Chapter 61

Chapter 61: ke li nuo grasslands

In the center of the living room was an enormous sofa. A bronze-skinned giant—at least three meters tall—lounged sideways across it.

No wonder the doorbell had been installed so high.

On the wall behind the sofa hung a fierce painting: a lion clamping its jaws around a prey’s throat.

Well. That made it pretty obvious what kind of beastman she was dealing with.

No beastman would hang a picture of their own companions being hunted in their living room.

The lion beastman noticed Ling Mo and muttered, “Another one? Go find something to do… ah, right. You probably can’t understand.”

He pointed at the other busy players, then gestured toward the changing room, indicating she should change clothes.

Ling Mo couldn’t help thinking his temper was surprisingly good. With so many players barging in and no way to communicate, he still didn’t seem impatient.

“I can understand you.”

The lion beastman’s half-lidded eyes opened fully. He studied her with sudden interest.

Around the room, the players who’d been watching in secret slowed their hands, attention snapping toward Ling Mo.

The lion beastman sat up, then pointed at a player wiping a vase. “Then can you understand their language too?”

Ling Mo didn’t hesitate. “Of course.”

“That’s perfect.” He held out a blue light screen. “Take this. From now on, you’re in charge of assigning work to them.”

Ling Mo accepted the screen. “I’ll make sure it gets done.”

“Good.” The lion beastman rose. “I’m going out for a bit. I’ll be back before dark.”

The message was clear: everything on the screen needed to be finished before he returned.

The moment he left, the other players swarmed in, crowding around Ling Mo and staring at the blue light screen like it was a lifeline.

A few even looked ready to snatch it.

Ling Mo had just opened her mouth to warn them when two people stepped in front of her.

“Friend,” one of them said, “even if you grab it, you won’t be able to read what’s on it.”

The would-be thieves flushed. “If we can’t read it, what makes you think she can?”

Ye Kai rolled his eyes. “If she couldn’t read it, the lion beastman wouldn’t have handed it to her in the first place.”

Jiang Xin and Ye Kai shielding her like that warmed something in Ling Mo’s chest. She decided that if they ever came to buy things from Later, she’d give them a discount.

She looked around, cleared her throat, and raised her voice. “Enough. If you want to complete the task, do what I say.”

“Why should we listen to you?” a female player challenged.

Ling Mo tilted the blue light screen so everyone could see it. “Listen or don’t. I don’t care. The lion beastman put me in charge. We have to get this place cleaned before dark, and he’s coming back to check our work.”

The players exchanged glances. In the end, they backed down. The lion beastman’s attitude had been clear enough.

Ling Mo started assigning tasks: organizing and storage, cleaning the kitchen, wiping down walls, windows, and screens, washing clothes and shoes, scrubbing the bathrooms, clearing the drains, changing sheets, mopping floors, and polishing furniture.

Every job required teamwork.

Once she’d divided the work, Ling Mo chose organizing and storage for herself. Jiang Xin and Ye Kai chose the same.

As they sorted through piles of clutter, Jiang Xin leaned in and whispered, “My name is Xin Xin Xiang Qian.”

Then he pointed at Ye Kai. “He’s Daydream.”

Without looking up, Ling Mo said, “I’m Heaven Owes Me a Zhao Yi.”

Both men went silent.

Ye Kai slapped his thigh, suddenly miserable. How had he not thought of a name that good?

Jiang Xin shot Ye Kai a warning look to stop fooling around, then asked Ling Mo quietly, “You can understand them, and you can read their writing too. Is that your talent?”

Ling Mo glanced up. “No. I learned it.”

Their eyes widened. “You learned it yourself? How? Where?”

“In the first game, I performed well. The farm owner rewarded me, and then the system gave me a device that helped me learn interstellar.”

She knew some people had talents that could detect lies. Better to tell the truth from the start—just framed in a way that didn’t invite trouble.

Sure enough, Jiang Xin and Ye Kai’s faces lit up.

They hadn’t dealt with anyone from interstellar in the earlier rounds. Now that they finally had, the language barrier was the first wall they’d slammed into.

They exchanged a cautious look and dropped the topic. They lived in the same neighborhood, after all. If they survived, they could ask later.

Right now, their priority was simple: get closer to this girl.

Jiang Xin had heard Ye Kai say before that she was guarded to an extreme. Once he learned she was an orphan, it made sense.

Ling Mo ignored their quiet scheming. Besides organizing, she’d saved herself an especially important job—collecting the trash.

If they were cleaning, there would be garbage. Lots of it.

Even in the short time she’d spent sorting, she’d already uncovered piles of things that were clearly meant to be thrown out.

And she’d spotted something else by accident: a magazine on the table that revealed the lion beastman’s identity. He was the head of the Beastman Group.

A boss-level figure.

Which meant his home was bound to hold valuable things.

The screen said their task was simply to place trash in the designated spot. But with Qie Man’s guidance, Ling Mo contacted the lion beastman through the screen.

No matter what, she wasn’t going to take someone’s belongings without permission. If she touched the wrong thing, she’d be in real trouble.

She was now an official interstellar citizen. If the lion beastman accused her of theft and took her to court, she could end up in prison.

Learning that from Qie Man left Ling Mo with mixed feelings—regretful, but not regretful enough to stop.