Chapter 1 I Didn't Expect to Celebrate a Holiday in Nasaton

Hao Ren hadn't expected to be celebrating a "holiday" in Nasaton in such a muddled way. He had originally come to talk business with the Siren Queen, but it just so happened to coincide with their good day of completing the city's phase reconstruction and celebrating as a clan. But since he was here, with the mentality of joining in the fun, he decided to stay for another half day, at least to let the trio of cats, dogs, and fish at home have their fill of joy—also to save these three troublemakers from messing around, gnawing on furniture, and touching electrical outlets after being cooped up at home for too long.

But it seemed a little too much for these three troublemakers to be causing trouble for the Sirens...

After seeing the silly cat making a scene among the Sirens, Hao Ren and Vivian quickly stepped forward to clean up the mess. The two of them spent a great deal of effort to catch the extraordinarily agile cat demon. "Gun" didn't even know what was happening. After being grabbed by the collar by Hao Ren, she was still waving her arms and legs in the water, trying to gnaw on the tail of the mermaid in front of her: "Food, food, don't run away! Come here, food! Hey, big cat, why are you grabbing me, meow..."

Shakira hugged her tail in the water, curling up into a ball with a pained expression, and was completely bewildered: "What's wrong with her..."

Hao Ren tried his best to hold down the cat girl's head, while explaining with a head full of cold sweat (even though he was in the water, he still broke out in a cold sweat): "Isn't she just a cat... Maybe she's starving, and then she just happened to see your tail."

Shakira shuddered: "But she came here once before! Why didn't this happen then?"

Hao Ren twitched the corner of his mouth: "Last time, you were all in a state of madness, and this one was too timid to bite."

When Shakira heard this, she quickly turned into a cloud of water with a bang, and then transformed into a glamorous sea serpent. She touched the tail of her new form with lingering fear: "This shouldn't arouse her appetite, right?"

"Gun" just watched the mermaid turn into a snake, and the delicious fish tail was gone, and was immediately greatly disappointed: "Food is gone..."

"Eat, eat, all you know is eat!" Hao Ren couldn't help but slap the silly cat on the head, "You were stuffed like a ball when you went out, and you're so hungry after only a few hours that you can't even tell the difference between a human and a fish?"

Vivian understood the cat girl's state quite well: "It's not her fault—for a cat, the atmosphere of the entire city of Nasaton is too delicious. Fortunately, today is a holiday for the Sirens, and most of them are not in mermaid form, otherwise this one would have gone crazy long ago."

Hao Ren looked around. Although most of the Sirens were in various strange disguises, there were still some Sirens who were tired of transforming and returned to the mermaid form that was most suitable for resting in the water. "Gun" couldn't eat a single fish in this place full of fish tails, which was really pitiful. Shakira couldn't help but sympathize with the cat demon when she saw her dejected appearance. She forgot about the tail-biting incident just now and stepped forward to take "Gun's" arm: "Come on, I'll take you to eat sashimi!"

The cat girl was immediately happy, but just as she was about to run, she remembered something, and looked at Hao Ren cautiously. Hao Ren couldn't help but chuckle when he saw this, and nodded with a smile: "Go, but you're not allowed to bite people anymore—otherwise, I won't bring you here in the future."

With the owner's permission, the cat girl immediately followed Shakira happily. Vivian watched from afar: "Will there be any more problems?"

Hao Ren thought for a while, and shouted, "Shakira! Be careful not to transform before she's full!"

"Ah! Landlord! Bat! Have you finished talking business?" Just as Hao Ren was about to inquire if anyone had seen Lily, the husky girl's voice happened to come from not far away, "What did the Queen say? Did she agree?"

Hao Ren and Vivian turned around and saw Lily happily swimming towards them with her signature dog-paddling action, her tail propelling her like a propeller, and her speed was not slow. After she swam to the front, Hao Ren nodded: "It's okay, the Queen wants the Ark Fleet to use a ship to exchange for the lease, I've already agreed. When I apply for a large-capacity space storage from above, we'll set off, and the Queen will go with us. By the way, did you see where Doudou went?"

Lily stretched her neck and looked around: "...Didn't see her, the little guy is darting around fast in the water, I can't catch up with her. But with May watching her, she definitely won't get lost. By the way, it's not interesting in here, Landlord, let's go out and play, let's go out and play?"

Lily was like a puppy eager to go out and play, circling around Hao Ren quickly, revealing her true nature when there was no work pressure. Hao Ren looked at the slightly crowded and noisy hall, and also felt a little stuffy, so he nodded: "Let's go, let's get some fresh air outside."

The group of three left the meeting hall, and after saying hello to Soma, who was serving as a guard, they came out of the Queen's palace and arrived at the large square outside. The large square was still as lively as before. Although the various strange-shaped Sirens here had obviously changed a wave, the number of people had not decreased at all. It seemed that this enthusiastic celebration would continue for a long time before it ended. They found a relatively quiet place, Lily ran to explore treasures in various nooks and crannies, while Hao Ren and Vivian leisurely admired the unique urban scenery of Nasaton.

Streamlined towers stood around the royal district, and the light green crystals inlaid on the towers shone brightly in the deep-sea background. The city's huge protective shield separated the ocean and the water inside the ship above their heads, maintaining the lighting of the entire city like a luminous sky. Through the light blue water curtain shield, you could see some black shadows passing by in the water above from time to time, some of which were strange creatures in the deep sea, and some were Sirens patrolling the periphery of the city.

And looking at all this below, it was as wonderful as being in a deep-sea crystal palace.

"The last time I came here was to fight, and the city center was blown into ruins. It's completely different from today," Vivian squinted her eyes, her eyes gradually shifting from the towers to the square in front of her, "The current atmosphere is more suitable for them."

"Did you have much contact with the Sirens in ancient times?" Hao Ren asked curiously.

"Rarely, they have always been accustomed to living in seclusion," Vivian shook her head, "But I know that their curiosity about the outside world is not weak. Their observers often come out to move around. Most of the legends about sea monsters in ancient times and the superstitious 'Siren songs' of sailors in the Middle Ages almost all originated from them. Ha... That was a chaotic era, but looking back, there were actually many interesting things. The world at that time was not as 'precise and stable' as it is now. Human society was built on a state of turbulent balance, a dark age... it really was a dark age."

"I often hear you mention your past experiences, to be honest, I'm quite interested," Hao Ren laughed, "If I had been born a thousand or eight hundred years earlier, and saw you in ancient times, what would our meeting be like?"

Vivian thought for a while: "If you were lucky enough to survive in that era—remember to buy me some good food, I felt like I was starving to death every day back then!"

The two of them chatted idly, whiling away the time. After a while, Hao Ren looked up to find Lily's figure, and saw the husky girl excitedly digging something in the sand not far away. After a while, she happily dug out a dark metal pillar from the sand. It turned out to be a torpedo. Vivian couldn't help but laugh when she saw this: "Katrina is also quite interesting, is this the Queen's secret little hobby?"

At this time, Lily had already dragged the torpedo out of the sand. She happily tapped the shell of the torpedo with her paw: "Katrina, Katrina! I found you! Quickly change back and change your shape!"

As a result, she tapped the torpedo for a long time, but there was no movement. Instead, the Siren Queen's voice came from behind Hao Ren: "So you're here?"

The smile on Hao Ren's face suddenly froze. He turned his head and glanced at the Siren Queen behind him, then turned around and shouted at Lily: "You idiot, that torpedo is real!!!"

Lily: "Eh?"

The husky girl was stunned for a moment before she realized what was happening. Suddenly, her tail exploded into a forest of swords in the water. She let out a loud cry and rushed towards Hao Ren: "Oh my god, there's a torpedo!!"

Katrina quickly explained: "Don't panic, don't panic! It won't explode, it won't explode! The detonator has been removed!"

Hao Ren broke out in a cold sweat: "What kind of custom is this, how can you put everything in the city..."

"Didn't I say that these are all the drifting objects and things that have sunk to the bottom of the sea that the Sirens have collected over the years," Katrina said naturally, and then blinked, "I'm looking for you to say this—are you interested in seeing the Siren's collection?"