Ch16 - Online Lecture Begins

Cats don’t sleep at night, they attend classes. 

Editor: Vez 

Sparta found Miwu’s tablet, operated it skillfully and soon entered the cat learning system. He logged in with his Sparta ID and found that the small lecture room was already filled with cats. 

The cat lecture hall adopted the form of online lectures. All participating cat students could communicate with cat lecturers through online video calls. Each small lecture hall was like a small classroom. There are only four litters of cats per class, about ten to twenty cats in total. Each litter of cats has one exclusive video window, which could be used to convey their messages. Sparta’s small window was at the top right, which was particularly eye-catching as he was his only representative. Even more striking was he was the only adult cat present. 

Sparta was feeling somewhat embarrassed, being conscious of this, so he adjusted his sitting posture and tried to make himself look less noticeable in his window. His wish soon fell through as the first sentence said by lecturer Jiang Dabao after he started his online lecture was to expose Sparta to everyone. 

“Today is the first day of this semester’s cat preschool lecture. First of all, we would like to welcome Sparta, the oldest cat to start cat school in history.” 

Sparta watched helplessly as the kittens in the other four small windows moved their attention in an orderly manner on his face. They seemed to be kittens no more than two months old. Most of them attend this small classroom with their mothers. Being stared at by so many kittens at the same time, Sparta felt that all his hair had stood up. 

Just as he tried to get up and avoid the camera, the kittens made a series of uneven meows to welcome him. Being domestic cats in the city, their mothers were also highly educated. The kittens had been instilled with the concept of cat education by their mothers since childhood. Therefore, their familiarity with the small lecture was much better than Sparta, who entered this knowing nothing. Naturally, their etiquette was also very good.

Sparta stepped on the sofa cushion in embarrassment and meowed back. 

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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When other kittens heard the question, they began to echo the same one to their own mother at once. The lecture immediately became lively from the uproar of meowing. Sparta felt even more embarrassed, wishing he could cover his face with his tail.

At this moment, Jiang Dabao gave a low hum, attracting all the cats’ attention back to herself. She was a with white fur with yellow spots. Her eyes were focused and her whiskers were spaced out, looking very serious. As soon as she made a noise, the kittens immediately stopped. They crouched quietly again and focused their attention back at the screen. 

Because this was kindergarten, the cats in the same ages would stay with each other until the end of preschool. Therefore, at the beginning of the first class, Jiang Dabao asked the cats to introduce themselves so they could get to know each other better. If two cats want to know each other in a natural environment, they would confront each other by sniffing their butts. Through the cat class, they obviously used a more civilized way to get to know each other.  

The order of self introduction was arranged according to age, so Sparta was naturally the first. After the earlier farce, it was clear that everyone was very curious about this older cat. Before he started, he captured more than a dozen pairs of big round eyes, wide as a copper bell. 

“I…” Sparta hesitated. Then, it suddenly dawned on him. Why did it matter? This was a group of pipsqueaks. If they laugh at him, he could just go to their house and beat them up. Thinking of this, he regained his self-confidence as he raised his head and meowed, “My name is Sparta, which is the name given to me by my human. It means I am very powerful. I was born in spring and I am currently twenty-one months old.” 

The kittens let out cries of surprise. 

With pride, Sparta continued, “I am very good at catching mice and sparrows. My human is the best human in the world.” 

The orange cat, who was the first to ask the question, hurried to the camera and exclaimed out a meow, crying out, “You’ve seen a mouse before?!”

The other kittens nodded in agreement. This big cat met a mouse before! As city cats, although they have a wide range of knowledge and are very educated, all their knowledge came from word of mouth, and some even their mothers might not have seen it in person. A cat like Sparta was akin to a legendary wandering stray cat in Jianghu. 

Sparta looked contemptuously at his audience. What was the matter with these young kittens these days? They did not even know what mice look like. Back in his countryside, never mind knowing what mice looked like, they needed to catch them as well, or else they face the risk of starvation. But he disliked the thought of explaining to this group of city kittens, so he modestly nodded and kept his mouth shut. 

The kittens mewed with regret and introduced themselves in turn according to the teacher’s requirements. Sparta learned that the annoying small mouth’s name was called Cong Baohui. He was a big kitten with orange decorative patterns. There was a thin line of dark fur at his head, extending all the way to his tailbone. Cong Baohui was the noisiest of his litter, as well as the biggest head. He was a size bigger than his siblings… Sparta bared his fangs and hissed at the window in the upper left corner, where Cong Baohui’s litter was at. 

Looking at the furry heads in her classroom, Jiang Dabao nodded with satisfaction and formally began the first class—[I am a cat].

Huh? Sparta raised his right hind leg to scratch his ear. ‘I am a cat’? He originally thought that it would be very difficult to go to school like other well-informed city cats. He was already mentally prepared to have a one-on-one meeting with Dai Mochi from not understanding anything in class today. Unexpectedly, his first class was to teach him such a simple concept. I am a cat? Of course I am a cat. I knew I was a cat twenty-one months ago. Meow, of course cats that can’t catch mice are very unreliable. Sparta was already sounding the dismissing drum inside. If he knew the topic would be like this, he would have stayed in bed and slept with Miwu!

Perhaps Sparta’s disdainful thoughts were written too obvious on his face, earning him a glare from Jiang Dabao. The tortoiseshell cat cleared her throat, glanced at all the cats and continued, “Cat. The first thing we learn when we first come into his world is that ‘I am a cat’. But what is a cat?” 

Sparta tilted his head with other kittens.

“There are many species in the world, including humans, and stupid dogs, obviously. There are things that can be eaten, and things that cannot be eaten. Cats are also a species. Any living things that are similar shapes and habits can be called cats. Why emphasize this? Because cats are unique species. When you divide yourself into this species, you should know what abilities you have as a species. What responsibilities you carry, as well as how you can survive in this world.”

Jiang Dabao used a cat teaser as a pointer and began to present her courseware. Most of them were simple and easy to understand pictures. Because the cat teaser was so attractive, the students, including Sparta, could not resist getting up and chasing after the cat wand on the screen, which was stopped by the lecturer’s harsh scolding. The itch inside of Sparta distracted him from time to time, picking up only a smattering of knowledge. 

Out of all key knowledge of cat introduction, he only knew the common sense ones. In the natural environment, kittens would stay with their mothers before they reached the age of four months old. The mother cats were responsible for passing on this knowledge, teaching them how to perceive the world and ways to survive. Later, many hunting skills and survival knowledge were picked up by Sparta by observing other cats and relying on his powerful survival instinct. The cat class used more systematic language to elaborate on these senses. However, these systematic languages were dry and dull. 

Sparta and the kittens got lost and let their mind wander repeatedly. Even the small mouth Cong Baohui took a nap on the spot. As soon as his head went sideways, he fell asleep on the ground with a thud. Sparta glanced at the cat kitty with disdain. He yawned and thought, A teacher like Jiang Dabao would definitely scold him loudly.

Surprisingly, Jiang Dabao just glanced at the sleeping orange kitten, twitched her ears and said, “The first part of explanation is over. Everyone gets half an hour to nap. We will continue after the system automatically wakes you up.” After that, she yawned herself, got up and spinned in a circle before finding a place to catch some sleep.

Sparta muttered inside how attending class was not that hard. He walked in circles, lay down, closed his eyes and soon fell asleep.

Half an hour later, Sparta was awakened by the rustling sounds of a mouse. He was instantly awake, quickly stood up and moved his ears, trying to determine the direction of the source. Then he found that the sound was coming from the iPad. It was clear that this was the prompt system sound Jiang Dabao mentioned. He shook his ears quickly and cautiously sniffed the faint scent in the air. He heard Miwu turning, no sign of waking up. Feeling at ease, he lowered his head and sniffed the iPad. After confirming that there was no trace of prey, he patted to unlock the iPad with his paw and continued the class. 

It was obviously very clever of them to use the sound of a mouse to wake up cats. Even city cats who have never seen a mouse would be awakened by their wild instinct. Jiang Dabao had already returned to the camera. At this time, she was sitting upright and ready to start the next lesson. The kittens who had just been awakened from their dreams cried up with confused eyes, showing a sense of foolishness. Sparta narrowed his eyes at the squirts with distaste. Cong Baohui scrambled to the camera, meowed out a question to Jiang Dabao, “When can we go to sleep?” This question was obviously wondered by other students. 

Sparta had assumed that this little fat kitten seemed stupid, but unexpectedly he did have some courage. 

Jiang Dabao, with an annoyed and sterned face, cast a slow gaze at Cong Baohui, before slowly turning her head to face the camera. “Class is starting.” She announced, apparently refusing to answer Cong Baohui’s stupid question.

Sparta yawned again, listlessly lying in front of his camera, half dropping his eyes and looking at Jiang Dabao. Fortunately, the second part of the lecture was more interesting to Sparta—[Cats and Humans].