Cathulhu Online, MUNYA!

Chapter 253 – Cat Dad’s Pocket Dantian Nightmare

It had been a long time, so long that he forgot what he was here for.

Xiaomao lost the track of time as he was on a trace. He had been listening to Mir at first. But after a few hours, his consciousness sank into darkness while he still could hear her words.

The sensation was the same as the daily dream at night. Everything was blurry, but he knew what the scenery was.

He looked at the people around him as if he was a ghost, observing the living people in secret. When Xiaomao wanted them to notice him, everyone paid attention to his existence. But when Xiaomao wanted them to leave him alone, the blurry people vanished.

The dream-like void kept looping while the incomprehensible words of Mir resounded.

“Hmm?”

After dreaming for a long time, Xiaomao slowly regained his senses. He opened his eyes and found himself in a meadow.

Nobody was here anymore. No building, no landmark, no mountain, no tree, no sun, nothing but grasses and plain could be seen, yet the sky was bright pure white without a cloud, which was unusual.

After looking around for a while, Xiaomao noticed that he didn’t wear any cloth.

“Inventory!”

Xiaomao attempted to summon the game system, but there was no response. Only his voice echoed in this world.

“Hello?”

Hello?

Ello?

O

“…”

Xiaomao cleared his throat. Then, he shouted.

“HELLOOOOOOOO!!”

HELLOOOO!!

HELLOO!!

HELLO!!

ELLO!

LO!

“…”

Behaving like a child, Xiaomao rubbed his hands. He gargled and spat. Then, he winded up, deeply inhaling and filling his lung with air.

“ANYBODY HEREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!?”

ANYBODY HEREEEE!?

AYBODY HEREE!?

SHADDUP, MEW!!

BODY HEREE!?

DY HERE!

ERE!

“…”

Xiaomao picked his ears. Strangely, they were clean. Therefore, his ears weren’t the problem.

He squinted his brows. He felt like he heard somebody else’s voice.

“WHO’S THERE?!”

Xiaomao looked around. This time, his voice produced no echo.

WHOOSH

Suddenly, a faceless human manifested in the meadow. He had no genitalia or hair, but his toned muscle alarmed Xiaomao – Anybody with this boxer-like physique usually knew martial arts as it was impossible to become both muscular and lean without working out.

The faceless human turned to Xiaomao.

DING

A name appeared over the faceless man’s head.

<strong>Nameless Combat Dummy, Level 199, 100% Potential Difficulty  </strong>

“Potential?”

Before Xiaomao could do anything, the dummy kicked the ground and charged at Xiaomao. He threw a left straight punch, aiming at Xiaomao’s face.

“!!!”

Xiaomao tilted his head to the left and narrowly dodged the strike. The dummy’s left arm inwardly folded and pulled Xiaomao’s head. Then, a knee flew to his face.

BAM

The knee strike hit, but it failed to cause damage to Xiaomao’s nose and mouth. Xiaomao’s hands managed to block the knee strike by reflex.

POEK

A right hook hit Xiaomao’s left cheek. The impact was hard enough to knock out any professional boxer.

But Xiaomao didn’t flinch. His cheekbone and his skin were sturdy enough to receive the impact.

He felt nothing!

“Are you done?”

Xiaomao grabbed one of the dummy’s thighs and pulled it toward himself. Then, he threw his body weight forward. The dummy fell on his back while Xiaomao gained the advantage on top.

Without a weapon or a game skill, Xiaomao sat on the faceless man and seized his neck with his left hand. He began hammer-fisting on its smooth face to teach it a lesson.

BAM

“What’s your problem?! Who are you?!”

The dummy didn’t answer. His entire body shone as if he had used an ability.

Xiaomao could also feel it. The dummy’s strength was increased, but it wasn’t enough to break free from Xiaomao’s raw power and arm strength.

CRACK!

Something hard hit Xiaomao’s left elbow, which instantly dislocated his joint. The elbow folded outward, and Xiaomao lost the strength of his left forearm and hands.

Xiaomao glanced at his left elbow and saw a maul hammer in the dummy’s right hand.

As Xiaomao was distracted, a knife appeared in the dummy’s left hand. It aimed at the former’s neck and thrust forward.

POEK

Unfortunately for him, Xiaomao caught the knife with his right hand. The sharp edge failed to cut through his skin.

He looked down and glared at the silent doll.

“Weapons and skills, huh? So, you’ve chosen… DEATH!”

Xiaomao snatched the knife with brute force and plunged it into the dummy’s face. He pulled the knife out, and a fountain of blood gushed out from the dummy’s face. It spasmed and hurled the hammer at Xiaomao’s head.

Xiaomao blocked the hammer strike with the right hand with the knife while his left elbow automatically repaired itself. The dislocated joint was corrected, and his elbow was restored to normal, including the strength in his left forearm and hand.

A few seconds later, the dummy stopped moving. It dissipated into dust along with the weapons.

WHOOSH

Two dummies with the same level and names manifested. They turned to Xiaomao and summoned a different set of weapons. This time, they brought out a tower shield, a spear, a sword, and a buckler.

p anda nOvel.cO,m “What the hell?”

The two dummies silently charged at Xiaomao.

“Who the hell are you?!”

Xiaomao also ran toward them and stole the sword from a faceless man. Then, he cut them down one by one.

WHOOSH

After killing the two nameless men, four faceless warriors with the same name emerged. They, too, were armed like the previous two.

“I see the pattern…”

.

.

Xiaomao didn’t know how long he had fought. Although he had no issue managing his stamina, he was mentally exhausted. His eyelids were so heavy that he could barely stay awake.

“Come on, brain. Don’t shut down on me yet. Look in front of you.”

After Xiaomao defeated the four dummies, eight new foes were summoned. When the eight were defeated, 16 came out. The number is multiplied by two every time.

Surrounding Xiaomao, 8,192 dummies formed ranks, holding spears, swords, shields, and halberds. Some of them even rode a horse.

So far, no dummy could harm him because of Xiaomao’s high defense and high stats. However, these dummies could always break his joints and almost snap his neck several times.

They were good at finding his weaknesses!

“I don’t know what’s going on, but I’ll be sure to get the hell out of this place!”

.

.

14 days later, Xiaomao collapsed on his back in the meadow. He successfully defeated the 8000-man army of dummies. However, one of his eyes was no longer in its socket. His elbows, knees, feet, and neck were bruised. His face swelled and changed its color to purple.

Even with a superior regeneration rate and supreme physique, he couldn’t tank all attacks. The dummies stacked small hits to the point that his muscle, bones, and skin gave up on him.

As soon as Xiaomao’s back hit the grass, he couldn’t stand up anymore.

WHOOSH

A new army appeared. This time, 16,384 dummies came to challenge Xiaomao. Each wore a full set of armor, glittering weapons, and fancy helmets. Behind all of them, a big humanoid dummy sat on a throne, looking down on Xiaomao.

Its name was also different.

<strong>Nameless Elite Combat Dummy, Level 199, 200% Potential Difficulty  </strong>

Xiaomao raised his head and read its name. He wryly smiled.

“What the hell is going on here? Where is Mir? Where is Mu-Nyang? WHERE AM I!?”

The pain was too surreal to be a dream. Xiaomao already discarded the thought that this place was in his dream.

He struggled to get back on his feet. Even though his entire body gave out, his willpower drove the body to move.

“I can’t die here. Not like this! I didn’t regress just to die in a strange world like this!!”

The elite dummy waved its hand, and the entire 16,000 dummies charged at Xiaomao.

.

.

“AAAAAHHHHHHH!!”

Xiaomao screamed and snapped open his eyes. His back, face, and chest were drenched in sweat.

While panting, Xiaomao looked around. Then, he found the smirking orange cat and Jungwoo, who was laying on the bed with his drenched clothes, burying his face with a pillow.

“What happened, munya?! Was that a dream?”

Mir snorted, “That was not a dream. I made your consciousness sink into your pocket dantian and fight some clones… dummies in your case.”

“Pocket dantian? Clones? What are those, munya?”

“Do you know hyperbolic time chamber?”

“I watched the DB series. Obviously, I know, munya.”

Mir put her front paw on a digital clock. She gestured to Xiaomao to look at it.

“When I started the lecture, it was 4 PM. Look at the time now.”

Xiaomao checked the clock. It was 4.15 PM. Only fifteen minutes passed in reality!

“Only five minutes, munya?!” Xiaomao looked outside in disbelief. He definitely got stuck in the strange place for several days and fought for his life.

“One minute there is one day in your pocket dantian, so you’ve been training in that dimension for 15 days in total while only 15 minutes in reality has passed..”

“Ehhhh?”

Xiaomao was confused. He looked at his belly, where the dantian was located, unable to figure out how this pocket dantian worked.

“I’ll explain,” Mir coughed and jumped on Jungwoo’s head. She bit the back of the dude’s neck and woke him up.

“OW!” Jungwoo screamed. Mir’s fangs were so sharp that they left four holes in his neck.

Because of the pain, Jungwoo stopped resting and got back up. He stared at the cat, showing his dark swollen eyes. He seemed so exhausted as if he hadn’t slept for a week.

“I’m tired, Mir,” complained Jungwoo.

“That’s your punishment, dumb hooman! Xiaomao almost defeat the elite dummy, but you died on the 4000-man army!”

“And how the hell can I fight 4000 foes at once when one of them is strong enough to kill me?!”

“Xiaomao got to the stage-1 little boss, though.”

Little Boss?

That elite dummy was just a LITTLE BOSS? NOT MIDDLE BOSS OR BIG BOSS?!

Xiaomao’s mind blew. He couldn’t fathom what the boss of stage one would be. Would he come out with a million soldiers? Would he be a king with an army of elites? Would there be other variants?

Both Xiaomao and Jungwoo were depressed. They sulked and thought of their humiliating death in the pocket dantian.

Mir shook her head, “You two are pathetic, mew!”