After feeling the furry thing and grabbing it tightly, Chen Luo pulled it out in one swift motion.
Then... Chen Luo saw a fox.
"A fox?" Chen Luo was utterly bewildered.
Why would it be a fox?
Could this be one of those foxes that, after being saved, turns into a beautiful girl who brings food, drinks, and offers herself?
Chen Luo held the pink-furred fox, unsure what to do.
And this pink fox seemed to be in much worse shape than the Herrscher of Sentience had been.
At least the Herrscher of Sentience only had internal injuries, but this one had external injuries; there was definitely some blood staining Chen Luo's hand.
Fortunately, the injuries didn't seem too severe; there wasn't too much blood loss.
"Speaking of which, can foxes eat Tricolor Dango?" Looking at the fox, Chen Luo thought of his Tricolor Dango.
Chen Luo knew dogs can't eat chocolate, but he wasn't sure if foxes could eat Tricolor Dango.
Chen Luo quite liked small animals, especially since he had even raised a fox when he was little.
But even as a child, Chen Luo knew you shouldn't feed Tricolor Dango to a fox, so he never tried it.
But if he wanted it to heal quickly, using Tricolor Dango would be faster.
Forget it, ordinary treatment would work too. It's not like he had anything else to do right now.
"What if it chokes to death on the dango? That would be the end. I remember we still have things from the fox I raised before; they should work for this one." Thinking this, Chen Luo picked up the fox and walked towards the house.
The chance of a fox choking to death on Tricolor Dango isn't very high, but it's not zero.
Chen Luo suspected this fox would barely be able to drink water after waking up, let alone eat Tricolor Dango.
"Oh, right, one more thing." Chen Luo suddenly remembered something.
Chen Luo opened his Talent Panel, glanced at the [100% Receive Gratitude from a Fox] entry, hesitated for a moment, then lifted the fox in his arms.
"Hmm, female."
Distinguishing a fox's gender is quite simple, especially since Chen Luo had raised one before and had some experience.
But now that he thought about it, both foxes he had raised were female.
"Thinking about it now, it's good that this fox is unconscious." After confirming its gender, Chen Luo picked up the fox again and headed home.
He said that because the last time he checked the white fox's gender, it nearly bit his arm.
But to be fair, raising a fox is indeed very interesting; a fox's coquettish behavior is something ordinary people can't resist.
It was back then that Chen Luo deeply related to how King Zhou in Investiture of the Gods managed to ruin himself.
Who could withstand that?
"But, Talent Panel, aren't you forgetting something? A commission?" After summoning the Talent Panel, Chen Luo tapped on it again as a reminder.
Chen Luo had waited for a while earlier but no commission appeared, so he thought the Talent Panel might be malfunctioning and needed manual fixing.
[There is no commission.]
"Why wouldn't there be a commission? There was one for the Herrscher of Sentience, wasn't there? And it was a time-limited one too." Chen Luo said.
Thinking back, the commission for the Herrscher of Sentience rewarded 600 Primogems, which even now seemed like a very high price to Chen Luo.
And the key point was that it was completely easy to complete; just get home within 20 minutes.
Chen Luo could complete as many of those kinds of commissions as he could get.
[There is no commission.]
"Seriously? Why does the Herrscher of Sentience get a commission but the little fox doesn't? Are you looking down on the little fox? I condemn you on behalf of animal protection organizations!" Chen Luo said indignantly.
[A commission is generated only when the client develops a strong desire or wish. The Herrscher of Sentience, after being scammed by her 'mother', developed a desire for a home, hence a commission was generated. But this fox has none.]
"Uh, alright." Seeing the Talent Panel rarely willing to type so many words, Chen Luo could only helplessly believe it.
After all, what else could he do if he didn't believe it? What it said did make sense.
Based on Chen Luo's half-month experience accepting commissions, they indeed only appear when the target has some kind of demand; it's not something Chen Luo can make appear just by wanting it.
Besides, it's just a little fox. How much will to live do you expect it to have? And it's already unconscious.
On second thought, even if it did have a will to live, given this little fox's combat power is weak. Weak to the point I could crush it with one hand, it would probably only be worth around 10 Primogems. That's not even as good as snatching two loli… ahem, not even as good as killing two zombies.
The first thing Chen Luo did after bringing the little fox home was to give it a bath.
Although getting wet isn't great after being injured, it was covered in mud, and not cleaning it would hinder the subsequent treatment.
Since it's a fox, he didn't have to worry about gender boundaries like he did with the Herrscher of Sentience, but he did need to mind the wounds.
The wounds on this fox were mostly shallow, not deep. They looked more like scrapes from running through bushes than injuries from being tossed around in the temporal turbulence.
Chen Luo first used a wet towel to clean the dirt and grime around the wounds, then applied the leftover wound medicine from Durandal.
Of course, before applying the medicine, he needed to rinse it with hydrogen peroxide.
Chen Luo didn't know if hydrogen peroxide stung or not, but judging by the twitching of the unconscious little fox, it probably wasn't very comfortable.
After disinfecting, he applied medicine where needed and stitched up the wounds that required it.
With the bonuses from his Puppeteer class, Chen Luo could suture the wounds without leaving any scars.
Because he wasn't using thread, but his authority.
After dealing with all the injuries, the troublesome part began: wiping the entire little fox clean.
The little fox now belonged to the "Beaten by their mother" category. But luckily, Chen Luo had experience.
Although it was still quite troublesome to handle, Chen Luo had nothing else to do anyway. The 7-day event grind was over, and the bar wasn't open.
There were simply no commissions.
With no commissions, Chen Luo could only slack off.
And while slacking off, saving a little fox was quite interesting.
What if she turns into a fox lady and comes to repay the favor?
Hmm. Later, he could press its head down and make it watch Nekopara every day.
Although this fox looked like it would make one's mother want to hit it, Chen Luo was already used to it. The little fox he had before was even more mischievous than this one. What kind of foolishness hadn't Chen Luo seen?
Biting a cactus with its mouth – is that something a normal pet would do? But it did.
Then Chen Luo locked it in a cage for a full three days. Every time Chen Luo passed by, it would reach out with its little paws to grab his pant leg, looking utterly pitiful.
However, just half a day after Chen Luo released it, it managed to run off to some mud puddle to play in the mud. When it came back, it quite proudly held a 5-yuan bill it had picked up from who knows where, making Chen Luo so angry he felt his blood pressure rise.
Five yuan? What's there to be happy about? Five yuan isn't even enough to cover the labor cost of giving you a bath.
And do you think I don't have homework to do?
But having such a mischievous pet wasn't without its benefits. For example, when Chen Luo didn't want to do his homework, he would place the workbook in front of it and stare at it until it tore everything up.
It had to tear it all up. "Keep a fox for a thousand days to use it for one hour."
Then the little fox, forced to tear up all the homework, ignored Chen Luo for a whole day.
Do you know how much psychological damage forcing a fox to chew up a whole backpack's worth of homework can cause?
No less than a hard slap to the face!
Looking at the somewhat dirty and messy fur of the fox in his hand, Chen Luo thought more than once about shaving it all off. But remembering how the white fox had acted like it was life or death when he shaved just a little bit of its fur before, he abandoned the idea.
"Thank your predecessor for its sacrifices." Chen Luo muttered to himself while carefully combing out all the little fox's fur.
After grooming all the fur, Chen Luo took out the Gem of Haste and began infusing it with a faint amount of spiritual energy.
The Gem of Haste reacted when infused with Honkai energy, and it also reacted, albeit weakly, when infused with spiritual energy.
But that faint reaction was exactly what Chen Luo wanted. As weak flames and heat appeared on the surface of the Gem of Haste, Chen Luo began using it to comb the pink fox's fur.
Although "wet allure" sounds interesting, you must dry cats, dogs, or foxes as soon as possible after bathing them.
Otherwise... Chen Luo didn't know what would happen either, but it's best to dry them off.
"Ah, poor little thing. We don't have a pet dryer at home, only the Gem of Haste. Make do with this."
After spending some time making the little fox's fur dry and fluffy again, and ensuring the loose fur had fallen out, Chen Luo picked it up again, held it in his arms, lay down on the sofa, and began petting it.
Although Chen Luo's medical knowledge didn't cover veterinary science, he could tell that it was basically fine now. He could hear its heartbeat, and its breathing had stabilized.
Hmm. Since he had nothing else to do, Chen Luo practiced his Puppeteer class skills while petting the fox.
He started with the simplest task: carving wooden puppets. But the basics signify their importance.
Chen Luo didn't have any advanced materials for creating human-like puppets nearby, and since he leaned towards human-body puppet modification, he could only practice with wooden puppets.
Of course, it couldn't be just the wooden puppet; it needed other embellishments too.
Like clothes.
Puppets need to look realistic, so every aspect must be carved perfectly, making it hard to tell at a glance if it's a real person or a puppet.
* * *
"Goo..." Just as Chen Luo was gradually shaping a puppet slightly shorter than himself, the pink fox beside him let out a soft groan.
"Hey, shouldn't a fox's cry be something like 'Great Chu shall rise, Chen Sheng shall be king'?[1]"
Chen Luo scratched his head, left the life-sized puppet standing there, walked to the sofa, crouched down, and stared intently at the fox's eyes.
Ahem. Chen Luo was naturally joking about the fox's cry. But this fox was indeed different from the ones he raised before. The foxes he raised before would make ying ying ying sounds.
Under Chen Luo's expectant gaze, the fox, curled up in a ball, weakly opened its eyes.
"Goo..." Perhaps because it was too weak, it could only emit meaningless sounds to confirm it was awake.
Maybe because Chen Luo was too close and his face was too big, it scared the little fox. It tried to struggle and run away, but its body was too weak, and it lacked the strength to escape.
After Chen Luo gently picked it up and petted it a few times, the little fox gave up struggling.
"This [100% Receive Gratitude from a Fox] is quite useful." What Chen Luo referred to wasn't the gratitude attribute itself, but the increased favorability and affinity towards foxes that came with the skill.
At the same time, his titles "Saint Chen" and "Friend of Non-Humans" might have had an effect, but Chen Luo wasn't sure.
Moreover, Chen Luo hadn't spent all that time playing with foxes for nothing; he had deeply internalized some petting techniques.
"Are you hungry, little one?" Chen Luo stroked its chin and asked.
"Goo?" The comfortably petted little fox made a sound.
"Don't goo goo goo. Repeat after me: ying ying ying."
"Goo?"
"Ying ying ying."
The little fox in Chen Luo's arms looked up with big eyes full of confusion.
"Ying ying ying!" Chen Luo repeated.
"Ying?"
"Correct! So clever. Good, I'll prepare some goat milk powder for you." Chen Luo nodded satisfied.
This is the sound a fox should make.
After placing the weak little fox back on the sofa, Chen Luo found pet goat milk powder in his inventory and started preparing it right there.
Chen Luo didn't even know how many things were in his inventory now. Basically, anything that could be found in Nagazora City was probably in his inventory. Plus, his inventory had a search function, making it easy to find things.
The reason he fed the little fox goat milk powder instead of cow's milk or something was that cow's milk offered no benefits to little foxes and could easily cause diarrhea.
At least, that's what Chen Luo found out earlier.
But Chen Luo thought to himself that when he fed his white fox before, it didn't have so many issues. It ate whatever he ate, and even more eagerly than he did.
Although Chen Luo didn't have ready-made hot water on hand, wasn't this where the importance of the Gem of Haste came in?
Using spiritual energy to make it heat up, the Gem of Haste indeed became a pretty good heater.
After preparing the goat milk powder, Chen Luo didn't use a bowl or something to feed the little fox. Instead, he took out a syringe.
Using a syringe to feed liquid food is a good choice when the fox is still weak.
And before it woke up, Chen Luo had already placed the only Teleport Waypoint he had upgraded for 100 Primogems in his living room.
This Teleport Waypoint had a slow healing effect. After using it to heal Durandal, Chen Luo retrieved it.
That's why this little fox woke up so quickly.
However, what troubled Chen Luo a bit was that the little fox didn't seem to like the goat milk powder very much.
Of course, whether it liked it or not, under Chen Luo's tyranny, it still drank it.
TL Note:
[1]: According to the historical account, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang needed a way to convince people to follow their rebellion. They secretly wrote "Chen Sheng shall be king" (陈胜王) on silk and placed it in a fish caught by soldiers. When soldiers cooked the fish and found the message, they were amazed.
More importantly for this reference, they also had someone hide in a shrine and imitate a fox cry, shouting "Great Chu shall rise, Chen Sheng shall be king!" (大楚兴,陈胜王). When soldiers heard what sounded like a supernatural fox delivering this prophecy, they believed Chen Sheng was destined to lead them.