Gu Ning didn't really want to live with Barto.
The reason was simple: living together made it far too easy to expose her human identity.
There probably weren't any humans in this world. If Barto mistook her for a Mimic Mixed Species, there was no telling what he would do to her.
Especially since she had the face of a Beast Female, it practically screamed that she was a Mimic Mixed Species disguised as one.
She wrote on a piece of paper, "Why don't you just rent a separate place here? It's too crowded for three people."
It wasn't crowded in the slightest; the place could easily fit two more people. Beastman architecture emphasized practicality and was far more spacious than the tiny rental units of the human world.
When people said it wasn't large, they were speaking relative to a Beastman's physique.
After reading what she wrote, Barto tapped her on the forehead. "If I could rent a place myself, would I need to come live with you two?"
"Don't you get it?" Barto wore an expression that screamed, 'You stupid Dwarf hybrids are hopeless.' "I'm only moving in because I'm worried about you two."
Barto laid out the stakes for Gu Ning, simply and clearly.
"I'm already working on getting tickets," Barto said, tidying up her room as he spoke. "But we need to watch the situation. The entrances to Zone 19 are being sealed one by one. With the Beast Alliance investigating now, it would be difficult to deal with even if they caught the culprit. We should see if we can wait for the military to clear out the Mutant Species before we make our move."
The military had already put all the entrances to Zone 19 under lockdown. If this had been a few days earlier, he would have already gotten them out. But of course, it had to happen now.
If he tried to run with them now, it would be as good as telling the investigators they were the ones responsible.
Most importantly, large numbers of Mutant Species were gathering outside. Heading out now would be suicide.
Seeing that Barto was determined to stay—and for her and Cook's safety, no less—Gu Ning knew she couldn't be ungrateful.
She resigned herself and wrote, "You can sleep in the living room."
After reading her note, Barto cursed, "You heartless little Mixed Breed. Why is Cook so protective of you? Did you save his damn life or something?"
Gu Ning just smiled, not taking his words to heart. 'This fox has a sharp tongue but a soft heart.'
Barto quickly cleaned up the room. He didn't just load Gu Ning's pile of junk onto the cart; he also straightened up all the other clutter.
He only stopped when Gu Ning insisted she would put away the new things herself.
"I'll be back tomorrow to clean this dump," Barto said, patting the dust off himself and licking his paws.
Gu Ning grabbed her pen and scribbled, "You're not staying tonight?"
Barto: "I have things to do back at my place."
Barto sized her up. "You still working at that construction site on the east side?"
Gu Ning shook her head, thought for a moment, and then nodded.
She had thought she could make good money filming videos of Beast Females, but her account was stuck at the identity verification step.
If it came to it, she'd still have to find some work and save up more money before leaving Zone 19.
"Keep going to work," Barto said. "Don't let anyone see that something's off. You bought way too much food in one go today. That'll get you noticed."
Gu Ning glanced at the food on the table. Other than the preserved fruits and jerky, she and Cook had already eaten half of everything else; they planned to have the rest tomorrow.
"I was very careful," she wrote.
'I bought everything from different shops.'
Barto said, "Do you think those Mixed Breeds' noses are just for show? Once winter sets in, any hungry Mixed Breed will target every living thing that smells of food. Forget it. I'll handle the food from now on."
Hearing she wouldn't have to buy food anymore, Gu Ning wrote, "You're the best, little fox!"
Barto's fluffy fox tail twitched. He grabbed the cart and headed for the door, giving the unconscious Cook a kick on his way out. "I'm leaving. Make sure you calm him down. If he attacks me again, I'll break his legs."
Gu Ning gestured that she understood.
Just as Barto was about to open the door, Gu Ning remembered something. She grabbed him and stuffed the two guns, worth thirty thousand Beast Coins, into his arms.
Barto: "...What are you giving me the guns for?"
Gu Ning smiled at him, but he couldn't see it from behind her cowl.
Barto flashed his claws at her. "Growing a conscience? Fine, I'll let the shooting slide this time. We'll call it self-defense. But if you pull a gun on me again, I won't be so forgiving."
Gu Ning wrote: "I want to trade for the three-thousand-coin pistol."
Half a minute later—
SLAM!
The furious fox slammed the door in Gu Ning's face.
Even through the door, Gu Ning could hear Barto's furious cursing. "You heartless mutt! Eat shit! Trying to make a return on me? You got a death wish?!"
Hearing the translation in her ear, Gu Ning tutted. 'This little fox sure has a filthy mouth.'
"Ningning?"
Cook was jolted awake by the massive slam of the door. He relaxed upon seeing Gu Ning right beside him, but then began sniffing the air, searching the room for any sign of Barto.
"Barto's gone." Gu Ning gently pushed Cook into a sitting position on the sofa and examined his injuries.
He had a bruise on his forehead and a small, swollen lump on the back of his head, the skin just slightly broken.
Seeing that his injuries weren't too serious and that he was conscious, Gu Ning breathed a sigh of relief. 'A Mixed Breed's body really is durable. Cook took so many hits to the head and he's still okay.'
"Bar... bad!"
Cook bared his fangs, his expression fierce.
Gu Ning took out a healing potion she'd bought from Barto and injected it into Cook's arm.
Pressing the top of the injector, she slowly administered the potion. "Is Barto really a bad fox?"
Cook: "Bad..."
After a moment, he added, "Good." His other syllables were mumbled, and he struggled to form a coherent sentence.
Gu Ning mostly understood. "Are you saying he's sometimes good and sometimes bad?"
Cook nodded.
'Barto wasn't a completely bad fox, but he wanted to live with them and had his eyes on Ningning. That made him a bad fox!'
'But now that he'd calmed down and thought it over, Barto didn't seem so bad after all. He had helped him out quite a bit.'
Gu Ning hugged Cook's head. "Cook," she whispered, "you're the only one who truly wants to protect me."
Cook nuzzled against her, hugging her tighter. "Protect... not... scared..."
"But we might need Barto for the time being." Gu Ning patiently explained to Cook that Barto would be staying with them and that they would all be leaving together.
Cook tilted his head and thought for a while, then nodded in agreement.
'Once I've recovered, it won't be so easy for Barto to take me down.'
Once that was settled, Gu Ning began to set up her room.
'I still have to film the videos. If I can't get verified, worst case, I'll just make a new account and keep filming. If that doesn't work, I can use Cook's terminal and just change the species form. An extra hundred thousand would be nice.'
'That was a hundred thousand Beast Coins. She couldn't make that much in a year working at the Beastman construction site.'
With that in mind, Gu Ning sat on the floor and opened the account dashboard for ClawPress.
Private messages were still flooding in, too many for her to possibly read. She changed her settings to turn off notifications for them.
Staring at the 'Awaiting Verification' tag on her profile picture, Gu Ning propped her chin on her hand in thought for a moment before tapping the verification screen.
A prompt popped up:
[Please select your species and gender.]
Gu Ning stared at the options, stunned. 'Wait, I can just choose?'
The first row of options was Gender: Female/Male
Gu Ning scrolled down the options page, looking through the numerous animal avatars for a long time. She realized there didn't seem to be an option for Mixed Breed.
She scrolled back to the gender option at the very top. After staring at the 'Female' option for a moment, her finger tapped down.