Chapter 24: Chapter 24: A Fox Who Knows How to Live Well

Barto’s cooking was surprisingly delicious.

It looked like a simple dish of mashed potatoes over rice, but one bite made Gu Ning feel like she was back in the human world.

The pan-fried meat was drizzled with a fragrant sauce and served with a few lettuce leaves and a type of berry that looked like a blueberry. Its sweet and sour flavor was a perfect palate cleanser.

In Zone 19, vegetables were more expensive than meat, so most Beastmen didn’t eat them often. She had only seen one vegetarian shop, which catered specifically to Beastmen with herbivore genes.

According to the information she’d looked up on her terminal, Beastmen with herbivore genes and those with carnivore genes simply had slightly different food preferences; both ate vegetables and meat.

Beastmen with herbivore genes were no weaker in temperament or combat ability than those with carnivore genes. On "Press Paw," she had seen a Beastman with goat horns beat a member of the Wolf Clan to the ground. She’d also seen a Beastman with rabbit ears kick an opponent so hard they flew into a wall, cracking it. Their leg strength was astounding.

Many foods in this world were similar to those in the human world, but there were also some Gu Ning couldn’t name, like this blue berry that looked like a blueberry but tasted like a combination of tomato and lemon.

Gu Ning hadn’t expected Barto, a fox, to know how to cook vegetarian dishes, and to do it so elegantly. ’He’s a fox who really knows how to live,’ she thought.

She finished most of the vegetables but ate less of the meat. For the past month, she had been living on either compressed biscuits or dried meat, which had given her a bit of indigestion.

Seeing Cook sitting on the floor with a large bowl of pan-fried meat and sausages, she offered him a piece of lettuce.

Cook sniffed the lettuce a few times before opening his mouth to eat it.

When Gu Ning saw him smell it first, she knew he didn’t like vegetables. Usually, he’d eat whatever she gave him, sniffing it only once at most.

While eating, Gu Ning opened "Press Paw," logged into her account, and first checked her backend earnings.

It was already over 420,000 Beast Coins.

The total tipping progress bar under her account avatar was maxed out.

For a verified Level 1 account, the tipping limit was 500,000. No matter how many more videos she posted, that was the maximum.

To unlock a higher tipping limit, she had to level up her account.

Gu Ning then checked her "Affection Value," which was also maxed out.

A Level 1 account’s Affection Value was capped at 10,000. The total Affection bar was below the tipping bar. No matter how many likes a single video received, once the total bar was full, she had to level up for it to reset. Furthermore, likes and dislikes could not be cast more than once.

After she posted that pinned comment announcing a teaser, her Affection Value hadn’t dropped at all.

Even if there were some dislikes, they couldn’t make a dent.

Gu Ning casually scrolled through the comments. The top few hot comments each had tens of thousands of replies, with many IDs spamming repeatedly. Most were rushing her to post the teaser video.

Besides those, there was another top comment cursing her out. It was that familiar ID again: Leo the little dog from Zone 11.

Gu Ning chuckled. ’Beastmen really are straightforward thinkers. I blocked him and deleted so many of his comments, yet he hasn’t even thought to use a different account to flame me.’

He had changed his avatar, though. Before, it was a close-up selfie of his humanoid form grinning widely, baring his teeth. Now, it was an avatar of a small, snarling dog.

Gu Ning took a closer look. That familiar black and white coloring... it was a husky.

She glanced at a couple of Leo’s comments. It was the same furious spamming as before, telling everyone not to watch her videos, not to be mesmerized by a virtual character, and not to rot their brains.

Right, right, right.

Gu Ning once again one-click-deleted Leo’s comments. ’See ya! You annoying little husky!’

After deleting the comments, Gu Ning quickly upgraded her account to Level 2.

Then, she went to the tipping page. The tipping progress bar changed from 500,000 to one million, and the Affection Value progress bar changed to 100,000.

The Beastmen who were camping on her video page quickly noticed that [Gu Demiao Ning] was now a Level 2 account and started commenting again, demanding the promised teaser:

[You’ve already upgraded your account, where’s the teaser you promised?]

[If I don’t see a teaser in the next five minutes, I’m smashing that dislike button.]

[Every video is ten seconds long and now she’s making a teaser for them? I really want to beat the crap out of this Miao-whatever girl.]

[Seconded. If this video isn’t any longer, I’m disliking it too!]

[Spend less time watching virtual Beast Females and work on improving yourself. Maybe then a real Beast Female will give you a glance.]

[Hey poster above, I’ll watch what I want. Are you the internet police now?]

[Who’s policing you? You idiot whose brain’s been eaten by a Mutant Species. Watching virtual Beast Females is all you’re good for.]

[Holy shit! My fists are clenched. If you’re so high and mighty, poster above, what are you doing here watching a virtual Beast Female?]

[To watch how brainless idiots like you get their minds rotted by a virtual Beast Female, obviously. This virtual Beast Female is nothing special. You guys go stupid just from seeing her back. You all should be thrown into Zone 19 and the No Man’s Land to feed the Mutant Species. Oh, wait, the Mutant Species would probably just spit you out after one bite. They’re allergic to idiots.]

[This Birdman from Zone 9 has such a foul mouth. Were you raised on a placenta your Beast Mother threw out?]

[Birdmen don’t have placentas, you egg-laying thing.]

[So what if you’re born from a womb? Just a bunch of idiots crawling on the ground with your asses in the air.]

The comments devolved into a flame war between viviparous and oviparous Beastmen.

Gu Ning paid little attention to the comment section; she was already filming the teaser.

The teaser was simple. It only needed to be a few seconds long.

The goal was to placate these Beastmen so her account could successfully level up again.

She had to save up as much money as possible before leaving Zone 19!

’But what should I film?’

Gu Ning paced around the room, rummaging through the clothes, blankets, and other things.

Suddenly, Gu Ning remembered what that Beastman had said when she was hanging on the outer wall today.

Then, an idea struck her—a great way to keep these Beastmen continuously giving her likes.

Based on her understanding of Beastmen over the past few days, although they deeply respected Beast Females, their instincts still made them partial to Beast Females from their own clan.

Just like before she had verified her identity, after she posted her first video, most of the viewers who clicked were from the Dog Clan and the Wolf Clan. They also sent the most private messages.

Thinking of this, Gu Ning pulled a thin, gray blanket out of the large box of clothes.

She draped the blanket over her shoulders, messed up the desk a little, opened a book and placed it beside her, then sat down at the desk and pretended to be asleep, lying on her side.

After adjusting the terminal’s camera angle a few times, Gu Ning filmed a nice five-second teaser.

In the video, she appeared to be asleep, moving only slightly as if shifting uncomfortably to adjust her position, which made her seem more alive.

This time, she didn’t wear the fake beast ears, instead letting her hair fall to cover her own ears. However, a little more of her side profile was visible, showing the outline of her nose and her eyelashes.

She didn’t add any custom tags to this teaser video, only writing a title:

[You should tuck your ears in when you sleep. When I wake up tomorrow, I’ll be different. What will I become?]

Click. Send.

Just as the flame war in her comment section was about to escalate into an offline brawl, the Beastmen camping there saw her new teaser.

The five-second video and its temporarily incomprehensible title made them pause their fighting and fall into thought.

[What does that mean? You should tuck your ears in when you sleep?]

[So you don’t crush your ears when you sleep? Makes sense. I’ll try tucking my ears in tonight.]

[A little Beast Female who tucks in her ears to sleep is too cute! I want to pat her head so badly. My heart just stopped for a second. I would gladly watch a five-minute video of her sleeping!]

[I can’t stand you guys, you bunch of womb-born idiots.]