A few cats moved back in unison.
Shiller took a deep breath and said, "Let's change places."
The other cats agreed wholeheartedly, nodding so fast it almost left afterimages. Even though their body sizes were larger than the fledglings, and they might win if they besieged the nest, they really didn't want to deal with those creatures; they were just too terrifying. Who knows if those eyeballs might fly out and take a bite out of them?
But without the tree hole as a shelter, where could they stay? The few cats were a bit worried. Constantine, with his rich survival experience, said, "In this situation, the trees are definitely not safe; let's find a way to dig a hole."
The cats could understand his logic. Trees, after all, were a wide-open space. Without walls, the wind could blow from all sides, and anything could come and bite them. Whereas underground, there's at least some form of walls, making it more difficult to dig through and safer to live.
Shiller quickly thought of the cave where he and Little Superman hid from bird attacks during the last time loop. The place was really small, but it could somewhat accommodate four cats. If it doesn't work, they could dig a bit inside to make do.
So he led the cats toward that spot. On the way, they cautiously circled around until they finally found the small cave under the tree root. As luck would have it, a mouse head poked out again.
This mouse looked quite terrifying, too; several smaller mice were hanging around its neck, resembling little mice biting the big mouse's neck. But a closer look revealed that the big mouse had a mouth growing from its jaw, and those little mice were actually its tongue.
The sight made the cats shudder, but they really couldn't give up on this shelter because night was falling soon. In a world like this, darkness meant death. Without finding a shelter before nightfall, it would spell their end here.
Peter pounced and bit down on the mouse's neck. A snap echoed as the spine was snapped. The mouse died silently. If they could have clapped, the cats would have given Peter a round of applause. Peter was a natural hunter, and the world should be grateful for his kind heart.
No one dared to eat the mouse, so Peter dragged it by the tail and tossed it far away to prevent attracting predators. Then the cats quickly squeezed into the hole and blocked the entrance with dirt, leaving only a few air holes for breathing.
The cats were cramped together in the small cave, unable to even turn around. Fortunately, the soil was fairly loose; although cat claws weren't ideal for digging, they managed to dig a bit. The cats worked tirelessly through the night, eventually expanding the cave enough for all four cats to lie down and rest simultaneously.
Covered in dirt and exhausted, the cats curled up and fell asleep. Late into the night, the ground shook, and eerie sounds echoed outside, making it hard to imagine what was going on out there. It was a night filled with nightmares, and none of the cats slept well. Hunger woke them the next morning.
Feeling hungry, even Little Superman began to lose hope. In a world filled with monsters, why would they still feel hunger? Couldn't they evolve away their stomachs?
But there was no choice; the world kept turning as usual, and they felt hunger. They cleared the dirt at the entrance to peek outside; it was broad daylight with no suspicious sounds. Shiller crawled out first, spotting a puddle of black blood on the ground, indicating something had been eaten overnight. He avoided the blood and sneaked into the bushes, finding no apparent danger.
"All right, let's have two of us hunt for food, look for any edible animals or plants," Shiller suggested after some thought, "Peter and John, you go. Clark and I will find the Centipede Cave to rescue our drone."
This was currently the best plan, with two teams splitting up. Shiller took Little Superman to the Centipede Cave. He had already guessed what they might find, but was still shaken by the reality.
All centipedes were linked together; small centipedes had become the legs of larger ones, which formed the legs of even bigger ones, creating a centipede loop. Meanwhile, the back of the centipedes was covered with pustules, spewing slime all around. The two cats took a step back. Sorry for disturbing you.
As proven, centipedes are not to be trifled with in any time or space. Whether in electrical or polluted shape, each one is scarier than the last. This time they had no flood to aid them, leaving them to fend for themselves.
Nevertheless, Shiller remembered that they were previously blocked by small centipedes, draining the drone's initial energy, preventing it from escaping. Now that the centipedes had turned into this horror, might the drone have escaped?
Shiller sighed in regret, for if it had escaped, it would be impossible to find again. This primitive jungle is vast, and it could fly anywhere, just like finding a needle in a haystack, with little hope.
Even with these thoughts, they had to check. Shiller pondered and said, "I'll distract the centipede; you go check the drainage outlet; we'll meet under the nearby tree."
Shiller dared to lure the centipede because he realized it wasn't any form of positive evolution. As evidence, having too bulky legs hindered movement. The centipede looked terrifying, but it actually moved slower than he did. He easily drew the centipede's attention and led it away.
He darted and swerved through the trees, unlike the cumbersome centipede, quickly losing it. Once under the tree, Little Superman shook his head at him. It seemed the drainage pipe had no drone anymore.
The two cats returned empty-handed. Though it was still early, they dared not linger outside, heading back to the shelter as quickly as they could. Before they even got inside, another mouse emerged again. They both were confused; what's going on? Defeated the small one and now the older one?
Little Superman was already gearing up to go, but Shiller hurriedly stopped him because he noticed that this mouse seemed off. It didn't have that terrifying mouth or tongue, and it didn't even look like the mouse from the previous loop.
In the last loop, there weren't any genuine mice; there was only a guinea pig-like creature, much larger than mice and nowhere near as agile. But the mouse before them now was an authentic Earth mouse, looking somewhat like a brown rat, those big southern rats, with glossy, sleek fur and a thick, strong tail.
This mouse was also stunned when it saw them. Shiller confirmed he saw a very human-like expression on its face, initially a bit dumbfounded and then somewhat shocked. But what was even more shocking was that the mouse actually spoke cat language: "Good heavens! Where did you come from?!"
The two cats were stunned there. Shiller stared directly at the mouse, pondering whether some Disney elements were incorporated into this timeline loop; otherwise, how could this mouse seem like it popped out of a princess cartoon?
"Hey, I'm asking you!" the mouse said. "Your Soul form is Human, so why are you residing in cat bodies? Who brought you here?!"
Not only were the cats shocked, but the mouse was also incredibly stunned, akin to seeing a shark on land, if not more. It was like seeing a shark enter one's kitchen and cook a three-dish meal.
Little Superman was still in a daze, but Shiller seemed to have thought of something. In the entire Cthulhu Universe, the only one with such human-like characteristics would be Nyarlathotep.
"Are you an Avatar of Nyarlathotep?" Shiller asked.
The mouse was even more shocked, its tiny eyes full of big doubts: "You actually know my name? Are you my blessed one?"
"Ah, sort of." Shiller's brain finally started turning, "My mentor had some connections with you, borrowed Strength from you, and later I met with you several times and even worked in the same hospital with your Avatar, the relationship was quite good."
The mouse showed a look of realization but then said with some doubt: "Which Avatar lent your mentor Strength?"
Shiller was well aware that most of Nyarlathotep's Avatars were very difficult to deal with, and most were extremely ferocious; generally speaking, lending Strength was not an option, even rolling several big successful dice might not work. But he couldn't outright say we were from American Comics, otherwise, wouldn't he have exposed himself?
"That I'm not quite sure about either. But the Avatar I encountered was a Doctor, seemed to know Magic, and had a good relationship with patients. But I have never seen their true form, and I don't know much else."
Shiller spoke very vaguely. Nyarlathotep has many human clones, and most of them are people who are very popular, because it's easier to deceive as such; roles like Doctor, Lawyer, and Teacher might all be among them. As for Magic, that's speaking from the human perspective, though Brand indeed has a Mage status, but Shiller saying it like this is more like saying he saw that clone exert some supernatural Strength but couldn't understand it, hence categorized it as Magic.
The mouse remained somewhat skeptical. Shiller thought for a while, then said, "A friend who came here with me is a novelist, whose main occupation is spreading Your gospel through writing. Just exchanging ideas with him slightly, you'll understand our sincerity."
"Wait a bit on that." The mouse said, "Regardless of whose followers you are, I just want to know, how did you come here?!"
Apparently, Nyarlathotep still couldn't accept Humans appearing at his home, this is simply too contrary to common sense. This is in the Outer God society where there's no such thing as drugs, otherwise, Nyarla would doubt they were having hallucinations from overconsumption.
Running thousands of miles to various Human universes to convince people to believe in religion, only to find the home being sneaked into. If you called this food delivery, well, these few Humans could ascend to the home of the Outer Gods, who might actually be the food delivery.
"By using some special means." Shiller said, "In our cosmos, there is a God who governs dreams, a type of native God. In my exchanges with my mentor, I learned that your cosmos also has certain dream attributes, so we used the Strength of the dream God to come here."
The mouse still seemed puzzled: "How are you surviving here then?"
It's possible for some unlucky ones to accidentally intrude here by coincidence, but this place is simply not inhabitable for Humans, not to mention pet cats; staying here for two minutes should result in being entirely consumed, right? How are they still glossy and full of vigor?
"That's a long story," Shiller said.
"Then explain slowly later." The mouse did not dwell as its questions were indeed too many, it had to ask them first, "Since you are Human, how did you become cats?"
"That makes for an even longer story, better talk about how we survived here."