Chapter 27: The Happy Home of King Fluff

Captain Li pushed up his glasses, hiding his gaze behind the reflective lenses. He explained calmly, "Mao Mao Wang is the name of a kind and lovely deity who presides over the realm of 'luxury children's clothing.' The Happy Home of Mao Mao Wang is both the name of the space we currently occupy and her brand name."

The girl with the pink backpack and round face let out an "Oh...!" and asked, "So, the great Mao Mao Wang has sponsored the space we are in, and she will be investing in us to complete our upcoming tasks, correct?"

Captain Li nodded. "Exactly! There is no need for you all to worry too much. Mao Mao Wang is by no means a harsh evil god. As you can tell from our team's name, we are a harmonious and loving group. The tasks we will undertake in the future will mostly involve brand strategy promotion, product dumping, seeking cheap and stable raw material sources, and finding long-term business partners."

The more Yuan Zhu heard, the more wrong it felt. Is this really an "infinite flow" or "God's space" scenario? So, as someone suddenly turned into a transmigrator, my main quest is to travel to other worlds to promote luxury children's clothing for Mao Mao Wang and sell it across the heavens and the myriad worlds?

At this moment, the young woman with the single ponytail, who was an official investigator, could not help but speak up: "Has this 'Mao Mao Wang' you speak of been registered with the authorities in the real world?"

The captain replied, "Of course not. We are not a real-world enterprise, nor have we established sales channels in the real world. If there is a need for that in the future, we will register as a legal clothing company, accept regulatory audits, and pay taxes legally. As for the deity herself, she will not be descending into the real world for the time being. Thank you for your concern."

Upon hearing this, the investigator revealed a look of sudden realization: "So, this is 'Anti-Law,' right?"

The captain did not confirm or deny this, instead changing the subject. "Everyone, let us introduce ourselves. We will likely be seeing each other often in the near future as we travel to different small worlds to execute missions. I hope we can all get along well."

The girl with the pink backpack immediately jumped in. "I'll go first! My name is Meng Xiyue—'Yue' is my given name, and the first part is my surname. I'm a second-year student at Taixi International University, 18 years old this year, and I love reading. I am very interested in the legendary 'God's Space' and hope we can all get along."

After speaking, she looked at the others with encouraging eyes, waiting for them to speak. She was quite the socialite.

The investigator stepped forward. "Zhou Chu, a member of the Abnormal Disaster Investigation Division of the Taixi Municipal Security Bureau. Before I was pulled into this space, I was in the archives reading files. I don't know why I was brought here."

The final question was directed at Captain Li. However, the latter did not answer directly, instead offering an ambiguous response: "Naturally, it is because of some special fate. As captain, I am the agent of Mao Mao Wang. There are some things you can guess, but I cannot state them explicitly."

Sensing the other party's attitude was relatively friendly, Zhou Chu did not press further and nodded in understanding. "Fine, I understand." She then looked at the youth with the rainbow-colored mohawk. "Starting with you, continue."

The teenager, clutching a pipe wrench and sporting lip and nose piercings, looked nervous. He stuttered, "I—I'm Lu Rang, from Runing. I'm 18 this year and currently unemployed. Don't look at me like that; I did graduate middle school. I just didn't want to be pushed around or bullied, so I hung out with the big guys. I was at home modifying this when I came here."

The punk youth from the other world held up his pipe wrench, looking both boastful and proud. He then turned his gaze directly to the girl with the braided hair.

The girl in work clothes ignored him, took a deep breath, and summoned the courage to speak: "My name is Mai Lili, 18 years old. I'm an employee at the September Bakery on the south end of 6th Street in Runing. Before the incident, I was picking up bread in the oven room, then everything went black, and I ended up here."

Even though the captain had tried to reassure everyone with talk of "brand strategy, product dumping, raw material sourcing, business partners... using brains rather than lives," it only left the group confused. Mai Lili remained incredibly tense and on edge.

Because she couldn't understand anything and it sounded so high-level, she felt even more panicked. She would have preferred to be told she needed to risk her life; that would have been easier to process.

Next, it was Yuan Zhu's turn. He had been fine with the previous introductions, but after Lu Rang and Mai Lili, his mood became strange. It seems there are quite a few 18-year-olds here, right? Including himself, this made four. And this Mai Lili—before she was pulled into the Happy Home of Mao Mao Wang, she was on the south end of 6th Street in Runing, which is not far from the Fire Tooth Cleaning Company.

So, is this girl here because she was collateral damage from my involvement?

"Yuan Zhu, 18. Senior technician at the Guangyao Lamp Factory, temporary worker at Fire Tooth Cleaning Company. Before entering this room, I was reporting to work at the company."

Upon hearing "Fire Tooth," Mai Lili and Lu Rang both glanced at him, indicating they had both heard of this cleaning company. So, the rainbow-mohawk kid named Lu Rang also lived in the neighborhood?

"Huo Tuoluo, butcher at the Runing No. 4 Agricultural Market."

The enormous, obese, strong, bald Black man holding a meat cleaver spoke. His tone was cold, concise, and gave off a "keep your distance" vibe. This No. 4 Agricultural Market seemed to be not far from him either, within 10 kilometers as the crow flies. Yuan Zhu felt increasingly guilty.

Finally, the old woman holding the little black-and-white lamb spoke with a smile: "You can call me Grandma Yu. I live in the countryside on the outskirts of Runing. I went to the agricultural market today to sell the lamb. I don't know much; I'm uneducated. I don't know what this space is, and I don't know how to do missions. I don't have a birthday, and I'm over sixty—nearly at the end of my life—so you don't need to worry about me."

At this, the rainbow-mohawk punk suddenly interjected: "Don't worry, Grandma, I'll help you as much as I can."

"No need, I really don't have long to live. But this little lamb—if you have the ability, take care of it and bring it back to Runing to sell. Don't let it die; that would be a pity. If it really does die, you must eat it. Don't let my hard work go to waste."

"Uh..." Lu Rang stood stunned for a long time, then nodded vigorously. "Okay! I'll definitely eat it!"

"Maa-a-a!" The little lamb bleated angrily.

"No, I told you to take care of it so it stays alive, not to eat it," Grandma Yu explained helplessly. "You can eat it after it dies."

Lu Rang froze, then gripped his pipe wrench and swore: "Oh, I swear I won't eat it until it's dead!"

The old woman sighed and stroked the lamb's head. Why did everything feel so strange?

The others also looked curiously at the lamb that kept rubbing against the old woman, feeling it might not have long to live either.

Meng Xiyue scanned the group and said, "There are so many people from Runing—1, 2, 3, 4, 5, plus a lamb. There are only two of us from Taixi."

Zhou Chu looked at her. "What are you trying to say?"

Meng Xiyue said, "When I was at school, I heard a senior mention a research hypothesis. The land of Runing is currently in a state where space-time is very active. Even in daily life, one can randomly and frequently encounter 'space-time splicing,' which connects Runing to random locations across the Duling Star before quickly cutting off. This manifests as wild animals clearly unsuited to Runing's natural environment suddenly appearing on the streets, especially at night, only to vanish abruptly after a period. Some local cleaning companies in Runing also pile up their trash in advance, only for it to be swallowed by this phenomenon and never returned."

Yuan Zhu was stunned again. He first thought of the "Little Sweet Well Alley" that had suddenly appeared last night, and then he was shocked by the wisdom of the locals. To use this high-level "space-time distortion phenomenon" to handle trash—which cleaning company was so clever? It couldn't be Fire Tooth, could it?!

Hearing this, the rainbow mohawk kid couldn't help but interject again, showing off: "I've seen it, I've seen it! Every Wednesday night, our boss organizes a team with weapons to hunt the large animals that suddenly appear on the streets. We once killed a boxing beast that had a pouch on its belly and three legs."

The girl with the pink backpack frowned, pondered for a moment, and tentatively asked: "You aren't talking about a kangaroo, are you?"

"What! A rat? How could there be such a big rat? I even ate it!" Lu Rang's face filled with horror and despair.

Yuan Zhu couldn't stand it anymore and asked: "Why can trash be dumped into any corner of the world, while wild animals that appear in Runing disappear?"

The girl with the pink backpack nodded appreciatively, satisfied with a question that allowed her to show off her extensive knowledge: "This has to do with whether there is life involved. Living creatures, after encountering Runing's special space-time distortion, are not only transported away but will return to their point of origin after a period of time. However, if they meet an unfortunate end and are hunted down during this period, they will remain on the other side permanently. The same applies to trash; it has no life, so once it is swept away, it doesn't return. Unless, at the other end of the space-time splice, someone immediately returns the trash."

Yuan Zhu: "Who would be so bored?"

"I think I've heard of that," the bakery girl, Mai Lili, who had been eavesdropping, suddenly said.

"What?" Yuan Zhu didn't understand.

"It's that some people have seen large trash bags stamped with 'Fire Tooth' suddenly falling from the sky. There were many, many of them—crashing into the road, attacking pedestrians. Some people were even slightly injured."

Everyone looked at him again. You're the one from Fire Tooth, aren't you?