The System Mistook Me for a Cat

The little tiger was definitely going to be sent away.

But it made Chu Tingwu famous in the family group chat.

Although she was already quite well-known, everyone was still shocked when they saw the group photo posted by her third cousin:

"If we knew we could touch a baby Siberian tiger, we would have taken leave and come to Fallen Phoenix City!"

When the little tiger was being taken away, there was a small incident. Chu Tingwu coaxed it into the cage, and it didn’t seem to mind, lazily crawling inside. But when the cage door closed, the cub was stunned.

Having only been in human society for a few days, it had already equated "cage" with "bad people." Now, it was both anxious and angry, yowling and growling in frustration, especially when it looked at Chu Tingwu—

Shao Lingwu: "It’s about to cry…"

Chu Tingwu suggested, "Then let it come out, and you go in."

Shao Lingwu gestured, indicating he couldn’t fit.

Chu Tingwu: "You actually considered it?"

However, the tiger’s cries attracted other cats, who gathered around the cage, observing the cub. They weren’t keen on getting close to unfamiliar humans but were chattering among themselves—

These cats were all very familiar with cages.

"Is it going to be neutered at such a young age, meow?"

"Is it cursing us? But what is it saying, meow?"

Like a cub, its growls lacked ferocity, and it didn’t know any feline curses. It pawed at the cage door, less like it was cursing and more like it was whining, expressing its grievance.

Shao Lingwu: "It’s really about to cry…"

Chu Tingwu glanced at him and noticed Shao Lingwu taking out his phone… to start recording.

Chu Tingwu: "==?"

Every time the little tiger let out a yowl, the cats responded with a chorus of meows and growls. The cub would shrink back, wait a moment, and then yowl again, prompting the cats to chatter once more.

Shao Lingwu was excited: "This rhythm feels interesting…"

It could be turned into a song.

The rare cub was eventually taken away. As expected, it would undergo a health check at the city zoo, and the police would investigate its origins… Chu Tingwu heard from the zoo staff:

"A cub of this age isn’t suitable for immediate rewilding. If we can find its mother, we’ll try to return it to her."

"However… you can think of tigers as a type of cat. Some cat mothers reject their cubs if they’ve been handled by humans and carry their scent, while others don’t mind. We don’t know if the cub’s mother is still around or if she’ll accept it. If not…"

They would do their best to find a suitable surrogate mother for the cub, raise it, and gradually reintroduce it to the wild. If rewilding failed, it would likely live in the zoo permanently.

However, the staff seemed both happy and sad, admitting, "Our city zoo doesn’t even have the qualifications to house a tiger."

Let alone a rare Siberian tiger.

They would probably only care for it for a few days, ensuring it was healthy, before sending it to a nature reserve in a northern city.

But even briefly caring for this Siberian tiger was enough to excite the zoo staff for a month… and this girl beside them had held the cub for half a day.

The staff gave her a thumbs-up: Impressive.

They also took a group photo. The zoo mentioned that while this wasn’t a donation, Chu Tingwu had certainly performed a heroic act. The police would help her apply for a reward, and the zoo wanted to put up a poster of her in the park.

Chu Tingwu: "Huh?"

The staff: "We’re planning to do a text and photo livestream of the cub’s daily life online."

It wouldn’t last long, but they could also introduce Chu Tingwu.

When Chu Tingwu decided to be tactful, she was quite good at it: "Can I repost it on my account?"

The staff: "Hahaha, that would be great."

Chu Tingwu opened her phone, reposted the zoo’s latest post, and then checked her account, noticing that she had blocked quite a few people.

The system: "Legal is already on it."

—When a fanbase grows large, it inevitably attracts all sorts of people, including strangers who harbor baseless malice toward others. But Chu Tingwu had never encountered them, nor had she seen their hateful comments, because the system had already sent them cease-and-desist letters before she could deal with them.

Of course, these people didn’t know that receiving a cease-and-desist was actually a good thing, as the system had become more restrained after Chu Tingwu’s persuasion.

She scrolled through the news and found, as expected, that the latest controversy was:

Cats attacking people.

The incident involving Three-Five-Five would likely be cleared up after the police issued a statement, but Chu Tingwu decided to post an announcement anyway.

She wasn’t defending Three-Five-Five but reposted a fan’s comment:

"When Three-Five-Five attacked that person, I felt panicked because it felt like my foot was also stepping on them. The VR livestream blurred some boundaries, and I’m not sure how to describe it, but I instinctively exited the VR perspective."

Chu Tingwu reposted:

[Unlike simple VR visuals, the new VR livestreaming equipment allows viewers to experience a more realistic sense of touch. After careful consideration, the team has decided to delay the release of the VR livestreaming equipment for hosts.

Hosts using this equipment must undergo screening, real-name verification, and training. The equipment will automatically connect to the livestream system, but even so, we can’t guarantee that inappropriate content won’t occur.

Because the boundaries of what’s inappropriate are often blurred.

Someone could use this equipment to hug others, allowing viewers to feel a stranger’s warmth from home, while someone else might use it to teach basic self-defense or combat techniques… but that could easily cross the line into harassment or violence.

Moreover, during a VR livestream, the host themselves could be subjected to inappropriate scrutiny or rude comments from viewers—when launching a completely new livestreaming system, we need to consider all the potential issues that might arise.

After discussions with @Fenghua Video, the host equipment will first be trialed in small numbers within Fenghua Video’s platform. At the same time, the video site will be updated to minimize the likelihood of the aforementioned problems.

We hope everyone, whether hosts or viewers, can enjoy the fun of VR livestreaming.]

The company then reposted Chu Tingwu’s announcement and quietly released pre-orders for protective gear like knee pads, arm guards, gloves, and shoe covers.

As for the VR glasses, they were still in development, so everyone would have to make do with the high-end ones on the market for now.

Fans: "?"

Alright, the high-end glasses on the market are just "making do" for you? How advanced will your company’s products be?

You’re a sports brand company, but you’ve already jumped into the VR gaming equipment race. The glasses manufacturers probably couldn’t sleep at night, thinking:

"What’s wrong with them?"

Chu Tingwu couldn’t hear the competitors’ complaints, because after the ancestral rites, she and her friends flew to Sang City.

This time, perhaps through some channel (possibly Chu Xiao), her third cousin, who worked in a neighboring city, found out about the incident during Chu Tingwu’s first visit to Sang City and drove over to pick up the four of them for the winter camp.

The sailing competition had already concluded during the New Year. Chu Tingwu leaned against the window and suddenly said, "The application for Fangyuan should have been approved, right?"

That meant they could allocate VR host equipment to them!

As part of the same company, though fans jokingly called it the "Chu Group," the parent company was simply branded with the "WU" logo and officially named "Wu Voice Group." While it nominally consolidated various companies, it was still controlled by the system.

And since they were part of the same family, the equipment allocated to Fenghua Video would naturally also be shared with small charitable organizations supported by the Starcloud Charity Foundation.

Among those who were willing and suitable for live streaming, a few had already set up their own video accounts early on. After all, in this day and age, being a content creator can bring in some traffic, and traffic translates to money.

The Starcloud Charity Foundation also reviewed and approved a batch of suitable VR streamers. Of course, they first had to send the designated streamers to the company for training and to sign contracts.

The system established a media studio.

...Anyway, it was all crammed into the headquarters.

However, the studio staff were scratching their heads, really wanting to take over Chu Tingwu’s account management... but the system wouldn’t allow it!

As for places like Fangyuan Private Kitchen... the streamer was the head chef, Auntie, who was thrilled to be able to stream herself cooking in VR.

Her recipes were self-taught, having learned from a few masters, and she also innovated her own dishes. She didn’t feel the need to hide any recipes—because skill couldn’t simply be copied.

While Chu Tingwu was buried in her studies, Fangyuan quietly went live.

Fenghua Video had set up a dedicated event page to promote the VR streamers. Considering that VR experiences are more suited for outdoor activities, the first batch of streamers they selected weren’t necessarily the ones with the most followers but whose content wasn’t a good fit—

Of course, the VR streamers Fenghua Video heavily promoted also didn’t have fewer than two million followers.

At first, the most popular were the pet bloggers.

There were plenty of people who wanted to virtually "pet" cats, and then there was the official panda channel—where you could get up close with pandas alongside their caretakers! Sure, the tactile experience was a bit removed, but you could "see" the pandas, so what more could you ask for?

Next were other outdoor content creators, like those who loved cycling or enjoyed traveling and streaming their journeys... Although the pilot program had a small number of participants, there were still over a hundred of them, plus the occasional surprise live streams from Arthur—

In February, VR live streaming still seemed like a distant dream.

By March, everyone was like mice that had fallen into a rice bin.

Some even begged the panda reserve in Chuan City to purchase VR experience pods—there was no way to buy them directly, as it seemed you could only collaborate with Wu Voice Group! But those who had been to Chewan City said the experience was absolutely mind-blowing! If you didn’t get one, you’d be left behind!

The reserve: "=="

Those accounts with fewer followers, labeled as studio accounts, quietly nestled among the big creators, but they still managed to ride the VR wave and get enough traffic.

Then, Fangyuan’s live stream blew up.

Chu Tingwu was so busy with her studies that she barely even noticed the start of the school year. Wherever she went, it was all about solving problems and taking exams.

This year, it seemed the province had learned from last year’s mistakes, as the biology competition preliminaries were held unusually early. As a result, fewer first-year students from Fifth High School qualified for the league compared to last year.

When Chu Tingwu heard this news, her deskmate got nervous for a moment, but then she realized:

"Wait, I’m a second-year student now."

Why am I even worried?

Everyone seemed more numb than last year. An Shiyan would pass by Chu Tingwu’s desk without even asking for snacks—she was a math competition student, constantly torn between destroying the world herself and hoping someone else would do it. Chu Tingwu got some math competition problems from Shao Lingwu for her friend... but the friend seemed both touched and even more devastated.

So, when the preliminary results came out, the school gave the competition students a day off.

"Are you going home to study or heading to the study room?"

"I’m going to ask my parents to book a tutor for home tutoring. See you later."

"I’m not studying. I’m going to sleep all day."

"Will my provincial exam score be worse than last year’s? I’m so stressed..."

"I just want to find a place to hang—"

Chu Tingwu jumped onto the table.

The teacher was still packing up their folders and was startled by her action, but they pretended it was "completely normal and not worth making a fuss about," continuing to look down, though their ears perked up.

Chu Tingwu: "If no one has plans, do you want to come to my neighborhood to hang out? It’s right across from the school."

Someone whispered in confusion: "But I have plans..."

And what’s even fun to do in a neighborhood?

Chu Tingwu looked at these familiar yet slightly unfamiliar classmates she’d spent nearly a year with and said:

"Our neighborhood activity center has thirty VR live streaming experience pods. They’re not open to the public yet, but we can play with them all day."

The classroom fell silent for a moment.

An Shiyan suddenly rushed forward and hugged Chu Tingwu’s leg: "Aah!"

Why didn’t you say so earlier!

The other classmates: "..."

VR live streaming... experience pods!

In that moment, Chu Tingwu became the most popular person in the classroom. Everyone clamored around her, calling her "Chu Chu," "Chu Tingwu," and even "Mom," as they swarmed her out of the room, startling Three-Five-Five, who was waiting at the door.

Forgetting about the problems they hadn’t finished, they chattered excitedly about whether they should grab some snacks and drinks on the way, as if it were a school picnic from their first year.

Teacher Shi on the podium smiled.

He packed up his files and walked back to the office with a heavy step that didn’t match his expression—Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Damn it... he actually wanted to go too.