Chapter 10: Naming

Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Tennesh

[Navigation Elf]: The Lucky Cat is one of the few pets that is hard to capture; the only way to obtain this kind of pet is through the lottery after the player finishes the tutorial.

[Navigation Elf]: That’s all I can tell you. Please make every effort to improve its favorability. After you unlock its origin and true name, all of your questions will be answered.

“What does it eat?” Zhang Zian asked.

[Navigation Elf]: Your Lucky Cat is quite special in that it doesn’t need to eat.

“Look, it’s too timid to stay close to me or let me touch it, and it doesn’t eat, so how can I improve its favorability?” Zhang Zian pointed to the kitten and smiled bitterly.

[Navigation Elf]: Please try to find the solution by yourself. That’s the fun part of the game.

After saying these words, the navigation elf became silent once more.

“All right!” Zhang Zian put the phone back on table, trying to show his kindest smile to the perturbed Lucky Cat hiding behind the purple-leafed flower pot. However, the kitten looked shocked, as if it was seeing some horrible ghosts or a bank robbery, and was lying on the ground, trembling, with two tiny paws covering its head.

Zhang Zian was hurt deep in his heart.

“Am I that ugly?” he thought, touching his face.

No, no matter what I look like, I have a soft heart!

“Don’t be afraid, I won’t hurt you or even touch you, I mean that! Look, I am sitting far from you.” He started sitting in a chair, taking off his shoes to show that he would not get close to it.

“Meow… Don’t touch me…”

“I know, I won’t touch you, I promise!” He stretched his hands aside, showing the cat.

The Lucky Cat moved its right paw a little bit and peeped at him timidly. “For sure?”

“For sure!”

“Who knew what had happened to this kitten before that made it so afraid of people?” Zhang Zian said in his mind, but why had the navigation elf said people had faith in it? Who could harm the thing they had faith in?

Yeah! It didn’t matter. Although It could not be touched or fed, it talked! The first thing on the list was to make it not be scared of him. Such a thought suddenly appeared in his mind.

“Eh… Do you have a name? Could you tell me your name?” He spoke softly.

“Meow… No, I don’t have a name… Meow… People always called me by another name, but I don’t like that name… ”

“So it is…” Zhang Zian wanted to ask its real name, but it seemed that the kitten hated that name and would never give that name out. If forced to say it, the favorability would absolutely decrease.

“Then, how about I give you a name you like?” he suggested.

The kitten nodded slightly after hesitating for a while.

Zhang Zian found that he had made trouble for himself. He was not good at picking names at all, and he didn’t know the kitten well, so how could he know its preference?

“Blacky?”

The kitten bowed its head, looking at its white belly.

“How about… Whitey?”

The kitten blocked its eyes with black paws.

Damn it! The name was too cheesy! Maybe it was unhappy now!

“White-black?”

“What a bad idea!” he complained to himself in his mind. “It is not a cold medicine!”

“No, no, no, that didn’t count. Let me try again!”

He tried to hold his head with both hands like the kitten had done, thinking hard.

All of a sudden, he saw the sunset-projected shadows of pedestrians on the road and looked toward the bloody sun setting in the west, a few stars blinking in the sky.

“Yes!” He snapped his fingers. “How about Dawn? Do you know dawn? The moment between darkness and light, when there are still some stars blinking in the dark blue sky, but the east shows…” He wanted to say “fish-belly white,” but before he said that he replaced it with “cat-belly white.” He was very proud of himself for saying that flattering sentence.

He stared at it with hope, waiting for its response.

The kitten didn’t move, with only its slim black tail swiping.

“That meant… not satisfied?”

Zhang Zian felt that he was in trouble, since “Dawn” was the best name he had in mind in such a rush.

“Okay… could you tell me what kind of name do you like? At least give me a direction…”

“Meow… I… I want a big name…”

“What? What is a ‘big name’?”

Zhang Zian was stunned. The principle of naming usually included sounding good, being easy to remember, being meaningful, not being a bad homophone… but it was the first time he had heard of asking for a big name…

“Big… Okay… Let me think…”

He had to follow the preference of this poor, cute kitten.

“Big… Big… Big…”

“How about Yellow River? The Yellow River flows from heaven to the ocean and never turns back! The Yellow River is the mother river of the Chinese people, the origin of China; is that big enough?”

“Meow… Bigger…”

What the f*ck! Although it was said that the mind was as wide as the world, the mind of this kitten was so wide that even the Yellow River could not satisfy it!”

“Bigger than Yellow River… how about Grassland? With its blue skies, wind blowing, and grass with sheep and cows? The great Genghis Khan only knows how to shoot eagles with archery…” He didn’t care whether the name sounded good or not, it just needed to be “big” enough!

“Meow… Bigger”

“…”

Zhang Zian tried to restrain his motivation to complain, smiling instead. “How about Ocean? Ocean…”

Before he tried to explain, the kitten said, “Meow… Bigger… Bigger…”

“Sky! People always say that, as much as the ocean is wider than the land, the sky is higher than the ocean! Is Sky big enough?”

Its swinging tail paused for a second, but right when Zhang Zian said “That’s it!” in his mind, it swung again. The more it swung, the weaker its confidence.

“Meow… The bigger the better…”

“I see.” After a deep breath, Zhang Zian face grew serious. “The next name may satisfy you. I can’t find any name bigger than this.”

“G-A-L-A-X-Y”

Time froze; the tail stopped swinging.

One second… Two second…n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Galaxy… Meow… Galaxy…”

Lights blinked in its silver eyes, and the kitten carefully put down its paws.

Zhang Zian felt a bit dizzy. Those were not silver eyes, but the stars in the universe blinking!