BigBrotherSlim: Please, any information is of importance. My neighbor's kid siblings were sent there, along with a large number of our Blue Planet people and kids. I heard they are sold off to rich planets to be servants and bed warmers. The auction takes place in 4 days. I'm desperate here.
She understood the direness of the situation—and the fact it's happening here on her planet, under her nose, felt like a slap to the face. And it really stung.
Me: I know the planet. I'm a refugee on it. I'll see what I can find out and see what I can do. I'm looking for my kid siblings too, and heard they were sent to an auction on this world.
BigBrotherSlim: Really!? That's great. Please keep me in the loop and we can plan something together. I have other parties interested as they have family sent there or captured. I'll send the stuff—thanks again.
Me: Okay, will do. And no—thank you for the information, allowing me to confirm the planet of the auction location.
They bid farewell to one another.
[You received x20 pounds of animal fat.
You received x1 soap blueprint.]
She picked a few peach blossoms, some animal fat, and pressed the blueprint—crafting scented soap.
[You have crafted! You received soap.]
She made another post—this time asking about kitchen tools and supplies.
After making the post, she finished showering. Now that she had soap, she washed up thoroughly—twice.
She turned off the shower, stepped out, and exited the bathroom, walking toward her wardrobe and fishing out a simple pair of fish-skin clothing. She wrung her hair out, but droplets still fell from her waist-length hair.
She was going to have to free-ball it today since she hadn't taken the time to make underwear for herself.
She finished up, exited the room, and walked toward the living room after noticing nobody inside the guest room.
She assumed it was the merman kid making all the noise this morning.
When she got to the living room, there was ash all over the floor, the stove was broken, and the furnace was knocked over.
The hell he do—throw a party? Run off the walls?
"Ting."
In the corner, under the table, there was the little merman squatted with his blue long hair covering his face.
She walked over, squatting a few feet away from him to show she didn't mean harm.
"Hey kid. I just saved you from the jaws of death and I wake up to you destroying my little boat home. How do you plan to work off your debt for breaking my things, hmm?" she teased, speaking softly.
The kid flinched and tried scooting farther away from her.
She somewhat expected this reaction, seeing the scars covering his body.
"Well, until you're well enough to work, you're stuck with me for a few days until I get to the Mermaid Reef—where I can drop you off back where you belong with your parents," she finally said, standing up straight and dusting herself off.
"I'm gonna go fishing. Stay inside or come out and get fresh air—I don't really care what you do. But three things to keep in mind:
1. I don't like people—especially kids—going into my room or touching my things.
2. You break it, you work with me to earn the money back and earn your keep. Quite simple if you ask me.
3. And lastly, if you want or need something, ask. Don't steal or go behind my back. Once you pay your debt, you're free to go."
She walked into her room, changed into her deep water suit, flipper shoes, and a breathing slug, before grabbing her spear, sword, and bow from the shed. She tossed the bow into her inventory—no arrows yet, so no point.
She paused in front of the table on her way out.
"I'll be back soon," was all she said before walking out and closing the door behind her.
⸻
Under the table, the young merman's mind raced.
He felt very confused.
Did the human actually speak to him?
No human has ever done that.
Why didn't this human want to harvest his scales and meat? Did she not eat mermaid meat? Don't all humans?
The merman was terrified—but slightly relieved to not be tortured for tears or have his scales plucked.
⸻
Back on the front deck, Ming Sūlín eyed her loot haul from the night before.
The sun was beaming sky high as she was looking through the blue-grade chest she got last night.
[Would you like to open chest?]
[Yes] she clicked it instantly looking forward to seeing what this chest had.
[You have opened x1 blue-grade chest]
[You uptainedx35 crystals jelly fish crystals (light source),
x1 (water damaged) orange-grade 2 person traveling pod (can only travel to nearby world territories),
x1 blue-grade iron scale armor set blueprint
x3 bubble algae,
x145 ironfish scales, x121 wood, x90 stones
x1 broken red-grade treasure detecting resource compass 🧭,
x1 passing traveler abandoned luggage, x3 yellow-grade tranquilizers vitals(effects are instant),
x1 yellow grade tranquilizer gun( never can miss at a few feet away),
11 gold, 200 silver, 1129 copper coins
A special identity card]
[Special identity card Introduction: Makes it so player who possess card unable to remember appearance and subconsciously believes person words no matter how ridiculous it is the perks of having a special identity!]
[Items placed in inventory]
Abandon traveler luggage?! Whats that?! Special identity card!! Awesome!
What a good hall?! Yellow, blue, Orange and even broken red grade! Hot damn! Did she always have such good stroke of luck so far?!
She can even travel to other nearby planets now?! When she received the ruler token she thought that she would have to be stuck on this planet the whole time just to defend it and not be able to visit other places.
But it seems that's not the case.
She also wanted to see what each world specialty in so that way she can have a solid way to form income for her planet.
What she wants to do now is level up and collect more materials which is her somewhat her main goals of today. She also planned to build the dredge machine and try out the blue-grade busted self-diving pod with the yellow-grade deepwater scavenging diving gear she got.
Maybe she would be able to scavenge something that help her start off strong.
Thinking it over she pulled out the diving pod, scavenger gear, the dredge, the live city egg and the temporary shelter blueprints.
"Wow!" Ming Sūlín exclaimed in surprise seeing the full appearance of the egg.
The egg was not a small one like it looked like in the inventory was humongous, and taller than her. It would have sunk her boat if the boat house wasn't so big. But it makes sense why the egg was so big since whole populations of people can be sustained on living city bodies.
She touched the egg gently felling the warmth coming from it and feel the movement of life inside.
Ming Sūlín was surprised but mostly happy that something was moving inside. She planned on seeing how to hatch it later on.
She divided her items into two piles, the gear, blueprints and one and the egg by itself in a corner.
Opening her module and clicking on her territory all full information about what she need to do to up grade the world territory.
Territory: Sanctuary Springs
Ruler: Ming Sūlín (refugee, special identity)
Level: 0 / 10
Defense: 50 / 200 (required)
• low defense drones
Establishements: none / 8 (required)
Occupants: 45,891 / 150,000 to upgrade (required)
World Residents: 0 / 10,000 (required)
Wealth: 128 gold, 415 silver, 1,029 copper Coin.
Resources: in ruler inventory
Locked (Needs to upgrade to level 1)
Locked (Needs to upgrade to level 1)
Locked (Needs to upgrade to level 2)
Locked (Needs to upgrade to level 2)
It seems she was still weak and need to upgrade her territory quickly. so defense is at 50 and need to be at 200 and she needs to build the first city which is her 4 day goal right now.
Now, having an idea of what to do exactly. She switched to the scavenger gear only keeping her fillet knife as her only weapon. She climbed over the ledge of the boat sitting with her feet, dangling over the water, and putting on the breathing slug over her mouth.
Once on She jumped in swimming a little ways away from the boat house.
[Thermal Protection: 30 mins active — 1 hr cooldown | +2 DEF (temp)]
[Flippers: 15 mins active — 1 hr cooldown | +4 AGI (temp)]
[Breathing Slugs: 2 uses — 15 mins each (up to 3 hrs)]
Diving underwater Ming Sūlín with the scavenger equipment in hand.