Chapter 64

Chapter 64: ke li nuo grasslands

The two-tailed cat beastman were unbelievably wasteful. Throwing out food like this should’ve been a sin.

Ling Mo scolded them in her head while her hands moved faster.

“What is this?” she muttered, lifting a pale block. “Sugar? Qie Man?”

“Scan result: an energy block made from animal fat,” Qie Man said. “It can be eaten to fill your stomach, or used as fuel. One block can burn for a long time.”

Edible and usable as fuel. Two uses in one.

And they’d tossed it aside like trash.

Fine. She’d save it.

Ling Mo’s eyes practically gleamed as she stuffed the storeroom’s contents into her pocket space.

Besides food, she found several massive cat trees. They were enormous—big enough that even a person could climb around on them.

There were cat toys. Cat treats. All kinds of little odds and ends.

She worked the entire morning before the storeroom was finally empty.

During that time, more two-tailed cat beastman came by with food they couldn’t finish at home, dumping it here to be “recycled.”

Once word spread that a recycler had arrived, they even went to notify other companions.

The two-tailed cat beastman who’d brought her here watched in amazement. “So it’s true. You really are good at recycling. You’re faster than the A-rank recyclers I’ve seen.”

And her attitude was good too.

A-rank recyclers were expensive, and they didn’t take everything.

Ling Mo received her third smiley badge. It wasn’t even noon yet.

She felt a surge of hope. Maybe she could pull off a double today.

So she asked about other nearby tribes.

“There are,” the two-tailed cat beastman said, pointing in two directions. “To the left is crocodile beastman territory. To the right is honey badger beastman territory. But I’d recommend left. Honey badger beastman are hard to deal with, and they don’t like outsiders near their land.”

Ling Mo nodded hard. Even on Blue Star, the honey badger’s reputation was infamous.

She took her pay, waved goodbye, and rode off.

Not long after she left, another group of players arrived. Since the trash had already been handled, their assignment was to watch the child.

Because of the language barrier, there was little communication. A few of them even made the child cry and were promptly kicked out of the village by the two-tailed cats.

But that had nothing to do with Ling Mo anymore.

By then, she’d already crossed into crocodile beastman territory.

A massive pond spread out ahead, surrounded by thick reeds.

A shadow suddenly fell over her. A low voice rumbled, “Little one—what are you doing here?”

Ling Mo turned and found a huge mud-covered figure standing behind her.

One look at its enormous jaws and she understood: crocodile beastman.

“I’m looking for work,” Ling Mo said quickly.

“Work?” The crocodile beastman sounded amused. “Perfect. Come help me take a bath.”

Ling Mo blinked, but she followed.

They reached an open clearing where plenty of players were already gathered, including foreign players. Ling Mo only spared them a brief glance before focusing on the job.

The players stood on the crocodile beastman’s back holding hoses, spraying mud away.

“Crocodile beastman are extremely clean,” Qie Man explained. “They can’t tolerate any dirt on their bodies.”

Now it made sense.

Ling Mo took a hose, climbed onto the crocodile beastman’s back, and started rinsing. But she didn’t stop at rinsing—she pulled out a brush and scrubbed hard at the stubborn grime.

Because she arrived last and worked more carefully, she was naturally slower than the others.

The other players eyed her like she was an idiot.

With time this tight, she was still fussing over details. What kind of person did that—some kind of Virgo?

They couldn’t understand interstellar, but Ling Mo could hear everything. More importantly, she could hear the crocodile beastman too: the smiley badges they gave out didn’t mean they were satisfied. Large patches hadn’t been cleaned properly.

Meanwhile, Ling Mo had scrubbed every edge and crease spotless.

The other crocodile beastman watched with open envy. One after another, they came over and asked her to wash them again.

Ling Mo agreed easily. As long as the pay was right, she didn’t mind. She could even pull an all-nighter.

Once the other players left, Ling Mo stopped holding back. To speed things up, she pulled out a high-pressure water gun.

The difference was immediate.

Despite their ferocious looks, the crocodile beastman were good-natured. They lined up on their own and didn’t cut in line.

Beside Ling Mo was a bamboo basket filled with white teeth.

These were teeth the crocodile clan collected after they fell out—sharp and incredibly sturdy.

Ling Mo tested one. Without any processing at all, it sliced a hard stone cleanly in half.

She worked through the afternoon until every crocodile beastman was spotless.

None of them left right away. Like someone wearing new shoes for the first time, they carefully found clean ground and admired their gleaming scales.

One crocodile beastman laughed. “You washed me so clean I don’t even want to get dirty again.”

Ling Mo smiled shyly. “It’s what I should do.”

That modesty only pleased them more.

“It’s night already,” the crocodile beastman said. “Nights on ke li nuo grasslands are dangerous. The feral beast and wandering beastman have been hungry all winter. If you run into them, you won’t have a good end. Stay here tonight and leave in the morning.”

Only then did Ling Mo truly understand what they meant by danger at night.

Not just feral beasts.

Wandering beastman, too.