Chapter 1 Hao Ren and Nangong Wuyue watch Izhaks jump into the pit with curiosity, then disregarding the acrid smell and still-warm ashes along the way, stride to the oval wreckage. He forcefully tears at the shell of the egg-shaped metal object.

The sturdy alloy plates of the spaceship make grating, ear-piercing sounds as the great demon tears at them with brute force. These alloy plates have already suffered the dual damage of the crash impact and high-temperature burning, and their strength has been greatly reduced. Now, encountering such a violent dismantling method, several pieces of deformed, charred metal are torn off by Izhaks. Hao Ren and Nangong Wuyue exchange a look and hurry over.

"I sense some familiar 'flavor' here," Izhaks says without looking up, busy among the twisted metal wreckage. The hissing sparks and residual radiation from the spaceship's propulsion unit seem to be non-existent to him. "Take a look at this, and these pipes—traces of corrosion. They weren't burned, but attacked by something before the crash."

Nangong Wuyue frowns. The scorching air permeating the area makes her quite uncomfortable. The siren girl makes a few strange gestures in the air, and a faint blue, ethereal shadow emanates from her side, quickly filling the entire space like the phantom of a wave. The air near the wreckage suddenly becomes fresh, filled with a pleasant, slight mist.

Hao Ren is surprised to discover that Nangong Wuyue also has the function of an air humidifier. Following Vivian taking over the air conditioner, Izhaks taking over the heater, and Lily taking over the security door, now there's someone who can take over the humidifier. Hao Ren feels that sooner or later, he'll be able to build a bizarre, self-sufficient ecosystem in his own home.

"I can't see anything special," Nangong Wuyue takes a deep breath, finally feeling a bit more comfortable. However, she doesn't understand the messy pipes and parts in the spaceship wreckage at all. She can't figure out why Izhaks, a demon from another world, would understand these high-tech gadgets. "Can you understand this?"

"I don't understand it either, but I can feel the familiar power remaining here," Izhaks says, twirling his fingers and releasing a bit of green demonic fire from between them. The flame lands on the shell of the spaceship wreckage, immediately leaving a patch of blackish-green, filthy corrosion. "As time goes on, these corrosion traces will become very similar to charred marks, but the demonic energy it leaves behind can't be hidden. There's the smell of demonic energy in the spaceship's pipes. It's a demon race… a flame demon, or a terror demon, maybe even a high-level demon like me."

"The transport plane was shot down by a demon?" Hao Ren is quite surprised. "There are demons on this planet?! We have to report this immediately!"

"No, not anymore," Izhaks looks up at the sky. "Demons have a strong sense of each other. I can confirm that 'now' there's only one demon on this planet, and that's me. Unless the other party is so weak that I can't even detect them, they can hide from this kind of sensing. But that possibility is unlikely. A demon that weak wouldn't be a threat to this kind of sturdy equipment at all."

"No matter what, this must be reported," the data terminal says with a rare serious tone. "There shouldn't be any demons in this star field… and we haven't received any applications from demon races to pass through here recently. It's most likely smuggling, and they even attacked an empire-hired civilian transport ship. This isn't a joke… Damn it, those unreliable goblins! They treat spaceship crashes as a daily occurrence. I bet unless someone smacks them in the face with a missile, they won't realize their spaceship was shot down!"

Hao Ren really wants to know what kind of happy-go-lucky guys these magical creatures called goblins are. They sound so much like those profiteers in the old street!

Nangong Wuyue circles around, observing the twisted fragments scattered on the ground, curiously picking up a piece from time to time to take a look, acting like an expert. Finally, she seems to find something that interests her. "Do you think this dent looks like a leg?"

She holds up a large metal plate about one meter long and wide (the girl really has good arm strength). This metal plate has also been burned black. Its most obvious feature is a very clear dent in the middle. The shape of this dent really looks like someone left it with a whip kick, but the way it's bent is a bit bizarre. Hao Ren looks at it for a long time before he understands what's going on: the knee is reversed.

"It really is a trace left by a demon," Hao Ren immediately remembers that Izhaks also has reversed knees in his demon form, but his leg is much bigger than this dent. "Speaking of which, are you demons all so unrestrained? You dare to kick an incoming spaceship falling from the sky with a whip kick? And this guy seems to have missed…"

Izhaks doesn't say anything, just looks at the trace left on the metal plate with a thoughtful expression, as if trying to determine the attacker's characteristics. Finally, he shakes his head. "Let's go. Let's take care of the main business first. Report the situation here to the Goddess. She will find a way to investigate."

"You really trust her," Hao Ren mumbles, taking the lead to walk out of the pit.

The next stop for the three is a mountain two hundred kilometers away. It's obviously a bit far to walk there, but long-distance travel isn't a problem for Hao Ren these days. He silently looks at his data terminal. "This time it's for the mission—to mark the teleportation point!"

"You're just lazy!" the data terminal retorts, then turns into a stream of light and disappears into the horizon. The sonic boom is deafening, and the estimated starting speed is at least ten Mach.

The data terminal has now opened the teleportation function, but before teleporting, it needs to record the coordinates of the target point first. If Hao Ren takes it for a run, then this function restriction is obviously a bit of a scam, but thanks to the advanced technology of the empire: this data terminal can run around on its own, and the speed of this thing definitely exceeds any kind of transportation Hao Ren has seen on Earth. In just a few minutes, the data terminal directly appears in front of the three, having teleported back directly.

"Don't go to the mountain, let's go directly to the bottom of the sea," the data terminal's voice sounds very unhappy. "The crash site on the mountain is the main part of the transport plane. That thing is the most damaged and is now evenly distributed across the entire mountain. The cargo hold should be at the point at the bottom of the sea."

Hao Ren slaps his forehead. Why didn't he think of letting the data terminal scout the way first?

The third crash site is even further away, two thousand kilometers away on the open sea, and then a vertical dive to an unknown depth. At this time, needless to say, it's time for Nangong Wuyue to appear.

"Dive directly to the bottom of the sea…" Hao Ren looks at Nangong Wuyue. "Can you take people down?"

"I can take one," Nangong Wuyue looks at Hao Ren with a smile. "I'll take you down. Big Brother Izhaks's size is really putting pressure on me, and he's naturally fire-attributed—definitely not suitable for diving."

"I'll help you watch the luggage up here," Izhaks says with a smile, not minding at all.

The data terminal sees that the three have allocated their respective tasks and begins to release a faint blue light. "I've already been to the sea. The coordinates are recorded. Get ready, we'll teleport… let's go!"

A burst of light envelops the three. When they open their eyes again, they are already on the sea two thousand kilometers away.

The sea two thousand kilometers away… there is no land for thousands of miles around here, not even a sea island, but the situation that Hao Ren had imagined of being directly teleported into the water and becoming a drowned rat did not occur (with a certain data terminal as a partner, he has become accustomed to planning for everything in the direction of a scam). The moment the teleportation is completed, just as he feels his body falling down, he hears Nangong Wuyue make a strange sound. This sound sounds like a scream, but it has a strange sense of rhythm, almost piercing the soul. As this scream sounds, the surrounding seawater instantly solidifies, turning into solid ice before Hao Ren and Izhaks fall down.

Falling on the floating ice hurts a little, but for Hao Ren these days, it's equivalent to falling on his butt, which is much better than being directly soaked in the sea.

Nangong Wuyue doesn't land on the ice. With an excited expression, she pounces directly into the blue ocean. In the splashing water, Hao Ren only sees a piece of shimmering gold-red scale flashing in his sight, and then the siren girl disappears. It isn't until he has been waiting on the floating ice island for a while that the other party suddenly pops her head out from under his nose. With a fish leaping over the dragon gate, the siren girl is extremely happy in the water.

Hao Ren blankly looks at this "mermaid princess" and can't help but mutter to himself: "She's finally in her home field… that tail is really big."

He is probably the first guy to see a mermaid and the only feeling he has is "that tail is really big."