Chapter 21: Chapter 21: Looks Very Well-Behaved, Too

Gu Ning was pulled up slowly and steadily.

She hadn’t yet recovered from the shock, still terrified. The moment her feet touched the ground, her legs gave out.

Alex reached out and caught her.

Gu Ning hung in his arms for two seconds before quickly pulling away and plopping down against a nearby stack of toolboxes.

Alek looked at her, then crouched down in front of her, unscrewed the canteen at his waist, and offered it to her.

Gu Ning instinctively raised her hand to take it, but she paused just before reaching the canteen and pulled her hand back.

Alex placed the canteen beside her hand and said, "The Beastmen who played that prank on you will be punished, and you will be compensated."

Gu Ning looked at him, blinking her stinging eyes.

Through the little Mixed Breed’s goggles, Alex thought he saw her eyes glistening with tears.

He wanted to get a clearer look, but the little Mixed Breed lowered her head.

Alex watched her for a moment, then stood up and left.

A moment after he was gone, Gu Ning picked up his canteen, pulled down her face covering slightly, and started chugging the water.

"COUGH, COUGH, COUGH!"

Gu Ning had drunk too quickly and choked.

"Slow down. No one’s going to take it from you."

Alex had returned at some point and was standing beside Gu Ning, casting a shadow over her.

Gu Ning covered her mouth, glanced up at him, and quickly turned her face away, pulling her face covering back up and tightening it.

Alex saw her movement but didn’t think much of it. The construction site was dusty, and many Beastmen wore masks.

Gu Ning handed the canteen back to Alex.

Alex didn’t take it. Instead, he leaned down, slid his hands under her arms, and lifted her from the ground onto a toolbox as if she were a child, setting her down to sit properly.

Gu Ning froze, unsure of what Alex was about to do.

Alex’s hand reached for her waist.

Gu Ning instinctively tried to get away, leaning backward.

Alex held her shoulder with one hand while using the other to unfasten the broken safety harness device at her waist.

Gu Ning paused. Seeing the new safety harness device in his hand, she slowly relaxed. ’Oh, he’s just replacing it for me.’

"You weigh a lot less than the average Dwarf hybrid. Do you not usually get enough to eat?"

Alex asked as he fitted her with the new safety harness.

Gu Ning had calmed down a bit by now. Hearing Alex’s casual question, she thought for a moment and gave a slight nod.

"If you don’t have enough food, you can find me in Building 1, Room 2." Alex pointed to the nameplate on his chest. "My name is Alex. I’m the manager here. If anyone bullies you, you can come to me, too."

Gu Ning stared at his nameplate for a while, then lowered her head without responding.

Alex didn’t pay much mind to her reaction. He buckled her safety harness, checked it carefully, and patted Gu Ning’s hard-hatted head. "Alright, you’re good to go."

Gu Ning glanced back, then, as if resigned to her fate, jumped down from the toolbox, shoved the canteen into his chest, and turned to walk toward the edge of the platform.

’The work still has to be done.’ 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

She took a deep breath and exhaled. ’Just bear with it. Fourteen more days, and I’m never coming back!’

’Never again!’

In that moment, Gu Ning’s resolve to make money by creating virtual Beast Female videos became unshakable.

Nothing was more important than her safety and her life.

Alex watched the little Mixed Breed’s dejected back and raised an eyebrow.

’She’s so timid. Doesn’t seem like the type who would fight several Beastmen like her life depended on it.’

’Her personality seems quite obedient, too.’

As Alex considered a certain possibility, the gentle look on his face faded slightly.

Gu Ning shuffled to the edge of the platform. Just as she clipped her safety line onto the zipline, a figure appeared behind her.

She turned to see it was Alex.

Alex clipped his own safety line to another zipline and wrapped his arm around her. "I’ll go down with you."

Gu Ning: "..."

This time, Gu Ning made it down to her workstation safely.

Seeing Alex come down, the few Beastman colleagues nearby all started working harder.

Gu Ning waited for Alex to go back up, but after a moment, she realized he was still hanging beside her and had already started helping to install a weapon on one side.

’Do managers have to work too?’

Gu Ning glanced at the work uniform Alex was wearing. It was the type for a technician.

Alex was very perceptive. Noticing Gu Ning looking at him, he turned and asked, "Is there a problem?"

Gu Ning immediately averted her gaze, opened her toolbox, and started on her own tasks.

Alex’s attention remained on the little Mixed Breed beside him. His hands never stopped moving, but he would occasionally glance at her out of the corner of his eye.

The little Mixed Breed stood on the indented part of the gap, using a hammer to vigorously chip away at the uneven spots before plastering them with a special adhesive.

She worked with a certain deftness and agility, but she was much slower than the other Beastmen.

The main reason was her lack of strength. A single strike from a Beastman’s hammer could break off a large chunk, whereas she was there tapping away slowly with a small hammer.

Her hands were too small, too. Where a Beastman could grab a handful of adhesive, she needed three.

Gu Ning worked for a while, and the fear from her earlier fall gradually faded. Every time she moved to a new spot, Alex, who was right beside her, would come over to steady her.

Alex didn’t just help her; he also helped the other Beastmen. He seemed like a steady and responsible Beastman.

Gu Ning started to feel a bit more favorably toward him.

Come to think of it, Alex had helped her twice now. The last time, he’d helped her get her wages back, and this time, he’d saved her life.

Based on the rather straightforward way Beastmen thought, he should count as a good Beastman.

Before they knew it, it was noon, and the Beastmen began to take a break for lunch.

Gu Ning pushed her goggles up to wipe the sweat from her forehead, then quickly pulled them back down. She then took a compressed biscuit and a piece of meat jerky she had prepared in advance out of her pocket.

She was a temp, and the construction site only provided one meal. Both she and Cook chose the dinner meal so they could take it home to eat.

Most of the Beastmen on the outer wall also prepared their own food ahead of time, eating while suspended outside.

As she ate, Gu Ning listened to them chat. They talked about the recent situation in Zone 19, plans for the coming winter, and even joked about the Mutant Species below.

Influenced by their attitude, Gu Ning found she wasn’t quite as afraid of the things below anymore.

She glanced down. There seemed to be fewer Mutant Species. Before, they had been densely packed, but now they were scattered. At some point, the attacks on the outer wall had also stopped.

"Both videos have hit their ’Like’ goals, so why hasn’t she posted a teaser yet! This shitty content creator, how can she go back on her word?"

Gu Ning: "..." ’That shitty content creator... are they talking about me?’

She turned to look at the Beastman colleague who had spoken. As expected, he was watching her video.

Hanging nearly a hundred meters in the air, he was still scrolling through his terminal with a piece of meat jerky in his mouth, his fingers furiously typing comments in the comment section demanding an update.

Gu Ning: ’Dude, seriously? How can you be so chill! Watching videos up here?!’

As soon as this Beastman spoke up, others around him chimed in.

"After that bastard said that yesterday, the ’Likes’ hit ten thousand. I thought a teaser would be out soon, but I waited half the night and got nothing."

Chewing on her meat jerky, Gu Ning thought, ’How should I know? I was sleeping like a log.’