day. Hanako ran forward and asked, “Zhao Yao, where did you get all these cats from?”

Zhao Yao responded in his usual cool voice, “My friends gave it to me.”

…

Two weeks later, Matcha was hiding in the corner of the room with his eyes glued to Ares. Suddenly, his lips curled into an evil grin as he pranced towards the sofa before jumping onto Zhao Yao’s lap. Matcha put on his most convincing puppy-dog look before reporting, “Zhao Yao! Zhao Yao! Ares was the one who secretly drank the water from your cup!”

“Oh, is that so? I never expected him to be so bad.”

“He is! He’s evil!” Matcha continued feeding Zhao Yao with his carefully collected intel, “Do you recall the socks which you lost two days ago? Mango was the one who took it and brought it to his bed.”

Zhao Yao responded with a contented nod of his head before running his fingers through Matcha’s glistening fur. He then reached forward for Matcha’s favorite dried fish before rewarding him with it, “Good job, you’ve done well, Matcha.”

“I am but a humble servant of yours who have dedicated my life to your legacy. I will stop at nothing to protect and serve you.” Matcha then buried his head in Zhao Yao’s arms before rubbing affectionately against it.

Matcha had recognized the true status gap in the household after the incident two weeks ago. He knew his position at home and had adopted a radical new approach to entrench his status as Zhao Yao’s alpha sidekick.

Zhao Yao slid Ares, which rested on the windowsill, a death glare before screaming, “Ares, how many times do you need me to remind you? Stop drinking my water! Do you hear me?”

Ares retorted, “I didn’t drink your water. It wasn’t me!”

“But Matcha saw you drinking it!”

“So you rather trust that dumb cat than to trust me? With a loud thud, Ares had sprinted into the bedroom before slamming the door shut.

Zhao Yao muttered, “You don’t have to slam the door.”

“I didn’t!”

“This brat.” Zhao Yao commented with a sigh of despair, “Teenage rebellion already? To think that I used to do everything for them when they were young and now they’re treating me like nothing.”