"You really are something, kid."
Half an hour later, Bullhorse came back in high spirits.
A black plastic bag hung from its horn, bulging with a lot of stuff.
"Did Salmon tell you the real price?" ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novel•fire.net
"Yep. That fish was totally worth it—at least thirty percent more profit."
Bullhorse said with relish.
Liu Zheng had taught it to bribe the Calico Cat with the fish.
She worked in the kitchen and loved fish, so she would know the real value of those fish.
As expected, his bet paid off.
"She didn't lose out, why would he cause trouble? Don't be fooled—though we made thirty percent more, that guy probably made twice as much."
Bullhorse said, a little envious.
The delivery department had freedom as a perk, but when it came to making money, it was far behind the kitchen.
The Calico Cat was his important inside channel in the kitchen; it would be best if nothing went wrong.
Bullhorse set the bag down and fished out two bottles of nicely packaged liquor and a ham.
"These are my hard-earned fees—no objections, right?"
It asked with ill intent.
"No objections, boss—please enjoy."
Liu Zheng made a gesture of invitation.
"Bah, boring. You should freak out when it's time to freak out. I even wonder if you were faking crazy before."
It was too lazy to deliver right now and staying in the break room was dull.
It was still hoping for an excuse to beat Liu Zheng up just for fun.
"Don't you have that Sudoku magazine? If you're bored, go do that."
"I can't do it at all. I just want to sleep whenever I see those squares."
Bullhorse shook its big head.
"Isn't that perfect then?"
Bullhorse seemed to realize and then rummaged through the cabinet for that Sudoku book.
"Oh right, Napoleon said we could have that knife too…"
Before it finished, it fell asleep with a snore.
"This sleep-inducing effect is a bit too intense."
Liu Zheng smiled wryly.
He could recommend the Municipal Government promote it citywide—would significantly improve residents' sleep quality.
He bent over to inspect the haul from the trade.
The bag contained drinks and food.
Drinks included three bottles of liquor and two canned beverages.
One bottle of tequila was Fine quality; the others were Excellent.
"Name: Premium Bile Tequila"
"Effect 1: Cures 'Poisoned' status (limited to sub-severe levels)."
"Effect 2: Medium chance to acquire 'Drunk' status."
"Notes: Brewed from the bile vomited by thirty end-stage liver-cancer alcoholics after inebriation. Every drop is steeped in numb despair—an excellent companion for your sleep."
"Can be taken out of the dungeon: Yes"
Cure "Poisoned" status?
Seeing that effect, Liu Zheng suddenly remembered something.
Those expired single-person Emergency Rations seemed to cause poison effects, and he'd eaten quite a few.
He hurriedly opened his character panel, but saw no "Poisoned" entry in the status bar.
"System, I'm not poisoned?"
Liu Zheng asked in his head.
The system did not respond.
But since the status bar had no listing, that meant he wasn't poisoned.
He roughly guessed the reason: the whole so-called "Divine Descent" had restructured his "essence."
If his very "nature" had been remade, detoxing would be trivial.
Besides, looking at the yellow-green liquid in the bottle, he really couldn't bring himself to drink it.
He decided to give it to the plane tree—if anything could down contaminated Maotai, that thing could.
As for the other drinks, their effects were mediocre. He pulled out a can of "SB Calcium Milk" to give to the plane tree along with the tequila.
He put the rest back in the cabinet to take later if needed.
There wasn't much food—only a plate of marinated offal and a serving of pan-fried foie gras.
Interestingly, the marinated offal was Fine quality, while the foie gras was only Excellent.
"Name: Bloody Select Marinated Offal Platter"
"Effect 1: Restores a large amount of stamina and repairs significant defects."
"Effect 2: Constitution +5."
"Notes: Sourced from top pig-headed men at the 'New Paradise' breeding farm. Before slaughter, they undergo forty-nine days of hypnosis training to ensure each piece of meat is full of the flavor of happiness."
"Can be taken out of the dungeon: Yes"
"New Paradise" breeding farm...
Oink seemed to have come from the "Paradise" breeding farm.
"New Paradise" and "Paradise"—these two farms were clearly connected somehow.
If he could figure that out, he might be able to get in contact with Oink.
With that big shot backing him, clearing the dungeon would basically be guaranteed.
Liu Zheng shook his head and shelved the idea for now.
He had too many tasks on his plate; trying to do everything at once would be counterproductive. First priority: get the Legendary Deliveryman set.
He sat back on his folding stool and set the marinated offal platter and foie gras down on the floor.
After thinking a moment, Liu Zheng took out another bottle of liquor.
A bite of offal, a sip of wine—momentarily, he felt like he had returned to his early working days.
Back then his daily joy was buying a plate of marinated snacks, two steamed buns, and a bottle of beer.
Back at his rented room, he'd put on a longer video or movie and eat while watching.
What he watched didn't matter much—he just needed some background noise.
Later, he stopped doing that because socializing wrecked his stomach; the smell of alcohol made him nauseous.
Come to think of it, Flesh Rebirth was a brilliant method for surviving drinking with coworkers.
If he just drank his boss to death, he'd be the boss.
Full and drunk, lulled by Bullhorse's snores, Liu Zheng drifted into sleep.
When he woke from a short nap, his body had recovered to its original size.
Because his constitution had increased, the seaweed on his head had even grown a good length—down to his shoulders.
But why had it grown into hair?
He tugged hard at the seaweed, but it didn't come out.
He tried cutting it with the boning knife—this time it came off easily.
He felt the seaweed should have been more resilient.
Thinking about the boning knife's effects, a dreadful guess occurred to him.
Could it be that his hair's ingredient grade was actually very high?
Damn—next time, when White Feather Chicken sees him, won't his comb puff up with excitement?
Then the chef might stuff Liu Zheng's head into the pot and simmer it into soup—would taste super fresh.
Customers would unanimously praise it and demand Liu Zheng's head soup by name.
He'd be soaking in the pot twenty-four hours a day, never even able to lift his head.
Ugh, just thinking about it was terrifying.
Of course, if White Feather Chicken offered the right price, he might sacrifice himself.
After all, the customer is always god.
Half-dreaming, half-awake, Liu Zheng indulged in these thoughts when the Ghost Hand crawled in.
It froze when it saw the bottles on the floor, then opened its palm toward Liu Zheng.
He nodded and took a bottle from the cabinet for the Ghost Hand.
The Ghost Hand swallowed the bottle, belched, then started doing a finger dance in place.
"This drinking capacity is truly awful."
Liu Zheng shook his head.
Come to think of it, if the Ghost Hand really was the Legendary Deliveryman, it would probably know more than Bullhorse.
With that thought, he took out the photo of the Megamouth Whale and put it in front of the Ghost Hand.
The hand wavered and looked for a while, bending its fingers a few times.
To it, that was probably a nod.
Liu Zheng felt a surge of excitement.
Then the Ghost Hand suddenly grabbed his collar.
Before Liu Zheng realized what was happening, he was lifted into the air.
He stared in disbelief as the door was smashed open, and he was dragged out of the break room by the Ghost Hand.
Liu Zheng and the startled Bullhorse shouted at the same time.