Chapter 124 Cat's Whiskers Forum, Church, Cat's Whiskers Likes Oranges...
[Casual Chat] [How to Cook Delicious Dishes with Mutant Cockroach Meat]
[Topic: As we all know, even among mutated creatures, mutated cockroaches are the most numerous. The fact that God gave us the ability to remove the toxicity of mutated flesh is an indication that we must strive hard and cultivate the ability to survive in any extreme environment, just like mutated cockroaches—as long as we can eat the largest number of mutated cockroaches, we will be able to survive better in the fog!]
[3L: Support! Below is my discovery on how to make mutated cockroach meat. First, prioritize using mutated cockroach legs during synthesis. Although it's all cockroach meat after synthesis, I've personally tested it and found the texture is smoother. Second, while the synthesized mutated cockroach meat isn't poisonous, it's still dry and difficult to chew. At this point, we can use mutated saliva grass for a second synthesis. Although the number of synthesis attempts increases, I've calculated that the energy gained after eating it also increases, making it a win-win method in terms of both taste and cost-effectiveness! Everyone, get started!]
[43l: Can you mutant cockroach faction members be a little more normal? Our company is doing very well in the lower city; we have nutrient solutions and natural food with higher contribution points to choose from. Why do we have to fight mutant cockroaches to the death? Save your synthesis attempts to get some weapons or conduct experiments. That would be the most beneficial thing to do for God, wouldn't it?]
[103l: That's right! I have a friend who worked with the bishop. God clearly doesn't like overemphasizing dedication, she said it's called... something like "making a fuss over nothing." If you like eating mutated cockroach meat, go ahead and eat it. We have the freedom to choose how many synthesis attempts we want to use, don't try to morally blackmail us!]
Du Yu's expression suddenly turned strange for a moment when she saw this sentence. As a privileged user, she could see the ID of the forum spokesperson. She knew very well that none of the believers she had come into contact with matched the "friend" she was talking about, but she had to admit that this sentence was her style... This guy is a genius.
Although Wang Erqi has management skills, it may be due to her multiple near-death experiences that she is sometimes inflexible in her work. She needs someone more flexible to assist her. In any case, in a church with a true God, engaging in corruption and forming cliques is simply courting death.
After adding this guy who talks nonsense to the talent pool, Du Yu rolled over in bed and continued scrolling through the forum's "casual chat" section using his mind.
In my past life, my small group chat with my roommates only had 3 people, but we could chat for 99 minutes straight. Now, the forum has nearly a thousand members, and the posting speed is so fast it's dazzling.
Although the waste recycling company has now secured the living materials for believers, and some miners from the docks even worked in communications and built a small local area network in the redwood church, it is still too extravagant for entertainment, as the church's entertainment options are relatively limited.
Thus, the [Gugu Communication] forum, which requires no resources and only a portion of mental energy, became the best pastime for believers in their spare time.
At first, because of God's existence, the believers were a little reserved, but with Tian Yinuo and Shen Xijing taking the lead, and with God's long-term tacit approval, the forum is now very lively. So much so that when Tian Yinuo was the forum administrator, she even divided the chat into many sections.
The hottest post in the "Chat" section that Du Yu just read is a daily topic on the forum—a clash between a food connoisseur who is keen on developing new dishes and a food classicist, occasionally expressing their loyalty to the Lord of Listening and using a quote from the doctrine to justify themselves.
The person who started this whole thing is thoroughly amused.
After pressing the button to upgrade the [Altar], she discovered a problem: although the upgrade materials were ready, the upgrade progress would be affected because "the altar synthesis proficiency is too low".
The system's vague description of being "affected" is reflected in the progress of the [Altar] upgrade. Even though the blueprint only states three days, two days have passed and the progress bar is still not moving.
Fortunately, the system did have some humanity. Under Du Yu's repeated protests and threats to withhold 166 fries, it finally made the proficiency of the [Altar] visible—although the upgrade conditions for proficiency were so long that it was despairing, and the system was acting strangely, with the upgrade unit being tens of millions!
Although there are recycling companies that collect all kinds of waste, the market in the Xiacheng District has not been fully opened up yet, and it is impossible to increase the proficiency level in a short period of time.
After much thought, Du Yu combined his internship experience from his previous life with a brilliant idea – outsourcing!
As the saying goes, there is no problem that outsourcing cannot solve, only problems that haven't been solved by finding the right outsourcing provider. Since Du Yu can lend power to believers through rituals, she can naturally also authorize some of the altar's authority to believers.
Of course, this authorization is not unlimited.
Currently, the maximum free crafting materials available at the altar are "Grade B," which is also the area authorized by Du Yu for free. The number of crafting attempts distributed daily varies depending on the faith level, which is sufficient for believers, who are mainly ordinary people.
Further up the chain, for those with special abilities and some inexplicably lucky individuals, Du Yu thoughtfully introduced a paid program that charged contribution points, which was exactly what Gu Yinglan and Wenren Qiu were trying to promote.
In the gray fog, the credits of the City of the Sun naturally lost their credibility and became unusable. But simply relying on the system of collective governance wasn't a problem. When Du Yu had already established the church's framework in the style of a company, he tried to introduce "contribution points" as a new currency.
No signal on the computer or poor network signal are not problems.
The [Gugu Communication] forum, which all believers can log in to, can solve the two major problems of currency payment and currency storage by adding a "contribution points" column to the personal information section of the forum.
Currently, the believers are adapting well to the new currency and free crafting. Du Yu's crafting proficiency in the [Altar] is increasing rapidly. In addition, Du Yu instructed Qin Xinhong to expand the business scope of the waste recycling company. At the current pace, it is expected that the altar crafting can be completed within a week.
This week has been a rare period of leisure for Du Yu, as he is either caught up in inexplicable events or running around collecting upgrade and quest items.
The anomaly in the gray fog was left to Cat Beard and Xiao Yi to investigate, Qin Xin Hong was in charge of the waste recycling company, Gu Ying Lan and Wen Ren Qiu were in charge of the internal affairs of the church, and even the forum was managed by the enthusiastic Tian Yinuo and Shen Xi Jing.
After wandering around and finding nothing he could do, Du Yu simply lay in bed, opened the forum, and used the excuse of inspecting the living conditions of believers to slack off.
With more people, there are more disputes. The debate between the two groups of food critics was relatively peaceful. The small forum with less than a thousand people had an astonishingly wide range of topics.
Some shared hunting tips, some complained about the ubiquitous mutated cockroaches, and others, out of boredom, shared urban oddities from the city of Sun Chaser and made up jokes.
Seeing this, Du Yu shook his head from time to time, marveling at the believers' imagination and ability to create hilarious situations.
Just as Du Yu was about to scroll past the post after glancing at the title with its extremely high plagiarism rate, his gaze suddenly stopped when he saw the revealed main content:
[Casual Chat] [So bored, let me share some bizarre rumors I heard in the Lower City. I can't guarantee they're true, but they're perfect for watching while gnawing on cockroach legs; they're surprisingly good for watching while eating.]
[Topic: The popular topics have already been covered by the ladies, so I'll share a less common one. Cats, supposedly magical creatures that existed before the Great Cataclysm, are now expensive pets popular among the wealthy in the Upper City; one cat can cost as much as ten of the latest androids.]
[...Of course, that's not the point. The point is, supposedly, this animal, even without mutation, has a magical ability: if you pluck a cat's whiskers on a full moon night, you'll be cursed by this animal and forever turned into a child! The brother of the godmother's brother of a woman I met at the tavern was once tricked by one of these children—it's especially despicable!]
[33l: Pfft, being cursed into a child by an ordinary animal is more like being cursed by a fallen species. If that cat-like animal were really that magical, how could it possibly be an ordinary animal? The quality of stories in the section has really dropped drastically lately.]
[...]
[I know this sounds unbelievable, but it's true! It's said that if you're cursed by a cat and turned into a child, a part of your body will also turn into a cat's. My colleague's neighbor's third sister's friend's teacher once saw a little boy with cat ears that could even move! It was terrifying!]
[136l: After thinking about it, it is indeed a bit scary, but to be honest, most people who develop strange organs are probably out of their minds when they got prosthetics implanted, choosing animal-like ones, right? More worrying than being afraid is not touching them when passing by, otherwise you might not be able to pay it back even if you sold all your organs.]
The topic in the post quickly turned into the original poster arguing that the legend was terrifying. Believers mocked the original poster for being cowardly and questioned him from various angles. Du Yu closed these meaningless posts, rolled over in bed, sat cross-legged, and touched his chin.
The original owner of this body had also kept cats. Du Yu was skeptical about whether ordinary creatures like cats could curse humans, but she had to admit that this post reminded her of someone—Cat Whiskers.
Despite having the mind of an adult, she behaves like a little girl; her behavior is extremely mysterious, and no one knows her real name, not even Cai Chunyu and the others, who only know her as the code name "Cat Whiskers"; her origins are shrouded in mystery, and her background is shrouded in enigma. Before his death, Bian Shaoyan of Quark recognized her superpowers. In a spacetime rift, Cat Whiskers in her little girl form also entered the Cross Prison...
Each of these points, taken individually, is highly suspicious; when put together, they inevitably make one wonder if having such a person around has ulterior motives.
Du Yu didn't become suspicious of Cat Beard because of this one post. In fact, the reason she was lying in the room of the mahogany church today instead of in the temple was because of Cat Beard's invitation.
She proactively sent a private message to Du Yu, wanting to talk this afternoon.
Just then, Cat Whiskers knocked on the door and entered.
Firstly, because of her short legs, and secondly, because she's lazy. Usually, Cat Whiskers would ride on Shen Xijing's neck, having the latter carry her. But today, she came alone, which is quite unusual.
"Would you like something to drink? Orange juice or apple juice?"
Cat Whiskers jumped onto the chair, rolled his eyes at the words, and said very rudely, "Thank you, but I'm not a child. I'd like a glass of maple red and white wine!"
A moment later, Cat Whiskers stared at the orange-flavored fruit beer in front of him and rolled his eyes even more: "I told you I'm not a child!"
"So what's your current state?"
Du Yu had been curious about Cat Whiskers' condition for a long time, but she hadn't had the chance before. Now that the other party was acting so openly, Du Yu directly asked the question she was most curious about.
Cat Whiskers took a sip of fruit beer with a look of disdain and shook his head in an old-fashioned manner: "This topic could take a long time to come up with, so let's start with something simple—like the seed of [destiny] that is sprouting within you."
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Author's Note: I'll briefly discuss the church's development before moving on to the main storyline. [Sunglasses]
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