It became a whole new landscape after Lynn and Qiu Yue managed to navigate their way out of the enormous cathedral and into the outside world. “What do you think that is? An abandoned village? A town maybe?” Qiu Yue queried as she saw how nature had taken over the entire place.
“Might even be an abandoned city. Who knows? You saw how big the cathedral was from inside. Usually, you can judge a place based on their religious infrastructures.” Lynn answered. She parked her vehicle near the giant building, after making sure it was safe and went up to the roof to scout. (Thankfully, she had yet to see any giants that were as large as the houses themselves.)
A lot of giant herbivores were roaming the streets. The boar rat they fought had been the size of an Ogre, but these chickens and cows that were grazing the grass right in front of them were at least three times their average size. Oddly enough, their sizes varied drastically even amongst their supposed species that it made both the Sub System users wonder if there was any order in their sizing.
“I’ve seen a Boar Rat as big as the largest Furry Cows before us. Seeing how some of the Horned Chickens appear to be bigger than some of the cows I can only assume it’s probably the longer they survive, the bigger they get.” Lynn concluded as she tracked the signal from her phone once again to find Colwaski, one of the elder penguins with the Chieftain Skitter.
The girls were unsure whether they would find any survivors… or solely their remains. They just knew that the longer it would take, the likelier the second scenario.
The Giant World was indeed a place where any creature could be a predator only to find themselves becoming the prey the very next moment. Hence, the penguins decided to take another route with their combat bikes. They believed it would be best not to disrupt any of the Horned Chicken or Furry Cows grazing at the overgrown grassland in front of the cathedral.
The penguins utilised a derelict open drain pipe as part of the cover from the overgrown grasslands and Lynn could see why they would use that as the main route to travel to their destination. They might catch the attention of the Horned Chicken on the surface, who would definitely love the challenge of chasing after the penguins.
The rocky terrain would make it hard to flee from them and who knows what other creatures would await them hiding under the overgrown grass. The drainpipe in comparison might be filled with running water and some debris, but the combat cycle was versatile enough to run along the water and at the side of the pipes.
Still, things never go as planned. Despite their combat bikes being equipped with anti acoustic inscriptions and being as silent as passing wind, they managed to attract unwanted attention. A scorpion appeared at the intersection of the drain and treated them as prey that landed in its territory.
The penguins informed Lynn about that arachnid being extremely tasty, if one managed to slay it. Qiu Yue also noticed those penguins were riling to go against the four clawed scorpions. Perhaps, they were comforted by the fact that without Lynn’s additional training, they would have already been scared to shit and be killed for food.
Fortunately, there was indeed a glimpse of chance as the penguins were leading the front while Lynn and Qiu Yue were at the back of the bike entourage. Thus making the scorpion be surrounded despite it trying to chase after the penguins on the combat bikes.
“My Queen, do you wish to stop so we can properly fight against the scorpion?” Kido asked via the system channel which Lynn denied his request.
“Let’s keep moving forward. The scorpion might just be the very guardian angel we need. It could become a distraction we need in case other giants appear.” Lynn replied while she slowed her bike down in order to not arouse the predator’s attention.
“Way to go, Lynn. I did not think of that.” Qiu Yue, who was holding on to her tightly, responded via the system channel since it would be stupid to be shouting and possibly create even more hassle for the group.
“Well, it does not mean we have to risk our lives throughout the entire run. Injure the scorpion whenever possible. Refrain from using the Combat Bike functions as of yet. This is just a small fry compared to what we might encounter later!” Lynn ordered.
“Lynn! Please remember we still have the teleportation magic at our disposal, it would be stupid to not use it.” Qiu Yue reminded and suggested that they could get the System to fix the bikes, or maybe ask Niu Lang to do so. Their Sub System informed them that it was certainly possible if they returned to their world, but it would cost them some dungeon dollars.
“That’s true. Qiu Yue, please inform Niu Lang about this. Tell him to get the schematics of the combat bike from the Sub System and the necessary armaments.” Lynn replied, and Qiu Yue squeezed Lynn a bit tighter (albeit a little more joyful and playful and not due to fear.)
“Yes, Mdm!” Qiu Yue agreed as she decided it to take the backseat (literally) and watch Lynn handle the situation. After all, the penguins were Lynn’s underlings, and it would be disrespectful to command her team, especially when she was present. Even though Qiu Yue could overtake them, she also needed time to know about the penguin’s fighting capabilities. For now, the red panda cultivator was looking forward to seeing Lynn’s battle tactics.
“So my Queen, weapons free?” Kido asked for a confirmation, and a simple yes from Lynn ignited the penguin’s bloodlust. The four clawed scorpion had no idea that it was ultimately chasing its own doom.
At the moment, the penguins had decided to run full speed through the long drain to deter and exhaust the scorpion as much as they could with their own weapons. The bike’s weapons did cost quite a bit of money according to their fellow penguin accountants.
Yes, Lynn had tasked a few penguin chefs to take up the accounting role, all that despite having a Sub System. To Lynn having a clear understanding of one’s own stock and predicting how much food they needed was a vital skill she wished to impart into her peggies.
That was why Lynn had increased the number of penguins to open and create their own stores in the WunderPanda Theme Park instance. The Sub System would eventually take note of the amount of food left and money they made, but the penguins would have to do it first as part of Lynn’s training.
She believed that a cook without a financial sense would not know the value of his kitchen. It could make one unaware of the real worth of particular food stocks and eventually lead one to abuse the kitchen with his ignorance. While the concept seemed somewhat shallow, it made the penguins learn an important lesson.
By handling the money themselves, the penguins would grasp how much of a portion that needed to be given for it to be both profitable for the chef and beneficial to the customers. Too little a serving and the customers might get disappointed, giving too much food and the chef would make a loss. A balance had to be struck.
But there was another reason why the penguins had yet to initiate any attack. The Sub Cooking System possessed something similar to Milk’s legendary skill, Scan. Aside from scanning the body parts for any damage or condition problems, it also displayed the nutritional value and how similar it was to certain groups of food that Lynn would be familiar with, be it on Earth or from other worlds.
That way, Lynn could decide whether it was worthwhile to keep it for food purposes as a whole or if just a part of it would be sufficient.
Similar to Jin, Lynn could have killed the scorpion and allowed the Sub System to analyse its corpse afterwards, but Lynn wished to play it safe whenever possible. (Less the ones she already knew, like the Boar Rat.) At the moment, the four claw scorpion was not an immediate threat since the penguins were able to outrun it, so knowing the properties of the monster would have a significant advantage in a battle.
Most importantly, they could try and damage its non edible parts and minimise the damage on the edible ones despite the fact that the Sub System could recreate it. However, the more complete the food stock was, the more data the Sub System could play with rather than compromise. (After all, it was a Sub System and not the main System. In terms of omnipotency, it was a few notches less capable.)
“Sub System shall now list the conclusion of the Scan for the User. The four clawed scorpion consists of Grade 3 meat, with its texture similar to Earth’s crab meat. Caution is advised against its tail, as it contains a paralysing venom. In the case of smaller targets, like the penguins, it may be directly life threatening.”
“Its claws are agile and strong enough to grab hold of a boar rat and hold it in place for the scorpion to jab it’s opponent multiple times guaranteeing the paralysing venom to work to its fullest potential. Combat bikes stand no chance if hit.” The Sub System had finalised its scan and explained the possible weakness that the monster would have was its thin carapace.
In addition, the Sub System indicated that there was a subtle glow on its carapace and had identified it as the heart of the scorpion. It told Lynn that hitting there with a blow through the glowing part of the shell will no doubt kill the scorpion instantly.
“If only Jin would be as patient as you are when it comes to fighting monsters. You are practically Liu Bei, preparing your moves while he is Zhang Fei rushing in blindly to defeat his enemies.” Qiu Yue sighed as she too heard the Sub System’s analysis of the four clawed scorpion.
“Thanks for the praise. But what am I compared to you? You’re Zhu Ge Liang in the making or probably a mix of Cao Cao and him.” Lynn replied back, and that compliment made Qiu Yue rather happy.
Lynn saw the battle against Qiu Yue’s mock battle with Moloch, but she felt Moloch had been holding back quite a fair bit. Still, it was also because of that mock battle what had made Lynn decide to work harder in commanding her penguins.
The kitchen itself was a battlefield, and she was the commander in chief in that warzone. It had been easy handling a few penguins, but as the numbers grew exponentially large in less than a week of the restaurant’s opening due to the influx of demand, she had been forced to change her tactics to handle the kitchen as well.
There was no way that Lynn could handle the high request load all by herself. Even a general could not control each and every one of his soldiers. Instead, she relied on a chain of command. That was when the penguin cultivator began to trust her penguins and taught them what she knew so that they could do the same.
Lynn was apprehensive at first, but as she experimented with how the Sub System worked and observed how Jin used his minions to leave them to their own devices. Lynn also chose to let go and change her way of life accordingly. Like a penguin swimming along the currents of a raging ocean to get to their destination by any means possible, Lynn did the same.
She did not know how Qiu Yue was handling things in the construction site, but Lynn knew that when she compared with people, it was to improve herself and not to be envious of other people’s success.
“My Queen, we are reaching the end of the drain tunnel soon and do not have much space to manoeuvre. We, your loyal peggies, will be engaging the monster soon.” Kido informed her as the other penguins began to get into formation.
“Go ahead, give the four clawed scorpion some fishy surprise,” Lynn said, and Qiu Yue laughed at the terrible pun. With the command, the penguins simultaneously pressed a trigger button on their bikes, and the entire bike body including the seat shifted 180 degrees while the engine and wheels continued to stay in tack.
Thus the bikes were moving ‘in reverse’ with the penguins facing the scorpion, and that was when the internal compartments of the bike were revealed. “So, they are going easy to the scorpions.” Lynn deduced when she saw what internal compartments were engaged.
After sending the Sub System’s scan information to the penguins, they had deduced to use the combat bike’s grappling hooks to hold down the monster.
“I shall join in too then,” Lynn revealed her bike’s internal compartment and shot almost simultaneously with the penguins.
It was time to reel in a big catch for the kitchen.
