The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 208

Chapter 208: Journey to the Deep

 

In fact, the disturbing energy in Beinz Blood Lake was real. The respect and fear the local people had towards the lake was not entirely out of superstition—the lake was influencing its surroundings in a tangible way, resulting in dangerous landscapes such as the Gnarled Grove and the highly poisonous plains to form. For the average person, diving into the Blood Lake was as good as being dead.

Hao Ren had already thought about it. He had Nangong Wuyue dive into the water before he went in himself. As the siren’s control over water was able to shield them against the negative energy in the lake, and also the fact that everyone seemed to possess an indestructible body, they leapt into the lake one after another. Anyway, if Becky was there, she would not have been able to withstand the strange energy field at the bottom of the lake, even with help from Nangong Wuyue.

Nangong Wuyue took a quick spin in the lake, determining the effective range of her control in the water before letting everyone else in. Y’zaks—the highly skilful and daring one—led the way. Hao Ren was next followed by Vivian, who was a little hesitant. With Nangong Wuyue’s magical control of the vast area of water, they did not have to worry about getting wet and breathing under water—the thrill never stopped no matter how many times they did it. Vivian stretched out her neck in the water and told Lily, “Are you coming or not? Why are you still hesitant?”

Lily crouched by the bank, her ears and tails puffed up. She extended her palm, testing the water nervously like a puppy and cried. “I just don’t like diving… I almost drowned when I fought with a sub last time.”

The trauma remained in her.

A little perplexed, Vivian asked, “Are you nuts? Why did you fight with a sub?”

Still touching the lakewater with her palm, Lily cried as she explained, “When I went to the beach for the first time, I heard there was some nice food in the water. So, I got into the water, trying to catch some fish. Unknowingly, I swam a little too far off the coast and bumped into an American sub, which I mistook as a shark. I bit the propeller. The next thing I knew, I was hit black and blue. I even lost some teeth—that was when I realised it was a sub.”

“…Stop the crap. Just get in now. Or, do you prefer to stay on the bank?” Vivian’s arms akimbo. “See, even I’m not afraid of water. What are you afraid of now?”

Hao Ren’s eyes rolled: Vivian had to be kidding. This vampire ate garlic, drank holy water, wore crosses, performed kung fu in church, flew 200 miles looking for wild vegetables in broad daylight without shedding a sweat; she was no ordinary vampire.

Pressing her lips, Lily hesitated for like half a day before jumping into the water with her eyes shut.

Hao Ren freaked out when Lily jumped head first and got her head stuck in the mud. He quickly told Lily as an after thought. “…Forgot to tell you that the water’s very shallow near the bank. You can’t jump in that way…”

Pulling her head out of the mud, Lily paddled herself towards them, doggie-style. She yelled, “That’s why I told you water and Lily are like fire and water!”

“…”

Thanks to Lily’s lively personality, everyone was in a good mood. They wheeled and began to dive happily towards the centre of the lake.

The lakewater was red and the night was dark. Before long, total darkness had engulfed the small exploration team as they dived deeper. Y’zaks summoned a ball of fire as he lead the way; it was a kind of evil flame, inextinguishable even in the permafrost. It emitted a bright glow of light, giving better visibility. But despite of the guiding light, all Hao Ren could see ahead of him was just a sea of red.

Thanks to Nangong Wuyue’s water controlling ability, he did not feel the underwater pressure. However, the sight of red everywhere depressed and bored him. It is said that red can cause mental agitation—he was not sure about the others, but he believed so.

Luckily, he did not have to endure it for too long: Nangong Wuyue was pushing everyone forward in great speed, they would reach the bottom in no time.

“It’s just red everywhere. It’s depressing.” Nangong Wuyue swished her tail as she was in front, leading. Her voice travelled directly into everyone’s eardrums. Obviously, Hao Ren was not the only one who was sick about the red vision. “I have a weird feeling. It’s like we’re being watched.”

“Not me though.” Hao Ren looked around, constantly surveilling his surroundings for any strange movement. “But one thing’s for sure—this place is creepy. I heard a story told by a missionary in the camp; he said every pope would spend their last moments in the chapel situated in the middle of the lake. Yet, no one has really seen their bodies. The popes would stay in the chapel alone for a month and then disappear just like that. The Church tried to explain it away, saying that they had transformed into some kind of bone saints who guard the holy place. So, does it mean that all their bodies are in the lake?”

Vivian pulled up to him and hit him. “You’re disgusting.”

The vampire maiden then thought for a while and said, “Looking at the colour of the water gives me satisfaction—a stomach-filling and appetising delusion.”

Y’zaks guffawed. “Me too. I feel like I’m at home with lots of lava and red everywhere.”

Lily remained quiet the moment she got into the water. She was still struggling with her submarine-fighting trauma. She held her breath since the beginning. As the chatters went on, she paddled doggie-style towards Hao Ren. “Is the colour of the water that bad? I don’t feel a thing though…”

Still keeping a distance from Lily, Vivian said, “Don’t you remember you’re a husky? You’re color blind.”

“So what?” Lily was enraged. “As colour blind as I am, I can still recognise red! It’s just that I don’t have any feeling towards it.”

Hao Ren quietly glanced at Lily. This sabre-rattling maiden looked like the one he saw in the video: female-dog-frenzy.avi.

He felt a jolt in his arm. He looked down and there was Lil Pea. The little one had been very excited since she got into the water. Hao Ren had to hold her in his arm so that she would not run out of sight. She protested. Knowing the area was under the protective control of Nangong Wuyue, Hao Ren was hesitant before he finally allowed her to get loose. “Don’t go too far, the water’s poisonous.”

Lil Pea took a few spins in the water right after getting loose from Hao Ren. She scurried around them like an excited fry—it appeared that she was also indifferent towards the colour of the lake. Lily was chasing after Lil Pea, trying to catch her, but the latter was too slippery. Soon, Lil Pea was burned out. Instead of coming back to Hao Ren, she followed Nangong Wuyue closely from behind, slowly swishing her tail and moving in the vortex left behind by Nangong Wuyue.

Nangong Wuyue stared in astonishment at the fingerling. “She knows how to leverage herself in the vortex? That’s the talent of her race?”

Hao Ren sighed. “Everyone has their own talents—but, I’ve never seen someone who could paddle doggie-style as fast as Lily.”

After swimming alongside Lil Pea for a while, Nangong Wuyue transformed her tail into that of an amorous, three-metre long snake-tail on a whim.

Out of a sudden, Lil Pea suffered a huge shock, turning her views on life and the world upside down.

The little mermaid was stunned and she was pinned to the spot. She woke up when she drifted and hit Hao Ren on the chest. She then tried working on her tail just like Nangong Wuyue did while Nangong Wuyue looked on and laughed her head off. “No matter how hard you try, you’re not going to make it longer. No, you can’t!”

Hao Ren sighed again. He could not understand the humour in it when the two were competing about who had the longer tail—it did not help that it was a hundred-year-old adult fish against a young fingerling.

The minds of the female monsters were truly f*cking mysterious.

The journey to the lake became less boring because of the hoo-ha. As they were drawing close to their destination, a faint, black shadow appeared before them.

Nangong Wuyue was startled. “An extremely strong magnetic field?”

Chapter 209: Now That’s Interesting

 

As a deep-sea creature, Nangong Wuyue possessed greater perception underwater. She sensed that something was amiss when the team dived closer to the bottom of the lake. The unusual magnetic field made her a little sick.

Hao Ren was not affected. But, he noticed Lil Pea behaving strangely as she swam beside him: she swayed slowly to one side, her body tilting as if she was drunk. She knew she was sober, but she was confused as she had to constantly adjust her posture. After much struggle, she finally corrected her swimming posture and clung to Hao Ren. She remained motionless and slightly terrified—her instinct was to seek shelter when she sensed something was not right.

“She may have talent in magnetic field navigation. The magnetic field down here is affecting her.” Nangong Wuyue tried to explain as she had also noticed Lil Pea’s strange behaviour. She was just trying keep Hao Ren at ease. “It’s okay. Magnetic fields of this level are not going to be harmful. It would only confuse a deep-sea creature’s sense of navigation. Anyway, just keep your eyes open. There could be something strange and unusual out there.”

Hao Ren nodded. He checked his armour charge before pulling behind Nangong Wuyue. Meanwhile, Y’zaks had summoned two balls of demonic fire in his hands. Vivian tried to summon her bats but realising that bats could not swim, she only had a layer of Blood Fog as protection, just in case. As she swam, she left behind a blood-like trail; Lily saw it and spoke without even thinking, “You’re having a heavy, gushing period…”

The two almost came to blows in the water.

The faint shadow became clearer. Hao Ren had roughly ascertained that he was almost at the bottom. He kept his eyes open while he continued to descend until the red vision came to an end. He was met with a vast area of black at the bottom of the lake.

Nothing was unusual there. The lake bottom was of solid ground, not of mud but of some black gravel and strips of strange, long slabs. Y’zaks summoned a few balls of inextinguishable flame, and visibility was greatly improved as a result. Hao Ren could see not far ahead, the lake bottom was gradually sloping upwards: it was probably be the base of the island.

“There’s a burning smell.” Lily frowned. “It’s strangely sour.”

Nangong Wuyue picked up a piece of slab with her tail, examining it curiously. “Looks like it’s man-made… See, one side is very smooth like it has been polished.”

More slabs were found as they looked further ahead, giving the impression that these were fragments blown up by an explosion in the middle of the lake. The first thing that came to Hao Ren’s mind was the light at the bottom of the lake during the night the Orb went missing two months ago. However, he quickly dismissed the possibility: it seemed like the slabs had been there for a very long time, and there were no signs of new impact. The fact that the slabs were covered in layers of aquatic, light-shy creatures meant they had been lying at the bottom of the lake since a long, long time ago.

Hao Ren took the stone from Nangong Wuyue and shoved it into the Dimensional Pocket. He had collected quite a lot of things during his few days in this world—mostly things he considered of value. “Let’s bring them back and study them when I’m free.”

The siren maiden nodded. Her long snake-tail was as agile as her arms, picking up slabs, and passing them all to Hao Ren. At the same time, she muttered, “I think I should’ve transformed into a squid…”

Holding Lil Pea in his arms, Hao Ren stared angrily at Nangong Wuyue. “Since the moment you shapeshifted into a sea snake, she has been playing with her tail for like half a day. Please don’t influence her with more weird knowledge while her worldview is still in its infancy. Okay?”

Nangong Wuyue twitched her mouth before wheeling around and moving on.

The exploration team searched around and finally found something suspicious in the stone field at the bottom of the lake.

Large pieces of gravel were rolled and tossed out, exposing the fresh deep-water mud. Lots of huge gullies were created probably due to the shockwave from the huge explosion not long ago.

Lily did not have to say it, Hao Ren could already smell the weird and unbearable stench spreading througout the lake. Although Nangong Wuyue’s special ability made everyone “water-resistant”, for the sake of exploration, they could still detect smell. Lil Pea wrinkled her nose in discomfort. She rubbed her face against Hao Ren’s sleeve and grunted. Seeing that, Nangong Wuyue created a pure-water bubble so that Lil Pea could stay inside.

“There’s strange debris in the water.” Vivian frowned as the stench also made her sick. She looked up and noticed the upward slope was so steep that it formed a conical shape. This meant they had reached the base of the island. As she looked around, suddenly a strange shadow appeared beside the conical island base. “Over there! Something big!”

They swam towards it. As they went round the base of the island, their jaws dropped to the ground.

Hao Ren mumbled inadvertently. “…That’s f*cking interesting!”

On the slope, a huge thing that did not belong there was partially covered in mud. The exposed portion was about two or three hundred metres long. It was cylindrical in shape and had a greenish grey glow of cold metallic lustre. The tail end had several intricate and complicated protruding-rings, as well as six pairs of engine-like structures. There was a crack at the side: a large piece of armoured belt was gouged out. It left behind a narrow crack about dozens of metres, exposing the metal structure within. This was most likely critical damage.

There were rings of mark left behind by the shockwave around the object. Metal fragments and lumps of jelly-like substances were strewn around. The jelly-like substance spilled out from the crack, emitting a muddy-green glow. It was insoluble in water.

The muddy-green jelly substance could have been the source of the stench. And the wreckage could have been the source of the magnetic field: something had to be still running inside the wreckage.

“Whoa!” Lily was stunned by what she saw. She scurried to the side of the wreckage to take a closer look and then turned back in shock. “What is this thing?”

“A spacecraft,” said Hao Ren, nodding. “I’ve read about it somewhere in the study materials. Even though it looks a little different, its overall structure implies that it’s a typical spacecraft model.”

Vivian swam slowly towards it. “Whatever it is, it’s certainly not of this world. Let’s take a closer look.”

Everyone cautiously went closer, fearing a secondary explosion or further spilling of the poisonous substance—that greenish jelly substance appeared toxic. That thing had been lying at the bottom of the lake for two months. It had cooled down considerably since and now, it was like a cold, dead corpse. Hao Ren tried to peek through the crack; the interior was large, with a corridor near the hull.

But, the crack was blocked by broken metals and pipes, criss-crossing like a spider web. And that gave the damaged outer skin of the spacecraft a broken-but-not-entirely-severed look. Vivian patted Lily and said, “Doggie, clear the way.”

“Why me?”

“Because you’re the best.”

“Okay.” Lily lunged at the crack happily. “You can count on me!”

Hao Ren gave Vivian a weird glance. “You seem to know her better by the day.”

Lily was already in front of the crack, wielding her Frostfire Claws. The fire and ice claws worked just fine in water—soggy ice on the left and air bubbles on the right, she looked like she was swinging a pair of ribbons. Nonetheless, the claws did not help with her swimming. The maiden thought for a second before coming up with an ingenious idea: she spun her tail like a propeller and after that, she could swim faster compared to when she paddled doggie-style.

Hao Ren had been studying her for most of the day but still, he could not wrap her head around it—how did she make her tail spin like that?

Vivian had been silent for a while before she let out a sigh. “It seems she’s learned something from her fight against the sub…”

Chapter 210: Spacecraft Wreckage

 

Wielding her Frostfire Claws, Lily was like a powerful metal storm, clearing away the broken pipes and metal stubs that blocked the crack. Visibility was zero; she was shrouded in a tornado of soggy ice and boiling water bubbles. Hao Ren lost sight of Lily as soon as she began her job. Half a minute later, the clattering stopped. Lily re-emerged from another hole she had drilled from the inside of the hull. Her eyes were swirling. “Finally, I’m back out… The claws didn’t work in the water though…”

Lily’s face was flushed and her hair became all curly; it was like she had lay in a steamer for 10 minutes, and did a full perm at the same time—the water temperature was well over 200°C, but lo and behold, she was still as fit as a fiddle.

“You should learn to control your power, not just treat it as a weapon.” Y’zaks pointed at her Frostfire Claws, speaking like a teacher. “These are powerful weapons but, dissipating power is a waste. Look at my demonic flame; you practically can’t feel the heat even one centimetre away from it yet, it’s capable of vaporising a chunk of hafnium in just a few seconds.”

Nangong Wuyue listened, filled with marvel, and she asked curiously, “Why do you need such precise control?”

“To increase its core destructive power.” Y’zaks pointed at his ball of evil fire. “But mainly, it provides a cooler surrounding when it’s used as illumination. I only perfected the heat dissipation after spending 200 years in the castle.”

While swimming towards the wreckage, Hao Ren looked over his shoulder and asked, “Are demons really that free when no one comes looking for trouble?”

Y’zaks laughed. “I’m probably the only one.”

As expected, there was a crew passageway behind the crack. It was relatively large, just enough for Y’zaks to not feel cramped. Meanwhile, Nangong Wuyue had transformed back into a mermaid for ease of movement. Lil Pea had gone numb with the shapeshifting stunt though. She had given up. She was not going to try to understand how it worked. Lil Pea was just mumbling to herself and patting her own tail. It looked as if she was cheering herself up, that one day, she would grow up and be able to shapeshift like Nangong Wuyue. Perhaps, there was nothing that could correct her worldviews at this point.

The fact that the passageway was located too close to the hull caused it to suffer severe damage and distortion from the crash two months prior. There were large cracks on the white alloy walls on both sides of the passageway. The bloody-red lakewater did not help with the distorted passageway. The place simply looked creepy, like a scene from a horror movie. Hao Ren was in front, carefully examining the interior. He found that the spacecraft was very different—totally unlike the simple geometry of the transport vessel, No. 883 in Kuiper Station or other spacecrafts of the Empire. But one thing was for sure, it was of a highly-developed civilisation.

“This may not be a simple crash,” said Hao Ren to the MDT beside him. “None of the knights on duty at the Blood Lake spotted this thing, as though it had arrived at the bottom of the lake out of nowhere and crashed into the rocky base of the island. Probably, this would explain the flash of light, the explosion and the earthquake that night.”

“Hmm, looks like it was a spatial incident,” said the MDT. “I’ll perform a structural scan of the spacecraft. But it’s a mess inside. Most of the passageways are distorted and broken. I’ll find a safer way to the control room.”

Lily scurried up to Hao Ren as she spoke in amazement, “Whoa, it’s a spacecraft, isn’t it? Landlord, how does your spaceship look compared to this one? Yours is cooler, isn’t it?”

“Mine’s an official spacecraft.” Hao Ren started bragging. “You’ll see it someday. For now, I have to memorise the Intra-Universe Navigation Measures…”

Lily was not alone. Even Vivian had never seen such a high-tech thing. The dignified and calm vampire maiden could not help but marvel at it. Her hand touched against the cold alloy as she sighed, suddenly having a deep realisation of the huge gap between the advanced civilisation and her little living circle on Earth. “While this thing can fly to space, I’ll never escape the earth’s gravity no matter how hard I train my wings. The demise of the unusual creatures on Earth is certain.”

Hao Ren never expected Vivian to have such deep thoughts. Nevertheless, he had a slightly different view. “How can you say that? This world is the home of unusual creatures. Theirs is a brilliant civilisation although they’ve suffered from technological transition failure. Back then, the werewolves and Blood Clan attained the pinnacle of bio-technology, creating life, which humans on Earth have failed to. Their relatively small and scattered population on Earth as well as being hunted by demon hunters were probably the reasons why unusual creatures failed to advance.”

“Their first step went all wrong.” Vivian sighed. “It isn’t clear why unusual creatures wanted to come to the earth. If they were truly from The Plane Of Dreams, why couldn’t they remember? Everyone I knew was engrossed in weird things in life. No one thought of advancing their civilisation until we were surpassed by humans—even though humans were just a bunch of apes in the beginning.”

Hao Ren had never thought of that: As Raven 12345 had mentioned before, unusual creatures were originally from The Plane of Dreams. If that was the case, the first generation unusual creatures on Earth should have known what the advanced civilisation of this world was like. However, on Earth, they lived in mediocrity and that was indeed strange.

“Perhaps those unusual creatures were only passing through after the end of the world in The Plane of Dreams.” Hao Ren guessed. “The timeline isn’t clear-cut. Even Raven 12345 doesn’t know that well. But if this theory is true, then that would explain everything.”

There was not much information about the unusual creatures passing through Earth. Neither Hao Ren nor Vivian could reach any conclusion. They came to the end of the passageway, where there was an alloy gate standing in their way.

“There is a large space is behind this gate.” The MDT projected a hologram of the spacecraft’s floorplan. “The main frame is still in good shape, the door can be opened. But, something behind the door is preventing it from opening. I would not recommend blasting it. The structure may be unstable, and use of explosives could cause problems.”

Hao Ren saw the hologram, a dislodged metal bar was stuck at the locking mechanism behind the door. The spacecraft utilised a retro-style, exposed mechanical door lock, which needed a winch or a handwheel to lock and unlock. The metal bar was stuck in the handwheel behind the door.

He took a peek through a crack, which was only large enough for a hand to pass through. Through the crack he could see the place. It looked like a store, and a few humanoid figures floated in the red lakewater. He was instantly interested.

“Can anyone think of way to open the door?” As Hao Ren looked over his shoulder, Nangong Wuyue lunged forward. “Squid arms…”

“No. That would damage me too much, mentally.” Hao Ren waved his hand frantically. He then saw Lil Pea, who was swimming in the pure-water bubble beside him. “No more stench here, right? Then I’ll let Lil Pea out.”

Hao Ren waved to Lil Pea. She scurried out of the water bubble before rubbing herself in his face, her cold and slippery tail felt like a carp. Holding Lil Pea in his hand near the crack on the door, Hao Ren found that it was large enough for Lil Pea to pass through. He patted her and said to her confidently, “Good girl, get in there and open the door…”

Nangong Wuyue stared at him. “Will it work?”

Before her voice trailed off, Lil Pea made a sound before swimming through the crack, the size of a man’s arm. She then swam over to the other side. A few seconds and a few clangs later, Hao Ren turned the handwheel twice, and the door opened in a snap.

“I’ve just discovered that lately…” Hao Ren spoke, pushing the door open. He hugged Lil Pea in his arms again as she came back to him. “…that this little one is extremely intelligent. She can’t speak yet, but she understands most of what we say, including a couple ‘woofs’ that Lily’s made.”

Looking on with satisfaction at the surprised faces, Hao Ren proudly held his little daughter in his arms. He wheeled and swam into the store cabin, only to meet face-to-face with a green little humanoid figure, which drifted towards him. Its skin was extremely wrinkled after soaking in the water.

“Holy sh*t!”

Chapter 211: What A Day

 

Hao Ren was stunned by the creepy figure. He yanked himself several metres away from it, and he believed that his speed could have very well earned him an appearance in the Olympic Games several times in a row. When he reached a safe distance, he was finally able to see what that damn thing was: a corpse.

It was obviously not a person of Earth or any human. The corpse was about 1.4 to 1.5 metres in height. It was clad in a thick uniform, with its exposed skin being dark green. However, it was not certain if this was because of the water or it was already originally like that. This strange alien had a cylindrical head, no nose, no ears and no hair. The only thing it had were a pair of big eyes and a big mouth. Basically, it had the shape of a human but it was critically different from one. According to information given by Raven 12345, it was possibly the native race that existed far away from God’s disturbance. This figure with big round eyes had been floating in the blood-red water for some time, and could have very well been one of the crew members of the spacecraft. It was carried by the sudden rush of current as the door was opened, and drifted towards Hao Ren.

Nonetheless, it was still unknown if it was the unusual power of the lakewater or the unique quality of the alien body, because this dead crew member had been floating in the water for two months, yet showed no decay. Hao Ren carefully inched closer and found a row of words on the back of its uniform, which was translated into “Arcturus 4, Warehouse Crew”.

“This is indeed a warehouse, but the spacecraft itself may not be a cargo ship.” The MDT floated wobbly in the water. “There is no space expansion configuration. The spacecraft’s very small, probably the size of an ordinary passenger ship or a functional civilian ship.”

“Can you determine its origin?” Hao Ren asked, frowning. “I’m sure it’s not from The Plane of Dreams.”

“I need more information. Not all civilian ships are registered.” The MDT sounded serious and continued to wobble in the water. “This thing must be taken seriously. It may have come from the Surface World.”

“Surface World?” Hao Ren was shocked. “A big toy like this fell all the way from the Surface World into The Plane of Dreams?”

“Judging from the frames of the spacecraft… That is the case 90% of the time.”

Suddenly, something crossed Hao Ren’s mind. “Didn’t you say that it was very hard to get into The Plane of Dreams from the Surface World? About unidirectional teleportation or something. Even we have to resort to dormant cabins to guide us through to avoid disrupting the equilibrium…”

Lights were blinking frantically on the MDT, signalling an emergency. “That’s the problem. In theory, things in the Surface World can’t enter into The Plane of Dreams easily. For a being as fragile as a human to have an encounter with The Plane of Dreams is like getting blood from a stone. Yet now, we see a huge spacecraft that has crashed into it—it could have caused great damage to the equilibrium, or worse…”

The MDT wheeled and swam further into the cabin with Hao Ren anxiously following behind. “What’s worse?”

“Or worse, the equilibrium could break down.”

Everyone passed through the messy warehouse into a crumbling passageway, which led to the centre control room. Lil Pea was scurrying around Hao Ren like a hyperactive fish. She would swim through one crack and come back out from another crack. Everyone was worried about her safety but soon, they found that the overall structure of the spacecraft was sound, so they let her be. Her aptitude with water was so much better and nimbler than everyone else’s.

Lil Pea snuck through a large crack, the shape of a triangle, and suddenly, Hao Ren heard a scream.

He immediately lunged over only to see Lil Pea coming back out with a strange oval-shaped plastic.

The plastic sheet was a handheld device. It looked like the device was very rugged to withstand harsh working environment. When Hao Ren took it in his hands, the device was still glowing with lights. Its oval display read, “Arcturus 4, Technician’s Message: Spacecraft was drawn into spatial turbulence. All system have stopped runnin. Part of the hull suffers extensive damage and gases are leaking. Emergency quarantine initiated but ineffective. Tried to abandon spacecraft but failed. Bracing for death. Spatial turbulence recorded as follows. If rescue does come, this might comeon handy.”

“Where did you find this?” Hao Ren looked at Lil Pea. She pulled Hao Ren by his sleeve towards the triangular crack. The crack was large enough for a normal adult to pass through, except an adult like Y’zaks of course.

Hao Ren and Vivian had entered while the rest waited outside. It was a store cabin, inaccessible from the corridor. It was only exposed because of the cracked wall. The cabin was in a state of chaos, with everything collapsed on each other, and a dislodged pipeline. There was a little green creature on the floor, lying face down. It was much weirder than the one before.

It resembled a giant arthropod, a stubby mantis with four arthropod legs on its lower body. If standing upright, its upper body would be relatively thin. It had two pairs of forelimbs, which were of entirely different forms—one pair was thick and robust, seemingly used for fighting or carrying heavy stuff while another pair was slender and complex, seemingly used for performing jobs that required fine skills. It had a triangular head and two rows of purple spots beside its large compound eyes.

It looked like a large insect that had walked straight out of a horror movie. The only thing that indicated it was not an alien that had invaded the spacecraft, was the equipment it carried on its body, and its uniform with personnel ID. It was one the spacecraft’s crew.

Vivian was surprised. “The world’s a strange place where both things you can imagine and things you can’t ever imagine exist—by the way, the blood of this thing isn’t edible.”

“Fortunately enough for the unusual creatures, they came to Earth; if they had arrived on any other planet, there would not have been demon hunters, and most vampires would have starved to death as well.”

Vivian swung her head and said, “Those in Hollywood as well.”

“It’s a Torblec Hivekin.” The MDT approached it, taking an up-close look. “A highly intelligent race with a close relationship with the Empire; good in psionic technology.”

The oval-shaped device Lil Pea found was probably the Torblec Hivekin’s PDA. It contained vital records of the spacecraft’s crash. Hao Ren carefully put it inside the Dimensional Pocket and would show it to Raven 12345 later.

At that moment, Y’zaks called from the outside. “There’s movement out here!”

Hao Ren quickly held Vivian’s hand and led her out. As they got back to the corridor, they saw Y’zaks and Lily bracing themselves, straight-faced. Meanwhile, Nangong Wuyue had transformed into a sea-snake, using her tail to curl around herself to provide a sense of security. A series of metal scrapping sounds reverberated from deep down the corridor.

Vivian was on full combat mode. “What’s that?”

Y’zaks shook his head. “No idea. Lily was the one who found it. That thing had no sign of life. I hadn’t noticed earlier.”

Lily bent over on the floor and scratched the metal floorboard using her claws. She stretched her legs backwards and raised her head, growling. Just when she was about to prance forward, a huge brachiopod robot emerged from the corner, at the end of the corridor.

A huge, sea urchin-like alloy monster came into view. Its body was covered with brachiopods all around with every brachiopod flashing an ominous red light, as if the robot saw them as intruders. Perhaps, it was just confused as it had pointed three of the flashing brachiopods towards them the moment it came out from the corner.

At the drop of a hat, Vivian pumped up her power and launched a pre-emptive strike. ‘Lightning Strike—”.

Ten minutes later, everyone was back up to the surface. Lily had a complete perm with curly hair from head to toe, right down to her tail. She looked like a feather duster. She was jumping up and down, getting into a fight with Vivian. “Stupid idiot! Dumbass! Don’t you know water, the corridor, and everything down there including me are electrical conductors? Was your P.E. teacher a malatang¹ seller before becoming a physics teacher?”

Holding Lil Pea in his hand, Hao Ren exhaled a mouthful of black smoke. What a day! He thought.

Looking on, Lil Pea emulated him by puffing out black smoke. She had a healthy body.

Y’zaks looked back at Nangong Wuyue, who was not far behind. “Are you okay, siren maiden?”

Nangong Wuyue was still stuck in her sea-snake form, her tail curled up like a ball of yarn as she was trying frantically to loosen it up. “I’m stuck… and numb.”

Hao Ren and her daughter just kept puffing out black smoke. What a day…

Chapter 212: Uncertain Crisis

 

Vivian’s strength was real. Hao Ren had finally experienced it first hand. Getting hit by the vampire’s Lightning Strike at close range was an experience beyond words. As everyone scrambled out of the wreckage, they saw the spacecraft flashing with lights as well as a large number of dead fish and shrimp—if other people actually learned this fish electrocution ability, they would have been rich by now.

Vivian was the only one back on the surface still in good shape. She was immune to her own power—Lily was not. That was why after a fight with the vampire, she was not any better. But, there was another reason Lily was so enraged. It was because of guilt. The vampire maiden was a good person, just that her Physics teacher died a little too prematurely.

“Sorry, I didn’t realise.” Looking at Hao Ren and Lil Pea outdoing each other in puffing black smoke, Vivian came up to them, feeling bad. “I used to be on my own all the while and I haven’t been electrocuted before, so I forgot that water’s a conductor.”

Lily took a brush out of nowhere, brushing her own tail as she grumbled. “Sooner or later we’ll all die because of you.”

Hao Ren rubbed his face, thinking to himself. He would have to really watch out for Vivian’s move of mass destruction. When Y’zaks summoned a meteorite he had at least given this teammates a heads up, but this vampire maiden summoned her Lightning Strike on a whim without prior warning. She almost slaughtered five people, including the enemy, during their very first wreckage exploration.

Lil Pea rested on Hao Ren’s collar, coughing and puffing out two more rings of black smoke. Hao Ren looked on and realised—including her, it should have been six kills.

After brushing her feather-duster tail for like half a day, Lily still could not restore it. She gave up. Probably back home, a hot towel would do the trick, she thought. Tucking back her brush, she glanced at Lil Pea with concern. “Is she okay?”

“She was shocked.” Hao Ren found it incredible. “She’s bizarrely healthy even though she was struck by lightning at close range…”

Vivian looked at Lil Pea, whose face was black, and who was also muttering in fear. “She was born in boiling water, nothing could be more bizarre than that.”

Y’zaks guffawed, looking at everyone. He was the one who suffered the least injury. His face was black, other than that, he was as fit as a fiddle. He dusted the sand off his pant as he came near the alloy monster. “Anyway, at least this thing’s dead now. Vivian’s Lightning Strike worked like a charm.”

The robot monster that attacked them lay dead not far away. Vivian’s Lightning Strike was fatal. Coupled with the violent attack of Lily’s claws, its spherical core was punctured and its insides were a mess. It looked like it could never move again.

Hao Ren went near the monster, examining its bizarre arms. Its spherical body was less than a metre across, but dozens of alloy arms were attached to it, making it a giant. Some of its arms had been chopped off by Lily, and he could see the cross-sections. The insides were flexible like muscles glowing in metallic lustre. Some kind of terminal was attached at the end of the arm. From the looks of it, Hao Ren could vaguely identify a beam weapon, a visual component and some other sensors. Obviously, this thing was a warrior with awesome design. It was in the wreckage under water for two months and it still worked.

Out of curiosity, Hao Ren had dragged it out when he left the wreckage.

In fact he wished to shove the entire spacecraft into the Dimensional Pocket. This was because, letting it stay at the bottom of the Blood Lake posed a risk to the environment; although the spacecraft itself was shut down, its power furnace risked leakage and coolant—the green jelly substance—had been leaking out, slowly polluting the water around the island. But, he had to abandon the idea: scan images by the MDT revealed that the front end of the spacecraft had fused together with the rock beneath the lake floor. Probably a side product of the spatial incident. It was not possible to move the spacecraft without the risk of sinking the island.

The MDT knew what was in Hao Ren’s mind. Thus, it suggested, “Next time, you should bring more specialised equipment. Just get the approval from the Management Bureau. However, it’d be better if you could locate the Superior Unit of the spacecraft and let them handle the situation.”

“How?” Hao Ren did not have a clue as it was his first time. Although he was an inspector, all his missions were about meeting and bringing in people from various places. He was at his wit’s end when dealing with a spacecraft crash: handling the situation, relaying messages, writing reports, cleaning-up, contacting the spacecraft’s authorities and dealing with related organisations instantly caused a headache in his head. Such interplanetary diplomatic work were totally beyond his worldview.

“Post a message on the local universe channel.” To the MDT, it was a piece of cake. “As the inspector, you have official message broadcast rights on the universal information links. Post it up and see who has lost a spacecraft, and what category they can assign to this event. If it is deemed a minor incident, it will be the responsibility of one of the units of their organisation; if it is deemed a major incident, the head of the civilisation will be the one responsible. It doesn’t matter how they categorise it, the inspector is independent of various civilisations. All you have to do is bring the official stamp of the Empire. The only problem, if there is, is the involvement of a Torblec Hivekin in this case. It was among the dead. It was probably hired by some lower-rung civilisation as a technical advisor. Metaphorically speaking, it’s like a local business inviting the richest man of the country to its factory as an advisor. Subsequently, this rich man is found dead on the floor of the factory canteen, as a result of food poisoning. Some civilisations out there may encounter diplomatic trouble because of this. However, that doesn’t concern you.”

Hao Ren sighed. “Let’s wait and see. I’m having a headache.”

He was thinking about the situation at the control room, where no one was able to enter. Vivian had blown them out of the wreckage before they could do so, leaving the MDT the only one who had a first hand visit to the control room, bringing images with it. Most of the dead crew, which were greenish little figures found in the control room, looked horrific.

There was no way to move the spacecraft, and having no any idea about what to do with the alien corpses, Hao Ren had to leave them at the bottom of the lake. But according to SOP, he would still need to secure the crash site: Nangong Wuyue created a shield bordering the crash site, which would contain the pollution from spreading and slow down the decay of the bodies. Meanwhile, he hoped that he could contact all the relevant parties as soon as possible or he would have to find a way to move the wreckage himself.

Maybe the Disciples of Glory in The Plane of Dreams would send a death squad down there—although such a possibility was low, considering their religious taboos and the condition of the lake bottom, he could not totally dismiss it. After all, the environment at the bottom of the lake was deadly to ordinary people, but it was probably a walk in the park for the strong of this world. All they needed was a nod from the Pope.

Shaking his head, Hao Ren tried to shake off the creepy images inside the wreckage from his head. “Let’s compile every incident in the Blood Lake, then we’ll have a sizeable intel.”

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Vivian shook Lily off her tail. She started counting her fingers as if she was analysing something. “Let’s draw a timeline: two months ago, the Disciples of Glory were holding a parade, then the Orb mysteriously went missing amid different strange visions; at the same time, a spacecraft from the Surface World crashed at the bottom of the Blood Lake, an explosion ensued, which could have been part of the light vision sighted at the Orb’s watchhouse; two months since the disappearance of the Orb, unusual events continued to unfold around the Blood Lake, which according to the bishop were the increased activities of the monster living in the forest; two months later, we arrived and bumped into rock monsters in Dragonspine Ridge, whose target may be the Blood Lake, while four other rock monsters travelled in the direction of the steppe for reasons unknown. Basically that’s about it.”

“You left out one thing,” Hao Ren reminded. “Hilda arrived about seven days ago, two days before we did; this happened within the two months.”

“Now, let’s see whether these events are inter-related.” Y’zaks sat on the ground, legs crossed. “The disappearance of the Orb and the crash may be related. But, Hilda being here in The Plane of Dreams… tsk, what could link and explain all these events?”

“There’s a possible explanation.” Hao Ren gave the MDT a glance, recalling what the device had said while they were at the bottom. “The equilibrium of some kind is failing. Passing through to The Plane of Dreams is becoming easier. Maybe… maybe there’s already a hole that exists somewhere.”