Chapter 209

: the Maze
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Galaxy had entered the ventilation pipe, which was a very strange environment for it. The pipe was a straight channel made up of cold metal walls. Cool wind from outside was breezing through the channel and touching its cheeks gently.
Galaxy bowed down and noticed that the metal wall below was covered with a thin layer of dust, and several rows of paw prints of small animals could be seen from one end to the other end of the pipe, and they disappeared at the corner. The paw prints were very messy, which were leading in both directions of the pipe, and it seemed that the paw prints belonged to different little animals.
Galaxy lifted one of its paws and tilted its head to stare at the prints for a few seconds, then put its paw alongside one of them. The sizes seemed very similar, as were the shapes.

Bad kids…
Galaxy muttered.
Suddenly, an anxious voice was heard from below the pipe,
Galaxy! Where are you?

The metal walls had distorted the sound, but it immediately recognized that it was Zhang Zian’s voice.
Galaxy shouted,
Zian! Galaxy is in the pipe now!

It stared at the metal wall, quietly waiting for Zhang Zian’s response.

Be careful, Galaxy.

Galaxy was a little bit disappointed. It was waiting for his praise. But his concern was not bad.
Was there really anything it should beware of in the pipe? It was the only creature in there, with the floating dust in the air, the shallow paw prints on the metal walls, and a few small hairs in the colors of white, black, yellow, and gray …

What should I do next?

Galaxy thought very hard but still had no clues. It offered to go into the pipe because it believed it could help Zhang Zian, but it didn’t know what exactly it should do after entering the pipe.
It felt very stupid, especially when compared to Fina and Old Time Tea. It envied them. If they were here, they would make their moves without hesitation. Old Time Tea was always calm, no matter what happened. It would just smile and solve the problems with its great wisdom and excellent martial arts techniques. Fina only cared for shiny things, and was indifferent to other people and things… perhaps Zhang Zian was an exception.
What should I do? Should I go out and ask Zian, Fina and Old Time Tea and come back again?

Meow —I feel so embarrassed!

Galaxy tried to wrinkle its nose like Old Time Tea did, but it did not smell anything strange – perhaps there was indeed something, but it couldn’t tell. After all, it was not a real cat, so its sense of smell was not as delicate as a real cat’s.

I’ll try go this side first. If there is any danger, I’ll run away.

Galaxy looked down again at the paw prints, among which one row seemed fairly clear and new. It seemed that the animal who left that row of paw prints marched from the front side of Galaxy to its rear side. Galaxy decided to follow that row of paw prints.
The channel was long and dark, which made Galaxy feel that it was back in the horrible black box again. If the pipe got even darker and narrower, it would not be able to stand it and would escape. Even now, already felt frightened, as if it was entering a never-ending tunnel, which would become increasingly narrower, and it would be completely trapped in the end.
Galaxy did not want to go back outside so soon because it felt really embarrassed. Zian would console it that its safety was the most important thing, and everything else came second. But it still felt disgraced. Besides, it really hoped that those bad kids would realize that they had made mistakes, and it wanted them to know that, if they stop stealing and become good kids, they would encounter people who genuinely liked them.
Galaxy carefully stepped forward. It looked down at the paw prints, and then looked up at the front side, where a dim light could be seen. It was the weak sunshine after being refracted several times. Galaxy missed its leisure time at the pet shop, where it could take a nap comfortably under the warm sunshine, where if something occurred, Fina and Old Time Tea would solve it.
Galaxy could vaguely hear Zhang Zian and Old Time Tea talking from across the metal wall. Their voices made it feel at ease.
Galaxy walked step-by-step towards one end of the pipe, and the light became increasingly bright, while Zhang Zian’s voice was getting weaker and weaker.
A fork in the road.
The ventilation pipe divided into four directions, leading forward, to the left, to the right, and to the above, respectively.
Galaxy looked above where the light came from. From the roof far away, accompanied by a low buzz, the ventilation fan was rotating at a constant speed, sending down fresh air into the pipe continually, and mincing the straight sunrays into everchanging mottled lights and shadows.
Galaxy squatted at the fork, looking blankly at the three paths leading forward, to the left and to the right. Which one should it choose? Each path had paw prints on them. It wanted to try all three paths, but it was afraid that it would never find its way home if it got lost.
This building was so huge and complicated, just like a maze. Zhang Zian was like a small grain of sand in this maze, and Galaxy was another grain, but smaller.
But it must choose a direction! If it quit now, its previous efforts will have been wasted.
Right then, it heard a faint sound.
Scratch…
Liked something sharp was scratching on the metal.
Galaxy found this sound familiar. It was like the sound that Fina’s claws made when it scratched across the metal bowl when it lost its temper because the food tasted poor.
The sound came from the channel in front of it, so it decided to choose this path. However, when it tried to take a step forward, its body was blocked, as if an invisible wall was in front of it.
Galaxy stuck out its paw to press against the invisible wall. The air could flow through it, the dust was falling from it, but Galaxy simply could not pass through it.
It remembered a similar situation that had happened to the newcomer, the parrot elfin, at the roof of the pet shop, as if he was confined by some setting of the game. Even for the intelligent Old Time Tea, it also took it a long time before it could leave Zhang Zian freely.

What should I do?

Another sound came from far away, from the front path.
Galaxy did not want to wait anymore, thinking about what it was not good at. It closed its eyes, and when it opened its eyes again, it had teleported quite a distance forward, leaving the fork road far behind it. It was now on the other side of that invisible confinement. No new paw prints were left on the floating dust in the metal passage, but the air had contracted and then expanded due to its sudden disappearance and reappearance, bringing a tiny whirlpool that was invisible to the naked eye.

Galaxy is the best hide-and-seek player,
it whispered to itself.
It trotted in towards the direction where the sound came from.
At the same time, inside his pocket, Zhang Zian’s phone screen became bright. The Pet Hunter Game initiated automatically. The game’s interface flashed a few times as if it had been interfered with. And then the game terminated automatically.
The screen became dark again, as if nothing had happened.