绝代双骄 林志颖

He touched the tail upwards, and slowly reached behind his back. A fluffy tail extended from the end of his tail bone that was sunken down at the waist.

Ge Xiu touched the base of his tail.

In the next second, a strange feeling like an electric current hit him, spreading all the way up the spine along the base of the tail, Ge Xiu felt his spine explode and he hurriedly dropped the fluffy tail in his hand.

This… this is what grows on him! !

Ge Xiu was shocked.

As if he suddenly thought of something, he suddenly raised his hand and touched the top of his head.

From the soft hair protruded a pair of pointed triangular ears, and the thin membrane was covered with a layer of delicate fluff. It felt slightly cooler than the skin, but it very easy to prove its authenticity—

what was…this thing…

Ge Xiu raised his eyebrow slightly at the absurdity of the situation.

Wasn’t he supposed to go back to completely restored human form? !

—How can he go to school like this?

He raised his hand and tried to press back the extra pair of ears on the top of his head, but every time he let go, the pointy black cat ears popped out again.

Ge Xiu frowned irritably.

He felt a little itchy on the outside of his thigh, and subconsciously reached out to touch it, making it so that he once again caught the cat tail in his hand.

Ge Xiu: “…”

So… whenever he wasn’t paying attention, his tail would still sway according to his mood?

It’s so troublesome! ! !

Ten minutes later, Ge Xiu finally stopped trying to put his ears and tail back, because no matter what he did, these two superfluous organs could not be restored to their normal appearance at all — perhaps only the collar could completely suppress the peculiar feature.

But… at least he could use his hands now.

When he was a cat, unlocking the screen or searching for information online became extremely difficult, almost making it impossible challenge.

Ge Xiu sighed, picked up his phone, and sat down on the edge of the bed with his legs crossed.

He began to purposefully search for basic information related to the world.

The level of technology in this world was far higher than the previous world, especially in terms of high-lethality military weapons, it has basically reached the level of the real world — obviously, the designers of this virtual world have learned their lesson from the previous world were prepared not to give him much leeway in this regard.

On the other hand, Ge Xiu’s conjecture was basically confirmed.

Fifty years ago, some humans became animalized.

They took on the form of another species after sunset and retained some of their characteristics during the day.

However, their destructive power and attack power were far beyond ordinary wild animals, their huge size and almost abnormal attack power made it so that they could defend even against most of the lethal weapons in the world. In addition, they also possessed the specific advantages of an animal they turned into — ligers had a terrible bite power, spiders and snakes were highly venomous, and so on.

Opponents called it a “degeneration and atavism of humanity”, while some ardent supporters saw it as a “gift of nature” and “the right direction of human evolution.”

However, those alienated humans were dominated by the primitive instincts both after transformation and during the daytime, their behaviour more resembling beasts than humans.

They behaved eccentrically, had a weak sense of morality and no social awareness, making them act almost entirely based on their personal desires.

As a result, the crime rate has soared, numerous incidents of bestialized children and babies attacking their families causing casualties appeared, and the society has plunged into turmoil.

Some arrogant lycanthropes believed that they were born strong and genetically superior, so they should not be controlled by inferior humans.

So they launched wars in an attempt to subvert the social order.

After difficult and chaotic three years, humans have gained the upper hand through the development of specially targeted weapons, and the lycanthropes, while overwhelmingly superior in ability, were smaller in number, less organized, acted impulsively following instinct, which made them fall into disastrous position in this war.

Since then, humans have developed devices capable of detecting lycanthropes.

All newborns were tested in the hospital. If there was a tendency for gene mutation, they would wear this restraint collar for life. It could prevent the further development of the mutation in the beastly gene and prevent the appearance of the beastialised characteristics at the source.

Not only that, various countries have passed the Beastialised Management Act.

The legislation stipulated that untested people who concealed false reports would be subject to criminal prosecution, and if such people later become bestialized, they will be severely dealt with — at the very least, they would be sentenced to life imprisonment.

With the passage of time, although the possibility of lycanthropes’ riot was farther and farther away from people’s current life, the kind of rejection mixed with fear and disgust has always been preserved — human beings were born with a natural repulsion towards things that were unknown. And the existence of the collars kept amplifying this emotion endlessly.

Although the current generation of collar wearers would not be bestialized, they were still discriminated against and excluded from society as a whole.

Ge Xiu stared at the screen of the mobile phone, as a host was talking about the inferiority and danger of beastization in a disgusting and contemptuous tone.

He pressed pause and the other party’s noisy voice stopped abruptly.

Ge Xiu threw away the phone and turned his head thoughtfully to look at the clear and clean sky outside the window.

It had to be said that the designers of this virtual world were much more creative than before—whether it was public opinion prejudice or legislation that had already been implemented, the source of suppression and confrontation in this world was innate rules that the society was based on, and the identity of the animalized person inherently put him on the opposite stance against the rules of society.

The remnants of this degree of beastization were relatively vague and ambiguous. Although the ears and tail were rather obvious, they are not easily hidden as scales of a snake or the multiple eyes of spiders, but they still were in range that could be hidden.

However, whether he chose to hide his identity or not, he would still be at an absolute disadvantage.

Ge Xiu narrowed his eyes and scanned the information of the former beasts on his phone.

From bite power, attack power, defense power, to the specific advantages of each species…

He pondered for a while, then turned on the front-facing camera.

Ge Xiu stared at the fluffy black cat ears on his head and fell into a long silence.

So——

why was only his beastization so trashy?

Not to mention the attack power, after turning into a cat, his claws and teeth couldn’t even break through human skin, which was far worse than an ordinary cat.

The difference was too big!

Ge Xiu frowned slightly, turned his head sharply and stretched out his hand to hold his tail, which was swaying involuntarily.

Therefore — can you stop moving!

.

It was the first time that Shen Boyan left school so early.

The afterglow of the setting sun filled the streets.

He put his hands in his pockets and walked forward with a blank face.

Shen Boyan was tall, with broad shoulders, overly deep facial lines and cold, harsh eyebrows, full of oppression. His lips were thin and sharp, his gloomy and fierce eyes were hidden in deep-set eye sockets, the metal collar reflected the dazzling setting sun, making others around him subconsciously stay away from him.

His eyes swept across the storefront that was open to normal business, and after a slight pause in his steps, he turned around and walked in.

The enthusiastic clerk greeted him, but the moment he saw Shen Boyan, his smile froze:

“Excuse me… do you need anything?”

The indifferent teenager glanced down at the various pet food packages in the store, then raised his eyes to look at the clerk not far away.

He didn’t seem to notice the other party’s uneasiness and stiffness, and his voice was calm:

“Is there cat food?”

“For adult cat or kitten?” the clerk asked.

“Kitten.”

The clerk pointed to several cat foods lined up on one side of the store: “Then I recommend these to you. The reviews and palatability are very good and they’re very suitable for kittens…”

Seeming worried about Shen Boyan stepping into his store he hurriedly said: “Which one are you choosing? I’ll go get it for you.”

Shen Boyan’s eyes were dark.

The red-gold sunset behind him covered his back and shoulders, making his eyes seem darker and darker: “Alright.”

Twenty minutes later, Shen Boyan carried a bag of cat food, as well as cat toys and a litter box. Small objects such as scratching boards left the store.

By the time he got home, it was almost completely dark.

Shen Boyan took out the key and opened the door.

The room was silent and dark.

He turned on the overhead light.

The light suddenly illuminated the room, and all the furniture and objects were the same as before he left — except that the little black cat had disappeared from the room.

Shen Boyan was slightly startled.

He threw the things he bought at the entrance, subconsciously quickened his pace, on his face a frown, and then began to look for the cat in the small room—

under the table, under the bed, in the closet…

it wasn’t anywhere.

Until his eyes swept across the half-open window on the side — the breeze blew in from the window, rolled up the corner of the curtain, revealing the sky that was completely dark.

Shen Boyan stared fixedly at the dark sky in that corner, and then silently retracted his gaze.

He went to the window, stretched out his hand and closed the half-open window little by little.

The breeze and the night sky were isolated by the window.

The curtain was no longer rolled up and floated, it fell down silently, and the whole room fell into a dead silence again.

Shen Boyan turned and left the window.

He smoothed the inconspicuous depression on the pillow, put the thin quilt rolled up as a pillow back into the closet and then threw the half-untouched ham sausage into the trash can.

The room once again returned to its former deserted state, and every place was meticulously organized, as if there had never been any chaos.

Shen Boyan sat down on the edge of the bed.

The boundless silence came again.

He glanced down at the shopping bag that was placed at the entrance and then silently retracted his gaze.

At this moment, a thin voice sounded:

“…Mi.”

Shen Boyan was stunned for a moment, then stood up suddenly, searching for the source of the sound.

“Mi wuu.”

The little black cat squatted at the half-open door, its fluffy little head was slightly tilted and a pair of green pupils stared at him silently.