Chapter 81 Making the Most of Everything
The next morning, the people in District 50 received another notification on their wristwatches, asking them to take the corpses of the gold-devouring ants they had killed to the central square, where superhumans would process them in bulk.
Logically speaking, gold-eating ants contain a large amount of metal in their bodies, but they also have flesh and blood, so they cannot be considered pure metal. Moreover, in such hot weather, they are prone to rotting, so they can only be sold as scrap metal.
Scrap metal is worthless; a pile of it might fetch a few silver coins at most. Moreover, there are only scrap metal recycling stations in District 48. For someone from District 50 to go to District 48, it would cost six silver coins for a round trip, which is simply not worthwhile.
Since the authorities are willing to handle it uniformly, they are naturally happy to run the errand and bring this thing to the central square, so that it won't stay at home and stink.
When Pandora saw the information on the wristwatch, an idea suddenly came to him.
"Sister, do you think our little Bao will eat the dead gold-eating ants? If it likes them, we can take it to the central square tonight, then it can eat them as much as it wants," Pan Duole said.
"Huh? Eating dead ants? Xiao Bao wouldn't have such a heavy taste, would he?" Zuo Shan's stomach churned again, inevitably recalling the bloody scene of killing and swallowing gold ants that night.
The key issue wasn't just the gore; she had a lifelong fear of insects and the like, a fear that had no reason whatsoever.
"Whether we like it or not, we'll find out after we try it. I'll go drag the two from my house over first," Pan Duole said eagerly.
For children born in the wasteland, saving food is an ingrained habit. Although Pandora finds Xiao Bao adorable, she would feel like she's hit the jackpot if she could get a free food ration.
Before Zuo Shan could speak, Pan Duole hurriedly dragged the stretcher away. After returning home, she first washed the stretcher several times, and then dismembered the two broken corpses of the gold-eating ants into several pieces along their joints.
Then, using the sharp chelicerae as hooks, they cleaned out all the flesh and blood hidden in the gaps of the metal limbs, rinsed it clean under a water pipe, leaving only the pure metal limbs.
After doing all this, she dragged the mangled limbs of the two gold-eating ants back to her new home.
"Little Bao, come and see, do you like this?" Pandora called out to it with a smile.
Upon seeing this, Xiao Bao immediately pounced over, and before Zuo Shan could stop it, it opened its mouth wide and began to devour and chew.
Alright! One man's poison is another man's honey. Zuo Shan was completely convinced. Xiao Bao was ultimately not her species, so it was perfectly reasonable for her to like eating different kinds of food.
After receiving this affirmative answer, Pandora happily dragged the stretcher out and soon gathered dozens of gold-devouring ant corpses.
“Sister, I bought them from those neighbors. I promised to help them haul them to the square. I’ll only charge them half a silver coin for every ten. They could definitely earn more by scavenging in the wild,” Pan Duole said happily.
Zuo Shan silently gave a thumbs up: This little girl is amazing! She got a free portion of Xiao Bao's food and even earned half a silver coin on the side.
In just half a day, Pandole made more than a dozen trips, collecting more than 500 corpses of gold-devouring ants and earning 32 silver coins.
Zuo Shan thought this child was really capable and quick-witted. Even without her adoption, she would definitely be able to grow up on her own.
After eating the two ant corpses that Pandora had cleaned up, Xiao Bao wasn't satisfied.
The inherited memory tells it that these things are very good for it, and the more it eats, the better.
Seeing all the dead ants that Pandora had collected, Xiao Bao couldn't wait for her to clean them up and couldn't resist going over to eat them. But Zuo Shan looked disgusted and said, "Don't eat them! The meat inside is rotten!"
Xiao Bao shook its fluffy head and thought for a moment, then raised its front paw and shot a golden light at one of the big ants.
The golden light instantly enveloped the corpses of several gold-devouring ants, and then Zuo Shan saw that the corpses enveloped in the golden light began to deform, as if an invisible hand was squeezing them.
They transformed into a small stream of metal, slowly flowing towards Xiao Bao's forepaw. As the metal stream formed, the decaying flesh and blood remaining in the corpses of the gold-devouring ants lost their support and fell to the ground as fragments.
The small stream of metal was grasped and kneaded into a ball from a distance, and as it casually rubbed the liquid metal with its forepaw, the ball of liquid metal kept changing shape.
This was clearly the first time Xiao Bao had used this skill, and it didn't even know it possessed it before.
It thought that it was because it was disliked by Sister Fan that it had racked its brains to develop this skill, and Xiao Bao was very curious and surprised about it.
Like a child who has just received a new toy, after squeezing it for a while, he put the lump of liquid metal into his mouth and then used his new skill to extract metal from the corpses of other gold-eating ants.
"My God! Xiao Bao has awakened the supernatural ability to control metal forms! That's amazing!"
Normally, mutated beasts need to reach the third or fourth tier to awaken a divine ability, but this one has already awakened a divine ability at the first tier, and such a powerful one at that. Master, why don't you quickly form a contract with it?" Mao Li's cat eyes shone brightly.
"Don't rush to form a contract. I checked the information and it said that if your own ability level is too low, forming a contract with a mutated beast will affect its advancement speed and suppress its combat power during battle."
"Let's not talk about that for now. Tell me quickly, what do you mean by this supernatural ability to manipulate metal forms?"
"That means Xiaobao can change the form of metal at will from now on, such as melting a metal block into liquid metal, or turning a metal disc into a square box."
That's not the main point. The main point is that from now on, it can freely control the metallic form within the bodies of any metallic mutant beast of the same level as it.
"Kill them and absorb the different kinds of metallic elements they contain to strengthen your own body," Maurice explained.
After Mao Li's explanation, Zuo Shan carefully examined Xiao Bao and discovered that its little claws hidden in its palm were coated with a layer of black metallic luster, exactly the same as the metallic luster emitted by the bodies of those gold-devouring ants.
Zuo Shan cautiously reached out and touched it. My god! It not only replicated the luster of the gold-devouring ant, but even its hardness was the same.
She tapped it gently with her hand, and her shiny black little claws produced a crisp metallic sound.
Xiao Bao's fingernails have turned into metal? This is truly incredible!
While Zuo Shan was happy for Xiao Bao, she also felt a little regretful. If Xiao Bao's whole body turned into such a hard, cold, metallic material in the future, she would never be able to touch the soft, warm Xiao Bao again.
However, Zuo Shan was still very proud of the thought that Xiao Bao would become strong and resilient in the future, greatly reducing the chance of injury.
It's like a parent seeing their child transform from a weakling into a tough guy; if it weren't for the fear of attracting unwanted attention, they would want to praise them to everyone they meet.
Since Xiao Bao could directly extract metal from the Gold-Eating Ant's body, Zuo Shan no longer had so many concerns. He patted its head and said, "Alright, eat as much as you want, just don't overeat."
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