The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 736

Chapter 736: Reset

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

In the dimly lit alloy gallery, a lopsided battle had just ended.

The smell of gun smoke filled the air. Spent shells and bullet holes were everywhere, while a dozen soldiers dressed in regular army uniforms lay flat on the ground. Most had passed out, but a few were still moaning in pain.

Hao Ren grabbed a soldier who looked like the captain. “Hey, can you hear me? Who are you?”

The soldier opened his eyes slightly. Seeing Hao Ren’s face, he suddenly recalled the supernatural scene a while ago and almost passed out again. Hao Ren grabbed him by the collar and shook him. “Don’t pass out yet! Answer my question first!”

“We are the 2nd Marine Division…,” the soldier said, trembling as if Hao Ren would suddenly turn into an alien creature and swallow him alive.

“Second Marine Division?” Hao Ren froze. He had never heard of this before. “What are you doing here?”

The soldier replied, “We… we were ordered to clean up the radical astronauts here…”

“Clean up the radical astronauts?” Hao Ren became even more confused. “Isn’t… isn’t this place the control center of the Nanomachine Swarm? It has been abandoned for more than sixty years. Wait a second, what is this place?”

The soldier looked at Hao Ren with a puzzled look. He thought he was looking at an out-of-mind Superman. He was cautious. “It is the launch site of Kodiak Mountains.”

At the launch site of the Kodiak Mountains.

Hao Ren knocked the soldier out and got to his feet, bewildered. He looked around at the changed, even mutated place.

He found a corner, hid in, and then began to check his mental state. He was sure he was not mad nor having an illusion. He was no doubt in the real world, but the real world had undergone tremendous changes.

“Looks like the world has changed,” the MDT said, looking at the surroundings through Hao Ren’s eyes. “Not only is the surrounding environment changing, but even times have changed. There should be no more space technology in this world; it ceased more than sixty years ago.”

Hao Ren remembered the disappearance of Ulyanov and the anomalies before that. “I’m afraid not only that… people should have been changing too. Ulyanov had a memory disorder before his death and vanished after death. These soldiers came out from nowhere, and the strange 2nd Marine Division. Oh, wait! Your body, MDT!”

A thought flashed across his mind. He immediately yanked out the MDT from the dimensional pocket; a blond girl fell out of the space crack in mid-air and landed buttock first on the ground. She glared at Hao Ren. “What the heck you think you’re doing? Don’t you know I still can’t balance myself?”

“Why are you still in this body?” Hao Ren looked at the blonde in front of her eyes, dumbfounded. “Didn’t the body disappear?”

The MDT was puzzled. “What do you mean?”

“I suspect this world is resetting itself; people and things reemerge in new identities and positions.” Hao Ren stepped forward and pinched the blonde’s arms as if to check if there was any sign the body was disappearing. “Your body is acquired. By right, it should reset itself. But how come it didn’t?”

“It’s simple. Either you’ve got it wrong,” the MDT said, “Or my awesomeness has taken over the body completely that it can’t be reset.”

Hao Ren sized up the blonde who was standing wobbly. “You still look like a twenty-year cerebral thrombosis patient yet you still have the nerve to say that you have complete control over this body?”

“Oh, then it must be that you’ve got it wrong.”

Hao Ren sighed. “Whatever. We must find Nolan. Or we talk with these fellows to figure out the situation.”

“Oh, then you should go in that direction,” the MDT said, pointing at the fork in the gallery. “I just heard some movement there.”

Hao Ren was honestly doubtful about the current navigation ability of the MDT. But since he did not know which direction to go, no harm to trust the MDT’s sixth sense. He turned to look at the MDT. “Can you walk?”

“Don’t worry, I can keep up,” the blonde patted her chest. “Of course, I still prefer to lie on your shoulder…”

Hao Ren strode away. “Follow me!”

He was more than willing to carry the girl on his back. Though the girl was only a piece of brick in real life, she was an eye candy nonetheless. But he also knew this was not the time; there could be enemies everywhere. Carrying the dead on his back would be a bad idea.

Though the MDT still appeared like it was suffering from sequelae of cerebral thrombosis, “she” was no slowpoke. She managed to catch up with him, albeit clumsily.

As they were moving along the gallery, Hao Ren suddenly heard a loud footfall around the corner. He immediately motioned the MDT to hide in the shadow of a metal cabinet nearby while he cautiously leaned over to check out what it was.

A familiar figure appeared in front of him. The tall figure with a serious, big rectangular face with sharp features was none other than Carl, a mercenary of Gray Fox. But Hao Ren did not go up to him because he saw Carl was not in his usual black Gray Fox uniform but a desert camouflage special combat uniform.

He remembered that Carl was with Ulyanov, but Carl disappeared when Ulyanov died. Now Carl appeared again but in an entirely unfamiliar uniform. If he had guessed it right, Carl might have undergone some ‘changes.’

Hao Ren thought for a moment, raised his guard, and came out of the corner, greeting, “Hey, Carl.”

Carl was stunned. He immediately raised his rifle and pointed at Hao Ren with no hesitation at all. “Stop! Don’t move! Show me your hands and turn around. Who are you? Regular army or from the base?”

“I knew it,” Hao Ren muttered to himself and sighed, figuring it was impossible to get information from Carl now. But he took comfort in that this guy did not shoot at first sight. “Please calm down, I’m not your enemy. Let me ask you; are you Carl?”

Carl frowned and his facial expression changed momentarily but he quickly concealed it. “Shut up, raise your hand and turn around, or I’ll shoot!”

After a moment, as the MDT heard that everything was all right, it came out of the shadow and limped toward them. “Yeah, partner, you got it? Oh, friendly.”

“It’s Carl, but as I expected, humans and the world have been reset. He can’t remember me,” Hao Ren looked at the tall guy who was already on the floor, unconscious. “This guy is a mule; he refused to cooperate. I have no choice but let him sleep for a while. One thing is certain is that his name is Carl, and he has taken an identity change. Looks like he is now the guard of this base.”

“So what’s next?” the MDT was a bit puzzled. She had learned nothing but the expression.

“Look for Nolan.”

“You think Nolan is the key?”

“There are too many questions about her—if not the key, at least the clue,” Hao Ren nodded. “Since the world is resetting … I think I’ve figured out what Nolan’s ability was all about,” he said.

Glancing down at Carl, he continued. “But before we leave, put this big guy in a safer place. After all, we were partners.”

Then he found a place that looked like a utility room nearby. He remembered the marines had searched the room once. So he threw Carl into it and covered him under a stack of waste paper cartons.

Hao Ren and the MDT continued to explore the building.

Since Carl was still here, he suspected that Nolan must also have ‘reset’ here. At least in the absence of more clues, continuing his search was the only thing he could do.

The two of them kept searching in this unfamiliar facility. They had almost bumped into a score of soldiers or guards. An hour ago, this place was still the desolate Northern Ring Tower. But now it had become a little busy here, as it seemed at least three different forces were fighting in this area, including the regular soldiers and combatants from the base, and the unorganized militants wearing all kind of military outfits creating chaos in the lower floors of the building. There were gunshots and explosions from time to time that seemed to have been going on for some time. But only Hao Ren and the MDT knew that the entire episode had just begun dozens of minutes ago.

Suddenly, the silhouette of a long gray hair flashed in front of his eyes.

---

Chapter 737: The Immune

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Hao Ren saw a gray shadow flash by in his peripheral vision. He lunged forward and gave chase.

Nolan was quick like a cheetah galloping in the gallery, constantly vigilant as she observed her surroundings. It looked like she was also avoiding the wandering soldiers there. Hao Ren almost lost her after going around two corners. But there was no way a normal human could outrun a superhuman like him. When they turned into a straight passage, he saw that Nolan was not far ahead. He called out, “Nolan!”

Nolan was running with all her might. Hao Ren could care less to conceal himself and think slowly in this situation. He had Steel Membrane Shield; even if Nolan were as ruthless as Carl was the small-caliber rifle would not do him much harm.

Nolan stopped in her step when she heard the call, but it was not a hesitation. Her long gray hair swept crossed the air in an arc shape as she turned. She made use of the inertia and ducked, immediately revealing the rocket-propelled grenade on her back, which was aimed at Hao Ren.

Hao Ren was shocked.

What small-caliber rifle? The girl was running around with a freaking RPG on her back!

“Things always go not as I thought,” Hao Ren almost went banana as he waved his hand to signal the MDT not to come out. He looked at the gray-haired girl and said, “Nolan, don’t shoot. It’s me, Hao Ren! Oh, you too have…”

He noticed Nolan’s attire had also changed. She was no more in her Gray Fox’s mercenary uniform but a light gray military outfit, unlike the marines nor the guards of this facility. Maybe a third force. Anyway, the change of costume only meant one thing: Nolan had been reset too.

Did she remember what happened before this? Or was she like Carl completely becoming another person?

Hao Ren frowned and waited for Nolan’s reaction. If he had guessed it right, this girl should be able to retain all the memories of every change in this world; this was how she got her unusual skills and experience.

Nolan looked at Hao Ren, somewhat surprised. When the world once again changed, she had prepared to fight against everyone around her. But the reaction of the man in front of her seemed to indicate that he still remembered her. Her brows knit together, but she did not put down her weapon. “You remember who I am?”

“Nolan, nicknamed Gray Fox, the boss of the Gray Fox mercenary group,” Hao Ren smiled. “It’s you who brought me here.”

Nolan put her weapon down slightly. “Do you remember who you are?”

“Hao Ren, a guy wandering in the wasteland, a brick-throwing expert,” Hao Ren replied. He knew that Nolan had put her guard down. “We met in Broken Valley.”

Nolan frowned and asked, “And what?”

Hao Ren stunned. Seeing Nolan’s serious expression, he forced a smile. Grabbing his hair, he said, “Do you want me to say I’m a necrophile?”

There was an inappreciable smile flashed across Nolan’s face and immediately replaced by surprise and excitement. For the first time, Hao Ren saw the girl had many animations on her face. Nolan walked toward Hao Ren; she did not bother to hide her surprise. “You remembered the last reincarnation?”

“It’s reincarnation,” Hao Ren said, letting out a sigh. He sank into a deeper confusion after knowing the truth. “Looks like you know everything. What is the world all about?”

“First time?” Nolan asked, sizing up Hao Ren. “If you have experienced it as many times as I did, you shouldn’t have asked this question.”

Hao Ren knew he would not be able to explain it without creating more complications. So he merely waved his hand and said, “It’s complicated. I am also confused; I can’t answer your question, why not you tell me about it? Well, if I guess it right, we are now the only ‘partners’ in this world.”

Nolan nodded. Just when she was about to say something, the voice of the MDT came from behind. “Buddy! Since you two have sorted it out, why didn’t you call me out?”

Hao Ren turned around his head. The blonde, who was only a block of brick, was staggering towards him. Nolan froze. “She… Is she live? And she remembers everything?”

Hao Ren realized that the MDT was the hardest part of the explanation.

He scratched his head and gave an ambiguous reply. “Sort of. Anyway, she’s alive now, and she knows about you. But don’t ask how she knows, I’m just as clueless as you.”

“What happened to her legs?” Nolan noticed the limping pace of the MDT. “Is she injured?”

Hao Ren’s face was emotionless. “An aftereffect of cerebral thrombosis.”

Nolan looked at Hao Ren, feeling weird. “You two are misfortunate… She was dead, and you went mad in the last life. Now she has a cerebral thrombosis in this life…”

Hao Ren almost went banana. “Yeah, whatever! I carried a dead girl on my back and was a necrophile all my previous life. Now I still have to take care of a cerebral thrombus babbler in this life. And my PDA has transcended. People think I’m a lunatic no matter where I go. Can we not talk about this anymore? Are you done yet?”

Hao Ren’s sudden outburst stunned Nolan. She began to figure that Hao Ren had not recovered from his insanity. Perhaps he had inherited the same madness together with his last living memory after the ‘reincarnation.’

After serving more than a year, Hao Ren had finally reached the same level as a god where most clergymen could only dream, sharing the glory with his own god as stubborn neurotics.

Fortunately, Nolan could not read his mind.

“Let’s find a safe place first,” Nolan put the thought aside and motioned Hao Ren to follow her. “Here, we couldn’t how is our friend, how is our enemy. Our priority is to stay alive. Otherwise, we would have to wait for the next ‘reincarnation.’”

“You run around with this thing all this while?” Hao Ren looked grotesquely at Nolan’s bazooka. Though the technology in this world was more advanced than the earth and the bazooka was lighter and compact, this weapon did not seem very portable no matter what. “Don’t you feel cumbersome?”

“I can’t help it. It is the thing I got when I opened my eyes,” Nolan said. “I have been looking around for opportunity and see if I could grab a weapon from a stray soldier, but it has not been very smooth. But, I have great strength, carrying this weapon doesn’t affect my mobility and it is better than nothing.”

Hao Ren looked down at his hand. He was carrying a light assault rifle before this, but it was gone after Ulyanov disappeared. He thought for a moment and then reached into his dimensional pocket for the short silver wand and gave it to Nolan. “Take this.”

Nolan stared blankly at the ‘magic’ Hao Ren had performed. “How could this…”

Hao Ren had his considerations. After discovering the strange changes of this world, he felt that he need not hide his supernatural power anymore. People would be reset. The only one who could escape the rebooting was Nolan. But it seemed she had no fewer secrets than he did. Most importantly, they needed a safe place now. What was more was that if he could create awe and fear in Nolan, things might be more natural later on.

Of course, there was an important reason: He must make sure Nolan survived; after all, she was the only one witnessing everything that had happened.

“You don’t have to know how it got it. Everyone has secrets. You need to know that I’m on your side,” Hao Ren said. He then taught Nolan how to use the Aerymian weapon that he brought from Aerym’s arsenal. He was used to plasma spear and psionic gun combo, so he had never used the wand. “This thing is called Sentinel Wand. Hold this section, where you can off the safety. This end is the barrel; the red button is the trigger, black button is energy shield, point the side with pattern forward, just like that…”

Nolan tried to memorize the strange usage of the wand. She held the wand level in front of her, pressed the black button; an elegantly arcing, patterned, oval-shaped green shield was activated and shielding half of her body.

Nolan’s jaw dropped to the ground.

“You can’t turn the shield and the fire mechanisms on at the same time. Technological limitation,” Hao Ren said. “But at least it’s better than running around with a bazooka.”

Nolan’s jaw was still on the ground.

---

Chapter 738: A World of Madness

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

The facility, which was once known as the Northern Ring Tower, had now turned into a launch site deep inside the mountains. There were sporadic battles everywhere. The situation was chaotic. Probably there were hundreds of soldiers fighting for the control of this place. Though the chaos was nothing but a farce that began only an hour ago, they seemed to behave as if they had been fighting for a decade. Hao Ren and Nolan were trying their best to avoid the soldiers and find a safe way out from this complex and massive building to the outside world. They had several inevitable encounters, but the opponents were mediocre and not running around with bazookas as Nolan did. So it was pretty easy to deal with.

As time goes by, the sound of crossfire in the surroundings seemed to die down somewhat. “Looks like the regular army is almost completely taking over this place,” Hao Ren said.

“Don’t stick around here, there may be explosives underground,” Nolan said without slowing down her pace. She raised the short wand slightly. “Thank you for your weapon. It’s pretty handy.”

The wand’s shield had saved Nolan several times though she had not fully mastered the usage of this Aerymian weapon. Even with the best fighting ability, she was merely mortal; running around in the facilities lurking with enemy soldiers was not a walk in the park.

Hao Ren nodded at her. He suddenly saw a light in front. “Exit!” he shouted.

Nolan immediately eased her pace. “Be careful of ambush.”

They both stopped. But the MDT kept running ahead mindlessly. “Let me check it out!” the MDT said, running so quick that even Hao Ren did not manage to grab it.

Nolan watched from behind; her jaw fell to the ground. “This is the most agile cerebral thrombosis patient I have ever seen…”

Hao Ren lunged forward and finally got hold of the MDT. “You want to die?”

The MDT shook its head. “It’s okay. I’m already dead anyway. Touch here if you don’t believe me, I’ve no heartbeat. It wouldn’t make a difference even if I get blown another hole in me.”

Nolan had already seen enough of the mind-challenging interaction between Hao Ren and the cerebral thrombosis partner. She could not care less. She checked the situation ahead and then beckoned the two and said, “Let’s get out of here. It’s safe ahead.”

The trio finally got out of this somewhat overly complicated colossal facility. They emerged from a secret hole on the hillside, but what lay ahead had Hao Ren rooted to the spot.

There were layers of mountains spread out into the distance into the horizon. The sky was clear and blue, almost dazzlingly bright. Everything was in stark contrast with what he thought—the sun-blocking, hazy, dusty atmosphere of the planet Zorm. He could not believe what he saw and felt that he had come to an alien world.

If there was any regrettable about these landscapes, it had to be the sparing vegetation in the mountains. There were only sparse shrubs and short trees on the deserted rocky hillside. But even so, this scenery was much more pleasing than the depressing wasteland in the aftermath of war.

The MDT glanced back. They had emerged from a cave on the hillside. The facility behind them was a hidden fortress inside the body of the mountains. Even the passage opening looked like a dark cave.

The MDT shook its head. “This is a cumbersome body. If you want to look back, you need to twist your neck and turn your head. Sometimes this isn’t even enough; you even have to turn your body around to see. I can’t believe how you humans can put this lousy bearing between your head and shoulders, and think this is okay.”

Hao Ren rolled his eyes. “Mind your words; even Raven’s in human form.”

“Oh, do you think she needs to see the world with her eyes? Heck.”

Nolan looked at the seemingly odd pair, puzzled. She then walked to the side of the hill and said, “We got to go to a safe place. Come with me. There should be a vehicle or something.”

Hao Ren followed Nolan from behind, feeling curious. “How do you know that? Hasn’t the world changed?”

Before his voice trailed off, a weirdly modified vehicle had appeared in front of him behind a boulder. The car had four huge wheels connected by multiple crankshafts and a body that mounted on a sophisticated suspension system. It seemed the vehicle a purpose-built off-roader specifically for the harsh and complex terrain here. It was not so much a car but more like a spider robot on wheels. It looks like Nolan was right; there was a vehicle, and it came very handily.

Nolan beckoned Hao Ren and the MDT to come on-board while she climbed into the driver seat and began to fiddle with the complicated buttons, switches, and the steering mechanism that looked very different from those of the earth’s vehicles. She seemed to have figured out how to operate the vehicle after a while. She fired up the engine; the spider-robot car lifted and drove down the gentler slope.

Only now that Nolan started to answer Hao Ren’s question. “Of course, I remember it—I don’t know where I got this memory. But the weird thing is I have a blurry short-term memory. It always takes me a few days to piece things together. I didn’t even know who I was before this. Is your situation any different?”

Nolan glanced at Hao Ren curiously. “Do you know what your ‘identity’ is this time? Or do you remember any information, however slightly?”

Hao Ren had none of that. “I didn’t feel anything.”

“Maybe our situations are different,” said Nolan casually. “Besides me, you’re the first person I’ve ever seen retaining memory. So I’m not sure if every one of them is the same.”

Hao Ren had guessed Nolan’s situation from her words. She did retain the memory of the last ‘reincarnation,’ but at the same time, the current reincarnation also influenced her. There was something in her head, which seemed to come from nowhere. Those memories could be false life experiences that the world had given her.

Nolan’s history in that world had just started an hour ago.

Things were simple: If the world had only existed an hour ago, how do you convince people that they are living in a regular world? The answer is to fabricate the details and history to convince them of their origin. Let them believe in their growing-up, life experiences, personal relationships, and that they have known a bad friend since ten years ago, that they have loved someone for twenty years, that they have been living in a place for thirty years, and that their life and the whole world in front of them are real. But in reality, it was all in their head, injected into their brains an hour and fourteen minutes ago.

Maybe everyone in this world was the same, except for Nolan.

At dusk, Hao Ren and Nolan were convinced that they had shaken off all pursuers. Or maybe no one was pursuing them at all. They found a cave, enough to hide the weird offroader and all three of them. They made sure they had erased their tracks before finally settled down.

“I don’t like caves,” Nolan frowned. “I once died from inhaling smoke in a cave.”

The MDT in the corpse yelled. “I don’t like cave too; you always use me as torchlight…”

“Go to the corner and get lost. I’m freaking tired now, and I’m not going to carry you on my back!”

“Okay”

Nolan looked at the blonde limping to the corner of the cave. “Is she having a cerebral thrombus?”

“You can say that. I don’t mind.”

“I thought you guys have a very close relationship?” Nolan looked into the eyes of Hao Ren. “When you carried her around on your back, it touched Carl and me. Don’t tell me it was just a lie.”

Hao Ren smiled wryly. “Well, in a sense… Forget it. Shall we talk about this world?”

“This world?” Nolan’s eyes dimmed. She closed her eyes; she was tired. “I only know that this is a world of madness. As you can see, it has been resetting, changing, and evolving like there is a bad director behind the scenes. I can’t remember how many absurd and strange ‘stage plays’ I have endured.”

---

Chapter 739: Reality and Illusion

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Sunlight in the sky slowly receded. The last golden rays of the sun before it completely set behind the mountains shone into the cave where Hao Ren and Nolan were hiding. The light plated everything in the cave with a pale golden shade. Nolan leaned on a giant tire of the offroader. She was half-bathing in the dusk light and half-hidden in the darkness as she exhaled and said, “Where should I begin? I can’t even remember when the first time I realized the world had gone wrong, probably a few thousand years ago? Or maybe even earlier. The earliest picture in my mind was a family vacation in the southern hemisphere, and then somehow I woke up to become a warehouse custodian. But tracing back these age-old memories does not make sense anymore. It was only a continuous, repetitive, and confusing experience. Sometimes I would die in an accident. After my resurrection, I would discover that the world had completely changed. Sometimes there would be situations like today; I didn’t die, just the world had suddenly changed, and in the blink of an eye, I got a new identity and teammates. I don’t even know if the passing of time is true or not. Maybe it all happened just a few hours ago, the world has just begun was a few hours ago… but it’s meaningless.”

Hao Ren listened quietly. He had too many questions but could not sort out them out logically. So he merely asked what was in his mind. “Any pattern in the way the world reset itself?”

“None,” Nolan shook her head. “Sometimes the resetting happened once in several decades. Sometimes a few years. The shortest resetting cycle I remember is two years, and the longest one two centuries during which I had died twice. When I woke up, the world stage as I knew it was still there, just my identity had changed. At that time, I was amazed and thought naively that the reincarnation had finally stabilized only to encounter another reset in the afternoon after my second resurrection.”

Hao Ren nodded. It seemed that Nolan’s death was not the trigger of the reset. If the reset intervals were too long, Nolan’s reincarnation during that long period would become a change of identity, just as a gamer logged off with one username and then logged in with another. So, as unique as the girl was, she should not be the root cause of this anarchic world.

“After each reset, all people and things in the world will get new identities and ‘settings.’ Human relationships, international relations, world affairs, cultures, religions, and even technologies would change,” said Nolan. Seeing Hao Ren fell into deep thought, she supposed the first ‘reincarnation of awakening’ that he experienced had confused him. “I studied the map; the topography of the world had also changed. Sometimes there were several continents on the planet, sometimes one big mass of land. There were also changes in plants and animals, but the extent of change was limited to ratios of species and population distribution. Anyway, I guess you wouldn’t understand; after all this was the first time you retained your memory after a reset. You might not have accumulated enough knowledge.”

Nolan had gone through thousands of years of reincarnation. The amount of knowledge she had accumulated was staggering. She was almost an expert and a scholar in multiple fields. She could talk about ecology all day long without looking at the book. Before this, in Gray Fox, she was quiet because she did not have anyone to confide in. But now she started to treat Hao Ren as a friend.

Hao Ren shook his head and said, “It’s all right. I know a thing or two about ecology. If what you say is true, then this world is a bit like a sandbox. Let’s assume that there is a director or program controlling everything; it uses materials from a library to generate a ‘world’?”

“Did you infer from the hypothesis of animal and plant I just mentioned?” Nolan looked at Hao Ren somewhat unexpectedly. “It seems you have quite extensive knowledge. You are right. I thought so too. The world is really like a program that constantly generates its maps automatically. But even if it’s true, we can’t help it; it’s beyond our control.”

Hao Ren did not hear Nolan’s last sentence; he had zoned out. Convinced that he was in the Plane of Dreams, which meant that the real world was outside the planet Zorm. He thought of Khiton’s journal and Ulyanov’s epiphany. If this place was a virtual world, then where was its interface with the real world? Since Khiton and Ulyanov could find out that the world was an illusion, this virtual world was not so perfect after all; it certainly had some contradictions!

“Population!” Hao Ren suddenly looked up at Nolan. “Did the population change after each reset?”

Nolan was confused. “Population? Does it matter?”

“Khiton once said that this world was fake. Ulyanov also said something similar when he was dying,” said Hao Ren. “If the world is fake, then you think the people in the world are real.”

Nolan’s eyes widened slightly. “You suspect that other humans in this world are merely NPCs—none-player characters?”

“No, I think they are all real,” Hao Ren waved his hand. “This is the exact reason I have to ask. According to your situation, you would resurrect after each death, which means is no ‘cache’ function in the ‘mechanism’ of this world; each real human would reappear with a new identity in another world after each death. So if everyone in the world were real, then every time the world resets, its population would not change. Even over time, there would not be a significant shift in the population. But if the people in this world are different after every resetting, it means that at least some humans are NPCs. Then the number of real humans should be based on the minimum population count of each resetting cycle.”

Nolan looked at Hao Ren in surprise. “Are you sure this was your first ‘resetting’?”

“What ask so?”

“Your questions are profound. You have been pondering them very carefully for a long time,” Nolan stared at Hao Ren suspiciously. “I didn’t have such deep thinking during my first few reincarnations; all I cared was to live for a little longer. But you sound as if you don’t care.”

But Nolan kept her last thought to herself that Hao Ren seemed to analyze things like an unconcerned outsider.

Cold sweat trickled down Hao Ren’s forehead, marveling at the girl’s terrible gut feeling and observation. He smiled wryly and then swayed her attention. “*Cough cough*, it doesn’t matter. You can treat me as a genius. Otherwise, a neurotic…”

“I have never thought about it from the angle of the population. Your thinking is very novel and sensible. I have not studied the population, but I have read several census reports. I think the population of the world hasn’t changed much after each reset cycle, or it has stayed the same perhaps. After all, the world is a large place. With so many humans in this world, no one can do a 100 % population census. But with just a little tweak in the ‘program’ behind this world, no one would realize the fact that the world’s population has been staying constant.”

She giggled and twisted the corner of her mouth upward with a hint of sarcasm. “And every time the world has only stayed to a few years, at most decades; there is simply not enough time for people to find out any anomalies.”

Hao Ren’s brows knit together. “So humans in this world should all be real… just that they were in a constantly refreshing sandbox?”

His worldview almost crumbled down. He began to realize that his exploration and time spent in this world was foolish. A bizarre bubble was shrouding the truth of this world. The so-called Nanomachine Swarm, Northern Ring Tower, and the world war were just a stage play. He laughed at himself. “For what purpose after all the enthusiasm to finding out whether the lost-of-control Nanomachine Swarm of 65 years ago was the key to the problem when the problem itself isn’t a problem at all in the first place, let alone the key. In reality, nothing has ever happened.”

“No,” Nolan suddenly interrupted him. “I’m afraid there’s something more than meets the eye.”

“Huh?”

“During the recent resets, the world has seen a similar trend,” said Nolan, looking serious. “Whatever the setting at the beginning, the world would eventually evolve into a global war, weapon out of control, and the end of the day. The last time the Nanomachine Swarm went out of control, before that it was a global nuclear disaster, and before that, the tempering of weaponized satellites by the AI… The scripts might be slightly different, but the final processes were almost identity—the whole marched towards its death.”

---

Chapter 740: The World Is an Absurd Stage Play

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

According to Nolan’s description, the recent rounds of reincarnation, the world would invariably come to an end.

“Isn’t it like that before?” Hao Ren asked, sensing there was something in Nolan’s words.

“Before that? In the beginning?” Nolan thought for a moment. “It was not like that at the beginning. The earliest ‘scripts’ I remember was peaceful. Although the resetting of the world was strange, the world was very safe. There was no war; people were rich. Now when I think of it, except that it was a bit boring, life back then was comfortable—so comfortable that it was boring. Sometimes I lived with my family in a big house in the mountains. Sometimes I was a peaceful and contended citizen. I remember I even was the daughter of a president and princess of a small country on the sea… there were eras without war.”

Hao Ren listened in surprise. He had thought that the world would see doomsday of gunfire every time it reset itself. But he least expected the most hidden memory in Nolan’s mind was a pastoral era. He paused and then asked, “When was the first time war broke out?”

“I can’t remember it,” Nolan whispered. “You know, it’s tough to remember the exact time after each reincarnation. I can only estimate that it was in the middle part of my timeline memory… Probably three or four thousand years ago or more, the world became more dangerous after each reincarnation. Initially, there were sporadic wars in the ‘scripts,’ followed by natural and human-made disasters when resetting was imminent, and then large-scale war and mass extinction. In the recent dozens of rounds of resetting, the world had shown signs of ending, which began with an iconic catastrophe.”

“The loss of control of the Nanomachine Swarm,” Hao Ren whispered, “might be an illusion itself. But it has symbolic significance. Maybe it represents the direction of the world or some sort of ‘mainline’?”

“The world is an absurd stage play,” said Nolan with a blank expression. “Probably the director of this stage drama happens to like disaster movies.”

Nolan liked to describe the world as a stage, and used ‘scripts,”director,’ and ‘drama’ to tell her stories. Hao Ren agreed strongly with her. But he had other thoughts. “Have you tried to contact the people from the ‘real world’ or the ‘conscious world’?”

“You mean ‘people’ who control the stage from the outside?” Nolan looked at Hao Ren, suddenly smiled. “I did many years ago. But it was useless, no one had responded. Even if I made a hell of a noise and chaos, drop a nuke in the city and shift the entire continental shelf, no one responded. They just silently pressed the restart button and replaced the broken stage with a new one. ‘Wake up’ is unrealistic. We are all trapped here. We are just part of the script. The person holding the text does not care about the complaints of our small-fry characters.”

“Sound like you’ve given up,” Hao Ren sighed. “If possible, contacting the lucid world is the only way.”

He felt that things had fallen between a rock and a hard place. In the reality of the Plane of Dreams, he could not locate the position of Zorm; on this “fake stage”, he could not contact the real world. And if he were to wake up forcibly, he could only get up from his hibernation pod. A certain sleeping rule was preventing him from contacting the mastermind of this world. Although it seemed there was just a thin veil; it was elusive.

It was like on pins and needles.

Hearing that Hao Ren was interested in the lucid world, she warned. “Don’t try to do a stupid thing or even think about this. Khiton went insane because of this. I’ve tried it once, suffered brain damage, and spent four years in the hospital. The world must have some mechanism to stop us from leaving. We can’t fight it.”

“Brain damage?” Hao Ren’s heart missed a beat. “This world will respond to anyone for having the escape thought?”

Hao Ren’s eagerness shocked Nolan. “What do you want to do?”

Hao Ren was excited. “If we can trigger the ‘response,’ does it not mean that we can approach the mastermind?”

“My advice to you is to forget about this idea immediately,” Nolan’s brows pulled together. “Let’s not talked about where you’re going to start first, are you convinced that the one behind all this will be interested in a little ‘characters’ like us? I have the gut feeling that even the consciousness that keeps our memory intact is intentional, the ‘director’ left it in us to give the entire play more kicks.”

Hao Ren exhaled as he leaned against the offroader with his hands on the back of his head. “If this is true, then that is one bad ‘director.’”

Nolan’s warning was of little effect to him. Regardless of who or what was behind the world, ‘it’ was not likely to affect a spiritual body. Hao Ren was now glad that he had come in a dream. There was a set of advanced Xi Ling hibernation pods as a security lock. He was not afraid of the world’s counterattack. But before he went on the ‘offensive,’ he must first find the key to dialogue with the mastermind behind this world.

“Nanomachine Swarm…” Hao Ren murmured. He recalled the mysterious voice he had heard while entering the ruins of the north. His gut feeling told him that that was what he should be after. “The world would invariably come to an end in the recent reincarnations. Nolan, do you think this is simply because the scriptwriter has a bad hobby?”

Nolan looked at him curiously. “You mean…”

“Even if you like disaster movies, you would vomit after watching them over and over again,” Hao Ren said slowly. “I’m more inclined to think that the mastermind did not have full control over the situation. Or maybe there is something wrong with his program that causes the world to collapse after a certain time. You have said that the world’s many rounds of reincarnation were peaceful. It seems to me like a paradise. I think anyone who could create this paradise would not change their temperament suddenly to want to end the world.”

Nolan remained silent. She looked quietly at Hao Ren for a moment, feeling that this man was naive, but she was not going to say anything. She believed that as long as Hao Ren experienced more of the same reincarnation as she did, he would begin to think like her.

Nolan was once naive—more than once. Today, though she looked young, life’s vicissitudes had hardened her. After the excitement of finding her ‘companion’ gradually faded away, she shifted her focus away from discussing the nature of this imaginary world to thinking about what they should do next.

“This round of reincarnation is worse than before. It seems that we were already on the battlefield from the very beginning.” Nolan said as she massaged her temples with her finger and whispered. “If my memory is right, this time the ‘script’ will go like this: The planet’s aerospace technology is in an abnormal state. A huge ‘celestial empire’ controls all the cutting-edge technologies and prohibits the ‘mortal countries’ from launching high-orbiting vehicles into space. The empire would label those who conducted space research on their extremists and killed them like they were terrorists. Now, there is a serious power struggle inside the ‘celestial empire.’ The progressive nobles also leaked some scientific and technological materials while other countries in the world are uniting to plot against the overlord. Perhaps a world war will break out, and the scale will be no less devastating than the sixty-year war in the previous reincarnation.”

“What is your identity this time?” Hao Ren casually asked.

“A freelance fighter in a modified vehicle,” Nolan patted the big tires she was leaning against on her back. “In simple terms, it’s called robber. I came here for the high commission for guarding the secret base. But I just dropped my employer and ran away, there would be some trouble soon, but no worry, I’m used to it… Every time after the world reset, I would be in a muddle for some time. Retaining the reincarnation memory comes at a price. It’s not always easy to integrate into the new roles.”

Nolan pasted a smile and shook her head. Then a thought suddenly came to mind. She said, “Oh yes, I need to remind you, if you bump into other guys from Gray Fox, though sorry, they are not necessarily on our side this time. If they’re hostile, give them a quick death, if possible.”

The girl-corpse-MDT, which was sitting in a 4-figure posture not far away suddenly chimed in, “Is that necessary?”

“Just to keep us alive,” said Nolan. “Anyway, sooner or later, the world will reset again. What is the use of getting so emotional? Being naive is the last thing you want here.”

---

Chapter 741: The First Night of the New World

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

As an “outsider” who had been in this world for just a short while, Hao Ren did not feel the same as Nolan thought. He could hardly imagine what effect thousands of years of reincarnation would have on people. But what he was sure was that the world in Nolan’s eyes had long faded; everything was elusive and meaningless. When the world had become a readily changeable scene of a stage play, nothing in this world could trigger her feelings. She accumulated experience and knowledge as well as a thick shell deep inside her with each reincarnation. She was right; if the world could reset at any time, the feeling of attachment to this world was worthless.

Everything you value, hate, and trust are just temporary. It’s all arranged. It is possible that when you wake up, they would be all gone. They might be your friends now, but friends could quickly become foes. After such a long time, Nolan had learned to survive efficiently and readily give up everything, including the Gray Fox mercenary group that he had formed.

But today, Hao Ren and the girl-corpse-MDT became an exception. For the first time in thousands of years, she found people who could retain their memories like her. It was significant to Nolan. She felt that she finally had partners, real partners.

So she told Hao Ren everything and even ignored the eccentric nature of Hao Ren and the MDT. Now the most important to her was to help the two compatriots to understand the situation quickly, which meant that she would live better.

The sun had already wholly set, and the two small moons had risen from below the horizon, one after the other — the dim moonlight cast silvery glow outside the cave. Nolan came to the cave entrance. Again, she carefully checked the surroundings. “Looks like the battle over the base is over. There is no explosion. The imperial marines must have already kept things under control.”

“Is this place safe?” Hao Ren walked up from behind, then looking over his shoulder at the cave. The girl-corpse-MDT was curiously studying the LED light stick hanging in the car. Some light leaked outside the cave. “Are those soldiers not pass by here when they retreat?”

“It is safe here. I have checked it… in my memory,” Nolan nodded. “As long as you don’t light a bonfire. The remote sensing infrared detector of the Imperial Marines is still very sensitive.”

Hao Ren hummed and looked up at the sparsely starry sky above. The strange stars twinkled in front of his eyes, but he was thinking of his next exploration. “These stars are beautiful,” he murmured.

“Yeah, indeed,” said Nolan as she raised her head. Her eyes widened, as she suddenly seemed to discover the stars above her. “I miss it. I have not seen the stars for more than ten years. It looks like the script is not that bad this time after all. At least the sky is clear.”

“I can’t imagine that permanent dust and haze were still shrouding this world and tar smell was still in the air six hours ago,” Hao Ren said with a sigh. Suddenly a thought came to his mind. “Did the sky change in previous reincarnations?”

Nolan shook her head. “Not much. Probably because it was so far from humans that they had not been able to touch it, the ‘director’ behind this world seemed not bothered to create a more elaborate starry sky. I have never seen humans are capable of interstellar colonization after those reincarnations.”

Hao Ren slowly fell into deep thought. Nolan pulled his the corner of his cloth and said, “Let’s go back inside and have something to eat. Rest early. There’s a long way to go tomorrow.”

The two of them returned to the cave. The girl-corpse-MDT waved at Hao Ren. “Hey, partner, back from hook-up?”

Nolan eyeballed Hao Ren. “What is the relationship between the two of you?” she asked.

She was entirely at a loss to the relationship between Hao Ren and the blonde. She could not help it. Even sociologists would be left dumbfounded when seeing a supposedly tragic love story turning out to be a comedy.

The girl-corpse-MDT could have cared less. “We’re brothers in arms!” she said.

Hao Ren thought for a moment, surprised at how apt the MDT said—brothers in arms, yeah.

Nolan fumbled through a pile of resupplies in the car; in her memory, she got the supplies in the small town under the foothill twenty-four hours ago. She tossed two bags of compressed dry food and two bottles of water to Hao Ren and the MDT. “Just eat it, but don’t overeat; it will screw up your mental alertness.”

Hao Ren took the food. Before he could tear open the package, the girl-corpse-MDT quietly pulled his sleeve and asked, “Hey, can I eat?”

The usual head-scratching question struck him again. He looked at the blonde with the corner of his eye as if saying, “You must be out of your mind,” and said, “Maybe you would like to try the drink first.”

The girl-corpse-MDT awkwardly unscrewed the cap of the water bottle and took a mouthful. It whispered, “I feel like it just flushed down the throat into the stomach, and then it just oozed away in all directions.”

“You had better don’t eat. Your esophagus is broken,” Hao Ren said as he wondered if the taste of this topic was too extreme. “And you have never visited the loo and felt weak after going so long without food or drink. I think eating is unnecessary.”

Hao Ren knew that he might be a little unscientific, but since the world was highly likely to be fake, he could care less. Or probably there was a bug during the MDT’s crossover to this world, causing its body to function in defiance of nature. How did it work? Well, since the world was false, who cares?

Nolan looked on as Hao Ren and the blonde whispering into each other’s eye. She could not help but ask, “Oh yeah, I haven’t had time to ask, what’s your name?”

She was talking to the girl-corpse-MDT. Hao Ren and the MDT froze. The MDT looked at Hao Ren and said quietly, “Oh shit! Quickly think of a name!”

Even the MDT knew that the Mobile Data Terminal was not a person’s name.

Hao Ren was beating his brains out to make up a name. Considering his naming ability, which was barely a hare-brained idea at best even in the best-case scenario, he was nervous as hell. Before he could say a word, the MDT quickly interrupted him in his mind. “Stop being nervous! I know I couldn’t count on you in such a situation. Let me think!”

Nolan looked on, puzzled by the eye-exchanges between Hao Ren and the MDT. At this time, the girl-corpse-MDT said, “Oh yeah, my… my name is Pattie-Ann, you can call me Pattie.”

Nolan nodded but did not ask more. Hao Ren whispered to the MDT in his mind. “Where did you get the name suddenly?”

“PDA.”

“That’s freaking crude and simple, and easy to remember.”

The night was darkening. They had to rest. Nolan climbed into the car, took out a sleeping bag and insulated tarpaulin, and laid it out. “We need a night watch. You guys sleep first. I’ll be on the first shift.”

Hao Ren looked at the starlight shone into the cave. He waved to Nolan. “You sleep first. Pattie and I take a walk outside.”

“This time?” Nolan paused. “It’s not wise to waste your energy, especially in this unfamiliar place after nightfall.”

“Don’t worry, I am also a professional,” said Hao Ren, who was already at the cave entrance. The girl-corpse-MDT was limping beside him. “I’ll go to check out the surroundings. I will be okay. Have you forgot about the wand?”

Hao Ren pointed his mouth at the sentry wand hanging on Nolan’s waist. “I have something more powerful than this. But let’s leave it to the other day.”

Nolan glanced down at the mysterious weapon on her waist and reminded of the secrets that Hao Ren possessed. She did not ask more but just nodded. “Be careful.”

After coming to an open space outside the cave, the MDT asked, “What do you want to do? Do you think I’m your brother in arms?”

“I need to fix you after we get home. You must have burned your chips during the abnormal crossing,” Hao Ren said while looking up at the sky. “I need to take a look from above to see how large the simulation is.”