You are a cat demon

In the end, you chose to make yourself comfortable.

I'm sorry, Ruoye, please understand. You need to relax too. Staying cooped up in this village all the time is driving you crazy. Once you've had your fill of fun outside, when you come back this time, you'll definitely spend more time playing with her using the "Foxtail Grass" brand cat toy. You can play with her for as long as you want.

That's how Wakaba has lived all these years.

Even before you came along, Wakaba was happy every day. She not only had a wonderful father, but also a group of close friends; her social skills were better than you imagine. She lived in Sakura Village for five or six years, longer than you've lived. Even Village Chief Zhang Qingshan is at ease, so why should you worry?

But then you suddenly remembered the "Black-tailed Goose" incident. That was an accident; if you hadn't been there for her, if you hadn't intervened in time...

Now you have no time to think, because you've already hidden yourself in Village Chief Zhang Qingshan's big backpack, and he's taking you along without you even realizing it.

Judging by the time, we should be almost there. If you still want to turn back now, you're really being foolish.

You peered through the crack and saw the dozen or so hunters who were with you, each with an excited expression on their face, looking eager for a big hunt. Although hunting can take place anytime and anywhere, such a large-scale event only happens once a year.

Your gaze dipped down, and suddenly, you caught sight of the big black dog's greasy head. Startled, you quickly ducked, afraid of making eye contact, but in that instant, you still caught a glimpse of its eyes.

It knows you're there.

You realized you'd been careless; you'd completely forgotten such an important point.

The backpack couldn't block your scent, so it must have known from the beginning that you had followed them, but strangely, it never barked once.

The big black dog didn't want to bark, and the other dogs didn't dare to bark either.

Back then, you were invincible and fearless. Now, these little dogs probably remember the unpleasant experience of trying to ambush you but being bitten by you and the big black dog the moment they smell your scent. Several dogs were clearly distracted, showing none of the enthusiasm they once had for such large-scale hunting activities. At most, they barked a couple of times to avoid their owner's questioning and scolding.

On the way into the mountains, Village Chief Zhang Qingshan spotted you.

He meant to take out a bag of dry rations, but his fingertips touched something furry.

You and he both froze.

You felt his calloused fingertips pause briefly on your body before his large, human hand reached in and gently stroked you before taking the bag of dry rations he had intended to take.

Village Chief Zhang Qingshan tacitly approved of your presence and didn't expose you on the spot, although it seemed that whether he exposed you or not wouldn't have much impact on the event. However, when no one else was paying attention, he whispered to you, in a voice only you and he could hear, that you mustn't wander off, and that he would be watching you closely. At the scene, he also muttered, "No wonder your backpack is so heavy..."

After he said that, it would be a lie to say you weren't moved at all. But, but, you were really bored to death, especially since that golden eagle died. You were really going to have a mental breakdown if you just stayed there. You really wanted to find something unusual to do to distract yourself.

You've hunted hundreds of times, but this is your first time "participating" in a human hunting activity. You can't help but wonder how this differs from your previous solo hunts. Of course, the biggest difference is that they're hunting in groups. Also, you didn't expect that humans would go to a temple to worship the mountain god before hunting…

Before long, a few hunters with sharp eyes and a few hunting dogs with a keen sense of smell spotted the deer herd. After exchanging glances and gestures for a while, gunshots rang out one after another. In an instant, several unlucky deer were gone to meet their maker before they could even react.

The sacrifice of one or two deer can often give the remaining dozens of deer a chance to escape.

The surviving deer took off running, and in an instant, more than a dozen hunting dogs of various colors, including black, white, yellow, and brown, sprang out of the grass, like streaks of colorful wind, sweeping towards the panicked and fleeing deer herd.

The chase that followed was the hounds' job.

Human hunting follows certain principles. Most hunters don't intentionally kill young animals or pregnant or mother animals with cubs, nor do they indiscriminately hunt all prey. Humans understand the principle of "not draining the pond to catch all the fish, nor burning the forest to hunt." Even when hunting with hounds, they only catch a few of the slowest prey; it's simply a race of survival of the fittest. As long as the scale and intensity of human hunting aren't excessive, the damage to the prey species won't be significant.

One difference between you and humans is that when you hunt, your first choice is always young animals and pregnant mothers, whenever possible. The meat of these prey is more tender and tastes better, especially pregnant mothers, which are often sold at a buy-one-get-one-free or even buy-one-get-several-free price – you've never seen such a bargain. Of course, you won't kill every prey you see at once; that would be wasteful. Although the entire jungle is your food source, a food source isn't bottomless, and you should still be frugal. You usually only hunt one creature at a time, just enough to eat, and you're satisfied once you've filled your stomach.

The herd of deer fled into the depths of the forest, with the hunting dogs close behind. Your big black dog, as expected of the best hunting dog in Sakura Village, took the lead and was about to catch the tail of the last deer.

Large herbivorous social animals like red deer and blue sheep typically flee in a group, running in the same direction. This can be interpreted as each animal not wanting to leave the group and become an easy target. However, this herding behavior greatly benefits hunters and predators. A large group is far more conspicuous than a small individual; unless someone is blind, they are unlikely to make a mistake in their path. With persistence, they can eventually catch a prey that has fallen behind due to exhaustion. Therefore, for the prey, the wisest course of action when encountering hunters or predators is to scatter and flee. This offers a chance to confuse the predator, distract them, and wear down their patience and stamina. While the predator hesitates, the chance of escape is only a few tens or even one percent. Even if caught, the chance is simply bad luck.

The hunting dogs chased the deer fleeing deeper into the woods, quickly disappearing from sight. The hunters wouldn't linger there waiting. The hunters were the dogs' pillar of support; for the dogs to be fully motivated, they needed the hunters' company and support.

The hounds left, the hunters left, but you can't, because you have to deal with a problem first.