Chapter 45: Rice?
Ling Jing raised an eyebrow.
How odd.
Could this mutated beast actually be wary of the system’s protective barrier?
When she had ventured out to hunt wild game before, this had never happened.
Those animated creatures and twisted plants in the dark would lunged straight at her the second they scented a living human.
There was never any hesitation, let alone fear—only a rabid craving for human flesh and blood.
Could the difference lie in their rank?
According to this man named Hall, the mutated beast that had been hunting him was a C-rank.
And by rights, the designated safe zone encircling Seed City was only supposed to harbor F-rank threats and below.
Ling Jing was still in the dark about how humans in this world classified mutated flora and fauna. She vaguely recalled that when her white light vaporized that giant mutated bamboo shoot, Long Qian and the others had murmured something about… danger levels far exceeding safe zone thresholds.
That mutated bamboo shoot had clearly been far less intelligent than the chimera before her—an E-rank or a D-rank, perhaps?
Though countless questions buzzed in her mind, now was obviously not the time to study mutant biology.
She could interrogate this blabbermouth of a kid once the spoils were safely in her pocket.
Ling Jing immediately barked at Hall, “Step out there and lure it toward the light!”
A compliant bait was a good bait.
Though Hall had no earthly idea how Boss Ling intended to slay the monster, he belted out an enthusiastic “Yes, ma’am!”
Without missing a beat, he stepped outside the perimeter of white light.
“Moo-roooar—!”
The beast’s head jerked up. Whether by scent or some feral instinct, its heavy hooves pounded the earth as it charged straight for Hall, parting its blood-slicked jaws to bite him in half!
“Get back in!”
Gripping the handlebars of the tricycle, Ling Jing shouted.
Hall’s reflexes were lightning fast. With two giant strides, he hurled himself back into the safety of the white light.
“Groooowl—!”
The chimera skidded to an abrupt halt right before the glowing threshold.
Yet Ling Jing moved faster.
Wrenching the handlebars to align her trajectory, she stomped hard on the pedals.
The tricycle charged headlong toward the mutated chimera—
Hall’s eyes widened to saucers as he bore witness to an utterly incomprehensible scene.
He knew the boss possessed godly means, and he had envisioned how she might face down this apex predator.
Perhaps with some earth-shattering Awakened ability? Or perhaps through peerless martial prowess.
What he never expected was that the terrifying beast that had nearly ended his life dissolved like brittle autumn leaves in a gale the exact instant it struck the halo of white light surrounding the tricycle. With a soft whoosh, it scattered into dust.
Vanished into thin air.
It hadn’t even had time to let out a dying shriek.
Wait… Did a whole mountain of stuff just materialize in Boss Ling’s tricycle bed?
While Hall stood frozen in a stupor, Ling Jing squeezed the handbrakes, bringing the vehicle to a halt.
Not bad. She could feel the cart sag under significant weight.
—Wonderful. Even after upgrading to the Rudimentary Restaurant, the system hadn’t stripped the protective barrier from her tricycle.
Which made total sense. Who said a proper brick-and-mortar restaurateur wasn’t allowed to run a street cart on the side?
The canvas awning over her cart was still intact, after all.
Time to take inventory of the haul.
Ling Jing hopped down to inspect the cargo bed.
With the roaster moved out and the cooktop tucked away into storage, the bed of the tricycle was vastly roomier.
Before setting out, she had even loaded several wooden tubs and washbasins onto the back to hold any butchered meat.
Mmh… looking at it now, those containers were laughably inadequate.
Two wooden tubs and two washbasins were piled high with massive cuts of raw meat, spilling over to bury more than half the cart bed.
Judging by the shape of the leg shanks and rib racks, this was undoubtedly beef.
It seemed this creature really had mutated from bovine stock.
Once she butchered the meat back at the shop, wouldn’t she have all the beef bones she could ever need?
And she wouldn’t be short on prime beef, either.
Hm?
There was more.
She turned her gaze toward a heap of red meat tucked in the corner of the cart.
The cuts were small, free of heavy skeletal bones.
Recalling the bird wings jutting from the beast’s flanks, was this… poultry?
Wait.
Ling Jing’s eyes locked onto a sprawling mound of gleaming white granules resting right beside the bird meat.
She stepped closer, scooped up a small handful, and held it to her eyes to inspect it.
Rice.
It was genuinely rice.
—Those dense clusters of yellowish-green nodules covering the monster’s cranium had been cross-mutated with paddy grains?
What an unexpected windfall.
Next, Ling Jing’s gaze landed on a crystal radiating a soft blue-violet luminescence.
Now this, she didn’t recognize.
It looked like an energy crystal, but the color was entirely different.
More like a cut gemstone.
Unsure of its purpose, she pocketed it for safekeeping.
…
On the trek back, Hall trudged along beside Boss Ling’s tricycle on foot.
It wasn’t that she was abusing her live bait; the cargo bed was simply overflowing with raw meat, leaving no room to sit.
Besides, no one else could ride a system-issued vehicle anyway.
Hall took it entirely in stride. Shaking off the initial shock during the walk, he began firing off questions like a broken faucet.
“Boss Ling! Was that your Awakened ability? That was so freaking cool!”
“How did it get processed into butchered meat in a split second? Can we actually eat all this meat?!”
“Did you awaken some kind of God of Cookery talent?!”
“No, wait, that’s not it. You can’t be an ordinary Awakener—you must be a transcendent being far beyond the comprehension of us mere mortals!”
“Can I touch the meat? Whoa, it doesn’t bite! Awesome!”
“That power is just too badass! How about we go hunt down some more? I know there are other C-rank mutants roaming outside the North Wall!”
“Though this tricycle looks pretty full… Boss Ling, do you have any other rides? A horse carriage, a wheelbarrow, a flatbed cart, a festival parade float, or an electric tram?”
Watching the man veer further and further into pure lunacy, Ling Jing stopped her cart.
“Does your body not hurt anymore?”
“Er…”
Brought back down to earth by Boss Ling’s question, the agony suppressed by sheer adrenaline seemed to come surging back with a vengeance.
“It hurts.”
“Then take a rest. And give that mouth of yours a rest, too.”
Hall seemed entirely oblivious to her dry sarcasm, beaming happily. “Thank you for your concern, Boss!”
Ling Jing: “…”
Whose village idiot was this, exactly?
That he had survived this long in the apocalypse was a minor miracle in itself.
…
Since she was already burning the midnight oil, Ling Jing simply bought a high-pressure porridge cooker from the system Mall.
She brewed a small test batch to check the quality of the rice.
The porridge gave off an intensely rich, comforting aroma. The grains had bloomed and burst in the rolling boil, releasing a delicate sweetness the moment the lid was unsealed.
Ling Jing stirred it with a ladle; it was silky, thick, and clung to the spoon.
Very close to the fragrant jasmine rice from her original world.
She ladled out two bowls. Stepping out of the kitchen, she caught sight of Hall sitting at a table, practically drowning in his own drool.
He stared at her with wide, pleading puppy eyes. “Boss! Can I buy a bowl of that rice porridge? Double price again, please!”
It smelled too heavenly to bear!
Ling Jing chuckled, setting the two bowls onto the tabletop.
The shop lacked proper ceramic dishware, so she used the leftover disposable plastic containers from her pork crackling sales.
They were a bit hot to the touch.
“Consider it your hazard pay. Drink up.”
“Really?! Truly?! You really are an angel descended from the heavens!” Hall had already scooped up the bowl.
Ignoring the scalding heat of the fresh porridge, he slurped it down with noisy abandon.
Ling Jing blew gently across her own bowl, waiting for it to cool down.
Her eyes scanned the porridge’s item attributes.
[Rice Porridge (For 1 hour, reduces blood toxicity concentration every 5 minutes by the volume of porridge consumed in milliliters divided by 2. Slows mutation and death caused by toxic overload. Cleanses one instance of Frenzy or Hallucination debuffs.) Recommended Price: 7 City Coins]
Downing a mouthful, Hall mumbled something utterly incoherent through a stuffed maw.
…The general gist was probably this is delicious, I’m in heaven, I’m dying of flavor, or something along those lines.
Finally managing to swallow the scalding mouthful, he looked up at Ling Jing. “Boss Ling, the city gates are shut for the night, but I need to go find my squad tomorrow! Can I pay to stay the night here?”
Ling Jing raised an eyebrow. “I don’t offer lodging services at the moment. Though, if you don’t mind a hard surface, you could…”
“Sleep on the benches outside?!” Hall beamed, thrilled out of his wits.
“…Sure.”
Ling Jing had originally intended to offer him a spot on the dining hall floor.
She had already paid for the automated cleaning fee, after all.
Yet sleeping on the outdoor benches seemed to have sent the kid over the moon.
Well, suit yourself.
