This story involves subtraction. The main character reduces the number of opponents through various excuses. The number goes from 30 to 29 to 22, etc. It can be seen as a giant word problem. It is important for students to build up operational skills like subtraction. This story is also an interesting example of a word problem — if the cat (the main character) started with 30 tigers and ended with 1, how many tigers were sent away?