Black smoke drifted over Zone 19, obscuring the already gray sky.
The acrid smell of industrial chemicals in the air mixed with a damp, earthy odor, heralding an imminent downpour.
Gu Ning glanced up at the sky, pulled her oil-stained bib up over her nose and mouth, and quickened her pace.
She navigated the chaotic, filthy streets, carefully stepping over viscous, black chemical runoff on the ground. She gave a wide berth to the unsavory-looking Beastman thugs gathered in twos and threes in dark corners before turning into a dim, crowded alley.
The buildings in Zone 19 were like a jumble of mismatched boxes, large and small, all with uniform gray-white exteriors. They were crude and simple, built for function over form, with little regard for aesthetics.
Gu Ning lived in one of these chaotically packed buildings.
BOOM! A clap of thunder exploded through the clouds, and the rain began to pour down in a torrent, pelting the ground.
Gu Ning didn't make it home before the rain started. She was soaked to the bone.
She had been in this world for a month and had faced far worse situations. Resigned, she dragged her leaden legs into the elevator.
Her luck was good today; the elevator was empty. She wouldn't have to squeeze in while enduring the glares of other Beastmen who looked like they wanted to throw her out.
Gu Ning lived on the fifth floor. It wasn't that high, and if she were back in the human world, she would have just taken the stairs.
But Beastman architecture was built on a larger scale than in the human world. Even the stairs were nearly twice as high. Every step felt like clearing a hurdle, making a five-floor climb feel like ten.
After a full day of hard labor, she simply didn't have the energy to hurdle her way up.
Stepping out of the old, groaning elevator, she walked down the dim hallway to the very end. Gu Ning was finally home.
The moment she shut the door, Gu Ning collapsed onto the floor. 'I could die right here,' she thought.
A sound came from inside the room. A moment later, a figure shuffled to her side, nudged her with a furry head, and started sniffing her like a puppy.
Gu Ning turned her head. A young man with gray-white beast ears was lying next to her, a hint of anxiety in his eyes.
He looked just like a confused little puppy whose owner had suddenly collapsed upon returning home.
Gu Ning listlessly raised a hand and ruffled his hair. "I'm fine, Cook."
Cook stuck out his tongue and licked her hand.
"Don't lick that, it's covered in motor oil," Gu Ning said, pulling her hand back.
Cook didn't listen. He grabbed her hand and licked it meticulously.
Gu Ning was too exhausted to resist, so she just let him be.
When she first transmigrated to this world, she had appeared in a giant scrapyard in Zone 19. It was pouring rain, and the foul stench of the dump made her throw up last night's dinner.
Soaked by the downpour, she had huddled shivering in a corner of the scrapyard, hiding from the massive beasts that roamed the area.
Most of them were larger than an adult elephant from the zoos she'd known, with varied forms and mouths full of long, sharp fangs.
This world didn't just have Beastmen; it had true beasts as well.
Gu Ning hid in a narrow, abandoned pipe for nearly two days. She was dizzy with hunger and her body was stiff with cold. The beasts prowling outside kept her from daring to move an inch.
It was Cook, who had been scavenging for scrap parts in the scrapyard, who found her.
Cook was a Dwarf hybrid. Although he was a head taller than her and quite strong, compared to the generally towering Beastmen, there wasn't much difference between him and her.
After he finished licking Gu Ning's hand, Cook rested his head on her chest, gazing at her with clear, puppy-like eyes.
"Cook, you're heavy," Gu Ning said, giving his head a little push.
Cook let out a hoarse "huff, huff" sound from his throat. He took off her work cap and goggles, then pulled off her bib.
Gu Ning had just taken a deep breath of fresh air when Cook started licking her face, slobbering all over her.
The licking tickled her skin. She laughed, pushed his head away, and sat up.
'If it weren't for his human form, I'd really think I'd adopted a big, affectionate dog,' she thought.
"Let me see your injuries."
Gu Ning pushed away Cook's head as he nuzzled her neck and began to check his wounds.
A few days ago, Cook had been badly injured in a a fight. Luckily, a Mixed Breed Beastman who knew him had helped treat the wounds.
Besides some lacerations and bruises, he had suffered a broken leg, a broken arm, and several broken ribs.
Fortunately, the healing ability of a Mixed Breed was astonishing. In just a few days, Cook's external injuries had mostly healed, though he still couldn't put weight on his leg.
After checking that Cook's injuries were healing well, Gu Ning felt relieved.
Lying there for a while, she regained a bit of strength. Gu Ning told Cook to sit and wait for her, then got up to wash her hands.
She had to scrub hard with soap for quite some time before she finally got the residual motor oil off her hands.
After washing her hands, she shed her wet work clothes and shoes, leaving her in just a tank top and shorts. She gave her face a quick wash and padded barefoot back into the living room.
She was starving. First things first, dinner.
Cook's eyes never left Gu Ning; he watched her wherever she went.
Gu Ning patted his head, sat down beside him, and took the food out of a paper bag.
The food consisted of a few ration biscuits and two cold, fried meat cutlets.
This was the standard dinner for temporary workers at the construction site, and it was their only meal of the day.
To buy medicine for Cook's injuries, she had spent nearly all the money they had. Even then, it was only enough for some anti-inflammatory and hemostatic drugs.
After buying the medicine, she could barely afford food.
Gu Ning tore off half of a meat cutlet and gave the rest to Cook.
Just like before, Cook refused to eat it, pushing the cutlet back to her.
Gu Ning said, "Open your mouth."
Cook obediently opened his mouth. Gu Ning stuffed the fried cutlet inside. "Eat. You need to eat to get better quickly."
Only when she fed it to him by hand did Cook finally begin to eat.
Gu Ning had eaten almost nothing all day. She grabbed her piece of the cutlet and wolfed it down, followed by two ration biscuits and half a bottle of water. Only then did she feel half-full.
Dinner dealt with, Gu Ning found a clean set of clothes and prepared to take a shower.
She picked up her terminal to check the time. It was just past seven. She would have to wait until after ten p.m. to go to the public bathhouse.
The apartments here didn't have private bathrooms; there was only a communal bathhouse on the first floor.
This was something that drove Gu Ning crazy. When Cook had first brought her back, she'd discovered an unsettling fact: she hadn't seen a single Female Beastman, only males.
Even now, after a month in this world, she hadn't seen so much as the shadow of a Female Beastman in Zone 19.
If she hadn't learned from the web-enabled terminal Cook bought for her that Female Beastmen were so rare they were protected and housed in the pristine Central District, she would have assumed this world was populated entirely by males.
'How terrifying would that be?'
Since there were no Female Beastmen in the area where she lived, the public bathhouse wasn't separated by gender.
Gu Ning had mustered her courage and gone in once before, only to walk in on a group of stark naked Beastmen.
She had practically fled for her life.
Just thinking about that scene made her flush with embarrassment and fear.
After that, whenever she needed to bathe, she had to wait until late at night, after most of the Beastmen were done. Then she would fill an iron bucket with water and haul it back to her apartment for a sponge bath.
But it was a frustrating way to get clean. The public bathhouse was far away, and lugging a heavy bucket of water back was a huge hassle.
When Cook wasn't injured, he could help her carry it, but now she had to do it all herself.
At ten-thirty, Gu Ning grabbed her bucket and tiptoed down the hallway, taking the elevator to the first-floor bathhouse.
As usual, there were no other Beastmen there to bathe at this hour.
Following her usual routine, Gu Ning turned on the hot water valve and placed the bucket under a showerhead to fill it.
Staring at the rising water level in the bucket, Gu Ning suddenly felt the urge to shower right here.
The construction site had been rushing to meet a deadline today, so she'd worked two hours more than usual. The sweat had soaked through her tank top, and her skin felt unpleasantly sticky.
She really, really wanted a proper, comfortable shower.
Gu Ning's gaze swept across the empty bathhouse. 'No one is ever here at this time. It should be fine if I just take a quick shower, right?'
A war waged in Gu Ning's mind for a moment, but the desire for one comfortable shower won out.
She hurried over and locked the bathhouse door from the inside, then chose the shower stall furthest in the back and started washing.
The moment the warm water cascaded over her body, Gu Ning let out a long sigh. She felt a little like crying.
She rubbed the bar of soap on her head, washing her hair first, then her body. While she was at it, she washed her discarded clothes as well.
This single bar of soap was all she had—for her body, her hair, and her laundry.
'Sigh, this is what you call a hard life. Back when I was slaving away at my old job, at least I lived in a rental and didn't have to worry about showering or eating. And I certainly wasn't in mortal danger.'
'I don't know what the future holds. I can only take it one step at a time.'
Gu Ning lost herself in the endlessly spraying hot water, cherishing this rare shower. She felt so good she wanted to hum a song.
BANG! BANG!
Just then, a loud banging on the door echoed through the empty bathhouse, making Gu Ning jump in shock.