Soon, the ten minutes evaporated, and Damon finally located the little black furball. He had expected the cat to be hiding in some shadowy corner, hiding from his women. But no.

The cat was sprawled luxuriously on a velvet bed in one of Damon's chambers, looking like a tiny tyrant who had just conquered her own kingdom.

And beside him…

Riven knelt on one knee, fanning the cat with a feather fan while simultaneously adjusting a silk pillow to support the cat's head.

Several dishes of finely sliced meat, warm bowls of enchanted milk, and even a plate of shimmering mana-infused sardines were nearby, arranged with more care than a royal banquet.

Damon stared.

The cat lifted her head half a millimeter, glanced at him with the bored disdain of a god observing a mortal, and then yawned, long, slow, deliberately disrespectful, before closing her eyes again.

Damon rubbed his temples. "You've got to be kidding me…"

The cat did not respond.

Riven, however, stood stiffly and bowed. "My lord, Lady cat was… distressed earlier. I took the liberty of preparing an environment suitable for her recovery."

Damon sighed and tried again, stepping closer to the bed. "Alright. Alright. I get it. I won't throw you to the wolves… ahem… my wives next time, okay. I panicked. It won't happen again. Forgive this poor papa, please?"

The cat opened one eye.

She stared at him in silence for several seconds, judging whether he was worthy of even being acknowledged. Then, very slowly, she stretched out a paw and tapped the plate of sardines expectantly.

Damon blinked. "…You want me to feed you?"

The cat blinked once.

Riven immediately stepped forward. "Allow me, my lord!"

The cat swatted his hand away without even lifting her head.

"Hmmm? You want only me to feed you?" Damon chuckled at the little thing's antics. "You're lucky you're so darn cute," he muttered as he picked up a sardine. He sat down and pampered her for a couple of minutes.

Outside, the war horns began to echo through the land. Inside, Damon fed a tiny, fluffy dictator one sardine at a time.

"So… I am going to be slaughtering a few thousand humans now. Any chance you are interested in joining?"

The cat licked her mouth, satisfied and smug. Hearing Damon's words, her eyes instantly lit up. She jumped down from her bed, eyes glowing with predatory excitement.

Damon smirked. "Of course you are. You are my cat."

Damon laughed and scooped her into his arms. "Alright, little queen. Let's go massacre a few guilds."

The system timer finally hit zero. War horns blared across the entire region.

And in the next instant, Damon, the cat, and three hundred thousand confused guild recruits were force-teleported to the outskirts of the Nine Rivers City.

Damon and the cat materialized on a massive grassy plain just outside Nine Rivers City. Three hundred thousand players appeared around him in chaotic waves, blinking, screaming, swearing, tripping over each other, or simply staring up at the sky, wondering what the hell was going on.

The system did not care. It dumped every single member of Blood Domain into the war zone like discarded laundry. A second later, the notifications hit.

[Ding! You have entered the Regional War Zone: Nine Rivers Conflict]

[Ding! Objective Updated: Capture or Destroy All Defensive Nodes.]

[Ding! Warning: All deaths in this zone incur a triple penalty during guild wars.]

The last line caused at least five thousand players to scream immediately.

"Triple death penalty?!! I want out! Let me out! Let me out!"

"I joined for memes, not for funerals!!!"

"Where is the logout button? I'm having a heart attack!"

The entire plain devolved instantly into pandemonium. With no commanders, no structure, no briefing, and absolutely no idea what the hell they had signed up for, Blood Domain's freshly recruited masses naturally did the most predictable thing imaginable.

They fought each other.

"Bro, why are you hitting me?!!"

"You stepped on my foot!"

"There are three hundred thousand people here, of course, I stepped on somebody!"

"Everyone shut up! I can't find my party leader!"

"You don't HAVE a party leader!"

Swords swung wildly. Mages threw spells at each other. Someone summoned a beast and let it run rampant. Another guy climbed a rock and started screaming motivational quotes that sounded suspiciously stolen from a fitness influencer.

Everything was simply becoming worse by the second, and the group looked as if it wouldn't last even for a minute. However, all of a sudden, something unexpected happened.

From within the chaotic crowd, a single man shot up towards the sky. Blood wings unfurled behind Damon, stretching wider and wider until they cast a shadow across the entire plain. Crimson mist curled off his body like smoke from a divine furnace, distorting the air around him with raw killing intent.

And on his shoulder… The cat sat proudly, tail flicking, golden eyes glowing like two miniature suns of annihilation.

The effect was instantaneous.

Three hundred thousand players froze.

Spells fizzled mid-air. Summoned beasts skidded to a halt. People who were punching each other simply… stopped mid-punch. A silence rolled across the field like an invisible tidal wave.

Damon hovered above them, gaze sweeping lazily across the battlefield. Just that single glance, cold, calm, merciless, made everyone shudder involuntarily.

"Blood Domain." His voice thundered. "Welcome to your first war."

A ripple of panic passed through the crowd.

"I know most of you joined for fun, curiosity, clout… or because you didn't read the system prompt properly."

Several thousand heads bowed in shame.

"I'm not here to babysit you, and this is not some sort of prank or troll event. This is real. I am giving you a very real opportunity." Damon smirked. "I'm here to see who among you deserves to stay."

"You have two choices." He pointed toward the distant gates of Nine Rivers City, where the three top guilds and a few other smaller guilds were mobilizing with full military force, along with the city lord's personal troops and the city's military forces.

"Follow me, fight, and change your life forever."

He pointed down at the ground, at the chaotic mob of unprepared recruits.

"Or get the fuck out of here."

***

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