Chapter 2: The Cruel Male Lead

Hearing this notification sound, Su Jiujiu froze for a second.

Wow, that was all it took to lock in the supporting-character role?

Thinking this, she rubbed against him even more enthusiastically.

She was just a little cat right now anyway, what was wrong with getting close to a handsome guy?

She'd rub against him, and she'd keep rubbing against him!

Just as she was rubbing away happily, a long, elegant hand lifted her up, leaving her dangling in midair with all four paws grasping at nothing.

The moment she looked up, she found herself staring straight into the male lead's dark eyes.

"Meow! Meow! Meow!"

Tan Chen had just been about to say something, but seeing how strongly she was resisting, he instinctively set her back down on the couch.

"Did I hurt you when I picked you up?"

Su Jiujiu had only been meowing on reflex, but seeing that the male lead actually seemed to have some care for small animals, she immediately started nuzzling and rubbing against him again, trotting happily over to sit by his leg.

She put both front paws up on his thigh and rested her fluffy little head on top of them, tilting it to one side and sticking out her tongue in an attempt to look cute.

Please, please just let me stay! I'm running out of cute-cat poses stored in my brain, looks like I need to watch a lot more cute-pet videos to study up.

It had to be said, humans had absolutely zero resistance to anything cute and harmless.

For the first time, Tan Chen reached out and stroked the head of this British Shorthair. The cat head under his hand had already started clinging and nuzzling into his palm.

He said flatly, "Li Jiaojiao couldn't possibly have taught you all this?"

Hearing this, Su Jiujiu caught a glimpse into the male lead's thinking from that one line.

So he was worried this cat might be a "spy" that Li Jiaojiao had planted here.

Realizing this, in order to successfully secure her spot, Su Jiujiu didn't care whether her actions were too human-like anymore, and immediately put on a live performance of "cat cursing" for Tan Chen's benefit.

The British Shorthair suddenly whipped her head around, opened her mouth toward the direction Song Yijiang and Li Jiaojiao had left in, and let out a long stream of meows, exactly like two cats hissing and cursing at each other during a fight.

Once she'd finished her "cursing," she turned back and nuzzled her head against Tan Chen's leg, letting out one long, coy "meow."

Even someone as composed as Tan Chen couldn't help but think to himself, was this cat a little too clever for its own good?

Seeing that, despite everything she'd done, the man in front of her remained just as cold and unmoved, giving no reaction whatsoever, Su Jiujiu got annoyed too and swatted a paw against Tan Chen's leg.

"Meow! Meow meow!"

Buddy, are you keeping me or not? Give me a straight answer!

Miraculously, Tan Chen seemed to understand exactly what she meant. He fell silent for a moment, then decisively called Song Yijiang.

"The cat's with me."

On the other end, the sound of wind rushed through the phone as Song Yijiang said, "We're on our way home right now. Why don't you just look after it for a few days, if you really don't like it, it's not too late to send it back."

After hanging up, Tan Chen's gaze fell on the British Shorthair on the couch, currently grooming herself, and he took this as tacit agreement to Song Yijiang's suggestion.

Good thing it was just a cat, if it had been a person, forget "a few days," the moment they'd run back inside he would've thrown them straight back out the door.

Su Jiujiu appeared to be grooming herself, but in reality she'd kept her ears perked the entire time, listening to Tan Chen's side of the conversation.

The moment she heard him on the phone instructing someone to prepare pet supplies, she knew she'd successfully secured her place here.

Yesss... pbbt, pbbt—why is there fur in my mouth?

[Congratulations, Host! Mission 1 progress: 50%. Keep up the good work!]

With the first stage cleared, the pressure in Su Jiujiu's heart eased up, and she finally had the leisure to chat with the system.

"If I still haven't been sent away in a few days, does that mean I've completed Mission 1?"

[That's right!]

Okay, so it seemed the top priority now was to win over the male lead, so he'd never be able to bring himself to get rid of this clingy little "green tea" cat!

No sooner had she thought it than she acted on it.

Su Jiujiu made a devoted leap toward Tan Chen nearby, and right before landing pulled off a graceful spin, then flopped onto the floor exposing her soft white belly, wiggling her liquid-like cat body while meowing up at Tan Chen, trying to awaken the "cat-petting soul" within him.

No one can resist petting a cat! Once you've petted one, you'll fall in love with the feel of it forever!

However, all her seductive charm only earned her a lowered gaze and a flat, indifferent glance from Tan Chen, before he hung up the phone, bent down, and reached his hand toward her...

Is he finally going to pet me? I knew it—no one can resist a cat!

No one can resist that wicked hand, until it grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and lifted her up.

To avoid hurting her, his other hand "thoughtfully" supported the rest of her body as he lifted her.

Then Tan Chen carried her over and set her down in a small, confined little spot.

"Listen up."

Tan Chen looked down at her from above. "Once your litter box and bowls arrive, this will be your designated area. If I catch you running around anywhere else, I'll send you back immediately."

"Huh?" Su Jiujiu stared at him in disbelief. So cruel, so cruel!

How could anyone treat a cat like this!

The system chose this moment to chime in: [Truly worthy of being the male lead! Staying pure and untouched before the female lead appears, never letting any woman get close to him, not even a female cat!]

Hearing the system's oddly dramatic, mechanical voice, Su Jiujiu snapped back to her senses.

Right, of course. This was the male lead.

Being doting toward the female lead while being cold toward outsiders....oh wait, outside cats....was totally normal, and what she needed to do was just keep pushing her luck until things went sideways.

Fine then. This little designated territory of hers? She was definitely getting out of it eventually!

But for now, she wisely lay flat on the floor with her paws tucked in, pretending to be perfectly obedient to fool the male lead.

Seeing how quiet the cat had become, Tan Chen felt a bit more satisfied.

When his assistant later texted asking what pet supplies needed to be purchased, he casually replied: She won't be staying long. Keep it minimal.

Still unaware of the extremely bare-bones little setup that awaited her, Su Jiujiu was still busy chatting with the system.

"System, when do missions usually pop up?"

[Supporting female characters get daily missions. As long as you rack up one 'green tea' behavior per day, that counts as completing the mission, earning 50 points. As for special missions like the one just now, those only get issued when you hit a specific plot point, depending on the situation, but the point rewards for those are much more generous.]

Su Jiujiu had another question she was most curious about: "So do the male lead and female lead also need hosts like me to play them?"

[Nope. The male and female leads exist independently as part of the world's own consciousness. But their love story still needs help coming together.]

[That's where the male and female supporting characters come in. The people who created the system built us specifically to meet this need, so we could recruit hosts to fill in the roles of supporting characters missing from these small worlds.]

Su Jiujiu: "So you're all basically outsourced labor for these small worlds? Does this particular world have other supporting characters being played by hosts too?"

[That's random, actually!]

"I see."

The system puffed out its little chest proudly. [This is our sacred mission! Doesn't it sound incredibly noble!]

Su Jiujiu: "......Sounds a lot like an outsourcing company to me."

The system: [?]

Su Jiujiu lifted a paw and patted the panda system on the head. "Take some advice from me. Outsourcing has no future."

In these small worlds centered around the male and female leads, all the unimportant, non-core work got handed off to outside systems.

Even while working inside these "small worlds," outside employees never got to enjoy the treatment of full-time staff, and instead got stuck doing all the hard, thankless, unappreciated grunt work- like playing the male and female supporting characters.

But the moment she finished saying this, she froze.

Then she covered her own mouth with both paws, her cat eyes welling up with tears she was struggling to hold back.

"Wait, doesn't that make me basically an entry-level worker at an outsourcing company?"

"There were so many career paths out there, and somehow I still ended up falling into the outsourcing trap—waaaaah!"

Author's Note:

Mwah mwah~

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