Without realizing it, Song Xiangming released his grip.
Freed from his restraint, Ye Manman glared angrily at him before turning around and continuing to pick up the useful scraps.
The two teammates came over and asked curiously, “Boss, where’d you find her?”
Having been glared at several times by the little beggar, Song Xiangming turned all his irritation on his teammates and glared right back.
“Why are you asking me? How should I know!”
Even he had no idea where this little beggar had come from. She had fallen so low as to scavenge for scraps at a butchering site, yet she still acted spoiled and utterly justified.
But… Song Xiangming discreetly gave the little beggar in the distance another once-over.
Fair, delicate wrists that even the black and gray grime couldn’t conceal, cheeks slightly puffed with anger, and calves that looked as though they would be extraordinarily soft and smooth to the touch.
She shouldn’t have ended up at a butchering site.
She should have been kept at home, wrapped in a white bath towel and placed at the dining table, while someone gently and carefully dried her long, dripping-wet hair with a towel.
Ye Manman couldn’t care less what those stinking humans were thinking.
Since the man hadn’t stopped her, she continued picking up the remains of the mutated plants and animals around her without a care. These parts were far better than those sticky, rotten chunks of flesh clinging to the ground!
Before long, the red plastic bucket was full.
Ye Manman happily carried the little bucket back, but before she had taken more than a few steps, a wall of solid muscle blocked her completely.
It was the human who had snapped at her earlier.
The little vine warily hid the bucket behind her back. “What do you want?”
Song Xiangming was almost amused to tears by her reaction. He was a Level 6 ability user, received subsidies from the main urban district, and hunted countless mutated plants and animals every day. Why would he care about these scraps that weren’t worth much?
Since he was already in a bad mood, he deliberately put on a fierce expression and pointed at the bucket behind her. “Those are all mine. Who said you could pick them up? Give them back.”
Ye Manman hid the bucket even more securely and shook her head. “You threw them on the ground, so you didn’t want them anymore. I picked them up, so they’re mine.”
That was indeed the unspoken rule at the butchering site.
Song Xiangming was speechless.
He froze for half a second before finally snorting coldly. “Consider yourself lucky. I’m not going to argue with a filthy little beggar.”
Filthy?
Little beggar!
The petty little vine was instantly set off. She already hated being dirty herself, and she hated it even more when someone else called her dirty.
This human was practically dancing all over her sore spot.
She wanted to use her tentacles to hang him up and whip him hard!
[He’s a Level 6 ability user. You might not be able to beat him.]
The system’s voice instantly extinguished Ye Manman’s anger. A vine living under someone else’s roof had to bow its head; so she could only pretend she hadn’t heard and while walking around Song Xiangming, angrily stomped on his foot.
What strength could a pretty little girl possibly have? Her foot landed on his instep like a tickle, leaving behind only a faint layer of dust.
Song Xiangming stared blankly at the tiny footprint, his Adam’s apple bobbing abruptly. Before his mind could react, his hand had already closed firmly around the girl’s arm.
Ye Manman was furious. “What are you doing again!”
Clatter—!
Two heavy objects were tossed into the red bucket.
Song Xiangming couldn’t explain his own actions either. Without saying a word, he threw the snake skin and wild boar tusks he had been planning to take away into her bucket.
“The things you picked aren’t worth much.”
“These two can be exchanged for quite a lot of contribution points.”
Ye Manman looked at him in confusion. She simply thought humans were strange. One moment he wouldn’t let her pick things up, and the next he was giving things to her of his own accord.
Perhaps because she had been staring at him for too long, a suspicious flush appeared on his dark face.
Song Xiangming roughly released her arm. The harsh words he had originally intended to say reached his lips and somehow changed completely. “…I’ll be here again tomorrow.”
And then?
Ye Manman tilted her head. She waited for quite a while but never heard anything else from him, only watching him turn stiffly and walk away.
“He’s really strange.”
[Forget about him. Hurry up and turn in the stuff and get your contribution points.]
At the mention of contribution points, Ye Manman instantly brightened and scampered back.
Not far away, an ability user team that had just returned from outside had witnessed the entire scene.
Ability users had exceptionally sharp hearing. Even without deliberately listening, the conversation drifted into their ears on its own.
Xue Zikai dropped the completely dead mutated beast onto the ground and sighed. “She’s certainly popular.”
“Who?” Zheng Baiyu walked behind him. She had also seen the commotion in the distance, but hadn’t paid much attention to it. “What happened?”
“Nothing.”
Xue Zikai secretly glanced at the captain and found him lowering his eyes as he dug out the mutated beast’s crystal core, completely indifferent to everyone else at the site.
Sure enough, what had happened yesterday was merely an accident. The little girl called “Manman” had perhaps just happened to fit the captain’s tastes a little, prompting him on a whim to “tease and mock” her a few times.
Look at him. He’d already forgotten everything today. As expected of Captain Zhou, who never showed any interest in women.
But Xue Zikai was still a little curious, so he raised his head and looked over from afar.
Just then, he saw the pretty little girl pick up the blood-soaked snake skin from her bucket. Her delicate little nose wrinkled in disgust, and she secretly tossed it into the bucket of the companion beside her.
She was… kind of cute.
“What are you standing there for?” The cold, merciless voice dragged Xue Zikai back to reality. “Come over and skin it.”
His teammate finally crouched down and began diligently stripping the mutated beast of its hide and fur.
Zhou Zhou never raised his head throughout the entire process. His expression showed no change whatsoever, but the crystal core in his palm kept turning over and over.
She certainly moved fast.
If one didn’t work, she immediately switched to another target.
The tactic was old-fashioned, but it always managed to hook a few idiots.
Heh.
.
After Ye Manman threw out the bloodiest snake skin, the bucket became much cleaner.
Sun Wen, however, noticed the increased weight immediately and looked at Ye Manman in surprise.
“Manman, this is what you picked…”
As she spoke, she reached in to take it out and put it back into Ye Manman’s bucket.
“I don’t want it.” The little vine, having just thrown away the dirty thing, dodged her. “It’s dirty and smelly.”
Sun Wen fell silent.
How could someone who had survived the apocalypse possibly dislike a little blood? Besides, the snake skin clearly looked valuable and might be worth quite a lot of contribution points. In her eyes, Manman had intentionally shared the good stuff she got with her, using such a clumsy excuse.
Looking at those clear, innocent eyes, a wave of bitterness spread through Sun Wen’s heart, and her eyes instantly reddened.
Since the destruction of her original small base, this was the first time Sun Wen had shed tears.
“…Thank you.”
Making a living in the apocalypse was too difficult. The slightest bit of warmth and kindness from someone beside you was enough to give you the strength to keep living a little longer.
Ye Manman felt a rare twinge of guilt. She had only been disgusted by the snake skin, and seeing that Sun Wen’s bucket was full of sticky, dirty meat chunks, she had selfishly thrown the snake skin in there as well. If it had been a crystal core instead, she certainly wouldn’t have given it to anyone else.
“Let’s hurry back and exchange these for contribution points!”
She only felt guilty for two seconds before tossing her selfish little thought aside and excitedly pulling Sun Wen as they ran back.
They hadn’t gone far when a faint itch suddenly came from her ankle, as though something had quietly brushed past her foot.
Ye Manman stopped in confusion and looked down, searching around.
“System, something just rubbed against my ankle!”
The system didn’t think much of it. [It was probably a piece of flesh that got kicked up and splashed past your foot.]
How disgusting!
Ye Manman immediately felt uncomfortable all over, especially around her ankle. She was dirty!
Sun Wen saw her stop and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Let’s hurry and exchange these for contribution points!”
The system successfully distracted Ye Manman, and she focused entirely on pulling Sun Wen toward the recycling station.
“You two certainly picked up quite a lot of good stuff.”
The leader of the recycling group hadn’t expected the two new scavengers to be so lucky. The bucket on the left was filled with mutated-beast remains that could still fetch a decent price, with a pair of sturdy wild boar tusks sitting on top. With a little modification, they could become a handy weapon for a Level 3 ability user.
The girl on the right had snake skin in her bucket that could also be made into a protective vest capable of withstanding a blow from a Level 3 mutated plant or beast.
Good stuff?
That meant contribution points!
Ye Manman asked eagerly, “How many contribution points can these be exchanged for?”
The scarred woman’s eyes fell on the mutated wild boar tusks.
“Three hundred and thirty contribution points for the other scraps.”
“I’ll take these tusks for another twelve hundred contribution points. How about it?”
The little vine, who had never received nine years of compulsory education, only knew how to count crystal cores and had no idea how to add, subtract, multiply, or divide. She could only ask the system for help in her mind. “How many contribution points is she giving me?”
[1,530 contribution points. That’s enough for you to fetch water 1,530 times.]
Ye Manman’s eyes immediately widened, and her mouth fell slightly open in shock. Greed surfaced almost instantly.
“Then can I use contribution points to exchange for crystal cores?”
At that, the scarred woman raised an eyebrow. “Of course. But 1,000 contribution points can only buy one Level 1 crystal core. Someone without an ability has no use for a crystal core.”
A Level 1 crystal core?
Ye Manman lowered her eyes in disappointment. She had eaten so many high-level crystal cores that low-level ones were practically useless to her. Unless she ate hundreds of them in one go, they would only grow her a tiny number of additional tentacles.
“Then I won’t exchange them.”
The scarred woman didn’t mind her changing her mind. “Fine. Give me the stuff, and I’ll credit you with the contribution points.”
Ye Manman had long since found the bucket too heavy, so at once she tried to hand it over… but it wouldn’t move, as though someone were pulling on it and refusing to let her pass it over.
The only person standing beside her was Sun Wen.
Ye Manman tilted her head in confusion. “Why are you pulling my bucket?”
“What?” Sun Wen didn’t understand for a moment. “I’m not pulling your bucket.”
She wasn’t? Then why couldn’t Ye Manman pull it free?
A beat later, Ye Manman lowered her head in confusion. Her eyes happened to meet a yellow-brown withered vine wrapped around the metal handle of the red bucket. The moment it realized she had noticed it, the withered vine suddenly tightened and yanked the bucket sideways, spilling its contents all over the ground.
A provocation! An actual mutated plant had dared to provoke her!
Ye Manman angrily reached out, just about to grab the arrogant withered vine, when her body was suddenly yanked hard to the side.
“Move! This is a mutated plant that wasn’t properly cleared out!”
The scarred woman drew the weapon she carried at her side. With one swift strike, she chopped the suddenly appearing withered vine into several pieces, sending them scattering in every direction with the force of the blade.
The surroundings fell completely silent. Only after the withered vine had gone utterly still did everyone begin talking over one another.
“Where did that mutated plant come from? How did it end up at the butchering site?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Some ability user team probably wasn’t vigilant enough and let the plant cling to their prey, carrying it all the way here before it fell off.”
“Damn it, I came here just to scavenge some junk, and there’s even this kind of danger? I might as well go back inside the base and do hard labor!”
“…”
Ye Manman was still staring blankly at the withered vine that had been chopped into pieces when the scarred woman turned and looked at her, her brows drawing sharply together. “Are you stupid? You’re an ordinary person with no special ability, yet you actually reached out and grabbed it with your bare hands!”
The dusty little girl quietly looked up at her.
“…I’m not stupid.”
She just hadn’t reacted in time. She had almost sent out her tentacles and torn the withered vine apart. Luckily, this human had stopped her in time; otherwise, she would have exposed herself in front of all these people.
It had taken her so much effort to sneak into the human base. From now on, she had to be even more careful.
Thinking this, Ye Manman stepped forward and tugged lightly at the scarred woman’s clothes. “Are you angry? Don’t be angry, okay? I still want to exchange things for contribution points here.”
At this, the scarred woman froze in rare surprise.
She was tall, making the newly arrived scavenger look especially petite standing before her. The little face tilted upward had several patches of dust rubbed away, revealing hints of pale, delicate skin.
Those eyes staring straight at her held none of the numbness, exhaustion, terror, or panic one would expect. There was only a little annoyance, along with an unconscious hint of seduction.
No one knew who had taught her, but whenever this little girl looked at either men or women, her eyes seemed to carry tiny hooks that made one’s heart itch, without making her seem vulgar.
The scarred woman stared for several seconds. Before she could say anything, several cries suddenly rang out behind her.
“Look out!!!”
The next moment, a thunderous sound of earth breaking apart pierced their eardrums. Ye Manman watched helplessly as an enormous yellow-brown withered vine burst from the ground. It looked like an enlarged version of the little vine from before, and merely standing there, it cast a huge shadow over everything.
The scarred woman’s extensive combat experience came into play. Her reaction was extremely swift. Blades of wind formed by her ability slashed directly behind her. At the same time, she grabbed Ye Manman with her left hand and Sun Wen with her right, sprinting toward the distance.
She had no time to look back. Ye Manman was grabbed by her rear collar, just in time to see several wind blades land on the withered vine, leaving only a few white traces without causing any substantial damage.
Even more frighteningly, it seemed to have locked onto the three fleeing women and pursued them without hesitation, the sound of earth being torn apart followed close behind.
Everyone still at the butchering site had already fled in all directions. The scarred woman was only a Level 3 ability user; against a mutated plant that looked this formidable, she had no chance of winning. In the blink of an eye, it caught up with them.
Smack—!
Ye Manman’s vision blurred. It was only after she landed heavily on the ground that she realized the three of them had all been flung in different directions by the withered vine.
And she was the closest to it. The cracked earth was already spreading toward her.
[Run!]
The system’s warning did little to help. Sitting on the ground, Ye Manman stared blankly at the enormous withered vine so close to her, while the tentacles inside her body stirred restlessly.
—Such powerful energy! Eat it!
—Tear it apart! Eat it! Grow more tentacles!
Her most primal instinct to devour surged wildly through her body. Unable to control herself, Ye Manman swallowed hard.
I want to… eat it…
[Host! Snap out of it! The male protagonist is still at the butchering site. You can’t expose your true form in front of all these people!]
Then what should she do?
If she didn’t try to eat this withered vine, it would devour her instead.
The system was speechless.
Could it be that, right after finally sneaking into the base, she would be forced to reveal her identity and flee?
The withered vine had already closed in. Its shadow fell over the pitiful little girl, and a tip the size of a baby’s fist suddenly stabbed toward her heart.
At the critical moment, a sharp flash of steel streaked past.
The withered vine’s attack came to an abrupt halt. Its massive body was cleanly severed at the waist, yellow mucus spraying from the cut, with some of it splashing onto Ye Manman.
Thud—!
Half of the dead vine’s body crashed heavily onto the ground, revealing the figure of the man standing behind it.
Everything had happened too quickly. The little vine hadn’t yet recovered when she watched the man step over the vine’s corpse, dig a Level 6 crystal core out of the severed stump, and focus so completely that he seemed to have forgotten the dirt covering his own body.
Perhaps her stare was too obvious. The man sensed something and lowered his eyes toward the “filthy” little beggar who had been forgotten at his side. She was staring greedily at the crystal core in his hand.
Zhou Zhou turned his palm and slipped the crystal core into his bag without hesitation, his gaze calm and indifferent.
“Didn’t anyone teach you to bathe every day?”
“You’re dirty.”