The reward has arrived.

Li Ang's eyes lit up as he scanned the warehouse.

There are probably only a few items left here that are still usable, but even if they're all junk, taking them back to organizations in the real world, or researching them personally,

could yield a lot of novel technologies, or at least provide insights that could inform technological research and development.

"We can talk about the rewards later,"

Li Ang coughed and said, "Let's get the treatment phase fully set up first."

"Huh?"

The village chief was taken aback, "Isn't everything already set up?"

"That's the production line for the transplant device and filtration instrument,"

Li Ang calmly replied, "But before that, we need to resolve the excrement source issue first.

This is critical for obtaining a healthy, stable initial gut microbiome.

Once we have the original excrement, we can cultivate it through transplants,

producing a second generation of healthy excrement. From there, we can further cultivate it through transplants,

producing third-generation healthy excrement...

Repeating this cycle, the whole village can maintain a healthy and stable gut microbiome."

"So, in other words, the issue now is to find excrement, right?"

The village chief pondered, then hesitantly asked, "Would livestock be an option?"

"That would be more complicated."

Li Ang spread his hands and said, "Small livestock like chickens and ducks provide insufficient excrement,

while larger ones like cows and horses have diets significantly different from humans, with a gut microbial diversity unlike our own.

Simply put, obtaining beneficial gut microbiomes from them would be highly inefficient,

and there's no guarantee that certain beneficial gut microbes won't disappear later, causing early onset again."

"Oh, oh."

The village chief nodded, his gaze drifting over the players, hesitating for half a day before awkwardly asking, "What about you brave souls..."

Hmm?

From the beginning, Ding Zhensi had been in an eavesdropping mode. He couldn't join Li Ang's Excrement Ghoul rescue discussions, but hearing the village chief's tone, it sounded like they were eying the contents of the players' guts?

"Considering the main diet of the original Ghoul is human, our 'stock' from the outside world should be usable."

Li Ang nodded slowly, "But I've been dieting lately, so my gut is empty. I'm afraid I can't produce anything useful."

Hey, when did you start dieting? Did you just decide that one second ago, acting like you've been dieting for days?

Ding Zhensi inwardly scoffed.

Hearing Li Ang's words, the village chief could only turn his hopeful gaze to David.

David quickly waved his hands and said, "Sorry, as everyone knows, I'm pretty straightforward and can't hold much in my stomach. My gut might be worse than your villagers'. I'm actually wearing leak-proof underwear right now to prevent sudden accidents."

Who knows if you're straightforward? We've only known each other for less than half a day! Are you some bird that can't control its cloaca and risk this for no reason?

Ding Zhensi inwardly ranted.

"Well... how about you, brave warrior?"

The village chief turned his gaze to Amber, with a hint of pleading in his eyes.

Amber, who had been smiling all along, instinctively stepped back half a step and awkwardly smiled, "I just had my appendix removed..."

The village chief asked confusedly, "But isn't the appendix unrelated to the gut?"

"...The doctor performing the surgery wasn't satisfied after removing my appendix, so they removed my intestines and replaced them with plastic tubes."

Amber, deadpan, continued, "Although I later slammed that doctor into a wall, having my intestines removed still left stubborn side effects, like vomiting blood now and then, cough, cough, cough!!"

Mid-sentence, Amber suddenly covered her mouth, and after a bout of violent coughing, opened her hand to reveal a palmful of thick black blood.

"See."

Amber wiped away the black blood with a napkin and regretfully shook her head, "I'm really helpless here."

Did she really just vomit blood?!

In the cockpit of the Kui Ox Mecha, Ding Zhensi was dumbfounded,

despite the Mecha's sensors clearly showing that Amber just used subtle force to manipulate her muscles and make herself cough up blood smoothly, fooling everyone.

Isn't it a bit much to apply such top-level martial arts muscle control for something like this? There's definitely something off with you top-tier players.

"..."

The village chief opened his mouth, hesitated to speak, and looked at Ding Zhensi with a pained expression, "Brave warrior, could you perhaps..."

"Me?"

Ding Zhensi nearly responded, but suddenly halted.

Li Rising, David, and Amber all seemed reluctant to donate excrement...

Forty functionally mysterious items from a different world are a huge fortune after all,

objectively more valuable than a mere heap of excrement,

it's just about finding a place to go, what's the issue?

Aren't normal people supposed to eat, drink, and defecate?

Unless... they have their reasons.

Ding Zhensi suddenly understood, the true reason for not wanting to donate excrement is that they don't want to expose their genetic information.

A mere mound of excrement isn't valuable per se,

but the copious amounts of bodily cells it contains are invaluable genetic material.

Low-level players might just comply,

but higher-level players need to consider potential dangers—like whether someone could use some of their bodily cells to cast a curse,

whether someone might clone them from their genetic material,

whether someone could create test-tube babies from their reproductive cells without their knowledge, cultivating numerous offspring or even genetically-mutated organisms carrying their DNA.

Such cases aren't rare on player forums, especially scandals involving the Gen-Sys Biotech Company—this company was once exposed for secretly collecting genetic info from player employees to create bioweapons.

That event caused quite an uproar.

The current scenario prohibits summoning skills and equipment, and forbids using Demon Pets,

meaning players can't use ordinary summons as an excrement source.

David, Amber, and other top-tier players, have no reason to risk genetic information leaks,

and even if they wanted to help by donating some excrement, it would have to be processed by Li Rising—Li Rising seems very skilled in biological modification,

even more mad and uncontrollable than members of the Demon Scientist Alliance,

the risk outweighs the expected value.

"I..."

Ding Zhensi's answer abruptly halted. Facing the village chief's hopeful glance, he reluctantly said, "My stomach has also been acting up lately..."

"Come on, Xiao Ding, don't be modest."

Li Ang patted the leg of the Kui Ox Mecha, "Among us, your gut functions are the best, you can eat and defecate to your heart's content."

"Indeed, indeed."

Amber chimed in, "As the ancient Eastern proverb goes, saving one life is better than building a seven-story pagoda, let alone saving a whole village.

No need to refuse, just hand over all your stock. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Hmm... I remember your Mecha cockpit has a portable life-support system, right? You usually don't leave the cockpit for bathroom breaks.

This means there's definitely a can somewhere in your Mecha for waste disposal.

Quick, hand over the can."

Don't take it from me!

Ding Zhensi was at his wit's end, wanting to push away Amber and Li Ang, who were searching the Kui Ox Mecha for the can, but the two of them were unreasonably strong,

and in low-power mode, the Kui Ox Mecha couldn't pry their hands off.

Just as the three were bickering, Hoenhem gave a light cough, "Um, actually, I have an idea..."

"You?"

The village chief's eyes shone brightly, "Do you mean, you'd be willing to donate?"

For some reason, despite the village chief being an ordinary life form with slight Ghoul blood, his eager eyes created pressure for Hoenhem, who coughed to hide his embarrassment, and said, "Not me donating, but this..."

Thus, Hoenhem pulled out a dirty and crude medium-sized sack emitting a strange odor,

which was the second sack handed over by the three-armed monster Claude earlier in the forest.