Chapter 34

Crafting requires 5 gold coins.
Feeling curious, Tao Shushu reluctantly selected "Yes," despite the cost.
The screen displayed: "Please select an item to craft."
Below were three images: the first showed a pair of gloves, the second a hat, and the third a pair of socks.
After a moment's thought, Tao Shushu chose the gloves.
Once the selection was made, the fibrous material in Nan Yuan's hands began to decompose and transform.
Tao Shushu quickly reassured him, "Don't be scared, cub. I'm making a pair of gloves for you."
Nan Yuan obediently stopped moving.
The fibers wrapped around Nan Yuan's fingertips, gradually conforming to the shape of his hands and forming into gloves.
"Cub has gloves now!" Tao Shushu said. "Let me take a look."
These gloves had cost 5 gold coins to make, so Tao Shushu eagerly examined the results of her purchase.
Nan Yuan spread his hands, allowing Shushu to grip and turn them over for inspection.
He suddenly felt a slight itch in his throat.
Tao Shushu observed carefully, the pale white gloves fit his hands perfectly.
From the outside, the material looked very soft.
"Cub, if we harvest more Bloodsucking Grass, we can make more clothes," Tao Shushu suggested.
Nan Yuan nodded. He took off the gloves and stretched them forcefully.
The gloves elongated but instantly snapped back to their original shape when he released them.
Tao Shushu was satisfied. The gloves could stretch and recover, and they seemed quite durable.
Nan Yuan tested them with the tip of his knife but couldn't cut through them. "The fibers are very strong," he noted.
Tao Shushu suggested trying fire, water, and corrosive solutions on the gloves.
The gloves remained completely undamaged.
Now, Tao Shushu didn't blame the system for being a rip-off. For just 5 gold coins, she had crafted a pair of gloves with top-tier defensive capabilities, it was a fantastic deal.
"Cub, we can make so many clothes!" Tao Shushu exclaimed excitedly. There was a large patch of Bloodsucking Grass above the base, a perfect material repository. She sketched all the clothing styles and weaving methods she knew on paper.
Nan Yuan nodded, smiling as he watched numerous clothing patterns appear out of thin air on the paper before him. He didn't mention that only the stems and leaves harvested when the Bloodsucking Grass was fully extended could yield usable fibers, he had failed many, many times before.
On the screen, a task prompt popped up: [Clothing made from Bloodsucking Grass fibers has excellent defensive properties. Please craft a set of clothing for everyone in the base. Task reward: 500 gold coins, Primary Clarity Cards× 3.]
Tao Shushu clicked to accept the task and eagerly pulled Nan Yuan outside the base to check on the Bloodsucking Grass bushes they had cultivated.
The patch of Bloodsucking Grass, absorbing nutrients from the soil, was thriving luxuriantly.
Tao Shushu gazed at the lush green grass, this was the territory she and her cub had secured. Excitedly, she patrolled the area.
Every now and then, Tao Shushu poked a finger into the grass, confusing the plants about which direction to snipe the enemy.
Nan Yuan, had the lion train by the edge of the grass.
The lion’s molting period wasn’t over yet, and from time to time, a few tufts of golden fur were pulled out.
As Tao Shushu watched, she remembered that her cub’s hair had also grown long.
After a moment’s thought, she decided she could practice on the golden lion first.
So, ten minutes later, as Nan Yuan finished cutting a large bundle of Bloodsucking Grass, trimming away the excess outer stems and leaves to extract only the fibers from the veins, he saw the lion hiding behind a rock, refusing to move.
Nan Yuan walked over and found the lion completely bald, gnawing on its tail in frustration.
Tao Shushu felt a bit guilty. She hadn’t expected the fur of a mutated animal during its molting period to be so fragile, it came off with just a gentle tug.
Clearing her throat, she said, “Cub, I’ll make some clothes for the golden lion. And here’s a knife, you can shave your own hair.”
She had long noticed that Nan Yuan was quite skilled with cold weapons; for instance, he could cleanly process the fibers from Bloodsucking Grass leaves with a knife. To avoid breaking the fibers, most people had to resort to boiling methods.
Spending 5 gold coins, she crafted a set of clothes for the golden-maned lion and bought a small knife for her cub.
Having discovered the uses of Bloodsucking Grass, everyone planned to make more cold-resistant clothing, temporarily postponing their departure from the barren planet.
After some thought, Nan Yuan decided they would leave the barren planet in a month.
The people in the base split into three groups: one worked overtime processing ore to collect fuel for the spacecraft.
Another group, consisting of those with strong combat abilities, was responsible for harvesting Bloodsucking Grass stems and leaves, driving away mutated beasts, and gathering food.
Nan Yuan devised a tactic: speed-based ability users like Cheng Feimao and others capable of long-range attacks would “ignite” the situation, creating the illusion of an attack on the Bloodsucking Grass bushes. The rest would harvest the stems and leaves as soon as they stretched to the optimal state. Tao Shushu occasionally helped out as well.
The remaining people processed the Bloodsucking Grass stems and leaves, separating the fiber materials.
Driven by the need for sufficient energy and clothing, everyone worked with fervor.
Some even slept only a little over four hours at night, insisting on working overtime to process the fiber materials no matter how much others tried to persuade them otherwise.
Every time Tao Shushu logged in and saw it, she was deeply moved.
Nan Yuan comforted her, "For ordinary people without special abilities, clothing with defensive properties can increase their safety. If they want to do it, let them."
Tao Shushu understood this reasoning. After a moment of silence, she said, "Cub, I think you would make a great leader."
She repeated her promise, "I will always stay by your side."
To accompany her cub as he left the barren planet, journeyed across the vast galaxy, and warmed his heart in the harsh apocalypse.
Not for the sake of the game's main quest, because Tao Shushu believed that with Nan Yuan around, everyone would live well, whether they had special abilities or not.
He was such a kind-hearted cub.
For now, nothing major was happening in the game; every task was progressing step by step.
Tao Shushu's life also gradually fell into a routine.
Every day, she studied, prepared for competitions, practiced spoken English, and when she was tired, she would open the game to check on her cub.
Occasionally, she would hear news about Su Momo. She and Wang Tianba had been cleaning the school playground for a week, attracting plenty of attention.
As long as the female lead and her "fish" didn’t provoke her, Tao Shushu was perfectly peaceful.
But some people were just shameless.
Two weeks before the monthly exam, Tao Shushu, holding a perfect score on a physics competition mock test, was on her way back to Class One for drama rehearsal when she was stopped by a man in a suit.
"What do you want to say?" Tao Shushu stood in a blind spot of the surveillance cameras, clutching two erasers in her hand, ready for action.
"Miss Tao Shushu, here is a check," the man in the suit said, pulling an envelope from his bulging briefcase. "We hope you will not participate in the physics competition."
"Do you think I need money?" Tao Shushu regretted wasting five minutes on this.
"One can never have too much money," the man replied. "This envelope also contains an invitation to dine with the princess of F Country. Wouldn’t Miss Tao Shushu like to take this opportunity to become a shining star in high society?"
"No, thank you," Tao Shushu turned to leave.
"If Miss Tao doesn’t need it, perhaps your parents would. If you change your mind, please contact me," the man said with a smile, handing her a gold-embossed business card.
Tao Shushu tossed it straight into the trash.
As she climbed the stairs, she glanced back and saw the man in the suit getting into a luxury car outside while talking on the phone.
Tao Shushu appeared calm and unbothered, but as soon as she returned to her classroom, she looked up the company name on the business card.
Mingsheng Consulting, she recognized it. It was a company founded by someone from Yancheng City’s wealthy elite.
A few seconds later, Tao Shushu sighed as she looked at the first search result: a photo of the CEO of Mingsheng Consulting.
Another one of the female lead’s "fish."
And a particularly troublesome one at that.
Compared to Wang Tianba, who relied solely on his connections and brute force, Luo Li, the CEO of Mingsheng Consulting, was clearly more "well-rounded."
He was currently a sophomore in college, studying abroad, yet the company he managed remotely was thriving.
Logically, he shouldn’t have entered the female lead’s "high school social circle" yet.
In the original story, he appeared only after the female lead, Su Momo, had become an academic prodigy and started gaining attention. He helped her resolve issues like withheld lab funding and biased professors, proving himself to be quite resourceful.
Thinking back to the veiled threat in the suited man’s words, Tao Shushu felt a surge of anger.
Fine. If he wanted to deal with the person who had embarrassed Su Momo, she would give that "fish" a taste of trouble first.