The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 213

Chapter 213: The Journey Home

 

Hao Ren suspected that the Orb may have very well ended up in the Surface World.

The traces and trails point towards the malfunctioning spacecraft and the Orb of the Holy Synod being dragged into the same chaotic trans-dimensional field. At that point, a portal opened at the Blood Lake in The Plane of Dreams, so chances of the Orb and the monks guarding it being transported into the Surface World were rather large.

But that did not even come close to determining the exact location of the Orb: The spacecraft was working fine when it ran into trouble at the bottom of the lake. From Hao Ren’s guess, the ship was in space at that time, if the Orb’s position was directly reflective of where the ship actually was, it may very well have been thrown into deep space. Plus, if it had already been floating there for a good two months, who knew where it actually ended up.

Secondly, the probability of the Orb being reflectively transposed accurately was miniscule. The exact location where the craft ran into issues was at the bottom of the lake, but the dimensional rift opened in the church in the middle of the lake. As such, the MDT surmised that there was probably some distortion when the rift formed, resulting in two pathways opening. The biggest fear when using interdimensional teleportation is a positional distortion. Even a minute distortion could throw someone off their actual destination thousand of miles away, light years even. Furthermore, as both the Surface World and The Plane of Dreams were not direct mirrors of each other, any reflective transposition would not be accurate. The MDT even extrapolated the possibility of the Orb being thrown into a different universe all together. The spacecraft had a void engine in it, which was used for trans-dimensional travel. If it was still active when the ship crashed, there was a chance that it simply threw anything nearby into other dimensions.

But, the Orb’s location was not their concern as of now. What was happening in The Plane of Dreams had all of them worried.

“What will happen if the balance is broken?” Vivian looked at the MDT curiously. Her knowledge about things while exceeded Lily’s, paled before the cutting edge database.

“The most obvious consequence would be, things from both worlds starting to interact with each other without control. The more similar their fundamental characteristics are, the easier it will be for them to interact. Intelligent beings will start to communicate with other intelligent beings.” The MDT then displayed a holographic projection with a sombre scene of war and massacres on it. “For example, demons will start appearing in human city centres, nuclear warheads may fall on the capital of a magical kingdom, biological infestation may occur, a warlike race may take the opportunity to go to war for dominion and destroy other civilisations in the process. And oh, diseases and plagues. A simple flu on Earth may be the Black Death in a foreign world, and it’s the same the other way around. A small group could still be fine, as bacteria may not survive the environment and be eliminated by natural selection. However, if it involves the movement of a very large group, then it is a disaster waiting to happen. Even an experienced plague lord is nothing against bacteria or viruses from another world. A small scale outbreak could perhaps be contained, but a big one… well, the medical team may as well die alongside their patients there and then.”

The rather vivid explanation sent chills down Vivian’s spine. “Then… how did the first group of unusual creatures survive on Earth?”

“Maybe it was really the survival of the fittest, or the transference changed their physical attributes.. No one knows for sure. The Plane of Dreams is a chaotic mess after all.”

Y’zaks was also deep in thought. “You haven’t even mentioned anything about the worst case scenario. Two converging worlds will probably have issues with their spatial parameters and world rules. Well even before that, if the Planck’s Constant just diverges that little bit, any contact will simply result in an apocalypse. That’s even more dire than war or plague, hell, not many will even survive that. An apocalypse.”

The MDT moved up and down as if it was nodding. “That’s the worst case scenario, but that usually happens due to a massive convergence of two worlds. Anyway, based on the current data, The Plane of Dreams and the Surface World share pretty much the same parameters. The most important of those, the Planck’s Constant, the basic core settings and spatial construction are pretty much the same. The doomsday scenario will probably not happen.”

Hao Ren then looked up at the rest in a sweeping glance. “I think we need to make a trip back. There are too many things to report. We will also need to get someone to do something about that ship.”

“Yup, yup!” Lily nodded vehemently. “Sides, there’s no electricity, no internet and no nice food to eat… blergh.”

This lass was so excited when she first came, and now she was utterly sick of it.

“Well, that’s that. We’ll go back tomorrow then. We need to say our farewells to Becky, and bring Hilda along,” Hao Ren said as he stood up. He then noticed Wuyue, who was still curled up in a ball. “You still can’t untie the knot?”

Wuyue was flapping about by the shore. “I’m still numb… still numb…. Ah… I’m gonna roll off!!”

Hao Ren quickly went forward to give the siren a hand. “Don’t worry, we’ll wait for you.”

It was “thanks” to Vivian’s lightning attack that Wuyue was so numbed. Remember that they ran into some mechanical guardian underwater? Wuyue, the siren nanny who could not fight, simply curled into a ball using her three-metre-long tail when the enemy attacked. The first thing she saw as she peeped through her defensive ball was Vivian casting a lightning sphere and jolting everyone there…

Perhaps, the high salinity of the sea creature resulted in a high level of conductivity, or Wuyue simply forgot to put some points in her elemental resistance. She was the worst off of the lot. She was still numb after so long, and she could not untie her tail after a good ten minutes trying. And oh, she could not even dispel her siren form despite trying to so.

A beautiful lass with a serpentine tail would have been a work of art, but that was far, far from both Hao Ren and Wuyue’s mind as they tried to untangle her knot. It took Wuyue a lot of effort to pull the end of her tail out of the knot. She tapped Hao Ren by the pants. “Don’t tell my brother about this, please! I already did this once when I was young. He’ll laugh at me until he drops.”

Hao Ren could only helplessly look at this beautiful yet clumsy siren because something bugged him immensely. “How did you even manage to tie yourself into a butterfly knot with all that going on?”

“Don’t look, it’s embarassing.” Wuyue tried to turn away.

It took Wuyue another two hours before her numbness had somewhat faded, just before everyone almost decided to simply drag her back. As she was able to move now, she went back into the water to change. She glared at Vivian as she got out. “That shock was really… numbing… Stay away from me when you decide to jolt something to a crisp.”

Vivian was probably the most embarrassed of the lot that night, all the way from her head to her toes. In fact, her face was almost red. Imagine a pale vampire having a puffy red face? That’s saying something.

The group sneaked back into the encampment. Dawn was about to break as they got back into their camp. Only Lil Pea got any semblance of sleep. She pretty much went back into her pot to curl up after gobbling two sheets of paper, leaving her unlucky lot of uncles and aunts to pack up for the return trip.

Hao Ren’s haul this time around was pretty good. He had gotten a rather wide variety of ores, local tools, books and clothing. He stuffed them into his Dimensional Pocket as much as he could. There was no small measure of thanks to Y’zaks business acumen that they managed to procure such items at very reasonable prices. Of course, the most valuable of the loot was the combat bot that was now sitting quietly in the pocket, drowning in Lily’s junk food.

That was by Lily’s request. She came to take “Bally” as her victor’s spoils. Vivian was reluctant to argue with her on that and just let her be.

The group then went to look for Becky, who was doing some morning exercises in front of the camp. After beckoning her to a secluded area in the camp, the group signalled their intent to leave.

“You guys are leaving just like that?” Becky was shocked. She knew that the group was bound to leave sooner or later, and that their interest lay elsewhere, not in the Orb. She never counted on them leaving so soon. “You lot just arrived, no? I thought you were supposed to investigate some dimensional phenomenon?”

“Actually, last night—” Lily was just about to blurt everything out before Vivian cusped her hand over the werehusky’s mouth. “Actually, we received an urgent missive last night and it seems like we have to abandon what we are doing here.”

“Oh…” Becky did not press the matter. She took a glance at Hilda, who was standing beside Hao Ren. “She’s tagging along?”

Hilda quietly looked at Hao Ren, her unease about the journey was quite apparent. However, as she was bereft of any other options, and the fact she confirmed that the portal in the centre of the Blood Lake had already closed two months back, she saw no reason to disagree to it. She simply nodded as she heard Becky’s question. “Yes, we are leaving together.”

“Alrighty then. I won’t be sending you off. Let’s work again next time,” Becky said as she waved her hand at the group. She then popped the question that had been bugging her, “Say… how do you guys plan to go back? If you need horses you can rent them at Leyton…”

“We’ll be teleporting, as usual,” Hao Ren said.

Becky was taken aback and leapt a good few metres away from the group. “Bon voyage then. Keep note of your height before you land.”

“…”

It seems like Becky really did not buy the whole shtick about “dimensional magic” anymore.

The MDT quickly ran through the calculations needed to ensure that Hilda was transported alongside the group. After pulling some distance away from Becky, the group waved at her as a bright flash of light pulled them away from The Plane of Dreams.

Chapter 214: What the Hell is Happening?

Vertigo struck Hao Ren like a truck as he left The Plane of Dreams. Almost overwhelmed, Hao Ren was dazed for a good while before he managed to get his bearings. By the time he woke up, he was lying in the midst of a warm and bright environment. As he opened his eyes, he was greeted by a warm light emanating from the sleeping pod. A soft and sweet chime played out next to his ears. These were features the sleeping pod had to adjust itself to the user’s biological patterns, allowing those who had just woken up from their deep slumber to wake up fully refreshed.

A soft puff rang out as the sleeping pod’s cover slid away and Hao Ren got up from the unholy coffin he was so fond of calling. Only after a few blinks did he feel sure that he had safely reached home. Beside him, a soft clanging noise could be heard as Lil Pea pushed the kettle cover open. After peering out for a bit, she sprang out of the kettle and onto Hao Ren’s legs. “Yeeyeyy!! Wer Wuum!!”

It took Hao Ren a while to figure out that the little mermaid was saying, “We are home.” Lil Pea was rather diligent with her practice of the human tongue but, her pronunciation still left much to be desired, like how a Japanese, who never spoke English before trying to do so…

The sleeping pods around him had also started to open one by one. The gang all woke up from their restful slumber as they stretched, yawned, rubbed their eyes and made a whole lot of commotion.

The last part was courtesy of Lily of course. The brain dead husky would at times make weird noises when she felt like it and the group was pretty much used to it by then.

Hao Ren shook his arms for a bit before he got out of the pod, thinking that he would be all wobbly. To his surprise, aside from his delayed response, he was totally fine. It seemed like the pod really did its job despite its looks.

As he surveyed his surroundings, a figure in the middle of the room caught his attention. The white robed Hilda was standing in front of the row of coffins, her face lined with confusion, shock, suspicion… well, there were too many expressions to describe. The beautiful Elven queen was simply in a state of utter shock until Hao Ren went up to her and tapped her on the shoulder. She then reacted with a shriek. “Ah!”

“Hmm, seems like everything’s normal. Teleportation successful.” Hao Ren nodded. “Do you feel sick anywhere? If there’s anything wrong, please tell me now. This is the first time I’ve brought someone out of that world. I’m not sure if everything’s all right.”

Hilda could only gawk at the strange and foreign surrounding. It was evidently not the abode of someone from The Plane of Dreams and the lack of magical reactions in the vicinity finally reminded her of something as Hao Ren spoke. She quickly pulled out an intricately made tubular device and fiddled with it with graceful dexterity. After a moment, she started mumbling to herself, “Still can’t determine any background radiation or the base constant… but, this really is a different planet…”

“Yep, welcome to Earth.” Hao Ren threw the strange device in Hilda’s hand a curious look. “You knew that we were going across dimensions right? Why the surprise now?”

Hilda looked up slowly as the excitement etched on her face scared Hao Ren. “You really brought me to a different world?!”

Vivian placed her hands on her waist as she got to Hao Ren’s side. “Yeah, I thought we told you that?”

“This really is the Surface World you guys were talking about?!”

“Uh, yeah?” Vivian’s hands were still on her waist and she looked at Hilda rather suspiciously. “Don’t tell me you didn’t believe us in the first place? You were just trying your luck weren’t you?”

Hilda unconsciously nodded at first but then quickly shook her head. Her excitement had rendered her speechless before she grabbed Hao Ren by both shoulders and shook him violently. In her extremely excited state, she stuttered as she spoke: “Plee… Please bring me home!! I believe now! I believe everything! If you guys can bring me home, I’ll do anything! You have the Kingdom of Aerym’s eternal gratitude!”

Hao Ren never thought that Hilda would be so overwhelmed by emotions and the shaking he endured made him see double. It took him a monumental effort to get out of the overly excited elf’s grip, dodging her hands as he spoke. “Calm down!! Everything needs to be done in order. Please, calm down! People have actually died from being too happy. Please trust in us and the Space Administration. You may think that traveling across dimensions is a very big thing but, for the personnel in the office, it is almost a daily occurrence. Calm down, okay? If you lunge at me again, I’ll call the cops….”

Only then did Hilda realize that she had reacted way out of line and calmed down somewhat. But, the Elven queen was still all excited and she scanned Hao Ren expectantly, leaving the latter drowning in cold sweat. Hao Ren quickly grabbed Lily by the arms. “Hurry, go check if we have any Cardiosave in the first aid kit…”

Hao Ren really feared that Hilda would get so excited that she would have a heart attack and die in his basement…

It really seemed that Hilda did not fully trust them back in The Plane of Dreams and was simply trying her luck. It was not until she realized that she had indeed been transported to another place—she was unsure if it was a different world but, she was positive that it was a different planet—that she truly believed this bunch of oddballs had the ability to send her home. Her current state of euphoria was finally firmly built upon solid ground.

It looked like Hao Ren could not delay in sending the Elven lady back home. He decided that once he had settled everything back home, he would bring Hilda along to see Raven 12345.

Or Raven 23333 if the loony goddess did not return yet.

Vivian was by then, looking around her room, checking for stuff before going to the corner to pick up a pail and wiping cloth to clean up the house. “Ugh, there’s dust everywhere. I think the upper floor’s going to be worse. Luckily, I covered the beds and furniture with rags and old newspapers or else we would have problems sleeping on our beds tonight… god, this is no different than a dog’s burrow.”

Lily had yet to leave the room and she took umbrage at what Vivian said, bouncing straight towards the vampire to protest. “What’s wrong with a dog’s burrow?! I won’t allow you do ridicule my room!”

“Hush you! If I don’t get the kitchen cleaned by noon, you won’t even have instant noodles to eat!”

“Oh, oh! I’ll help then!”

“That’s fine but, keep your tail. You know that you’re shedding now yet, you still waggle it about…I might as well not clean at all…”

As both Vivian and Lily left the basement rowdily, Hao Ren was glad that he had such a thoughtful tenant like Vivian beside him. While most of the group were busy, getting ready to enter the sleeping pods, only she had thought of covering the beds, important furniture as well as electronics with rags and old newspapers. He would not count on the others to even remember that. As the area he lived in had plenty of barren land, by autumn, the grass patch behind his house would already wither. Every time the northwesterly wind blew, dust and dirt would get all over the place. Hell, his place looked like an abandoned manor after just being away for three days…

Hao Ren really wondered how the heroes on TV actually went out to defeat the bad guys for a month or so and return home to a pristine, clean bed or yabber about on the sofa. Why did the director not includ scenes of superheroes cleaning their house after a long and arduous battle?

Seeing that Vivian was running up and down with a pail in hand, Hao Ren concluded that his reason for not being able to act like a glorious superhero was just that.

As he was busy thinking about nothing, a screech from upstairs broke his train of thought.

It was a girl’s voice. It was rather loud that he could hear it all the way from the basement. The voice sounded very familiar too. He turned around to look at the siren and great demon beside him. All three of them quickly ran up.

The sound came from the kitchen. By the time Hao Ren got there with his group, Vivian and Lily were already there. With so many bodies congesting the kitchen, Hao Ren had to squirm his way through to the front. He was greeted with the sight of someone panicking at the corner of the kitchen…

It was Becky.

The microwave oven above the stove-counter had sparks coming out of it as it seemed like Becky had cleaved it into two with her enchanted sword. When Hao Ren saw her he was too stunned to even react. It was only after a while did he yell, “Why are you here?!”

Becky could only look at the group of familiar faces in a stupor before the microwave beside her crackled its’ last and died.

A little too late, Hao Ren yelled again. “My oven!!!”

Chapter 215: Well.. Things are About to Get Real Busy

Becky was simply too stunned to react when she saw the group of familiar faces. It was not until Hao Ren called her that she snapped out of her stupor. A perplexed look remained on her face and she eyed the party again. Then she pointed towards her strange surrounding. “Where am I? How did I get here?!”

Hao Ren was even more shocked. “This is my home! How did you get here?!”

“Your home?” Becky almost jumped. “This is the Northern Empire?! I’m not well-read but don’t take me for a fool. Do the northerners’ houses look like this? Doesn’t look like the ones I saw in the papers!”

Hao Ren finally managed to get his bearings but, he still had no idea how Becky got dragged along into the Surface World. But seeing that it was the case, he needed to come up with a solution.

“Well… things are pretty complicated you see. This is not the Honnar Empire. We are nowhere near your world. I’ll explain in a bit. Keep your sword, lets go to the living room to talk…”

Becky still eyed Hao Ren suspiciously. She knew that the bunch was odd but, she never counted on having herself dragged into this equally odd situation. Despite that, she still obeyed Hao Ren and sheathed her sword. Something suddenly dawned upon her. “Wait a minute, is this another screw up of your dimensional teleportation?”

Vivian rubbed her face. “….It’s not exactly dimensional teleportation… but something did go wrong….”

Becky immediately stomped her foot. “I knew you bunch of dimensional mages were more amateurish than the last! I stood aside roughly more than 10 meters away just to be safe. Even that wasn’t enough!?”

Hao Ren’s face was that of utter defeat. He probably had no way to deny it anymore. Amateurs aside… his luck was quite seriously down the dumps.

Hilda had followed the group up to the kitchen and the appearance of Becky thoroughly confused her. The mercenary lass was supposed to stay back in The Plane of Dreams. As the procession went to the living room, her confusion turned into fear. She quickly grabbed Hao Ren by the shoulder. “Is there something wrong? Is the teleportation device broken?”

Her concern was apparent on her face. The thought of ‘can I ever get home?’ was always at the back of her mind and she was very sensitive about anything that suggested otherwise. Hao Ren gave her a comforting wave, “No, it has nothing to do with you. We on the other hand, are f*cked big time.”

Becky was busy looking and gawking ever since she got out of the kitchen. Everything in Hao Ren’s house was something new to her. In fact, it was a rather refreshing feeling. A girl decked in leather armor and combat-ready clothing, leather boots, windbreaker cloak and her enchanted longsword as well as daggers hanging from her belt; it seemed like an RPG character just walked into a modern home. This was not something you would see often unless of course, you have a pretty girl at home who dabbles in cosplay.

The mercenary lass was dragged by Lily to the sofa. As she was pushed down on the sofa, she sank in. Reacting almost immediately, she yelled, “It’s a trap!” before realizing that she had not totally sink. Laughing at her silliness, she shook the sofa for a bit. “Oh…. it’s a chair… a soft one at that. I heard that nobility love chairs like this. No wonder you were so generous back then. You’re a rich one aren’t ya?”

As the group had been away for a few days, there was no hot water. Vivian quickly went back to the kitchen to boil a kettle of water while Lily ran to the fridge eagerly and grabbed a bunch of stuff out; both regular food and her junk food. Dumping them on the tea table, she warmly invited Becky to take a bite. “Come ,eat! The bread’s about to expire too.”

“Oh, oh, thanks!” Becky was still dazed after being overwhelmed by so many new things she had seen that she simply nodded at whatever Lily said. As she extended her hand to take the bottle of juice Lily had passed to her, she suddenly recoiled. “It’s coldddd!!!”

Hao Ren smacked Lily on the head. “It’s already winter and you’re still drinking cold drinks. Not afraid of stomach aches?”

“Nope! I was even pulling sleighs up north some time back you know?”

The husky seemed rather pleased with herself and paid almost no attention to her origins anymore…

Becky by then had recovered from her confusion and stared at Hao Ren. “Now, hold your horses, you tell me what’s going on right now! Why… was I transported to this weird place. What’s all of this?”

“You may want to prepare yourself for this,” Hao Ren said as he cleared his throat and shifted his gaze towards Lily. “Stop using your teeth as a bottle opener! Hell, you were complaining back then when I asked you to help me open a bottle!”

After yelling at the house furry as usual, Hao Ren slowly explained the situation to Becky.

Under the Space Administration’s rules and regulations, aside from the parties directly involved in the mission, any activities done under the administration’s name cannot affect the lives of unrelated parties, while those who are somewhat involved are made to swear oaths of secrecy. However, Becky was a victim of circumstance and the Space Administration would take responsibility of that. Thus, Hao Ren simply forwent any pretense of secrecy. Granted, he still had a headache on how to actually solve the issue and submit his report as well as let the MDT investigate what actually went wrong.

As Becky listened to Hao Ren’s explanation, her eyes opened even wider. After taking a while to digest what she was told, she looked at Hao Ren suspiciously. “So… you’re saying this is not a prank?”

“I really wish it was simply just a prank,” Hao Ren said as he placed his face in his hands. “Things are already messy as it is. And now, I have even more on my plate. I don’t know if I’ve screwed up somewhere with regard to the teleportation… Well, I didn’t even do much. I simply clicked on ‘Confirm’ using my mind.”

Becky then demurred for a moment before looking up again. “So.. I’m in another world right now?”

“Yes, another world altogether.”

“And all of you were from another world and you were carrying out a mission where I’m from?”

“Yep, we are originally from here.”

“No wonder you guys were so weird there. You didn’t even have any basic knowledge.”

Hao Ren could only nod. “Yes, yes and yes. So that explains everything right?”

“No wonder you guys had no interest on the whereabouts of the orb,” Becky mumbled to herself. All of a sudden, she laughed out loud. “Ahahahaha! So stuff like the stories do happen! Wow, I’m really cut out to be a legendary mercenary!”

Becky’s reaction took Hao Ren absolutely by surprise as she appeared to be so unconcerned about her current situation, after being thrown across dimensions. “You’re not nervous or feeling lost? Not confused at all? Not looking to take down the perpetrator with you?”

“Why do you think that way?” Becky was curious. “This is a good chance to broaden my horizons. I never had the chance to go this far before. Even the most famous of heroes don’t have such an opportunity. I’ll probably stay for a few days to see what’s going on around here. It’s not like I can’t go back, right? You guys make going back and forth look easy. What do I have to worry about then?”

Hao Ren had no idea how to respond to her. Most of the time, people who cross into another dimension would panic as they have no way home… but for Becky, she quickly realized that she had been transported over by a known mean and after she has had her fill of adventure, she could simply go home. Hao Ren had not seen such a mental fortitude like hers.

Nevertheless, Hao Ren knew the about the anomalies involved in traveling from the Surface World into The Plane of Dreams and felt that Becky was celebrating way too early. However, seeing how happy she was, he did not have the heart to burst her bubble just yet.

Sighing, he said, “Sure, you can stay here for a while. I’ll let you have your adventure. Think of it as thanks for helping us so far.”

“Well said, well said!” Becky waved her hand as she mimicked Lily, gobbling down the food on the table. “Uwahh! The food here is pretty good! It’s just that the outer layer is a bit tough to open… Is this meant for adventurers or soldiers? The outer layer seems to be water proof as well…”

Hao Ren was still busy contemplating how he should go about solving the issue at hand before something struck him. “Oh right, why did you have to cleave my microwave in two?”

“Microwave? You mean that weird box?” Becky recalled the funny looking box that she had so unceremoniously cleaved and jolted herself with.” I didn’t even know what that was. When I was thrown over here and everything was still spinning, I had just touched it before some weird energy started to form inside the box. I thought it was some kind of booby trap and just cleaved at the energy’s focal point as usual…”

“…”

Hao Ren had a feeling that things were about to get very, very hectic from then on.

Chapter 216: Is It Deteriorating?

 

The adventurers and mercenaries in The Plane of Dreams had always been direct and brutal in dealing with problems. This was because they spent most of their time in all kinds of ruins and battlefields where there were countless things they could slam and smash as much as they liked. However, if Becky wanted to stay at Hao Ren’s house, she could not continue being so reckless. Hao Ren had to consider setting up a training program for her. At least to stop this lady from taking out her sword easily and smashing someone else’ stuff into pieces…

“So, it means… I’m in trouble?” Becky realized that the thing she broke was just a common item for daily use. That thing looked neat and it was beautifully decorated (in her eyes). It was probably quite expensive. “How much do I have to pay?” she asked.

Hao Ren looked angrily at Becky. He could only wave weakly and said, “You don’t have money to pay for it. Forget it. I’ll mention it in the report, consider it as work loss and apply for reimbursement.”

Becky was then relieved and continued to pick up the bag of snacks and ate contentedly. When she left The Plane of Dreams, she had not gotten back home for dinner yet so, she was hungry at this point. Lily usually cared about her snacks more than her life but, this time, she was unexpectedly generous. Probably, she noticed that the bread and cakes in the fridge were going to expire and she intended to take advantage of this opportunity to clear the stock and buy new ones. Hao Ren looked awkwardly at Becky’s mercenary outfit and said, “You better keep your outfit somewhere else.”

Becky’s mouth was stuffed with spicy strips. She rolled her eyes, gulped quickly and put her hand on her sword and asked, “Is it the rule here? The armed forces of foreign personnel must be confiscated?”

“Sort of.” Hao Ren pointed to Becky’s sword and explained, “It’s easy to attract police if you walk down the street with this stuff. And your mercenary outfit, the armor and riding boots, you better take them off. It’s too conspicuous here.”

Becky licked her finger, stood up and turned around. Becky was always careless but now, she also realized that her outfit could be too conspicuous in this world after she was reminded by Hao Ren. And she thought of how strange their clothes were in The Plane of Dreams. It was easy for her to understand that she was now in the same state. She pulled the scarf around her chest and the girdle with a dagger on her waist and said, “But, I have no other clothes.”

Hao Ren turned to the other ladies around him, asking for help. Finally, Nangong Wuyue came forward and said, “We are the same size. Let her wear mine first. Let me wash your clothes, I’ll give it back when you go back.”

Becky was a little reluctant. She scratched her face and said, “How can I let you do it for me. I’ll do it myself…”

Hao Ren quickly stopped Becky and said, “Not at all. Don’t break my washing machine.”

Nangong Wuyue took Becky to her room to pick out her clothes and the rest of them looked at each other. Hao Ren took out the MDT from his pocket and put it on the coffee table. He then poked it and asked, “Hey, explain this phenomenon.”

The MDT continued to play dead. It even turned off all its lights. Hao Ren saw it and took the sticker of Pleasant Goat from the bunch of snacks and said, “After I count to three, I’ll stick it on your forehead if you continue to play dead. Lil Pea will certainly like it.”

“I don’t know where my forehead is. I don’t think you can find it,” the MDT shouted and suddenly floated up. It then kept muttering, “It doesn’t make sense, the teleportation target is just Hilda alone. Why was there another one… who’s even a native of The Plane of Dreams. Her connection with her original world is supposed to be very stable and she shouldn’t have been pulled out so easily.”

Vivian looked at the MDT curiously and asked, “There’s something you don’t know?”

“Of course, I just have a bigger database, I’m not omniscient.” The Mobile Data Terminal slowly fell onto the coffee table and sat at a 45° angle as if it was pondering. It began to blink slowly. “I’ve set up the teleportation rules according to the latest mapping logic of The Plane of Dreams-Surface World from the local universe database. This is to regulate each individual involved in the teleportation. In theory, this shouldn’t have happened.”

Hao Ren suddenly had an idea and asked, “Wait, what about the last update? When was The Plane of Dreams’ mapping in the local universe database last updated?

“Ah, it’s been months. You weren’t an agent yet and I just got off the production line.”

“For months?” Hao Ren found it incredible. He did not expect the local universe database, such a sophisticated thing to not be updated for months and asked, “There’s no one maintaining the database on The Plane of Dreams?”

“You’re right. That’s the case. You know that there hasn’t been a special agent for The Plane of Dreams before you. Either does the Empire put too much energy on this trivial issue—the data updates related to The Plane of Dreams are handled by a private company called, ‘Starlight Tower’. They are a business team attached to the subsidiary civilization of the subsidiary unit of the Space Administration,” the MDT explained. When it saw Hao Ren’s surprised and serious, questioning look, he added, “Don’t think this is wrong. In fact, The Plane of Dreams has always been very stable. Starlight Tower first took over the data updating business more than 5000 years ago. Since then, they have been updating the database tens of thousands of times but, the total revision is less than 1%. The free relationship between The Plane of Dreams and the Surface World seems unstable but in actuality, the overall balance has always been maintained… Of course, it looks like it’s going to go wrong.”

Hao Ren was getting more and more acquainted to the style of the Xi Ling Empire (or the Xi Ling Celestials) now. As godlike rulers, they did have a serious and responsible side but, at the same time, they were good at solving problems in a simple and straightforward way. The basic unit of their management of the infinite world is the ‘universe’. In other words, anything below the universe, whether it was the star system or the Milky Way or even The Plane of Dreams, which occupied half of the world, were considered detailed questions. They could be entrusted to all levels of mortal assistants, as well as a variety of private companies to deal with.

Mortals made mistakes so, there would be flaws in these ‘minutiae’ and one of the agent’s duties was to resolve and reconcile these flaws. These were mentioned in the agent’s staff handbook.

But at that time, Hao Ren did not get it…

This kind of management was different from the grim situation found in many religious stories, in which the gods continuously stared at Earth and created natural disasters to ‘cleanse’ the world of mortals once they made a little mistake. It meant that the Xi Ling Empire had given maximum autonomy to mortals. Only when the civilized people had created big trouble would the Space Administration come to clean up the mess. Also, even a civilization could support itself as the gods, the Xi Ling disciples who were very open-minded would just laugh and call the people, ‘naughty kids’. This was a good thing for all mortal civilizations. They could do whatever they liked and even when they were about to destroy themselves, a bunch of immortals would come and save them. However, it was not easy for the agent who was sandwiched between the mortals and gods–Hao Ren’s head was now full of troubles.

The MDT also knew what Hao Ren was thinking and asked, “Would the mapping relationship be messy?”

Lily looked at the two of them and found these questions profound as well as difficult to understand. “Is the balance weakening? Just like that ship, there was a hole in The Plane of Dreams’ barrier…” she asked.

“Worse than that.” Hao Ren explained to Lily, “The Orb disappeared, the spaceship crashed, Hilda time-travelled… These can be considered as natural disasters. They are spontaneous phenomena. But, this time Becky was accidentally brought out, which occurred after the MDT’s accurate calculation and a highly controlled process. This means that not only will accidents happen in natural circumstances, but even if the security preparation process is accurate, there will be an accident. We’re in big trouble.”

In fact, there was a metaphor in Hao Ren’s heart: Even if a man has a condom on and the woman has taken pills, the woman still gets pregnant. The hole in The Plane of Dreams was really hard to defend but he was too embarrassed to say such words of unchastity in front of the innocent husky.

“May I ask…” Hilda’s voice brought Hao Ren back to reality. The Elf Queen seemed unable to sit still any longer. “Does it have anything to do with my hometown?”

“No.” Hao Ren waved his hand and then, suddenly stood up and made a decision. “So, now I’m going to take you to my boss. I’ve got lots of things to ask her. I can’t wait.”

“Right, I can’t wait too,” Hilda said, smiling happily.

Chapter 217: The Day the Heaven Collapsed

 

Hilda had heard Hao Ren mention Raven 12345 more than once. She knew that this important person with a strange name was the goddess who administered the whole world. And she was the kind of god who had real power and influence throughout the universe, not like the false gods who relied on mortals to support and worship them in order to survive on a tiny planet. Thus, when Hilda heard that she was going to meet Raven 12345, she was earnest and tense. She tidied up her appearance and asked, “What do I need to prepare? Is there any special attention needed in etiquette? The living place of the goddess should have a lot of rules, am I dressed properly?”

Hao Ren did not care at all and said, “No special attention, she is sloppier than me. And the place she lives in is just a big house. There are no rules.”

Hilda still wanted to ask about something but, Hao Ren had already pinched the MDT and was ready to teleport. At the last moment, before the surrounding scene twisted, Hao Ren shouted upstairs, “Wuyue! Remember to teach Becky to use electrical appliances!”

Then the white light flashed and Hao Ren along with Hilda were teleported directly to the big house of Raven 12345.

“Here we are.” Hao Ren recovered from momentary vertigo. He patted Hilda on the shoulder and turned to point out the direction of the bungalow. He then said, “This is Ra… the hell?”

Two of them stared at the scene before them: the white-bottomed, blue-topped house was beyond recognition. Its facade was blasted and all that was left were three large holes. The largest hole even broke through third-storey floor and he could see the crystalline walls as well as the alloy lamination inside. The bungalow’s door was also gone, replaced by a pile of temporary alloy plates. At least a third of the roof was blown off. The sky-blue crystal tiles were scattered all across the floor. The once most beautiful central bell tower was now left with half a frame. The huge dial was soaking in the fountain at the front of the house, with a faint blue light moving on the back of the dial. The fountain had also been smashed into pieces. The pool of fresh water was flowing aimlessly and a couple of currents were clumsily binding the shell of the pool. A small water element, about one meter in height was directing the job there.

There was smoke coming out from every corner of the house. Bright sparks of energy popped out of the holes every now and then. The whole scene was miserable as if the place had been blown up. A few shiny, self-regulatory robots were flying around the house and it seemed like they were preparing to fix the place: the catastrophic accident probably happened not long ago.

Hao Ren stared at all this and could not understand how the place had transformed into Afghanistan circa 2001 after just a few days. Then, he suddenly thought of Raven 23333, who was taking over Raven 12345’s shift. She also happened to blow a hole in the roof while chatting. And then he thought, the goddess, who looked quite stable and reliable should not have had such a destructive force.

Hilda looked at the scene for quite some time and finally asked, “In your world, a few holes in the house must not be a normal phenomenon?”

Hao Ren jumped and shouted, “This is not a normal phenomenon anywhere! Where’s my god by the way?”

The first thing he did was look for Raven 12345 (or 23333) but, when they reached the door, a few self-operated robots stopped them. These maintenance workers told them it was dangerous to go ahead. Harmful radiation was still over the limit so, nobody was allowed to get closed. Just as Hao Ren was about to dial his phone, a familiar figure finally appeared in front of him: the tall, blue arcane servant came out of the little botanical garden beside them and quietly pointed to a path in the botanical garden.

Hao Ren walked down the path to the depths of the garden and finally saw Raven 12345 between the bushes in the glade. She dug a pit in the middle of the glade and there was a bonfire crackling inside the pit. A few sticks were placed beside the pit, with a small pot hanging on it. Raven 12345 was squatting over there, cooking noodles…

Hao Ren’s first reaction was wishing that he had the power to brain-wash and the first thing he wanted to do was stun Hilda so that she would forget what she saw. Domestic shame should not be made public! Goddess, what were you doing?

“How did you get like this?” Hao Ren looked at Raven 12345, stunned. He could see that she was 12345. Mainly because, as she squatted on the ground and cooked the noodles, the funny vibe she gave off was really hard to suppress, which almost spread in all directions uncontrollably. Anyway, Hao Ren did not think that 23333 would do this. Even though she blew a hole in the roof while laughing, she was steady most of the time.

Raven 12345 knew Hao Ren was there. She waved to them without looking up and said, “You, sit there first. My noodles will be ready soon. I’m not going to share with you by the way.”

Hao Ren looked at Hilda and said earnestly, “Just take this as an illusion.”

Hilda suddenly felt that there was a possibility she would not be able to go home. Nonetheless, she was dragged by Hao Ren to sit down by the round table at the other end of the glade. The situation was really out of tune: The house was gone but one could see the exquisite, ornamental round tables and round stools in the garden, surrounded by manicured, exotic flowers as well as rare herbs, not to mention the loyal and handsome arcane servant not far away. In such a poetic environment, Raven 12345 was actually squatting down on the ground and cooking noodles… Could it be that the problem in her brain was getting worse?

“You’ve been inside The Plane of Dreams for quite a while.” Raven 12345 came to the table with a bowl of hot noodle soup. And as she poured the seasoning in, she smiled and looked at Hao Ren. Then, she turned her face towards the bonfire on the ground and gave an order to the arcane servant, “Fill in the pit.”

“How did you get yourself into this?” Hao Ren felt that he could put his problems aside for the time being. He had to figure out what happened to the goddess. If Raven 12345’s condition was really deteriorating, even if he had to risk blasphemy, he would have to feed her pills.

Even though he did not know what medicine could cure Raven 12345’s brain, that was damaged on the battlefield…

“The house is scrapped,” Raven 12345 looked indifferent. “Something went wrong during landing.”

“Landing?”

“Oh, I applied for a shuttle,” Raven 12345 said and scratched her face. There was a little dust on her pretty face. Not sure if she got it from the bonfire or the crash. “I found it interesting and then, I tried to pilot it and realized that I didn’t read the instructions when I landed.”

“What about the instructions?”

“I threw it away.”

“Why did you throw it away?”

“Because I felt like I already understood it.”

“Didn’t you say you didn’t read it?”

Raven 12345 smiled awkwardly and said, “I Just read the first half and didn’t find it difficult so, I threw it away. Only when the shuttle landed did I remember that the deceleration operation was written in the later half—so, when I was posting online asking how to operate it, the shuttle had already crashed into the house.”

Hao Ren hurriedly let the MDT run a search in the City of Shadows Forum and found that his goddess’ post was again at the top of the first page. Just a line of words, “How to slow down the manual mode of an X-C-C1855 shuttle? I can already see the roof of my house. Waiting online…”

His female boss gathered 200 or 300 likes again and the replies were all the same, “Waiting for TS to upload the image of setting up tents at night.”

Raven 12345 slurped her noodles, leisurely let out a deep sigh and said, “Life is really beautiful and short like snow… Luckily, the shuttle isn’t broken.”

Hao Ren was silent for a long time before he finally pointed at the noodles and asked, “Alhough the house is ruined… You’re not that miserable, are you? What about your powers? How about the ability to construct a building with a mere snap of the fingers? Don’t tell me you can polish a planet by hand but you can’t fix your house.”

“The house, I’ll leave it to the workers,” said Raven 12345 as she ate her noodles happily. “I am now experiencing life. I have long felt that a picnic would be very interesting but, I’ve been so busy working that I never had the opportunity to try it.”

Hao Ren’s head dropped to the table and recoiled twice: smashing her house and then proceeding to have a picnic in the garden at her doorstep, the psycho goddess’ way of life was really a stunning trip. She was experiencing the arts using her life.

It seemed that Raven 12345’s head had not only been blown up in the battlefield, it had just been bombed again. At this point, any treatment would be useless.

However, someone else benefited from the crash: the hole in the roof caused by Raven 23333 had been destroyed, and it seemed that 12345 did not know of it as well. Unless Hao Ren or 23333 told Raven 12345, the neuropath would never know that her house was actually blown up two times…

“All right, let’s put this matter aside and tell me about yours,” Raven 12345 looked at Hao Ren, who was standing beside Hilda. “You brought a stranger. I can see that she has information and possesses characteristics of a different world—well, I can feel that there’s something quite troublesome. You, start reporting. Let me drink some soup first to mentally prepare myself.”

“Oh, her name is Hilda, time-travelled to The Plane of Dreams from another world…”

“Phoof…”

Hao Ren narrowly avoided the noodles’ soup and asked, “…Aren’t you mentally prepared?”

“I’m not.”