The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 756

Chapter 756: First Conversation with the First Born

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

A program monitoring the virtual world—this was Nolan’s true identity.

Hao Ren found tons of information about the construction of the virtual world in the equipment in the cave, which contained information about Nolan. A flash of thought brought Hao Ren to do a background check on Nolan and revealed her identity.

The people of Zorm and the First Born had collaborated to build a huge virtual system that almost 100% mimicked the real world. The system consisted of two parts: the biological consciousness of the First Born and the AI of the machine. The biological consciousness of the First Born was the main body of the virtual world. The whole system was actually built in the dream of the ancient creature; the enormous mind power of the First Born could accommodate more than one billion human beings in the same dream. The machine’s AI was like an auxiliary component to maintaining the system, living in the machines that connected to the First Born, including the alloy cylinders and the array of servers deep in the refuge. These machines constantly monitoring the virtual world were the sentinels and nannies of the people of Zorm in the real world.

And, Nolan was one of the interfaces of the monitoring programme.

But, she did not aware about her identity because the earliest settings had changed her cognition. She was only living in this virtual world, experiencing everything in the virtual world the human way. Her perception was converted into a human perspective by the simulation. It was how the monitoring system determined whether the virtual world was still suitable for human, and Nolan’s mission was to be the ‘test probe’ in the virtual life.

Hao Ren did not know what the final task of Nolan was in the original plan because system error had corrupted this part of the information. Since the ‘return to reality plan’ of the people of Zorm had blown up in the face, studying the original trajectory of the virtual world was no longer meaningful. And, to be honest, this was not the time for this.

Under the guidance of the MDT, Hao Ren ordered the autonomous robots to plant more test probes on the ganglion of the First Born. This was supposed to strengthen the physical connection that allowed him to walk into the dream of the First Born without using the hibernation pod. He leaned on a tentacle, as close as possible to its nervous system. Then he told Lily and Vivian, “I’m going to talk face-to-face with it. You two keep an eye on things here.”

Lily asked in a loud voice, “Mr. Landlord, what if the cave collapses?”

Hao Ren shrugged. “Then we should run.”

“I thought you would rather die than run?” Vivian smiled, leaned down and patted Hao Ren’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. Unless the cave collapses, I will never let anything disturb you.”

Hao Ren made a V-gesture with his finger. He then leaned his head on the tentacle behind him, and muttered in his mind. “Activate the link.”

The quake and strange noises in the cavern receded as darkness closed in from all directions. Then, a strange burning and dull sensation surged toward him as if they were going to bury him. Hao Ren opened his eyes and found himself standing in a world of darkness.

It was a weird and bleak world, with black, white and grey forming everything in it. There were city ruins in the vast wilderness, naked skeleton and cement waste of buildings were what remained in the ruins. Like 3D models, everything lacked details and rendering. The structure was simple, the surface rough, and the randomness of these structures reflected a dreamlike grotesque feeling. There were no sun, moon and stars in the sky, and there was no light, only grey-white fog floating at high altitude covered the earth.

There was only one thing left in the faceless world; that was humans.

Humans were everywhere but lying on the desolate land. Their clothes had turned silky smooth, almost rubbery like inferior three-dimensional models. Their fresh was the only thing that still retained the intricate details, which suggested that the data of their souls had not dissipated. Hao Ren took a casual glance; the bodies seemed to be asleep and in a dream, their expressions calm with a weird smile on their faces, as if they had attained an eternal peace in their dream.

This was the euthanasia of worldwide scale; it was weird and certainly very creepy.

Hao Ren looked up and around for Nolan. He used Nolan as a springboard to enter this world; naturally, she should be nearby, and sure enough, he heard Nolan’s voice. “The sky has disappeared, the plants have disappeared, the colours have disappeared… The whole world has become lifeless…”

Hao Ren turned his head around at the sound, Nolan was sitting on a grey cube that could be a part of a building, but had now turned into an unpainted block. She raised her head slowly and looked at Hao Ren, her voice sounded as if she was sleep talking. “Why didn’t I sleep like them? Do you know what happened to this world?”

“The darkness before the dawn,” Hao Ren stepped forward and held Nolan’s hand, which seemed to cheer her up a little. “Do you trust me?” Hao Ren asked.

“What else can I do?” Nolan asked back.

“Open your heart,” Hao Ren looked into Nolan’s eyes. “I need you to be my springboard so that I can talk to the controlling consciousness behind this world. By doing so, you will feel that all your body and mind are as if being searched, but I assure you that I will not do anything to your mind, I just need you to be a bridge. It is difficult to explain, and I can’t explain it. Are you… willing?”

Nolan slowly blinked. As the machine in the real world was gradually collapsing and had affected her thinking. But she understood what Hao Ren said. She nodded slowly. “I don’t know what to do; it’s all your call.”

Hao Ren nodded quietly and commanded the MDT, “Open the login interface of Nolan, and switch on the translation mode.”

As the connection established, Nolan’s body shook a little, her eyes widened as if her soul had left her body. At the same time, Hao Ren felt that his spirit was suddenly brought to another massive, indescribable, almost invisible body of consciousness incomprehensible to human.

For the first time in history, a human had connected his mind with a First Born.

It was an unprecedented adventure and feat, because no one could stand before the mind power of the Guardian, let alone a direct connection. Even the spiritually strong monks in Holletta had gone mad by just hearing the faint voices of the First Born and the guardian giants; making direct mental connection with them was simply dicing with death.

But, there was sign that he was going mad. Despite he realised that he was connected to a complex consciousness no humans could not understand, this complex consciousness was not hostile.

The First Born was only observing this ‘little creature’ curiously, wondering why he had come suddenly. But, the First Born had sensed something familiar. One of them was the divinity of the goddess, Raven 12345’s reflection, while the other familiarity included the lifeblood, the Goddess Creation, and some other things that it could not comprehend.

Hao Ren seemed to have seen an endless light in an illusion, a cloud of shadows of indefinite shape, untold colours and sizes. He thought it was the First Born; in a form that his human mind could comprehend. He tried to talk to the shadow. “Can you hear me?”

A deafening silence ensued, as if it had lasted for a century before he finally heard a voice in the illusive space. “Pain.”

“Pain?”

“It hurts, it’s hot…” the voice seemed to be omnipresent. “I’m scared…”

Hao Ren froze, he knew this voice must be the thought of the First Born, but he had not expected it was so forthright, like a child.

“You are the guardian of this planet, aren’t you?” Hao Ren asked. He had quickly came out from the brief shock, but his voice sounded anxious. “I know you are very painful now, but please hang on a little longer. We’re looking for ways to take you—”

He was interrupted; the First Born seemed to have sunken into a state of chaos. The voice of its chaotic mind suddenly came down on him.

“Mother asked me to protect my brothers and sisters here, but since then Mother had never spoken to me…”

“Mother said that my brothers have gone mad. She asked me to hide the entire ecosystem…”

“I could only get everything back to the lifeblood, but why didn’t Mother tell me what to do next…”

“Outside is hot, very hot…”

“I didn’t hurt anyone. I’m just helping my Mother look after the garden…”

“Why didn’t Mother talk? Mother hasn’t talked to me for a long time…”

“I miss Mother; I really miss my Mother…”

The voice of the First Born was like a myriad of thoughts mixed together; it was noisy. The massive amount of thoughts almost ripped Hao Ren’s head apart, but just when he was about to be overwhelmed, the divine blessing of Raven 12345 suddenly woke him. Grasping this moment of sobriety, Hao Ren shouted probably the most powerful word under this circumstances. “I will take you to your mother!”

A group of voices spoke at the same time, “Mother?”

“Yep. We are also looking for the Goddess of Creation—your Mother,” Hao Ren said, shaking his head. “Something happened to her, she is currently sleeping deep in the universe. If you can hold on a little longer, I will take you to your Mother.”

“Who are you?” the First Born asked, finally awakening to the question.

“Who we are is not important. The most important thing is that we are helping you,” Hao Ren said. “This planet is falling towards the sun. But I have a spacecraft that can transfer your brain out. You save all the consciousness and soul of the people of Zorm in the brain… You do know about the brain, don’t you? It is the core of your mind, where all the memory is stored. I will take it to a safe place, so the problem will be solved. You will not die burning in the sun, you must trust me!”

The eldest son was silent for a moment. When it spoke again, there was a sense of regret in its voices. “No, it won’t work.”

“Why?”

“There is no brain…”

“What?”

---

Chapter 757: Sending Away Their Souls

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

The words only registered after a few seconds. “No-No brain? Isn’t that an important organ?”

The First Born did not say a word. Instead, Hao Ren felt a burst of confusion and a jumble of thoughts coming into his head. He thought he was being attacked again. But soon, he found many inexplicable memories and knowledge filling his mind. When he came to grips with what happened, he realized this was a more advanced way of communication: the First Born probably thought that verbal dialogue was too inefficient, so it shared its mind, knowledge and experience with him.

Hao Ren was stunned after browsing through the memories. “This is…”

The First Born on this planet had no brain because the brain had evolved into other form ten thousand years ago!

In normal circumstances, a mature First Born would have a number of brains but not more than ten. But, this one here was different. In order to accommodate the complex virtual world, and to achieve better compatibility with the programming language of the people of Zorm, the First Born had performed a planned transformation of its body. It broke down its own brains into numerous nerve clusters that spread evenly throughout the body. These extra nerve clusters could grow more nerve tentacles, which were the key organs connected to the machines. Dividing the brains into several small parts had another advantage: Backup! Even if disaster struck two-thirds of the planet, the remaining one-third of the nerve clusters could still maintain the integrity of the virtual world.

The First Born had essentially divided its brains and spread them all over its body. There were more than a million ‘mini brains’ scattered on every inch of the planet, and most of them were now surrounded by magma and sea of fire; they were dying en masse.

It was impossible to move it. Even if Hao Ren could find an interstellar engineering team now, it would take a long time to remove all the mini brains from the planet. The distributed arrangement of the brains were originally security measures against disasters, but now they had become the biggest obstacle to the preservation of the civilisation of Zorm and the First Born.

No one could have thought ten thousand years ago that the planet would suddenly fall towards the sun.

“What if abandoning the data of the virtual world and only compressing humans and your soul into a few ‘mini brains’? Would it work?” Hao Ren asked, desperately weighing options. “Isn’t the capacity of mini brains sufficient?”

“Mother once said that soul is the most complicated data. More than half of my mind is used to contain the souls,” the First Born replied. “Other details in the dream only occupy a very small space. So with or without these details is irrelevant.”

More than ninety percent of the First Born’s mental capacity was dedicated to hold the souls of a billion people of Zorm, and the rest of the virtual world, including mountains, rivers, and all other landscapes were insignificant. It was impossible to pack all the civilisation of Zorm in a compressed file.

An incoming message from the Petrachelys interrupted Hao Ren’s train of thought. “Buddy, the sun has set but the planet is seriously devastated, I’m afraid the communication link between you and the virtual world will not last. I’ve detected that the surge signal in the planet’s interior is weakening.”

“I want to sleep,” the First Born’s voice also spoke in Hao Ren’s mind. “I’m drained… it’s too hot here… I’m afraid human in the dream will also feel the situation in the real world. Just let me sleep. Everything will be fine after that. Mother will come back—”

“I said I will bring you to your Mother. I mean it!” Hao Ren cut in in a loud voice. There was a thought came to his mind. “Communication… communication… that’s right! There is a way!”

The First Born curiously observed him.

“Soul, in a sense, is also composed of bits and bytes, isn’t it?” asked Hao Ren, looking at the amorphous shadow in front of him. “If the people of Zorm could save their souls into your body through the machine, so in theory, the souls in your ‘brains’ could also be exported somewhere else!”

The First Born hesitated. “In theory… yes. But—”

“There is no but, as long as the theory is feasible, it is better than dying a euthanasic way,” said Hao Ren, glancing at the white light. “I can’t take the body, but I can take away all the souls! Send me the database and transcoding method of the virtual world; I will transfer the souls out to a safe place!”

The MDT was listening to the conversation, it suddenly chimed in. “Theoretically, this is possible. But, first, we need a massive storage; one billion souls and the First Born are no small amount. Where are you going to hold them?”

“There is one; CARS,” Hao Ren said. He felt that his mind was clearer than ever, his brain was in tiptop working condition. “It is a research station, designed specifically for the study of the First Born. Its storage capacity is several times larger than the brain of the First Born.”

“How are you going to send the data over?”

“Build a communication link. We have drone clusters; they can relay data from Zorm to CARS. We can also use the high-power antenna of the Petrachelys if bandwidth is insufficient. There is always a way.”

“What about the interface? How do you retrieve the First Born’s memory from Planet Zorm? You need a high bandwidth interface to do that, otherwise it is impossible to transfer all the soul of more than one billion people within just a few dozen hours.”

The MDT bombarded Hao Ren with so many questions that his mind suddenly seized. At this time, the First Born suddenly spoke. “Near the equator, there is a data release port with high data transfer rate. I can export the data from there… but I can only use it once, the sun will burn it once exposed.”

“Data release port?” Hao Ren asked in surprise. “What is that?”

“Brothers and sisters had thought of going back to the real world, but that was before the planet fell.”

Then it struck home; Hao Ren remembered the facility of the ‘return to reality’ programme that the First Born had mentioned before. He did not know that the facility was actually buried in the ground and still functioning.

He clapped his hands and said to the MDT, “Well, it seems we’ve finally sussed it out. Any other problem?”

“I have sent out instruction to the drone clusters and started writing the drivers needed for the data link. The only problem left now is time—Planet Zorm will disintegrate in thirty-six hours. Let us race against the sun.”

“I will outrun it,” Hao Ren arced the corner of his mouth slightly as he looked up at the shadow of the First Born’s soul. “Now I have to return to the real world to get things prepared but I will keep this communication link open. You know Nolan? The communication is linked through her. We have thirty hours, so—”

“I will do my best,” a voice sounded in Hao Ren’s mind. “Mother always tells us to see the mission through.”

Again, it was Mother said so.

Hao Ren smiled and quit this wonderful mental connection. Nolan’s emotionless face reappeared in front of him. The massive data overload had overwhelmed her mind. She could only vaguely make sense of what was happening right now without giving any meaningful reaction. Hao Ren knew it was not the time to talk nor explain. He held Nolan to sit down in a safe place and said, “I have to go now. Just hang on here.”

Nolan looked at him, finally nodded slightly.

As soon as Hao Ren came back out to the real world, Vivian and Lily scrambled to ask about the situation. Hao Ren motioned to them. “Leave all the autonomous robots here to keep the data link online. We need to go back on-board the spaceship.”

The autonomous robots gathered around the ganglion of the First Born, took over the position of Hao Ren and placed their mechanical arms on it.

A moment later, they were back in the flight deck of the Petrachelys. Hao Ren quickly came to the console. “MDT, what is the situation?” he asked.

“The drone clusters are moving closer towards here and have switched to the high-speed communication mode. The drones have limited bandwidth, so it’s necessary to design a dedicated link to ensure the transmission is successful. We will only know the exact bandwidth needed once the data is retrieved. The CARS’ capacity should be sufficient. But CARS lacks virtual reality program, we need to build a virtual world in the main computer on CARS to accommodate all the souls of Zorm people when the transfer is complete.”

“What about the communication link with the First Born?”

“Repositioning is completed. Now we rely on the autonomous robots to keep the link open,” the MDT said. It brought up the hologram on console, a faint glow and a few lines of text emerged; it was the First Born saying hi.

“The mind of the First Born is very different from ordinary creatures. The simple communication link couldn’t translate hundred-percent of its ideas and thoughts, so text is the best thing we can have now.”

---

Chapter 758: Zorm’s Final Day

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

When the Petrachelys issued its command, the drone clusters in different parts of the universe responded. They began to rapidly form a huge, ultra-high-speed data link. There were tens of thousands of drones, some of which were drawing star charts tens of billions of light years away, some building bases on desolate dark planets, others setting up posts and factories in space. Now, except keeping their fundamental functions going, they all stopped what they were doing and reorganise themselves to lay a massive communication network in the vast space.

Drones had limited bandwidth, so they all switched to the ‘weaving nest’ mode that was capable of ultra-high-speed data transfer. This mode would shorten the distance between drones but improved the efficient of data transfer. The drones became a relay network between Planet Zorm and CARS when they deployed their silvery white antennas in the cold, lifeless universe linking one to the other and waiting for the transfer of 1.6 billion souls.

The drones had just arrived above Planet Zorm but they already began to form a large antenna array swiftly but orderly. The large drones shinning in silver and white, shaped like a spaceship, were hovering over the imagery line between the star and Planet Zorm. They had assembled the large antennas they brought out from the drone base into a giant radio dish of one-kilometre radius. Drones were flying around to secure the antennas and power system in place before fixing themselves in the antenna slots. The minds of the drone clusters were directing all these complex and precise tasks; they were more flexible and efficient than any human spaceships were.

As the antenna array took shape, it refracted the dazzling light of the stars off its panels.

On the flight deck, Hao Ren was nervously monitoring the progress. But at the same time, he was worried about the situation on Zorm. The planet had just gone through another devastation as its sun had again ripped apart the planet’s crust; the refuge and the First Born were almost visible from the outside. The MDT might be the calmest of the lot. It dutifully reported the progress. “The drone link is eighty percent complete and will be ready in an hour. The spacecraft’s relay system is also in standby and read for action.”

The Petrachelys was hovering over the grey line of Planet Zorm, watching every moment of the sun burning the planet. Drones had gathered around the spacecraft, busily fixing themselves to the belly of the spacecraft and connecting instrument around the antenna of the spacecraft. The instrument looked like some kind of pipes and robotic arms. Part of the armoured belly of the Petrachelys was laid bare and exposing its complex internal. An ad hoc modification to the spacecraft was needed in order to retrofit a set of relay.

The MDT did have opinion regarding this. It warned, “I must emphasise that this is not in compliance with the safety practices.”

As the communication link took shape gradually, Zorm again ushered in its third round of sunrise. The world had twelve hours left.

People were pacing the flight deck anxiously. Even the tech idiot Nangong Sanba was on tenterhooks. Rollie who was clues of what happened initially began to sense the uneasy atmosphere as she quietly curled herself up under a chair. Hao Ren rested his hands on the console, waiting for the drones to complete the network.

At last, an ever-changing face appeared on the screen, it was the virtual interface of the drone clusters. The face reported in a cold, mechanical voice. “The drone’s data link is complete. Ready for transmission.”

“Ten more minutes,” the MDT said suddenly while showing the situation on the dark side of Zorm on the hologram. “Wait for the sun to set. The data link interface will have six hours of stable connection.”

The MDT rendered two shades of colours on Planet Zorm on the hologram. The sunny side was red while the dark side was blue. A round spot with a radius of a quarter of the radius of the planet was on the equator and was now entering the grey line into the dark; this was the ‘data release port’ that the First Born had mentioned. The people of Zorm had built it before they entered the virtual world; a soul transmission port they planned to use for their return to reality eventually. Hao Ren’s plan was to connect the Petrachelys to the transmission port and extract the data of the souls. During the process, the data release port would inevitably be exposed to the high temperature on the surface. The Petrachelys could withstand the temperature but not the organs of the First Born. If the data transfer happened during the day, the transmission would not be stable.

The MDT had done the math; it accurately calculated the speed of Planet Zorm’s rotation and the construction of the drone link. The data link was ready ten minutes before the ‘data release port’ crossed the grey line into the night.

The furious sea of fire receded behind the grey line under their watchful eyes. As the sun set, this side of the planet, darkness set in at the exact spot at the exact moment.

Hao Ren quickly said into the comm. “Open the data release port!”

A word showed up on the monitor. “Understood,” said the First Born.

Then Zorm began to ‘bloom’.

Just like a flower bud blooms, a spot on the equator suddenly rose up, and then the crust and semi-molten rock began to peel outward. Around the ‘blooming’ petals were living tissues pushing the crust out; the tentacles of the First Born was the force that caused the ‘bloom’ of the planet.

The scene looked magnificent in space. It was hard to imagine how the First Born had done this spectacular feat to the planet.

“This is a mature First Born…” Lily stared wide eyed in amazement, her voice a little quivering. “The ones in Holletta seem like kids in comparison.”

“There is no time to marvel,” Hao Ren said as he quickly issued another instruction. “The planet will weaken further when the crack is fully opened. It may collapse sooner than we thought. MDT, let all systems go online. It’s now up to you guys, drones!”

The Petrachelys carrying a bunch of ad hoc instrument with it quickly swooped down towards the ‘data release port’ in the crack. All the antennas of the drone clusters were deployed at the same time. By now, the massive ‘data release port’ on Zorm began to reveal itself.

It was difficult to describe in words. Living tissues, cables, and liquid and gas pipes entangled together like a human heart, just in a larger scale. It looked like the planet was pushing out its own heart as an ocean of red fluid was surging around the port. No test tube was needed, because Hao Ren had recognised it instantly; it was the lifeblood.

The people of Zorm might have planned to use the lifeblood for rebuilding the ecosystem and their own flesh. But, it never materialised.

The lifeblood rushed toward the living tissue around the ‘data release port’ and began to boil as soon as it was exposed. The Petrachelys was already low above the ‘heart of the planet’ as drones brought plugs and cables.

Hao Ren’s eyes fixed at the monitor. He had almost forgot to breathe during the few seconds of critical moment until a message popped up on the screen. “Connection established.”

The MDT was heard on the comm, “Transfer begins.”

Hao Ren nodded and turned to ask through the comm. “How do you feel over there?”

The First Born responded with a line of text ‘very good’ on the comm.

Nangong Wuyue saw the text and was surprised. “Is this really the First Born talking?” she asked.

“I was as surprised as you at first,” Hao Ren said. He knew what was in Nangong Wuyue’s mind. He smiled and continued. “This is how a rational First Born like; it’s a very gentle guy.”

Hearing what Hao Ren said, Vivian said thoughtfully, “That’s the reason why a gentle creature could become so violent when it leans the murder of its Mother. How do you plan to explain the fall of the Goddess to it, Mr. Landlord? It seems… It’s still in the dark.”

Hao Ren shook his head with a forced smile. “We will cross that bridge when we come to it.”

“Sooner or later it is about to find out. We should tell it,” Lily looked at Hao Ren with a serious face. “Probably we do it as euphemistically as possible.”

Hao Ren nodded silently and turned to look at the scene outside.

This was the final day of Zorm.

---

Chapter 759: Hold On Until the Last Moment

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

In the bright sunlight, a planet was rapidly ushering in its demise.

The sunny side of Zorm was erupting like fireworks; rock layers were melting, and there was cracking as well as vaporization occuring. The planet was being torn apart by gravity, and pulled into space towards the sun. The planet gave away its mass as it rotated, marching towards the end in the most spectacular way. In the dark side of Zorm, a bridge of life was trying to save the civilization that once lived on this planet six hours before the planet was about to end its existence.

The strata around the equator blossomed like a flower bud when countless giant tentacles existing between the realm of plants and animals broke through the surface and pushed the planet’s crust up and outwards so high that the crust became taller than the highest mountain on this planet. In the centre of the ‘bud’ were a mass of flesh, blood, plants and machine, the red glow that it emitted was now the most striking light on the dark side of Zorm.

This entire structure was like a giant flower bloomed in a world that was fall into the hot sun.

The Petrachelys was like a silver bird, which dexterously hovering at the heart of the ‘flower of life’. It had many cables and pipes connecting to heart of the planet, as if a hummingbird sucking up honey, retrieving the souls of 1.6 billion people of Zorm,

A drone flying over the planet had taken a photo of this spectacular, rare scene and sent it back to the inspector communication platform.

It was normal for inspectors to post their images from their missions on the platform. Hao Ren was now accustomed to this habit. It was not show off his achievements—there was no need to show off in front of his peers, he posted the images just to keep tract of his journey, record every civilisation and scenery. Because these sceneries could have disappeared very soon.

He did the same for Zorm.

“The transfer is in progress. The bandwidth is just enough,” the MDT said. It was keeping an eye on the transfer of the souls. “Thanks to the Empire Technology; we already knew how to transcode the soul since thousands of years ago, otherwise it would be a hassle to upload and download the souls.”

What would happen had Hao Ren not laid the drone clusters earlier? He almost broke out in cold sweat when he thought about that.

“Just admit it that you just want to show off,” Lily gave Hao Ren a sideways glance and then wagged her tail. “But then… it shows your far-sightedness. Just that nobody could see that in you.”

Hearing that, Vivian smiled wryly. “By the same token, we also have never thought that you could graduate from Peking University four times.”

As things went smoothly, the atmosphere on the flight deck eased up as everyone began cracking jokes. But, Hao Ren’s eyes had never left the console. He was holding his breath during this critical moment.

The time passed so slowly that it was almost unbearable. Hao Ren did not know how long he had been staring at the console. He only knew that he had only taken a short break when Vivian brought him a cup of tea. But he returned to the captain’s seat very quickly. 1.6 billion human-souls plus the soul of a First Born, the amount of data was staggering. Even though the drone clusters had optimised the transfer method, it would not be able to complete the transfer in a very short time. Six-hour window gradually closed but the transfer still stood at ninety percent. The atmosphere on the flight deck became tense again. Lily fixed her eyes on the monitor, a fireball refracted in her eyes.

“The sunrise!”

Throughout the transfer process, the Petrachelys was hovering in synchronous orbit above the data release port. As the planet rotated, it had now come back to the position where the spot would greet the sun again. A blindingly bright and hot wall of fire began to appear in the horizon.

The MDT sounded in desperation. “Final five percent!”

The magnificent sunshine had appeared on the horizon. A ring of fire was closing. But that was not real flame but a light curtain produced when the steam spurted up into the sky and refracted the sunlight. The temperature of this wall of steam was even more terrible than fire as it moved toward the data release port and ablated everything on its path!

And, accompanying the wall of fire was the even deadlier gravity of the star. Watching on the screen, the distant horizon was like a carpet rolling up as uncountable amount of debris rose and floated towards the sun. The shocks had even begun to damage the structure of the data release port. Earth was collapsing around the ‘flowers of life,’ and huge pit was forming one after another. The tentacles inside the data release port were rapidly turning greyish and died as the sun finally burned through all the protective layers and killed the ancient creature en masse.

Its central nervous system was still working tenaciously. The progress bar on the screen was still moving albeit slowly. But, undoubtedly it was still progressing!

“Three percent to go!”

Daylight continued to close in, and the shell of the Petrachelys began to dye with a golden red light. The fragile tissue inside the data release port was now exposed to the sunlight completely. Without the cover of the earth, everything began to go up in flame.

“One percent to go!”

The First Born’s tentacles were burning. But the burning process was weird and shocking due to the thin oxygen. Hundreds of kilometres of tentacles glowed under the sun, and then turned into coke in an instant. The process happened so fast that it was threatening the ‘heart in the core of the data release port. The ‘heart’ was alive; all residual energy around the planet was channelled into it as it was sending the last bit of data to the Petrachelys.

But, at this critical moment, the MDT suddenly screamed. “It’s stuck!”

Hao Ren could not really get what it meant. “What you meant ‘stuck’?

A group of garbled data flashing across the holographic display. The MDT locked in to one of the entries. “It’s Nolan! Her data is incompatible with the communication links!” the MDT cried out.

By now, sunlight had shone into the base of the ‘heart’. The heart quickly withered and died under the high temperature. Tendons rose on the surface of the unknown tissues and organs before they burst into a mixture of lifeblood, electrolytes, industrial oils, and flesh fragments. Vivian became even more anxious then Hao Ren did. “What happens?” she asked.

“The drone’s data link was configured to into soul transfer mode, we have only registered the soul code of the people of Zorm and the First Born,” the MDT explained quickly. “But Nolan is an AI!”

Hao Ren became to come to his senses.

Though Nolan lived in the virtual world, she was not a member of the world at all, or more accurately, she was not a living creature.

Her soul belonged to machine that kept the First Born alive.

The done clusters’ data link could only transmit the soul of carbon-based creatures. The system had forgotten to leave Nolan an escape route!

This was like forcing data to be sent across an incompatible network. When the data arrived at the destination, it became a bunch of garbled characters.

And, even if the forced transmission was successful and the data of Nolan was sent to the CARS, what was left was only a memory: a compressed file containing all the memory of Nolan. But, without soul, it was like a program without an execution file, the program would not run. Others might be able to read the life story of Nolan, but no matter how you read them, the girl named Nolan would never give a response again.

Hao Ren looked at the collapsing data release port; he was rooted to the spot. But his mind was still working as he squeezed out his last bit of wisdom and asked the MDT aloud, “Is transmission protocol compatibility the only problem? No problem in saving the data, right?”

“Correct…” the MDT was a little baffled. What do you want to do?”

Hao Ren did not reply but quickly entered the last instruction on the console.

At this moment, he began to appreciate his effort in the past; now all the knowledge had come in handy, as he needed them to use the high-tech instrument.

When the last instruction was being carried out, sunlight finally shone on the data release port, completely engulfing the last living tissue of the First Born in flame. A few seconds later, the data release port exploded.

All the parameters on the console returned to zero. Everything was over.

---

Chapter 760: Survived

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Zorm was finally torn apart amid tremor and explosion.

The death of the First Born led to the end of the planet a few hours in earlier than expected. The underground tentacles released all their raw energy as a powerful force from the ancient times swept across the planet. Under the watchful eyes of the drones and the inspector, a burst of bright light began from the equator of Zorm, and the red light spread along the cracks on the surface before the planet shattered into millions of pieces and fell towards the sun. All that happened I just a minute.

In the sea of debris, there was a faint dot that blown out from the core of the planet. The dot burst into a flash a light before disappeared entirely.

It was the core energy station of the people of Zorm. The last relic of the civilisation had now gone forever.

The drones on the orbit did not give a hang about the scene. They had carried out the command and were now packing up. The drones under the control of a mother drone disassembled the radio dish—just like how they did the assembly but in a reverse order—and left the place through the space doors. The silvery white inspector spacecraft was still hovering on the original orbit of Zorm, facing its nose toward the sun as it watched the planet that was once a cradle of life finishing its final journey. After the last fragment of the planet vaporised in the sun, the Petrachelys turned around, a silvery-white, rectangular object flashing in lights came out of the hatch on its belly and began to go around the sun in the original orbit of Zorm.

Everything that the civilisation had ever created had vanished. They did not have the ability to build their own monument. So the little monument commemorating the cradle that once hosted life was launched on behalf of the people of Zorm in memorial of their former home.

After accomplishing this last task, the Petrachelys opened up a space door and jumped into the curvature space bubble.

The spacecraft left the darkness behind and came before the CARS that glimmered in space. Hao Ren ordered the spacecraft to dock at the Sky Bridge 1 and connect the on-board main computer to the CARS main host. He just wanted to see for himself the data transfer was fine despite the drone clusters had given him the confirmation earlier.

“The database is up. The soul of the one-point-six billion Zormese and the friendly First Born are all intact,” the MDT reported. “The human souls are currently in frozen state. It is best not to wake them up before we could create a suitable virtual world for them. The soul of the First Born seemed a little exhausted but it is in good shape. You should be able to ask it questions soon.”

“I want to see it now,” Hao Ren said as he watched the door on the sky bridge connecting the main structure of CARS slowly slid opened. He lowered his head and said to the MDT, “Is the communication link ready? We don’t need to go through Nolan this time, do we?”

“No, we don’t. We are using our own database now. I have created an administrator account, you will get clearer communication link with the First Born.”

“Good. Oh, by the way, please let the giant know that I will see him in a while. Vivian, Lily, and others, you can come along if you want since there is not much to do here on the spacecraft. But MDT, you will have to stay on board and provide remote support.”

As Hao Ren was leaving the flight deck, the MDT suddenly said, “I still need to remind you that during the mission, you have violated a total of sixteen safety protocols, especially the last one. If not for lack of authority, I would have revoked your pilot license…”

Hao Ren shrugged it off without even looking back. “Hell yeah, I didn’t even have a pilot license.”

Then as they left flight deck. Rollie got Lil Pea out from her pot, placed her on her head and trotted following from behind. “Big Boss Cat! Have I not been a good girl this time? Where is my little dried fish?” the silly cat said.

The central hall of the CARS was still the same as before, it was radiating with lights, solemnity and luxury. The crystal was exuding an elegant, mysterious yet cold and alienated atmosphere. Hao Ren let Rollie play with Lil Pea while he came to the crystal hill in the centre.

The crystal hill emanated with light when it sensed its master’s presence as the host computer called up a new database named ‘Zorm’. Hao Ren was looking at a hologram of the scene of clear blue sky, clear water, and white clouds. It was so beautiful that it was almost unreal. Endless grassland was dotted with lakes and rivers that reflected the blue sky above in them. It looked like a dreamland.

“This is what the home was like,” a slightly neutral voice sounded in the hall. “That’s Mother’s garden. It is beautiful. Mother always likes it.”

Hao Ren was startled slightly before he realised it was the First Born. They had a new connection in CARS. He could now hear the First Born’s voice very clearly.

Then he remembered where he had heard the same voice.

When he was still in the virtual world of Zorm, travelling to the ruins of the north and crossing the Grey River with the Grey Fox mercenaries, he had heard a voice talking to him while he was half-awake. It was the exact voice!

“Was that you?” Hao Ren asked in surprise. “You spoke to me when I was near the Grey River?”

“Yes. It was me,” said the First Born. It was very candid. “I knew you were coming from the outside world and I feared that your spirit would die in my dream, so I wanted to warn you.”

“Oh, I see,” said Hao Ren. It was a surprise. It sounded incredible to him. “I didn’t know that. If I did, we would have talked and the situation wouldn’t have become so critical.”

The First Born did not respond; it seemed it could reply to a ‘hypothetical question,’ or maybe it was just simply not interested in the conversation.

Hao Ren shifted his attention on the hologram. It showed the memory of the First Born in Zorm; it was a lush world before the disaster. Looking at the beautiful, almost fairy-tale world, Hao Ren could not imagine this planet was the one that had turned into hell under the grilling fire of the sun. In hesitation, he asked, “Are you going to rebuild it in the virtual world, or—”

“I just want to see it,” said the First Born. The reply was plain and simple. “I used to take good care of the garden, so I want to keep these pictures and show Mother when she comes back.”

Hao Ren was startled a little. He then steered away the conversation. “I still don’t quite understand how I got into your dreams. When I first got in, I didn’t make any connection with you, I was just sleeping. Do you know what was going on?”

“I think… you have something that resonates with me, and that’s probably the reason.”

The reply was unexpected. Hao Ren was just thinking of avoiding conversation about its Mother, he did not want to face the heavy topic of the fall of the Goddess of Creation just yet. “Resonance? What kind of resonance? I had tried to bring my friends into the virtual world but failed. Do you know what was going on?”

“I don’t know about others, but you…” the First Born paused. “You must have lifeblood in your body. I can feel that you are similar to me. I don’t know why you look like you are but… are you also a guardian that Mother has created?”

Hao Ren froze. He exchanged a look with Vivian. “The lifeblood is flowing in my body? Really?” he asked.

Vivian blinked and said, “Well, I didn’t know that.”

What the First Born said had baffled them all. Hao Ren felt that there might be some misunderstanding here, probably a sequel of two thousand years of sunbathing. At this time, Lily’s eyes flickered as something suddenly cross her mind. “Oh yes! I’m afraid the lifeblood is indeed in your body! Have you forgot about the Branding Ritual in Holletta? You have absorbed the lifeblood in your body!”

The incident crossed his mind but Hao Ren immediately felt something did not add up. “Didn’t we find lifeblood dissipating very quickly? It should not have remained in my body.”

Vivian’s brows knit together. “That’s just on the material level. Physically, the lifeblood had indeed gone, but I’m afraid there was something more than physical… perhaps it had interfered you spiritually, such as it let you walk into the dream of the First Born.”

Hao Ren placed his hand on his chest instinctively. “Damn… it sounds very creepy,” he said.

The conversation continued for a while before the First Born suddenly asked, “I’ve already answered you many questions. Can you tell me where Mother is now?”