023 This Support is Toxic
It wasn’t until today that Wang Heng learned just how much care a tiny hamster required.
The cage was a given, of course. A water bottle and food bowl were also necessities. Inside the cage, there also needed to be a running wheel, a small nest, and a molar stone. To make the hamster comfortable, consumables like cotton balls and wood shavings were also needed. Hamsters couldn’t bathe in water; they needed bath sand. In the stuffy heat of August and September in Rongdu, a piece of marble was also needed in the cage to help the little guy cool down.
And a hamster’s food couldn’t be just anything. There was special hamster food, which contained different proportions of various grains, sunflower seeds, dried fruit, and mealworms… In short, as a typical omnivorous animal, it could eat many things, but not everything, and it certainly couldn’t eat only one type of food.
After a long subway ride, Wang Heng finally arrived at a pet store specializing in small animal supplies. This small shop had a rather unique business model. It didn’t sell things for cats and dogs, only providing daily necessities for little guys like hamsters, guinea pigs, and chinchillas.
Perhaps because it was too niche, the shop’s location was quite deserted. It wasn’t near any even slightly popular commercial district, nor was it on a main street. It really took some effort to find.
When Wang Heng entered the shop, he found that he was the only customer.
“Hello, buying a hamster?”
The shop owner looked up from his computer and asked listlessly. And from that old computer, a crisp voice emerged—”Pass!”
Wang Heng, always considerate, said, “Why don’t you finish this round of Fight the Landlord first?”
“Sure, then please wait a moment. I’ve declared my last two cards. I should win soon.”
The shop owner was a relatively young man, looking to be under thirty, but he was a bit greasy and exuded the aura of someone who had been single for many years. Half a minute later, he finished the round and finally beamed with joy.
Then the shop owner came over and asked, “Want to buy a little guy?”
Wang Heng took the Spacetime Administrator out of his pocket. “I already have a little guy. I need to buy some things for it.”
“A hamster, huh. Hmm, what do you need?”
“The whole set.”
The shop owner thought for a moment and asked, “When someone gave you this hamster, didn’t they give you anything else? Not even a cage?”
Wang Heng looked down at it and said helplessly, “It wasn’t a gift. This hamster came to me on its own.”
The shop owner couldn’t help but be surprised. “Then it has a fateful connection with you!”
“Sigh, yeah…”
**
Fortunately, he had checked some information online in advance, so Wang Heng had an idea of how many things he needed to buy. That’s why he had specifically brought his old backpack when he set out today. The backpack was completely empty.
But when he walked out of the small animal supply store, the backpack was almost full. A cage with a wheel, two cans of hamster food, a bag of wood shavings, a bag of cotton balls, a bottle of bath sand… and many other small, miscellaneous items were all stuffed into the backpack.
After buying all these, the shop owner was still trying to sell a hamster travel cage. It was a small cage about the size of a lunchbox, with a strap on top, allowing it to be carried like a crossbody bag, very suitable for taking a small hamster out on the street.
But Wang Heng refused quite decisively. After all, Mr. Administrator was different from an ordinary hamster. It could even be carried in his pocket without worrying about it misbehaving and chewing through the fabric.
By the time Wang Heng walked out of the shop, it was already evening. The setting sun hadn’t completely disappeared, and the streetlights were on, so the light in this small alley was quite bright.
He held the hamster in both hands and sighed, “You cost me over a hundred yuan as soon as you arrived. I’m not even sure how good of a support you are, but you’re quite good at farming gold.”
The hamster retorted righteously, “I can choose different animal avatars. Think about it. If I hadn’t chosen a hamster, but a cat or a dog, you would have spent far more than this. A few dozen yuan worth of hamster food is enough for me to eat for a long time, as long as it doesn’t get damp or moldy. But if it were a cat or a dog, how many days would that last?”
Wang Heng suddenly realized a problem and asked, “A hamster’s lifespan is also much shorter than a cat’s or a dog’s. It should be only one or two years, right?”
“About that.”
“So will you die in two years?”
The hamster shook its little head. “You can rest assured about that. Before this body gives out, I will find another avatar.”
“Regarding the choice of the next avatar, can I make a suggestion?”
“What suggestion?”
“It’s just an immature little suggestion, you can take it as a reference,” Wang Heng coughed twice. “No matter what kind of biological avatar it is, it won’t have any effect on your abilities, right? Something like a hamster still requires me to spend money to raise it, and it might cause some trouble in daily life. So, why not get something with stronger adaptability?”
The hamster tilted its head, sensing that things were not so simple. “Stronger adaptability?”
Wang Heng looked sincere. “For example, flies, cockroaches, mosquitoes. They are all freer and less conspicuous than hamsters, aren’t they?”
The hamster’s small mouth hung open. It was stunned for a few seconds before it said, “You’re not even willing to spend a hundred yuan on me? And you want your golden finger to become a cockroach… What kind of person are you!”
Wang Heng retorted, “You’re the Spacetime Administrator. Don’t you even know what kind of person I am?”
“Unfortunately, my ability to predict the future is ineffective on you alone. Any part of the future related to your consciousness is a complete fog to me. So I really didn’t expect that your level of shamelessness could reach such a realm…”
“You flatter me, you flatter me.”
“Do you think that’s a compliment?” After saying that, the hamster turned its head and jumped out of his palm.
At this moment, Wang Heng had just walked out of the small alley and onto the sidewalk of the main street. The hamster’s jump landed it right in the grass by the side of the sidewalk. The soft lawn provided excellent cushioning, so not only was it uninjured, but it also used the momentum to bounce forward and start running wildly!
“I was just kidding. Why did you react so strongly… Wait!”
Wang Heng didn’t have time to say anything more and subconsciously chased after it.
After chasing for a dozen meters, the hamster jumped out of the grass and stopped in front of a pair of canvas shoes.
They were a pair of cheap canvas shoes. Above the shoes were equally cheap sweatpants. The owner of this set of cheap clothes was a petite and spirited young girl.
The hamster clung to the toe of the shoe, looked up, and blinked its pitiful little eyes.
The girl’s attention was also drawn to the hamster, and she couldn’t help but exclaim, “Wow, so cute!”
Wang Heng, who had been chasing the hamster, also noticed this girl. In an instant, his heart sank.
His lips moved, and he silently recited the other person’s name: “Pei Ningle.”
That’s right, another girl who should have been in the Imperial Capital but had come to Rongdu under the influence of the worldline’s correction mechanism, one of the four-person assassin squad.
Looking at the Spacetime Administrator who was acting cute while hugging the girl’s shoe, Wang Heng was filled with grief and indignation. You still have the nerve to call yourself a support? Farming gold is one thing, but how can you be such a troll!
