"Gah!"
"Croak!"
The four mutated beasts immediately rushed towards the game of Link-Link inside the house like chickens released from their coop.
Cheng Anlang lay sprawled in the bathroom, listening to the excited shouts outside, and couldn't help but think: From now on... I'll never take such a long shower again...
Chapter 38, Pearl Oyster
When Cheng Anlang came out of the bathroom, four mutated beasts each occupied one side of the Lianliankan virtual screen and kept barking.
With Cheng Anlang's AI around Da Hua, he couldn't do anything else, so he simply stayed aside and watched them play.
Cheng Dahua used leaves to tap the screen, Yaya used her wings, Luosifen used her tail, and Xigua flicked her tongue.
Cheng Anlang: Who would have thought that the mutated beast that wreaked havoc in the arena during the day is now holed up in my dorm playing a matching game...
After playing for a while, Ya Ya suddenly tugged at his sleeve.
Cheng Anlang looked over: "What's wrong?"
Duck pointed to its beak and patted its belly.
Cheng Anlang: "Hungry?"
Cheng Dahua and Luo Sifen looked up at him, while Xigua was still studying his patterns to see if they could be connected.
Cheng Anlang poured out their food from the ducks' miniature storage compartment. The food was mostly in pellet form, but their food was custom-made. The ducks' food was feather-shaped, the radish powder was scale-shaped, and the lizard food was a miniature lizard-shaped.
There were even two portions of ham inside, and Cheng Anlang inexplicably felt that they were for Cheng Dahua and him.
Cheng Anlang cut all the ham into strips and placed them on a plate.
The mutated beasts wanted to eat while playing, so Cheng Anlang planned to squat down and feed them one by one.
He squatted down and mixed the shredded ham with the duck feed, poured in some leftover sauce, stirred it, scooped out a spoonful, and bent down to put it into the mouth of the duck that was playing Connect Four.
"Aww!"
Cheng Dahua was immediately displeased when she saw this. She quickly flicked the duck that was playing happily away and swallowed the rice on the spoon with a loud gulp. The whole process was so smooth that Cheng Anlang didn't even have time to react before the spoon was completely clean and empty, along with the mutated beast he was going to feed.
"Big Flower, what are you doing!"
"Awooooo!"
You have to feed me first! You can't feed anyone else!
As Cheng Anlang watched Cheng Dahua scream pitifully, he suddenly felt a sense of betrayal, like a heartless man who had petted a stray cat and now his house cat was unhappy...
He picked up the duckling that had been pulled onto the bed, combed its feathers neatly, and at the same time had to coax the duckling and Cheng Dahua. Finally, they agreed to feed them spoonful by spoonful, first feeding Cheng Dahua two spoonfuls of ham strips, then feeding the duckling one spoonful of duck feed mixed with shredded meat, then feeding the lizard one spoonful, then feeding the radish powder one spoonful, then feeding Cheng Dahua two spoonfuls, and so on in a round-robin fashion.
The mutated beast was very happy, and it exhausted Cheng Anlang.
Cheng Anlang felt like he was a pitiful old father who had four jealous and scheming children...
Just as it was time for Cheng Anlang to go to sleep and rest, there was a knock on his door. He opened the door and a very strong and burly man stood outside.
Cheng Anlang asked in confusion, "Excuse me, who are you?"
The burly man glanced at the harmonious group of mutated beasts inside the room with slight surprise, then showed his identification: "I'm here to take them back."
Cheng Anlang nodded: "Okay, just a moment."
Cheng Anlang returned to the house, and under the accusing gaze of the mutated beast, he carefully put away and organized the smart devices, placing them along with the miniature storage compartment into Duck's little backpack and fastening it securely. He then hung the backpack on Duck and uttered a phrase expressing his deep regret.
He said, "It's okay, there's no rush. You can come and play often in the future."
The mutated beasts were delighted. Duck flapped its wings twice and flew to the top of the big man's head, squatted down, Luo Sifen hung around the big man's neck, and Lizard climbed into the pocket specially designed for it on its abdomen.
Cheng Anlang looked at the burly man covered in mutated beasts without any apparent burden: "..."
————
The next day, after dinner, Cheng Anlang carried Cheng Dahua to the arena to begin the day's matchmaking.
The match was completed in half a minute. It was a level 3 mutated beast, the Pearl Clam. This was the first time Cheng Anlang had been matched with a mutated beast that lived in the water.
Cheng Anlang: Its shell should be very hard. It probably sprays water, right? Cheng Dahua is a plant; the more water it gets, the more it thrives…
Cheng Anlang carried Cheng Dahua to the matching battle arena.
The scene was surrounded by flowerbeds, with butterflies flying overhead and the chirping of insects hidden deep within the flowers. In the center was a small pond. Cheng Anlang placed Cheng Dahua among the flowers. The soil was a bit damp and soft, and the flowerpot couldn't stand up. Cheng Anlang pressed the flowerpot into the soil. Cheng Dahua's dark head stood out conspicuously among the colorful flowers, looking somewhat out of place.
"Is it really a flower? It looks so strange to be placed among the flowers!"
"I didn't think much of it before, but it really makes my skin look darker when placed next to flowers!"
"Black is just Cheng Dahua's camouflage!"
The person opposite him was dressed very flamboyantly and even wore sunglasses. Cheng Anlang thought that the person opposite him would put the pearl oyster into the pond, but unexpectedly, the person opposite him put the pearl oyster on the lotus leaves floating in the pond, creating ripples that slowly disappeared.
This pearl oyster was less than half a meter long, with its two shells closed together. The shell had stripes of gray and white, and was smooth and shiny. For some reason, Cheng Anlang thought of the grilled scallops from yesterday.
With both sides' mutated beasts ready, protective shields were erected on the battle platform, and the match began.
As soon as the words were spoken, the pearl oyster opened its shell, as if revealing a precious treasure from the seabed. A blinding beam of light shot out from the shell, like someone performing powerful welding in the scene, instantly illuminating the entire battle arena.
"Holy crap, why is it suddenly so bright? It's blinding!"