TDU Chapter 395
Chapter 395 Cats’ Origin
Qi Xia felt only a profound sorrow after hearing this.
From the broader view, the path they now walked was no different from ten years ago. Strictly speaking, their current progress was even slower than before.
There are very few {Reverberatees} present now; Lawyer Zhang, Doctor Zhao, and Tian Tian all lacked a clear trigger to their {Reverberation}.
Even though everyone knew they must not repeat the same mistakes, who could truly prevent it?
In a room of nine people, there had been as many as seven {Reverberatee}.
Though Xiao Ran had been of no real help, Qi Xia knew that he himself had never been a burden to that team.
Yet on second thought, their current lineup did seem somewhat stronger than before.
Now, all nine people in the room were {Reverberatee}; Lin Qin had replaced Xiao Ran, and brought with her {Boosting Touch}.
And with his own {Endowing Life Without End}… could this team succeed?
“It’s just a pity… you left.” Chen Junnan spoke heavily, his expression grave. “At {End Point}, we met countless comrades-in-arms, yet you… you left.”
In his recounting, back then {End Point} had no {Judgment’s Domain}, no {Cats}, no {Passage to Heaven}, nor any other factions—only the team led by Qi Xia stood as the {heroes} of this city.
From Chu Tianqiu’s room, Zhang Shan’s room, Qian Duoduo’s room, and even Su Shan’s room, many powerful {Reverberatee} came, drawn by reputation, forging a rare age of unity within {End Point}.
The {Earthly Branches games} in those days were vastly different from now. As long as Qi Xia took the field, most games would be swiftly resolved.
This situation forced the {Earthly Branches} to collectively reduce {Dào} rewards, slowing the pace of everyone’s accumulation. Often, even after an entire team endured a {Terrestrial-grade} game, they could barely obtain one or two {Dào}.
Just when they were about to gather all three thousand six hundred {Dào}, the great leader of this formidable team—Qi Xia—vanished overnight.
He had only confided to his trusted Chen Junnan and Qiao Jiajin, saying, {I’ve found the way out}, before disappearing forever from their probation room.
“Ole Qi, from that day onward, I was thrust into the role, forced to take over this vast team in your stead.” Chen Junnan’s face grew darker, as though recalling a memory that weighed unbearably upon him. “But this young master felt something downright strange…” He shook his head, then spoke each word with deliberate weight. “From the moment you disappeared, the {Earthly Branches} games began to change… Once we managed to kill the previous {Terrestrial-grades}, each new {Terrestrial-grades} would come with far more difficult games. Games I once barely managed to handle… after that, every single one wrung my mind dry. It was as though they had been wholly strengthened, no longer even of the same level as before.”
In Chen Junnan’s account, the former {Terrestrial-grade} games merely claimed the lives of participants, but overall their difficulty was not insurmountable.
So long as one proceeded with caution, not only could death be avoided, one might even return laden with spoils.
But ever since Qi Xia’s disappearance, such days were gone, never to return.
At these words, Qi Xia’s brows slowly knit together.
If his guess was correct, this matter likely tied to himself.
“So our team quickly crumbled apart…”
With the number of sudden deaths soaring, most were forced to leave, and Chen Junnan could not retrieve them one by one. In the span of merely five or six cycles, all the progress they had painstakingly amassed was reduced to dust.
“Even those in our own room began to lose their memories… I, Ole Qiao, Ole Li, and Xiao Han became the last hope within our room…” Chen Junnan pressed a hand to his forehead as he spoke. “But Xiao Han gradually descended into madness. Since his {Reverberation} was too dangerous, I was left with no choice but to abandon him, choosing instead to carry on only with Ole Qiao and Ole Li…”
The problem, however, was that all three were nearly impulsive by nature, leaving their flaws far too glaring. As a result, they suffered defeat after defeat, without end.
“Ole Qiao… you truly were something…” Chen Junnan lifted his gaze toward Qiao Jiajin. “In a moment of crisis, I used {Penalty Proxy} for you, yet you purge my power… Who taught you to wield your {Reverberation} in such a way?”
“Oh…?” Qiao Jiajin let out a dazed chuckle. “Was I really so sharp in the past?”
“In that period, Ole Qiao died alone, over and over again…” Chen Junnan turned his head toward Qi Xia once more. “And it was all because of you… Ole Qi, you abandoned him.”
Qi Xia’s expression grew somber as well. It seemed that, ever since arriving in this place, all that awaited them was despair.
“Thus, I gave up,” said Chen Junnan. “I no longer wished to go outside. I only wanted to find a few like-minded companions and secure some benefits here for my family.”
“What…?”
At that moment, a figure in a leather jacket quietly appeared outside their room. She did not reveal herself, merely leaned against the doorway and lit a cigarette.
“At the time, I brought along two teammates from my room to seek out Qian Duoduo and Zhou Mo. In my memory, they were people who had absolutely no reason to leave,” Chen Junnan continued, seemingly aware of the presence at the door but choosing not to expose it. “That was when we came to this prison, intending to accomplish something great.”
“Your so-called ‘something great’…” Qi Xia asked, “was it becoming {mercenaries} to earn money for your families—?”
“Ole Qi, that was only the surface,” Chen Junnan interrupted. “As I said, the {Earthly Branches} have fully matured, while the {participants} have downgraded. A vast gulf has opened between us and the {Earthly Branches}. We must bide our time in obscurity, and before gathering enough intelligence, we must never act rashly. I needed to assemble a group of people who would not lose their memories, to serve here as a {telecommunications tower}.”
He then turned once more to Qi Xia. “At the time, I thought… if, and I stress if, one day that bastard Qi Xia were to return… then we would be a professional team tempered by countless ordeals within {End Point}, hidden here as the thirteenth {Earthly Branches}. But since every one of us is a {Reverberatee}, and thus unqualified to become {Earthly Branches}.”
“That explains the name {Cats}*…” Qi Xia murmured.
(TLN: Cats were not included in the Chinese Zodiac (aka Earthly Branches) due to a combination of cultural reasons and popular folk legends, most notably the story of the mouse tricking the cat into missing the Jade Emperor's animal selection race, a betrayal that explains the cat's animosity toward the rat and its exclusion from the zodiac cycle.)
“That’s right. In fact, at the beginning, I didn’t even want to call it {Cats}…” Chen Junnan gave a bitter laugh. “I was {Eldest Brother}, Ole Qiao is {Second Brother}…”
“I see…” Qi Xia narrowed his eyes and asked, “What about the others?”
“{Three} was Miss Zhang, who worked as an accompanying hostess. Standing at the {Four}-front was surnamed Li, a Qian Duoduo who was only {Five} feet tall, plus a Zhou Mo who only ever wanted every day to be {Six}th of each week (Saturday)… Counting me, Eldest Brother Chen, and Second Brother Qiao, that made six of us the {Seven Calabash Brothers}—”
“W–Wait…” Qi Xia clearly didn’t follow. “You just said there were six of you. How does that make {Seven Calabash Brothers}?”
“Fool… haven’t you ever seen {Calabash Brothers}?” Chen Junnan sighed. “Among the seven brothers, one of them can turn invisible. So with six people, we could play the part of seven brothers.”
TL Note: Chen Junnan’s reason for the number order was purely play on words. I couldn’t find a good translation for Tian Tian, so I just directly stated she was three, but the raws was ‘{三}陪’ which basically means “{three} accompany’s” - accompany another to drink, eat, and sleep. It’s just a more subtle way of describing what her job entails.
Oh and Qian Duoduo is not exactly five feet tall. 尺 =/= foot, to be exact, one 尺 is ⅓ of a meter, so 5 尺 is ~166.67 cm, or ~5 foot 5 inches. Since it’s not that important to the story, I just changed the text to smooth the flow.
