Returning to the restaurant, Qi Huan discovered that the notice he had posted in the morning seeking the owner had been torn down again, leaving only a fingernail-sized piece of paper scrap. The remaining scrap seemed to have claw marks on it.

Could it be that the little cat didn’t want to go home and scratched it off itself? Impossible, it can’t read. But are there any other animals around here that could leave such small claw marks? Qi Huan was puzzled. He had just put his things down when the door was knocked.

He barely opened the door a crack when Quan Hai squeezed in with a bulging backpack, quickly closing the door behind him.

“Why are you being so sneaky?” Qi Huan was startled by him.

“Bringing you money!” Quan Hai placed the heavy backpack on the table.

“So fast?” Qi Huan thought it would take a few more days, but didn’t expect Brother Mang to be so efficient.

“The channels were already in place, and someone really wanted it. Brother Mang got you a good price.” Quan Hai pushed the backpack towards Qi Huan, looking proud. “Your blue copper and gray iron sold for a total of 30,982 silver coins. Count it.”

Inside the backpack was a cloth bag filled with long strings of silver coins and twenty-six gold star coins, each worth a thousand silver coins. Due to the poor signal, most people on the Waste Star still preferred using physical currency.

Qi Huan counted, 30,982, not a single coin missing. He took out three and a half strings of silver coins and put them back in Quan Hai’s backpack, each string worth a thousand, making it 3,500, and then added twelve star coins.

“What are you doing?” Quan Hai stopped his hand, confused.

“Splitting it in half for you and Brother Mang.”

“No way, the usual rule is only five percent. This is too much.” Quan Hai knew Qi Huan was in desperate need of money due to his debts and refused to take it.

After a long back-and-forth, Quan Hai reluctantly accepted 1,500. According to the scavenging rules, the team leader should get a five percent fee, but since Quan Hai worked at the repair shop and was like a half-apprentice, Brother Mang never charged him, and since Qi Huan was brought in by him and didn’t say he would always be with the team, Brother Mang didn’t mention it.

“Give this to Brother Mang, and you can convert my share into food.” Quan Hai patted the backpack and glanced at the kitchen.

“Now you believe my cooking has improved?” Qi Huan teased him, knowing food was inevitable.

“Quan Yu now thinks about your cooking every day. She really liked the red fruit skewers at noon.”

“Then what are you waiting for? Come help!” Qi Huan motioned for Quan Hai to enter the kitchen. You can’t miss out on free labor passing by.

With practice, Quan Hai had become much more skilled at handling the long-faced beast’s hooves, and he was ‘one for three.’

After blanching, Qi Huan started two pots again, stewing the hooves and bones, and using clear water for the head. The so-called white water sheep head is actually a sheep head stewed in clear water, considered a type of white cut. Two heads were too much to stew and eat, so he put one in the freezer.

Quan Hai wanted to try braised bone meat over rice, so Qi Huan sent him to study the process of washing rice and cooking it, while he carefully took out the remaining small paper packets from the basket. These were spices he had picked up at the grocery store today, as the spices at home were almost used up and needed restocking. When he got off work, Aunt Wan was watching the store, and in exchange for two strings of sugar-coated red fruits, she let Qi Huan smell and taste each one without minding that he bought so little, even giving him a discount.

Cloves, star anise, cardamom, Sichuan pepper, sesame… Qi Huan picked twelve spices in total, nine he was familiar with, and three were new and fresh. He roasted and ground them into fine powder, adjusted the proportions, and added them to salt, then put them back in the pot to stir-fry over low heat.

“What is this? It looks more complicated than making meat,” Quan Hai curiously watched from the side.

“Qi’s secret pepper salt.” Qi Huan lifted the dish and smelled the aroma, satisfied, with a smile on his lips.

“Is this a dish?” Quan Hai was stunned, looking at the pile of powder in the dish. The aroma was strong, but was this little bit enough to eat?

“Half a dish.” Qi Huan mischievously winked. Seasoning is the soul of food, and the soul of white water sheep head is its dipping sauce—pepper salt.

Can a dish be made in halves and still taste good? Quan Hai scratched his head, puzzled.

Half an hour later, his question was answered.

The meat of the long-faced beast, once cooked, was a light lemon yellow, with a texture as delicate as porcelain. Sliced into evenly thick slices and arranged on a plate, layer upon layer, neatly and orderly, like spring flowers lightly spreading, blooming in full.

The authentic white water sheep head has an important selling point of delicate knife skills, requiring a twenty-degree angle cut, large thin slices, each piece of meat evenly with skin, thin enough to be translucent. Qi Huan’s current hand condition couldn’t achieve that, but luckily it was for his own people, so it didn’t need to be so precise.

The meat was tender and refreshing, with a rich flavor. Soon after, the salty, fragrant, numbing, and fresh taste of the pepper salt spread layer by layer on the tongue, each flavor lively and distinct, the more you chewed, the richer the taste, intertwining and salivating, indescribably delicious.

Quan Hai ate five pieces in a row, unable to stop his chopsticks. He didn’t know how to express his amazement at this deliciousness, only able to repeatedly say, “Amazing, absolutely amazing.”

“Quick, take some back for your sister to try.” Qi Huan packed two large bowls of braised meat over rice and beast head meat on a tray.

Quan Hai happily carried the tray away, and Qi Huan prepared a plate for the little cat.

When he brought it upstairs, the little fellow was still sleeping. Looking at the little furball curled up, Qi Huan shook his head with a smile, gently put down the plate, and went back downstairs to enjoy his dinner.

Of course, a meal wouldn’t be complete without the usual electronic pickles. Qi Huan first searched for information about the toxicity of the long-faced beast’s internal organs.

In the alliance, some people aren’t picky about food, but there are also some who are gluttonous. Many gluttonous beast tribes had tried eating the internal organs of the long-faced beast early on, and most experienced symptoms like headaches and nausea. Later, it was found that the green thorns grass the long-faced beast liked to eat contained trace amounts of substances toxic to most beast tribes, likely causing the residual toxins in the internal organs. Since then, people rarely eat the internal organs of meat beasts, and many don’t even eat the long-faced beast at all.

The reason no one eats stone beast meat is similar. First, it’s toxic, causing headaches and rashes in many beast tribes who eat it, and second, stone beast meat can’t be cooked tender.

It seems that if he wants to add white water beast head to the menu, he needs to note the ingredients to avoid unnecessary trouble. Qi Huan silently added a note to the new menu in his notebook.

To him, some of the symptoms described seemed more like allergies, but allergies can also be dangerous. He then casually searched for information on the ingredients he had seen in Wan’s family’s fridge these days, learning about their general characteristics and the preferences of the beast tribes.

When he searched for information on sentinels, he found it was completely different from what he understood.

In the alliance, a person’s combat strength is determined by two parts: mental power level and physical fitness level. The dominant factor is mental power, which almost determines a person’s combat strength limit.

Usually, the alliance classifies physical strength and mental power levels into seven grades, from weak to strong: E, D, C, B, A, S, and super S, consistent with energy stone grading.

Mental power below E level belongs to the ordinary domain, with over eighty percent of residents being ordinary.

Those between E and C levels are called potential individuals. Some people’s mental abilities are only activated in adulthood, and through military school training and learning, they can still grow into sentinels or guides.

C level and above is the domain of sentinels and guides.

Sentinels have keen senses, strong mental power, and usually have physical fitness above S level. In short, sentinels are the strongest combatants among people, known as ‘human weapons.’

The higher the mental power level, the higher the sentinel’s level. C level is a level four sentinel, and it goes up from there, with S level being a level one sentinel, and super S level being called a super sentinel.

If Kai Sen, the original owner’s online friend, is truly a level three sentinel, it means his mental power level has reached B level. B level is also the entry level for operating mechas, as mental power below this level can’t withstand the intensity of mechas.

No wonder his attitude was so arrogant between the lines, Qi Huan ‘tsk’ed.

But such strong and sensitive mental power is also a double-edged sword. Sentinels’ mental power can easily become overloaded and suffer accidental damage, forming shadows in their mental landscape. If not guided in time, it can lead to a significant decrease in combat strength, and in severe cases, even mental landscape collapse.

And what Qi Huan previously thought of as ‘guides’ leading the way in hunting areas are actually another type of high-level mental ability users. They are rarer than sentinels, with usually gentle mental power attributes, not strong in combat, but can enter the sentinel’s mental landscape to help guide shadows, ensuring the sentinel’s health and combat strength.

In Qi Huan’s understanding, guides are somewhat like doctors or nurses for mental power. If the sentinel’s mission is to protect the alliance, then the guide’s mission is to protect the sentinel.

He was about to continue reading when the display flickered and disappeared.

Again. Qi Huan held his forehead, this never-ending light magnetic storm was more annoying than the rainy season in Suhang City.

‘Bang’ ‘Bang’ ‘Bang,’ suddenly there were muffled sounds outside, and the ground and the entire restaurant were vibrating slightly with the sound.

What’s going on? Is a dinosaur having a disco? Qi Huan was a bit confused, but there were no alarm sounds outside, so it shouldn’t be dangerous creatures like stone beasts.

The sound was getting closer, and the ground was shaking more and more.

He hesitated whether to go out and take a look or go upstairs to hide with the little cat, when the sound suddenly stopped at the restaurant’s door.

“Bang!” The restaurant’s door trembled, and a giant footprint appeared, as big as a tabletop.

Qi Huan: !!!

Is it trying to break in?

He was about to find that chair leg for self-defense when he suddenly heard a delicate voice scolding, “Zitang, you’ll break their door like that!”

A few seconds later, someone lightly tapped the door twice, “Is anyone there? I saw your lights on, don’t be afraid, we just want to buy some food for our pet.”

Qi Huan gathered his courage and went to open the door, and was startled.

Outside stood a pair of twin girls, in their prime, wearing black hunting team uniform jumpsuits, with transparent acrylic rings at the collar and cuffs that looked like necklaces and bracelets on them, adding a touch of brightness.

The only difference between them was their hairstyles, one tilted to the left, the other symmetrically to the right.

To be fair, the pair of charming girls had very good-looking features, but what was frightening was their eyes, both had white pupils, making it seem like their eyes were all whites, eerie and hollow against the dark night.

Behind them squatted a round black rabbit, its size comparable to a T-Rex, even lying down it was taller than the nearby restaurant, and the ten-meter-wide street barely accommodated its body, needing to go to the small square by the west gate to turn around.

Seeing Qi Huan open the door, the girl on the left spoke first, “Hello, I’m A Zuo.”

“I’m A You,” the girl on the right quickly added.

They both smiled simultaneously, their originally sweet smiles becoming somewhat eerie due to their white eyes.

“Hello.” Qi Huan silently shifted his gaze away from their faces, those eyes were really hard to look at directly.

“This is a restaurant, right?”

“Zitang is hungry, can you make something for it to eat?”

Their words were almost seamlessly connected.

This rabbit, even if it doesn’t eat grass and carrots, should eat vegetables or something, and the amount must be considerable. The kitchen currently didn’t have much stock of vegetables, Qi Huan looked troubled, “Sorry…”

Before he could finish, there was a loud “crack” above his head, and upon looking again, the rabbit had taken a bite out of the restaurant’s eaves!

The black rabbit looked down at Qi Huan, crunching on the eaves, with debris falling from its teeth, scattering all over the ground.

Perhaps due to his recent experience communicating with the little cat, Qi Huan inexplicably understood the threat in the rabbit’s eyes: if you don’t cook, I’ll eat your house.

“I don’t really know what it can eat.” In the face of the broken eaves, Qi Huan had to swallow his refusal. Although there were plenty of empty houses in the base, the cost of repairs wasn’t low, and many of the kitchen utensils were bought at a high price, so the loss would be significant if they were damaged.

“It likes meatballs,” A Zuo immediately replied.

This rabbit actually eats meat? Qi Huan couldn’t help but glance at the T-Rex-sized black rabbit again.

The rabbit proudly lifted its chin.

“How much does it need? Let me see if there’s enough meat in the fridge.”

A You smiled, “Don’t worry, two or three pounds will be enough for it.”

“Two or three pounds?” Qi Huan was incredulous, “Are you sure it will be full?”

“Zitang!” A Zuo patted its nose, and the rabbit shook its fur, suddenly shrinking to the size of an adult golden retriever.

It wasn’t until the twins brought the rabbit into the restaurant that Qi Huan realized its fur was actually purple, just a deep shade that was hard to distinguish in the dark.

Based on the flavor preferences provided by the twins, Qi Huan decided to make steamed lion’s head for it.

Lion’s head is a famous Huaiyang dish from the Sui and Tang dynasties, soft and smooth, rich but not greasy, requiring fine chopping and coarse dicing, with diced fat and lean meat. After frying, it needs to be steamed over low heat, making it more complicated than regular meatballs. But Qi Huan, who loves food from the bottom of his heart, didn’t want to skimp on any guest’s taste buds, even if the guest was a giant rabbit.

The rabbit buried its head in the soup bowl, finishing three bowls in one go, while the twins happily shared a plate of beast head meat. Both the girls and the rabbit were extremely satisfied, and they paid a hundred silver coins in the end.

After sending off the guests, Qi Huan, freshly showered, was drying his half-wet hair with one hand, about to go upstairs when he suddenly remembered the money bag he had casually stuffed under the cash register earlier.

Leaving a large sum of cash downstairs wasn’t ideal for a business, so he took the cloth bag, intending to put it in the bedside cabinet. Although this shabby house was drafty, the second floor at least felt safer than the first.

The drawer in the cabinet upstairs was too small to fit everything, so he had to split it into two layers. After storing the money, while continuing to dry his hair, he subconsciously glanced at the top drawer, where the beast core and the life-saving benefactor’s button were kept. What he saw left him stunned.

He remembered clearly that he had closed the drawer tightly, but now it was slightly ajar!

His ears buzzed, as if all the blood had rushed to his head. Qi Huan felt a blackout before reaching out to open the drawer.

Inside, only the button wrapped in a cloth remained, the small tin box containing the beast core was gone!

Nearly thirty thousand silver coins worth of items, just gone!

Did a thief break in? Qi Huan had worried about being robbed, but never thought that even his poor, clanging place would attract thieves. In disbelief, he opened all the drawers and searched through them, but found nothing.

He stood there, dumbfounded, not knowing what to do, when he suddenly heard a faint sound behind him, like footsteps, very light, coming towards him step by step.

Is the thief still here? A drop of water slid down his hair to his neck, icy cold, making all the hairs on Qi Huan’s back stand up. He grabbed an empty drawer and turned to throw it behind him.

Then, his arm holding the empty drawer froze in mid-air.