latelenovela Chapter 196
Chapter 196
This was Chu Tingwu's fourth time disembarking to join the scientific sampling team.
After spending a long time in Antarctica, the animals that one could usually only see in zoos no longer felt novel. Instead, everyone preferred the moment before going ashore, when they would ride a small boat through the blue ice.
As the weather changed, the blue ice floating on the sea melted into various shapes. The sea was incredibly calm, with almost no noticeable waves, so the broken ice didn't shift much—
As the small boat passed through, it felt like sailing through a maritime art gallery, with the Antarctic ice floes serving as a massive art installation.
Of course, not everyone on the boat had an artistic mind.
And the penguins on the island certainly didn’t.
Seeing the humans approach, a few young chinstrap penguins left on the rocks didn’t shy away. They simply tilted their heads, watching the humans at work, occasionally flapping their wings and making duck-like noises that were hard to decipher.
At times like this, her elusive senior would pop up and ask Chu Tingwu, "What are they saying?"
Chu Tingwu: "They say you look weird."
The senior would retreat in embarrassment.
Of course, Chu Tingwu couldn’t actually translate penguin language, but as she learned more languages and gained more practical experience, she had encountered many different animals and naturally developed some intuition—animals were much simpler than humans, with fewer words and fewer thoughts. Just as animals that spend their lives thinking only about eating, mating, and raising their young wouldn’t ponder video games, she found it easy to discern their simple emotions and interpret their meanings.
Of course, other experts on the team had been studying Antarctic animals for over half their lives and could do the same.
The difference might only be that their hearing wasn’t as sharp as Chu Tingwu’s, so they might need to listen more carefully.
But "Junior Chu" could also rely on intuition to improve her accuracy... So, not just her senior, but others also noticed that while she might lack some professional knowledge, her insights into animal behavior were always spot-on, and they enjoyed asking her a question or two when passing by.
When Misha passed by, she warned Chu Tingwu not to tease the penguin chicks or stray from the designated path.
Misha: "The current route has been scouted by the re
But he was still wrong.
Just one day before Christmas, the system organized a remote meeting to inform them about the next focus of their work—
After a long, stable, and observation-based collaboration, Wu Voice Group's hardware development company was about to transition into a semi-state-owned enterprise. The government would provide subsidies and further promotion, aiming to increase the penetration rate of VR live-streaming devices to 60% within a year and promote VR experience pods to households within five years.
The government's determination to make this decision, along with increased oversight, seemed to be due to the system hinting that once the technological breakthrough was achieved, the currently purchased VR experience pods could be upgraded at a lower cost to the full-scale holographic pods that everyone envisioned.
This piece of insider information was something he had dug up.
But the system never revealed this to them!
In the long run, this business wasn’t a loss... Only Lian Tong felt the most conflicted. Was this a promotion or a demotion for him?
However, the blissfully unaware players had no idea about the behind-the-scenes struggles, nor did they know what changes the future of this world had undergone that night.
Especially the beta testers of "Cat House Simulator," who were nervously waiting for the update to complete and eagerly logging in—
The update announcement mentioned that this time, there would be a skeletal adjustment and a new model selection module! They were also updating the in-game chat interface!
As soon as the update completion message appeared on the screen, Liang Ling immediately sprang into action and chose to enter the game.
She glanced at the models and noticed, "Not just tortoiseshell cats, they’ve added all the pet cat breeds that exist in real life to the selection interface!"
Only pet cats, though—no black-footed cats or other protected feline species. But it was enough for everyone to pick freely. However, Liang Ling was decisive, selecting a calico cat and starting to tweak its patterns. She didn’t mess with the skeletal structure and then chose to enter the game.
With a practiced roll, she strutted cat-like to the mirror in the cat house, admiring her new calico skin. Then, she licked the little calico kitten awake and happily told it, "Look, you’re definitely my biological child!"
They looked exactly alike—how could it not be her child?
The calico kitten: "Meow?"
She pushed the napping kitten to her belly, wrapped her front paws around it, and put on a recently made yellow vest—while snowflakes drifted outside the window.
The game had a normal passage of time, including seasonal changes. It seemed players only had one in-game month to prepare for winter. If they didn’t secure their house and supplies within that time, both the big and little cats would freeze.
She opened the chat interface.
Of course, a single-player game could have a chat interface—after all, even non-interactive games like match-3 puzzles had communities and team features. What’s wrong with adding a chat interface?
The chat interface was already buzzing with activity.
Since there were fewer people, no ads, and no studios, everyone was just chatting casually. Many were asking about issues they encountered in the game, and some kind players were helping out with answers.
The interface was right next to the storage interface. Liang Ling lifted her paw and accidentally pressed on a pot of cat grass in the storage, dragging it into the chat bar and sending it out.
[Would you like to enable "Message in a Bottle"? The "Message in a Bottle" mode is still in testing. You won’t know where your item will drift to or how it will arrive.]
Liang Ling: "?"
She mentioned this in the chat, and others noticed the small bottle icon in the corner of the chat interface. It seemed everyone had five free bottles to use. Once opened, you could place one complete item from your storage into it—and only one!
There were no other ways to get more bottles for now.
[Rat Juice]: Let’s try it!
This rodent friend was quite generous, suggesting that if others were hesitant, he’d go first. Whoever received the item could match it in the chat, and everyone would know where it drifted and in what form.
Liang Ling was also curious, frequently checking the chat to see if anyone had received a bottle, hoping she might be the lucky one—
[Sheep Sheep Sheep]: [Image]
[Sheep Sheep Sheep]: Just logged in. Do you guys know what this is? I was shoveling snow at my doorstep, and suddenly a part of an electric cockroach and its blueprint fell from the sky.
[Sheep Sheep Sheep]: ...Even though we’re trash collectors, these people in the neighborhood are getting more and more inconsiderate. Why not throw it in the trash? They just dropped it on my head!
[Rat Juice]: I put in a fully assembled one!
[Sheep Sheep Sheep]: ?? Take your cockroach back!
It’s unclear how they negotiated, but in the end, the four sheep reassembled the electric cockroach and stuffed it back into the bottle.
The chat room was on edge!
Liang Ling: ...I’ll pass on this kind of luck.