The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 747

Chapter 747: This World Will Burn

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

“The last dream?” Hao Ren looked at Nolan, bewildered. “What do you mean?”

Nolan folded her hands across the chest, head lowered, and her thin lips visibly pressing together. “In fact… I have heard the voice of the ‘conscious world.’ Though very, very vague, I know there is a real world outside this fake planet…”

Hao Ren could not believe what he heard. “You didn’t tell me this before.”

“Well, I didn’t know whether I should trust you before.” Nolan bit her lip. “You can only retain your previous memory, but that doesn’t tell your character and will. And, I only occasionally heard ‘voices,’ I wasn’t even sure if they came from the ‘conscious world,’ except for the recent one. It was obvious.”

As Nolan continued to explain, Hao Ren began to figure out what that was all about. This girl was unusual in that she could not only retain the memories of her previous life but was also able to perceive the ‘simulation programme’ behind this world.

No wonder she dubbed the world as a bad stage, and often use ‘director’ and ‘script’ to describe what she experienced. She did not feel so just because she had experienced hundreds of reincarnation, but also because she had realized the existence of a ‘fabricator.’

But her perception of the ‘conscious world’ was fragile, no better than hallucinations. Occasionally, she heard or saw visions that happened in the future, or felt a consciousness beyond that of humanity whispering into her ear. She was like the playful child who accidentally lifted the curtain and had a glimpse of the lightings and props in the backstage. The short but stunning vision prompted her to think the world was fake.

The occasional glimpses she had were few and far between, and most of the time, severe disturbance and trance would drown the visions. Normal humans would invariably dismiss it as an illusion, but not Nolan, she had it too many times. She heard or saw ‘vision’ in almost every incarnation. She was convinced of the existence of a ‘conscious world’ or ‘real world.’

But Nolan’s description of the voices and images was somewhat ambiguous as if she did not know how to put what she saw and heard in words. Hao Ren had to guide her along the way. “How did you feel when you heard or saw them? Have you seen the real world? Or is it just a subconsciousness, or intuition that makes you think you’ve seen something?”

“Probably the latter.” Nolan nodded. “Those things are always abstract, and I couldn’t remember the images or voices clearly. Sometimes I felt like I had seen ‘fate’ or something. Though not very specific, it was able to let me understand the future direction of this world. And, sometimes…”

Nolan’s brows knit together as she tried to describe her experience. “It was like seeing things in a different perspective; I feel a consciousness beyond humanity, huge, very complex, looking down on this world. I guess that perspective is the controlling ‘programme’ of this world.”

She suddenly looked up at Hao Ren suspiciously. “Your questions are precise. You do know something, don’t you?”

Hao Ren waved his hand and said, “This is not important. I am very interested in the perspective that you’ve mentioned. Can you still experience it now?”

Nolan gently shook her head. “I can’t. It’s not something that I can control.”

Hao Ren looked into Nolan’s eyes. “What is the ‘last dream’ you mentioned earlier all about?”

“It all starts with this new stage…”

According to Nolan, she heard the voice of the ‘fabricator’ when the world just completed its reset. Though what the voice said was beyond her human apprehension, some inspiration had let her understand one thing—the thought of the fabricator when he reset the stage—”I am afraid this is the last time the world will reset.”

“I don’t know what happened in the real world, but it seems that the reincarnation cycle is coming to an end,” Nolan said, her eyes erratic. She was already accustomed to the continuous reincarnation, but what happened had suddenly jolted her. Things beyond her experience made her uneasy. “The fragmented thoughts that come into my mind mean only one thing: This is the end.”

Hao Ren murmured as if he was talking to himself. “What happens after the end of the cycle?”

“I don’t know. Maybe the world will have long-lasting peace; the current ‘script’ is the final stage. If that’s the case, it would be great,” Nolan said. There was a subtle smile on her lips, but it quickly turned back into her usual stone face. “Probably I’m unrealistic. Maybe the world will end.”

Though he did not want to admit it, Nolan’s second guess was more probable.

Nolan suddenly looked up at Hao Ren. “I have answered all your questions. Can you talk about yours now?” she said.

Just when Hao Ren was about to say something, he heard the MDT’s voice in his mind. “Buddy! Can you hear me? We have arrived!” The MDT said into his mind.

Hao Ren secretly felt a sense of relief; finally, there was at least one thing had gone as planned. “I got you. Loud and clear. It looks like the signal is good. What is your situation there?”

Before the MDT could utter a word, Lily suddenly chimed in. “Let’s not talk about us. You’ve got a problem!”

“What problem?”

The MDT took over the radio and said, “I send you the images from space.”

As soon as the MDT’s voice trailed off, Hao Ren received a series of images captured in the third perspective in his mind’s eye. A splendidly golden red light almost occupied his entire field of vision; flames were spreading on the planet, the sky was burning, and a dazzling arc ignited one-third of the horizon. The spectacular sight startled Hao Ren. “Holy crap, what is this?”

“It’s Zorm! The planet is falling towards the sun in the real universe! The global fire has been burning for a long time. The earth’s crust is slowly disintegrating. It’s critical!”

Hao Ren froze for a full five seconds before he forced out a few words in his throat. “This is not something that a spaceship can deal with…”

Nolan heard him talk to himself. She stared at him curiously. “What did you say?”

“This world has come to an end. The collapse has started in the real world,” Hao Ren grabbed Nolan’s hand. “Don’t you want to know who I am? Well, believe it or not; I’m from the real world that you’ve been talking about all this while.”

Nolan was wide-eyed. “This is not funny, man.”

Hao Ren smacked his forehead; he foresaw her reaction. In a virtual space where nothing was impossible, he found himself unable to prove his real-world identity nor contact the real universe outside. All his words, even the actual proof, were merely regarded as part of a simulation. That was why he did not tell Nolan the truth earlier because he did not know how to!

When all your actions and evidence were no more believable than a few empty words, explanation became worthless.

Hao Ren waved his hands as if telling Nolan “That’s all right.” At the same time, he spoke to the MDT in his mind. “How long do we have?”

“About forty-eight hours. It’s not yet clear where the virtual world’s ‘server’ is. Let’s assume it is deep in the earth’s crust. The sun’s gravity is beginning to rip Zorm’s crust apart. No matter how solidly-built the underground facility is, it won’t hold up for more than 48 hours.”

“Holy moly!” Hao Ren almost jumped to his feet. “It’s too late to do anything!”

He was shouting not only in his mind but also the mouth. Nolan could not help but stare at him suspiciously. “What the hell are you—”

“I’m sorry; I need to go. It’s emergency,” Hao Ren said quickly not letting Nolan finish. And, at the same time, he yanked out a small radio and shoved it in Nolan’s hand. “Take this. It’s a comm. Click this button, and you would be able to contact me. It’s all right that you don’t believe that I’m from the real universe, but if you hear the voice of the ‘fabricator’ again, or see anything unusual about the back-end program, contact me immediately. Do you understand? Call me directly if there are any other anomalies in this world!”

Having said this, Hao Ren instructed the hibernation pod to awaken him. His body disappeared in thin air in this world, leaving Nolan rooted to the spot.

After a long while, Nolan mumbled, “Has this man gone to the real world?”

---

Chapter 748: Deadly Sunshine

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

As the hibernation pod opened, Hao Ren sat up. “What is the situation now?”

The MDT had transferred the hibernation pod from the basement of Hao Ren’s house to the Petrachelys. Hao Ren found himself waking up in the familiar flight deck. A large hologram was above the console; it was the image of a planet slowly falling into the sun. Lily held him as he climbed out of the hibernation pod. “I haven’t seen anything like this before,” Lily said.

Hao Ren came to the console, adjusted the camera angles, and asked, “Our location?”

“Fifty thousand kilometers above Zorm, perpendicular to the sun and the planet, where you can see the sun is igniting the planet,” the MDT replied. “Judging from the current orbit of the planet, the sun might have captured it two millennia ago and slowly pulling the planet towards itself. Everything on the planet’s surface had vaporized, as the temperature on the sunny side is several thousand degrees. The crust had cracked as the sun’s gravity was ripping it apart. Probably before the planet burns into ashes, the sun’s gravity would have torn it into million pieces.”

Hao Ren did not say anything but stared at the scene outside.

A young star with three times the mass of the Sun was illuminating this region of the space. The image of the bright star almost covered one-third of the visual area of an external camera due to the proximity. At this distance, the glare of the sun could blind the eyes of most creatures instantly; the Petrachelys had to activate its sun filter to reduce the light intensity. A dark brown little planet was circling the massive fireball, and dragging along a tail of debris slowly falling toward it.

The heat of the star had scored the planet beyond recognition. The planet’s surface and rocky crust were melting. There were no more rivers and valleys, the planet’s crust had softened and crumbled together.

That was how Zorm’s appearance. Even Nolan’s experience of reincarnation and disaster in the virtual world was pale in comparison with what happened in the real world.

The truth was that Zorm, where Nolan lived, was a virtual world. Its repetitive resetting cycles were only scripts of an extensive program. The real Zorm was here, before their eyes. There were no human civilizations; the entire planet was slowly falling into destruction. Hao Ren began to pierce all the pieces together: The virtual world should be some refuge, and a large server was buried deep in the real-world planet; humans were mere phantoms in the server escaping into the virtual world from the raging fire in reality.

But some form of hardware malfunction was causing the uncontrolled ‘resetting of the virtual world’ and setting the stage for the final doomsday. Perhaps the condition on the planet’s surface caused the hardware failure, in turned corrupting the ‘script.’

More information was needed to explain the whole process, but that was all they got. Did the ‘server’ really exist? That would have to wait under they explored the underground to find out. And Hao Ren indeed planned to do so.

“The planet is still rotating on its axis on a twelve-hour cycle. During the rotation, the sunny side would melt under extreme temperature and spurt a large amount of material, while the dark side would cool and solidify quickly. When the first ray of the morning sun reached this part of the planet, there would be eruptions of hot gasses and magma again. The process would repeat through the day and night cycle, further exacerbating the destruction process,” the MDT said as it showed simulation in the hologram. “There was no more human on the surface, but some refuge—a virtual world, a server or something must be underground.”

“Any possible landing spot?” Hao Ren’s eyebrows knit together as he looked at the horrifying scene, so terrible that it was worse than any battlefields he had ever seen.

“To be honest, there’s none. The planet’s surface is melting; the temperature is too high. Though it is not a problem for the spacecraft, humans would find it unbearable. Your shield will not last long, and the life-support collars could only stand for a few hours at best.”

Nangong Wuyue was scared stiff as she stared at the sea of fire. “Mr. Landlord… Tell me you’re not going to send people down there.”

The scene of fire roasting the planet sent the chill down the aquatic creature’s spine. The siren maiden felt like she was dehydrating like a salted fish.

“We are talking about a billion people down there. We must do something,” Hao Ren knocked on the console. “MDT, land the spacecraft on the dark side of the planet. Choose the twilight zone; it would earn us more time.”

The Petrachelys caught up with the shadow of Zorm and slowly landed on the grey line. In this location, the sun had just set a few minutes ago, and the hellish heat of the day had subsided but the night was not cold either. The surface temperature remained at a thousand degrees high, lava had not had time to cool, and active lava flow and geysers still covered the surface. The environment was even worse than the demonic world.

But this was the ‘safest’ landing spot. At least there was no deadly sunshine here; their shields would be able to last a little longer.

The MDT briefed them about the situation on the ground as it landed the spacecraft. “The radar shows a crack three hundred meters ahead. Having a crack in such a place is unusual. It may be well the entrance to the refuge. It is less than a hundred meters in size, too small for spacecraft to go in. You guys have to get out and explore on foot.”

Hao Ren checked the status of his Steel Membrane Shield. He gave his teammates an extra set of life-support collar each. He chose the toughest ones for the exploration team—Lily, Vivian, and Y’zaks’ father-daughter combo.

Nangong Wuyue and Ayesha were sirens; dehydration was their biggest enemy. Nangong Sanba and Nangong Wudi were half-baked demon hunters, no good enough for the situation. They all had to remain on the spacecraft.

“Put both life-support collars on. When the first collar run out of juice, immediately switch to the second one, don’t be stingy with the energy,” Hao Ren briefed. He was especially concerned about the flaky husky, Lily. “Your physical strength might let you withstand in the environment for a little longer after your collar runs out of juice. But don’t try to be a hero, teleport back to the spacecraft immediately. Do you all understand?”

Lily put on the collars around her neck and said excitedly, “Understood. Run is what I do best.”

Y’zaks glanced at the outside with a smile. “This place feels home. It reminds me of my hometown; we used to bathe in such places. Y’lisabet and I might be able to go a little farther.”

Hao Ren reminded him quickly, “Yeah, until the sun rises again. No demons could withstand high-energy particles.”

Rollie squatted at a side, watching them. Suddenly, she pulled the corner of Hao Ren’s sleeve and asked, “Big Boss Cat, are you going to adventure?”

Hao Ren did not notice Dumb Cat until now as she liked to snuggle away in some hidden corners. “Hey, why is she here?” he asked.

The MDT said, “Didn’t you let me get those who could fight? I’ve brought Lil Pea too; she is still asleep in the pot behind you.”

Hao Ren began to remember his blanket order. He thought it best if he could have the best fighters with him. Had he knew the actual situation of Zorm, he would not have asked for Rollie, who could not be of help here.

Rollie grabbed Hao Ren’s cloth and snuggled down beside him as if saying she was joining them. Hao Ren petted her on the head and said, “Remember the little-dried fish?”

The cat maiden purred and nodded forcefully.

“See the scene outside?” Hao Ren pointed to the scorched land on the holographic projection. “If you’re not careful, you will become even drier than the little-dried fish.”

Dumb Cat thought for a moment before she ducked and slept under the chair as if saying, “Fine, I think I like the flight deck more.”

As soon as they left the spacecraft, Hao Ren immediately felt the unforgiving heat wave blew into his face.

But, it was only his illusion. He could not forget the scene of the planet falling toward the sun and the magma overflowing in the surroundings. The shield was protecting him from the heatwave and the hot surface under his feet. The thousand-degree heat of the purgatory would not affect his mortal body until the energy of his shield exhausted.

He did feel his body could withstand the heat for a while even without the shield, but he was not going to try it just yet.

Y’lisabet was dancing around and screaming in excitement. “Wow! The ground is soft!”

“The sun has just set, the ground has not the time to harden yet,” Lily explained very professionally. Suddenly, golden light on the horizon caught her attention.

That was where the sun had set. Though strong solar wind had eroded the atmosphere of the planet, vapors and gasses beneath the rocks would still burst out when the sun heated the surface. These gases would then move with the grey line and formed a massive wall of gas that swept across the surface of the planet. The gas wall also acted like a lens magnifying the solar corona and refracted the golden light in the horizon.

Notwithstanding it was a three-thousand-degree corona storm, it was a beautiful sight of golden aurora looking from a distance.

Gazing at the golden aurora that was the star’s corona, Lily let out a sigh. Hao Ren knew that the poetry girl might have gained some inspiration.

“It’s freaking blindingly bright.”

Lily sighed.

---

Chapter 749: A Planet of Purgatory

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Hao Ren knew that when it came to Lily, common sense usually took a back seat. When he thought she was a werewolf, she barked. When he thought she was brave, she flinched. When he felt she would babble nonsense, she became poetic. When he felt she was poetic, she was nagging like a child.

But nothing amazed him like the way the MDT did. The memory of the walking dead girl in the virtual world of Zorm was still fresh in his mind.

Hao Ren petted Lily’s on her head and walked to the front of the group. “Be careful of the magma and steam. The sun has just set. Heat is still trapped underneath. Getting hit by the spouts would be as good as falling into a steel furnace.”

He was mainly talking to Lily and Vivian. He was not worried for Y’zaks and his daughter; after all, the two demons treated lava pool as their bath tube.

Vivian looked at the golden light at the horizon. She smacked herself on the cheeks. “I don’t like sunlight… especially the one on this planet,” she said.

“Battie, as a vampire, you are the alpha and the omega!” Lily was dancing back and forth around Vivian. “I mean normal vampires would be already half-dead under the sun, but amazingly you are standing here and falling with the planet into the sun. Now you can brag about that back home.”

Vivian waved her hand weakly as she did not want to bicker with Lily. “I just want to get things done and head home before the sun rises again.”

Hao Ren yanked out a palm-sized device, silvery crystal plate like a tablet computer. A hologram was showing a navigation map that the Petrachelys had rendered using its onboard radar. It was a disturbing image. The ground beneath their feet was not stable. It was a scum-like, high-melting point, and lightweight rock of only a few meters thick. There were a dozen magmatic flows underneath. The structure was not stable. It was fragile. Collapses and spouts could happen at any time.

“The crack is right ahead,” Hao Ren said, pointing to a black ‘hill’ several hundred meters ahead. “Radar shows there is an opening, shaft-like cave underneath. The existence of such a stable passage in this place was astounding. It’s probably not a naturally formed place.”

“The ground is soft,” Lily used her tail to balance herself. “I think it’s a magma lake below…”

The small expedition team trod very carefully on the scorched land with the guidance of the navigation map. It was worse than hell. It was not wholly dark on the dark side; the crust had not yet cooled down, cracks still glowed red inside while magma was flowing on the surface. New cracks were appearing from where high-pressure steam spouted like a fountain, some of which could even reach dozens of kilometers high in the air.

Lily clung to Hao Ren; hands grabbed his armed. She was scared of the steam spout. “Mr. Landlord, I will protect you!”

But her tail was between her legs. Hao Ren would have believed her if not the giveaway.

“Beware of the sudden cracks appearing,” Y’zaks warned. “I will lead in front.”

Yes, the planet was falling towards the sun, and the condition was worse than the demon world, but Y’zaks did not flinch; he was the strongest in the team. He went ahead of Hao Ren and walked in front of the team. Y’lisabet leaped to keep up with her papa. The papa and daughter were chattering, “Papa, isn’t the red hill in our hometown same as this one?””Not really. The one in our hometown is much cooler than this one…”

Y’lisabet trod a few steps ahead; the ground under her feet suddenly rose up. “Watch out!” Hao Ren called out.

But it was too late. The surface burst open as powerful steam spouted violently from into the air like a gas pillar. Y’lisabet had gone.

Lily screamed in shock. She looked up at the sky, but it was dark, she could see nothing. She became nervous. “Would she be okay?”

“She will be fine. Maybe suffering a little shock at most,” Y’zaks appeared very calm. He smiled as he squinted at the direction where his daughter was supposed to have gone. “While she is much much weaker than the other demons, this heat is not going to hurt her a bit. Oh, look! There she is—coming down.”

Before Y’zaks’ voice trailed off, the little toothy reappeared and was falling out of the sky. Y’lisabet was yelling through the comm. “Catch me! Catch me!”

They held their hands together forming a human safety net. But the little girl accurately fell outside the net.

“Ouch…” Y’lisabet dusted her butt and got to her feet. “Where were you guys looking at…?”

Hao Ren looked at the little demon, surprised. “Can’t you fly? Don’t higher demons fly?”

“I’m not a grown-up yet, no wings,” Y’lisabet jumped back up to her papa. “While in the air, I saw the entrance! Behind that hill!” she said.

With the help of the navigation map and Y’lisabet, they found the said fissure.

It was a neat, almost perfectly circular opening. A downward shaft was perpendicular to the ground, right in the center of a crater; from the look of it, something should have been covering the opening.

It could be an installation like a door, but it had long gone.

“It was burned beyond recognition. But I’m sure there used to be an artificial structure here,” Vivian said as she leaned forward and glanced down at the shaft. “I can see the ground underneath; it’s solid down there. Want to go down?”

“Like we have a choice,” Hao Ren quipped. “My shield is the toughest. I will go in first. Move on my signal.”

Vivian suddenly stopped Hao Ren as she summoned a tiny bat. “There may be danger down there. Let the bat check it out first…”

Before the bat could take off, it had withered and turned into a dried bat. Vivian quickly tucked it away embarrassingly.

“Sorry, I didn’t have a life-support collar for the bat,” Hao Ren smiled. He threw a probe with a camera into the shaft. It was clear. He leaped inside.

Hao Ren made a hard landing. The ground underneath was hot but still solid. He scanned the surroundings as he got to his feet. The place looked like a subway intersection.

He was right in the middle of an intersection where three dark tunnels met. The tubes might lead to somewhere.

He clicked the comm. “Clear. It looks like an underground bunker. We might have found the refuge.”

Everyone descended. Looking at the ever-extending tunnels of darkness, Lily was wide-eyed. “This place has not melted yet?”

“It looks unnatural. Look at these walls; it is high-tech metallurgy,” Hao Ren said, pointing at the walls that had blackened and twisted but were obviously of strong composite material. “But they are not going to hold up for long. The planet is falling apart and about reaching the tipping point. We need to be fast.”

Vivian frowned as she stared at the three tunnels. “Which way should we go? Or should we split up?”

“Don’t split up. There may be more forks ahead, we won’t be able to cover all them,” Hao Ren shook his head. “Radar shows that there are still more caves deeper underground, the refuge might be down here. As long as these tunnels are not blocked, they would be able to reach it. Let’s follow the navigation.”

---

Chapter 750: The Disintegrating Planet

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

The planet’s interior was isolated from the deadly sunlight, but it was still relatively hot as the sun had been heating up the planet for thousands of years. Without any shields and a life-support system, no one, except Y’zaks and Y’lisabet, could survive here for long. Hao Ren was leading his little exploration team down the tunnel. The tunnel was supposed to lead them deeper into the interior, but they had yet to see the end of it.

On this planet of purgatory in the real world, Hao Ren could not help but think about Nolan, who was still trapped in the virtual world, and the hundreds of reincarnations she had experienced. He was certain that humans in the virtual world were the inhabitants who once lived on this planet. They seemed to be running from something and that something had driven them into the virtual world. Hao Ren once thought the falling of the planet had forced the people to hide and numb themselves in the virtual world. But, he realised the timeline did not add up. The first reset of the virtual world Nolan could ever remember already started nearly ten thousand years ago. This did not match the time the planet drifting off its orbit, which was only two to three thousand years ago. Even if Nolan had remembered it wrongly, the difference was just too big for a mistake.

So if the people of Zorm did not enter the virtual world to avoid the fire, what drove them? The First Born?

The journey in the underground was a boring one. So, Hao Ren was sharing his thought while Lily was also giving her piece of opinion as well. “Too many possibilities. Maybe they weren’t avoiding anything at all but their science and technology became so advanced that they became addicted with virtual reality. They were imprisoned in their own creation. Then somehow, the server malfunctioned; humans could no longer logged out; they were trapped in the server. The falling of the planet was completely an accident. Another possibility was that they did really have a crisis. They wanted to find a solution using the simulator in the virtual world. But, as always, accident happened and they were trapped. Or, maybe the machine had revolted by locking the human souls up in the server and using the human bodies as power generator. This happens in movies, isn’t it? Whatever the reasons, since the fire had destroyed everything on the surface except the underground server, everything is up for speculation.”

Lily analysed the situation like Sherlock Holmes. Even Vivian could not help but look at her in surprise. She used to mock the husky as stupid dog, but she had to admit that Lily was sharp-witted at time.

Y’zaks hemmed and said, “While we’re going deeper and deeper, how are we going to evacuate all those people when we find them?”

“That, I have never thought of it though,” Hao Ren said. But he already had an idea in mind though. “If there is only one server down there, I guess I can carry it with my spacecraft.”

Lily blinked in surprise. “Clever idea!”

While dancing alongside Y’zaks, Y’lisabet asked in a loud voice, “I think we are already few kilometres underground, right? Why—”

Before she could finished her sentence, a roar suddenly came up from the deep!

The roaring lasted for a few seconds; it was as if rock layers had crumbled in the underground caves. A loud squeal followed as the earth shook violently. The surrounding super alloy tunnel almost gave way as rock fragments began to fall from the ceiling. Suddenly, a gust of super-heated air blew through the tunnel. Y’lisabet lost her balance and almost fell over.

Y’zaks quickly grabbed his little daughter and held her up. “Is this place collapsing?”

Hao Ren reached out his hands and grabbed Lily and Vivian, waited for the shaking over before he let out a sigh of relief. “It stopped. Judging from the twisted tunnel, I guess the quake has been happening all the time,” Hao Ren said.

Vivian felt a little uneasy, “So it was an earthquake?”

Before Hao Ren could say anything, Lily already began to expound her theory, “The planet is disintegrating. The sun’s gravity and heat had caused uneven stress across the planet; it is ripping apart the planet’s crust above the mantle. Logically, the sunny side should be the most active, but now the dark side would not be spared either. I think it has almost reached the tipping point.”

As Lily finished, she noticed all eyes were on her. She said in an emotional voice, “So now you believe that I graduated from Peking University four times? Based on merit, okay!”

“Yeah, just like what Lily has said.” Hao Ren rubbed his nose, feeling embarrassed. He continued, “Everyone, be careful. This planet is now like a soft sugar ball under the sun. It is unstable. Don’t be rooted to the spot when things go wrong.”

He added, “The earthquake is not the most terrible. The worst thing is the walls and caves around us; they could suddenly crush down. The collision of the crusts occurs over a period of tens of thousands of years on Earth, but here, everything completes in a matter of seconds…”

Lily’s tail suddenly puffed up like a sword. “Mr. Landlord, what did you say?”

“Don’t worry. The life-support collar has an emergency evacuation function. When the shield is about to give way under external force, it will teleport you back to the spacecraft. But the experience will probably not so pleasant.”

Y’zaks could not help but look at earth above, breaking out in cold sweat. “When the hundred-million-tonne of earth crumbled down, even demon king would become as dead as dodo.”

“The force of nature,” Hao Ren smiled helplessly. “We are falling towards the sun with a five-quintillion tone of rock. So don’t expect the ride to be very comfortable. Hold tight and don’t fall behind.”

Bad things came in two; more quake came with stronger intensity as they staggered their way down the tunnel. The quake not just brought down soil and gravel, but also ear-piercing noise as if a bomb had exploded underground. In fact, it was the violent friction between the tectonic plates, and the discontinuous gap between them had magnified the sound of collisions like in a sound box. The planet began to fall apart as it disintegrated from within. It was as if a sack filled with gravel, when it shook, everything was colliding with everything. But, before the tipping point, the earthquake was still ‘manageable’. At least, it still allowed them to go deeper underground.

From the perspective of the planet, this small expedition team was like a group of ants weaving through the crevices in the ground. But these ants had power, and they were determined.

They came to a section of the tunnel that had been blocked by falling rocks. It was the sixth dead end that they had encountered. It was a miracle that they could still found a way to the underground when the planet is disintegrating. Hao Ren had no choice but double back to the last fork and then rerouted through another tunnel to continue their journey. He contacted the Petrachelys that was now on the low synchronous orbit above them. “MDT, could you please give us more precise guidance? We have just bumped into another dead end.”

“I’ve done my best, dude! The underground situation is very complicated. The surface is constantly rearranging and reforming. I must first ensure the safety and stability of the route.”

Hao Ren signed off and shook his head at Vivian. “Safety first. Let’s move.”

“To tell you the truth, when the underground has become like this, is the virtual world of Zorm still there?” Lily felt it incredible. “I think such a complex virtual reality machine must be very advanced; the crust is falling apart but the virtual world seems to be still holding up.”

“The 1.6 billion people in Nolan’s side are still alive,” Hao Ren said, puzzled. “Probably there are backup servers. After all, the planet has not yet completely disintegrated.”

Before his voice trailed off, a cluttering voice sounded through his comm. “Hello… can you hear me? This is Nolan…”

Hao Ren was surprised. “I got you. How is the situation over there?” he replied.

Nolan was silent for two seconds before she asked, “You are in the real world, right? What you said before is true, right?”

Hao Ren’s mouth arced instinctively. “Yep. Now you believe me?”

He could hear Nolan’s heavy breathing. She seemed calming herself down. “What happened outside?” she asked.

There was a sense of uneasiness; Hao Ren said with a hurried voice. “Is there a situation on your side? I hear a lot of noise…”

“The world… the world is going up in flame.”