Help! I transmigrated to a Beast World

Chapter 123: Bonk! Hyenas Hired

"Oh no. Oh no, no, no."

Xin Yi pressed her back hard against the smooth stone wall of the crater, almost like she was trying to merge with it.

The fifteen spotted hyena beastmen crept closer, their hunched shoulders scraping the dirt. Their sickly yellow eyes were locked onto her, and the sound of their high-pitched, manic giggling echoed terrifyingly in the dark pit.

"Soft meat," the largest hyena drooled, stepping over a massive ribcage. "Hairless meat. Very tender. Hehehe!"

System! Xin Yi screamed in her mind, completely abandoning her pride. Do something! I don’t have my frying pan! Give me a sword! A gun! A helicopter! Anything!

[Ding!]

[(⁠๑⁠•⁠﹏⁠•⁠) Error: Host’s level is too low to requisition advanced weaponry! Current available weapons: A Wooden Spoon, A Spatula, or A Handful of Sand!]

A spoon?! I am going to be eaten by laughing dogs and you want me to stir them?! Xin Yi shrieked internally. Gahhhhh! Where is Mán Shū?! Doesn’t that sneaky goddess care if her ’Visionary’ gets chewed into pieces?!

[Ding! Processing divine intervention...]

[Goddess Mán Shū is currently taking a nap. However, the Goddess has left behind an ’Emergency Unga-Bunga Care Package’ for situations exactly like this! (⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠)]

Suddenly, a bright, blinding flash of blue light illuminated the bottom of the Scavenger’s Bowl.

The hyenas hissed, covering their sensitive eyes and stumbling backward.

When the light faded, Xin Yi felt a sudden, heavy weight in her hands. She looked down.

It wasn’t a sword. It wasn’t a frying pan.

It was a bone.

Specifically, it was a massive, incredibly thick, dinosaur-sized femur bone that the System had apparently plucked right out of the graveyard and enchanted with a faint, glowing blue aura.

[Item Acquired: The Bone of Discipline! (Rare)]

[Stats: +50 Blunt Force. +100 Bonk. Weightless to Host, hits like a falling boulder to enemies!]

Xin Yi didn’t even have time to question the absurdity of holding a glowing leg bone.

The lead hyena shook off the blinding light, his yellow eyes narrowing with ravenous hunger. He let out a piercing cackle, his powerful leg muscles coiling as he lunged straight for her throat, his bone-crushing jaws snapping open.

"Ahhhhh!" Xin Yi squeezed her eyes completely shut, raised the massive bone over her head, and swung it like a professional baseball player aiming for a home run.

BONK!

"Awooo!" the lead hyena yelped, his momentum completely halting in mid-air. He dropped to the dirt, clutching the top of his head with both clawed hands.

"Eat this! And this! Stay away from me!" Xin Yi yelled, her survival instincts completely taking over.

She turned into a whirlwind of panicked aggression. She practically played whack-a-mole with the apex scavengers.

BONK! BONK! BONK!

She banged the bone onto the head of the second hyena. She smacked the snout of the third. She ruthlessly bonked the fourth right between the ears.

"Ow! Awoo! Eep!"

For a solid minute, the bottom of the terrifying death pit was filled with the sound of hollow bonks and the pathetic yelps of fifteen highly dangerous beastmen getting absolutely walloped by a tiny, furious female wielding a glowing femur.

Finally, out of breath and panting heavily, Xin Yi stopped swinging. She stood over them, the Bone of Discipline resting on her shoulder, completely prepared to die fighting.

But.....the hyenas weren’t attacking.

Xin Yi slowly opened one eye.

The fifteen hyenas were sitting in a circle around her. They were all vigorously rubbing the massive, comical red lumps forming on the tops of their heads. The manic, terrifying giggling had completely stopped.

The lead hyena, the one who had tried to bite her neck, slowly looked up at her. He blinked his big, yellow eyes. He looked at the glowing bone. Then, he looked at her soft, entirely unmuscled arms.

"Meat hit hard," the lead hyena whispered in absolute awe.

"Meat very strong," another hyena chimed in, tilting his head.

"Meat make my ears ring," a third one whined, rubbing his snout.

The lead hyena suddenly sat up straight on his hindquarters. His spotted ears perked up, and to Xin Yi’s absolute bewilderment, his scruffy tail actually began to wag slightly against the dirt.

"You are not meat," the lead hyena concluded. "You hit harder than the Lion Chief. You are Boss!"

[Ding!]

[(⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠) Host has successfully asserted dominance over the Spotted Hyena Pack!]

[Intimidation Level: MAX! They now view you as the Supreme Alpha of the Garbage Pit!]

Xin Yi stared at them.

They were serious. They were actually looking at her with total, submissive reverence. The terrifying, bone-crushing monsters from two minutes ago now looked like a pack of incredibly ugly, very confused stray dogs.

"I..." Xin Yi started, slowly lowering the bone. Her brilliant, modern brain immediately started spinning. If she couldn’t climb out of this pit on her own, she was going to need manual labor.

"Yes," Xin Yi declared, puffing out her chest and pointing the bone at the leader. "I am Boss! And Boss says you cannot eat me!"

The hyenas all nodded aggressively in unison.

"But we are hungry, Boss," the leader whimpered pathetically, his stomach letting out a loud rumble. "Only old, dry bones down here. Lions are stingy."

"If you don’t eat me, and if you help me get out of this pit," Xin Yi bargained, her eyes narrowing as she fully embraced her new role as the Garbage Queen. "I will give you better food. Not rotting garbage. Not old bones. I will give you fresh, cooked meat. Seasoned with herbs. More food than you can ever eat!"

The hyenas gasped. Their tails began to wag so hard that clouds of dust kicked up from the floor of the crater.

"Cooked meat?! For us?!"

"Boss is generous!"

"All hail the tiny Boss!"

Awwwww.

A small smile broke across her exhausted face. They were actually kind of.....cute? In a very strange, horrifying, flea-bitten sort of way.

"Alright, alright, settle down," Xin Yi sighed, resting the bone on the ground like a walking stick. "If you are going to work for me, I need to know your names."

The leader eagerly crawled forward on his hands and knees, looking up at her with big, shining yellow eyes. He looked like a puppy begging for a treat.

"I am Gou Sheng!" the leader announced proudly. [Dog Leftover]

He pointed to the hyena next to him, who had a slightly crooked ear. "This is Er Gou!" [Second Dog]

He pointed to a third one who was currently trying to chew on a rock. "And that is Da Sha!" [Big Idiot]

Xin Yi slapped a hand over her mouth, her shoulders shaking as she desperately tried to hold back a burst of laughter.

"Gou Sheng, Er Gou, and Da Sha," Xin Yi repeated, her voice trembling with giggles. "Okay. Wow. The Lions really did a number on your self-esteem, didn’t they?"

"We are very good diggers, Boss!" Gou Sheng promised, panting happily. "We can dig a ramp! We can carry you out!"

Xin Yi looked up at the rim of the crater, then back down at her new, fiercely loyal pack of spotted minions.

She let out a long, dramatic sigh, but she was smiling.

Wan Ning thought she was throwing a weak twig into a death trap to be forgotten. She had no idea she had just accidentally given the Chief Architect of the Neutral Zone an entire construction crew.

"Alright, Gou Sheng," Xin Yi grinned, pointing the glowing Bone of Discipline toward the crater wall. "Start digging. We have a lioness to go terrify."