Chapter 187: Chapter 175: Mating Proposal Rejected?
"Not yet," Alex said. "Zone 19 is still under lockdown. No one can get in or out."
"She’s fine."
"You didn’t receive it?"
Watson had expected the situation in Zone 19 to be complicated, but... "Have you two mated?"
Alex was taken aback. "No," he said.
Hearing this, Watson found it strange. "Then how did you get through her mating period?"
’The little female couldn’t have chosen someone else, could she?’
’That shouldn’t be possible.’
"Her mating period was over in five days," Alex said.
Watson paused, mid-sip of his coffee. He thought he had misheard. "Five days? That short? Are you sure?"
Alex: "I’m sure."
How could he not be? He was with her every single day. Her scent during her mating period was completely different from normal.
He was actually glad her mating period was short. He’d used up all his Inhibitors. If it had lasted even two more days, he didn’t know how he would have endured it.
"Only five days..." Watson flipped open his notebook and jotted something down.
’Only a five-day mating period per year? No wonder there are fewer and fewer females at Sky Watch Point.’
"That’s for the best," Watson said. "Otherwise, I don’t know how you would have kept her hidden."
A female in her mating period in a place like Zone 19, especially during a season when Mutant Species are rampant... her situation would have been incredibly difficult.
"The cleanup mission should be wrapping up soon, right?" Watson said. "Start your journey and bring her back to Zone 5 as soon as you can. I’ll arrange for people to meet you on the road."
"Alright," Alex said. "Please send more people to escort her to Zone One."
"Zone One?" Watson paused, his tone odd. "She’s an adult female, and you’re an adult male."
Alex: "I understand."
Watson: "Did she reject your courtship?"
Alex: "..."
"Teacher," Alex said slowly. "She should go to the Central Green Area."
Watson raised an eyebrow, took a slow sip of his coffee, and said, "She should, but she has to establish a foothold in another zone first."
Zone One is surrounded by Zones Two through Five. To get to the Central Green Area, you must pass through one of the Upper Districts.
Yet Alex was suggesting sending her directly to the Central Green Area. His tone sounded calm, but Watson heard that something was wrong.
Watson: "You wanted to bring her back to Zone 5, didn’t you? Tell me, why the change of heart?"
Alex didn’t speak.
Watson: "Did you two have a fight?"
Alex looked up at the building ahead of him. "...It wasn’t exactly a fight."
’Just as I thought,’ Watson said to himself, then asked aloud, "Tell me, what did you fight about?"
...
...
The sky had not yet brightened when Gu Ning woke from her sleep.
She squinted, turned on her terminal, and saw it was just past six.
She had gone to bed early last night, so she wasn’t very sleepy now. After lying there for a moment, she sat up.
The moment she moved, Cook woke up too, coming over to lick her face.
After revealing her identity to Barto, Gu Ning had stopped wearing the head covering. Cook was thrilled that he could be close to her like before.
Without the restrictive head covering, Gu Ning felt much more relaxed. She smiled and ruffled his head, her gaze shifting to the large... small bundle curled up on the sofa.
Barto had curled himself into a ball to sleep. The blanket that was supposed to be covering him had fallen to the floor, making him look like a fluffy red ball.
Barto had given her his nest to sleep in, taking the sofa for himself.
She had seen how large he was; curled up on the sofa, he had no room to stretch his legs. She had even offered to make him a wider pallet on the floor next to her nest, but he had refused, insisting on sleeping on the sofa.
Looking at him now, in his reverted fox form, he had plenty of room.
Gu Ning’s gaze fell on the Inhibitors placed on the small table nearby.
Before bed last night, she had given Cook a shot of Inhibitor. The box was still open.
She had wanted to give Barto a shot as well, but he refused, saying he didn’t need them anymore.
Gu Ning remembered that Barto had been given an Inhibitor called Blue Gold before. From what she learned from Cyril and the others, that was supposedly the best Inhibitor for a Beastman. After taking it, lower-grade Inhibitors would have little effect, so she hadn’t thought much more of it.
After a moment’s thought, Gu Ning picked up the device for measuring mutation value from the Inhibitor box. She got up quietly, squatted down next to Barto, and used the scanning function on him.
This kind of small Detection Device was much slower to produce results. Gu Ning had to wait five or six minutes.
When she saw the value displayed on the screen, her expression immediately grew grim.
71.2%.
Barto’s mutation value was already over seventy percent, even higher than Cook’s.
’Why is it so high?’
’Is it because he’s taken a human form?’
Gu Ning suddenly thought of something and turned to look at Cook.
Cook used to be a Dwarf hybrid, about 1.8 meters tall. His current form was the result of a second mutation.
’So Barto has also undergone a second mutation?’
But after Cook’s second mutation, his body began to grow larger and his appearance gradually became more bestial.
Barto, on the other hand, had turned into a human form, the complete opposite of him.
But Cook never changed back to his previous appearance.
Gu Ning didn’t really understand this kind of transformation in Mixed Breeds. She only knew one thing: once a Mixed Breed’s mutation value exceeded seventy-five percent, they would degenerate into a Mutant Species.
She counted the Inhibitors in the box and picked one up.
There were twenty shots of Inhibitor left in total.
For the past few days, she had been giving Cook a shot almost every day to stabilize his mutation value.
She stared at the faint blue glow in her hand for a moment before putting the Inhibitor back.
There were still plenty of Inhibitors. Barto didn’t want to use one, probably because, just as he’d said, they no longer had any effect on him.
This was already the best Degeneration Inhibitor available to a common Beastman. If even this didn’t work, then there was only one type of Inhibitor left.
Gu Ning wrapped a thick blanket around herself, walked to the window, and pulled back a corner of the curtain to look outside.
Although it was still dark, the streetlights were bright, allowing her to clearly see the heavy guard presence below.
After a long moment, Gu Ning let the curtain fall and walked toward the bedroom.
Barto didn’t groggily wake up until dawn, startled by a noise in the room.
His mutation value was too high now. His body had begun to enter a kind of low-energy state, causing him to sleep more deeply. This was a Mixed Breed’s body’s last attempt at self-preservation.
"What are you doing?" Barto asked, confused, as he watched Gu Ning cutting a piece of flannel with a pair of scissors. SNIP, SNIP.
Seeing that he was awake, Gu Ning said, "Earning money."
The matter with the Mutant Species was settled, so she had to get back to her own business.
This period of being cared for by Alex had made her much too complacent.
She had to have the ability to stand on her own two feet in this world so she could take care of both Cook and Barto.
Barto: "...?"
He glanced at the large box beside her and was instantly wide awake. He jumped down from the sofa, wanting to say something, but the words caught in his throat.
He even wanted to slap himself.
’She might have come from a large clan, but the money she had wasn’t given to her out of their care—it was money she had earned herself.’
