I Live on the Land in Global Games
Chapter 224 - 221 Stir-fried Coral

Chapter 224: Chapter 221 Stir-fried Coral

Back at Lily’s Shell Cottage, Mu Ying took out her travel trunk and opened it while temporarily disabling the shielding effect on the box.

"Let’s go," Mu Ying pulled Lily, who was still studying the exterior of the box, over and carried her up the trunk’s ladder.

As soon as her legs entered the trunk, Mu Ying’s mobility was restored, now it was Lily’s tail that was rendered useless.

Fortunately, she wasn’t too heavy, so Mu Ying could barely lift her.

"Wow, the water can’t get in!" Lily touched the waterproof membrane at the entrance of the box in amazement.

Mu Ying quickly carried her to the side of the hot spring bathtub and dropped her in.

"Phew~" Her strength was really mediocre, and it wasn’t appropriate to use a magic wand to magically move her.

"Wow, it’s so warm," Lily’s tail slapped the surface of the water.

Mu Ying had intended to cool down the water, but seeing Lily adapting well, she reassured herself, "You play here first, I’ll go make some food."

Lily nodded. Everything here was novel to her, and she started her exploration from the bathtub, touching here and looking there,

Meanwhile, Mu Ying went to cook.

Considering a fish’s taste, it was better to make something light, trying to keep the original flavor of the ingredients.

Therefore, she steamed the clam meat with shredded ginger and seasoning sauce, and since the bitterness of the coral mainly came from its skin, Mu Ying peeled it off and stir-fried it.

She also prepared a normal-flavored pork chop and a fruit salad, planning to let Lily taste them to see if she could accept them.

Huh? Lily?

Mu Ying turned her head and saw an "insect" with its bottom stuck out, wriggling on the floor.

"Lily, how did you get out?"

Lily giggled, "I wanted to touch that shiny thing."

Mu Ying followed the direction of her finger and saw a colorful glass magic lamp.

"Are you sure you’re fine out of the water?" Mu Ying was a bit worried.

Lily shook her head, "I’m fine as long as my tail doesn’t dry out. I’ve wrapped it in a layer of water membrane."

"Alright," since she said so, Mu Ying let her be for the time being.

The food was placed on a low table next to the hot spring bathtub, and Lily sniffed here and there, "It’s really hot and still steaming!"

"That’s steam," Mu Ying picked up a slice of stir-fried coral for her.

"What’s this? It’s crunchy, and so delicious," Lily asked.

Mu Ying smiled, "It’s coral."

"!" Lily was surprised, "Really? It’s not bitter!"

"The bitterness mostly comes from the skin. Once it’s peeled off, it’s not so bitter, and after stir-frying and adding some seasoning, the bitterness is suppressed," Mu Ying explained, "Try this next."

She pushed the plate of steamed clam meat towards her.

"I recognized this one, it’s clam meat, right?" Lily tasted a piece, "It’s not as bouncy as before, but it’s soft and a little salty, not bad."

Mu Ying also tasted a piece and found it to be fresh, tender, and quite delicious.

But judging by Lily’s frequency of scooping up dishes with her spoon, she seemed somewhat unaccustomed to the steamed clam meat and preferred the stir-fried coral. She even remarked, "If only the coral they grew tasted like this."

Mu Ying cut a piece of pork rib and offered it to her to try. This dish was saucier, made entirely to suit human taste.

Lily’s face puckered as she ate, "So bitter!"

Perhaps to save face, she refrained from outright saying it tasted bad.

It appeared that Mu Ying’s guess was correct, merfolk’s taste buds might be similar to her turtle form, favoring milder flavors and a liking for fruits.

The fruit salad successfully captured Lily’s heart, ranking in her mind as more delicious than raw clam meat.

It seemed that fruit was indeed quite appealing to mermaids.

After the meal, Mu Ying took some fruits and asked Lily to guide her to Priestess Granny, the true authority of this Mermaid Clan.

Lily was the next in line to be Priestess, though it would be several hundred years before she would take up the role.

"You’ve come. Is this fruit produced on the shores of this world?" Priestess Granny inquired.

Mu Ying nodded, "For you. There is a matter I would like to seek your opinion on."

She felt that the mermaids’ attitude toward her was genuinely sincere, so she thought it better to be upfront with what was on her mind.

From what she observed, mermaids not only had their own warriors but even trained sea beasts, particularly sharks, and maintained regular training. Their territory was protected by sea forests, and being located at the bottom of the sea, they were shielded from conflicts on land. Therefore, mermaids did not need territory protection like Mushroom Man did.

Moreover, mermaids’ living habits and environment differed greatly from humans, meaning they could never integrate into human society. Thus, they couldn’t be simply corralled within a Sub-camp in an instance like Half-Breeds.

However, trading resources between land and sea had great potential. Discussion should be straight-forward since it wouldn’t involve incorporating an instance into the territory, relying instead on demand.

Seeing Priestess Granny nod, Mu Ying then spoke, "As I mentioned before, I am the Lord of the land above. After visiting the merfolk village, I would like to set up a Sub-camp next to the Replica gate as a market for my territory on the seabed to trade goods with you from above."

"Oh," Priestess Granny smiled, "Of course, even if you hadn’t brought it up, I would have suggested it myself."

"However, I have a request. Can the Sub-camp be built right next to the entrance of the Replica gate? It would be best if upon exiting the Replica gate, one would enter directly into your encampment. That way, even if the instance hasn’t been incorporated into the territory, when the Sea Forest merges with your camp in the future, we can come and go more safely."

"[You have violated the Multiverse Universe Evolution Center’s confidentiality agreement for the development of Original Worlds, the offense is severe, a fine of 50 gold]"

The old mermaid priestess didn’t even furrow her brow, for the sake of her clan’s progress, she had to speak her mind, and this sum of money wasn’t of concern to her.

Having lived for hundreds of years and being part of the plane migration project, she had a thorough understanding of various support tools for the Original Worlds from the Evolution Center, naturally knowing what a Sub-camp was.

Having a Sub-camp to block the Replica gate would spare them the slow process of planting sea trees outside the instance using Pearl Clams.

They wanted to create a Sea Forest to hide the Replica gate and take advantage of the environment before making further exploration; that was because the outside world was unpredictable.

If one could step into the safety of the Sub-camp upon exiting the instance, there would be no need for such trouble.

Mu Ying keenly picked up on the key information in Priestess Granny’s words.

If the Sea Forest and the encampment were close together, does that mean that the space fragments inside the instance, once merged with the Main World, would cause all its land to appear in the outside world?

How many times larger would Deep Blue Star have to expand in the future?

After all, just around Coastal City alone, she had found four instances, and those might not even be all of them.

Mu Ying realized that her previous concerns might indeed become reality.

The current calm was only temporary, and more changes lay ahead.

Danger had never left; it could reveal its fangs at any moment.