A Helplessly Weak, Big Ginger Cat

Chapter 3: Self-awareness hindrance 1

He didn’t catch up! Yan Leyang turned and took a quick look back before coming to a sudden halt.

He needed to find food now, otherwise he would starve to death.

Let’s go try our luck. He…should be able to get a few pieces of meat.

Yan Leyang continued to rush to the food distribution area and suddenly stopped when he passed by a dilapidated optical shop.

Yan Leyang was near-sighted by around 600 degrees. Basically, he had astigmatism when looking at others.

Yan Leyang suspected that both his body and soul transmigrated into this world together, because as the writer for the adaptation of the novel, he remembered that the original host did not have such a setting of myopia. Anyway, he had never seen any description of the original protagonist wearing any glasses.

Perhaps the interstellar technology was so advanced that near-sightedness had ceased to exist and their glasses were only there for decoration.

However, Yan Leyang himself was currently experiencing double vision.

Yan Leyang ran into the optical shop and discovered that the glasses were regular lenses just as he had suspected.

His actions were quite strange to the audience watching his monitor stream at the moment.

【What is he doing? Looking for accessories?】　　

【Um. Isn’t he hungry? How is it that he still has time to look for accessories?】

Yan Leyang fiddled with a pair of black glasses and stroked the silver metal wire of the lenses leg, 2

A mechanical voice rang out:【Hello, please set up your[formal] wearing requirements.】

This could be customized? Yan Leyang was stunned and reacted immediately: “Can we set up the degrees of the lenses? 600 degrees.”　　

【Setup success.】After the mechanical voice responded, it showed no further reaction regardless of how Yan Leyang touched the glasses.

This appeared to be a one-time thing, but the interstellar world sure was advanced. Yan Leyang propped his glasses on the bridge of his nose before getting up to prepare to look for food.

And in the eyes of the interstellar citizens, his actions made them think; this person is really poor. In today’s interstellar age, myopia correction was no longer considered a surgery.

Even a student who worked for a mere week would be able to earn enough money to cure their nearsightedness. However, it was evident that Yan Leyang did not have that (much) money.

Even if Yan Leyang’s background information stated that he was someone who had come out of the slums,  he had still been lurking around beside the crown prince for so many years, yet he was still this poor? 　

It looked like the cat tribe’s imperial household wasn’t a good place to stay.

“…….Yan Leyang is nearsighted?” In the cat tribe’s crown prince’s mansion, the prince suddenly looked up and asked the servant girl who had her head bowed as she stood beside him.

“My apologies, Your Highness. I’m not sure, but to my knowledge Mr. Yan did not show any signs of being unable to see things clearly.” The servant girl’s voice was very clear. After responding, she closed her mouth and minimized her sense of existence.

The prince gave two low chuckles and shut down his optical/photon computer: “Liar.”

After putting on the glasses, Yan Leyang pinpointed the food distribution center that was closest to his current location using the map that was projected from the collar on his neck.

The projected area was an enclosed environment that was like a huge dome on the ground.

In front of the entrance, there were two weird things which looked like an egg-shell, that were probably the mechanical guards. They were armed, but even when there were criminals fighting and killing each other, they did not care at all. They were mere decorations. Oh, in addition to being decorations, they also did the work of a janitor.

When Yan Leyang arrived, he managed to catch sight of the two eggshells dragging a dead body away.

There were caterpillar tracks 3

under the eggshell for walking, and the hands used for dragging were usually hidden in their bodies.

The corpse that was being dragged away by them transformed after being thrown on the ground. How lovely, the dead corpse was part of the cat family, and was a silver-shaded shorthair cat. 4

A lot of people had gathered outside the food distribution center by this time. No one cared about the body with only the mechanical guards who were on the side reading out loud in a rigid tone.

╔════════════════ ≪≫°✺°≪ ≫ ════════════════╗
Name: Peng Wen 

Time in prison: one day 

Charge: Indecent killing of multiple women 

Original occupation: Fashion Designer 

Status: Deceased

Race: Cat

╚════════════════ ≪≫°✺°≪ ≫ ════════════════╝

After reading it, the prison guards went to dispose the corpse.

Yan Leyang swallowed his saliva. He could feel that there were numerous eyes on him and those eyes were not very friendly.

This was normal, as Yan Leyang’s appearance suggested that his combat power was only in the single digits (looks weak in game combat terms).

If this continued, it would become very troublesome in the future.

Yan Leyang closed his eyes and opened them after mentally preparing himself. He turned his head abruptly and looked at the dark-skinned muscular man who was sizing him up. Yan Leyang lifted one eyebrow and tried to overwhelm the other guy with his aura: “You, boy, what race (are you)?”

The man he pointed out was wearing a tank top and full of muscles. He looked about 1.9 meters tall. His skin was dark and seemed to glisten beneath the sunlight. After being addressed by Yan Leyang, he laughed disdainfully: “Black bear, why what’s the matter?”

As expected! Yan Leyang was relieved. This guy’s race should be an Asian black bear. If it was a brown bear, then they were bigger in size. At least they were bigger than the human form of the normal Siberian tiger. Of course, Yan Leyang’s human form was an exception.

If it was a black bear, then there would be no problem.

As long as it wasn’t a brown bear or a hippo or rhinosaur — these disgusting species.

Now wasn’t the time to worry about causing a scene. If he didn’t display his dominance, then there would be even more people seeking trouble in the future.

He couldn’t be a “soft persimmon” . 5

Naturally, his actions were incomprehensible to other people, including the audience watching his channel.　　

In a nutshell, where had Yan Leyang—who looked like a soft, attractive young man— gotten the courage to provoke such a character that didn’t look like one that could be provoked easily?

One had to know that the guy’s arms were as thick as Yan Leyang’s thighs. One punch and Yan Leyang’s head would explode.

“Who the f*k gave you the guts to stare at me?” Yan Leyang decided to go for broke (yolo-ed it).

“Ha?” the black bear felt like he was hallucinating, “Are you picking a fight with me?”

“It’s you who is provoking me. If you continue to stare, I(used arrogantly) will dig out your eyes.” Yan Leyang was quite weak. He was a cultured person and didn’t fight often.

“Does he have a death wish?” A certain guard faraway in the wolf clan saw this scene and shook his head.　

“Ah? Not necessarily.” A voice came from behind the bodyguard. He looked back and saw that the leader of his clan was standing behind him. The bodyguard was so scared that he almost lost his head.

But Hatchi only took a glance and didn’t pay any more attention to the optical/photon computer.　

He wasn’t all that worried about Yan Leyang at all, because Yan Leyang was actually a belligerent person in the skins of a gentleman. 6 This guy had been a school tyrant in high school and Hatchi had been in the same school as him. One day, he had seen a brown bear hybrid beastman blocking an underclassman for ‘protection fees’ when he was passing by a small alley.

And then, Yan Leyang had descended from the sky before punching the brown bear hybrid beastman till he was scrambling all over the place. To be honest, it had left quite the visual impact.

At the time, Yan Leyang still had long hair which was pulled into a ponytail.　

He paraded the fact that he was the school’s ‘top dog’. Practically writing the words ‘arrogant’ on his face, he had a severe case of Chuunibyo/Eighth Grader syndrome. [efn note] 中二病 Literal translation is “middle-school second-year disease”. It’s also known as Eighth Grader syndrome. The original term is “Chūnibyō” , a Japanese colloquial term typically used to describe early teens who have delusions, who desperately want to stand out, and who have convinced themselves that they have hidden knowledge or secret powers. [/efn_note] .

It was said that Yan Leyang was one of the best fighting forces in their clan. After all, his father’s strength was that of a dynasty’s tiger king. Yet Yan Leyang naturally wouldn’t be able to win against his father.

Hatchi had always thought that it was a shame that Yan Leyang hadn’t debuted with his face value, or gone into boxing with his strength.

Later, Yan Leyang’s sharp edges had mellowed down as time went by, his personality becoming more amiable 7 He seemed to feel that being a school tyrant in the past was too shameful, and so, he began to put on the airs of a defenseless scholar and cultural worker. His looks were quite bluffing and helped him to deceive others.

But just a year ago, Hatchi had witnessed an incident with his own eyes. A person driving by had robbed a young girl’s bag, and then Yan Leyang had rushed over, shattering the person’s car window with a single punch before proceeding to drag out the wailing person inside.

Hatchi had always thought that Yan-ge was like the men in novels who could pull down a weeping willow. If it weren’t for the fact that his arms couldn’t extend long enough, he might have been able to pull down a few trees in one go.

He a tiger that Wusong 8 wouldn’t be able to defeat. If everyone were all common wild beasts, then Yan Leyang was a star of disaster who dominated a whole area.

As long as it wasn’t one of those horrific herbivorous species like elephants, rhinoceros and hippos, Yan Leyang would have no problem beating them. What’s more, the black bear itself wasn’t as strong as the Siberian tiger.　　

The black bear’s temper was originally very irritable. After feeling like he was being ridiculed he rushed over to let this guy (Yan Leyang) pay for his words and deeds.　　

Then, in the middle of his forward dash, he was hit in the abdomen by Yan Leyang who had also rushed towards him. He flew back a meter and even rolled several times on the ground, before stopping completely after hitting a tree. 

Silence. Dead silence.

The only sound was the sound of the caterpillar track rubbing against the ground when the mechanical guards went over to check on the black bear before finding that the black bear was still alive and they didn’t need to deal with the body.

After confirming that the black bear who was covering his tummy wouldn’t be able to crawl up from the ground after the blow, Yan Leyang turned and left. He still needed to get food.

After passing the door, the mechanical guard checked his collar and butted the light bar on the collar with his hand, which was followed by a mechanical sound.

╔════════════════ ≪≫°✺°≪ ≫ ════════════════╗

Name: Yan Leyang

Time in prison: One day and a half

Charge: Assassination of crown prince 

Former occupation: Councillor/assemblyman 

Race: Cat

Approved

╚════════════════ ≪≫°✺°≪ ≫ ════════════════╝

With that, the mechanical guard was silent for a while (this was rare), and then repeated a sentence 【Councillor/assemblyman？】

“Yes. A civil servant.” Yan Leyang subconsciously answered and then went into the distribution point.

Truthfully speaking, the distribution point was quite high-class. Vegetarian food and meat were both placed separately. Speaking of that, even if there wasn’t any food for them, there was practically food everywhere for the herbivores …….but, that herd of grass-eaters was obviously not safe in close proximity with us carnivores. Moreover, the carnivorous animals and herbivorous animals were two major alliances in the original novel.

There should be very few herbivores who could be put into this prison, but there were also a group of omnivores who also needed to supplement vitamins, nonetheless, this had nothing to do with Yan Leyang.

Yan Leyang ran to the carnivorous area and took one day’s worth of food and some water, before patting his ass (not literally) and walking away. He decided to find a place without people first in order to think about what he should do for the rest of his days here.

“Old black, old black, can you stand up?” A man with black skin and body shape that was similar to a bear’s human form lifted up the black bear.　　

“Damn it, where is that guy?” The black bear gnashed his teeth. His eyes were still seeing black.

“He took the food and left.” The man patted the bear on the back and said, “he took a whole roast sheep and six bottles of water.”

“Ha?” Black bear didn’t react for a moment. He thought of the guy’s body. He looked very good, but his belly could hold so many things?

“He will probably eat it for a few days. But this isn’t the important part. The most important thing is his race. Don’t get mad at me when I say it.” The man said this, but his face had a smile with a sense of schadenfreude.9: “He’s a cat.” 

Footnotes

自我认知=self aware/recognize ourselves 障碍=obstruction/hindrance 手抚过镜腿(lenses/glasses leg)的银色silver原型prototype/original form金属片metal wire. Like this:

 

 

 

Look at this beautiful cat:

 

软柿子Ruǎn shìzi : literal translation is soft persimmon. But it is a slang for a weak pushover. 披着斯文人外皮的好战分子: Basically like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Kame: basically after some life experiences, he decided to go low-profile. Not to be too aggressive/easily angered.武松 wǔ sōng, also known as Wu the Second (武二郎wŭ èrláng), is one of the well-known fictional characters in Water Margin, one of the Four Great Classical Novels in Chinese literature. Nicknamed “Pilgrim”. 幸灾乐祸xìngzāilèhuò: To take joy in other people’s misfortune/ to take joy in calamity and delight in disaster.