"Pomegranate Seed, I want to eat real food... I really want to eat... I’d even settle for a plain baguette and a bland salad," Gu Weilan said, drinking the astringent nutrient fluid while gazing at the night view outside the floor-to-ceiling windows.
The system sighed. "You can head to the academy three days early. That way, you’ll be able to eat real food there!
"You could have just bought the minced meat nutrient fluid, too. Why did you buy the mystery box version? It’s only a thousand Star Coins cheaper! You’re eating the cilantro-flavored one right now, but what if you get the garlic flavor next time?"
"I only have five thousand Star Coins left, and the cab fare to the Central Beastman Academy is 3,999. You don’t expect me to keep less than a thousand Star Coins in my pocket for emergencies, do you?" Gu Weilan sighed.
"No worries, no worries! Once your matched Beast Husband forms a bond with you, all the Star Coins he earns will automatically be transferred to your account. Alternatively, you could team up with beastmen to hunt Star Beasts or kill members of the Insect Clan!"
Gu Weilan lay down on the plush carpet by the window and quietly watched the starry sky outside for a while before replying to the system. "I spent a whole month studying interstellar pharmacology just to get into the academy. I’m dead tired and just want to rest. I’ve had enough of those tense days during the Apocalypse where I had to sleep with one eye open. I just want to lie down and do nothing. You don’t understand."
The system pursed its lips. It actually did understand. Although its Host seemed lazy, she would always go out to bask in the sun as long as it wasn’t raining. It had witnessed her constant state of high alert, never daring to relax for a single moment. Therefore, Pomegranate Seed said no more, simply accompanying Gu Weilan as she gazed at the star-filled sky.
"Hello there, Female Master! Your male, Xuanshuo, is online," a message popped up on her Light Brain.
"I’m so sorry, I was busy earlier. I suffered very severe injuries, which is why I’m only replying to your message now."
Gu Weilan raised an eyebrow as she read the messages, then promptly turned off her Light Brain.
Pomegranate Seed was bewildered. "Why aren’t you replying to him, Host?"
"He’s pouring his heart out to a stranger. If he suffered very severe injuries but could still find the time to message me, then he isn’t hurt that badly. If I reply now, he’s definitely going to throw a pity party! He’s either after my money, or he wants to harvest my organs!"
"Come on, Host. Isn’t this just a bit of PTSD from the Apocalypse? How could beastmen understand such complicated mind games?"
Gu Weilan arched an eyebrow. "Then let’s make a bet! If he really is scheming for something other than my affection, you have to give me a Light Element Rank Eight Star Core Bed for free!"
"Deal! If that guy Xuanshuo really has bad intentions, when we make him carry a cub in the future, Seeding will make it hurt like hell for him!"
Gu Weilan immediately typed a reply to Xuanshuo. "No worries! No matter how late you reply, I’ll always wait for you."
Xuanshuo narrowed his eyes as he read Gu Weilan’s reply. Shouldn’t this female’s main focus be on the fact that he was injured?
He sent another message. "I really want to see you, Female Master! [GIF: Hugs and kisses]"
"But I’m hurt pretty badly this time, so I’ll have to delay meeting you. You won’t be angry, right, Female Master?"
Xuanshuo stared intently at his Light Brain. He had mentioned his injuries multiple times now; he refused to believe his Female Master wouldn’t ask why he was hurt or how severe it was. As long as she asked, he could play the victim and beg her for Star Coins. He was confident that a female’s inherent compassion would guarantee his success.
She was just a lowly female with a Fertility of 0.1 who had somehow managed to manipulate her Fertility score to a 1. However, if she genuinely possessed the ability to increase her Fertility tenfold, keeping this female around might actually have some research value!
For now, though, he needed to squeeze some Star Coins out of her first. It was her own fault for using illegal methods to match with him! It was utterly laughable. She clearly hadn’t bothered to find out who Xuanshuo was! What audacity!
Gu Weilan scratched her cheek and quickly fired back a reply. "What happened? How did you end up so badly injured? My heart aches for you so much! [Crying Emoji]"
Xuanshuo’s eyes lit up. He could practically see countless little Star Coins waving at him.
"Female Master, some friends invited me to hunt a Star Beast with them," Xuanshuo wrote. "But when it came time to claim a High-level Star Core, not only did they push me forward to block the beast, they even claimed I didn’t contribute enough to the fight. I got injured, and they refused to give me a single Star Coin. Now I don’t even have enough for my medical bills. BOO HOO HOO..."
"Oh no, that’s so tragic... Sending you hugs," Gu Weilan replied, thinking to herself, "I can offer you verbal comfort, but don’t expect me to actually do anything to help."
But Xuanshuo’s entire goal was to dig Star Coins out of Gu Weilan’s pockets!
He quickly followed up with another message. "I really want to go see you, Female Master! But I’m still short nine hundred and twenty thousand Star Coins for my medical bills. [GIF: Poor, weak, and helpless]"
Gu Weilan stared at the balance in her account, which sat at less than ten thousand. Her Star Coins were her lifeblood! Let alone the fact that she didn’t have the money—even if she did, why on earth would she give it to a strange beastman she had never even met?
Her match with Xuanshuo was essentially just like two people agreeing to go on a blind date. They were nowhere near the stage of forming a bond to make him her Beast Husband, so she certainly wasn’t going to figure out a way to get him money.
Gu Weilan pointed at the messages on her Light Brain and hollered at the system. "Pomegranate Seed! Hurry up! Don’t even try to back out! He’s clearly asking me for money!"
Pomegranate Seed was just about to argue, but Gu Weilan instantly cut off its retreat. "Don’t you dare say it doesn’t count just because he didn’t ask outright! I refuse to believe you can’t read the subtext of what he’s saying!"
Defeated, Pomegranate Seed dropped off a Rank Eight Star Core Bed and silently went into hiding.
Looking back at Xuanshuo’s message, Gu Weilan immediately replied, "No worries! Even though the interstellar beastmen matching laws state that we must meet three times within half a year, there are exceptions for force majeure or being unable to meet due to official missions, right? You don’t need to worry. Just take your time and recover from your injuries."
Xuanshuo’s eyes widened for a fraction of a second. "Crap," he thought, "this female actually studied the law!"
Frowning slightly, he replied, "But if we don’t meet within half a year, it’s treated as if the male is intentionally applying to dissolve the match. The dissolution fee will be deducted directly from the male’s account. I absolutely don’t have any intentions of doing that, Female Master! I want to see you so badly, so you can’t misunderstand me!"
Gu Weilan narrowed her eyes. She had browsed the Female Master community forums before, where females frequently posted police reports. Some males simply didn’t have Five million star coins to dissolve a match. They would scam the money out of their Female Master’s hands and use it to break off the engagement themselves.
But Xuanshuo was a Ninth Rank Beastman. He could casually slay a few Eighth Rank Star Beasts, use four or five Star Cores to forge a Star Core Bed, and sell it for hundreds of thousands or even over a million. Unless he was exceptionally lazy, it was completely impossible for someone with his Ninth Rank strength to be poor. And if he simply wanted to dissolve their match, he could have just said so directly!
Gu Weilan quickly typed back, "No worries! If you want to dissolve the match, that’s completely fine too! I know that male beastmen get charged a fee for requesting a dissolution, but females don’t get penalized when they apply for it. If you want to break it off, just tell me, and I can submit the application."
Upon receiving this message, Xuanshuo narrowed his eyes, reflecting on whether he had somehow let his true intentions slip. Or perhaps... the female Gu Weilan wanted to demand an even higher dissolution fee from him, and was just saying this to test the waters?