Chapter 118: New Followers
If necessary, he would even prefer sleeping outdoors.
Anything was preferable to recruiting people and forming some kind of interest based organization.
Human beings were selfish creatures.
Relationships would grow distant if they were not maintained.
A few words from someone else could easily plant seeds of suspicion.
Even if the game possessed a favorability system, schemes and conspiracies would still be unavoidable.
After all, there were countless people capable of loving someone deeply while simultaneously stabbing them in the back.
Fortunately, he had not encountered the worst possible situation.
Joo Joowon opened the submission interface and selected submit.
Immediately, a rectangular frame appeared within his field of vision.
As long as a living creature appeared inside that frame, it could be selected and submitted.
"Meow~ Meow~ Meow~"
Just as Joo Joowon was preparing to move the frame toward Byeol, he suddenly heard anxious cries coming from nearby.
He immediately turned toward the sound.
There, he saw Byeol running in circles around Hwi, who had collapsed beside the food bowl and appeared either unconscious or dead.
Joo Joowon froze in place.
Was the zombie virus finally taking effect?
But hadn’t Hwi already received the injection?
From the moment Joo Joowon received the system notification to the moment he found Byeol and Hwi, there definitely had not been more than an hour in between!
Joo Joowon rushed over.
Hwi was lying in front of the overturned cat bowl, twitching painfully.
Joo Joowon pulled open its eyelids and checked its eyes.
The color looked completely normal.
So this was not a zombie virus outbreak after all.
Then what exactly was happening?
Joo Joowon felt anxious, and Byeol was running around beside him, meowing in panic.
He was not a veterinarian.
Faced with this kind of sudden emergency, he was completely helpless.
Fortunately, he remembered that he had obtained a Stamina Recovery Potion earlier that day.
It restored three points of Physique, so perhaps it could serve as emergency treatment.
Just as he was about to get up and retrieve it, Joo Joowon’s gaze swept across the cat food scattered all over the floor.
Suddenly, inspiration struck.
Wait a second!
Could it be that Hwi had simply eaten too quickly and choked on the cat food?
Joo Joowon immediately reacted.
He quickly forced Hwi’s mouth open, and a mouthful of cat food immediately spilled out from inside.
"..."
He immediately picked Hwi up and wrapped his arms around its stomach, performing the Heimlich maneuver.
After repeating the process several times, several pieces of cat food finally dropped out of Hwi’s mouth.
The dizzy and disoriented Hwi lay in Joo Joowon’s arms looking completely confused.
However, its sense of smell recovered faster than its brain.
The moment it smelled the scent of cat food, it immediately perked up and began meowing frantically as it struggled to get down and continue eating.
Joo Joowon was speechless.
This was the first time in his life he had ever encountered a cat that managed to choke itself while eating cat food.
Its luck truly was something else.
Looking at Hwi’s appearance, as though it had starved to death in a previous life, Joo Joowon had no choice but to set it back down.
The moment its paws touched the ground, Hwi immediately launched itself forward like a charging wild boar and began inhaling the scattered cat food at terrifying speed.
Only then did Joo Joowon realize something.
Hwi wasn’t chewing at all.
The food went straight from its mouth into its throat without the slightest pause.
No wonder it had gotten stuck.
He had only just finished thinking this when he suddenly saw Hwi begin dry heaving again, looking exactly like something was stuck in its throat as it desperately tried to vomit but couldn’t.
Joo Joowon: "..."
He rubbed his forehead and immediately propped Hwi against his knee while patting its stomach.
However, this creature learned absolutely nothing from its experiences.
The moment the cat food came back up, it immediately trotted right back over and started eating again.
And unsurprisingly, It got stuck once more.
Hwi was not actually stupid.
After choking repeatedly several times in a row, it finally sat down in front of the cat food and stared at it with an expression full of bitterness and resentment.
How was today even real?!
Joo Joowon was struggling to hold back his laughter.
He picked up the nearby water bowl and poured some water into the cat bowl to soften the cat food.
Then he held the water bowl in front of Hwi and said, "Drink some water and soothe your throat. Doesn’t it hurt?"
Hwi was not the slightest bit picky.
The moment the water bowl was placed in front of it, it immediately lowered its head and began drinking enthusiastically.
After only a few mouthfuls, however, it managed to choke on the water as well and wandered off to lie down nearby with an expression full of depression.
Even Joo Joowon found this somewhat surprising.
Hwi’s luck was unexpectedly terrible.
Compared to Byeol, the two were practically complete opposites.
Fortunately, cats were not exactly known for overthinking things.
Otherwise, having an absurdly lucky cat like Byeol constantly walking around nearby would probably destroy anyone’s mental balance.
Even if jealousy never appeared, depression probably would.
Joo Joowon rubbed Hwi’s head before finally returning to the task that had been interrupted.
Seeing that Hwi was fine now, Byeol had already lost interest and wandered off.
The white cat was lying elegantly on the sofa.
When Joo Joowon approached, it merely flicked an ear without showing the slightest intention of coming over to act cute.
Joo Joowon aimed the "camera" at it and selected submit.
He did not have to wait long at all.
Less than a second later, the notification sounded in his ears.
[ Ding! ]
[ Verification successful! ]
[ Would you like to permanently confirm this follower submission? ]
"Yes."
Immediately, a tiny portrait of Byeol appeared on the mission progress bar.
It was a proper passport-style front facing photo.
Its beautiful heterochromatic eyes stared directly toward the camera.
Only then did Joo Joowon finally relax completely.