Warden of the Beast World: Everyone is a Hakimi

She got right to it. She took out a portable gas stove from her storage space and found a proper barbecue grill in her apartment's stash of supplies.

A charcoal fire was lit, a grill rack was set up, and skewered freshly picked scallions, garlic sprouts, and green peppers from the spiritual field in the space. A few pieces of luncheon meat and vacuum-packed beef skewers were also cut up.

The meat skewers sizzled and dripped oil on the charcoal fire. She sprinkled them with cumin, chili powder, and salt and pepper. The domineering aroma wafted over the courtyard wall on the breeze and filled the air above the residential area.

Ghost Hunter crouched beside the barbecue grill, its gray-blue eyes fixed on the sizzling meat skewers on the grill. Its tail tip unconsciously tapped lightly on the grass, and a small tuft of fur at the corner of its mouth was already wet with saliva.

"Don't rush, don't rush, it's not ready yet," Ye Tang said with a laugh as she flipped the skewers. "With the look in your eyes, anyone who didn't know better would think I'd starved you for three days."

Youlie rested his chin on her knee, his eyes still fixed on the grill.

Just then, a clear image suddenly appeared in her mind—her space was changing. The feeling was strange, like being able to see her front door automatically expanding even with her eyes closed. She paused for a moment, told Youlie, "Watch the fire for me," and then her consciousness instantly sank into the space.

Standing in the space, Ye Tang opened her mouth wide, her jaw almost dropping to the ground.

The original open space of about a hundred square meters has now more than doubled in size. The newly expanded spiritual field is connected to the original one, with the field ridges automatically dividing the area. The soil is soft and fertile, and there are still a few tender lettuce seedlings that she had casually scattered earlier. Those seedlings are visibly unfurling their leaves, as if greeting her.

A pond suddenly appeared beside the spirit field. The water was crystal clear, with a gentle ripple on the surface, and it looked like the same spirit spring water as the ancient well. The stone rim of the well had widened, the water level had risen, almost overflowing, and the spiritual energy was even more concentrated than before.

What shocked her the most was her studio apartment—no, it's no longer a studio apartment.

That small 35-square-meter house silently and completely transformed into a large supermarket, with neatly arranged shelves, refrigerated display cases humming, and a dazzling array of goods. Fresh produce, prepared foods, condiments, snacks, beverages, and daily necessities were clearly categorized and offered a complete range of products.

She walked over and saw fresh meat and vegetables neatly arranged in the freezer, various ready-made meals and seafood frozen in the refrigerator, and even steaming roast chicken and roast goose in the warming cabinet of the cooked food section, emitting an enticing aroma.

All the post-apocalyptic supplies she had stockpiled were still there, but they had been automatically categorized and placed on the corresponding shelves, mixed together with a large number of goods that she had never bought but which were now present, making it a fully functional modern supermarket.

"Holy crap?!" Ye Tang stood in the snack section, staring at the neatly arranged potato chips, chocolates, beef jerky, and spicy strips on the shelves, and exclaimed from the depths of her soul, "Is this even possible?"

Her gaze swept across the shelves, and a detail caught her eye—several brands of potato chips and spicy snacks had production dates printed on their packaging, all of which were after the day she traveled through time.

In other words, this supermarket isn't just displaying the supplies she's stockpiled; it's also automatically restocking and updating its inventory. The new flavor of potato chips she bought at the convenience store last week is now neatly arranged on the shelf, with every single flavor intact.

"As expected, every time you transmigrate, you get a cheat code. Every time you transmigrate, you get a cheat code." Ye Tang walked back and forth between the shelves several times, touching this and looking at that, and finally took a bag of frozen xiaolongbao and a few steamers of frozen dumplings from the fresh food section, preparing to exit the space.

Before leaving, she glanced at the pond one last time—the water was clear, with a few lotus leaves floating on the surface, and a silver shadow seemed to flash by beneath it, though she wasn't sure if it was just her imagination.

Consciousness was pulled back to reality by the message notification sound from the quantum computer.

Both messages were sent by Lu Yu. The first was an automated notification from the financial system: [Your account received a transfer of 100,000 Star Coins at 14:32 today. Payer: Finance Department of Prison Zero. Remarks: Special Bonus – Successfully guided Cangming, a detainee in Observation Zone Five, to the surface and finish eating.]

The second item is a salary adjustment notice from the personnel system: [Warden Wild Tang, with approval from higher authorities, your monthly salary has been adjusted from 30,000 Star Coins to 50,000 Star Coins, effective this month. Reason for adjustment: Excellent performance. Note: Please add today's green plant to your daily delivery list; this item is already included in the inmates' daily supplies list.]

Ye Tang stared at the string of numbers on the computer screen for a full five seconds. 100,000 star coins, deposited into his account. His monthly salary had increased from 30,000 to 50,000, an extra 20,000 each month, all because of a handful of catnip.

"The boss is so generous!" she exclaimed sincerely, feeling that although Lu Yu seemed refined to the point of being cunning, he was really efficient in getting things done.

She got a raise, her cheat system was upgraded, and a huge sum of money appeared in her account. Ye Tang's mood was at an all-time high. When she's in a good mood, she wants to cook.

This is a habit she developed in her past life—cooking a meal when she's working herself to the bone, cooking a meal when she gets a bonus and is happy, and cooking a meal even more so when she finally has a break on the weekend. The kitchen is her spiritual fortress against the world, and food is her universal language for expressing emotions.

She pulled out several bags of frozen xiaolongbao from her storage space, deciding to have a good lunch today.

The induction cooker was placed on the steamer. After the water boiled, the xiaolongbao (soup dumplings) were arranged in the steamer basket, one layer if not enough, two layers. The frozen xiaolongbao slowly became translucent in the steam, the dough changing from white to a semi-transparent light yellow. The broth from the meat filling swayed slightly inside the skin, and the aroma wafted out from the gaps in the steamer basket, mixing with the lingering smoke from the barbecue outside the door, making Youlie's nose twitch incessantly.

Ye Tang picked out the steamed dumplings one by one and arranged them on a large plate. Then she thought of another problem—the other five were still taking nutritional supplements.

This morning she delivered five vials of S-grade special nutritional supplements. Although she didn't see their expressions while eating them, judging from her own experience tasting the two "original" and "sweet" vials, those things were not fit for human consumption.

But the orcs of this world, from birth to death, have always eaten this kind of stuff. Commoners eat ordinary nutritional supplements, while nobles eat high-grade ones; the flavor is slightly better prepared, but it's still essentially a paste. They don't know what real food tastes like.

Thinking of this, she glanced at Youlie squatting beside her and decided to conduct an experiment. There were still a few vials of the regular nutritional supplements delivered this morning. She took one out, unscrewed the cap, and held it to Youlie's lips: "Doggy, want to try some?"

Ghost Hunter glanced at the silver-white tube, then slowly, firmly, and with undisguised disdain, turned his wolf head to the other side. He even took a half-step back, demonstrating his stance through his actions.

Ye Tang paused for a moment, then laughed. She put the nutrient solution away and rubbed You Lie's perked-up ears: "You really are a dog with only taste."

Even dogs wouldn't eat this stuff, how have those five been eating it for so many years? Ye Tang's sympathy for those five top-tier warriors of the empire reached its peak at this moment. One of them was an Imperial Marshal, another a Chief of Strategy, another the Young Chief of the Falcon Clan, another the Heir of the Vermilion Bird Clan, and another was practically a member of the Sea Abyss Royal Family—any one of them was a figure who could shake the empire with a stomp of their foot. And yet, what they ate was worse than the oden she bought at the convenience store after working overtime until midnight in her past life.

She steamed a huge pile of xiaolongbao (soup dumplings), the white buns stacked like a small mountain on the plate, the dough so thin it was translucent, the meat filling puffed up slightly, each pleat meticulously and evenly pinched. Youlie had been squatting by the kitchen door since she started steaming the first batch, and by the time she finished the fifth, he had gone from squatting to lying down, but his grey-blue eyes never left the stove. Yetang picked one up, blew on it to cool it, and handed it to him; he devoured it with a flick of his tongue. The second one, gone. The third one, gone.

When Ye Tang finished steaming all the xiaolongbao and counted them, she fell silent. She had steamed five trays, eight xiaolongbao per tray, for a total of forty. Thirty of them ended up in You Lie's stomach. After he finished eating, he licked the fur around his mouth and looked at her with a "any more?" look.

"You can really eat, you little doggy." Ye Tang squatted down, cupping his large wolf face in her hands, gently and skillfully rubbing it from his ears down to his chin. You Lie squinted as she was being rubbed, letting out a very soft, almost inaudible purr, then suddenly opened her eyes, forcibly suppressing the purr—she was a wolf, a fully grown, S-rank male wolf, described in the Imperial Military's files as "cold and aloof," not a dog. But she didn't pull her face away from Ye Tang's hands.

Ye Tang thought to herself: "No wonder it's a large dog. With that appetite, you really can't afford to feed it without a lot of money." Luckily, she currently earns a monthly salary of 50,000 yuan plus a 100,000 yuan bonus; otherwise, just feeding this dog would bankrupt her.

She divided the remaining ten buns into five equal portions of two, placing each portion into five clean insulated containers. Two buns might not even be enough to fill a group of orcs who easily reach two or three meters in height. But she had her own considerations—what if they didn't like the food and only preferred the nutritional supplements? What if their stomachs were already accustomed to porridge and couldn't handle real food? She couldn't waste it. Although these supplies came from the spatial supermarket and could be automatically replenished without spending money, wasting food was shameful in any world.

The insulated box was placed on the food cart, along with five nutritional supplements and five bundles of freshly harvested catnip.

Wild Tang put on her dark blue warden uniform, straightened the badge on her shoulder, and pushed the food cart toward the observation area. Ghost Hunter followed behind her, its silver-gray tail swaying gently behind it. Having eaten its fill of xiaolongbao, its steps were lighter than usual.