Chapter 91: Stripey’s Skin
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After leaving school, Gao Peng headed to the stores and purchased a large number of materials. He put them in a black bag and put the bag on Da Zi’s back.
Da Zi followed behind Gao Peng like a camel.
On Gao Peng’s left shoulder floated an excellent-looking green jellyfish. It had a glistening and translucent body like green jade, and a surface covered with bright spots. It was mesmerizing. Moreover, it could fly and certainly attracted a decent amount of attention from pa.s.sersby.
He reached home and opened the door. He found Stripey’s shed skin littering the floor of his home, scattered everywhere in the living room.
Gao Peng lamented. He couldn’t just throw away all of those old shed skins every time, it felt too wasteful.
In truth, spiders shedding their skin wasn’t something that happened only after the Cataclysm. Before the Cataclysm, spiders all over the world already shed their skins just like snakes. After every skin shedding session, the spider would grow in size.
Before the Cataclysm, spiders did not just shed their skin once in their life. Based on the breed of the spider, they could shed their skins five times in their lifetime.
After the Cataclysm, the ability was somehow strengthened to an unprecedented level. Typically, spiders would not shed their skin so rapidly. However, Stripey seemed to be abnormal. Four pieces of old skin could be found in the house, which meant that Stripey grew in size four times that day.
Yesterday, its diameter was only four feet. Now it was already close to five feet. It was hard to imagine that just a few days ago, it was only the size of a millstone.
However, it wasn’t really feasible to continue letting Stripey shed its skin like that. Gao Peng felt a little troubled. As the fella’s size continued to grow larger and larger, it would also occupy more and more s.p.a.ce. According to the information from the database, by the time a Grey Armored Spider matured, it would be around 10 feet in diameter, similar to the size of a small sedan.
It would certainly fit in the house, but would most definitely make the house feel ridiculously packed.
At the moment, Gao Peng still did not dare go to his villa.
He admitted that he was a bit cowardly. He would not actively seek excitement while it was highly possible that danger loomed. That was something only movie protagonists did. Why would an average person be so stupid?
Who cares what kinds of conspiracy those people used. I’ll be fine as long as I ignore them. Wait till this cutie pie of mine grows up! Then we’ll go and have a good chat with them, he thought.
Gao Peng crouched down and lightly patted Stripey who was laying on the ground. As it had only just finished shedding its skin, Stripey was still a little weak.
The color of its skin was really light. Its exoskeleton looked soft, and it felt a little itchy as the fine fur brushed along his palm.
As the exposed skin had just come into contact with air, the exoskeleton was in the slow process of hardening.
Gao Peng decided to buy a parking slot at the garage. After that, he would be able to rotate and rest the larger monsters in his house in the parking s.p.a.ce.
The only disturbing aspect of the plan was that in the future when his neighbors drove into the garage to park their cars, they would see a spider the size of a sedan or a 13-foot-tall skull sitting in the parking s.p.a.ce, looking at them through their car window.
As he picked up the shed skin that was scattered across the floor, Gao Peng gathered and placed all the old skins together.
He heard that the carapaces of spiders could be used in medicine, which meant that these things were edible. Even if they were inedible, the contract would make it so that all his injuries would be transferred to Stripey or the others like Da Zi. Stripey definitely would not be poisoned by its own skin.
He took a piece of spider skin and walked into the kitchen. He tore off a small portion and washed it until it was clean. He then mixed flour and eggs into a batter before pouring the mixture on the piece of spider skin.
He heated the pan and used a brush to evenly coat the pan with some cooking oil. He waited until some light smoke emerged from the pan before putting the processed spider skin into the pan.
Tssstttttt.
The sound of frying food and a lovely fragrance emerged from the pan.
Gao Peng took a deep breath and found the scent to be decent.
The fragrance attracted the others inside the house. They all rushed to the kitchen without any second thought. They squeezed and gathered into a bunch and gazed at Gao Peng’s back. Their eyes showed their desire for food.
Dumby looked dazed for a moment and then remembered its status. It turned around and left silently, taking out a Yin Cedar Needle from the fridge and putting it into its mouth with great familiarity. It then went by the windowsill and started smoking.
I’m not interested in your things. Only the Yin Cedar Needle is a true delicacy, it thought.
Da Zi was the most excited. As the most “senior” around Gao Peng as well as the first familiar, its status was clearly special among all the familiars as the favorite.
For a delicacy such as this, Da Zi was normally the first to get dibs on it.
Stripey was really envious and stared straight at the back of its master. Later, it accidentally saw the unused spider skin left on the chopping board.
Hmm?
That spider skin sure looked familiar. But why would his shed skin be on the chopping board of the master?
With Stripey’s limited and straightforward brain capacity, it could not process such a complicated question. Its attention was taken away by the fragrance coming from the pan.
Da Zi also saw the spider skin on the chopping board. However, unlike Stripey, Da Zi had better memory, and moreover, it had been in Gao Peng’s house the longest. It clearly knew what kinds of things were put on the chopping board.
Usually, only food was placed there.
So…
The way Da Zi looked at Stripey became very weird.
Stripey just felt odd.
Why would the boss look at it like that?
“Zhi Zhi ZhiZhi,” Stripey squeaked.
Da Zi nodded and returned to look towards the back of its busy master.
Something as brittle as spider skin could not and should not be fried for too long, even after mixing it together with eggs and flour, as it would quickly burn.
Geo Peng switched to a small fire and cautiously pinched a small portion of the fried spider skin. It was very crispy, and he put it in his mouth.
Crunch crunch crunch. The thick flavor of the fried food burst open and filled the mouth, stimulating the taste buds.
Yeah, it was missing some c.u.min powder.
Gao Peng grabbed some c.u.min powder from his seasoning cabinet and sprinkled a layer on the spider skin. He took another bite. The taste definitely improved a lot.
Stripey shed a lot of skin. After Gao Peng had his fill, he prepared several portions for Da Zi and Stripey.
Da Zi and Stripey ate happily.
The only thing was, Stripey kept having a melancholic feeling when eating the food. Perhaps it was just an illusion. Stripey even licked its outer mouth after it finished eating.
Tasty! thought the spider.
Later, Gao Peng turned on the TV and Armor Baby anime was on the air. Four monsters sat in front of the TV and relished the program.
Gao Peng used the chance to go downstairs to meet with the realty agent. He wanted to see if the residential area he was in sold parking spots.
After all, the area he was in was considered an old neighborhood. All the parking spots would have already been sold. It was only possible for him to buy it second-hand from someone else.
After going through two realty agents, one could consider Gao Peng lucky as he found information about the sale of a parking spot. Although it wasn’t for his block, it was still in the same area. The distance was only a couple of hundred meters.
He made the call. Negotiations went smoothly. They could sign the agreement that night.
The one who came to sign the papers was a 30-year-old man. When he heard that Gao Peng wanted to sign the contract as soon as possible, he agreed and departed by car.
The two of them got in a car and headed towards the government real estate department for the certification procedure. After an hour, all formalities were completed.
Gao Peng could not help but admire the efficiency of the World Allied Government. The current World Allied Government utilized a 24-hour workday, with a morning s.h.i.+ft and a night s.h.i.+ft, and they were amazingly efficient in a lot of procedures.
As Gao Peng reached home, the few familiars in the living room were already almost asleep. The anime was still on, but the familiars laid all over the floor and the sofa. They detected the entry of someone, and when they noticed that it was only their master, they returned to sleep.
Gao Peng sighed, turned off the TV, and then turned off the light.