Chapter 1 Jazz Dance

After the selection was complete, the white light in the glass cylinder converged, ultimately revealing a pair of football shoes that looked quite old.

[Name: Jazz Dance]

[Type: Armor]

[Quality: Excellent]

[Defense: Weak]

[Attribute: None]

[Effect: Increases the limit of running speed, greatly reduces the consumption of stamina for long periods of walking or running]

[Note: These shoes belonged to an unprecedented winger, the first European Footballer of the Year, an outstanding dribbling master. In his career spanning more than thirty years, he was never shown a red or yellow card. Another athlete known as the King of Football once commented, "He taught us how to play football."]

"The item isn't bad…and there are no equipment conditions," Feng Bujue muttered. "Even if I get stronger foot armor later, I can still sell this for a good price."

When he directly equipped the shoes, he heard a system prompt: [When the equipped part contains "fashion peripherals," you can select your preferred appearance in the menu]

Feng Bujue checked it out. The meaning of this function was that players could choose to display the system's own shoe appearance or display the equipped shoes. When the store opens in the future, there will be many fashion peripherals on the shelves. He believed that at that time, there would be many players who were wrapped from head to toe in RMB-bought bizarre costumes, choosing not to display the equipment but to display their favorite styles.

But in the closed beta, when there was no store, more people chose to display their equipment. This was actually a kind of vanity at work. People always like to show off things they have that others don't. The envious and jealous gazes of others can bring a considerable degree of satisfaction.

After organizing his space, Feng Bujue disconnected his neural connection.

Coming out of the game pod, about two hours of real time had passed. At this time, the night was deep, the wind was howling outside the window, and the city sky was devoid of stars. Of course, Feng Bujue rarely looked.

Young people in big cities, regardless of whether they have to get up early the next day, rarely go to sleep before midnight. They would rather doze off at six in the morning on a crowded subway or bus than sacrifice the time after work that belongs to them. Feng Bujue was even more of a typical nocturnal person. He got up at noon every day and usually didn't sleep until nearly four in the morning. He believed that the early hours of the morning were the best time for his inspiration.

But today, although it was still two or three hours before midnight, Feng Bujue suddenly felt the desire to create. He brewed a whole pot of coffee, sat down at the computer, and began to type on the keyboard.

His pen name was "Bujue," and the novel he was serializing for the magazine was called *Second-Rate Detective and Cat*. In fact, he originally just wanted to write a story about a first-rate detective. But in his day, commercial novels had to have some gimmicks, just like many comics use female characters to attract attention, the novel industry also had to follow market rules. No matter how many years passed, people's curiosity and lust were always breakthroughs.

When Feng Bujue was poor and destitute, he had also considered writing some erotic novels. As a self-proclaimed artist, he could easily find characters who seemed to resonate with him spiritually, such as Millet (a French painter who once had to exchange sketches for shoes and oil paintings for a bed due to financial constraints, and also painted some erotic works to cater to the sensory stimulation of the bourgeoisie) or Titian (well, this one was out of interest).

In short, Feng Bujue finally compromised and added gimmicks so that he could write the detective stories he liked and was good at. The setting of this *Second-Rate Detective and Cat* was just splitting one protagonist into two characters. Originally, the protagonist of this book should have been a shrewd guy, but now, he became a kind but incompetent second-rate detective, until one day, he discovered that his cat could talk, and only he could understand it, and that cat just happened to have godlike reasoning ability...

The magazine's editor even praised Feng Bujue, saying that he used this setting well, and the humorous interaction between the protagonist and the cat in the novel could dilute the overall dark style of the detective novel. Feng Bujue also gradually discovered the benefits of writing this way, one was to buffer the tense plot, and the other was to make up the word count...

In addition to this serialization, Feng Bujue was also writing a long story, which was the publishing novel mentioned earlier that could really earn him some money. Originally, the creation of that book had almost completely fallen into a bottleneck, and he hadn't written a word for a month, but tonight, Feng Bujue had inspiration again and began to continue building the story called *Both Ends of Nightmare*.

…………

The night passed without incident. The next morning, when the sky was about to dawn, Feng Bujue saved the document and finally stood up from the computer desk. He stretched and yawned, glanced at the time, and it was already 4:40 in the morning. Feng Bujue then remembered that yesterday was the Qingming Festival… Dream Inc. specifically chose such a day to start the closed beta of Thriller Paradise, which can also be regarded as a promotional method used by an online game that sells horror.

Since it was already this time, the breakfast stalls outside the residential area should be set up. Feng Bujue's mind was still full of various plots in the novel, and he was not tired at all. He decided to go out to eat something and then come back to sleep.

He took the keys and some change (that's all he had) and went downstairs. Fifteen minutes later, he was walking home with scallion pancakes and fried dough sticks.

When he returned to the residential area, he could already see some elderly residents coming out for morning exercise, or rushing to line up in front of the community hospital early in the morning.

Feng Bujue rarely had contact with his neighbors. At this time, he was usually fast asleep. For him, the day began at noon.

"Meow~" A black and white calico cat on the side of the road meowed at him as he passed by.

Feng Bujue stopped and stared at the cat for a few seconds, confirming that its eyes were fixed on the breakfast in his hand.

"I'm talking about you…" Feng Bujue came to the cat and squatted down, looking at the stray cat without a collar and said softly, "Do you even eat fried flour?"

"Meow." The cat didn't seem to be afraid of strangers at all. This sound seemed to be answering "yes."

"I've only had clear soup noodles to eat these days." Feng Bujue said, breaking off a small piece of scallion pancake and handing it to the cat's mouth, "This is the only thing I could buy with my last few coins that has any grease in it."

The cat stretched its head forward a little, smelled the food Feng Bujue handed over, and then ate the piece of scallion pancake in one bite. It licked its tongue, and then "meowed~" again, it seemed that one bite was not enough.

Feng Bujue broke off another small piece of pancake for it. "You don't look cute at all, and you don't look like any kind of expensive breed, but you dare to directly beg for food from a strange human, and you're getting more and more demanding…" He mocked while instinctively breaking off the next piece of scallion pancake and quickly handing it over, "Go seriously scavenge through the trash cans, you bastard!"

Speaking of trash cans, Feng Bujue unconsciously looked up and glanced at the three classified trash cans in front of the apartment building. Those four-sided cup-shaped trash cans were very high, about 1.4 meters tall, wider at the top and narrower at the bottom. If a cat wanted to jump in and scavenge, it had to take advantage of when the trash can was relatively full, otherwise it might jump in and not be able to climb out. If it was dumped into the garbage truck together, it would basically become a dead cat.

"Sigh…" Feng Bujue sighed, simply tore half of the pancake into pieces, sprinkled it on his palm, and stretched it out to the cat. "Actually, it's not easy for you stray cats. I heard that in winter, in our residential area, a cat hid under a car to keep warm with the residual heat of the engine. In the morning, the unsuspecting car owner started the car, and it was crushed to death." He touched the little cat's head. There were some things he would rather say to the cat. Facing humans, Feng Bujue couldn't say them, "You stray cats only live for an average of three years. As for me, I may die suddenly at any time due to an unknown brain disease. Today we have a fate…" He took the remaining half of the pancake, put it in his mouth, took a bite, and then said indistinctly, "...we can share a pancake, maybe, in the next life, we can be brothers…"

"Xiao Feng, is that you?" A familiar voice sounded from behind.

Feng Bujue turned around and saw his landlady, Aunt Liu. Aunt Liu's surname was Liu, and she had retired for five years. Her old partner's surname was He, and he was a retired cadre. Although Aunt Liu usually spoke a bit harshly, she was actually a good person.

This Aunt Liu lived in the same building as Feng Bujue. She owned three apartments, one in another part of the residential area, which was also rented out. And the two in this building, because Aunt Liu thought the thirteenth floor was unlucky, she lived on the eighth floor herself, and the other one was rented to Feng Bujue for a long time.

"It really is you, I was worried I had mistaken you." Aunt Liu was carrying a vegetable basket in her hand, she must have just returned from the market. "Today, the sun really came out from the west, I can actually see you downstairs early in the morning?" She turned her gaze to the calico cat, and the topic also changed, "I'm telling you, Xiao Feng, it's not that I'm lecturing you, how can you feed stray cats? If you feed them once today, five or six will pop up here to squat tomorrow. Aren't you causing trouble for other neighbors?"

"That makes sense." Feng Bujue thought for a few seconds and replied, "It seems there's only one way…" He held the breakfast in one hand and picked up the dirty stray cat with the other, "Take it home and raise it."

Aunt Liu was stunned: "You kid really know how to act on your own, have you asked me?"

"Look…in our residential area, we can raise dogs, and this cat doesn't even go out…" Feng Bujue squeezed out a smile, trying to act cute.

"You really want to raise it?" Aunt Liu originally thought Feng Bujue was just saying it casually. Suddenly, her expression changed slightly, she looked at Feng Bujue's face, and then at the cat, "Hey…don't say it, you two really look alike." Her gaze moved down a little, "And this cat is male too."

The corners of Feng Bujue's mouth twitched: "Auntie, your use of 'too' in that sentence is problematic…I'm a 'man'…"

"I'm not going to argue with you about words, you're a cultured person, I'm not." Aunt Liu said, "Let's make it clear first, it's okay if you really want to raise this cat, but your place is messy enough as it is, you have to pay more attention to hygiene if you raise a cat. Most of the people in this building are elderly, if anyone comes to me and says your place smells…"

"I'll cook it and eat it." Feng Bujue interjected.

"Meow!" The calico cat seemed to understand and meowed dissatisfiedly in Feng Bujue's arms.

"Cook your head! You can't cook it, you can't cook it." Aunt Liu started walking while saying, "Let's go…"

"Where to?" Feng Bujue said.

"Go to the pet clinic in the residential area to get it vaccinated." Aunt Liu said, "What if it has feline distemper?"

"Uh…" Feng Bujue hesitated for a few seconds and said, "It's like this…I'm a little short on money lately…"

"When are you not short on money?" Aunt Liu interrupted, "Alright, alright, I'll help you pay for it first, just pay me back when you pay the rent." She had just taken a step when she stopped again, "Look at my brain, let me go upstairs and put the vegetables down first."

…………

When Feng Bujue returned home, it was already seven in the morning. He not only brought back a cat, but also a sandbox, cat food, plastic bowls, toys and other things…

"Let's not be brothers in the next life." Feng Bujue held the cat up to his eyes, "You should be reincarnated as a woman and repay me with your body."

"Meow." The cat yawned lazily, its expression seeming to show disdain for Feng Bujue.

Feng Bujue was packing things while pressing the phone answering machine. The recording sounded: "You have, 1, message."

After the wooden voice was a beep, then Wang Tanzhi's voice came from inside: "Brother Jue, you're not answering the phone again? It's a day off today, I'll come to your house in the afternoon, bring you some meat to eat, you'll be there anyway, it's settled."

At this time, the cat jumped to the phone, stretched out its paw and scratched the phone's buttons, and then sniffed it with its nose, then lost interest and jumped onto the sofa and lay down.

"It's like I'm always holed up at home and very free." Feng Bujue muttered unhappily to himself, but in fact…he was very free.