The siblings stated their objections in unison. Lin Sanjiu forcefully overruled them and got the cat doctor to stay. She had too many questions she needed answers to. While Lin Sanjiu organized her thought and deliberated over how she should start her questioning, the siblings apologized to the cat doctor profusely. They even tried to look for a good, leveled resting spot. They wanted to clean the spot with their sleeves and invite the cat to sit. When Lin Sanjiu looked up again and was about to write her questions, she found Meowie Hu lying on a cushion in a dignified manner. The cushion was on a rock and a cup of hot steaming tea was by his side.
Actually, the 'cushion' was just a piece of rag and the tea was just water. Yet, Lin Sanjiu was truly astonished by Meowie Hu's ability to charm humans. Not counting herself, even when Reno was badly hurt, his sister didn't even consider getting something soft to let him lay on. The siblings sat straight and properly by his side, as if they were afraid that Lin Sanjiu might ask the cat an offensive question. Unfortunately, they were quite distressed when they found out that Lin Sanjiu's first question was already very offensive.
"What are you exactly?" she spelled in the air.
"Did I already answer you? I am a doctor." The cat looked as if he was hiding his disgruntled face, "Haven't I shown you my incredible medical skills? Why won't you believe me?"
Similarly, the siblings showed her a "what-are-you-doing?" expression.
"I've never met such a boastful cat before. I'm not going to judge his medical skill at the moment… " Lin Sanjiu thought to herself and wrote, "If you are a cat, how did you become a doctor?"
Meowie Hu nodded and answered proudly, "By learning."
Lin Sanjiu was about to explode.
Seeing that the cat wasn't about to answer her questions properly, she changed her question, "Do you know about these numbers?"
All along she had the inkling that Zhu Mingchun wasn't telling them the whole truth, so she wanted to use this opportunity to just confirm her doubts.
"Yes. I came here to collect corps—patients precisely because I know." The cat doctor displayed his elegant demeanor and answered truthfully without further probing, "A person can transfer another person's numbers to their bodies through combat. I think you know this. Next, you all must spend 180 days in the pocket dimension. Oh, you know this too? Oh, you know quite a lot… Do all of you know how much longer you can live?"
The three people froze on the spot.
"What do you mean how much longer you can live?" Just when the siblings were cautiously going to ask the cat doctor about this, the cat narrowed its eyes as if he instantly understood their intentions, "So, this is what you don't know. The numbers represent the number of days you can live."
"What? Don't they represent how many lives I have?" Rena was startled, "Doctor, previously, I only survived those lethal attacks because…"
Before Rena could finish her sentence, the cat doctor interrupted her after waving his paw dismissively.
"That's right. Every time you recei8ive a lethal blow, the number on your back will drop by 1. Meanwhile," the cat squinted his eyes and licked his paws, continuing, "Every day, that number would also naturally decrease by 1. Once you use up the numbers, you're dead. Why do you think these people attacked you? If that was the case, nobody would fight. Everyone could just survive peacefully for 180 days with the original 5 on their backs."
"The starting number is 5!"
When they found those numbers on their back, the number was already 4 because a day had passed. The three of them were so shocked that they couldn't say a word. After some time, Rena suddenly became aware of something. She quickly tried to look at the number on her back, "What is... what is my number now?"
Lin Sanjiu quickly checked her own higher consciousness as well.
Even though each of them had killed one enemy and gained their numbers, there was a large disparity between their numbers. Among the three of them, Lin Sanjiu had the highest number. Due to the tenacity of her higher consciousness, she didn't really receive any lethal attacks. As Derik's number was 11, Lin Sanjiu's number was now 15.
That is to say, even if she didn't do anything, she could still survive for half a month without fretting. Reno had the second highest number. After getting Zhu Mingchun's number, he was already at 9.
Rena had the lowest number. Logically speaking, Hannie Huang's number should be very high—at least it should be above 10. However, when Rena threw all her Ripple Spheres, Hannie's number was used up immediately. At the same time, they were also added to Rena. However, the explosions were still ongoing at that point. The detonation waves were strong enough to kill Rena several times over. As a result, she spent many of the lives she had gotten and was now left with 3.
When Rena found out the number on her back, she turned pale.
Many people have questioned themselves or others about what they would do if they had only three days left to live. However, when it becomes a reality, it isn't something that everyone can accept. Luckily, there were still ways to solve this.
"So… I have been in this area for quite a few days. I have seen a sort of fighting strategies," Meowie said slowly. "There are those who form teams and eventually backstab their comrades. There are others who lure and trick newcomers; they hide the truth about the numbers and kill them silently. There are people who would use surprise attacks. They would suddenly rush out, attack you and then run away, though that is quite difficult and you only get 1 each time. There are also those who would ambush victims, set traps, etc. There are just countless methods."
Even though they could feel the bloodlust and cruelty from the actions the cat described, the cat's voice did not show any emotions. He still used that slightly lazy, elegant tone. If one had to really describe it, it sounded like he was slightly annoyed by humans' stupidity.
"Is attacking others the only way we can gain numbers?" Reno asked urgently, he had a ghastly expression.
If everybody's number drop by 1 each day, the combined value of the numbers on everybody's backs would constantly be dropping. Under such extreme circumstances, one would have to kill a heap load of people to survive 180 days.
On top of that, as time went by, there was another possibility: the combined value of numbers on the survivors may not even add up to 180. In that case, death was certain for almost everyone in the pocket dimension.
While two pairs of eyes and two sockets from a skull stared at the cat doctor, he groomed his fur unhurriedly. As his audience was getting a little anxious, he spoke leisurely, "Actually… there are other ways."