As soon as Gan Lan stepped off the spaceship, she was stunned by the sight before her. Red Demon Ugly Shrimp were crawling everywhere. Completely unafraid of humans, they had turned the roads, the lawns, and even the trees into their playground.
In the few seconds she had been standing there, several had already scuttled past her. One even crawled right over her foot—thank goodness she was wearing shoes.
Gan Lan stared at the slowly retreating Red Demon Ugly Shrimp, utterly dumbfounded and in complete disbelief. She hadn’t known about this situation, nor had anyone mentioned it to her. Could these shrimp really survive out of seawater for this long?
Seeing Gan Lan’s dumbfounded expression, Chu Yuanyi smiled and explained, "This is your upcoming competition area. These Red Demon Ugly Shrimp walking everywhere are one of the ingredients for your finals."
"Is no one stopping them? And can these shrimp really live this long out of the water? Are they just allowed to run around everywhere without fences or anything?" Gan Lan looked around, her eyes full of amazement. It was her first time seeing such a scene. It was... it was honestly enough to make one’s mouth water.
With Red Demon Ugly Shrimp visible everywhere as soon as you stepped outside, you could just reach out and grab one. Catch a few more, and you’d have a whole dish. How could anyone not be excited and salivate at the thought? Though someone with trypophobia might be terrified—after all, the ground was crawling with an astonishing number of Red Demon Ugly Shrimp.
"Yeah, they can survive out of seawater for three days without any issues," Liang Cong explained. "They return to the sea when necessary, but the ocean is pretty much overrun by them. Only the deeper waters still have large marine life. This area is very close to their habitat, and not many people come here, so they’ve been left to their own devices. Fortunately, even though they’re a bit aggressive, they don’t attack humans unprovoked."
"Then can we just catch and eat them however we want?" Gan Lan asked curiously. If they could just grab them for free meals, that would be absolute bliss.
"People who live in this area can, but those from other districts can’t just catch them casually. They have to pay some Credit Points, and besides..." Chu Yuanyi looked at the retreating shrimp with deep helplessness in his eyes.
"They reproduce extremely fast, resulting in the staggering numbers we have today. However, the locals on this planet don’t eat them. Only off-worlders looking for a novelty come to this area to catch a few and roast or boil them on the spot to try something new. Their shells are too hard, there’s very little edible meat, and they taste fishy." Chu Yuanyi looked thoroughly disgusted.
"Exactly. Moreover, the culinary master who originally came over to process them refused to make the recipe public. Although machines can be used to extract just the meat, without the recipe, the meat has such a strong, fishy stench that it’s incredibly difficult to remove.
"And because this is a world rich in ingredients, there are just too many better options. Unless someone is literally starving, they might come and grab one, but even that is very rare." Liang Cong walked past a writhing pile of shrimp, his legs feeling a bit weak, but he did his best to explain the situation to Gan Lan.
Gan Lan and her two mentors boarded a Flying Car. She listened carefully to their conversation and learned a lot of unpublicized information about this planet, especially regarding this area overrun by Red Demon Ugly Shrimp. Hearing all this gave her a strong urge to settle down here. It was basically a land filled with walking ingredients!
After the Flying Car took off, Gan Lan looked through the window at the dense swarms of deep red crawling creatures below. She wasn’t scared in the slightest; instead, she pressed her face hard against the glass to get a closer look.
Seeing Gan Lan’s keen interest, Chu Yuanyi switched the Flying Car to sightseeing mode, lowering their altitude so they were flying just above the ground.
"The area covered by the Red Demon Ugly Shrimp is vast, but there’s really nothing much to see. The sheer density of their numbers has actually terrified quite a few people," Chu Yuanyi said, casting a pointed glance at Liang Cong, who was sitting on the other side, having long since put on an eye mask and pretending to sleep.
At Chu Yuanyi’s words, Liang Cong’s ears twitched slightly. He originally wanted to speak up and explain that he was just too tired and wanted to nap for a bit, but on second thought, he realized that opening his mouth would be an indirect admission of his fear.
"Looking at it this way, it really is quite scary. With them writhing together in such dense piles, it’s understandable to be frightened." Gan Lan’s eyes sparkled, unwilling to look away from the Red Demon Ugly Shrimp for even a second. Her mind had already conjured up eighteen different ways to cook crayfish. As she thought about it, she couldn’t stop her mouth from watering. She hastily covered her mouth and glanced sideways to see if anyone had noticed her.
Chu Yuanyi, however, was watching her with great interest. This made Gan Lan a bit embarrassed, but she had no way to explain herself. She really did want to eat them—so much so that she could barely control her drool.
"Hmm... You don’t look scared right now. Are you actually drooling?" Chu Yuanyi propped his chin on his hand, looking at Gan Lan in amusement. It was his first time seeing someone salivate instead of being terrified at the sight of mountains of Red Demon Ugly Shrimp.
"Um, Dean Mr. Chu, have you seen Gulu? Did he run away?" Gan Lan had been so excited by the sight of all these shrimp that she had almost forgotten the existence of the robot, Gulu. Now, wanting to change the subject, Gulu naturally popped into her mind.
"We’ve borrowed Gulu for a couple of days. He’ll show up again soon. As for the specifics, we’ll let him tell you when he gets back." Chu Yuanyi didn’t want to say too much while Gan Lan was participating in the finals, afraid it might affect her mood.
"DING DONG. You have an important message."
The continuous notification sounds somewhat startled the two mentors in the Flying Car. The chime was from the competition organizers, and the fact that it rang three times in a row meant these messages were highly important. Seeing her two mentors looking at her with confusion, it seemed they hadn’t received any messages themselves. Gan Lan made her message screen public so her mentors could read along.
[Finals Notification: It has been detected that Contestant No. 9 has successfully arrived at the Red Demon Star competition area. Given that you have just arrived on the Red Demon Star, the competition will begin in two hours.]
[Finals Notification: You are the sixth contestant to arrive on the Red Demon Star. You will have an eight-day head start over the latecomers. The standard competition duration is one month, so you will have a total of one month and eight days.]
Upon reading this, Liang Cong exclaimed in surprise, "What?! The competition is starting right now? What kind of competition takes a whole month? This is the first time I’ve ever heard of such a thing."
"Let’s keep reading and see what kind of tricks this competition is playing." Chu Yuanyi raised a hand to stop Liang Cong from saying more.
Although inwardly surprised, Gan Lan continued to click open the following messages.
[Finals Notification: Each contestant will be assigned a storefront equipped with a robotic assistant. Your storefront is located on the first floor of 44 Red Demon Street.]
[Finals Notification: The main ingredients for the competition are the Red Demon Ugly Shrimp and the Deceit Fish. The primary source for these ingredients can be caught by the contestants themselves...]
After reading through all the rules for the finals, the three people sitting in the Flying Car fell completely silent.
Ultimately, it was Chu Yuanyi who broke the silence. "Let’s go check out 44 Red Demon Street first before we say anything."
Gan Lan and Liang Cong nodded. Neither of them had any desire to speak for the moment.
It was very close to 44 Red Demon Street from their current location; they arrived in just a few minutes.
Upon stepping out of the Flying Car, the first thing Gan Lan noticed was the dilapidated buildings. There were absolutely no people living around here. The only things wandering about were the Red Demon Shrimp, which technically added a bit of life to this run-down place—but what could she do when it only made the area look even more terrifying?