You Nian thought it over, then opened the System Shop to look for something suitable.
Soon, her attention settled on four items.
【Ceramic Pot】Price: 20 system points.
【Iron Pot】Price: 40 system points.
【A Pack of Matches】Price: 1 system point.
【Lighter】Price: 5 system points.
“The ceramic pot costs half as much as the iron pot, but it’ll break if I drop it. Not great value for money.”
“The iron pot is more expensive, but if I take good care of it, I might be able to use it for the rest of my life. And I could patch it up, too.”
After some deliberation, You Nian chose the iron pot. A brand-new, clean iron pot appeared in front of her.
She soon found herself facing another dilemma.
“Matches are cheap, but they get damp easily. It’s already humid in the mountains, and I don’t have anything to seal them in. One rainstorm and they might all be useless.”
“But a lighter costs five system points, and it doesn’t seem like it’ll last very long. I get only five hundred points for having a cub—does that mean I can trade them for just a hundred lighters?”
You Nian thought it was ridiculous. In her previous life, lighters had cost only a few dimes wholesale, yet in this backward Beast World, they seemed like priceless treasures.
Torn between starting a fire by friction and buying a lighter, You Nian ultimately chose the lighter for the sake of efficiency.
“I’ll just buy one for now. It’s a consumable, after all. If I need more later, I’ll deal with it then.”
Wincing at the cost, You Nian bought the lighter. Then she and the White Tiger Cub gathered some dry branches nearby.
They gathered stones and arranged them into a simple stove, set the iron pot on top, stuffed dry branches and fallen leaves underneath, and lit them with the lighter.
The Little White Tiger Cub watched a flame suddenly spring from the rectangular box in Mother’s hand.
His ears perked up at once, and his golden eyes brimmed with delight.
“Mother is amazing! You can breathe fire too!” You Nian caught the key words at once.
“What do you mean, ‘too’?”
The Little White Tiger Cub opened his mouth and took a deep breath. The next instant, a mass of Chaotic Thunderfire burst from his mouth.
In a flash, every fallen leaf on the ground around them burned away, revealing the dark soil beneath.
You Nian drew a deep breath and clutched the lighter tightly. Right now, she really wanted to ask: Was it okay to smack a cub?
Why hadn’t he told her he could breathe fire? She’d actually spent points on that lighter!
The divine beast Qiongqi was naturally capable of reading minds and sensing emotions.
The Little White Tiger felt that Mother was in a bad mood. Her whole body had turned a dull gray, as if her color had faded.
His ears drooped until they were rounded nubs. He asked timidly, “Mother, are you unhappy that I awakened an ability?”
You Nian quickly got her emotions under control and spoke gently.
“I’m not unhappy. When did you get your ability, Baby?”
She’d heard that male beastfolk awakened their abilities not long after birth, though the type and strength varied.
The Little White Tiger was a divine beast, Qiongqi. His ability was probably quite powerful. Even if it wasn’t, You Nian was willing to raise him now.
She could think of it as raising a lighter.
The Little White Tiger saw that Mother was still smiling and wasn’t unhappy, and only then did he relax.
“It was today! Mother was gone hunting for so long, and I was so bored. I lay on the ground blowing at ants the whole time.”
“Then somehow, I set one of the ants on fire.”
You Nian thought, So he awakened his ability today.
If he’d had it for ages and she hadn’t known, she’d really have been a fool taken for a ride.
With the little incident behind them, the Little White Tiger helped keep an eye on the fire by the stove.
You Nian chopped all the rabbit meat into small pieces with her boning knife, threaded them onto clean branches, and set them over the fire to roast.
The velvet-eared rabbit had been plump to begin with, and its meat was rich with fat. As it roasted, the fat melted away, leaving the meat golden, crisp, and irresistibly fragrant.
Once it was cooked, You Nian tried a bite. The rabbit meat was naturally tender and sweet; even without any seasoning, it tasted delicious.
“Baby, you eat some too.”
You Nian took a few more skewers, removed all the meat from the branches, and placed it on clean leaves for the Little White Tiger.
He buried his head and ate ravenously, wolfing it down with eager little yelps.
“Mother, rabbit meat tastes so good! Baby wants cooked meat again next time!”
You Nian breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, while the cub was still little, she could still correct his eating habits.
After dinner, the Little White Tiger curled up beside her and fell fast asleep on the ground.
Lying inside the cave, You Nian could see half the night sky. There wasn’t as much urban pollution in the Beast World, so every star shone clearly.
She opened the System Shop. Only 405 system points remained. It had been just one day, and she’d already spent a fifth of them.
As she stroked the Little White Tiger’s round, fluffy belly, she couldn’t help worrying about the future.
What Mo Ling had said today wasn’t unreasonable.
The Little White Tiger would keep growing, and his appetite would grow with him. Even the plump rabbit weighing over ten pounds today had only just been enough for mother and cub.
In less than half a month, his size might double, and he could be eating two rabbits by himself.
“That yellow rabbit was already so fast today. If I hadn’t managed to ambush it, I might not have caught it at all.”
You Nian sighed.
“I can’t count on getting lucky like that every day. I can’t just sit around waiting for rabbits to come to me.”
Several hunting plans flashed through her mind: setting traps, making a fishing spear.
Cubs generally weren’t expected to try hunting on their own until they were at least a year old. But without a father to hunt for him, the Little White Tiger would have to learn to fend for himself sooner.
“Never mind. I can’t just hoard my points. Baby’s awakened a thunder-fire ability, too, so he can help with hunting.”
By the next day, after a night to think it over, You Nian had made up her mind: she couldn’t just save her points; she had to spend them where they mattered.
With the 405 points she had left, she bought a clay pot for 15 points to boil water in and avoid getting sick from drinking it raw.
She also bought a hoe for 50 points to dig in the soil and set traps. In the future, she could use it for planting and turning the earth, too.
That left her with 340 points.
“There are lots of rabbit tracks in this patch of ground. Let’s set the trap here.”
You Nian quickly picked a spot and brought the Little White Tiger along to learn.
She dug a hole of suitable depth and size, laid a few large leaves over it to cover the opening loosely, then disguised it with fallen leaves.
The Little White Tiger was amazed. “Mother, you don’t have to chase them yourself? You can hunt like this?”
You Nian rubbed his fluffy little head.
“Hunting doesn’t have to rely on brute strength and stamina. We can use our brains, too.”
The Little White Tiger nodded, still a little bewildered.
You Nian searched nearby again and finally found a branch that was straight enough and the right thickness. Using a mortise-and-tenon joint, she attached a sharpened piece of wood and made a wooden fishing spear.
Then she returned to the riverbank. “We won’t hunt rabbits today. We’re going fishing.”
After observing carefully, You Nian had confirmed that this stretch was a branch of the river. The water was shallow, and there wouldn’t be anything like an alligator hiding in it.
You Nian stepped into the stream and stood perfectly still, waiting for her chance.
After a while, a plump crucian carp swam out from who knew which clump of water plants.
It had no idea danger was near.
You Nian narrowed her eyes and tightened her grip on the fishing spear.
She waited for the right moment, then struck—fast, accurate, and hard!
The spear hit the crucian carp squarely. A small patch of water quickly turned red, and You Nian lifted a wriggling crucian carp from the stream. Her eyes shone with delight.
“Looks like this way of fishing really does work!”
She tossed the fish into the basket on the bank, a fish basket she’d specially woven yesterday.
“I can catch a lot of fish. If we can’t eat them all, I can dry them.”
You Nian got right to it. Once the schools of fish had settled again, she repeated the same trick and speared several more, tossing them all into the basket.
You Nian didn’t notice the thick white snake’s tail behind her as it slowly slid through the grass along the riverbank.