The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 742

Chapter 742: Simulation

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

It did not matter if this strange place was real or not, and it did not matter if it was a distorted space or a supernatural phenomenon. One thing was sure, it would inadvertently collapse in time. A second unbounded dimension would not appear in a proper, completed universe. This was one of the many rules in “the Creators’ Creed”. This rule ensured the stability and order of the universe. Hao Ren learned this from Raven 12345 by accident.

Therefore, he was very sure if he headed for the stars… he would reach the border of this world.

He had no idea how that place looked like, or whether it was even safe at all.

“That’s not bad a thought,” the MDT praised Hao Ren as it heard Hao Ren’s plan. “So, how do you plan on getting there? With the Petrachelys?”

“I did bring it along.” Hao Ren looked at the distant stars, and under the illumination of the two moons, only a few stars were actually visible. “But, I’m sure if it’s safe to shoot for the stars so suddenly… Ugh… no point dwelling on this. We’ve got to at least have a look.”

The MDT kept silent as it looked on Hao Ren pulling the silver inspector cruiser out from his Dimensional Pocket. The Petrachelys floated silently in the night sky and via remote control, she turned off all her lights and obscured its heat and radiation signatures. This will allow it to hide from the detectors from afar. Hao Ren looked at the behemoth as he murmured. “Should we give it a cloaking module? I think it’ll be very useful.”

“Up to you. There’s a boatload of module sockets onboard. You can upgrade it by just sending in an application. But remember that every module draws power from the ship’s core and many a newbie went crazy with the upgrades and ended up needing to apply for help to tow their ship home after a mission…”

Hao Ren pondered for a bit and felt that he should think about the upgrades to his ship when he had time, now was however not it. He led the MDT onboard and they reached the bridge the mainframe came alive. Hao Ren sat on his captain’s chair by habit as he took his hands off the keyboard. “MDT, activate the silent ascending protocol.”

The ship did not budge and Hao Ren turned back to see the blonde corpse of the MDT sitting dumbfoundedly on the control dais: Her butt was sitting on the usual command dock…

“I can’t fit in!” the blonde girl shook her leg, motioning that she had tried hard. “Do it yourself!”

Hao Ren shrugged as he manipulated the controls. Thankfully he was no longer the basket case that did not even knew what an automated door was. After checking the control manuals he was still able to perform the standard control protocols, but as he was checking the drive core he suddenly let out an “Eh”. “Is it supposed to be like that?”

“What’s wrong?” The MDT leaped off the control dais to have a look. “Even with a diagram, you’re still lost?”

“Not the diagram.” Hao Ren pointed towards the status of the drive core on the holographic display. “There’s no psionic reading anymore and many of the units and calculations on the display is abnormal… and I can’t see anything on the cameras in the lab and the engine hold.”

“Let me see.” The corpse princess said as she used her unfamiliar hands to manage the control interface. When she was still able to dock directly to the control dais every manner of control was done almost instantaneously, but how she could only poke about the consoles clumsily and that left her rather unhappy. Bereft of any options, she could only prod on at the speed of a one-finger typist. Not long after, she could finally see the problematic data that Hao Ren mentioned and realized that the ship was indeed having problems.

“Seems like anything to do with the Psionic module has all gone offline. The device parameters are incomplete and all it has managed to display is either something’s working normally or not.” The MDT said as she pressed one of the blue buttons on the control dais. “Mainframe computer, enabling direct voice connection, status report.”

The holographic display on the control dais immediately displayed a report stating that “Status normal.” but there was no voice response.

Hao Ren frowned as he seemed to have thought of something. “Let’s head to the lab and the engine sector!”

He pulled the corpse princess off the bridge and soon they came before the gate before the laboratory. This was the Petrachelys’ most secured, most technologically advance section, and more than half of the ships’ high-end equipment were located here. Furthermore, the lifeblood, the corpse of the First Born and the brain monster were amongst the more special specimens kept there. When Hao Ren was running a check of the ship’s status, this place, and the engine section was nothing but pitch black.

Hao Ren took a deep breath as he opened the laboratory door.

And he almost fell into a dimensional flux for his troubles.

A twisted room with formed by metallic and crystalline substance appeared before him and the MDT. Every part of the room defied any sense of logic, almost like a maze made out of optical illusions, or a children’s doodle that gone out of hand. The laboratory was now a maw of incomprehensible madness. As what that appeared before him was something that was totally detached from the laws of reality and human comprehension, Hao Ren immediately felt weak the moment he saw the scene and thankfully the MDT was quick to yank him back and closed the door.

“What was that all about?” The MDT was astonished by what she saw. While she may have a very powerful logic processing capability, she still lacked in associative and imaginative reasoning.

“This is not our ship.” Hao Ren said between his breath, as he slowly recovered from nausea and dissonance of what he saw earlier. “Maybe it’s not fully our ship. As Nolan said, this world is a stage and something’s running the simulation. So everything here is simulated, everything from my Dimensional Pocket included…”

As he said, Hao Ren pulled his Inspector’s pistol out.

This was the first time Hao Ren pulled the weapon out since he arrived in the world.

The silver psionic pistol looked normal at first glance, and just from appearance alone, Hao Ren could not tell if anything was amiss with the gun. Hao Ren took a deep breath as he closed his eyes and focused his mind. A moment later, he cocked the gun.

And shockingly, the slider slid back and ejected a round…

Even the MDT was dumbfounded by the scene. “Since when does an inspector’s pistol needed bullets? Isn’t it an energy weapon?”

“This world can only simulate what it understands. The simpler the thing, and the closer it is to the level of human civilization, the easier the simulation is. Conversely, the more complicated the thing is, the simulation is can be very demanding..” Hao Ren kept his pistol as he now knew this weapon was frankly worthless in this world. “The same reason why the Steel Membrane Shield did appear was that it could be simulated. The staff I gave to Nolan was an Aerym-made item. It was not a technologically advanced item, so it too could be simulated. But my pistol… it is psionic.”

Hao Ren shook his head as he headed back to the bridge. “Seems like our ship’s core is just too technologically advanced and thus the world could only simulate its outer shell. Same goes for the hull, and those super-advanced thingamajigs were even more numerous inside, and the world simply rendered them into something unknown.”

The MDT finally understood as she patted the alloy wall. “So when you pull the ship out the world had no idea what sort of item you were going to pull out of your pocket… and could only re-create a shell that looks like the Petrachelys in haste?”

“You’re quite on the mark, but that mouth of yours is quickly mimicking mine.”

The MDT did not care about that as she limped behind Hao Ren. “Now the question is, can we fly this tin bucket?”

Hao Ren’s response was only one word. “Probably.”

As they arrived at the bridge, Hao Ren tried to activate the silent ascension protocol once again, and just as he imagined; while he had no idea how this ‘Petrachelys’ actually operated, the ship was beginning to ascend silently.

Surprise was plastered all over the MDT’s face. “Eh holy molly it’s really flying!?”

“While this world does not understand what a psionic engine is.” Hao Ren pursed his lips. “But ‘it’ at least know that this ship is space-faring capable. So now, let’s see what awaits us at the edge of the world… or rather the border of this world’s simulation.

---

Chapter 743: And That’s Why She’s a Corpse

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

The Petrachelys silently rose into the air as it headed towards an even more desolate area. Hao Ren did not want his movements to draw attention to Nolan’s hiding place nearby. He noticed that the acceleration was much slower than expected, and there was this lack of finesse with its movement. This, to him validated his suspicion that it was not the real Petrachelys.

This was a reproduction of his memory by a series of programmes. On the outside, it looked like the real deal, but as the Xiling Empire’s Psionic techonology was beyond human comprehension, the ship’s core was simply fabricated within the limits of the simulation’s database.

“Do you think we can reach the edge of the world?” The MDT started murmuring as she saw the ship accelerated clumsily and breaking through the atmosphere. “Will the mastermind of this world allow someone to seek out the edge of the stage?”

“We might run into someone, or something.” Hao Ren nodded. “Even if this world is simply a programme, it should have some self-preservation protocols. These protocols will definitely attempt any outflow of data, but before that, we should be able to detect what’s uncanny about this world.”

The MDT gave a short ‘Oh’ before continuing. “What do you think this world is made of?”

“Probably somesort of computer programme, an imaginary world of sorts.” Hao Ren jested. As soon as he knew of the nature of this world he had developed guesses towards this direction. While there are many other possibilities, the argument for it being a programme is probably the strongest and most reliable. “The resetting of the world, and the details in Nolan’s memory, these are all traits of an virtual world. Plus with condition of the Petrachelys and my psionic pistol is also proof of that.”

“So if our current vessel is simulated, where’s the real Petrachelys?” The MDT asked a very important question. “Is it still inside your pocket?”

Hao Ren waved his hand. “No, I’ve checked. The ship is not there. I actually doubted I’ve even opened the Dimensional Pocket. Think about it, we are now is a virtual world, and everything here is detached from reality. ‘Taking out an item from the Dimensional Pocket’ is probably a thought process in my mind. Remember the first time when we got back from Zom we realised that we couldn’t bring the mercenary tag out? And our clothes were as good as new? That’s because the whole process was simulated… it’s just that we can’t find where the programme access port is.”

The MDT nodded again as she sat on the control dais daydreaming. That place was her usual docking port, but now in human form she could no longer fit in. So she just simply sat on her usual spot trying to act busy. Hao Ren gave the MDT a look before sinking deep in his thoughts. It was probably too obvious that the latter glanced at him. “What are you thinking about?”

“I probably have a gist of what happened to you.” Hao Ren pointed towards the MDT’s body. “And why you had turned like this.”

The MDT’s eyes immediately lit up. “Oh oh?”

“Didn’t I told you, this world could only simulate what it could understand as its simulation ability is a programme, and programmes are inflexible. It could not understand my psionic pistol, so it simulated a copy that could eject bullet shells. It could not understand how Petrachelys functions, so it only manages to simulate a shell to contain all the unknown factors.” Hao Ren poinred at the MDT. “So similarly, it could not understand an opinated PDA that could jump about with a potty mouth is…”

The MDT glared back at Hao Ren before stiffly looking at herself and stroking her arm in the process. “…. What the actual f*ck…”

“I suppose this world has not have the sort of techonological level of yours, or even if they have artificial intelligence, their logical functions would have differed, so simulation programme of this world got confused.” Hao Ren raised his eyebrows. “Probably it had used a spiritual scan to determine your body. You think like a human, so it simulated you as one, but you are a non-biological being, so it created a dead body in place, and because you will never shut up, the world have kept you talking even when you’re dead….”

Looking at the gawking blonde, Hao Ren added. “This is all conjecture at the moment, but I don’t think you’ll be able to come up with an even more logical assumption. So this is probably the most possible scenario for now.”

The MDT leapt off from the control dais. “Why was I given this form then? Can’t it choose any other?”

“How would I know?” Hao Ren rolled his eyes. “Probably because the system sees you as what it is?”

As he said that, something suddenly popped up in his mind. “Maybe it’s because at the spiritual level you are a …. OH F*CK!”

The MDT was startled by Hao Ren sudden “OH F*CK!””What’s going on?”

Hao Ren looked at the latter. “You are really not living up to your own image! Can’t you be at your best behaviour on normal days?”

“….What are you on about?!”

Hao Ren shrugged as he turned and ignored the rambunctious MDT to focus on monitoring what was going outside the ship. He was rather confident with his theories, but he could not put his fingers on the real laws that governs this world. He had managed to affirm his idea that the world was a ‘simulation’ based on his observation of his psionic pistol and the Petrachelys. Thus the MDT’s change was not due to some ‘walk-in’, but its change was simply due to the fact that the world’s simulation logic was not complete, and the PDA became a living corpse.

Insofar, the MDT was probably the most that undergone the most drastic of changes amongst his tools, even if the interior of the Petrachelys had turned into a twisting nether, it was not as serious as being given a human form. Hao Ren guessed this had something to do with the MDT’s almost human-like nature: A living soul was far far more complicated than any techonology after all.

As he reached this point, Hao Ren squirmed slightly as he murmured. “A tool huh…”

Even when he argues with the MDT Hao Ren had always treated her as a human. Otherwise he would not be able to argue with a PDA so seriously. But as they entered this world, the MDT was determined by this world to be a tool, and even if she was simulated with a human form, this simulation process had determined that she was not human, as ‘humans’ in this world did not require any simulation.

The MDT’s grating voice came from beside him. “What were you saying again?”

Hao Ren quipped. “Say, you consider yourself a tool or a human?”

Hao Ren was rather conflicted about this topic and felt that he probably had asked too directly. But he never thought that the MDT did not mind that. “What’s the difference? The Xiling Celestials does not on this. Because everything is a cog of the Empire. But if you insist… I’m certain a tool. A very delicate and precise tool! The super capable kind!”

As Hao Ren heard the MDT so proudly calling herself a tool, he immediately facepalmed. “Should’ve known that worrying about you was a waste of effort.”

The MDT’s attention had by the shifted to what was going on outside the ship. While this half-baked ‘Petrachelys’ was clunky, it was still equipped with spacefaring ability. The spaceship was now in deep space and Zom was now a mere fist-size blue orb beneath the ship. Looking at the stars, the MDT pondered . “I was expecting this world to take a more pro-active measure… Like stopping us from flying, or restricting everything at atmospheric level.”

“Since we have managed to get into space, this validates one of my theories.” Hao Ren nodded softly. “This world’s simulation seems to have a prerequisite.”

“What prerequisite?”

“That is needs to follow the laws of nature, and it was to be ‘real’ enough.” Hao Ren pointed to the ever-distant Zom. “To increase the world’s ‘reality’, a programme would need to maintain everything to do with the natural world. Since it has a sky, that means there’s a way to reach for the stars. And since there is space, that means a spacecraft is usable. It could of course use meteors or other natural means to stop humans from going into space, buit it could not set a non-existant natural law to restrict the spaceship’s functions. As there’s no such thing in realspace, so it could not set such a rule.”

“Hmm… sounds possible. But it was smooth sailing all along right?” The MDT was rather cautious. “Is this world not going to stop us from checking out its borders?”

Hao Ren frowned slightly. “I’m curious about that too… but no point worrying about it. We’ll press on forward, and see if there’s an end to this dream!”

The MDT pointed towards the exterior camera display. “Perhaps… that’s the end.”

---

Chapter 744: Border

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

“Looks like that’s the border.”

The MDT pointed towards the display as her voice carried a sliver of surprise.

Hao Ren gawked at the scene at appeared on the display before letting out a belated sigh of astonishment. “…It’s really like waking up from a dream.”

The Petrachelys glided through the silent yet bizzare space. Her speed was reduced to the point of atmospheric cruising. The border of the world appeared around the ship, and it looked eeriely similar to the space from a child’s dream. Bizzare, simple, blindingly white.

The Petrachelys passed through countless of celestial bodies, all of them tiny, yet colorful.

Hao Ren and the MDT had went to the Petrachelys’ observation deck to personally observe this virutal world’s edge. He saw groups upon groups of lights floated in space, all of them engraved with intricate markings or halos. Their diameter was no bigger than a meter and the egg-shaped gaseous stars went past him akin to those astral projection in the planetarium. They went around a strict orbit, shone as they went, dimming as they passed. The entire scene was almost like flying straight into a bullet hell. They were without volume or strength and as soon as they came into contact iwth the Petrachelys they dissipated after blurring out akin to a transmission disruption on a television. Hao Ren held his hand out to touch one of the blinding ‘stars’. He felt a slight warmth and a post-electric shock numbness. The star was being disrupted and after shuddering for bit, it disappeared.

“So this is the edge of the world.” The MDT said as she stood amongst the stars. Her blonde hair shone by the stars’ radiance. “A full holographic universe… and so small… almost like a tabletop model.”

“Because this is not too far from Zom.” Hao Ren looked down towards a light blue dot that shone beneath the Petrachelys. That was Zom, and it was still within sight. “At this distance, you would only need to sumulate a layer of virtual image, as long as no one flies here…. no one will realise that the skies above them is fabricated.”

“What if someone realise it?”

“The world will reset after a fixed period of time, that’s because it could not allow humans to develop techonologies too advanced, and it is also making it difficult for technology to progress… but the world’s programme dictates that is needs to follow the natural laws and cannot allow the world to develop anything that goes against that. Thus it’s only way to stop humans from going into space is to reset the entire map.” Hao Ren thought he had figured out the key point of the question, but there was something still missing. “But there’s plenty of ways to reset the map, and yet only Nolan retains her memory while everyone else is written anew unknowingly. So what’s the point of that apocalyptic battle?”

When the world started off a few thousand years ago, it was always a peaceful setting and humans enjoyed peace and prosperity. No one did never noticed anything that was amiss. But within the last ten cycles, the world started heading towards doomsday, and every time the world ended with the cacophony of war. Hao Ren felt that it was utmost pointless, if the world intended to trap humans within the virtual reality, a slow, stagnant and yet peaceful world would have been a better choice than war. So what was the point of the war?

“Even I can think of several scenarios that would have been much better. If the world was reset to a feudal setting you would not need to worry about human going into space for a few thousand years at least.” Hao Ren frowned as he shook his head. “So the world is not trying to trap the humans, not letting them reach for the stars is probably a security protocol…. My guess is that this place is a sanctuary.”

“Why are we not heading further to the edge?” The MDT suggested. “There’s still some ways to go and seems like this place is actually rather big.”

“I’m afraid of the potential data leakage.” Hao Ren said wearily. “If this world is simulated by a computer programme, trying to visit the edge of the world would probaby trigger a logic error.”

The MDT pondered for a moment. “Based onmy experience, such a complex system would definitely have some failsafe. If we try to breack the border, we’ll probably just rebound back. And even if the data were to leak as long as we retreat in time: Such a powerful programme shouldn’t be without a bug-fixing function right?”

Hao Ren considered the MDT’s suggestion before agreeing to go along and frankly, he too was curious on how the world’s edge look like.

The Petrachelys slowly accelerated again and this time around the advance was more cautious. Hao Ren and the MDT stood on the observation deck and controlled the ship’s advance remotely. The tiny celestial bodies that was floating in space were getting more and more concentrated beside the two ‘persons’ standing there. Their shapes too were getting even more bizzare. As they were now a distance away from Zom, these were probably too far for the telescopes to tell its properties. So these stars were crudely made, and some of them were simply a flat round cut out, with its shiny surface facing Zom.

As they headed forth, the entire star system too was a flat cutout, and holographic image moved above it.

Finally the Petrachelys came to a sudden stop. There was no pre-empt, no shock, nothing. The ship came to a halt as if someone pressed the pause button. Hao Ren noticed that the fore of the ship had lost its colours and looked no different than a 3D model without skins on it. Ahead of him was nothing but darkness, and the stars had dissappeared.

“This is the edge of the world.” the MDT said as she looked at the scene before her. “A zone without definition or rendering to it. Seems like this ‘space’ did not unravel because we appeared. Seems like we were worrying for nothing.”

“Now that we are here… the person behind the scenes have still yet to appear.” Hao Ren looked around the observation deck. The ‘space’ before him now was in two parts, the first was a curtain of darkness, and another filled with radiant celestial bodies. But as he had not heard anything from the creator of this world he shouted. “Hello? Anybody home?! We have arrived! The edge of the world! Don’t you pla to say anything at all?”

The MDT glanced at Hao Ren. “You think anyone will actually hear you? There’s no air on the deck.”

“You think the creator of this world needs ears to listen to the voice within a programme?”

“So you think that there is a controller of this virtual world?” the MDT asked.

Hao Ren raised his eyebrows. “You mean…”

“This is probably automated.” the MDT shook her head. “Probably there was one in the past… Wait up!”

Hao Ren grew nervous. “What’s wrong?”

“I’ve just received the exploration droids’ signal!” the MDT pressed her hand against her forehead as she tried to focus on listening to the signal chain. “It’s a direct signal, very weak, and slightly distorted… but is direct transmission. Seems like some of my functions have recovered!”

“Recovered?” Hao Ren’s eyes widen as he looked around. “As it because we are at the edge?”

“Probably… seems like this is the closest to realspace, so there is a possibility to breack the firewall to contact to the outside world.” the MDT said in haste. “Or may be the programme’s control over this area is weak and the inhibitors had disappeared… Damn it, the signal is too weak.. I can’t hear them.”

Hao Ren immediately dropped an order. “Don’t waste bandwidth, can we launch a navigation signal? As long as we can do so!”

“I’ll try!”

“Quickly.” Hao Ren said as he looked towards the star clusters. He noticed that they were flickering, a scene not seen earlier and it was obvious something unexpected was happening. “Seems like something’s wrong with this place… Shit, the world programme is finally on to something!”

“I’m trying! I’m trying!” the MDT roared.

As minutes and seconds rolled by, the star clusters started flickering maniacally and some of them start disappearing at the rate which the eyes can see. Patches upon patches of dark zones started appearing before Hao Ren. A thought flashed through his mind: Disintegration.

This place was about to totally disintegrate!

“Transmission sent!” The MDT shouted. “Although only a part…”

“Then lets get the hell out of here!!”

---

Chapter 745: A New Script for Peace

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

The Petrachelys immediately left the collapsing edge of the world and set forth at full speed towards Zom. The little light orbs around the ship had all snuffed out and the radiant galaxy turned into the dark void as it slowly spread across the space. The scene reminded Hao Ren of when the lights were turned off one by one inside a planetarium. He made his way back to the bridge and tried to get the ship to go faster. However, this Petrachelys was ultimately a reproduction, and this was the fastest it could go.

The entire bridge shuddered as the shock from the collapsing space came from all directions. Hao Ren could feel that the outer plates of the ship were being stripped away one by one. He was now really worried that this entire simulated world would just collapse.

Thankfully, as they approached Zom, the signs of collapse reduced and the dark void of space was now a distant black screen. Seems like the ‘world’s collapse was limited to its outer areas and the core of the simulated universe is still stable.

“How many nav-sig did you manage to deploy?” Hao Ren heaved a sigh of relief as he turned towards the MDT. “Are you still in contact with the droids?”

“I still have contact, but it has reverted to that transmission mode again, only simple logs exchange, no nav-sigs.” the MDT shook her head. She was reverting to her ‘human’ form again and the functions that she regained at the edge of the world were now gone. “But I have managed to send out a few of the nav-sigs out earlier, so the exploration droids should have a rough idea of our current position… a few light years out I suppose.”

“Looking for a planet within a few light years huh…” Hao Ren sighed again. “Well, better than trying to scour the universe blindly. Order the droids to fire their scout drones and locate Zom’s exact location.”

The MDT gave a curt ‘Oh’ before looking at the images coming in from the external sensors. “Seems like the universe is resetting again.”

Hao Ren frowned as he looked upon the holographic display and the darkened stars behind the Petrachelys were shining again, as if someone had flipped a switch. The universe was once again awashed by the stars’ radiance and the hull of the Petrachelys glistened in the glow. Beautiful it was, but real it was not.

“What does that even mean? Don’t tell me just because we left the edge the system had regained its stability?” Hao Ren was slightly unnerved. “Seems like the situation at the edge of the world was bug resulting in a rendering error?”

“I’m not good at guessing, but I have a bad feeling about this.” the MDT leapt off the control dais as she pointed towards another holographic display. “Look there, something is weird with Zom.”

Zom was just before them, like a clear crystal orb that appeared just in front of the Petrachelys’ fore. It was a verdant blue and green that was pleasing ot the eyes, and it looked full of life. And that was when Hao Ren realised the ‘weirdness’ that the MDT was talking about.

The planet was similarly covered in ocean when he left Zom earlier, but the earlier version had a sickly shade of grey with the land had a yellowish barren hue to it. It was the degenerated plants caused by the constant warfare and within the last ten or so cycles, the planet was never teeming with life, it was always in a flux of warfare or natural disasters, and such a lively hue to the planet was impossible.

This was a whole different planet now.

“There is a good landing spot on the northern hemisphere. A large unhabited area.” the MDT pointed towards the planet surface as she spoke. She was basing it off the sensors of the ship. “We won’t get detected as long as we are careful.”

Hao Ren started frowing. “The whole geography have changed… where’s Nolan now?”

“Looking for her would be quite the task.” the MDT shook her head. “The entire map have changed. We can’t be sure if she is still at her original position. And we did not put a tracker on her.”

“A tracker?” Hao Ren was reminded of something as the MDT mentioned that. “Oh right, I did give her that staff, that’s an object not from this world and should not be reset. Trace that signal.”

Based on Imperial safety regulations, every inspector’s equipment, weapons especially needs to be engraved with a identification chip. This is not only limited to high powered weapons from the Imperial inventory, and includes the personal arms collected by the inspectors. Hao Ren could so boldly give out the technologically advanced sentry staff to Nolan was because of that. He could track the weapon’s location at any time, and could remotely shut it off in emergencies. So he did not need to worry about the weapon falling into the wrong hands. Abd now this identification chip could help him locate Nolan, and if he was right, the world had reset and Nolan might not be at her original place.

Even if Hao Ren’s various equipments were messed up by this world’s ‘simulation’, even if the Petrachelys was simply a pirated version, thankfully the programme behind his world sticked to ‘realism’ to the word under any circumstances. And navigation technology was clearly within the programme’s understanding, and Nolan’s signal was swiftly located.

Hao Ren piloted the Petrachelys towards the empty plain and successfully landed the ship. After stowing the ship away he realised that this was the outskirts of a small city, and as it was before daybreak, there should not be anyone within the vicinity.

He and the MDT stood on a mound as they looked at the small city. It was all peace and quiet. There were no gunpowder smoke, no refugees, no ruined streets and crumbled houses. The city was in a peaceful slumber.

“… The world really got reset, and the architecture and this atmosphere… it’s really different.” Hao Ren murmured as he looked on. Even if what he saw was nothing but peace, uneasiness started creeping upon him. “Seems like this is a peaceful world this time around?”

“My word, it is really not in a state of world war…” the MDT was surprised. “Didn’t Nolan said that the last ten or so cycles were all bad ends?”

“No idea what happened, but the world seemed to have chosen a good end script I guess.” Hao Ren shook his head. Just as he was to jump off the mound he remembered something. “Have the droids been deployed?”

The MDT nodded. “Yes. And they should be arriving in the designation location soon. They’ll probably take sometime to find our exact location. The nav-sig launched earlier was incomplete afterall.”

Hao Ren thought for a bit before patting the MDT on the shoulder. “Can you access my Dimensional Pocket? Like pulling the Petrachelys out or something?”

“If you give me permission I can operate it for you.. but why?”

“Then I have a mission for you. Return to the real world. Get Vivian and the rest to go the Planes of Dreams from Tannagost, and deploy the Petrachelys to pick me up. I want you to bring my sleeping pod along. Meaning, I want you to bring my real body along.”

“You mean to bring your real body into the Plane of Dreams?” the MDT’s eyes widen. “But your spiritual form is already here. We have never tried this before, wouldn’t it cause any problems?”

“No, because this is a simulated space within the Plane of Dreams. And strictly speaking I’m only connected to this place, and this is not a real spiritual transference.” Hao Ren pointed to his feet. “I have a feeling, something will happen here… no.. something already happened here. So we need to get all the firepower we can get to face it. And if the situation requires, I want to be able to return my body and control the ship. So you need to use the Petrachelys to find where the real Zom is before that.”

The MDT silently looked at Hao Ren for a while before nodding. “Understood. Leave it to me.”

“I’ll leave the real world task to you then.” Hao Ren waved at the MDT. “I’ll handle whatever there’s in this virtual world.”

The next second, the MDT disappeared into thin air.

It had now returned to a sleeping pod in the Southern Suburb and it will bring with it companions, and a spaceship. With the guidance of the exploration droids, it shall find Zom’s real location, but before that…

Hao Ren walked towards the city that was basking in dawn’s light. His tracker shows that Nolan was just in front.

As the sun broke out from the horizon, the skies was painted with a crimson blow. Before stepping into the city, Hao Ren had one last look at the horizon. The radiant dawnbreak signals the start of new day in this world.

And may it be for the best.

---

Chapter 746: The Last Dream

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

A faint golden light shone onto the city at an angle, waking up the serene and peaceful town from its sweet dream. Hao Ren looked at the surrounding; breakfast stalls and grocery shops had begun to open their doors for business while their owners greeted each other lethargically, probably still feeling tired from their sleep. People were talking aloud about the sports game last night. Elderly coming out for a morning walk were recounting how the storm had ravaged the town a couple of days ago. It looked just another day as if peace and serenity had been here for decades.

Of course, Hao Ren knew the truth; he knew he was not on an ordinary planet like the Earth back home. In this average town, he somehow felt a deep sense of incongruousness and an unexplained uneasiness; something was amiss. This imaginary world seemed like a beautiful script, but it might not be a good sign.

Nolan once said that the resetting of the world was not a fixed cycle. Sometimes it took decades or even centuries, but sometimes it would reset in just a few years. But, there was nothing like here and now. The stage had changed, and it was peaceful in a baffling way. Those dozen times of world wars in the past had just disappeared like waking up from a bad dream.

Hao Ren wondered what was behind all these. He instinctively ruled out the ‘human’ factor. It was more like software glitches.

Everything seemed to point to that the programme was losing control.

He might have caused information spill over when he was exposed to the ‘boundary,’ forcing the programme behind this world in a sandbox to reset itself. But, this did not explain the dramatic change in the script.

Following the navigation guide, Hao Ren came to the center of the town. In front of him was a pavement lined with graceful poplars that led to a school on the slope. Teenagers in high school uniform with bags on their backs and shoulders were stumping up the pavement. Some of the students stopped and glanced curiously at this stranger carrying a strange gadget. Hao Ren ignored the stares, but deep inside him, he secretly missed his high school life. He trotted up the pavement and came to a stop on the slope; a girl with long grey hair was standing right in his field of vision.

Nolan stood in front of the school looking at the students coming for the morning class. She was wearing the same student uniform too. In her schoolbag, one end of the wand stuck out like the handle of an umbrella. It seemed she was confused with her new identity. Though she had been a student before during one of the previous reincarnations, it was a distant memory. The arrival of peace on the back of continuous war in the earlier reincarnations bewildered her until Hao Ren called her from behind.

“Nolan!”

She turned her head around and saw Hao Ren, surprised. She trotted toward him.

“Hao Ren?” Nolan looked at Hao Ren. “I thought you have ended up in some faraway place after the reset? What a surprise to see you here.”

“It’s a long story. But I’ve indeed come from somewhere far,” Hao Ren said, checking his surroundings. “Do you know what’s going on?”

Nolan shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. It looks like the world has suddenly reset and the next thing I know, I’m already on my way to school and having a new identity as you see now.”

While saying, she pointed at herself. “A student club president. Can you believe that?” she quipped.

“Well, even my PDA runs and dances; nothing would amaze me,” said Hao Ren casually. He noticed more eyes were staring at them. He lowered his voice and said, “Can we find somewhere else quiet? I feel something doesn’t add up.”

Without hesitation, Nolan swung her bag on her shoulder. “Let’s go,” she said.

Suddenly, a middle-aged woman who appeared to be a teacher came out of nowhere and yelled with a high-pitched voice. “Where are you going, Nolan? The class is about to start…”

Nolan replied without looking, “I’m taking a day’s leave.”

She then dragged Hao Ren and darted down the slope, leaving behind a group of stunned students and a bewildered teacher. It was not until the two of them coming to a junction the teacher only began to shout angrily. Nolan winked at Hao Ren, who was visibly stupefied. “I’m supposed to be a good student on this stage play. But the opening scene is nothing like the script.”

She suddenly smiled, and her smile turned into laughter. She laughed so loud and hard that she almost ran out of breath. Hao Ren stared at her surprised by her sudden change of character until he could not stand it anymore and he raised his hand to pat on her shoulder. “Are you done yet?”

“I’m sorry, it’s just too ridiculous,” Nolan gasped breathlessly. When her breathing finally normalized, she sighed softly. “I was only in the battlefield two days ago. Then things did an about turn, and I ended up here. It looks like change has never been so dramatic than now.”

“Do you not know what happened?” Hao Ren looked at Nolan suspiciously.

Nolan did not answer him directly. She seemed to evade his question. “Don’t you think this is great? Look! It’s so peaceful. I have talked to people; the war has never happened. I don’t care if this is fake as long as the world keeps it this way. Even if it doesn’t last, a few days would be good enough.”

Nolan’s words had confirmed his suspicion. “You do know something, don’t you?” Hao Ren asked.

Nolan looked up at the morning sun and remained silent for a long moment. When she finally let out a sigh, she said, “I’m afraid that this is going to be the last dream.”

Surface world.

It had been days, and Hao Ren was still lying in the hibernation pod. Nangong Wuyue was wiping the dust off the ‘casket’ with a rag. A slit appeared on the hibernation pod, and the MDT slid out from inside suddenly. Out of instinctive reaction, Wuyue coiled herself up into a circle of springs, her upper body swaying around trying to make sense of what had just happened.

She only let down her guard when she saw the MDT. “Oh gosh, it’s you, brick! Why Mr. Landlord not awake yet?”

After getting out from the pod, the first thing the MDT did was fly around in a circle in the air and let out a human sigh of contentment. “Ahh, this body is still the best. I can see things without turning my neck. Hey, Wuyue! Get everyone here. There’s an emergency! Hao Ren needs an army!”

When Lily heard the sound in the basement, she scurried down. “What’s going on? Finally, we can go to battle?”

“Probably not yet,” the MDT said, still flying around. “By the way, girls, I suddenly found myself having a girl’s heart, you know?”

Nangong Wuyue and Lily were dumbfounded.

Mobile Data Terminal is the single most crucial assistant for any inspectors—it is more important than the standard issue weapons and spacecraft. MDT not only has all the assistant programmes needed to perform its task, but it can also perform many functions that formerly only inspector himself or herself can perform. The inspector can authorize his or her MDT to control the dimensional pocket, weapons, and equipment. Its role was almost equivalent to the inspector.

But, sometimes they serve only frivolous purposes…

Soon, everyone gathered and entered through the crack of Tannagost into the Plane of Dreams. The MDT successfully opened the dimensional pocket through the ‘transfer’ method; the real Petrachelys parked quietly inside.

“Still, I belong to this place!” the MDT plugged itself into a slot, excited. It felt like it had been reborn. “Do you guys know that when I was in a human body, no matter how hard I tried I still couldn’t plug myself into the slot? I couldn’t figure what is so good to be human. Or was it that my butt was too big?”

The MDT went lunatic on the control console. Everyone looked at each other, bewildered. Y’zaks took a gander at the console and whispered to Vivian, “Is the MDT broken or something?”

Vivian pursed her mouth and said, “Maybe it has a short circuit. That’s why I have always told Mr. Landlord; he shouldn’t let Lil Pea play with it. You know, electronics and water don’t mix well…”

The MDT turned a deaf ear to what they said as it was having a field day playing with the spacecraft. It traced the navigation signal from the drone and started the warp jump procedure. Before they knew it, they had arrived at a strange, distant galaxy.

Earlier, Hao Ren and the MDT had successfully sent out navigational information from the ‘boundary’ of the virtual world. The signal had led the drone clusters to within five light years radius from the boundary. The drones reached the remote region very quickly with their warp drives before the Petrachelys did.

The real Planet Zorm was not in a virtual world but the real universe.

When the Petrachelys finally met up with the drones, it hovered above the target planet. Looking down at the spectacular yet horrifying scene, the MDT let out a long sigh. “Holy crap…”

Vivian looked at the bright white hibernation pod; she touched the ‘coffin’ lid with her hand nervously. “Is Mr. Landlord’s consciousness on that planet?”

The MDT squealed. “Contact him now! The hellish place is not going to last more than forty-eight hours!”