Chapter 23: 023 This Support Is Toxic
Only today did Wang Heng realize exactly what it takes to raise a little hamster.
The cage goes without saying, water bottle and food bowl are also essentials, and the cage needs a running wheel, small nest, and teeth grinding stone. To make the hamster comfortable, consumables like small cotton and wood shavings are needed. Hamsters can’t bathe with water; they use bath sand. In Rongdu’s hot and humid August and September, a piece of marble needs to be placed in the cage to help the little guy cool down.
And hamster food can’t be just anything. There is special hamster food, which includes different proportions of mixed grains, sunflower seeds, dried fruit, and breadworms… In short, as a typical omnivorous animal, it can eat many things, but not everything, and certainly not just one kind of food alone.
After taking the subway for quite a distance, Wang Heng finally arrived at a pet shop specializing in small animal supplies. This little shop has a unique business model; it doesn’t sell things for cats or dogs, only providing essentials for little guys like hamsters, guinea pigs, and chinchillas.
Perhaps because it’s too niche, the shop’s location is quite secluded, not near any slightly popular business district, nor on the street; it really takes some effort to find.
When Wang Heng entered the shop, he found he was the only customer inside.
“Hello, buying a hamster?”
The shop owner lifted his head from in front of the computer and asked listlessly. And from that old computer came a crisp voice—”Can’t play!”
Wang Heng was always understanding: “How about you finish this game of Fight the Landlord first?”
“Sure, sorry to trouble you to wait a moment. I called doubles, should win soon.”
The shop owner was a fairly young man, looking not yet thirty, but slightly greasy, exuding the aura of long-term singlehood. After half a minute, he finished the game and finally beamed with joy.
Then the shop owner walked over and asked: “Want to buy a little guy?”
Wang Heng pulled out the time-space administrator from his pocket: “Already have a little guy, I need to buy some things for it.”
“Hamster, huh. Um, what do you need?”
“Full set.”
The shop owner thought for a moment and asked: “When others gave you this hamster, no other things? Not even a cage?”
Wang Heng glanced down at it and said somewhat helplessly: “Not a gift from others; this hamster came to me on its own.”
The shop owner couldn’t help being surprised: “Then you two are fated!”
“Sigh, yeah…”
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Luckily, he had checked materials online in advance, so Wang Heng had an idea of how much stuff he needed to buy. So when he set out today, he specially brought his old schoolbag. The schoolbag was empty, nothing inside.
And when he walked out of the small animal supplies specialty store, the schoolbag was almost full. Cage with running wheel, two cans of hamster food, a bag of wood shavings, a bag of cotton, a bottle of bath sand… and many miscellaneous small items, all stuffed into the schoolbag.
After buying all that, the shop owner was still promoting a hamster carry cage. This was a small cage about the size of a lunchbox, with a strap, that could be worn like a crossbody bag, very suitable for bringing a little hamster out on the street.
But Wang Heng refused quite straightforwardly; after all, the administrator mister was different from ordinary hamsters, could even fit in a pocket without worry of it chewing it up.
When Wang Heng walked out of the shop, it was already evening. The sun hadn’t fully set, streetlights had come on, and the light in this little alley was quite bright.
He cradled the hamster in both hands and sighed: “Just arrived and already cost me over a hundred bucks, not sure how good you are at support, but you’re sure good at eating economy.”
The hamster argued confidently: “I can choose different animal avatars. Think carefully—if I chose not hamster, but cat or dog, the money you’d spend would be way more than this. A few dozen bucks of hamster food lasts me a long time, as long as it doesn’t get damp or moldy. But for cats or dogs, how many days would a few dozen bucks last?”
Wang Heng suddenly realized a problem and asked: “Hamsters’ lifespan is much shorter than cats or dogs, just one or two years, right?”
“About that.”
“So will you die in two years?”
The hamster shook its little head: “You can rest assured on this; before this body gives out, I’ll find another avatar.”
“Can I make a suggestion about the choice of the next avatar?”
“What suggestion?”
“An immature little suggestion, you can consider it,” Wang Heng coughed twice, “No matter what kind of creature avatar, it won’t affect your ability, right? Something like hamster requires me to spend money to raise, and might cause some trouble in life. So why not go for something more adaptable?”
The hamster tilted its head, realizing the matter wasn’t simple: “More adaptable?”
Wang Heng looked sincere: “Like flies, cockroaches, mosquitoes—they’re freer than hamsters, less eye-catching, aren’t they?”
The hamster opened its little mouth, stunned for a few seconds before saying: “You won’t even spend a hundred bucks on me? And you want your golden finger to become a cockroach… what kind of person are you!”
Wang Heng countered: “Aren’t you the time-space administrator? Don’t even know what kind of person I am?”
“Too bad, my future prediction ability fails only on you. Any future related to your consciousness is a fog to me. So I really didn’t expect your shameless skill to reach such a level…”
“You’re too kind, too kind.”
“You think that’s a compliment?” After saying that, the hamster turned its head and jumped out of his palm.
At this point, Wang Heng had just walked out of the little alley onto the street-side sidewalk. The hamster’s jump landed it right in the lawn beside the sidewalk. The soft lawn provided perfect cushioning, so not only was it unhurt, it bounced forward and started sprinting!
“I was just joking, such a big reaction… wait!”
Wang Heng didn’t have time to say more and instinctively chased after it.
After chasing more than ten meters, the hamster jumped out of the lawn and stopped in front of a pair of canvas shoes.
Those were cheap canvas shoes; above the shoe opening were equally cheap sports pants. The owner of this cheap outfit, however, was a petite and spirited young girl.
The hamster clung to the shoe tip, lifted its head, and blinked its pitiful little eyes.
The young girl’s attention was drawn to the hamster, and she couldn’t help exclaiming: “Wow, so cute!”
Wang Heng, who had chased the hamster over, also noticed this young girl. In an instant, his heart sank half.
His lips moved as he silently recited her name: “Pei Ningle.”
Right, another girl who should be in the Imperial Capital but came to Rongdu under the influence of the worldline correction mechanism, one of the assassin quartet.
Looking again at the time-space administrator hugging the girl’s shoe tip and acting cute, Wang Heng was simply heartbroken—you still have the nerve to call yourself support? Eating economy is one thing, but is there support this sabotaging?!
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