As expected, Princess Octavia couldn’t find it in her imagination to see the things that Michael was describing. In her mind, all she saw were loyal and lithe tentacles doing her laundry for her and manually rubbing its suckers to produce heat.
"Here, I’ll just show it to you."
Michael summoned his tenebrous shadow, allowing another dome to appear underwater. Once it dissipated, it revealed another simple rectangular metal box, small enough to be carried with both hands.
It had a ridged, flexible tube out on one end, similar to that of a vacuum. On the other end, was a similar wire plug extending two feet, and two prongs at the end.
"This is called a plug. Once I connect this to the filter, it will take excess energy in the form of electricity from the explosion and redirect it to this little machine called a water heater."
Since the filter wasn’t installed yet, Michael simply held onto the prong and produced magical electricity with his hands, making sure it wouldn’t accidentally electrocute everyone in the water.
Once the water heater had power, it suddenly buzzed into life, making a similar but less pronounced noise than the filter.
It began sucking in water from the inlet, and began transferring heat through the coils inside. Those coils were heated to the point of incandescence, and as the cool water rushed through them, it began increasing the water’s temperature through the process of heat transfer.
The liquid that came out of the flexible tube was something that was just a few degrees away from boiling. If not for the icy cold waters in the lake to counteract this, it would immediately scald anyone that came in contact with it, even with Mermen scales.
Thankfully, it turned into nothing but a warm hug in the depths of this lake.
"!!!!"
Princess Octavia held out her hands, her lithe tentacles feeling the familiar heat of the waters. The everchanging chromatophors softened, finally feeling comfort for the first time.
However, the water quickly cooled down under the onslaught of the cold, artificial waters of the lake.
"As you can see, we can heat up the waters using this machine," he said, handing over the water heater to her.
She observed the metal contraption, her dainty limbs observing every nook and cranny. "It doesn’t use algae," she realized.
"It doesn’t."
"When will it run out?"
He shook his head. "Well, if the filter keeps on working properly as intended, never. I think one giant filter is enough to generate power for this entire Sunken Ship without problem—given that the fuel is restocked every week."
"...the filter can power such a thing?"
"Yep. And that’s not all. We have plenty of different appliances back in the Nation of Reborn that you guys can use down here. We’ll have to make them water proof, but that will be easy to solve."
"We can install light bulbs around the Sunken Ship!" Serena added.
The bioluminescent corals and fishes were only limited to inside the Sunken Ship. It required a lot of resources to keep them functioning, so they couldn’t install it outside.
But lightbulbs didn’t need food to function, they just needed electricity—electricity that will be generously provided by the filters.
So, not only would the filters provide more food to marine animals underwater, thereby allowing for those bioluminescent corals and fishes to grow out of the confines of the Sunken Ship, it could also provide constant illumination that those animals couldn’t do.
It was a very elegant solution.
Serena then began throwing out all the appliances she liked back in the Nation of Reborn, completely overwhelming the octopus princess with those unfamiliar terms.
"Anyway, the Reborn company can provide all of those appliances for us, right?" she asked Michael.
He nodded. He then glanced at the octopus princess’ expression. And somehow, for the first time, her true feelings were hidden even with the everchanging colors of her skin. It remained a constant reddish, almost auburn color.
"Speechless in amazement?" Serena asked pridefully. "You better thank me and the Reborn company for such gifts!"
Octavia, as if answering her sister’s dare, turned towards Michael and swam up to him.
And before he could even react, she caught him in her embrace and suddenly puckered up her mouth, giving him a kiss on the cheeks.
Both Serena and Michael were stunned.
Serena was shocked to see her sister do something so bold... so promiscuous... so filled with debauchery! Her scream reverberated through the Sunken Ship, making some invertebrate Mermen produce ink out of shock.
Only once after Serena’s shouts died down did Octavia finally let go of her embrace, leaving behind a supple reddish mark in his cheeks. Her embrace even left some circular marks around his arms because of her tight hug.
"You are one impressive human! Why don’t you stay by my side and we can rule over Atlantis together? HAHAHA!"
Meanwhile, Michael couldn’t even react properly to her proposition as he was still stunned from the initial ambush.
Somehow, his [Absolute Unity Defense] didn’t activate. It allowed her to come into close contact with him.
What the?! ChatJK5?
Without a body, he could feel his personal AI assistant shrug. [Don’t blame me. I wasn’t the one in charge of that.]
Then how?
She had no answer for that. Michael could only blame it on the fact that she didn’t mean no harm in her kiss. His defenses didn’t perceive it as an attack, and therefore allowed it to happen.
"Octavia!" Serena lectured with reproach.
"What? I’m just overwhelmed with emotions for the human. How come you’ve hidden such a gem to me for so long? Planning on selfishly having him for yourself?"
"Huh?! I’ve been trying to tell you about the Reborn company for weeks!"
Princess Octavia waved her off. "In any case, I didn’t expect this filter of yours to be such a boon to our territory. Very well, I’m sold. How shall we purchase these appliances of yours?"
"Ahem...," Michael said, her mark still left in his cheeks.
Ignoring the reddish heat in his cheeks, he focused back on business. This was another chance for him to earn the big bucks.