Will the kemonomimi encounter Alien Ranch Story?

Chapter 48

The old town processing plant was the first of Lao Xia's production facilities in Longmen to start operating, mainly responsible for food processing and manufacturing. "Soy protein packages, hurry up and unpack them, the workshop can't wait!" The infected workers hurriedly unloaded bags of soy protein from the flatbed of the truck.

"Where's the sugar? Where's the sugar? Warehouse manager, the sugar that Workshop Two needs, hurry up, we're running out of supplies." A worker in a blue work uniform rushed in, sweating profusely.

"The sugar's on that shelf over there, you bastard, don't you dare poke the bag..." The part-time warehouse manager slammed the pencil in his hand down with his carving knife, displaying the force of a hidden weapon despite being a renowned knife-wielder.

These workers, whether infected or ordinary people, will try to poke at the sugar bags if they're not being watched, to see if there's a gap so they can sneak a bite, just like the operators on Rhodes Island's production lines.

The situation in the workshop was even more serious, so it was necessary to explicitly prohibit the use of a knife to scrape off the syrup and sugar clumps stuck to the inner wall of the equipment after get off work, because this would cause devastating damage to the non-toxic antibacterial coating on the inner wall of the equipment.

If the warehouse is already in such a chaotic and busy state, the workshop is even more chaotic. "Unload the materials!"

The worker cuts open the freshly delivered sugar bag, and the white sugar powder falls like a waterfall into the funnel-shaped feed inlet. The sugar, soy protein, refined starch, and spices added at the end are mixed, added, baked, and thermoformed to finally become a loose and porous flavored nutritional bar similar to spicy strips.

After the packaging workshop repackages them into bags of 20, the Xia's Group's Three-Leaf Wheatgrass trademark is laser-printed on the bags before they enter the next stage of outer packaging. Finally, these items are loaded onto trucks and sent to various supermarkets in Longmen for sale.

Because it contains plenty of spices, it is widely loved by people who don't have much time to cook, especially when paired with instant noodles and canned goods produced in the neighboring factory area, it is practically the daily meal of the workers in Longmen.

Despite the impressive sales figures, the actual profit margin is very low. This is because the raw materials need to be transported from Ursus, and the costs remain high due to Lao Xia's "ruthless and inhumane" exploitative practices. As a result, the profit per bag is no more than 8 cents, making one question his motives for opening these factories.

"Of course we should expand production in advance to prepare for the surge in raw materials," Old Xia said confidently. Otherwise, what else can we do? Grain spoils, and if we don't increase production capacity in advance, what will happen when there's a bumper harvest? Will it all just pile up there waiting to rot?

"As for the other reason, it's probably just the fun..."

After all, as agricultural technicians, if the things we grow can only be displayed, it feels like drinking without any snacks. It feels like drinking alone and it's meaningless.

"Speaking of which, this thing you call... instant noodles, did you really put meat in it?" Swire looked at the goods piled up at the quality inspection station waiting for random checks. "Also, who gave you permission to use my image, you bastard!" The logo on the packaging bag was a cute little tiger.

"Because we can't think of a good name," Old Xia said, putting a safety helmet on the little tiger's head. "Also, wear a safety helmet when you go into the workshop. Last time, a female worker in the next workshop didn't wear one because she thought her hat was pressing on her ears. As a result, her hair was pulled into the meat grinder machine. You don't want to know what happened next."

"No, stop talking! If you say it again, I'll throw up just looking at this thing." The little tiger turned pale and obediently put his hat on properly.

"As for the meat, I really did add it, it was definitely beef!"

"Where did you get so many cows?" The little tiger looked at him suspiciously. Ursus ranch might have that many cows, but transportation capacity was limited. So many live cows entering Lungmen would definitely be big news.

"Wait, what's the percentage of beef?" The little tiger instantly used his business acumen to ask a new question. Even if you really added beef, it could be just one gram of beef added to a hundred packets of seasoning and meat sauce. That's still adding beef.

"100%, not counting seasonings and oil, all the oil I use is genuine beef tallow. I even have a dedicated workshop for rendering beef tallow."

That's why Lao Xia's instant noodles have almost swept through the Longmen market, squeezing out other similar products to the point of collapse. Nobody knows where he gets his cheap beef.

Rumors began circulating that the Xia Group's food products were counterfeit and substandard, containing ingredients like rat meat to imitate beef. After all, anyone with a discerning eye could easily find out how much they bought and sold each month.

This doesn't match the data that they need tens of tons of beef every day to meet their sales volume, and it's supposed to be stored in Longmen.

However, the market price of Longmen beef did not increase, and Lao Xia did not build a large-scale cold storage facility for frozen meat.

So... as the branch office head, Little Tiger had no choice but to come and inspect, to see what this guy was up to.

"So, where did your flesh come from?"

"Um, okay, I'll take you to see it." Old Xia led the little tiger into the factory's experimental building, then took the elevator to the lowest deck. After going through two security checks, they arrived at a very strange place.

"This is... there's nothing here." A huge circular room with a cross-shaped raised platform on the floor, but nothing else.

"Click—" Old Xia turned on the switch on the wall, and the metal protective floor slowly rotated and opened, revealing the glass underneath and what was under the glass.

"What is this? Some kind of mixer?" The huge mechanical arm slowly rotated, stirring the pale red liquid. Every now and then, chunks of meat floated to the surface and were hooked by the sharp teeth on the rotating arm, and brought into the recovery port on the side of the bulkhead.

"It is a beef culture chamber, which uses bovine embryonic cells to induce stem cells to differentiate into muscle cells, and then metabolizes them in a high-nutrient environment to produce bovine liver, bovine fat and bovine muscle. Due to cost considerations, unlike organ cultivation technology, it can only form simple structures."

"If you use it to make steak or similar dishes, the muscle fibers will feel loose and lack chewiness, and the taste will be unpleasant due to the abnormal hormones," Old Xia said, turning on the interior light.

"But when it's ground into meat paste or rendered into butter, you can't taste the difference..." Under the lights, coral-like pipes and biomimetic structures grow in the pale red "seawater," with wriggling chunks of meat of all sizes hanging on them, like fruits adorning branches.

One of the "fruits" that had grown to a sufficient size seemed to be ripe. The fleshy tube connecting it to the "coral" at the end automatically withered and broke off. Then, the fleshy mass slowly floated up, carrying a string of bubbles, and finally floated on the surface of the water, waiting to be caught by the rotating arm.

Perhaps taking Yelena's evaluation of his wet equipment into account, Lao Xia made it much more aesthetically pleasing this time.

Both the nutrient supply machines and the fleshy tubes have been modified to some extent, giving them an aquarium feel under the wall lamp lighting.

"I have four of these culture chambers. They're huge power consumers. Luckily, I also built the power plant here, otherwise the electricity bills would be unbearable."

"Your 'beef' is raised in water like this?" The little tiger's expression was a bit strange. She didn't know much about the technology, but the fact that beef... wasn't made from cows was really beyond what a normal person could imagine.

“No wonder those guys couldn’t find your beef source…” Watching the conveyor hooks inside the bulkhead lift up pieces of detoxified beef to become raw materials for the meat sauce workshop, the meat sauce was made into small, bright red pieces of meat in order to finely grind the meat sauce and filter out any small, irregular pieces of bone and hair that might form during the tissue culture process.

The structure of this "beef chunk" consists of an outer layer of sturdy skin, followed by muscle and fat.

The structure of the muscle, when cut longitudinally, reveals a marble-like pattern, which is why the workers in the meat sauce workshop are repeatedly forbidden from stealing processed beef from the conveyor belt.

Because artificial tissue culture involves the injection of large amounts of synthetic hormones and chemicals, directly consuming such substances could lead to poisoning and endocrine disorders, causing significant harm to the body.

Therefore, after detoxification, it needs to be crushed, impurities filtered out, and residual hormones and drug components removed. Then, it is combined with butter and other seasonings from the cooking workshop to make a sauce packet with an extremely rich flavor that normal people absolutely cannot taste the difference.

"If I hadn't seen how you got your beef, I would have thought you were crazy..."

The little tiger picked up a piece of meat from the conveyor belt that hadn't been processed yet. With her ability to distinguish, she couldn't tell the difference between it and the high-quality marbled beef she usually bought. In fact, due to the artificial manufacturing process of tissue culture, this "fake" looked even more beautiful.

The fat distribution is a perfect composite geometric structure, and the muscle fibers appear strong and powerful. Moreover, because it is cultivated in an in vitro environment, apart from a very faint bloody smell, there is no other odor.

If you put it next to the high-end stuff you've eaten before, people might think that the real thing is fake, and that this thing that looks like it was fished out of a cultivation tank is the real high-end stuff.

"It looks good, but it might not taste the same. After all, it's a fast-growing product. Rapid development makes the muscle fibers look thick and strong, but in reality, it will taste extremely loose, soft, and disgusting..."

"nausea?"

"It's like eating a seasoned cotton ball..." Old Xia described the texture of this tissue-cultured meat. "Advanced tissue culture technology is much better, but it's also more expensive. So, it's usually ground into a paste and then pressed into reconstituted meat patties. By the way, I also provided the hamburger patties for 'Rabbit Fast Food.' I minced, marinated, pressed, and fried them; at least I can't really taste the difference."

"My God, wait a minute, Rabbit Fast Food? You own that?"

"It was opened by Yelena, or more precisely, by her Yeti Squad."

"Besides telling jokes, they have this talent too?" The little tiger was astonished. "And why is it called Rabbit Fast Food instead of Yeti Fast Food?"

"You'd have to ask them what they're thinking." Old Xia shrugged. If these crosstalk performers didn't lack those "worldly desires," he would be picking up his hunting rifle and going to talk to them one by one. Yelena is only 14 years old. What are you beasts trying to do?

Because it was opened with funds pooled together by members of the Yeti Group, it is indeed not affiliated with the Xia Group. Its finances and funds are independent, and it was opened with their own savings. Now it is a well-known fast food restaurant in Lungmen.

However, it is only somewhat famous, with chain stores only in the old city area and none in other areas, let alone in other countries. On the other hand, Lao Xia's seasoning nutrition bars and instant noodles are about to enter the international market.

"I think I understand now. It seems your complaints aren't very reliable." Little Tiger roughly understood what was going on with the raw materials for Lao Xia's products. Although he was a little confused... it was nothing like using rat meat or something similar to impersonate them.

"Also, I get the feeling you seem to be short of money lately?"

"Yes, there's a big plan coming up, but there's a funding gap." Old Xia nodded. If all the liquid funds were put in, it would be enough, but that's impossible because it would easily break the cash flow and cause a chain reaction of collapses.

"How much is missing? I still have some pocket money here. No, don't misunderstand, I just don't want this money to go to waste. You know, money only has value when it's spent, and I just can't find any investment opportunities." The little tiger scratched its cheek, its emerald green eyes moving towards the upper right corner.

"We're short a little over a billion Lungmen Dollars, but we'll be able to raise that amount soon."

"Then I..." This amount does indeed exceed the level of "a little pocket money". "I'll try to invest some money in you. Hey, this is just a normal business investment, don't get the wrong idea."

"Hmm, I understand. It's better to have a wife."

"Huh?" Her tail bristled. "Who, who, who's your wife! You bastards! I never agreed to that! It was all your own decision!" Swire stormed off. But, judging from her expression, she didn't seem that angry...right?

In the old town, a sign reads, "Rabbit Fast Food is hiring waitresses and cashiers. Requirements: Kats, female, 15-35 years old, part-time available, daily wage 50-100 Lungmen Dollars, paid daily." The sign insists on Kats being the Rabbit. This is the last stand of the Yeti team at this fast food restaurant, since Yelena has absolutely no interest in it.

"Ding-dong—" The wind chimes hanging on the door made a crisp sound. A girl wearing a white dress with a shawl pushed open the door and walked in. There were quite a few people in the fast food restaurant, but most of them were taking out rather than dining in.

After all, the pace of life in the old town is fast, and various jobs and venues require a lot of manpower, so naturally not many people have the leisure to sit down and eat slowly. "A thick beef burger, express delivery!" An Suo slammed his hand on the counter. "I'm almost late for work!"

"Coming right away." Miss Rabbit at the counter smiled reassuringly, and soon a double beef burger was delivered. Just as Old Xia said, even he himself couldn't taste the difference, let alone these Lungmen infected and civilians who had never eaten proper good beef.

An Su rushed out the door, carrying a bag of hamburgers, looking like he was definitely going to be late.

Interestingly, there were also quite a few people from the Fengti tribe queuing up at the restaurant. Their dietary habits lean towards vegetarianism, so they mostly chose dishes like fried vegetable rolls.

"I, I'm here for a job interview..." The girl swallowed hard. She used to work at Rembiton Mining Company, but she was fired because she contracted Oripathy.

Because Rembitox required the company to provide a range of benefits to employees who contracted Originium disease on the job, the company's response was to fire them before they were diagnosed.

The reasons for her dismissal varied. For example, she was dismissed for keeping rabbits in the company dormitory, which violated the ban on keeping pets.

Okay, she did have four rabbits, but they weren't pets; they were kept for the construction site canteen.

But the manager didn't care about all that; his priority was to fire her before she was diagnosed with Oripathy, rather than incurring huge medical bills.

Although Rembitox does not have a policy of discriminating against infected individuals, companies still establish invisible barriers.

Unless it's a job that requires heavy physical labor or a certain level of Originium Arts, infected people will never be recruited, and she is someone who is not qualified for either of those jobs.

"Carter's? How old is he?"

"Sixteen years old..."

Do you have work experience?

"Yes, I worked at the Rembiton mine canteen for a year, mainly responsible for hunting and raising rabbits..."

After all, it's rare to have large-scale farming in this world, and it's normal for various wild animals to roam around, so hunting and raising them together is a tradition.

"I see. Why did you resign?"

"Because I got infected." There was a clear sense of self-loathing in her voice, after all, she grew up in an environment where there was overt and covert discrimination against those who were infected.

"I remember Rembiton..." Rembiton does offer certain benefits to its infected employees. However, while the company's upper management is willing to pay some money to reduce trouble, the subordinates may not think the same way.

"I was expelled...the reason given was that I kept rabbits in the dorm, they said it was for keeping pets..."

"Ah, this..."

Are you planning to work there long-term or part-time?

"I'll take a part-time job—" She still hadn't given up on finding a proper job, so she decided to take a part-time job first.

"Are you still using your old code name?"

"Use the code name... April."

Chapter Forty-Nine: Working Skills, Working Spirit~

Chapter 49

Lungmen Guard Bureau, Detention Room, "Name!"

The red-haired woman, "Remian," was awkwardly handcuffed to a chair. All her belongings were searched, the most conspicuous of which were various long and short guns hanging on almost half the wall, making people wonder if this person had some strange skill like gun control.

"Profession?"

"Nun" refers to a Lateran nun, a legitimate clergy member with identification and special documents that prove she is indeed a regular nun who graduated from the Lateran Theological Seminary.

Why rob Lungmen?