Chapter 146 - Banana Flavored Boss Gong (6)
Translated by Hua Li ^_~
Sorry for the late update (^人^)…I got an internship so I am quite busy these days. I will try to find time for the updates but it might be late. So plz bear with it ~(￣▽￣)~*
Even with limited seasoning, Chef Gou still managed to prepare a feast.
The wild bull beast meat, while resembling beef on the outside, had a texture completely different from beef. It tasted more like some special kind of seafood, with tender and succulent meat and a hint of sweetness.
Thinly sliced beast meat melted in your mouth. Paired with Gou Liang’s secret sweet and spicy, savory, or fiery sauces—or even just a splash of soy sauce—it became a mouthwatering delicacy.
The cubed grilled meat, served with lettuce hurriedly grown by Yu Sen, was a hit. The crisp freshness of the vegetables, combined with the c.u.min-flavored beast meat, left everyone singing its praises.
But the most popular dish was the dumplings. White, plump, and full of filling, each dumpling burst with flavor once you bit through the thin, springy wrapper. The seafood-flavored meat filling exploded in your mouth, bringing a happiness that seemed to soothe the soul.
A plate of dumplings was cleared in less than two minutes. Yu Sen and the others stared longingly at the plate Gou Liang had set aside for himself.
The towering mountain of dumplings emitted a criminally tempting aroma, but Gou Liang ate them slowly, making everyone wish they could s.n.a.t.c.h them away. Sensing their gazes, Gou Liang stopped chewing and raised his pudgy face.
Eyeing each other, Gou Liang faced six opponents, and an invisible battle ensued instantly—then ended just as quickly.
…Shi Buyu and the others silently looked away.
Although Gou Liang’s eyes were nearly invisible under his chubby face, the momentary burst of killing intent made even Boss Shi wisely decide not to provoke the tiger.
Defeated, they quickly redirected their efforts and launched an all-out a.s.sault on the other dishes.
The table became a battlefield of spoons and chopsticks, and in no time, the food was devoured clean.
It was as if they hadn’t eaten in years. Each person clutched their own bowl piled high with food, avoiding eye contact but still keeping a wary eye on each other, eating at lightning speed like they were back in training camp.
Ironically, Gou Liang, the chubbiest of them all, ended up being the one with the most graceful eating habits.
Shi Buyu, having consumed the most, was the first to finish. Still hungry, he glanced longingly at Yu Sen and the others, who were still eating.
Ever since his experiments, Shi Buyu’s appet.i.te had skyrocketed. The country had even developed a special nutrition pill just for him, with one pill containing all the calories and nutrients of a full meal. He had brought several boxes during his last leave, but the apocalypse had broken out before he could even enjoy a proper family meal.
It had been two years since he had eaten a normal meal, let alone tasted something this delicious.
Yu Sen and the others were aware of this. When Shi Buyu’s gaze swept over them, they all hastily sped up their eating.
Shi Buyu, maintaining the last shred of decency befitting a leader, regretfully withdrew his gaze and turned his attention to Gou Liang.
He had no intention of competing with Gou Liang for food—no way. Offending the chef was not just about eating more this meal, but about how much less you’d get for the rest of your life!
To his surprise, Gou Liang, despite guarding his food, offered, “Want some?”
Shi Buyu looked at the steaming dumplings Gou Liang pointed to, then at the mischievous grin on his chubby face. Swallowing, he asked, “What’s the catch?”
Gou Liang pointed at Dumpling No. 1: “Hug me for one hour.”
Dumpling No. 2: “Let me hug you for one hour.”
Dumpling No. 3: “Hold hands, two hours.”
Dumpling No. 4: “Legs, three hours.”
…
Dumpling No. N: “A goodnight kiss.”
After laying out the terms, Gou Liang’s small eyes gleamed with cunning. “One task per day, deal or no deal?”
“Deal!”
Without a second thought, Boss Shi quickly grabbed the dumpling mountain and began to chow down.
Gou Liang smirked, his mood brightening, and he generously added a large piece of fried meat as a bonus.
The group let out boos, full of disdain for their leader’s willingness to sell himself, but upon closer inspection, their eyes were filled with envy and jealousy.
Shi Buyu agreed so readily, and when it came time to fulfill his promise that night, he didn’t hesitate either.
He had entered the situation with a bit of curiosity, wanting to see if that strange feeling inside him was just a fleeting illusion or if, as they said, it was like a tortoise finding its green bean—destined to be a perfect match.
At this moment, he had one arm around Gou Liang’s shoulders, his other hand resting on Gou Liang’s belly.
Although Gou Liang was fat, his frame was small. The soft flesh nestled into Shi Buyu’s arms, causing his muscles to tense up even more. Stiffly, he asked, “Is this good enough?”
Gou Liang shamelessly replied, “You can touch me, just like how I touch you.”
“That’s not part of the deal!”
With five pairs of eyes watching him, Shi Buyu firmly refused.
Gou Liang snorted but didn’t push further. He relaxed, settling comfortably into Shi Buyu, clearly planning to use him as a bed tonight, regardless of the one-hour time limit.
Once Gou Liang’s breathing slowed, Shi Buyu finally relaxed a little and said to the others, “Go to sleep. I’ll keep watch tonight.”
Seeing the “heavy price” their leader had paid, the group’s earlier envy quickly turned into deep “sympathy.” They decided not to stick around for the eye-burning spectacle and went to sleep.
After confirming everyone was asleep, Shi Buyu finally relaxed completely.
He glanced down at Gou Liang, who was snuggled against his chest. Once again, that unfamiliar sense of fulfillment surged in his heart, as if this was how things were supposed to be, like he had already done this a thousand times before.
Shi Buyu reached out and gently pinched Gou Liang’s double chin, the awkwardness in his eyes replaced by amus.e.m.e.nt.
With the thick filter of a +61 affection level, even the round, pudgy Gou Liang became more pleasant to look at. Hearing Gou Liang purr contentedly in his sleep as he was stroked, Shi Buyu’s hand didn’t want to leave.
Oh well, I’ll just consider it “treatment.”
Shi Buyu, benevolent as always, thought to himself.
Enjoying his embrace, Gou Liang’s senses were filled with a faint banana-like scent of soul power, a clear sign that his target was in a good mood.
As the one-hour “hugging service card” was about to expire, Shi Buyu was about to pull away when Gou Liang was about to pull another sneaky move and stay latched on for the whole night. Just then, the system interrupted him.
[Ding, dear master. Friendly reminder: Jia Nanzhu and Ju Bei’s group have been attacked by a vertical-pupil beast. They’ve already activated the alarm, and the signal will be relayed here soon.]
Before the system finished, the piercing sound of an alarm blared through the air.
Everyone jolted awake.
Shi Buyu was the first to receive the alert: “There are survivors requesting help. The coordinates show it’s Jia Nanzhu’s group. Jiang Ren, stay here and protect Teacher Tang. The rest of you, come with me for the rescue.”
Gou Liang immediately said, “I’m coming with you. I need more data.”
Shi Buyu didn’t refuse and simply instructed Jiang Ren, “Ensure Teacher Tang’s safety at all costs.”
“Understood!”
Jiang Ren responded, and the team quickly boarded their vehicle, heading for the rescue coordinates.
With most of the ground lighting destroyed, the effectiveness of night satellite detection was severely limited.
Fortunately, the thermal detection program Gou Liang had developed earlier came in handy, allowing them to roughly gauge the battle situation by identifying the red and yellow life signatures of both humans and beasts.
Jia Nanzhu’s group was only facing one beast, a non-pack type, which was a small blessing.
But as they watched the red life points gradually disappear, the group’s expressions darkened.
Zhou Gao couldn’t help but curse, “What the h.e.l.l is Jia doing now?!”
Gou Liang glanced at him, and Zhou Gao, remembering that Gou Liang didn’t know the full story, angrily explained, “Remember that beast-hunting mission at the shelter?”
“When we set out, we agreed to split into two groups to scout the area. But Jia Nanzhu couldn’t wait and attacked a lone beast as soon as he saw it. By the time we arrived, hundreds of people were already dead! d.a.m.n it, after the boss killed the beast, Jia even claimed he shot it and stole the beast core. Now, who knows what mess that b.a.s.t.a.r.d’s gotten into again!”
This was something the original host hadn’t known, so Gou Liang had only seen in the soul mirror that nearly a thousand people had died during that hunting mission.
He had been puzzled at the time, wondering how the beast they encountered could have had such high combat power to claim so many survivors’ lives, even under Shi Buyu’s command. Now, it all made sense.
That book ‘Apocalypse Chronicles’ had indeed glossed over the details, never mentioning that Jia Nanzhu had done something so foolish.
Shi Buyu asked, “Yu Sen, how much longer?”
“At our current speed, ten more minutes.”
“Too slow.”
“Yes, sir!”
Yu Sen pushed the speed to its limit, and the already drifting vehicle became even more turbulent. The others, well-prepared, braced themselves, and Shi Buyu immediately wrapped his arm around Gou Liang to prevent him from getting injured.
Gou Liang adjusted his gla.s.ses and said, “You were thirty-seven seconds short of completing the ‘hug me for an hour’ contract earlier. According to our agreement, an interruption resets the clock, so this doesn’t count.”
Shi Buyu’s gaze shifted from the thermal screen to Gou Liang, seeing his serious expression. He couldn’t help but chuckle, almost reflexively leaning down to bite Gou Liang’s chubby cheek. “I know.”
[Ding! Target’s affection level updated, current affection level: +70!]
[Ding! Task progress updated, current progress: 0.01%!]
“What the—!”
Sitting across from them, Zhou Gao was so shocked that he nearly headb.u.t.ted Gou Liang’s belly, only to be stopped by Shi Buyu, who shoved his head back like a watermelon.
Gou Liang, without missing a beat, said, “Be careful.”
Jiang Ren and Yu Lin, chuckling on either side, grabbed the stunned Zhou Gao to steady him.
As they neared their destination, Gou Liang found a moment to ask the system.
[Gou Liang: If Ju Bei suspects I’m not the original, will it cause any issues?]
The system quickly relayed the question to the main system and soon received an answer: The individual is not a native soul of this world, so their judgment will not be accepted by the laws of the main G.o.d.
This spared Gou Liang a major headache.
Sure enough, when Shi Buyu descended like a G.o.d from the sky and slayed the vertical-pupil tyrannosaur with his lightning ability sword, everyone was stunned. The one most shaken was Ju Bei, who, in his understanding, knew that Shi Buyu only gained the lightning ability in the second-to-last chapter, two years into the apocalypse, through a stroke of luck.
Just as Gou Liang had antic.i.p.ated, Ju Bei quickly linked these events with Fatty Tang, who should have died in the shelter according to ‘Apocalypse Chronicles’, and began eyeing Gou Liang suspiciously.
—Could he be like me, a transmigrator?
Seeing through Ju Bei’s thoughts, Gou Liang ignored him, sitting in his wheelchair as Jiang Ren pushed him forward, observing the survivors.
Zhou Gao dragged a disheveled Jia Nanzhu from the ground, his tone filled with disdain. “Young master Jia, what kind of mess have you gotten into this time?”
Jia Nanzhu, however, was too shocked by the sight of Shi Buyu leaping down from the beast’s head, beast core in hand, to even hear his words.
It was Ju Bei who quickly composed himself, supporting Jia Nanzhu and explaining, “Our communications equipment was restored yesterday, and we received a notification from Jiuzhu Base that ability users should make beast meat their primary food source. We planned to hunt a beast, but didn’t expect to run into one this powerful.”
His tone suggested that the failure and casualties were due to sheer bad luck.
Zhou Gao was too furious to speak, shoving Jia Nanzhu into Ju Bei’s arms and washing his hands of the situation.
Yu Sen frowned, “Didn’t you hear from Jiuzhu’s broadcast that vertical-pupil beasts are twice as strong at night compared to round-pupil beasts and much harder to deal with?”
Ju Bei fell silent.
Of course they had heard.
But if they acted during the day, they risked attracting a horde of beasts, while vertical-pupil beasts were mostly solitary, making them relatively safer. And like the others, Ju Bei had placed blind trust in Jia Nanzhu’s abilities, never expecting to run into the most formidable vertical-pupil tyrannosaur and lose several ability users.
With this in mind, Ju Bei glanced at Shi Buyu again.
The man had just killed a tyrannosaur in one strike—what kind of terrifying power was that?
And now that the plot had advanced, Shi Buyu had already gained the lightning ability, meaning his death was approaching.
But what kind of horror could take down a man like this?
Ju Bei was so lost in thought that he didn’t realize he had been staring at Shi Buyu long enough to provoke annoyance.
Gou Liang frowned, while Shi Buyu raised an eyebrow and turned to Jia Nanzhu, whose face had darkened. With a smile, he said, “Mr. Jia, your little lover sure has… unconventional taste. But could you ask him to stop staring at me like that? I know I’m handsome, but—his desperate-to-be-f.u.c.ked look is really annoying.”
His voice turned icy.
Ju Bei snapped back to reality, only to be met with Jia Nanzhu’s cold stare, causing him to shiver.
Glaring at Shi Buyu, who had humiliated him repeatedly, Ju Bei retorted, “What nonsense are you talking about? I was just surprised.”
Jia Nanzhu chimed in, “Yes. I’m also curious—how did you go from a strength user to a lightning user in just two days? Did you have some kind of miraculous encounter?”
“That’s not something I need to report to you.”
Shi Buyu pretended not to catch the underlying accusation that he had been hiding his true strength and deliberately not using it to protect the survivors, ignoring the subtle attempt to stir ill feelings. He simply instructed, “Yu Sen, take inventory of the survivors and supplies. We’re heading back.”
With that, he took over Jiang Ren’s job, pushing Gou Liang’s wheelchair and handing him the beast core encased in a vacuum box.
Jia Nanzhu stared longingly at the beast core, but he soon had bigger problems than plotting how to leverage public opinion about the “survivors who died for that beast core” to force Shi Buyu to hand it over.
The shift in leadership within the group had already undergone a drastic change.
Yu Sen announced, “We’ve made contact with Jiuzhu Base’s rescue team. They’ll be here tomorrow. Don’t waste time—get ready to leave with us!”
The moment the survivors heard that the Jiuzhu rescue team was coming, they couldn’t care less who was in charge, whether it was Jia or Zhen. They scrambled to line up and board the vehicles.
Jia Nanzhu clenched his jaw, his face darkening.
These survivors were fickle and had no loyalty to him. And with Jiuzhu Base’s established management system, even as a rare five-element ability user, he would never have a chance at gaining power.
If that happened, all his efforts and his family’s sacrifices would be in vain!
He was filled with anger and hatred but couldn’t show it.
Meanwhile, Ju Bei, who had been angrily shaken off by Jia Nanzhu, was completely unaware of what was going through his mind. Instead, he looked at Jia with concern.
How could things turn out like this? Not only had Shi Buyu gained his lightning ability ahead of schedule, but now the protagonist, who was supposed to reach Jiuzhu Base a year later with a loyal group of followers, was also heading there early.
…What had that fatty done?
At the same time, Gou Liang and Shi Buyu were talking about him.
Shi Buyu asked, “Teacher Tang, what ability does Jia’s little lover have?”
Gou Liang adjusted his gla.s.ses, “Are you very interested in him?”
Shi Buyu, seeing that he was jealous, couldn’t help but laugh.
Leaning on Gou Liang’s wheelchair, Shi Buyu bent down to meet his gaze and said, “It’s him who’s too interested in me. Last time, the look in his eyes said I was going to die. This time, it’s like I’m about to die any second. Tell me… does he have some kind of foresight ability?”
“I don’t know if he’s clairvoyant or not, but I can confirm he doesn’t have an ability—or rather, there’s no energy flow in him.”
“Oh?”
Shi Buyu was surprised.
“That makes things interesting. As far as I know, Young master Jia wouldn’t pay that much attention to an ordinary person.”
“I’m not sure,” Gou Liang said seriously, “but you won’t die. I won’t let you die.”
Shi Buyu laughed, squeezing his chubby face and saying, “Don’t worry, I won’t let you need a new pillow.”
Gou Liang’s ears turned red, and he adjusted his gla.s.ses, “Shi Xiaoyu, I’d like to exercise my rights early.”
“Hmm?”
Before Shi Buyu could react, Gou Liang lunged at him again.
Fortunately, having learned from the last time, Shi Buyu didn’t get flattened by Gou Fatty this time and managed to stay on his feet.
With his large belly in the way, Gou Liang couldn’t completely hug Shi Buyu. His pudgy hands clung tightly to Shi Buyu’s shoulders, and his soft, round face pressed against Shi Buyu’s, rubbing affectionately.
“Shi Xiaoyu, you’re so good~”
“Hey…”
Shi Buyu dodged slightly, laughing helplessly, “That wasn’t part of the deal, was it?”
Gou Liang sighed contentedly, refusing to let go, “You agreed to it. You’re my pillow, and you belong to me, so of course I have full usage rights.”
Shi Buyu’s heart skipped a beat. For some reason, he didn’t refute it. Instead, he tacitly accepted Gou Liang’s claim.
The system watched, hoping for an exciting breakthrough in the affection level, but then—
Bang! Someone slid open the side door: “Boss, we’ve finished taking invent—uh, sorry for interrupting, carry on, carry on.”
Once again, Yu Lin had become the first witness. Laughing awkwardly, he was about to close the door when Shi Buyu, as calm as ever, said, “Come back.”
He effortlessly lifted the large “doll” that was Gou Liang, placing him back in the wheelchair, and accepted the handwritten inventory list from Yu Lin.
Raising an eyebrow, he noticed that the first page had a bolded note at the top:
Ju Bei, spatial ability user.
Honestly after reading the first few lines of the chapter, I was drooling for Gou Liang’s food. (A LITTLE ENVIOUS) (┬┬﹏┬┬)