We leave behind the first town and Suzy’s sepulchre to wander to the next area. Our goal is the city which is not too far away.

“Teindas City…it’s in the North, I remember that much.” I recount what little I remember of the city we’re traveling towards. However, my knowledge is limited because I never visited in person. I feel like there was some reason for that, but it’s been so long that I can’t remember. Yin taps me on the shoulder, and pretends she didn’t do it when I turn to look. “I wonder if it had a Heavenly Mandate?”

“What’s wrong?” The pretty girl hides her hands behind her back as I give her a look.

“Nothing. Just can’t shake a bad feeling. Like there’s something I should remember about Tiendas.” I say quietly, while still thinking. Yin seems disappointed that I don’t want to play more. Dashing ahead, she skips along the path, inspecting the flowers every now and then.

“You’ve never been there before? I still remember the skyscrapers. My cousins live in Tiendas. Or…at least, they did. Before all this happened. I hope they’re alright.” She stops talking as she thinks about the odds. It’s a grim realization every time and it never gets better. Things are never going back to the way they were and the people who are gone are never coming back. “Anyways, maybe we can find them if we get the chance.”

“Maybe…Tiendas is big enough to get a Heavenly Mandate so it should be able to avoid being completely overrun by the undead.” I’m on autopilot, saying more than I should. Still can’t figure out why the name seems so familiar though. I went West, instead of North and never looked back. There was definitely something about Tiendas…

“Heavenly Mandate?” Yin seizes onto my mistake immediately. The bored girl looks back and for a moment her oval tilted face by the blooming violets is almost enough to stop my heart. It’s like a painting!

Oh…my…god.

Shaking off the critical hit she just inflicted, I resume walking.

“You see how the flowers are slightly off?” I ask. At my words, Yin leans down and sniffs at the pretty flowers.

“What do you mean…AH!” She quickly ducks away from the petals which have begun to drift against the wind, as if the flower has a mind of its own. Regaining her calm, she throws me a dirty look as I begin to snicker.

“That’s payback.” I mutter, feeling satisfied.

“What?”

“Nothing. Anyways, pretty much all the wildlife is starting to be exposed to the virus at a microscopic level. Our world is transforming. I don’t know how much you remember, but these flowers are a perfect example. They’re changing, mutating. Soon there will be a lot of dangerous creatures everywhere, though some places will be far more dangerous than others. A Heavenly Mandate is something you can purchase with System Coins. It allows you to permanently designate a large area as a no-go zone for most things afflicted by the virus. Including undead.” I explain. “Towns use a smaller scale version, but that isn’t efficient on a city. The only problem is, Heavenly Mandates are extremely expensive. And they require constant maintenance or else the system will take them back. It usually takes a coordinated effort from multiple parties to even consider buying one.”

“Huh, so it’s like we have to…pay rent?” Yin grimaces unhappily. I wonder what exactly her background was before the Calamity. An unemployed NEET? Or maybe she worked some sort of part time job? She never talks about it. “God sure is stingy! I thought at least now that the world has gone to hell we might not have to deal with this kind of crap.”

“Yep. Definitely a NEET.” I mutter under my breath. When I see the way her eyes narrow I quickly hurry to correct myself. “Um, I wouldn’t say God, though maybe that’s who is responsible. All I know is that the System has rules and that’s how it is.”

“Uhuh.” The irritated girl unsheathes her katana and draws a cool pose before slicing a violet in half. As the brightly colored flower stalk falls to the ground, I see little tendrils of fluid quivering inside the severed stem, as if trying to pull itself back together. “Eke! This is s-o-o-o creepy! I guess no one’s going to be buying flowers anymore!”

“Wait till you see the dragons…” I say while walking past her. She abandons the flower with a squeal and runs alongside me.

“W-Wait? Did you just say dragons? I definitely misheard! No way they’re real!” Yin nervously glances at the sky as if the shadow of a flying reptile might cross over at any time. “Hei? Comeon, Hei! You were joking right?”

“S-u-r-e.”

“I hate you.”

We continue along like this for some time. Gradually, the trees begin to thin out, and we come to more open grassy hills which roll along for many meters. Green grass has turned somewhat violet due to streaks of blue and purple corruption running through some patches. Yin is a bit hesitant to step on it, but I don’t mind.

Everything is weird at the beginning of the Calamity.

“Better get used to it.” I survey the vast swathes of land with a sense of familiarity. The girl at my side quickly grabs my forearms and clenches her jaw.

“I’m not scared.” She says resolutely. Walking out, we enter the grasslands. The verdant stalks part before our feet, revealing the corruption beneath. It feels almost like it’s dyed because it’s such an unnatural color. To be honest, I get the feeling I’m walking on a strangely filtered version of a certain famous screensaver. Up above, the sky at least remains steadily blue. Not a trace of a cloud in sight. It really makes me wonder why it rained in that one timeline.

Suddenly, I spot something in the distance. A faint blur of color on the top of one of the hills. There’s an unbelievable sight going on before our eyes.

“Is that…?” I can’t help saying it. Yin spots it a moment later and lets out a little gasp of confusion as well.

“No…no way!” She refutes my statement though the truth is before both our eyes. Watching her cute face furrow, I have to admit, unless we’re both caught in some sort of hallucination, there’s only one explanation for this.

It’s real.

“Want to help?” I ask, but Yin is already running. I curse because her speed in a straight line is faster than mine. Hurrying to catch up, I watch as she quickly draws the katana and runs straight in at the long congo line of Fresh Undead chasing a sleek orange cat across the hilltop. “Hold up!” I call, but the darn girl has become exceedingly willful. It would seem that seeing a cute creature such as a cat in danger has triggered her maternal instincts. Unable to reach in time, I can only hold up my hands and watch as she dashes towards the “enemy”.

To be fair, I’m not really worried.

There are about eight Fresh Undead, all stumbling in a bizarre line after the cat which has an aggrieved expression on its face, as if bemoaning its luck. Yin hurries to intercept the undead, and I trust her to handle it on her own. After all, she’s Lvl. 9 now. With the stat increase, Fresh Undead in a wide-open hill like this should be no problem.

“Mmm…let’s do this then!” I dash off at an angle, ignoring the undead. Instead, my target is…the path of the ginger cat! Knowing what felines are like when scared, I expect it to run away, but instead, it seems to sense me coming. Glancing over its furry shoulder, the cute triangular face meows plaintively for help and it quickly turns to run towards me. “Huh, you’re awfully smart. That’s right, daddy will protect you. Come on, this way!”

I click my tongue as the cat practically bounces on the grass. It’s exceedingly fast, and extremely cute, a big bundle of fur. Within seconds, it reaches me while Yin has just managed to intercept the undead. I bend down to greet the cat only to fall backwards as it unexpectedly leaps into my arms.

*Whump*

“Jeez, you’re heavy!” I feel all the breath in my lungs whoosh out from me. The cat doesn’t seem that overweight but it hits me with the force of a brick. Instantly, a thick, deep purring vibrates through my ribs into my whole body. “No offense but are cats supposed to be this heavy?”

“Hei!” Over at the side I see Yin prancing about dealing with the Fresh Undead. Her movements are too overexaggerated and there’s still a lot of wasted movement, but the fundamentals of footwork and weight transfer are…technically present. It’ll get better when she unlocks Basic Combat. Unfortunately, without my prior lifetime’s worth of experience that’s taking a lot longer than I expected. I suppose I was spoiled with all the combat training I received as a fighter growing up. “Aww! It’s so cute, let me hold it too!”

“Finish the undead first!” I say, while grabbing the cat on my chest in both hands. Holding it up under its arms, I examine it closely. It really is unusually heavy, if I wasn’t a Hunter, I would struggle to lift it easily. “Now where’d you come from? How’d you manage to piss off so many undead huh?”

“Mrow!”

The cat opens its mouth, irritated at my actions. Putting it on the ground beside me, I stand up and start brushing grass off me. As I do, I notice that the cat has left dirty pawprints on my coat.

“Hey! Didn’t your owner teach you not to make a mess?” I reprimand it fiercely while slapping at the marks it left. The cat just licks its paw as if to say, whatever. Then I see something strange. There’s a message in the corner of my vision. It’s from the System.

This cat is tameable. Would you like to make it your familiar?

“What? I just met this furball!” I’m shocked. Generally, it takes a large amount of time to get close enough to an animal to tame it. Additionally, they usually have to have exceptional intelligence and have traces of the virus in their system. Picking up the cat, I ignore its protests while flipping it over and checking every spot of its fur. Despite its brilliant different colored eyes, one blue and one emerald green, it doesn’t seem unusual whatsoever. Just a normal, sleek, ginger cat that’s oddly heavy for its size. “You’re not even corrupted in the slightest! How are you available for taming?”

“Mrow…?”

The cat tilts its head happily, batting at my coat lapels. Shaking my head, I move to put it down. It lays in the grass, rolling around like a child. Examining the taming message some more, I remember what little I know about familiars. Unless you have the special skill of tamer, you can only have one of them as I recall. Additionally, if they die, you can’t replace them unless you’re a tamer, so it’s a pretty big decision.

“Heh…as if I’d pick an ordinary cat.” My finger hovers over the decline taming button as a sneer goes on my face.

“What’s going on?”

I jump as Yin appears behind me. She swishes her bloody blade and wipes it in the grass, evidently done killing undead. Concealing my annoyance, I sigh in relief as I see the window still open.

“Whew, for a second there I almost accepted by accident.” Turning back to face Yin over my shoulder, I don’t notice the cat has stopped rolling in the grass. “This furball here is weird. Go ahead, pick it up, it’s like a brick!”

*Chomp*

Suddenly something bites my hand while I’m looking away and then I feel a pressure pushing my finger down. Whipping around, I see the ginger cat shoving my finger into the ground.

“Wait! What are you doing?” I yell in frustration, right as a brand-new message appears.

Congratulations! You have tamed…a Lvl. 3 cat! Number of familiar spots remaining is now 0.

“Hei?” Yin asks confused as I rip my finger out of the cat’s mouth and howl in frustration.

“I-It actually did it! It freaking made me tame it!” I dance around, sticking my finger in my mouth and sucking on it while staring daggers at the cat. “Don’t think I’m going to feed you because you forced me into this!”

“Forced? What?” Yin asks confused as I chase the damn thing around. “Stop chasing it! You’re scaring it!”

“This thing just took my only familiar spot!” I growl. “I wasn’t planning on getting a pet until Lvl. 60! I knew the perfect goddamn one too, the exotic Azure Dragon in Lushlake! GODDAMNIT CMERE YOU LITTLE!” Infuriatingly, the cat suddenly remembers how to run away and springs around just out of reach. It might be my imagination but it almost seems a bit smug as it avoids my grasp. “How are you even Lvl. 3! You’re a regular cat, how did you manage to level up!”

“Pfft…” Watching me fail to catch it, Yin can’t resist laughing. She opens her arms and the cat quickly changes directions, sensing a safe refuge. It leaps inside, snuggling against her bosom before my eyes.

Oh no you don’t! First you steal my familiar slot and now you want my woman?!