Alien Knights

The sea area seven kilometers west of Waiheke Island, fifty meters below sea level, is where the shark people live.

Yege, the leader of the shark people swimming in the sea, led a dozen tribesmen. After exploring the surrounding seabed, he pointed to a flat seabed continental shelf and said: "This is very good for grazing."

Several shark men carefully placed the huge net woven from seaweed on their backs on the flat ground.

The remaining shark men inserted hundreds of round sticks made of strange wood into the soil on the seabed one after another to build a circular array with a diameter of 100 meters.

Then, these ferocious sea creatures slowly lifted up the already woven seagrass net and tied the end of the net to the bottom of the round stick, creating a simple but practical large-scale breeding cage.

Yege looked at the completed breeding shed and nodded slightly: "Now, we are fishing for seedlings and grazing. Next year, we will harvest."

One of the tribesmen swam to Yege, scratching the shark fin, and said in embarrassment: "There is no food, I am starving. Can we graze, etc.? Predation is the priority?"

Yege thought for a moment and nodded in agreement with the proposal: "Preying, yes. But, control, rations."

"After thousands of years of reproduction, your brains are still the size of sardines. It's really pitiful."

The sudden laughter made the sharks turn around angrily and look in the direction of the sound.

Rita, the leader of the mermaid clan, wore a well-tailored sealskin outfit with exquisite materials, held an alloy trident inlaid with gems, and led several mermaid female warriors to swim slowly in front of Yeager.

Yego opened his eyes wide, glared at Rita, and shouted loudly: "You! Crossed the line!"

Rita waved her hands indifferently: "Crossing the line? Listen to what you are saying? Isn't it a normal thing to visit the newly moved neighbor?"

Yege opened his mouth and was about to speak when he suddenly remembered something and quickly turned around and gestured to the tribesmen.

The sharks reacted and swam in panic, blocking the newly built breeding shed with their bodies.

Seeing this scene, Rita said angrily and funny: "You don't think that I would be interested in these broken logs and this broken net, do you?"

Yeager gritted his teeth and said: "Merman, thief, liar! Tell lies and steal food!"

Listening to the other party's accusation, Rita did not get angry, but smiled generously: "Jege, look at your people, they are almost starving to death. I know that you escaped from the black plague in the first place. At that time, I didn’t bring any food with me at all. So, what can I steal from you? What can I cheat?”

Yego raised his head and said: "You occupy the fertile sea area. We, here, are barren."

Rita smiled and said: "In land people's parlance, this involves a first-come-first-serve approach. We find the Dragon God before you do, so we can naturally apply for better sea areas. However, it is the beginning of spring now, and after a while In two months, there will naturally be more fish here..."

Yege nodded unconsciously.

Rita rolled her eyes and changed the topic: "But the question is, can your tribe survive these two months? I heard that during this migration, your tribe has more than a thousand people, and one of them Most of them are pregnant female sharks. Without food, whether they can give birth to healthy babies is a problem."

Rita's words made the sharks look at each other, and some among the latter began to whisper to each other in a low voice.

Hearing the worries of the clansmen, the restless Yege yelled: "Mermaid! Get away!"

Rita waved, and a female mermaid warrior swam forward and put a cylindrical object wrapped in a casing into the former's hand.

Rita glanced at Jaeger, flipped her wrist, and threw the intestine in her hand towards the shark leader.

Inexplicably, Yege caught the round intestine. The heavy hand and smooth touch made him ask: "This, what?"

"This is a food specially invented and produced by merchants in Duixi City for mermaids. The outer layer of fleshy membrane comes from a skin sac called "blood worm". It is used to wrap things and can block liquid and air. It plays a role in preservation and storage.”

Looking at the confused Jaeger, Rita talked eloquently: "As for the ingredients, the merchants in Muxi City first mixed fish, squid, shrimp, crab meat, seaweed, and condiments together, and stirred them thoroughly. After that, it is dehydrated, sterilized at high temperature, and finally compressed and stuffed into casings.”

"Such a seafood round sausage is divided into three sizes. The large size is 40 centimeters long, which can meet the nutritional needs of an adult for a day. The medium size is 25 centimeters..."

Seeing that Jaeger still had an expression of listening to the scriptures, Rita rolled her eyes, sighed and said: "Anyway, this stuff is just rations, you eat it and see."

Yege stared at the sausage in his hand with a wary look on his face.

Behind him, an older shark man swam over and suggested, "Chief, I'll do it."

Rita spoke loudly like she was talking to an idiot: "Don't worry! There's no poison in it. If you don't want to eat it, just give it back to me!"

Jaeger glared at Rita, threw the sausage directly into his big mouth, chewed it twice and swallowed it.

Ten seconds passed.

The shark men looked at their clan leader nervously and found that the latter stood motionless, his eyes dull and his mouth wide open, as if he had been enchanted.

"Mermaid! Liar!"

A grumpy shark man picked up the bone club next to him, waved his fins, and yelled to attack Rita and her group.

Jaeger finally moved.

"stop!"

The leader of the shark people immediately stopped the violent behavior of his men, looked at Rita and said hesitantly: "Meat sausage, delicious, very good."

Rita smiled and said, "How delicious is it?"

"After I was born, meat sausage is the most delicious."

The thoughtful expression on Jaeger's face made Rita smile proudly.

He pulled out a piece of sausage crumbs that was stuck between his teeth. He carefully put it into his mouth, closed his eyes and tasted it carefully for a while, then asked: "What about the sausage, exchange?"

Rita raised her white and slender palms and waved behind her.

Soon, four female mermaid warriors struggled to carry a large stone box, slowly swam to the shark man, and placed it in the open space in front of Yeager.

Yege opened the heavy top cover of the stone box with one hand. The box was filled with seafood and sausages, which made him swallow unconsciously.

"There are a total of two hundred large seafood sausages here." Rita turned the trident in her hand and said in a voice full of kindness: "Take it, this is a gift from us to our neighbors."

Yege stared at Rita with squinted eyes and asked in a deep voice: "A gift? Mermaid, what do you want?"

Rita shook her head: "We are neighbors, not enemies. These represent friendship and do not require anything in return from you."

"Mermaid, don't trust me." Yege gritted his teeth and said, "We won't be fooled! No gifts! Yes, exchange!"

Rita sneered: "Exchange? Can you afford it?"

"We, the warehouse, have fish!"

"Okay, let's do the math! At the market in Muxi City, one kilogram of fresh fish is worth 5 bronze stars. I'll give you 20 bronze stars for one fish. For large seafood sausages, one piece is 90. Bronze stars. There are a total of 200 sausages in the box, worth 18,000 bronze stars, which translates to 900 fish!"

As Rita spoke, she stretched out her hand towards Jaeger and said slowly: "If you don't believe what I say, you can go to Waiheke Island and find any businessman in Muxi City and ask me if there is an error in this account?"

"900 fish?"

Yege froze on the spot, his fins trembled slightly, and whispered: "We, the fish, are not enough."

Rita's face showed an expression of "I knew it": "Jege, think about it for yourself, your people are starving, and your food can only last for a week at most."

After a moment of silence and some struggle, Yege gritted his teeth and shouted in a low voice: "I want the gift!"

Rita clapped her hands and smiled: "That's right."

Watching the sharks carry the stone box down, Rita said to Jaeger: "Now that the gift has been accepted, I now want to invite you to be a guest in my clan. Do you agree?"

Facing the mermaid's invitation, Jaeger stopped the people's attempts to dissuade him, looked at Rita and said, "Let's go."