The rich aroma of chicken soup filled the entire secluded little courtyard.
Zheng Baiyu sat in the courtyard picking vegetables, her gaze discreetly drifting toward the man in black standing by the kitchen window.
A powerful dual-element ability user with lightning and fire abilities was now standing in front of the stove, carefully controlling the heat beneath the pot. His lowered eyes were calm and focused, and the arm holding the iron pot was taut, forming a pleasing line of muscle. Even the veins standing out on the back of his hand looked exceptionally attractive.
He was a man who stood out even in a crowd.
“Stop staring.” Xue Zikai waved a hand in front of her face while breaking apart garlic. “No matter how much you stare, the captain is still just a hopelessly straight guy. At most, he knows how to cook.”
Zheng Baiyu snorted. “There are people who don’t even know how to cook.”
Apart from Xue Zikai, who also knew how to cook, the other two men on the team all felt that they had just been indirectly insulted.
“That doesn’t help.” As though he had thought of something, Xue Zikai chuckled twice. “A little girl came to the gate earlier to borrow some water. The captain acted like he couldn’t stand the sight of her. No wonder he’s still a virgin at twenty-eight…… Ahem, I mean, no wonder he’s lived twenty-eight years without ever figuring things out.”
His hasty attempt to stop himself did nothing. Zheng Baiyu still heard what he had really meant, and her heart was both stirred and bitter.
Stirred because the captain wasn’t promiscuous.
Bitter because the captain was completely oblivious.
As though he had thought of something, Xue Zikai stroked his chin. “Come to think of it, he was too busy the past few years to have time for anything. The captain was working himself like a dog, and somehow it’s dragged on until now. He’s finally got a little free time this year. Shouldn’t he start dating someone?”
“I wonder what kind of woman he likes. Once we finish this mission, I’ll introduce him to someone……”
Zheng Baiyu’s heart stirred. She could no longer hear the words beside her clearly, and her gaze unconsciously drifted toward the kitchen again.
「Inside the kitchen.」
The chicken-and-mushroom soup in the ceramic pot was simmering at exactly the right temperature, while the oil in the iron wok beside it had just reached the proper heat, waiting for the vegetables to be added and stir-fried.
Zhou Zhou, however, seemed completely unaware of everything around him. Beneath his seemingly calm exterior, his lowered gaze had remained fixed on his wrist for a long time.
Perhaps she hadn’t eaten enough.
That scheming “little beggar” hadn’t bitten very hard.
The two neat rows of teeth marks had long since disappeared, leaving behind only faint white traces, and…… a soft, warm, damp sensation.
When she bit him, she hadn’t merely brought her teeth over. She hadn’t even known to keep her tongue out of the way, boldly pressing it against the skin of his wrist and leaving behind several glistening traces of moisture.
If the ability user protecting her hadn’t died, her biting might perhaps have been mistaken for another form of bedroom foreplay.
No one knew what the seemingly cold and self-controlled man was really thinking inside.
The colorful chicken-and-mushroom stew was brought to the table and quickly devoured. Only after everyone was well fed and had finished drinking did someone finally speak.
“Captain Zhou, what do we do next?”
They had come to C City Base with a mission, but the difficulty was too high, and they had yet to find a way forward.
“Don’t rush.” Zhou Zhou tapped his fingers lightly against the tabletop, deep in thought. “We’ll lie low and get settled first. Go about our usual business.”
“When the time is right, someone will come to meet us.”
He deliberately emphasized the words “meet us.” Some people knew the insider details while others did not, but everyone accepted the captain’s arrangement.
“All right!”
……
As a mutated plant, Ye Manman shouldn’t, in theory, have been capable of dreaming.
Yet she dreamed about what had happened half a month ago.
It was an abandoned hotel. An old candle they had found had been lit, and the dim light and shadows swayed constantly with the movement of the air.
She was sitting in the human’s lap, seriously gnawing on a Level 6 crystal core.
A faint itch came from her lower back.
Before Ye Manman could react, the newly grown tentacle behind her had already been caught in the man’s hand and was being casually kneaded.
She angrily pulled the new tentacle back. “Don’t touch it!”
“Why can’t I touch it?” The man whose face was blurry let out a wicked, low laugh. “I’m the one who fed it into existence.”
Ye Manman deliberately pretended not to hear him and focused entirely on gnawing at the crystal core in her hands.
Soon, she finished the crystal core.
The newly grown tentacle was only half the length of her other tentacles and still needed more energy to grow.
The greedy little vine’s eyes rolled around. Knowing exactly what to do, she wrapped her arms around the man’s neck and spoke in a sweet, coquettish voice. “I want more crystal cores.”
The man stared deeply at her. “Then what should we do?”
Hmph. So stingy.
Ye Manman slowly stuffed the newly grown tentacle into his hand. Then, under the man’s heated gaze, she obediently pressed her rosy lips against the corner of his mouth.
The man lowered his eyes and saw those beautiful eyes gazing up at him. There was no shyness in them whatsoever, only frankness and an impatient urging.
He leaned down and fiercely……
Bang!
Someone knocked over something heavy.
Ye Manman jolted awake in fright. She stared blankly at the crude concrete ceiling for a long while before coming to her senses and realizing that she had only been dreaming.
The man in the dream had a blurry face, but in reality, she remembered exactly what that human looked like.
It was the man she had seen outside the little courtyard yesterday!
Ye Manman sat in a daze for a long time before sadly calling for the system.
“H-He followed me here, didn’t he? I ate so many of his crystal cores. What if he wants me to give them all back?”
When the little vine had first taken human form and come down from the mountains, she had only eight tentacles and couldn’t even defeat a mutated wild boar. Although the amnesiac human she had occasionally picked up was a complete lunatic, his abilities were incredibly powerful, and he had countless crystal cores. He had forcibly fed her until she grew another hundred tentacles.
Ye Manman counted on her fingers.
Sh-She had probably eaten several hundred crystal cores, all of them high-level ones.
The little vine didn’t feel guilty in the slightest. She only thought the man was incredibly stingy. For such a tiny number of crystal cores, he had actually been petty enough to follow her here.
It wasn’t as though she had complained about him leaving without saying goodbye!
The system had been silent ever since they returned yesterday. Only now did it finally speak with difficulty: [Host, I think the two of us have gotten ourselves into serious trouble.]
Ye Manman: “?”
[Captain Zhou, Xue Zikai…… If I’m not mistaken, that amnesiac man you picked up is very likely the protagonist of this world.]
Ye Manman listened with only a vague understanding.
The system had previously explained to her what transmigrating into a book meant, what protagonists were, what destiny and fortune were, and what villains were. Her first reaction was, “You said that villains always die at the hands of the protagonist.”
[Yes.] The system said with difficulty, [The amnesiac man you picked up is named Zhou Zhou. He comes from A City Base and is a staunch opponent of mutated creatures.]
[This was my oversight. In the stolen plot information I obtained from this world, the male protagonist only disappeared for one month. No one knew where he went, and after returning, even he had lost his memories of that month. This is very likely a plot device planted by the author.]
The more the system thought about it, the more alarmed it became.
This was a post-apocalyptic novel aimed at male readers. The male protagonist, Zhou Zhou, was immensely powerful. He led humanity in exterminating all the mutated beasts and plants, eventually driving them deep into the mountains and wilderness and becoming a hero of the human world. Along the way, he also accumulated countless women in his harem.
If, if…… that missing month was indeed a plot device planted by the author, then the host the system had bound was either one of the male protagonist’s future harem members in the original novel, or a villain who would eventually become his enemy.
It was too complicated, and the system’s analysis was too elaborate. Ye Manman idly stroked the little tentacle hidden beneath her blanket, letting the explanation go in one ear and out the other. “What is a harem?”
[A harem is……] The system stopped halfway. It suddenly remembered that its host had already shared a relationship with the male protagonist, even if it had only been to trick him into giving her crystal cores. It was hard to say whether genuine feelings might develop. [Sigh. It means the male protagonist will have many women, including but not limited to female teammates willing to entrust their lives to him, strong and tragic twin sisters, the queen of the mutated plants from the opposing faction, and so on.]
Ye Manman had been stroking her little tentacle, but her movements gradually stopped when she heard this.
“So he’s going to kiss a lot of people? And give crystal cores to lots of people?”
The system couldn’t bear to say it: [Yes. So don’t give him your heart.]
The clever little vine gave it a disdainful look.
“I’m not human. Where would I even get a heart?”
“And he’s so stingy. He only gives me one crystal core when I let him kiss me. If he raises that many people, wouldn’t giving away all those crystal cores make his heart ache to death?”
Ye Manman was judging Zhou Zhou by her own standards. If he opened a harem, he would surely have to produce mountains of crystal cores.
As a single vine, she felt that even several hundred crystal cores weren’t enough. If he were supporting that many humans and mutated plants, he would certainly have to give them lots and lots of crystal cores to keep them satisfied.
Remembering the energy brought by crystal cores, the greedy little vine licked her lips.
She definitely wasn’t going to become part of Zhou Zhou’s harem.
He didn’t even have enough crystal cores to go around!
Hearing her host’s thoughts, the system fell silent once again.
To be fair, Zhou Zhou had never been stingy with her. During the month he had been suffering from amnesia, every crystal core the man obtained had gone straight into the little vine’s mouth.
The problem was that Ye Manman had absolutely no conscience. When he gave her more crystal cores, she happily forgot everything else and paid no attention to him at all. Once the crystal cores ran out, she would eagerly come crawling back, acting spoiled and sweetly asking him for more.
Eventually, the man simply started giving them to her one at a time, forcing her to stay by his side at all times.
[Back to the point. Zhou Zhou is on humanity’s side, and sooner or later, he will end up opposing us. The fact that he has forgotten you is a good thing, but you must stay away from him and cannot let him discover your true identity!]
Ye Manman obediently nodded.
She had already eaten all his crystal cores anyway, and he kissed far too aggressively. He also wouldn’t let her eat anyone else’s crystal cores…… With all those flaws added together, she had no desire to approach him ever again.
[Also, you must find the Man-Eating Flower as soon as possible and join forces with it to take control of C City Base. Only then can you accumulate enough strength to resist humanity!]
Ye Manman puffed out her cheeks unhappily. “But I don’t have any contribution points right now. I don’t even have a comfortable place to sleep or enough water to bathe.”
Although plants naturally carried a fresh fragrance and their bodies wouldn’t develop an odor, her tentacles simply couldn’t tolerate going without baths.
The fired-up, enthusiastic system was struck down in an instant.
Only then did it realize that its host was currently nothing more than a “little beggar” in the base. It had no idea how many people all those tentacles could actually defeat, and at this stage, it was even more impossible for her to infiltrate the base’s restricted areas and approach the controlled Man-Eating Flower Mutated Plant .
[……We should probably figure out how to earn contribution points first.]
Just as one system and one vine were hanging their heads in dejection, the door opened, and Sun Wen walked in. She happily went over to Ye Manman’s bed.
“Manman, I found a job where we can earn contribution points.” She lowered her voice. “Outside the base, ability user teams hunt mutated beasts and plants. After they’re butchered, the leftover scraps need to be collected manually. It pays five contribution points a day. The work is dirty and exhausting, so nobody wants it. We can do it.”
Working meant contribution points!
Contribution points meant she could take a bath!
Ye Manman nodded like a pecking chick, immediately got up to get ready, and happily followed Sun Wen outside the base.
There were many ability user teams in C City. It was too troublesome and dangerous to butcher the bodies of hunted mutated beasts and plants out in the wilderness, so they would usually drag them back outside the base, butcher them there, and take away the most valuable parts. The remaining carcasses were simply left behind and monopolized by several recycling groups.
The leader of the recycling group Sun Wen had contacted was a woman who was a Level 3 ability user. A scar ran across her brow ridge. She casually glanced at the two frail girls without saying anything and had someone hand them their tools.
“Your main job is to collect scraps of mutated beasts and plants. They contain a small amount of energy and can be fed to the livestock raised by the base. If an ability user team does a sloppy job of butchering and leaves behind any valuable parts, collecting those will earn you extra contribution points.”
Ye Manman carried a little red bucket in her left hand and held a pair of iron tongs in her right. Instinctively, she looked toward Sun Wen.
Sun Wen was already standing in the butchering area, carefully picking up scraps of animal and plant matter from the ground. Her bucket was soon half full.
[Learn from her.]
Ye Manman imitated her as best she could, picking up a few pieces of mutated wild-boar meat with the tongs and disdainfully tossing them into her bucket before losing interest in the work.
“It’s so dirty and smelly.”
“System, system, I don’t want to pick this stuff up. What do I do?”
Having bound such a pampered host, the system was suffering as well: [If you don’t collect them, you won’t get contribution points. Without contribution points, you can’t take a bath.]
Ye Manman pretended not to hear and let her gaze wander around until it landed on a three-person ability user team.
They looked very powerful. Everything they had dragged back was a high-level mutated beast or plant, and their butchering was also extremely rough. Quite a few usable parts had been scattered around, attracting the attention of many “scavengers.”
But the ability user team hadn’t left yet, so no one dared rush forward and snatch anything.
The little vine, who understood nothing about human social etiquette, suddenly brightened. She scampered over and followed right behind the ability user team, picking up the clean animal parts they left behind.
Her behavior was so brazen that it quickly caught the team’s attention.
Song Xiangming frowned. He was a Level 6 ability user, and his bad temper had earned him quite a reputation. Few people at the base dared provoke him.
Which fool who didn’t value their life would actually dare challenge him?
Song Xiangming strode over to the “little beggar” and grabbed her by the arm. “I’m still standing right here, and you dare come pick up my things? You’ve got a death wish!”
Ye Manman cried out in surprise and looked up at him.
He was a dark-skinned human, his handsome face completely overshadowed by his fierce demeanor.
She was a little frightened but also somewhat displeased, and she gave him a small glare with her beautiful, captivating eyes.
“You’re hurting me.”
The irritable ability user had been furious, but when he heard that spoiled, pleading little voice, every bone in his body inexplicably went soft for two seconds.
Song Xiangming hadn’t expected the person he had grabbed to be such a petite girl. Those beautiful, wide eyes made the dirt on her little face look even more irritating, instinctively making him want to reach out and wipe it away.
Seeing that he didn’t respond, the tentacles inside Ye Manman began restlessly itching to lash out at him, but she still managed to suppress them with difficulty.
She glared at him again.
“Let go of me!”
Her spoiled yet perfectly justified demand, combined with the coquettish charm in her glare, somehow made Song Xiangming loosen his grip.
Where had this irresistibly captivating little beggar come from?