Chapter 1 The Deep Sea

The deep sea is dark and vast, boundless, but not calm. Strange geological activities and a few deep-sea creatures active in this area emit eerie sounds that resemble low moans in a nightmare. Hao Ren thinks the data terminal's deep-sea phobia is fake, but he might actually be developing one—the pressure in this godforsaken place is truly immense!

The boundless, dark seawater presses in from all directions. If the siren's power weren't at work, Hao Ren felt that even his rigid shield wouldn't last long under these conditions. He widened his eyes, trying to follow the faint light ahead. His enhanced vision barely allowed him to see the surroundings in the dim light emitted by the data terminal. Now, he could see what looked like a cargo container: a shadowy, huge rectangular prism tilted on the fine sand of the seabed. It was about a dozen meters long, and the width and height should be around eight or nine meters. Except for the part that was completely buried in the sand, there was a faint light at each vertex, which allowed one to see the condition of the container more clearly. As it stood, the situation seemed pretty good—the container was intact, at least not disintegrated, and the faint light indicated that its backup power hadn't been completely exhausted.

The cargo container was located on a relatively flat seabed beach. The surrounding terrain sloped slightly, and a huge trace could be seen on the slope, probably caused by the container rolling during its "landing." After Hao Ren and Nangong Wuyue approached, they found that some very strange small creatures had gathered under the cargo container. They were flat, emitting a faint blue light, and looked like flattened squid. They were less than ten centimeters long. These small creatures seemed to have taken this strange behemoth that visited their home a few days ago as their new home. Many small sand caves could be seen dug out on the beach under the cargo container, but after Hao Ren and Nangong Wuyue approached, these little things scattered in a hurry.

"Wow, it's a bit bigger than I thought," Nangong Wuyue released Hao Ren and circled the cargo container twice. "It's like a small house, bigger than a container on Earth. By the way, how do you open this thing?"

Hao Ren followed Nangong Wuyue and circled around as well. He found burn marks everywhere on the surface of the cargo container. The original beautiful alloy shell looked tattered because of it. This was probably the damage suffered during the disintegration of the carrier, but the structure of the container itself was still intact. It had at least two layers of structure. Hao Ren tore off a tattered armor plate and found that there was a rather thick alloy shield inside.

"Let me find it," the data terminal floated to the top of the cargo container, using a scanning beam to find the opening of this thing. Soon, it found the entrance on the side of the cargo container. "Oh, it's here—the safety lock is in good condition, and the backup power supply is still powering its core protection device. The poor sod inside should be fine, but the premise is that we don't cause secondary damage when we open the cabin. We need to find a way to isolate the seawater, or transfer the entire cargo container to the sea surface."

"Move such a big thing up there?" Nangong Wuyue stuck out her tongue. "I'd better isolate the seawater. Landlord, take a step back, I'll open a water-avoidance field."

Hao Ren retreated as told, and saw Nangong Wuyue swim around the cargo container several times, but this time her swimming was obviously more regular, and as the long sea serpent tail swayed, a faint glow gradually spread in the surrounding seawater. Finally, Nangong Wuyue stopped at the top of the cargo container and softly said a very strange syllable, and a hemispherical transparent barrier appeared out of thin air above the cargo container!

This hemispherical barrier was dozens of meters in diameter, several times larger than the cargo container. The seawater was distinctly separated inside and outside the barrier, forming a spectacle. Hao Ren curiously swam towards the barrier, feeling as if he had passed through a soft film, and suddenly entered a dry environment: inside the water-avoidance field, let alone seawater, even the beach was completely dry.

This magical trick made Hao Ren marvel: "Hey! This is a beautiful move! The sea is indeed your domain... uh."

He turned his head and saw Nangong Wuyue just coming in from outside the "water barrier." The siren girl still had that long sea serpent tail for her lower body. In a waterless environment, she could only move forward by twisting and turning. Although her posture was enchanting and uniquely beautiful, Nangong Wuyue herself obviously didn't think so. She complained with a bitter face, "It's so uncomfortable to rub like this... I've only 'walked' in this form three or four times since I was a kid, and I'm not used to it at all."

Hao Ren was about to say that she actually looked quite good walking (twisting) like this, but he didn't know what to say after the other party's next move: Nangong Wuyue was probably really not used to twisting like a snake, so she simply turned into a mermaid tail again, but she fell to the ground after hopping twice: "No, I can't control my balance by hopping... I really don't know how my mom practiced the skill of hopping."

Hao Ren: "..."

Nangong Wuyue changed back to a sea serpent tail, and discussed with Hao Ren while twisting, "Or should I just turn into a mantis shrimp? At least I can walk steadily on land, or turn into a sea crab..."

"Just spare my childhood!" Hao Ren pointed at Nangong Wuyue's long tail, hopping. "Can't you just turn back into a human?"

"My clothes are still up there!"

"Oh, right." Hao Ren suddenly realized that Nangong Wuyue, like the husky at home, also belonged to the type who couldn't keep her clothes after transforming. Sure enough, not every alien was as poor and pretentious as Vivian.

"Then what's the matter with the clothes on your upper body?" Hao Ren pointed curiously at Nangong Wuyue. "Where did these clothes come from?"

"These are my scales," Nangong Wuyue patted her chest. "Actually, I'm equivalent to not wearing clothes now. It's the difference in culture and aesthetics that allows me to maintain a girl's reserve in front of a man..."

Hao Ren: "...Let's get down to business..."

He felt that if he continued to chat with this siren girl, some important parts of his life would be gone forever.

Now the seawater around the cargo container has been drained, so there is no need to worry about the secondary damage that may be caused to the tenant by suddenly opening the cabin. The data terminal floated to the side of this behemoth, and connected itself to the control system of the cargo container with a beam of light: "Hopefully the safety host is still on, otherwise we can only forcibly dismantle the door... Oh, good luck."

As soon as the data terminal finished saying "good luck", a series of creaking metal noises came from under the broken metal plate on the side of the cargo container. It seemed that the deformed and twisted cabin door components were trying hard to push open the outer layer of scrap iron. Along with a "hiss" of air pressure relief, the cargo container door finally opened, but the thick partition just slid to the side by a third when it made a "click" sound, as if something was stuck in the track—but it didn't have much impact, it was more than enough for a person to enter.

Hao Ren grabbed the broken metal components outside the cargo container and squeezed inside with difficulty.

The space inside the cabin was very large, and the condition was quite good. There were no scars on the silver-white cabin walls, and a soft orange-yellow light filled the space, which was like two different worlds from the dark and cold outside.

"Until we opened the cabin, the air supply here was normal, the temperature was normal, and the internal space stabilization device wasn't completely down, which greatly reduced the impact during landing." The data terminal floated behind Hao Ren. It had connected to the control computer of the cargo container and could read the system report of the last second before the cabin was opened. Now it was floating and reporting the situation to Hao Ren.

"The question is... where's the tenant?" Hao Ren carefully stood firm on the tilted "floor." There were strange things he didn't recognize all around: brackets fixed on the cabin walls, embedded monitors, and several strange devices scattered on the ground. These should all be the equipment that came with the cargo container, but he couldn't see the shadow of the tenant.

The cargo container was empty, where was anyone?

Nangong Wuyue also climbed in at this time (indeed climbed in, or you could say twisted in). Her body shape was not very flexible now, so she just looked at Hao Ren from behind: "Where's the person?"

"I don't know, it was empty when I came in." Hao Ren went forward and rummaged through the equipment and containers that had fallen on the ground, but found nothing. The data terminal touched the monitor on the cabin wall next to it: "This primitive display device... I'm really not used to it. Let me see... there are login records, the passenger should still be here."

There were not many things in the cargo container, and it was clear at a glance whether there was anyone or not. Hao Ren quickly gave up searching. He climbed out of the cargo container and asked the data terminal to connect to Raven 12345's communication, and Nangong Wuyue also climbed out soon. The siren girl didn't know where she picked up a white ball that was a circle bigger than a goose egg, and now she was watching Hao Ren "making a call" while using the tip of her tail to hold the ball and play with it.

"Hello? Hao Ren?" Raven 12345's lazy voice came from the data terminal, "Did you receive it?"

"Receive my ass, the cargo container is empty!" Hao Ren was full of depression, "Is your intelligence wrong?"

"Empty?" Raven 12345 was shocked, "Did you look carefully? How could it be empty?!"

"Hey, I've been searching for a long time," Hao Ren sighed, turning his head just in time to see Nangong Wuyue juggling the white ball up and down with her tail, so he casually joked, "Found an egg!"

"Oh right! It's that egg!"

Nangong Wuyue's tail stiffened, and with a "pa", it fell to the ground.

Hao Ren: "Holy shit!!!"

Raven 12345 was startled: "What's wrong, what's wrong?"

"It fell on the ground!"

"Holy shit!!"