Chapter 3

The man did not look very old, likely in his early twenties. He had a tall, lithe build, and his exposed arms were covered in a layer of lean muscle. His brow and eyes were sharp, his nose bridge high and straight, and his thin lips were a vivid red. The corners of his eyes tilted slightly upward, giving him an air of arrogance and making him look like someone not to be trifled with.

Yin Xiang was being carried by him like a silver blanket, only able to pathetically twitch his tail and look back at Cen An.

Cen An hesitated slightly. "Do you know him?"

Su Rui gave his troublesome younger brother a cold look. "This is my dog."

Yin Xiang: ...

He closed his eyes, pretending he hadn't heard that.

"Oh... I see." Cen An lowered his head, feeling a bit dejected.

It wasn't that he hadn't noticed the puppy's peculiarities before. The little creature had appeared in a mountain forest filled with exotic beasts, yet it was plump, round, and had clean fur, making it seem very much like someone's pet. He had simply assumed the little thing had been abandoned; after all, who would take such a small dog into the wilderness for no reason? It wasn't like it could hunt.

But now, the owner had come knocking...

Su Rui nodded at him. "Thank you for taking care of him. Goodbye."

He took a long stride and turned to leave. Yin Xiang immediately panicked, his bald tail tip lashing back and forth as he looked back at Cen An. "Wooo~"

Cen An felt a pang of pity. "How about you stay for breakfast before you go?"

—

Breakfast didn't need to be overly lavish; the cunning wife cannot cook without rice, and with only a few ingredients on hand, it couldn't be fancy even if he wanted it to be.

Cen An enjoyed cooking, and he prepared the meal for three in an orderly fashion. He used the wood mushrooms left over from yesterday to make three portions of grilled mushrooms, set the soy-fruit steamed eggs to simmer, and buried a few earth-fruits in the campfire ashes.

In less than ten minutes, the scent of food wafted through the dilapidated little shack.

The eggs were something Su Rui had grabbed on his way over. In the past, the two brothers would have just tossed them into a fire to roast and eaten them as they were. But now...

Outside the shack, Yin Xiang caught the aroma of the steamed eggs and pleaded longingly, "Brother, can I stay here for a while? This human's cooking is really delicious!"

Su Rui scoffed coldly, "Stay behind to be a dog?"

Yin Xiang: ...

He insisted, "I transformed into a cub! A Silver Moon Wolf cub! It's not my fault he can't tell the difference between a wolf and a dog!"

Su Rui looked him up and down and sneered, "Silver Moon Wolves don't have cubs with legs as short as yours."

Yin Xiang: ...

He was so angry! Truly, so angry! If his brother didn't have such powerful abilities, he would have been beaten to death long ago!

The wooden door was pushed open, and Cen An poked his head out and waved. "Breakfast is ready, please come in!"

Su Rui carried his brother into the shack and calmly looked around. Although the shack had doors and windows installed, there were still holes in the roof, and the interior was devoid of furniture, appearing empty and quite pitiful.

Su Rui evaluated the situation inwardly: a human who was struggling to get by. It was rare that he possessed such kindness to share food with a fat puppy. (Yin Xiang: ?)

The meager supplies were arranged neatly. There was no floor, but it was swept very clean. A campfire burned in the center with an iron pot hanging over it, surrounded by a ring of skewered mushrooms.

The aroma of the food slowly permeated the air.

Cen An took out a few wooden bowls. "We don't have chairs yet; is it alright to sit on the floor?"

As a wolf, sleeping on the ground was a common occurrence, so Su Rui naturally sat down around the campfire without any fuss.

Cen An lifted the lid of the iron pot.

Inside the rough, palm-sized wooden bowls, the steamed egg was smooth as a mirror, without a single air bubble, rising with steam. Cen An sliced a soy-fruit and poured the soy sauce inside over the eggs—instantly, the savory, mellow fragrance of the eggs assaulted everyone's senses.

Even Cen An couldn't help but swallow his saliva. He didn't know if it was because of the system or the ingredients, but he felt this steamed egg was more fragrant than anything he had eaten before.

Yin Xiang smelled the fragrance too, his tail wagging like a windshield wiper on the highest setting, until his brother stepped on it, out of sight and out of mind.

Cen An divided the steamed eggs into three bowls, added the mushroom skewers, and then raked the earth-fruits out of the ashes, sharing a few with each person.

Finally, it was time to eat. Su Rui picked up a crudely made wooden spoon and took a spoonful of the steamed egg—

Although he knew that with Yin Xiang's greedy nature, any food he called delicious must be exceptional, Su Rui hadn't expected the steamed egg to be like this...

It was soft, tender, and fresh. Once in his mouth, it melted and slid into his stomach, leaving only the savory richness of the soy-fruit and the aroma of the egg lingering, urging him to take another bite immediately.

Su Rui couldn't help but reflect that the half-raw or even charred bird eggs he had eaten in the past had all been a waste.

Even the grilled mushroom skewers were incredibly delicious. The outer layer of the mushrooms was roasted to a crisp; with a gentle bite, the delicious juices inside flowed out.

Even those charred-looking grilled earth-fruits...

Seeing that no one was eating, Cen An picked one up himself. The skin of the earth-fruit had been roasted into a hard black shell. He tapped it lightly as if breaking an egg, and upon peeling it, the crystal-clear, soft flesh inside was revealed. He sprinkled a layer of fine salt on it... tsk, whoever said it wasn't delicious just had no taste.

The two Silver Moon Wolves, one big and one small, both caught the scent of the roasted earth-fruit. Initially, neither had paid much attention to the blackened things, but their movements paused, and they reached for the earth-fruits in unison.

After the meal, Cen An turned out to be the one with the smallest appetite.

Watching Su Rui eat four fist-sized roasted earth-fruits, over a dozen mushroom skewers, and a large portion of steamed eggs in one sitting, then looking at the puppy eat two earth-fruits and an unknown number of skewers and eggs, Cen An couldn't help but remind them, "Is the puppy eating too much? Will he get sick from overeating?"

Su Rui replied casually, "Let him be." The physique of a Silver Moon Wolf was among the strongest of all exotic beasts; how could he possibly overeat? Besides, this little amount of food was barely an appetizer for them.

Cen An fell silent. He felt that although this dog owner had traveled thousands of miles to find his dog, he didn't seem to care much about the puppy's survival...

After tidying up the bowls and chopsticks, Cen An touched the puppy's smooth fur with a touch of melancholy. *Sigh, it'll be hard to see him again after today. I hope the puppy lives well with this carefree owner...*

Then he heard Su Rui ask, "Do you accept commissions?"

Cen An was stunned. "Commissions?"

Su Rui stepped on Yin Xiang's frantically wagging bald tail again. "I provide the ingredients, and I hire you to cook them into food. 5 crystal cores per meal. How about it?"

"Of course." Cen An was delighted. On one hand, crystal cores were exactly what he needed; on the other, if the other party came to him to cook, wouldn't he be able to see the puppy often?

"It's a deal then." Su Rui picked up Yin Xiang. "I'll come find you as soon as I gather ingredients."

He took a long stride out of the shack, his voice drifting away. By the time Cen An looked outside, there was no one left in sight.

"Perhaps he is also a superhuman..." Cen An speculated to himself.

—

With the guests gone, Cen An prepared to go out foraging.

Food and firewood were essential. Additionally, he wanted to find some broad leaves and vines to make two rain shelters.

The two holes in the roof allowed him to see the sky; if it rained, the house would be uninhabitable. He would set up two rain shelters to make do for now, and once he saved enough crystal cores and firewood, he would renovate the little shack.

Having settled on his goals for the day, Cen An dug out the cogon grass and long leaves he had obtained yesterday and began making monster-repellent powder.

One cogon grass plus one long leaf could make one portion of repellent powder. Cen An stopped after making ten portions. It wasn't because he thought it was enough, but because he had run out of cogon grass.

The roots and soil of the cogon grass he had bought were still damp, which meant they must have been found on the nearby mountains. He planned to keep an eye out for them when he went up the mountain.

As for the long leaves, they were everywhere, so there was no need to specifically search for them.

Putting the repellent into his backpack, Cen An picked up his bamboo basket and headed up the mountain.

The mountain he had walked yesterday didn't have any broad leaves, so he changed to a different mountain today. Not long after entering the mountain, he discovered a patch of savory mushrooms.

Tiny, tender yellow mushrooms the size of a thumb grew in rows all over a dead tree trunk. Cen An quickly stripped the entire trunk bare.

[Congratulations, you have obtained Savory Mushroom x16]

He thought to himself that he must find broad leaves today.

In the game, the growth environment for mushrooms was the rainy season. The wood mushrooms from yesterday were nothing, but today’s savory mushrooms must have grown after the rain. It was bound to rain soon, so the rain shelters were essential.

Next, Cen An harvested [Firewood x30], [Earth-fruit x8], and [Long Leaf x10]. He even found a few stalks of cogon grass, but there was no sign of broad leaves at all.

"Strange. Broad leaves aren't hard-to-find materials. Could it be that the environment around Yongning Village isn't suitable for broad-leaf trees to grow?" Cen An frowned, searching even more carefully. He didn't even let the tiny plants in the bushes go, fearing he might have missed a sapling.

However, he did find a patch of lush, thriving mint.

Mint combined with savory mushrooms could make a delicious soup. Cen An naturally didn't want to miss that, so he squatted down and began plucking the fresh, tender leaves.

Anyone who has grown mint knows it spreads everywhere once it takes root, and the mint in this world was no exception.

The fresh, refreshing scent was invigorating. As Cen An plucked, he moved into the middle of the mint patch, only to hear the voices of others coming from ahead, filled with terror: "Damn it, why are there so many Sharp-Toothed Rats!"

"We ran right into their nest! I'll hold them off, you run!"

"What are you saying! If we die, we die together..."

"Watch out!"

Sharp-Toothed Rats? A nest?

Cen An immediately crouched down to hide his figure and pushed aside the grass to look.

Ahead was a small, recessed basin about two stories deep. A man and a woman were in the center, surrounded by a dense crowd of Sharp-Toothed Rats.

Both of them were injured; even from this distance, he could smell the blood on them, especially the man, who couldn't even stand, with blood continuously pouring from his waist and abdomen.

The Sharp-Toothed Rats watched them greedily, longing to tear off a piece of flesh to satisfy their hunger.

Two or three of the rats couldn't resist the temptation of the blood and scurried along the ground toward the pair—

The woman raised her hand, and a vine emerged from the soil, whipping the two rats away. The man threw two iron nails, pinning the last rat to the ground.

Superhumans?

This was the first time Cen An had seen superhumans fight, and he couldn't help but observe carefully. After they unleashed their moves, both their faces turned pale, likely due to excessive energy expenditure.

The rats didn't wait for them to recover, and a few more lunged forward. The man and woman's expressions worsened; it was clear they wouldn't last much longer.

Cen An frowned slightly. There were at least seventy or eighty Sharp-Toothed Rats here. Let alone two superhumans, even five might not be able to handle them.

He had monster-repellent powder on him, but even if he could repel so many rats, the problem was how to get the powder onto them.

If he were accidentally discovered, a four- or five-meter drop wouldn't stop the rats; these creatures could devour all three of them.

He sighed softly and turned to leave.

Just then, the female superhuman let out a sharp cry, and several vines erupted from the ground, skewering the seven or eight rats that were sneaking up from behind, splashing blood everywhere. She herself lost her footing and collapsed to the ground.

Cen An stood frozen. It wasn't because of the bloody scene, but because he saw the red-string bracelets on their wrists—half-old, half-new, with rough knots, clearly woven by hand.

He had seen the same bracelets before, on the wrist of the little girl selling iron blocks at the market.

Recalling that quirky little girl... Cen An thought that being an orphan in this world was likely even harder than in his previous life.