My Romance Game Updated – Chapter 79
by Little PandaTraining Tantan
At noon, Ren Chenxi finally got her wish — a large basin of sauerkraut fish1. First, a bite of tender, springy fish meat, then a sip of the spicy, refreshing sour soup, paired with fragrant white rice — even someone like Ren Chenxi, who considered herself to have an average appetite, accidentally ate two large bowls of rice.
After lunch, everyone rested briefly before heading enthusiastically to the seaside again. In their view, with Ren Chenxi’s “spatial inventory” available, there was no fear of waste no matter how much seafood they caught.
Of course, this time going to the beach, Ren Chenxi finally brought along poor Tantan, the left-behind cat.
The bus drove along the same route as in the morning, but when passing the beach where Qi Sheng had been in the morning, Mu Ning called for it to stop. Originally, this beach had been bustling with Qi Sheng’s people in the morning, but now it was completely empty — not a single figure in sight.
Called to a stop by Mu Ning, Chen Gu immediately reacted. He didn’t think Qi Sheng’s people had left this beach to go back to the base to rest. More likely, having seen their harvest in the morning, Qi Sheng was impatient to go to the beach where they had gathered seafood in the morning, hoping to try his luck — ideally, to also harvest a Level 6 crystal core.
Since Qi Sheng’s group had very likely occupied the beach from that morning, naturally there was no need for them to take a detour. They could just continue catching various seafood on this empty beach!
After all, the South Sea was vast. To Chen Gu and the others, low-order seafood on the beach was the same no matter which beach. To Mu Ning, mid-order seafood in the seawater was naturally the same no matter which seawater.
Considering that Qi Sheng’s group would definitely pass by their waters again when returning, Ren Chenxi didn’t put the bus back in her inventory. Instead, she had Chen Gu park the bus a bit further out from the edge of the sandy ground. After that, everyone got off the bus in an orderly manner, still moving as a group, actively searching for various seafood on the beach.
Mu Ning also wanted to continue her fishing operation from the morning, but this afternoon, while fishing, she also had to keep an eye on Tantan’s situation.
And just as Ren Chenxi had worried, the moment Tantan arrived at the beach, its sensitive sense of smell caught the scent of the freshest seafood, and it went crazy. If Mu Ning hadn’t used vines to restrain Tantan in time, this little mad cat would have long since gone crazy into the sea.
Ren Chenxi, with a cold face, had Mu Ning drag Tantan — tied up like a zongzi2 — over to her. Regardless of whether Tantan could understand or not, she very seriously warned that if Tantan continued to be disobedient and kept acting wild, it would continue to be tied up. Facing Ren Chenxi’s scolding, Tantan on the surface meowed pitifully with a soft voice. But after Mu Ning released Tantan, it took advantage of a moment when Ren Chenxi wasn’t paying attention and lunged toward the sea again.
Hmm, Tantan had always been like this — facing Ren Chenxi’s reprimands, it would accept criticism humbly but never change.
But this time, even if it didn’t want to change, it would have to change!
So, Tantan was tied up like a zongzi by Mu Ning for the second time.
“Meow meow meow meow meow…”
As soon as it was tied up like a zongzi, Tantan would act cute and beg for mercy. Ren Chenxi gave it a lecture as usual, then had Mu Ning release Tantan. And Tantan? Once freed from its bonds, it started going crazy again.
After this repeated three more times, Tantan seemed to finally understand that Ren Chenxi and Mu Ning wouldn’t allow it to rush into that place with lots of water that seemed to hide countless delicious things. And Ren Chenxi, provoked by Tantan’s repeated disobedience, finally got angry. This time, she didn’t soften her heart at Tantan’s soft, cutesy “meow meow meow.” Instead, she very forcefully flicked Tantan’s little head and warned in a very serious voice: “Tantan, if you keep being disobedient, next I won’t have Mu Ning release you. You’ll just stay tied up in a ball on the bus! And in the future when coming to the beach, I won’t bring you either!”
This time, Tantan seemed to finally understand Ren Chenxi’s meaning. It didn’t dare to act spoiled and meow anymore. Instead, it faced Ren Chenxi and very quietly made soft “woo woo” sounds of admitting fault.
“I’m giving you one last chance. If you mess around again…” Ren Chenxi said while pointing at the bus, “You’ll just stay tied up on the bus!”
“Meow-woo-woo-woo…”
This time, Mu Ning released Tantan. Tantan only turned its head and resentfully “ha”-ed at Mu Ning once, then obediently ran off to find Sun Jia and the other girls. When Ren Chenxi wasn’t around, Tantan spent the most time with Sun Jia, Zhang Tongqi, and the others.
Mu Ning didn’t mind Tantan “ha”-ing at her. She just watched Tantan for a while from the side, and seeing that it really didn’t dare to run wildly into the sea anymore, she turned to ask Ren Chenxi: “Do we not need to worry about Tantan next? Not afraid it will randomly eat seafood on the beach?”
Hearing Mu Ning ask this, Ren Chenxi very disdainfully “hmph”-ed: “Then let it eat! If it can eat it!”
As long as it didn’t go wild in the sea, Ren Chenxi didn’t care how Tantan messed with the seafood on the beach.
Based on Ren Chenxi’s understanding of Tantan, fish in the sea had the greatest temptation for Tantan. But the crabs and lobsters crawling around on the sandy ground, as well as the shellfish hidden in the sand and attached to rocks, were also very tempting to Tantan. Limiting Tantan from going wild in the sea, Tantan would definitely go dig up various seafood on the beach. But digging up was one thing; whether it could eat these seafood into its stomach was another matter.
As picky an eater as Tantan was, it definitely wouldn’t want to eat seafood that hadn’t been processed by itself and was covered in sand.
Just as Ren Chenxi predicted, after Tantan ran to find Sun Jia and the others, it very quickly used its own skills to dig up a large razor clam from the sand. But facing this large razor clam covered in sand, Tantan only sniffed it a few times, pawed at it a few times with its little paws, then disappointedly went to dig up other seafood.
Originally, Sun Jia and the others had been finding seafood entirely by luck. Without Ren Chenxi’s mini-map prompts, they could swarm the large crabs on the surface of the sand and chop off their legs to catch them. But for seafood hidden in the sand, they really could only rely on experience — looking at the small holes one by one on the sand, then trying to dig. With good luck, they could dig up a decent-sized razor clam or even a sand worm. With bad luck, it would just be an empty dig.
Now, with Tantan’s help, relying on Tantan’s sensitive sense of smell to precisely dig up seafood everywhere, Sun Jia and the others had it much easier.
Mu Ning only watched for a while, and after confirming Tantan wouldn’t mess around anymore, she finally settled down to fish seriously. This time fishing, Mu Ning simply used a Level 6 crystal core as bait directly. Just like mutated ones on land absorbing crystal cores and mutated beasts devouring crystal cores, mutated seafood in the sea would naturally also be attracted by crystal cores. Moreover, mutated fish of the same level were more easily attracted to crystal cores of the same level. If the crystal core exceeded their own level, it would instead make these lower-level seafood feel wary.
The Level 6 crystal core Mu Ning used as bait directly scared away all the 4th-order and 5th-order mutated seafood. So in Ren Chenxi’s view, in the afternoon, the frequency of mutated fish biting for Mu Ning was far less than in the morning. But… almost every time a big fish bit, it was 6th-order. In three hours in the afternoon, Mu Ning had already caught seven Level 6 mutated fish, which made Ren Chenxi, who had been guarding the side, somewhat numb.
In less than a day, the crystal cores Mu Ning harvested were actually more than what Ren Chenxi sold from the Apocalypse Mall products! Such a result naturally made Ren Chenxi envious and jealous at first. She even almost went to open the Apocalypse Mall to look for sturdy and durable fishing tools, wanting to fish herself. But this thought was only momentary. After seeing Mu Ning’s vine that was up to 30 meters long, Ren Chenxi calmed down.
First, even if the Apocalypse Mall really sold fishing gear, the fishing line might not be as long as Mu Ning’s vine. Furthermore, even if there was a 30-meter-long fishing line, she might not have the skill to pull the hooked fish ashore. No matter how good the fishing line was, it ultimately wasn’t as flexible as Mu Ning’s vine. She might not only fail to catch fish but also lose the crystal core used as bait.
Moreover, Ren Chenxi suddenly realized something. Mu Ning fishing so desperately like this was perhaps to save up enough crystal cores to exchange for that Level 8 crystal core from her.
Thinking of this, Ren Chenxi felt much more at peace watching Mu Ning fish. Then watching big fish after big fish get hooked, without her needing to lift a finger, Mu Ning would use ice spikes to stab them to death, then have Chen Gu pull them ashore. Ren Chenxi even had the mind to study the N ways to eat3 mutated fish.
Ren Chenxi watched Mu Ning fish for a while, then occasionally turned to look at Tantan, discovering that Tantan was still very actively helping search for seafood hidden in the sand on the beach. In just a short while, Mu Ning beside her had another big fish hooked. No, wait, this time what was hooked didn’t seem to be a mutated fish.
“Huh, why so light?”
Chen Gu, who was helping pull the vine, hadn’t reacted yet. Ren Chenxi, who had just turned her head, saw a white, semi-transparent thing firmly wrapped by Mu Ning’s vine and pulled out of the sea surface, suddenly shooting out a thin, long tentacle stabbing toward Mu Ning.
“Careful!” Sensing something was wrong, Ren Chenxi pushed Mu Ning beside her. While Mu Ning barely dodged that tentacle attack, Ren Chenxi shot an SR Explosion Card straight at that white thing still wrapped in the vine.
This week, although Ren Chenxi hadn’t used the remaining crystal stones to draw cards, just relying on the 5 free card draws every day, she still managed to synthesize an SR Explosion Card. The white monster4 wrapped by Mu Ning was only 6th-order level. Under the attack of the SR Explosion Card, it was naturally 100% headshot.
Hmm, anyway, that big ball of white stuff couldn’t tell where the head was and where the body was. When the SR Explosion Card entered this monster’s body, this white monster just directly exploded.
The white monster suddenly exploded, startling Chen Gu. Mu Ning beside her quickly reacted, turning her head straight to look at Ren Chenxi. Ren Chenxi didn’t pay attention to Mu Ning and walked straight toward the depths of the seawater.
“What are you doing!” Mu Ning wasn’t scared by the white monster’s explosion, but was scared by Ren Chenxi’s action. She didn’t even care about controlling the vine, directly freeing one hand to grab Ren Chenxi.
“The crystal core of the mutated beast I attacked will drop out of its body!” Ren Chenxi explained in a low voice to Mu Ning, then tried to break free from Mu Ning’s hand, wanting to continue forward. If she wasn’t fast enough, that crystal core might be carried by the waves to deeper sea.
“Forget it! Don’t want it!” Mu Ning firmly held onto Ren Chenxi, not letting her go forward. “Just one Level 6 crystal core. I’ll catch two more for you.”
“But…”
“No buts. The seawater there is so deep. Are you sure there aren’t other mutated sea monsters hidden underneath?”
Being told this by Mu Ning, Ren Chenxi glanced at the mini-map again. Indeed, in the seawater ahead of her, the mini-map showed quite a few red dots. For one Level 6 crystal core, putting herself in danger was indeed not worth it!
“Tch! Fine then. You have to make up two Level 6 crystal cores for me!” But that was 100,000 crystal stones! Ren Chenxi sighed very painfully, casually saying to Mu Ning as if complaining.
“Okay!” Mu Ning still held onto Ren Chenxi, nodding in agreement.
The author has something to say:
Xixi: Not bad, actually played binding play 3 times. Happy?
Wood: …
Tantan: Meow meow meow meow meow!!!
ps: Our sauerkraut is proper sauerkraut, personally pickled by Auntie Chen with clean hands!
Footnotes
- Suāncàiyú (酸菜鱼) is a famous Sichuan dish consisting of fish fillets poached in a rich broth made from pickled Chinese cabbage (suancai), chili peppers, and various aromatics. The result is tender, slightly spicy fish in a sour, refreshing soup.
- Zòngzi (粽子) are traditional Chinese sticky rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves into a neat, compact bundle. The metaphor describes someone tightly bound or wrapped up, completely immobilized.
- In Chinese internet slang, 'N ways' (N种) uses the letter N to represent an unspecified large number, borrowed from mathematical notation. It means 'countless ways' or 'numerous methods.'
- A jellyfish-like mutated sea creature. In Chinese webnovels, sea monsters are often described by their appearance and order level rather than given specific species names, reflecting how survivors categorize threats by danger level rather than scientific classification.
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