The reward had arrived.
Li Ang's eyes lit up, and he scanned the warehouse.
Only a few items inside looked usable, but even if they were all scrap, bringing them back to the real world for the major organizations or for his own research could uncover a wealth of new technologies, or at least provide inspiration for technological research and development.
"The reward can wait,"
Li Ang coughed and said, "Let's get the treatment arrangements finalized first."
"Huh?"
The village chief was taken aback. "Aren't they already arranged?"
"That's the production line for the transplant devices and filtration equipment,"
Li Ang said calmly, "Before that, we need to solve the source of the feces.
That's the most critical part—obtaining a healthy, stable initial gut flora.
Once we have the original primeval excrement, we can cultivate it through transplantation,
to get the second generation of healthy excrement, and then, based on the second generation, we cultivate it through transplantation again,
to get the third generation of healthy excrement...
By repeating this cycle, we can ensure that the entire village has a healthy and stable gut flora."
"So, the problem right now is finding excrement, right?"
The village chief thought for a moment, then asked uncertainly, "Can we use livestock?"
"That would be a bit troublesome."
Li Ang spread his hands. "Small poultry and livestock, like chickens and ducks, don't provide enough feces,
while larger animals, like cows and horses, have diets that differ significantly from humans, and the diversity of their gut flora is also different.
In simple terms, the efficiency of obtaining beneficial gut flora would be very low,
and we can't guarantee that we won't encounter a deficiency of some beneficial gut bacteria later, leading to a recurrence of progeria."
"Oh, oh."
The village chief nodded, his gaze drifting to the players. After hesitating for a long time, he asked awkwardly, "Then, brave heroes..."
Huh?
Ding Zhensi, who had been listening from the sidelines, shuddered.
He couldn't participate in Li Ang's ghoul-saving plan, but judging from the village chief's tone, was he craving what was in the players' stomachs?
"Considering that the primary diet of the original ghouls is humans, the 'inventory' of us outsiders should be usable."
Li Ang nodded slowly. "However, I've been dieting lately, and my stomach is empty. I'm afraid I can't produce anything useful."
Hey, when did you start dieting? Did you suddenly decide you've been dieting for days?
Ding Zhensi complained inwardly.
Hearing Li Ang's words, the village chief had no choice but to look at David, his eyes full of hope.
David quickly waved his hands. "Sorry, everyone knows I have a straight gut. I never retain anything in my stomach. My digestive system is probably worse than the villagers' here. I'm wearing leak-proof underwear right now to prevent myself from suddenly shitting."
Who knew you had a straight gut? We've only known each other for half a day! You shit anytime, anywhere—are you a bird with an uncontrollable cloaca? Do you have to go to such lengths to avoid giving shit?
Ding Zhensi complained wildly in his mind.
"Then... what about you, brave hero?"
The village chief turned his gaze to Amberly, his eyes carrying a hint of begging.
Amberly, who had been smiling, subconsciously took a half-step back and smiled awkwardly. "I just had my appendix removed..."
The village chief asked in confusion, "Doesn't the appendix not affect the intestines?"
"...The doctor in charge of the surgery wasn't satisfied after removing my appendix, so he also removed my large intestine, small intestine, and everything else, replacing them with plastic tubes."
Amberly said, without batting an eye, "Although I hammered that doctor into a wall afterward, the removal of my intestines still had a very stubborn negative impact on me. I occasionally vomit blood for no reason, cough cough cough!"
As he spoke, Amberly suddenly covered his mouth, coughed violently for a while, then opened his hand, revealing a pool of viscous black blood on his palm.
"See?"
Amberly wiped the black blood away with a tissue, shaking his head regretfully. "I can't help you either."
He actually vomited blood?!
Inside the Kuiniu mech's cockpit, Ding Zhensi was stunned.
The mech's sensors clearly showed that Amberly had just used dark energy to control the muscles in his body, gently striking his own intestines and stomach, and then vomiting blood as a matter of course, fooling everyone.
Seriously, using top-tier martial arts skills to control muscles for something like this—you guys in the first echelon are definitely messed up.
"..."
The village chief opened his mouth, hesitated, and looked at Ding Zhensi with a bitter face. "Brave hero, do you have any..."
"Me?"
Ding Zhensi was about to answer when he suddenly stopped.
Li Risheng, David, Amberly—none of them seem to want to give their excrement...
Forty otherworldly extraordinary items with unknown functions and uses are a huge fortune.
If calculated according to cold value, they are definitely more valuable than a pile of shit.
Isn't it just finding a place to take a dump? What's so troublesome about that?
Even normal people have to eat, drink, and excrete.
Unless... they have their own reasons.
Ding Zhensi suddenly understood that the essence of not wanting to give their excrement was not wanting to reveal their genetic information.
A mere pile of shit is naturally not valuable,
but the large number of players' body cells contained in the shit are very important genetic information materials.
Low-level players can give it away, but high-level players need to consider the subsequent dangers—for example, whether someone will use a part of their body cells to launch a curse,
whether someone will take genetic information materials to clone a replica of themselves,
whether someone will differentiate the body cells into germ cells to do in vitro fertilization, cultivating a large number of sons and daughters without their knowledge, or even mutant creatures carrying their genome.
Such cases are common on player forums, especially some scandals related to gen-sys Biological Technology Company—this company was once exposed for secretly collecting the genetic information of its player employees to create biological weapons.
It caused a lot of uproar at the time.
The current script mission prohibits the use of summoning skills and equipment, and does not allow taking out magic pets,
which means that players cannot use ordinary summoned beasts as a source of feces.
David, Amberly, and other first-tier players don't need to risk leaking their genetic information,
and even if they are willing to lend a helping hand and donate some shit, it has to go through Li Risheng's adjustment process—Li Risheng seems to be very good at biological modification technology,
and is more crazy and uncontrollable than the members of the Devil Scientist Alliance.
The risk is too great, exceeding the expected value.
"I..."
Ding Zhensi's answer suddenly stopped. He looked at the village chief's hopeful gaze and said with a stiff scalp, "My stomach hasn't been feeling well lately either..."
"Hey, Xiao Ding, don't be so modest."
Li Ang patted the thigh of the Kuiniu mech. "Among us, your digestive function is the most sound. You eat well, shit well, and can eat and shit."
"That's right, that's right."
Amberly echoed, "According to an ancient Eastern saying, saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda, let alone saving the lives of a whole village.
Don't refuse, hand over all the inventory in your stomach.
Um... I remember that the cockpit of your mech has a portable life support device, right? You don't have to leave the cockpit to excrete.
That means there must be a can for storing excrement somewhere in your mech.
Quick, hand over the can."
Don't touch me!
Ding Zhensi wanted to push away Amberly and Li Ang, who were knocking on the Kuiniu mech and looking for the can, but they were surprisingly strong.
The Kuiniu mech in low-power mode couldn't move their wrists at all.
Just as the three were arguing, Hohenheim coughed lightly. "Well, I actually have a way..."
"You?"
The village chief's eyes lit up. "Are you willing to donate?"
For some reason, even though the village chief was just an ordinary lifeform with diluted ghoul blood, his eager gaze put a lot of pressure on Hohenheim. He coughed to hide his embarrassment and said, "It's not me who's donating, it's this..."
With that, Hohenheim took out a dirty, crude, medium-sized cloth bag that emitted a strange odor,
which was the second bag Claude, the three-armed monster, had delivered to him in the forest.