A Little Cat - Bonus Chapter Nine

Fu De Street is the most famous food street on Boundary King Star.

Calling it a food street isn't entirely accurate. It sells almost everything, including various fruits, vegetables, and other unprocessed foods. Furthermore, this food street is quite different from other food streets Gu Ding has visited.

Typically, food streets are dirty and chaotic places, just like Red Light District, only less bloody and more greasy.

But this food street gives people a completely different feeling; it is spotless, and all the oil fumes are sucked away by underground pipes.

"It's a little different from what I imagined," Liliath echoed Gu Ding's feelings, "But this difference is for the better."

"That looks delicious..." Elsa's gaze was drawn to a stall not far away.

"That looks like a scallop." Looking at the glistening, roasted scallop meat, Gu Ding also felt a little hungry.

"That's Screaming Clam, a type of food that requires special processing." Bigge recognized the ingredient at a glance. "It is said that Screaming Clam are very timid. If there is even the slightest sound within a meter of them, they will be immediately frightened, let out a pitiful scream, and then close their shells. They will not open them again for at least three days."

"You can bake it directly with the shell closed, what's the difference?" Gu Ding asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Don't let the small size of this creature's shell fool you. A chef once did an experiment, and this shell can withstand temperatures of 880,000 degrees Celsius. Above 880,000 degrees, the shell will explode violently. The chef who did this experiment was Tenth-Order Gene Body. He died from this explosion." Bigge's story sounded somewhat bizarre.

"Can't we just use brute force to pry it open?" Elsa thought that with her strength, breaking open this kind of shell shouldn't be a problem.

"No one below the demigod level can forcibly pry open this kind of shell. There are also videos in the sky to prove it, and quite a few people have already tried," Bigge explained, shaking his head.

"I don't believe it!" Elsa couldn't believe that such a shell existed in the world. She walked over to the shop owner and said, "Boss, could I borrow an unopened shell? I want to try to see if I can break it open."

The shop owner, a ruddy-faced middle-aged man, didn't seem surprised; clearly, Elsa wasn't the first customer to make such a request. Moreover, these performances usually brought in a lot of business for his stall. So, he happily took a Screaming Clam with its shell closed and handed it to Elsa.

Elsa dug her fingernails into the seam of the shell and exerted a sudden burst of force, trying to tear it open. But the shell wouldn't budge. She grew angry. She gritted her teeth and added a vibrating force, the terrifying power surging into the shell again, but it vanished as quickly as if it had disappeared into the sea. The shell remained as stubborn as a flawless stone.

Liliath couldn't stand it any longer. She pulled out her silver pistol, transforming it into a sniper rifle, and loaded it with two Armor-Piercing Bullets. "I refuse to believe that brute force can't pry it open, and Armor-Piercing Bullet- piercing rounds can't break through it!"

"It's no use," Bigge advised. "This method has already been tried before."

Ignoring the advice, Liliath fired two shots accurately at the Screaming Clam. The shell was sent flying, but Elsa leaped up and caught it. She looked down at the Screaming Clam in her hand and shook her head at Liliath with some regret.

This Screaming Clam is as sturdy as an indestructible fortress.

The two women's behavior attracted a lot of onlookers, with most of the older residents maintaining a "let's watch the show" attitude, clearly indicating that this wasn't the first time they had witnessed something like this.

"Let me see!" Robert reached out and took the Screaming Clam. He tapped it from side to side, then tried various tools such as a drill and a cutting machine, but nothing worked. However, his eyes were clearly shining. He ran to the shop owner's stall and asked, "Boss, can you sell me these useless shells?"

"If you need it, you can have it all. We're just throwing it away as garbage anyway. Besides, this stuff is very difficult to handle as garbage. It needs to be soaked in a very strong acid for several days to slowly soften." The shop owner readily agreed, as their daily cost of disposing of this kind of garbage was not low.

After returning the seashells to the shop owner, Robert emptied all the empty shells from the owner's trash can into his own Storage Space.

"In this case, how should this be eaten?" Gu Ding asked.

"The Screaming Clam's reaction time is 0.001 seconds, and it also takes 0.001 seconds to close its shell. So in these 0.002 seconds, the chef must silently pick out the Screaming Clam's meat with a hook," Bigge explained.

"Looks like we've met an expert," the middle-aged shop owner chuckled. "Would this gentleman be interested in giving it a try?"

"I've never made Screaming Clam before, I've only heard of this ingredient." Bigge was also a little nervous, he really wasn't confident.

"Give it a try, it's nothing to be ashamed of." Gu Ding patted Bigge.

Encouraged, Bigge nodded and took the hook from the shop owner.

His gaze fell on an open seashell in front of him. He swung his right hand out in an instant, and with a quick pull of the hook, the pink flesh was ripped out. The speed was so fast that the Screaming Clam had no time to react.

"Great skills!" The shop owner led the applause, and others nearby wanted to try their luck as well, and the shop's business immediately picked up.

"Boss, four servings, to go!" Gu Ding felt it wasn't right to bother others for so long, and the Screaming Clam on the grill did look really delicious. He bought one for each of his group, except for Robert.

After eating Screaming Clam, Gu Ding and his group felt that the taste was unforgettable.

"I'll buy some ingredients for Screaming Clam later, so that I won't have to worry about not being able to eat them after I leave this planet." Bigge had made up his mind to learn how to cook Screaming Clam properly.

The five continued walking deeper into Fu De Street.

"That fish is so cute, it looks like a chubby little guy who's eaten his fill, it can barely swim," Elsa said, pointing to a fish tank not far away.

"That silver-scaled fish over there, wagging its tail rapidly but swimming very slowly, is called Poisonous Puffer," Bigge explained. "This fish is also a specially processed ingredient; it tastes very delicious, but you can't touch its internal organs when processing it. Otherwise, the whole fish will turn purple and become inedible."

"Why can't we eat it just because it turns purple?" Elsa felt that food shouldn't be wasted.

"Because turning purple means it contains a lot of toxins. It is said that if a powerhouse below the demigod level eats it, they will die within ten hours." Bigge's words made Elsa immediately turn her gaze away from the fish.

Not far from where she had walked, Elsa's gaze was suddenly drawn to a piece of meat.

"That piece of meat belongs to the Steel-Toothed Beast, a ninth-tier Gene Beast. The muscles of these Gene Beasts are as hard as Adamantine Alloy, with extremely strong defense. Only genetic experts of the tenth tier or above who have cultivated the Qi of the Gang Realm can kill them. Their meat also needs to be heated to a temperature of over 50,000 degrees Celsius to soften slowly, otherwise chewing it is no different from chewing Adamantine Alloy..." Bigge's words had completely fallen, a yellow shadow flashed by, and the piece of meat had already disappeared.

Elsa reacted instantly, reaching out to grab him, only to find that he suddenly accelerated and she missed.

At this moment, Bigge also made his move, but instead of reaching out to grab, he drew his sword to intercept. His long sword, still sheathed, flashed out, blocking the yellow figure's path.

At this moment, Huang Ying finally stopped moving, and Gu Ding and his group could see clearly that the one who stole the meat was actually a kitten. The cat looked a bit thin, with tiger stripes all over its body, but it was very energetic. It looked at Bigge for a while, then sat down and slowly began to gnaw on the piece of meat that was as hard as Adamantine Alloy.

Seeing this, Gu Ding and his group were speechless.

"It looks really hungry." Gu Ding looked at the thin little creature and felt a pang of sympathy. After all, he himself had been bullied since childhood because he was thin. This cat, if it wasn't extremely hungry, probably wouldn't dare to steal food.

"You thieving cat!" The shop owner quickly caught up. "I'm going to kill you!"

"Boss, I'll buy that piece of meat." Gu Ding felt sorry for the kitten; if it got caught by the shop owner, the consequences would probably be dire.

The little guy witnessed this whole scene.

After paying the shop owner and sending him away, Gu Ding took a bag of potato chips from his Storage Space and walked towards the little guy. He had heard that many cats liked this kind of snack.

The little guy glanced up at Gu Ding, seemingly unconcerned about the other's approach, and continued gnawing on the piece of meat. In just over ten seconds, a quarter of the meat had been eaten.

Gu Ding thought this little guy had exceptionally good teeth. He smiled and walked over to the little guy, opened the bag of potato chips, picked up a chip, and held it to its mouth. The little guy lazily glanced at Gu Ding and chose to ignore his gesture.

Gu Ding reached out his hand, wanting to touch the little guy, but just as he was about to touch its fur, it vanished in a flash.

"Such speed!" Elsa couldn't help but exclaim.

"This cat's speed is already close to that of Eleventh Order genetic body." Bigge nodded. "Moreover, it can actually bite into that piece of Steel-Toothed Beast meat. Many Twelfth-Order Gene Body predators are unwilling to hunt Steel-Toothed Beast. If this kind of meat is not cooked, even if it can be bitten, it is very difficult to eat and even more difficult to digest."

"No matter how capable it is, it's still a pitiful little guy, otherwise it wouldn't be stealing food." Gu Ding shook his head. "Let's go back, it's getting dark, we've been walking around since noon, and I'm already a bit full."

Watching Gu Ding and his group leave, the kitten peeked out from a corner, stuffed the remaining meat into its mouth, and then trotted off to follow behind Gu Ding.