Chapter 999 - Stuck

Chapter 999: Stuck

The burly man brought Zhao Yao to a small room in the great hall. On the table was a piece of shiny black scarf.

The burly man explained, “This is the Sacred Scarf weaved from the fur sheddings of Lord Wheatley. It contains Lord Wheatley’s residual power of awareness. If you are able to receive it, it will prove that you have the potential of a cat slave. The more you receive, the higher your potential.”

“Oh, that’s how…” Zhao Yao thought. “The previous elder knew that aspiring cat slaves had to register in the Frosted Teeth City but did not know the detailed procedures. The cat slave potential should be similar to the Earth’s apostle potential. I don’t think I have this potential. No, the Earth’s apostles could not directly receive power of awareness or detect the presence of power of awareness. This should be the exclusive potential of the Short Fur Tribe’s human…”

“Anyway, I’ll have a try.”

Zhao Yao said, “What should I do?”

“Put your hand on it. The Sacred Scarf will have a different reaction for different receptions of the power of awareness.”

Zhao Yao pressed his palm on the scarf.

The scarf did not move an inch and there was no noticeable effect.

The burly man shook his head and said, “It’s a pity, you do not have the potential of a cat slave. You are destined to be a normal human.”

Zhao Yao frowned as he did not like the result. His eyes glimmered as his power of awareness flowed into the scarf.

The Sacred Scarf flapped violently as if it detected intrusion of other power of awareness and wanted to expel Zhao Yao’s energy.

The burly man’s eyes lit up. “Oh? The power of awareness came out from the scarf? You do have potential after all.”

Moments later, he shook his head. “The Sacred Scarf only moved a little and it meant that the power of awareness that flowed out was little. Though you have potential but it’s very little.”

He lifted his head and looked at Zhao Yao and asked, “What’s your name?”

Zhao Yao replied, “Guang Yu.”

The burly man nodded and said, “Guang Yu, follow me. I’ll tell you how to train.”

Zhao Yao felt like it was similar to a school. He had to attend classes and training in the day and could go home at night. Breakfast and lunch were provided free of charge.

“You can call me Black Dune. I’m the Cat Slave Hall’s trainer,” The burly man said. “You’ll begin class tomorrow and learn the basic skills of a cat slave like taking care of cats, combing fur, preparing cat meals and control of the power of awareness…”

The burly man did not guard against Zhao Yao as all the power was concentrated in the cats. All rebellions were meaningless. After being controlled by the Short Fur Tribe, no rebellion could possibly happen.

When Zhao Yao heard the training program, he rolled his eyes in his heart. But when Black Dune mentioned the control of power of awareness, Zhao Yao’s eyes lit up.

The control of the power of awareness was one of the goals of Zhao Yao. Compared to the Short Fur Tribe, Zhao Yao’s understanding was simple and inferior. For example, Giggle’s creation of Closers World was a use of the power of awareness. Zhao Yao spent tens of years using Diana’s superpower to change the contents but he was unable to change the structure of Closers World.

As for the battle tactics using power of awareness, Zhao Yao was only half-schooled in the use of awareness. He depended on pure brute force of using high level power of awareness to defeat Giggle and Tom.

Sneaking into the Cat Slave Hall was easier than what Zhao Yao expected. After being informed of the class schedule, he left very pleased with himself.

Seeing Zhao Yao leave, the other trainer smiled and asked curiously, “Another new recruit? How’s his potential?”

Black Dune shook his head. “His attitude isn’t bad but with his potential, I think he’s destined to clean feces.”

As his progress on Satol was good, Zhao Yao returned to his cafe on Earth happily. He received news from Diana that Closers World was encountering instances of being stuck.

” Closers World’s stuck?” Zhao Yao went to the official forums and saw lots of complaints about dropped lines, the game being stuck and long delays.

Zhao Yao messaged Diana, “When did it happen?”

“After the online players breached 20 million, the instances of the game being stuck became more serious as if Closers World could not sustain the load.” Diana said, “Strangle, whom Tom was accompanying, was not willing to play after the game was stuck. What shall we do?”

Zhao Yao thought about it but did not panic. He calmly issued orders. “Stop all new registrations and let Apple restrict the number of people online. If the numbers reach more than 20 million, form a queue… hmm, say it’s from me.”

After the measures were taken, the internet was abuzz with more complaints.

“Despotic rules!”

“Zhao Yao’s loaded, why can’t he get more servers? He’s a scrooge!”

“My queue number is in the tens of thousands. Please Master Zhao, add more servers.”

Zhao Yao looked at the comments and nodded with satisfaction as he created another wave of attention. He pointed at one of the IDs and said, “Ban the ID of the player who called me a scrooge.”

Although he got a wave of attention after restricting the number of players, Closers World’s stopped expanding in number. It was not good for evolution progress.

He looked at the progress bar. After Diana reached Level 24, her progress slowed down. With the current 20 million players, she required ten days to reach Level 25. After that, it would require a month to upgrade.

Zhao Yao had no idea why Closers World would get stuck at 20 million players. He had no idea how to increase the player limitation of Closers World.

He spent most of his time on improving the contents, however, Zhao Yao did not know the low level structure and optimization of Closers World.

After consideration, Zhao Yao asked Tom but he did not know.

Tom said pitifully, “I’m only a kitten. The awareness country’s a deep subject, I haven’t learned about it.”

Zhao Yao shook his head. He asked Tom a few times but he did not know the principles or usage of Closers World.

Zhao Yao thought that he had to go to the Cat Slave Hall to see if he could learn something relevant.

“Okay, go and accompany Strangle. Remember, we’re always watching you.”

Tom shrunk his head and ran towards the nearby Strangle, who was sniffing the NPC Ragdoll cat. Strangle stood up and asked, “Tom, let’s go conquer the dungeon. I’m still lacking a paw glove weapon and I could complete the dungeon mission.”