My CEO Harem Cultivation System

It was difficult to notice at first, especially when one was used to the bright and dazzling lights of the city's billboard and enormous television screens—but his secretary was right. Several figures leapt across from one building to another, and for a moment, he thought that one of them looked back at him.

A golden eye twinkling in the darkness.

'Assess Group'

The System could even do it at a distance.

[... Assessing Group of Individual ]

[ Target Identified! ]

[ Shadow Hunters ]

One of this plane's 'world organizations'. They are notable for working in the shadows, most identifiable with all of them being cloaked individuals that hunt criminal and renegade supernatural creatures that are on the run.

"Those aren't ghosts." Li Yang quickly stood up and glanced at Ying Yue He. He asked urgently, "Can I ask you to go home by yourself, Miss He? I'll make it up to you next time."

His secretary blinked, and then her voice sharpened. "What's the matter, Mister Li?"

There was no time to explain things—"I need to contact Miss Bai, please get yourself home, Miss He. Take care of yourself." The CEO left her some money and stepped out of the convenience store. If his hunch was correct, then it meant this group was going after the Mermaid. 

While she had acknowledged the Shen Society and claimed she knew someone, the Mermaid herself never showed her ID like he did. Thus it meant that she was unregistered, and these people were hunting her down. He had to warn... and save her?

The CEO got into his car and took out his phone. He needed to find her fast? No, he needed to warn her at least and then meet up with her to take her away? Li Yang's reservations had to be put on hold for now. If she was captured, then it might mean that he'd never see her again.

Or could he purchase her freedom once she got captured?

It would be much easier to have her accept him if he were to make her feel like she was indebted to him, rather than giving her a gift that she might not even like. These options made itself present to her—

The car door swung open.

"Were you really just going to leave me out of this, boss? I'm coming with you." Ying Yue He took the front seat and buckled her seatbelt. "Please tell me that you seriously didn't think that I'd be able to go home and not worry about you, Mister Li?"

"Miss He…"

"If we're going to find Miss Bai, you better drive now."

.. .

Bai Minghua's accommodations were at one of the most luxurious hotels in the city, and it was a natural thing as she would stay here for a couple of days to perform. Only the best were given to her and so her bed was the most comfortable, indulgent one she ever rested on and yet she couldn't sleep.

The Mermaid was restless.

She stared up at the ceiling and thought about the coral ceilings she once stayed underneath, back in the oceans. His question about her returning to her original home made her grit her teeth as she tried to erase the memory away.

"What a weirdo."

It wasn't often that she would get discovered by someone else. The woman had done her best to make a new identity, and she made sure that she only used her skills during concerts. So what exactly was his problem?

"Did his curse make him lose a couple of screws in his head?"

He spoke of an affliction which sounded incredibly crazy. She would have told it to her friend Aerwyna and yet it wasn't so often that her friend could go above water. Her friend to whom she would rant on about the people in this land. It was a pity she couldn't get on land like she did. Narissa tried to close her eyes and fall asleep, but her phone suddenly rang and she went to pick it up.

It was an unknown caller.

Her manager had already told her to not bother with them, and yet she answered it. She had an inkling that she knew who it was... and she was right.

"What do you want? Can't you respect a woman's alone time... hunter? No, I don't need to meet up with you. You're a creep—" She still gave her address in the end to shut up the man's complaints. "Deliver my dinner or I'll have your restaurant canceled."

It was because there was a shadow outside of her window, despite the fact that she was on the 56th floor of the hotel. The Mermaid ended the call and pretended to yawn, falling back to her pillows and closing her eyes. She had no reasons to fear anyone right now, it might be true that she had troubles finding the perfect continent decades ago, and she had to beg, barter and steal in the past... but it didn't mean she should be imprisoned now.

Shadow Hunters?

She had nothing to do with them—the fractals of glass showered down on her like the rain.

.. .

It was at the same exact hotel that Chunhua was found hiding in her blankets and trembling like a deer. Luo Ju Di didn't know what had come over her daughter as she tried to brush her hair and get her to sleep again. "What's wrong? Did you have a nightmare?"

It wasn't so often that she had the chance to be there for her daughter when she was incredibly busy trying to make a living, and yet it always made her heart pang when her child was beset by something she felt she couldn't even help with.

A small hiccup escaped her daughter's throat, her head finally peeking out from the blankets. "There's a monster here, and it's scary. It's looking for something."

"Naughty children?" Luo Ju Di asked, trying to lighten things up. She was also trying to ascertain what had exactly caused such distress to her child, and the closest that she could remember was when Chunhua had cried about Li Yang being some kind of monster. "What does it look like?"

"No!" Chunhua wailed, and then she fell silent. "I think… it's gone now. And I couldn't see it, I… can hear its thoughts, but now it's gone. But it went plonk, plonk, plonk like it was heavy."

Those words should have made any parent worry. Was her child seeing and hearing things? Luo Ju Di didn't want to think that was the case. Her child was too young to experience hallucinations. She brushed her hair again and kissed her head. "Does that mean you can sleep now?"

"... I don't know."

"Chunhua, your mother is here—I won't let anybody hurt you."

"Even if it's a monster?"

"Yes, I won't let them hurt you or touch you at all." She gave her child a squeeze and rested against the bed's headboard. "And I won't let anybody take you away from me. Do you understand, Chunhua?"

"Why would someone take me away?" she yawned.

Luo Ju Di didn't think that Li Yang would do something like that, and yet she could be wrong. Before she could finally give an answer, the mother would note her child's soft snoring. She sighed in relief.