Since she was going to settle in Nantong City for a while, the first thing to figure out was housing.
She scrolled through real estate listings on her light screen, picking out suitable houses while simultaneously pulling a nutrient canister from under the cover of her cloak.
She pulled off the lid. Inside was a paste-like meat sludge, pale red and reeking of blood. Starving, Feng Si brought it to her lips and took a sip, her face instantly twisting into a mask of agony.
’This is disgusting!’
It felt like tough meat dregs in her mouth, tasted like a mix of various vitamins with a faint bitterness, and—worst of all—it perfectly preserved the gamey body odor and bloody stench of an animal slaughtered without being properly cleaned.
She forced down the mouthful, staring at the canister in her hand, finding it nearly impossible to take another bite. Her heart ached at the thought of the nine other canisters in her storage space.
At that moment, the single sip dispelled the gnawing hunger in her stomach, which now felt warm.
Feng Si breathed a sigh of relief, quickly sealed the lid, and surreptitiously returned it to her storage space.
As someone who had just transmigrated from a modern world of countless delicacies, she truly couldn’t stomach food this disgusting.
She really couldn’t eat it.
Feng Si went back to browsing the online housing listings.
Just then, a sub-female with gray hair and long rabbit ears turned around from the seat in front, leaning over the backrest to talk to Feng Si. "Are you going to Nantong City, too? I’ve already eaten, and this trip is so boring. Let’s chat."
Hearing this, Feng Si looked up at the sub-female with the long, crimson-tipped ears. Lacking information about this world, she smiled, turned off her wristband device, and tossed out an easy conversation starter. "I hear the stew in Nantong City is famous."
"You must be talking about the one on South District Third Mountain, right?" The rabbit-eared sub-female perked up. "I grew up in Nantong City and I’ve only tried it once. It tastes amazing, but it’s super expensive. Twenty coins a bowl. I guess only females can afford to eat it every day."
Her words seemed to open the floodgates. The other sub-females on the transport looked on with faces full of envy. One of the more sturdily built sub-females said:
"Well, what can you do? Females can soothe High Martial Power Level male beasts. Our calming power is all low-level, so we can’t find any powerful male beasts."
Feng Si listened quietly to the conversation, gaining a clearer understanding of this world from the sub-females’ chatter.
This world had a total of three genders. Both females and sub-females could become partners with male beasts, but the difference was that females possessed a Spiritual Soothing Power that was in a league of its own.
From birth, a female must be registered at the Sacrificial Hall. The Empire would then grant every female one hundred thousand coins annually. Then, when a female came of age at twenty, she must return to the Sacrificial Hall to have her fertility tested.
Furthermore, at some point within the next three months, females could go to the main city to participate in a large-scale "matchmaking" conference for the nobility.
In this world, the higher the level of a male beast, the harder it was to produce offspring. Not only that, but there was also the latent danger of their Original Value erupting.
This was what led to the different treatment between females and sub-females.
A female’s fertility was linked to her spiritual soothing power. The higher her level, the stronger her calming power, and the greater the chance her body could carry a powerful male beast’s offspring. Moreover, she could give birth to all three genders.
Sub-females, however, could not. They received no subsidies from the Empire and could only ever give birth to sub-females and male beasts. Their offspring were mostly low-level, and occasionally Intermediate.
So, this was a world where the majority of Beastmen were low-level or intermediate. Advanced and Special Level male beasts were not numerous, with a ratio of about 10:1 to females.
’No wonder females are so pampered on the surface. In reality, all the true power in this world is still in the hands of the male beasts. And what do the females have?’
Feng Si was no longer interested in this sugar-coated-bullet of "marrying a male beast."
She decided to keep her cover firmly in place and focus on settling down safely in Nantong City first.
The journey from Cang City to Nantong City took two full days, crossing dozens of mountains and passing through over a dozen valleys, before finally stopping on a plain in the morning.
Nantong City was a colossal metal metropolis situated in a basin between mountain ranges. Ocher-colored skyscrapers shot up from the ground like something out of a futuristic techno-city, and a crackling purple electric fence surrounded it.
Inside, the streets were a sprawling network. The buildings were arranged in an orderly fashion, each shaped like a pyramid, their densely packed windows resembling a honeycomb. Countless metal vehicles zipped through the air between the buildings in an orderly flow.
Feng Si followed the crowd off the transport. She was now standing on the plain, in an area that resembled a large plaza at the city’s entrance. The ground was paved with asphalt. From this open vantage point, she couldn’t see the tops of the skyscrapers, which cast a unique metallic gleam under the sunlight.
Feng Si stared, stunned for a moment. "...This is what they call poor?"
"See? There’s too little land and too many people, so we can only cram ourselves into little metal boxes. Only females and powerful Beastmen get to live in the forests," the long-eared sub-female she’d gotten to know on the transport replied as she walked past.
’Living creatures have a natural affinity for nature. Differentiating the rich and poor this way... doesn’t seem wrong, I guess.’
"That’s true," Feng Si said, following the crowd forward. She suppressed the astonishment on her face to avoid standing out.
Feng Si walked for a while, following the crowd to a tall, arched wooden gate. After passing through smoothly, she was finally inside the city.
It was an open area, set some distance from the nearest skyscraper. After bidding farewell to her fellow travelers, Feng Si stood by the side of the street, tapping away on her light screen.
Just then, an ocher-colored hovercar stopped and hovered in the air. A sub-female in a white suit opened the door, got out, and walked toward Feng Si with a smile:
"Hello, are you Sub-female Si? I’m Shu Ling, the manager from Fu Lai Real Estate whom you contacted online. I’m here to pick you up for your viewing appointment at the scheduled time."
Feng Si looked up.
During the journey, she had been looking for a place to live on her light screen. Initially, she had wanted to rent or book a detached house.
But who would have thought? There were no rentals or hotels here, only real estate for sale. The other sub-females had recommended another method, too.
—Find a male beast to become partners with.
So, buying a house was her only option left. She had contacted a sub-female in real estate online, and timed her arrival perfectly.
Feng Si nodded at Shu Ling and said with a smile, "Yes. I hope you were able to find a property that meets the requirements I mentioned."
A floor with few residents.
That was her only requirement. But now, looking at the skyscrapers of Nantong City that started at a hundred stories tall, the densely packed balconies indicated that even the lower floors had many residents. And listening to Shu Ling explain that even the top floors of these metal buildings had a minimum of four households...
...she was starting to have her doubts.
Fortunately, having money was truly convenient.
Feng Si had already changed into an inconspicuous set of gray long-sleeved shirt and pants. She wore a pair of gray wolf ears and a gray hat with ear holes, revealing her hair, which over the past two days had faded from bright red to dark red and was now rapidly returning to its original black.
Her entire outfit screamed ’costs no more than five hundred coins.’
Shu Ling discreetly sized up the freckled sub-female before her. Although this sub-female looked rather poor, Shu Ling, having received a deposit of one hundred thousand coins, didn’t look down on her. She had put in her best effort to find a place for her client.