Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 989: Section 643: The Fish and the Fisherman (Part 2)

Chapter 989: Section 643: The Fish and the Fisherman (Part 2)

Of course, Mr. Meng couldn’t possibly eat the Sea Clan. The Thanan people had a trade alliance with the Sea Clan—Thanan would sell metal ingots to the Sea Clan, while the Sea Clan taught them how to safely navigate this sea and sold some marine specialties to the Thanan.

It’s just like the trade between the Sea Clan and the Farol Principality. The only difference is that the Thanan fleets could barely handle a fraction of the goods, whereas Malin’s side could purchase at least 50% of the Sea Clan’s surplus marine products.

This Sea Clan member looked strong and vigorous, but he was essentially just a half-grown youth. After discovering the fishhook, he originally wanted to cut the fishing line, but he couldn’t resist Jason, this eccentric genius, and in his own words, he felt something touch the hook.

"My sensors don’t lie to me!" Jason looked incredibly proud.

"My military-grade sensors detected the shadow under the sea much earlier, and I even reminded you," Sostak No.3 said while scrutinizing the Sea Clan member. "I truly didn’t expect that these aquarium-dwelling pets could survive to this day and even develop a society and civilization."

"What do you mean?" Mr. Meng could understand what Sostak No.3 was saying, but his question was doomed to go unanswered because Sostak No.3 merely glanced at him, muttered something under his breath, and turned his head away.

Malin, however, caught it—"Carbon monkeys after the Great Destruction."

Malin immediately slapped Sostak No.3 on the head. "Apologize to Mr. Meng and explain what you meant by pets."

Sostak No.3 turned around and realized it was Malin who slapped his head. This little rascal immediately pouted.

Malin grabbed his mouth. "Apologize. Acting cute won’t help."

Sostak No.3 had no choice but to apologize and then explain to Mr. Meng what pets meant.

At first, Mr. Meng listened with great interest. But when he heard that all Orc races were artificial life forms created by humans before the Great Destruction, he was stunned.

When he learned elves were the same, he glanced at his daughter in the distance. Malin noticed the shock on his face—Malin had always suspected Miss Meng Quyi wasn’t entirely human; now, it seemed like there was indeed something fascinating about her.

"Chocolate-skinned pygmy elves too?" Mr. Meng asked.

"Yes," Sostak No.3 nodded, and then he immediately grasped the crux of the matter. Turning to look at Miss Meng, who was idly standing at the bow of the ship, this military AI displayed an exaggeratedly smug smile: "You slept with her?"

Malin immediately slapped the back of his head. Honestly, I’ve never seen such an emotionally tone-deaf AI. Even military-grade AI should follow basic social rules!

"Then how am I supposed to say it?!" Sostak No.3 shouted in anger.

"Mr. Meng has quite diverse interests," Malin interjected with polished, high-context emotional intelligence.

Mr. Meng almost burst into tears.

Sostak No.3 rolled his eyes and resumed his explanation. Upon hearing about feline people with two tails, Mr. Meng turned once again, this time to look at a member of his delegation—someone called Zhao Xian’en. Malin had seen him before: a young man, a front-line observer, who had joined battles several times, equipped with a Thainan greatsword and a revolver. His skills were exceptional, capable of holding his ground against three Nagoth demons simultaneously.

"That young man has interests as diverse as yours," Sostak No.3 said, wisely employing the emotionally intelligent phrase Malin had taught him. This time, Mr. Meng expressed his approval.

"Come to think of it, so this world actually has cat people? I originally thought there weren’t any," Malin remarked, reminiscing about his arrival in this world.

"New pets before the Great Destruction—the prototype Nekomata One, developed by the Tokyo Biolab. They didn’t even get a chance to sell them to Europe before the Great Destruction brought forth the Chaos," said Sostak No.3.

While Sostak No.3 was speaking, the Sea Clan member woke up. Realizing he was now aboard the land-dwellers’ ship, and recalling his actions before he fell unconscious, the half-grown youth stammered nervously, making it impossible for Malin and company to get any useful information out of him for a long time.

After some consideration, Malin decided to contact his business partner, Madam Martha. Back in the day, during their encounter at the Farol Principality, this Madam had remained elusive in Malin’s radar. This time, she accepted Malin’s coordinates and arrived swiftly. Upon seeing the situation—the scattered fishing hooks often collected by Sea Clan members annually, the missing fishing line on the ship’s hook, and her Sea Clan male kinsman with a hook stuck in his mouth—she didn’t get upset but instead burst into hearty laughter.

Her laughter instantly lightened the mood. In the end, Malin gave the hook to the half-grown youth and tossed him back into the sea.

Madam Martha and Malin discussed matters of commercial cooperation. Recently, the canned goods factories in Sydney and Farol had consumed the majority of fish collected by Madam Martha’s trade association. The Sea Clan also received numerous metal ingots, while Malin provided them with equipment blueprints that proved decisive in their war against the Black Orcs on southern islands.

Malin didn’t ask which island it was, but now that he thought about it, it was likely in the North African region. Apparently, Africa hadn’t entirely disappeared but had mostly vanished or been submerged. The large island Madam Martha and her people were fighting over with the Black Orcs was, most likely, part of North Africa.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.