The System Mistook Me for a Cat

It wouldn't be fair to exclude beta testers from receiving entry gifts just because they already have beta access.

The only player who received the gift was initially full of complaints, but he quickly stopped caring—because he noticed the "Limited Edition, Only 10 Available" label behind the gift icon on the screen.

No matter what the item is, as soon as the word "limited" is added, it seems to transform from something plain into something worth appreciating. And just as this realization dawned, the representative match was about to begin!

Raphael, standing in the center of the venue, nodded and started introducing the two representative players:

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the first round of the beta city representative match for 'Learning Through Play'—"

If the host had been a human, the audience might have listened and watched, but their attention wouldn't have been as focused. However, the host was a talking horse! Not just any talking horse, but one wearing a top hat and projected through AR technology, making it feel like they had accidentally stumbled onto the set of a Disney animated movie.

Many audience members hadn't put away their AR-projected gifts, and some hadn't even opened their gift boxes. As a result, the variously colored gift boxes floated around them, making them feel like characters in a movie.

Some excitedly sent messages to their friends, but most didn't even pull out their phones—the opening interactions alone made them feel like they had already gotten their money's worth.

Meanwhile, those watching online, like Chu Tingwu and her group, huddled together, phones in hand, ready for action. Although they were used to AR projections as beta testers, Feng Ziping still sighed, "If only we were there in person..."

The atmosphere at the venue was definitely different from watching online!

Shao Lingwu was the only one in their group who was actually at the venue.

Unlike the others around him, Shao Lingwu had an AR-projected cat perched on his head, and he was busy snapping photos of the host—the talking horse.

As the host continued, the representative players from Haishi and Shangjing City emerged from the side entrances.

While everyone was there to watch the AR cat battles, the players themselves were less prominent than their cats. Still, there was a brief introduction for each of them.

These two were the top scorers from their respective regional matches. Not all beta testers had encountered them before, but those who had knew just how skilled they were.

...It's worth mentioning that the Haishi regional champion was only fourteen years old.

Compared to the massive stage, both players looked tiny. When Raphael, the horse, moved closer, the audience realized that the AR-projected horse was actually twice the size of a real one, designed to be more noticeable.

Soon, as the introductions concluded, the two players took their positions in the competition area, and their virtual projections appeared beside them.

Next to the Haishi player stood an upright, tailless red panda, with the player's game ID floating above its head instead of a cat's name. Meanwhile, the Shangjing player was accompanied by a graceful, floating woman in traditional palace attire, her toes lightly touching the air—the brighter the virtual projection, the more the actual player seemed to fade into the background.

One audience member immediately realized:

"Did they customize the players' avatars too?!"

This was next-level extravagance!

AR games offer a stronger sense of immersion compared to MMORPGs, where players control specific characters. In live-streamed matches like this, some players might not want their real selves on display, so they customize their avatars. The red panda made it clear that these avatars weren't fixed.

And for a one-time beta city match, the organizers had gone all out, creating personalized avatars for the players!

The lights dimmed, and the host horse retreated to the edge of the venue. A familiar arena slowly emerged from the surroundings, with only the audience's wristbands and their AR projections still glowing, swaying slightly with the chatter and cheers, like a sea of stars in the darkness.

The two representative players' avatars stood tall in the center of this starry sea. As drumbeat-like music began to play, a thirty-second countdown appeared in the air.

The noise grew louder. Even though Chu Tingwu wasn't at the venue, she could pick out snippets of conversation from the audience. One beta tester, who had apparently brought a friend, was shouting in their ear:

"Look, this is it! We always wait for thirty seconds before it starts—oh, the cats! Where are the cats?"

At exactly twenty seconds, the upright red panda and the floating palace woman both raised their right hands. Points of light gathered beside them, quickly forming into large orbs. Then, with a space-warping effect, the orbs expanded and burst open—

An audience member exclaimed, "Holy crap, can all domestic movies please aim for this level of special effects?!"

The cats leaped out of the void.

But this wasn't the end. Both cats, now the size of tigers, turned their heads and let out long, drawn-out meows—serious and low-pitched.

At that moment, beta testers on both sides noticed a pop-up screen in front of them:

[Would you like to lend your strength to fight for your city's honor?]

One player muttered, "Holy... Mom, I can actually fight for my city now."

Someone nearby snapped, "Stop talking and just click confirm already!"

There was no reason to hesitate. The players quickly clicked confirm, and then they saw their own cats tilt their heads, surrounded by glowing orbs. The cats' images shrank, most reverting from adult size to the size of two-month-old kittens—but the glowing orbs transformed into floating points of light, shooting like arrows toward the main arena.

Someone glanced at their phone screen and noticed a new status above their cat's head: a one-and-a-half-hour timer indicating that the cat had lent its battle strength and couldn't participate in random or invitation matches during this time.

Though, at this point, it was unlikely anyone would leave the venue to start a random match.

The players at the venue were fully immersed, while those watching online could only tap confirm on their phone screens.

Chu Tingwu and her group did just that, as did Team Leader Yang, who secretly tapped confirm during a meeting.

As the glowing orbs merged into the two representative cats on the arena, the players watched as the cats grew from tiger-sized to the size of trucks.

Casual viewers were already impressed, but some players complained, "Why can't they grow as tall as a three-story building?"

Well, that made sense... Currently, there were only five hundred beta testers per side. But by the time the game entered its second beta, third beta, or official release, with tens or even hundreds of thousands of players lending their strength, would the matches turn into giant monster brawls? Could such massive AR projections even be rendered? But then again, who knows?

Raphael took the opportunity to reiterate the match rules, which had been explained at entry and were also printed on the tickets, but some people might have forgotten—

Aside from the order of answering questions between the top hundred and the rest, there was also the matter of priority.

The representative players, who were the city champions, were naturally special. On one hand, this was to prevent cheating; on the other, the representative players had the privilege of "correcting answers."

If a top hundred player secured the right to answer but got it wrong, the representative player could correct the answer within ten seconds. If both sides answered simultaneously but with different answers, the representative player's answer would take precedence.

Additionally, some questions awarded items rather than immediate effects, and the timing of their use could be decided by the representative players.

As the organizer, the Tianshi account was an internal test account that didn't level up or appear in rankings. Naturally, it wasn't seated in the audience. Unlike the other viewers, the Tianshi was busy monitoring online reactions—

This match was being broadcast with a delay, and the online livestream was set to air five minutes later. The real-time broadcast was only available on the Xuebutong app. However, even so, some people were too lazy to download the app, so the majority of viewers still flocked to mainstream video platforms. At this moment, the livestream channel occupied a massive recommended spot on the homepage of Fenghua Network, with the comment section buzzing with activity.

In reality, the match had already started, but viewers on Fenghua Network were just now seeing the part where the cats merged and expanded. This left them itching to be at the venue, imagining how they might perform if they were participating themselves.

However, when the questions were revealed, the comment section quickly fell silent, with many question marks popping up.

[Mom... why... can't I understand the questions...]

[Each character makes sense on its own, but when combined, it's like reading a foreign language. I managed to figure out two of the questions, but I haven't studied them before. The ones after that are completely different, and the key point is—]

The key point is, how are the contestants actually solving them?

Not only that, but the contestants were also using hand gestures to direct their actions while solving the problems. Though the contestants themselves weren’t very noticeable, their projected avatars were quite prominent. Despite multitasking, their accuracy was so high that it left little room for other eager players to showcase their skills.

Still, Chu Tingwu patted Feng Ziping on the left shoulder and said, “No helping it. We haven’t gotten any of the sections we’re good at yet.”

The cat from the Haishi team was quite unique—a black cat with translucent, glowing blue patterns that flowed like water. As the game updated, players’ cats developed in different directions, and this one clearly excelled in endurance and speed.

The cat from the Shangjing team was one many had seen before, as the contestant loved taking it around for challenges. It was a standard orange tabby, with only its tail featuring a special design: a long tail adorned with golden sun icons that shimmered as the cat moved.

But these two cats couldn’t really be referred to as “cats” anymore… they were more like two cat-shaped vehicles.

If the competition had just been about solving problems, it might have been a bit dull, and the audience, both on-site and online, wouldn’t have felt as engaged. So, the organizers had spiced up the presentation of the questions. For example, when the Haishi team solved this chemistry experiment question, a translucent beaker descended from the sky and enveloped the orange tabby.

The kitten on Shao Lingwu’s shoulder made a “shocked” expression, turned its head, and buried its face in his arm, leaving only its butt sticking out toward the stage.

Shao Lingwu: “…”

Sometimes, making the cats’ personalities too realistic might not be the best idea… And why did the app’s promotional material say that the cats’ personalities would gradually align with their owners based on daily choices?

Almost immediately, viewers from outside the two cities began to sympathize with the trapped Shangjing cat. A back-and-forth dynamic made things more interesting, and it seemed the Shangjing contestant might have made a mistake, as they didn’t answer the next question right away.

Chu Tingwu heard Chu Xiao recite the answer the next second.

Feng Ziping: “Huh!?”

It was a computer-related question!

On the screen, the orange tabby instantly transformed into a virtual projection made of 0s and 1s, dispersing through the beaker before reassembling.

Most viewers didn’t notice anything unusual.

Only a few realized:

Wait.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Virtual projections don’t have physical forms to begin with, right? But to break through a virtual barrier, you have to make the virtual even more virtual. Isn’t that just a paradox?

Feng Ziping let out a sigh of relief.

Though he wasn’t actually from Shangjing, and neither was anyone else present, as a participant in the competition, he felt fully immersed.

…But he really wanted to answer a question too!

He wanted to see his cat strutting proudly above the orange tabby! Even if it only appeared for a few seconds compared to the overall competition, Feng Ziping felt that having his cat on TV was more impressive than being on TV himself.

In the early stages, it seemed like both sides were getting questions they were good at, but as they entered the mid-game, the Haishi team stumbled a couple of times, and then it was the Shangjing team’s turn to get stuck again.

The projection of the woman in traditional attire frowned, showing a troubled and hesitant expression, but Zhou Qiang clicked to answer and input her solution.

Her answer was half a second faster than another player who tried to answer on-site, and that player couldn’t hide their frustration.

Feng Ziping: “…”

Wait, wasn’t this supposed to be a biology question? This is an economics question!

When would it be his turn to shine, like—

Chu Tingwu: “The tenth person to complete a solo non-stop circumnavigation by sailboat was Mibo Lefier, an Italian, and the boat was named the Serena.”

[Three points correct, answer correct.]

A tortoiseshell cat appeared triumphantly above the orange tabby, and a sailboat emerged from the void, sailing over the waves, growing larger as it approached. The orange tabby leaped onto the boat, causing it to dip sharply.

Audience members near the stage even instinctively stepped back, worried the boat might tip over.

Meanwhile, a certain Feng, who wasn’t near the stage or even at the venue: “…?”

He glanced at his companions with a look that said, “How do all of you have other talents, while I’ve just been studying all day?”

Chu Tingwu patted his right shoulder reassuringly. “It’s fine, Team Leader Yang didn’t get a chance either.”

Now you and the coach are on equal footing! Keep it up!

Feng Ziping: “…”

He’d forgotten that the coach was also a competitor! Darn it!