Communicating with Bastet was proving to be a challenge.
Wang Yue had no idea what the primary prayer for the goddess was. Was it just a series of rhythmic meows?
Her mind raced, drawing inspiration from the imagery of Biheze. She knew that patterns possessing transcendent power were often intrinsically linked to the divine.
The most famous example was the old proverb: When the stars align, R’lyeh shall rise from the depths, and Great Cthulhu shall awaken.
The alignment of the stars formed a pattern with the power to awaken and liberate, triggering the ascent of R’lyeh and the stirring of Cthulhu.
During her lunch break, Wang Yue found a secluded corner. She took a sheet of white paper and began sketching elements associated with the cat goddess. Bastet was an Elder God from the Egyptian pantheon; beyond her feline-headed form, there were other common Egyptian motifs to consider.
Sistrums, lion-headed collars, peacock patterns, the Pellis Pattern, the Eye of Horus, cat-headed idols, earrings…
Once she finished sketching, she cut them out along their outlines. She began rearranging these small icons randomly, searching for a combination that could trigger transcendent energy.
She spent the entire noon trying, shifting the positions of a dozen little cutouts over and over again.
She had tried hundreds of combinations without the slightest response. Just as she began to suspect she was being a fool, a new arrangement beneath her fingers suddenly erupted with a profound, pure radiance!
The deconstructionist approach had worked!
Suppressing her excitement, Wang Yue started a fresh page. She used the Pellis Pattern—the symbol of life—as the base. She placed the cat-headed idol in the center, the peacock pattern in the top right, and the Eye of Horus at the bottom… This specific configuration would be her key to communicating with Bastet’s power.
–
The Simulation Classroom.
Professor Vida stood atop a high platform made of piled sand, her side-ponytail swaying as she looked down at the class with her usual cuteness.
“Listen up, students! It’s the third week of the semester, and we’ve already had eight hours of Felidology. We’ve covered the basics of three techniques: Assassination, Stealth, and Tracking. I’ve seen your hard work—and I’ve seen those of you who haven’t been working. So, it’s time to assess your progress.”
“Ehhh—?” the young witches groaned in unison.
“Don’t ‘ehhh’ me! Monthly exams are right around the corner. How does the saying go? Only when the sun rises do you see who’s been swimming naked! You can’t just cutesy your way through this!” Professor Vida’s voice was firm and resonant.
There was no escaping the pop quiz. However, Vida was the most popular teacher for a reason. Once the students had all transformed into cats, she produced an oval paper bundle and gave it a shake.
“Do you know what this is?”
The crowd of cats shook their heads.
“It’s dried fish!” Vida held the bundle high.
Dozens of burning gazes fixed onto the package, which seemed to be emitting a heavenly glow.
After transforming into cats, students often took on certain feline habits: lethargy, grooming, high-jumping, an obsession with feather wands or their classmates’ tails, and, of course, an undying love for dried fish.
Vida partially opened the packaging, revealing beautiful, amber-colored fillets to the felines.
“You should know that dried fish is incredibly precious. In the Evernight Realm, fish are the vessels that carry dead souls to the afterlife, so no one eats them. This dried fish hasn’t been contaminated by souls; it was imported from beyond Evernight. Do you know what kind of fish this is? It’s cod! Delicious, tempting cod! You little rascals better work for it! The student with the highest total score across all three tests gets the fish!”
The cats went wild!
Meows filled the air as they scrambled and rolled over each other in excitement.
“They’ve lost it. They’ve all lost their minds…” Dorothy shook her head like a voice of reason, watching her classmates leap about. “Is it really worth it? Just for a bit of dried fish? Dried fish…”
A string of drool escaped the corner of her mouth, wetting the fur on her chest and dripping steadily onto the floor.
“I have no interest in dried fish,” Lulu’anna said, looking away while discretely swallowing her saliva. “However, I must obtain it as proof of my strength.”
“The fish is secondary,” Lilith hissed, her eyes never leaving the bundle. “Hmph, I would never risk my life for a snack… I’m doing this to defeat Wang Yue!”
The other students weren’t faring much better. The sound of rhythmic swallowing echoed throughout the room.
People of the Evernight Realm rarely ate fish, let alone ate it while in cat form. To these young witches, it was an unimaginable delicacy.
Watching her classmates act like they’d never seen the world, Wang Yue felt amused. At the end of the day, wasn’t it just a bit of salted fish?
She had plenty of memories of eating fish—fried, braised, steamed, stewed. She’d eaten so much she was sick of it… Dammit, why am I drooling too? Is this a physiological response? I can control my instincts… But I must get that fish! Not because I’m hungry, but because I need an offering for the Great Bastet!
The first of the three tests was Assassination.
“Presenting: Master Roly-Poly!”
Vida pointed to a tumbler doll in the center of the field.
“The red and white target circles are the effective strike zones. If you ‘assassinate’ those spots, the internal springs will sense your force and accuracy, displaying the result on the scoreboard on its forehead. Remember, you lose points if it sees you or if you touch its arms.”
Master Roly-Poly stood 1.5 meters tall, carved from wood with a double-sided face and four arms. Its eyes were massive and its arms were short and thick, giving it a strangely adorable appearance. Its body was covered in lacquer and scarred by countless claw marks from previous classes.
Vida waved her wand. The sand shifted and rose, forming walls that partitioned the area into six arenas. Each arena was equipped with its own Master Roly-Poly.
The students were divided into six groups to be tested simultaneously.
Vida stood on the central terrace like an orchestral conductor. With a light tap of her wand, various obstacles rose from the ground. These were meant to provide cover, preventing the students from being spotted and losing points the moment they entered the arena.
Master Roly-Poly wobbled irregularly, its gaze sweeping across its surroundings. This undoubtedly increased the difficulty.
Since it was an inanimate object, its wobbling was mechanical. Wang Yue analyzed the situation; this wasn’t a test of psychological warfare or reaction speed. It was a QTE—a Quick Time Event!
Wang Yue was a veteran of the STEAM platform. Just days before her transmigration, she had been playing Bum Simulator and hadn’t touched a single pile of waste from start to finish. She was the Queen of QTEs.
Closing her eyes, she decided to leech some power from Bastet first.
In her mind, she visualized the structural diagram she had discovered at noon. With her “Devotion” heart loaded, she whispered a few brief praises to Bastet. A feline shadow flew from the void, traversing overlapping dimensions and space to enter her body.
Whoosh!
Her vision extended infinitely. she saw the “Dreamlands,” where ten thousand cats marched together, flickering like phantoms as they traveled between the Earth and the Moon.
A powerful sense of belonging rose in her heart. Simultaneously, a new language was downloaded into her mind.
Sphinxian!
The human-headed monsters were cousins to the cats, and thus, cats could speak their tongue.
Wang Yue thought of a famous riddle and found it amusing. She turned to Dorothy beside her.
“Want to guess a riddle? What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?”
“What animal is it?” Dorothy asked blankly.
“I’m asking you!”
“…Dorothy is too stupid. I’ll never guess it.”
“Don’t give up so easily!”
Suddenly, the little maid’s breathing grew ragged. Her strength failed her as she slowly collapsed, curling into a ball.
“I feel… a bit unwell, Master. Am I sick…?”
“Hey, are you okay?”
Wang Yue was startled. She could feel the power of a curse swirling around Dorothy, constantly draining her physical strength. And the source of that curse was Wang Yue herself!
