Chapter 1 That Egg!

The moment Hao Ren heard those words, he knew he'd been tricked by the Goddess again. How could she not have mentioned something so important earlier! Who could have possibly imagined this kind of messed-up situation without a heads-up?

Nangong Wuyue was startled as well, and her tail twitched, dropping the large egg onto the ground. Hao Ren shouted, "Holy crap!" and lunged forward like Lily seeing a meat bone. Thankfully—I know many of you must be thinking it shattered—but this time, it was truly a blessing, it didn't break.

Perhaps it was because there was a layer of soft sand on the seabed, or maybe the egg itself was quite sturdy. In any case, it fell from the siren's tail without a single crack. Hao Ren cradled the egg like a treasure, examining it up and down for a long time. After confirming that everything was fine, he finally breathed a sigh of relief, "Man, that scared me to death. Luckily, it didn't break."

Earlier, Hao Ren hadn't paid attention when he saw Nangong Wuyue playing with the ball. But now, holding it in his arms, he realized this thing really did seem to be an egg. It was pure white with a circle of light yellow spots in the middle. It was much larger than a goose egg, roughly oval-shaped, but rounder than a typical egg. The shell was smooth and felt slightly warm to the touch. Nangong Wuyue leaned over, curiously touching it, and stuck out her tongue with lingering fear, "Luckily, I didn't break it."

"How could it be an egg?" Hao Ren asked Raven 12345, on the verge of tears. "Why is my tenant an egg?!"

"It hasn't hatched yet," Raven 12345 said matter-of-factly. "What do you care what it is? Just take good care of it. I've already arranged three or four people for you. Don't tell me you have racial prejudice?"

"...This isn't about racial prejudice," Hao Ren said, holding the egg, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "I can accept you arranging a werewolf or a vampire, at least I can understand that, but this is an egg... it doesn't even have a face, let alone a human form! This counts as a new 'person'?"

"It will once it hatches," Raven 12345 said with certainty. "It will definitely hatch! And I think you should be happy. Taking care of an egg is easier than taking care of your husky. Just be careful not to drop it. This thing can hatch on its own and doesn't need any special environment. Oh, and remember to keep it in a humid place. The little guy that hatches is very sensitive to dryness."

Hao Ren found it difficult to convey his inner turmoil to the Goddess, who was impervious to reason and had a boundless imagination. He could only bite his lip and forcibly accept the premise that "his new tenant was an egg." He and Nangong Wuyue exchanged helpless glances, and then he asked weakly, "Then at least tell me about the origin of this egg."

"Oh, I was just about to tell you about that, but let's talk in detail when we meet. I'm almost there," Raven 12345 sounded cheerful. "I'm bringing you a big surprise! To commend you for your work and progress lately! Quickly take the Data Terminal to a relatively open space and wait. This Goddess will be there in an hour."

After saying that, Raven 12345 hung up the communication as abruptly as usual, leaving Hao Ren stunned. She's coming?

It took Hao Ren two seconds to realize that the female psychopath was coming in person. Although he didn't know how she had time to make a trip in her busy schedule, he immediately took action. He pulled Nangong Wuyue's tail, skillfully wrapping it around his waist. "Let's go to the sea!"

Nangong Wuyue looked at Hao Ren's practiced movements with a strange expression, stuck out her tongue, and made a face. She uttered a short syllable, and the invisible barrier around them immediately disappeared. The overwhelming seawater pressed in from all directions, and in a thunderous roar of water, the siren girl shot towards the surface like a sharp sword, carrying Hao Ren with her.

The return trip was much faster, and there wasn't much to say along the way. The two swam for a short time before seeing sunlight penetrate the surface of the sea. The shadow of the ice floe island was ahead. Nangong Wuyue released her tail as they approached the surface, controlling the water flow to push Hao Ren up. "Landlord, throw down my clothes after you go up. I need to change down here before going up. Oh, and bring the egg!"

Hao Ren felt this was the silliest pose of his life: he was pushed up from the bottom of the sea by a siren, standing tall, and like the Statue of Liberty, he raised one arm above his head, holding an egg...

Anything but an egg would have been fine!

This sea area was already under Nangong Wuyue's control. As soon as Hao Ren reached the surface, he found that a path of frost had condensed under his feet, allowing him to easily walk onto the ice floe island. Izhaks was guarding the "clothes ice ball," playing solitaire. When he saw Hao Ren coming up, he greeted him enthusiastically, "Hey, Landlord, you're back. Where are the newbie and the siren girl?"

"Wuyue is changing clothes and coming up," Hao Ren casually threw the clothes ice ball into the sea and saw a mermaid jump up and drag the ice ball down. Then he presented the egg to Izhaks. "This is the newbie."

Izhaks: "...?"

"That's right, this is the newbie," Hao Ren said with a solemn face. "Not only did he take a wrong turn, but he also arrived early: he hasn't hatched yet. I can finally understand why they needed a cargo container to transport this thing."

Izhaks continued to stare blankly. "...?"

After some explanation, the Great Demon finally believed that the egg in front of him was the newbie they were here to welcome. He immediately revealed a troubled expression. "The Goddess is really... tsk tsk, I was hoping to shake hands with the newbie as a welcome."

Hao Ren casually handed over the egg. "Here, shake it, be careful not to crush it."

Izhaks: "..."

A splash of water came from not far behind them. Nangong Wuyue, already back in human form and dressed, walked directly out of the sea, dry and refreshed, without a single drop of water on her. The siren girl saw Hao Ren and Izhaks sitting opposite each other, studying an egg, and reminded the two careless men, "Goddess said she'll be here soon. Where can we find an open space?"

"The beach from before is quite open, the place where we first landed," Hao Ren thought for a moment, but in the end, he looked at the ice floe island under his feet. "Of course, if we're talking about flatness, this place is the flattest. Wuyue, can you expand the ice floe island a bit?"

"Yeah, I can, up to a radius of one kilometer."

"No, this machine suggests you go back to the beach, it's more suitable," the Data Terminal suddenly spoke up. "Based on this machine's experience, Chief Raven's 'big surprises' are usually quite frightening. She specifically asked for an open space, we'd better find a safe place."

When Hao Ren heard this, he immediately thought of Raven 12345's usual style and quickly nodded in agreement. So, the group of three (now with an egg) teleported back to the beach where they had originally landed. To ensure that the chosen location was spacious enough, they also found the widest part of the beach one kilometer away from the landing point. Next, they just had to wait for Raven 12345 to descend.

After all, she's a Goddess, we should use the word "descend."

After the Data Terminal set up the guidance signal, there were only a few minutes left until the arrival time that Raven 12345 had mentioned. The three of them found a high place by the beach and looked up at the sky expectantly. Hao Ren felt that time was passing particularly slowly this time, but just as he was beginning to suspect that he had been abandoned by the female psychopath, a curtain of light suddenly appeared in the sky.

At that moment, strange phenomena arose: the sunlight disappeared, the starry sky suddenly filled the firmament, and a blue aurora-like curtain slowly descended from the high heavens. A massive spatial gate opened from the aurora curtain, and Hao Ren saw a silver-white behemoth slowly floating out of the spatial gate.

It was a spaceship.

It was roughly hexagonal, but not regular, with one end larger than the other, and overall slightly elongated. Hao Ren's first impression was that it looked like a Western-style coffin, but fortunately, it had some other components that greatly reduced the "coffin" feel. The narrower end of the spaceship had four sets of hexagon-shaped facilities symmetrically distributed, while the front end showed complex structural protrusions, making it look like a multi-eyed monster floating in the air. Hao Ren found it difficult to judge the size of such a large object with the naked eye, but he estimated that this thing was larger than any aircraft carrier made by humans—as it slowly descended, it was like a small mountain falling from the sky!

The spaceship was shrouded in a large, translucent blue light curtain. Raven 12345's figure appeared above the light curtain, her voice echoing like rolling thunder in the heavens and earth: "How is it? Your spaceship has arrived! Just approved today, this Goddess personally delivered it to you!"