"BANG BANG BANG..."
Gu Ning, who had been sound asleep, was jolted awake by a bout of knocking.
"Who is it..."
She pulled the blanket over her head, rolled over, and tried to go back to sleep.
She had been up too late last night and still hadn't gotten enough rest.
"BANG BANG... Open the door."
The knocking started again after a short pause. Gu Ning kicked her legs and wailed, "What time is it even?!" She hated knocking!
Cook, who had been lying beside her and was already awake, wrapped his arms around her and patted her gently. He soothed her with soft kisses and licks on her cheek before baring his teeth at the door.
Outside the door.
Barto had knocked three or four times. When no one came to answer, he stood on his own cart, pulled a piece of wire from his pocket, and skillfully picked the lock.
"You two really know how to sleep in. It's already nine o'clock. Every Beastman in the building has gone to work, but you're still in bed."
As he spoke, Barto dragged his small, heavily-laden cart into the room.
The sound of Barto coming inside shocked Gu Ning wide awake.
She and Cook were sleeping in the living room. Although her bedroom was set up, she was still used to making a pallet on the floor in the living room.
After dragging the small cart inside and closing the door, Barto's gaze finally fell upon the two Mixed Breeds sleeping on the floor in the living room.
Cook sat up, looking at him unhappily. Gu Ning, however, huddled under the blanket, avoiding eye contact with Barto.
Barto had said yesterday that he would come back the next day. She had assumed he meant in the afternoon, at the earliest. Not giving it much thought, she had just gone straight to sleep.
'This was exactly why I didn't want to live with Barto. He could discover my identity at any moment. I might end up fighting this fox before I even get the chance to leave Zone 19,' she thought.
"You sleep in the living room?" Barto asked, finding it a bit strange.
As soon as he finished speaking, Gu Ning, wrapped in her blanket, scurried into the bedroom with a PITTER-PATTER of footsteps.
Her action struck Barto as even stranger.
Before he could get a good look, Cook ran over and blocked his line of sight.
"Hey, don't start anything," Barto warned, grabbing an iron rod that was hanging from his cart.
"Not... fight..." Cook mumbled. "Ning... good."
Barto understood what he meant—that Gu Ning had put in a good word for him, so Cook wouldn't fight him anymore.
Barto rested the iron rod on his shoulder. "Interesting. How long have you even known him that you listen to him so well?" He pointed between Cook and himself. "We've known each other for a year, and I've known your brother even longer, but you've never listened to me like this."
Cook swished his tail and sat on his haunches, looking at him. "Ba... good. Ning... better."
Barto shot him a look. "I can't be bothered with you. Come help me unload. We need to figure out how to survive the 'Net-Haul Period.'"
...
Inside her room, Gu Ning quickly changed into her work uniform, tied up her hair and stuffed it into her hat, and put on her goggles.
She had to go to the construction site today.
Just before bed last night, she had seen a message the site foreman sent to Cook, urging him to come to work. It included a warning that if he didn't show up today, he would be in breach of his contract.
Only then did Gu Ning learn that Cook had signed a two-month temporary worker contract with the eastern construction site, with only half a month left.
If Cook failed to complete the hours stipulated in the contract, a record of the breach would be added to his personal terminal ID.
These black marks would affect Cook's future employment prospects, as well as his daily life and access to housing.
Gu Ning was still planning to find a better city to settle down in with Cook later. If either of them had a negative record, any decent city would be out of their reach.
Once changed, Gu Ning came out of her room.
Barto and Cook were in the living room, moving the things he had brought and arranging them one by one.
"Set it down gently. Don't break it," Barto directed as Cook placed an oven in a corner of the living room.
When Gu Ning saw the oven in Cook's arms, her eyes lit up, and she gathered around it.
She patted the oven happily, then turned to look at Barto.
"Winter is coming soon. We need to store more food, and we'll have to cook for ourselves from now on," Barto said.
Besides the oven, he had also brought a stove for cooking, along with pots, bowls, and other kitchenware.
Seeing Gu Ning dressed in her work uniform, Barto looked her up and down. "All bundled up again. You'd think you were afraid I might see something."
Gu Ning got a pen and paper and wrote: *I have to go to the eastern construction site for work soon.*
Barto glanced at what she wrote and said, "You should go. I heard that for the defensive fortifications in the east, south, west, and north this time, they've been signing contracts with Mixed Breeds. This is a good thing for you all. Completing the contract will increase your credit score. It'll help you get by a little better if you go to other cities in the future."
Gu Ning nodded. These kinds of official contracts were indeed more beneficial for Mixed Breeds.
Private-sector jobs usually didn't come with official contracts. The kind of work records that got registered on a personal terminal required an official seal from an authorized agency. Similarly, Mixed Breeds caught committing crimes had to be reported to supervisory bodies before it could be officially recorded.
The construction site where Gu Ning worked was mainly for building defensive fortifications, not a private enterprise. Once Cook signed the contract, he was registered in the system.
She hadn't gone for one day, and Cook had already received a warning from the site.
For jobs supervised by official agencies, the Beastmen were very compliant. Their way of thinking was mostly straightforward; they didn't go in for schemes and trickery. The worst thing Gu Ning had ever encountered on a construction site was a Beastman foreman docking her pay. Other than that, she just kept her head down and did her job. As long as she completed her work, no Beastman would go out of their way to cause trouble for her.
"Even if you just go there to slack off, you still have to go. You have to complete the hours on the contract."
As Barto spoke, he wandered between the living room and the balcony, trying to figure out the best place to set up for cooking.
Most of the apartments in Zone 19 didn't have kitchens. They were typically one-bedroom, one-living-room layouts with a small bathroom and a small balcony.
Zone 19 was an industrial city—or, strictly speaking, a semi-military outpost. Its purpose was to block the Mutant Species and act as bait for them. The defensive fortifications had to be repaired every year. After winter, Beastmen serving in the military districts would return to Zone 19 to rest and recuperate.
Therefore, the housing here consisted mostly of temporary residences. The Beastmen were also casual about their food. Meals were usually provided at work, and if they wanted something better, they'd buy it from a food shop. Few Beastmen in Zone 19 cooked for themselves; their stored food was mostly dry rations and other instant meals.
After winter, there would be a wave of migration among the Beastmen. Some would move on to better cities, while others would choose to enlist in the military districts.
Just as some left, many Beastmen also came to Zone 19. The newcomers were either assigned to official posts, sent here as punishment for crimes, or were simply trying to make a living in the zone.
Someone like Barto, who had established his own business, was planning to stay long-term.
He was unwilling to just leave like this.
All the assets and connections he had worked so hard to build were here. Moving somewhere else would mean starting over from scratch. Besides, other zones were even stricter in their supervision of Mixed Breeds.
Barto had thought about it all night and decided he had to see if there was a way to resolve this matter within Zone 19.
'Maybe they aren't necessarily coming to arrest me and Gu Ning,' he mused. 'Perhaps they're just using us as a lead to investigate the incident?'
"DING!"
Gu Ning opened the oven and took out the now-warm bread and potatoes.
These were leftovers from what she and Cook had eaten yesterday, still good enough for today.
Now that the weather was getting colder, food could be preserved for longer.
Seeing that it was getting late, Gu Ning broke off half a potato and a piece of bread, put them in a bag, and handed the rest to Cook.
Barto watched her hurriedly sling a worn, gray backpack over her shoulder and run to the entryway to put on her shoes.
The little Mixed Breed bent over and rolled up his pant legs, revealing a pair of fair, delicate feet. He then pulled a pair of socks from his pocket and put them on.