Chapter 109: Beast Core

“It was you who stole something—don’t act like I’m the one bullying you, okay?” There was a hint of helplessness in Su You’s tone.

All she could say was, little liar really lived up to her name… No wonder the system had tagged her as a “little liar.”

At first, Su You thought that when Buguo realized her attempt at playing weak hadn’t worked, she’d hand over everything she’d taken just to protect herself… And throughout the whole process, Su You hadn’t noticed anything off in her demeanor—at least, nothing that raised any red flags.

But just to be safe, Su You double-checked all the loot.

Once she finished counting everything, Su You realized that Buguo had still been putting on an act.

Not only had she hidden something and not handed it over, but what she’d hidden was actually the most valuable item among all the loot.

This particular item wasn’t even a guaranteed drop, but before leaving, Su You had glanced at the items on the ground and vaguely remembered seeing it—though she hadn’t been sure if her eyes had deceived her.

Originally, when she reached out and asked Buguo to hand over the items, it was just a test. But now, combined with Buguo’s behavior, Su You’s uncertainty had turned into absolute certainty.

No matter how skilled Buguo was, she was still just a teenager. She might have been able to lie and put on a perfect act at first, but in the end, Su You still managed to trick her into revealing herself.

“I admit I took something, but I’ve already handed everything over,” Buguo said, hesitating for a few seconds before replying with feigned confidence.

Seeing that Buguo refused to admit it, Su You took two steps closer.

Buguo immediately shrank back… This time, it wasn’t an act—just a pure, instinctive reaction.

“I may not have picked up the items myself, but I know exactly what was there. You know better than I do whether you took a round, emerald-green bead.” That emerald-green bead was actually a beast core—a rare material with an extremely low drop rate.

Beast cores had many uses: they could be used to make potions, for alchemy, to craft weapons and equipment, or as enchanting materials… The stronger the beast, the lower the drop rate of its core, but the better its effects.

What Buguo had taken was the Long-tailed Crocodile’s beast core. The Long-tailed Crocodile was a formidable beast, so its core was at least of green quality—possibly even blue.

From Su You’s memory, even a white-quality beast core was worth several, even dozens of gold coins. Green ones went for a hundred gold, and anything above green was priceless—rare and impossible to find on the market.

When Buguo realized Su You really knew she’d hidden something, her face instantly went pale.

Given the situation, her best option was to hand over the beast core. If she did, things would probably end there—after all, if Su You really wanted to hurt her, she wouldn’t bother with all this talk.

Even if Buguo had no combat ability, Su You could easily handle a child—and she still had weapons in her backpack.

But Buguo didn’t hand over the beast core.

Su You frowned, but instead of acting, she asked, “Do you know what a beast core is?”

Buguo was silent for a moment, then nodded slightly.

“What do you need money for?” As soon as she finished the first question, Su You followed up with another that seemed completely unrelated.

It seemed unrelated, but when Buguo heard it, her eyes widened and she stared straight at Su You.

“How…how did you know I needed money?” As soon as Buguo said it, she regretted it, but it was too late to take it back. She could only stand there, dumbfounded.

How did she know? She guessed, of course.

After all, beast cores had only two uses: to sell for money, or to craft something.

Buguo clearly didn’t have the skills to craft anything herself. If she wanted something made, she’d have to hire someone—and that cost money. Especially since beast cores were high-level materials, she’d need someone with advanced skills, which would be even more expensive.

Most likely, Buguo only recognized the beast core, but didn’t really understand it, so she had no idea what it could be used for.

If she truly understood beast cores, she wouldn’t have just tossed it into her bag so casually… After all, beast cores weren’t just useful to humans—beasts could also consume them to grow stronger. Their allure was on par with that white ermine.

Of course, Su You wasn’t about to say all that out loud.

“What do you need the money for?” Su You didn’t answer Buguo’s question, but pressed her own.

When Buguo still didn’t seem willing to answer, Su You added, “You know what the situation is. If I wanted to use force, I wouldn’t bother with all this talking.”

Buguo knew Su You was right, but she still pressed her lips together and stayed silent, lowering her head so her messy hair covered her eyes, making it impossible to tell what she was thinking.

Su You said, “If you cooperate and answer my questions, maybe we can work something out.”

She’d long expected Buguo would be hard to recruit, but when actually faced with such a difficult NPC, Su You was more than capable of handling it.

After all, she’d met plenty of “weird and troublesome” NPCs before; in terms of being difficult, Buguo didn’t even crack the top ten.

The fact that she was just a child put her at a huge disadvantage.

Maybe Su You’s words got through to her, because Buguo’s head gave a little shake, and then she slowly looked up. “I need the money to pay the church… for a soul burial.”

The church… soul burial?

Su You silently repeated those words, and roughly understood Buguo’s goal.

At the same time, Buguo continued, “I once saw someone take out a beast core by accident. They said it was really valuable.” Since she’d only learned about it by chance, Buguo didn’t know about the dangers of beast cores—she just knew they were worth a lot.

She hadn’t planned to hunt beasts for their cores to sell—she knew her own limits.

She hadn’t given the beast core much thought. It was just that today, she happened to pass by where the Long-tailed Crocodile was, and saw Duoya and Su You fighting it… In fact, she knew perfectly well the loot belonged to someone else—she’d watched Duoya kill it from start to finish.

But because Su You was focused on Duoya, and Duoya was focused on the crocodile, plus Buguo had hidden herself well, neither of them noticed her."