Cathulhu Online, MUNYA!

Chapter 161 – Cat Dad’s Solid Snake Experience

It was still nighttime. However, the hall was still bright because of the magic chandeliers. The bright yellowish light shone upon the golden hall and the marble pillars. The brown carpet absorbed some light, but the yellowish tone blended with the environment.

A company of 100 knights in renaissance era armor stood in a formation in the middle of the hall, facing the entrance gate. Some of them turned in the direction of Xiaomao as they heard the noise of the elevator.

While Xiaomao was admiring the beauty of the palace, one of the knights turned around and walked toward the elevator. He walked past Xiaomao and examined the lift.

Xiaomao came back to his senses a second later. He looked at the name and the level of the knight to assess the situation.

Elite Palace Guard, Level 250

They were all elite NPCs! Xiaomao drooled, thinking of how nice it would be if he could farm items, spellbooks, skill books, and spirit stones from these guys.

However, Xiaomao remembered that a level-150 NPC like Bush Cox could see through his camouflage. Even though he managed to slip through the security of Pangu Church before, there might be some sharp guys among the group of elite guards here.

He slowly backed away from the formation of knights. He also tried not to attract the elite guard, who had come to check the elevator. Xiaomao crept toward the nearest pedestal and hid behind it.

The elite guard looked around for a moment, but he didn’t pay attention to the pedestal of a flower vase nearby as he didn’t see anyone.

The guard walked away, heading toward his friends.

Seeing the guard walking away, Xiaomao let out a short exhale in relief.

Suddenly, the elite guard stopped his feet. He sharply turned around and stared at the flower vast.

“!!!”

Xiaomao covered his mouth with his tentacles, holding his breath.

As he had thought, this dangerous elite NPC had a sharp sense, and it might be able to see through his stealth skill.

The knight glared at the vase for a few seconds. Then, he walked closer and examined the flowers.

“Was it a bug? I clearly heard someone breathe.”

“…”

Xiaomao curled into a ball while he still covered his mouth and nose. Deep in his mind, he had an ostrich mentality.

If I can’t see you, you can’t see me!

It was a silly thought, but Xiaomao was that desperate. He didn’t want to provoke the palace guards at the moment.

Fortunately, the knight stopped messing with the vase and returned to the formation.

Xiaomao maintained his ball posture for several minutes. When he was sure that the knight was no longer there, he began moving. In addition, he controlled his sighing habit and crept away in silence.

For the sake of avoiding a human’s eyesight, Xiaomao climbed the wall and hid in the ceiling. From there, he made his way to the hallway’s corridor, which led to a palace’s wing building.

Xiaomao had no idea where it would lead him. He didn’t care as his current destination was the nearest window.

As these knights were staring at the front door, Xiaomao believed that he couldn’t suddenly open the doors and leave. Windows were the better option.

A few minutes later, Xiaomao was crawling on the ceiling like a gecko. Looking down, he saw more knights, standing in front of each room in a group of four.

The security was tight here, too tight. It suffocated Xiaomao.

He couldn’t blame them. After all, Taotie was freed, and their reaction was natural.

Seeing that there were too many eyes on the corridor, Xiaomao skipped all corridor windows, which were monitored by the knights.

Xiaomao still had high hope of escaping the palace. As long as he could exit this place from any balcony, window, ventilation duct, or hole in the ceiling, he could simply fly and leave this palace in peace.

Proceeding toward the unknown wing building of the palace, Xiaomao ran into a dead end. At the end of the corridor was a giant gate, which was protected by another company of 100 elite knights.

‘Annoying.’

Xiaomao shook his head and backtracked to the main hall.

He didn’t know if he was in a bad mood or if he was clumsy. On his way to the main hall, his tentacle touched a loosely hanging chandelier and broke the chain by an accident.

The magic chandelier fell to the ground and shattered!

CLANK

The sound alarmed Xiaomao and all knights. The catopus immediately stopped moving, hiding his presence in the dark ceiling.

Many knights rushed to the chandelier and looked up. One of them created a ball of light, illuminating the dim corridor.

The ball of light floated in front of Xiaomao. It was so bright that he had to shut his eyes.

Because the ball of light was so close to Xiaomao, the knights didn’t look directly at him. Their eyes swept over the area around the light ball, but no one focused on the area behind the ball of light.

CREAK

One of the doors on the corridor was opened, and another knight with a plumed helmet and a red cape walked out.

7th Battalion Palace Guard Commander, Level 350

The knight commander glanced at the broken chandelier and looked up. He ignored the light ball and gazed at the broken chain.

“I told the butlers many times to remove those things. Tell the maids to clean up the place before morning, or the princess will make a fuss over the dirty corridor again.”

The commander turned around and returned to the room. He slammed the door shut.

The knights began collecting pieces of broken glass and sharp parts. The one that was controlling the light ball dispelled his magic and picked the shards.

As soon as the ceiling turned dark, Xiaomao rushed toward the main hall. This time, he avoided the chandelier chains.

But when he reached the last chandelier in the corridor, he suddenly had a sick idea.

Xiaomao pulled out a gold coin from his inventory. His tentacle coiled around it. Then, he started winding up.

WHOOSH

He tossed it toward the glass window near the chandelier!

The gold coin shattered the window in one hit, and the noise attracted the knights again.

The company in the main hall heard the commotion. They rushed toward the broken window.

None of them looked up. Instead, they gestured for their colleagues to send more men outside.

“Check the front garden! There might be an intruder somewhere!”

The majority of the knights rushed through the front door and patrolled the garden, searching for the culprit. A dozen of them remained at the window, looking outside.

Xiaomao smirked. Using this opportunity, Xiaomao sprinted to the ceiling, rushing to the main hall.

But when Xiaomao was about to enter the hall, he turned around and threw another gold coin at the nearest chandelier chain. The coin was as fast as a bullet, and it hit the chain, bending a section.

The chandelier swung and moved because of the impact. The wavering light caused another commotion among the knights, and all of them looked up.

By the time they looked up, Xiaomao was no longer in the corridor area. He climbed on the wall and proceeded to the high ceiling of the main hall.

CLANK

Xiaomao didn’t need to look back to check. The second chandelier was broken.

“HURRY!”

Several battalions of knights suddenly opened a door on the main hall’s second floor. They rushed down the front stairs and formed a phalanx formation in front of the room.

When the newcomer appeared, Xiaomao stopped moving. He maintained his position in the shadow of the main hall’s chandeliers.

“What’s all the noise?!”

Xiaomao couldn’t see the exclaimer from afar, but he saw a pair of pointy shoes of the man behind the formation.

“Your majesty, we have no idea,” The knight commander of the unit knelt in front of the pointy-shoe emperor.

“Tsk! We have a calamity-class monster on the loose. And now, we’re dealing with unknown intruders or what?!”

“I’m so sorry, your majesty. Our men are investigating the commotion. Please give us some time.”

“You’d better hurry. Y’all should know by now that my sister isn’t as kind and benevolent as me. When she returns and finds all the mess, your heads will roll!”

“W-We’ll find the intruders soon, your majesty!”

Xiaomao heard everything. He felt bad for the knights, who served the tyrant emperor.

‘Sucks to be you. Oh, well. Where can I leave?’

Xiaomao looked up and noticed that there were multiple color windows on the front door’s side. The windows resembled something from the Catholic Church, and Xiaomao got inspiration.

He moved in the shadow. He crept closer to one of the windows.

When he got close, he thought of a spy movie. He brought out a small knife and gently cut through the frame of the window.

As the palace was made from brick and metal frames, Xiaomao took a few minutes prying off the frame. He touched the loose glass and thought of storing it in his inventory.

DING

<You have obtained a glass window.>

It worked. A portion of the glass window vanished into his inventory.

Xiaomao slipped out of the window. Without putting the glass window back, he brought out a flying sword and hopped on it. Then, he flew to the night sky, getting away from the palace.

‘GG, EZ!’

Xiaomao laughed in his mind. The thrilling experience was exhilarating when he managed to get out unharmed. Puffing his chest, he looked at the moon and planned to fly around the city to enjoy some scenery first.

But as Xiaomao kept flying, his flying sword and his forehead slammed onto a blue hexagon force field in the sky.

DONG

The impact caused the flying sword to stop. Xiaomao touched his forehead and stared at the blue barrier in front of him.

“Eh?”

The section that Xiaomao had hit turned red. Then, a loud siren echoed in the palace, and many mages summoned a hundred light balls.

The entire palace was illuminated, brightening the sky.