The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 921

Chapter 921: The Goddess with the Long Name Seems to be More Sensible

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

He thought that after knowing Raven 23333 and Raven 12580, he would not be surprised anymore to meet another goddess with a serial number in their names. But he was wrong; he was rooted to the spot. He did not expect there were so many goddesses by the name of Raven, whose serial numbers were now as long as telephone numbers. He counted the number of digits in the goddess’ name, his eyes spinning. “How many of you are there?”

“Why do people always ask me this?” Raven 15431516836 buried her face in her hand, sighing. “Maybe I should seriously consider giving myself a more recognizable name.”

Hearing that, Hao Ren knew he was not the first one surprised by the number of the goddesses. He thought for a while, and he was very curious about how the goddesses of the Raven series distinguished from each other, if at all; and how the devotees differentiated them. It was not easy for the popes under these goddesses to identify the faith of the believers. If not being careful, the believers might not be able to remember the serial number of their gods and called the wrong number while they prayed.

Suddenly, Hao Ren was feeling it fortunate that his own goddess’s name was a lot easier to memorize. If he were to be under some goddess with a name longer than his identification card, a number idiot like him would have called the wrong number every time he prayed.

Raven 15431516836 watched as Hao Ren was rooted to the spot. She could not help but ask, “Can you tell me your purpose in coming here?”

“Oh.” Hao Ren pulled his though back, thinking to himself that as he was before another true goddess, he must not humiliate the stature of the chief cleric of the EN35 node of the Space Administration in Bastard Barrio. “It is about the Plane of Dreams and the Goddess of Creation. Have you heard about them?”

“Of course, Senior 12345 has already told me about that.” Raven with the long name nodded. “I know everything about them.”

“That would be easy.” Hao Ren immediately reported on his experience in the Ancattero territory. As this goddess was a stranger to him, he sounded a little bit awkward and formal and did not mention too many details. Raven 15433516836 seemed to be okay with that as she listened very carefully. When Hao Ren finished, she clapped her hands, and the surroundings changed in a flash of light. Before he knew it, he found himself and Vivian standing in a very spacious gray-white space, which had no boundaries and visible form, and the grayish-white ground under their foot seemed to extend infinitely into all directions.

“Let me see the Gilded Disc.” Raven 15431516836 whispered, her voice sounded very pleasant to the ear.

Hao Ren released the Gilded Disc from the dimensional pocket. This thing occupied most of his field of vision, and the feeling of emptiness of the space was significantly reduced. He pointed to the dark-red marks on the edge of the Gilded Disc. “This is the divine blood stain.”

The black contaminant on the Gilded Disc had disappeared completely. What was gone was only the original sin but the divine blood itself remained. What attracted Raven 15433516836, however, was the papers on the Gilded Disc. “What is this?”

Hao Ren awkwardly explained that this was his makeshift seal. He scratched his head and continued. “I didn’t have time to think at that time, so I had to improvise. This thing is pretty good though.”

Raven 15433516836 was stunned a little before she let out a sigh. “How I wish my pope could think on his feet as you did,” she lamented.

Hao Ren forced a smile, thinking to himself that he would not have to do that if his goddess was less dippy.

“Now these seals are no longer needed.” After carefully examining the state of the Gilded Disc, Raven 15433616836 reached out and pulled down the contract papers. There were no more shadows on the Gilded Disc. Then the goddess drew a few runes above the Gilded Disc. The runes entered the Gilded Disc and dispelled the last traces of negative forces on it.

A gentle sound was heard coming off the surface of the disc, and the disc began to emit a pure radiance, with a sense of sacredness, like the disc that Hao Ren brought back from the Gate of Solenne.

Raven 15431516836 exhaled softly. “It’s just a carrier. Removing the contaminants on the carrier is very easy.”

Hao Ren understood she meant, and he nodded. “Yeah, it’s been confirmed that the curse of the original sin on the Gilded Disc has spread to the Wall of Reality and on all the races 10,000 years ago. Now the sin is mainly concentrated in the blood of the otherworldlings. Can these remnant forces be purified?”

“We can use purify non-living things by force,” Raven 15431516836 said while pointing to the disc. “But living things are difficult. The curse of the sin must have changed upon entering the mortal blood veins. Now it is no longer a contaminant but a part of their life. Purifying them would destabilize their order in nature. But worry not as I heard that their innate hostility has begun to weaken, this original sin would disappear over time.”

“Well, at least we’ve got the disk is purified,” Hao Ren said while shrugging. He could not have asked for more. “Thank you.”

“No problem. Purifying the disc itself is not a big deal, and your ‘seal’ has done most of the purification work,” Raven 15431516836 said with a soft smile. “I have collected some dried blood samples. I’ll hand the specimens to Senior 12345 when she comes back. After all, she is the one in charge of this job, and you have to wait for her to wrap things up.”

“That is to say; I can take this disc back?” Hao Ren was startled for a while before he figured out what the goddess said; she only needed the specimens. Hao Ren initially thought that for such an important artifact, he must hand it over to Raven 12345 for safekeeping.

The more experience one has, the more cautious one becomes. Hao Ren used to be a pup, but now he was more observant and able to think on his feet. He felt that divine blood-tainted Gilded Disc was fundamentally different from what he had got in the past, that he should not dispose and study it at will—and he did not think that he could get anything out of it.

After all, he still could not figure out the untainted disc, which he had left in the CARS as a talisman, after all.

Raven 15433616836 smiled. “Of course, you can. You can even touch it and analyze it however you like.”

“I don’t have to hand over this important artifact?” Still, Hao Ren could not help but ask.

“For us, we only need to touch the artifact to extract all the samples we need,” Raven 15431516836 replied. “Senior 12345 has specifically mentioned that she left it to you to handle everything about the Plane of Dreams, including all types of important physical evidence and resources, except for what she had specifically marked. Though I don’t get why she thinks so highly of you, I guess she has her reasons.”

Raven 15433516836 seemed to be a very easygoing goddess, and she could read Hao Ren’s mind and be happy to answer the questions that Hao Ren was too embarrassed to ask. Hao Ren was slightly confused upon hearing what the goddess said, but he did not ask further.

Raven 12345 had made tons of mysterious decisions, and making one more was not too many.

Then, Hao Ren turned his head around and glanced at Vivian. The second important reason why he came here with the vampire maiden today was to ask Raven 12345 for help to examine her if she had also been tainted with the original sin. But his superior was not here, so he was hesitant whether he should bother the goddess with the long name whom he met for the first time.

“Anything else?” Raven 15433616836 asked curiously.

Whatever it might be, Hao Ren had made up his mind. He pushed Vivian forward. After all, Raven 12345 might not necessarily be more sensible than this smiling goddess. “It about her. I don’t know if you’ve heard from Raven 12345. This is Vivian, the creation of the Goddess of Creation in blood. Theoretically, she is identical to the blood on the Gilded Disc.”

He swallowed and continued. “I need you to examine Vivian to see whether she also carries the Sin of the Divine Blood.”

There was one question that he did not say aloud: Had Vivian become the original sin?

---

Chapter 922: The Operation of Raven 12345

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Before this, Raven 12345 had already performed a bodily check on Vivian more than once. At that time, Hao Ren had not been able to find the original blood of the Goddess of Creation, and the examination of Vivian only focused on her physical health. Since Hao Ren had the Gilded Disc and corrupted Goddess’ blood, they might be able to have a deeper understanding of Vivian.

It is a shame Raven 12345, who was familiar with this case, had reported back to home. Only Raven with a name as long as telephone number was holding down the fort. No one knew how well this goddess knew about the situation, but it seemed that Hao Ren had no other choice but to make do with it and see if this goddess could help.

Raven 15433616836 glanced at Vivian and nodded slightly. “Let’s see what I can do.”

Then she gently snapped her fingers, and lights as pure as crystal appeared in the surrounding space. These lights quickly reorganized, and in the blink of an eye, became a sequence of runes that spun in a circle. The goddess gestured to Vivian and said, “Stand in the middle of the rune and relax. Tell me if you feel uncomfortable.”

Vivian did whatever the goddess instructed. Hao Ren could not help but think of how Raven 12345 examined Vivian. He still clearly remembered his superior was using a piece of advanced medical equipment. He mumbled, “When Raven 12345 first examined her, she was using a medical pod.”

Raven 15431516836 smiled. “I’m different from her, my brain is fine.”

Hao Ren was dumbstruck.

It looks like Raven 12345’s aberrant behavior had been a household name.

Vivian stood in the middle of the circle of runes and waited patiently without looking sideways, appearing a little nervous though Hao Ren was even more nervous. Hao Ren watched as Raven 15431516836 touched the runes, which then lit up one after another like a star. Every scowl and blink of the goddess had his heart racing; he had never been as worried about Vivian as it was today. It was all because of the association that Lily made. Hao Ren was worried that Vivian would be like the Gilded Disc becoming the original sin carrier.

The examination took only minutes, but it felt like centuries to Hao Ren and Vivian. Raven 15431516836 removed the runes and sighed softly. “I didn’t find anything similar to the corrupted blood on the Gilded Disc, but I don’t rule out the possibility of an unidentified mutation,” she said.

Hao Ren breathed a sigh of relief, somewhat. “You couldn’t see any signs of corruption?” he asked.

“Though her blood and the blood on the Gilded Disc are both sacred blood, not all types of blood are corruptible.” Raven 15431516836 smiled. “The original sin is an extraordinary thing; it’s invisible, without physical form, has no rules to how it takes effect. So anything is possible,” she explained.

“But Vivian shows signs of mania every once in a while, and has inexplicable memory loss,” Hao Ren’s brows knit together. “Amnesia and madness, which are exactly the symptoms of the Sin of the Divine Blood. The affected races had manifested this memory loss and madness symptoms,” he said.

Vivian sullenly groaned. “They just lost their memories once, but I had that serially. They didn’t hurt their men when they were mad, but I could even self-mutilate. What’s wrong with me?” she said.

“You don’t have that smell of the original sin in you,” Raven with the name as long as a telephone number said, appearing serious. “Perhaps the corruption happens in a deeper part in you, and then it will be hard to tell,” she said.

Vivian exhaled. “Forget it. Let’s wait until 12345 comes back. There hadn’t been a major problem with my body for the past ten thousand years anyway,” she said.

It was amazing how positive the bat demon’s thinking was, Hao Ren thought, as people would scramble to the hospital even though they just lost their memory once. She lost hers dozens of times and was still be able to keep a level head. It had become an attitude of her entirely. It seemed that she would be content as long as she lived.

Hao Ren tucked the Gilded Disc, which had been purified. He felt that in the absence of Raven 12345, many things were still left hanging in the air. Just before he went, he asked curiously, “I want to ask some questions. You can ignore me if they are classified. Was there anyone handling the Plane of Dreams case before me? As a rookie, I am entrusted to handle all matters in the entire universe. Is there such a precedent in the Space Administration? Raven 12345 has never told me about this.”

“Though I am not the management god of this universe, I do know a little about it though I’m not in charge of this universe,” said the mobile-number Raven slowly. “You are the first inspector handling the matter. Before you, the Plane of Dreams was not a concern; it was only a natural phenomenon. Though it was very unstable, no one had ever taken it seriously. Things only got worse in recent years. As for whether a recruit could handle the job, to be honest, there have been precedents, but I have questions about your appointment to handle this matter. Of course, I know you’ve been doing quite well for the last couple of years. I’m not sure if it was pure luck or any other factors, you’d solved many problems that only veterans would encounter. I doubt your ability though. I don’t understand why 12345 senior has chosen a recruit like you. She doesn’t even let another inspector intervene,” she said.

Hao Ren thought for a moment, “Perhaps something is wrong with her brain,” he said.

He quickly jumped to the side after saying that. Of course, it was just a precaution. As it turned out, he did not have to do that; the great consciousness of the universe did not even blink an eye, let alone divine wrath.

It seemed that talking about whether Raven 12345 was neurotic was not blasphemy.

The mobile-number Raven just kept her usual smile and looked at Hao Ren, shaking her head. “I don’t know, but she has her reason and never made a decision at whim. So I would rather believe that she chose you for a reason.”

Hao Ren thought for a while. He then conveyed his gratitude to the mobile-number Raven before heading home with Vivian.

After Hao Ren and Vivian had left, Raven 15433516836 stood quietly in this turbidly gray space for a long time, as if meditating and was unaware of the passage of time. After a long moment, a wave of ripples suddenly appeared in the air, awakening her from her thoughts.

She looked up. The water ripples condensed and the visual of a female figure that looked identical to her appeared. She smiled and said, “12345 senior, you’re done with the business in the divine realm?”

“Almost, I will be back in two days,” Raven 12345 waved in the visual. She looked exactly like 15433516836; they were like the mirror image of one another. What set them apart though was their temperaments; the sense of incongruence was not ordinarily strong. “I have just gone to the camp of the Scorpion Army, it was exciting. Do you want to try?”

15431516836 ignored her psychotic senior and talked business. “Today, an inspector named Hao Ren came to see you. I’ve met him on your behalf.”

“Oh? Hao Ren? Did he make a discovery?” Raven 12345 appeared interested. “I tell you what; he’s got talent! I’ve never seen anyone like him; he is a freak magnet, absolutely the kind of whiz who would bump into Martian invaders on the way to buy grocery in the stores across the street. Two years on the job, he had been blowing things up wherever he went. Now, his CV rivals those of the veterans who have hundreds of years of experience. Oh yeah, what was he doing here?”

“He has collected the blood specimen of the Goddess of Creation; not that of after the evolution but directly came from the Goddess of Creation herself. Her blood that was splattered during the deicidal incident.”

Raven 12345 suddenly froze. After a long while, she said, “That’s why I said, he’s got talent.”

“I’ve got the specimen waiting for you to come back for analysis. There is also the Gilded Disc, which I’ve let him take away after I purified it as per your instruction,” Raven 15431516836 reported matter-of-factly. “How about you? Have you found the ‘source’?”

“Timelord and the Warsong Princess have been ruled out. The two bosses have never lost their power nor avatar, and I’m still in the midst of identifying the others. The Void-T Quadrant isn’t quite peaceful recently, half of the bosses have gone there. I can’t badger them to come back to make an identification, isn’t it?”

Raven 15433616836 nodded solemnly, then a little curious. “What is happening on your side? Why am I hearing someone was knocking?”

Raven 12345 guffawed. “Did I not say tell you that I’d gone to the scorpion’s barrack? They are now smashing my door. I tell you what, it’s exciting— Oh shit, when did you get in here? Don’t be angry, calm down. I was kidding… Oh wait, please don’t!”

---

Chapter 923: Resonance

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Upon returning from the territory of Ancattero, Hao Ren found that he could no longer stay at home like he used to. After every mission, no matter how heroic and thrilling it was, as soon as he got home, he would turn back into a dawdler, doodling with the cat, fishing, walking the dog, and developing nutrition plans for the demons in the house according to the Animal World documentary. That was how Hao Ren trifled away his free time. But this time, he was unsettled. The Sin of the Divine Blood and the memory of the deicide were lingering in his mind. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the scene where the Goddess of Creation dropped to the ground. It made him devote himself entirely to his work as if he had become diligent suddenly.

Though Hao Ren was very skeptical about whether he could get anything out of the Gilded Disc, as long as he kept himself busy, he could find serenity in his work.

Crapple Research Station, CARS.

Hao Ren frequently came to the space station to check on the state of the Gilded Disc in the past few days. He had sent both discs to the general laboratory in the space station, where they were subjected to a series of tests and structural analysis.

He was mostly alone or with Vivian checking on the situation here for the past few days. Today, however, no one in the house had anything to do. Even the Nangong’s restaurant closed for a day. So all the demons and creatures were tagging along to the CARS. They wanted to see what Hao Ren was busy about lately.

Yeah, even Rollie had come. She was not interested in Hao Ren’s work. She just thought that after everyone was gone, no one would feed her at home.

The Gilded Disc was in one of the relatively large laboratories, which was a large oval room located below the second crystal tower of the CARS. This room, like the rest of the space station, was also built using clear crystals, filled with streamer and wonderful sounds as if a mysterious crystal cave. A newly constructed suspension platform was in the center of the laboratory. Two translucent and round crystal test benches with a diameter of more than ten meters were here, where the Gilded Disc was floating above and undergoing a series of external stimulation to verify its mechanism of operation.

Around the Gilded Disc were a large number of crystal prisms floating and slowly circling the platform. These crystal prisms were connected by light, seemingly scattered, but they were an array of precision sensors.

“Time: XXXXXX, the seventeenth resonant phenomenon test, all recording devices are turned on, and the main capacitors will be charged in one minute.”

As the lab host reported the status of the test with a synthesized sound, the platform below the two Gilded Discs also lit up. Some tiny electric sparks began to jump along the prisms around the disc, and a fantastic but strange sound like that of the wind echoed in the room. Hao Ren and Vivian stood as close as possible to the discs and curiously observed what would happen next. Behind them, Lily and Rollie, bored, squatting and playing a tail spinning game to see who could break the speed record. They were very enthusiastic when they came, but when serious works began, they entered into a doodling mode.

“Do you both come here to play your tails?” Wuyue’s arms akimbo and looked at Lily and Rollie. “It’s fine since the cat has just transcended. But how old are you, Lily?”

“What could we do other than fiddling with our tails?” Lily said matter-of-coursely. “I have not a clue what Mr. Landlord is doing. What is so special about the two plates that we have to come to look at them? I thought there was something fun, but it is charging these two things.”

Hearing that, Hao Ren explained casually, “I have recently discovered that these two Gilded Discs have some strange phenomena.”

“Phenomena?” Nangong Wuyue asked with a curious face.

“They will resonate and produce different resonant modes under different conditions, just like tuning forks transmit sound waves to each other,” Hao Ren said, pointing to the discs. “When striking one of them with energy, sometimes the other will release the same energy, and sometimes the energy of the opposite disk is absorbed out of thin air, but in any case, the energy flow channel between them is completely invisible.”

“That’s strange,” Wuyue scratched her hair. She had no idea about what Hao Ren was talking. “What does this mean?”

“The Gilded Discs are not running independently. According to Lemendusa, there are other Gilded Discs in the core of the Creation Engine, and he also said that there were many unassembled Gilded Discs stored in the warehouses all over the kingdom. When the kingdom exploded, these unassembled Gilded Discs must have been sent flying into the deep space. These Gilded Discs should be able to resonate with each other,” Vivian replied on behalf of Hao Ren. “We can’t see anything between the two Gilded Discs, but what if more discs are placed together to make them resonate with each other?”

Lily looked up and thought for a moment. “I will be like quarreling,” she said.

“You’d better continue to play with your tail.” Hao Ren sighed. He then spoke his mind. “If we can collect more of this disc, we will probably be able to guess the how much energy the explosion has produced, the scope and model of the explosion. I’ve produced an antenna based on the principle of the resonance between the discs. The antenna will be used to search for the resonant signal in the universe. It is currently under testing to figure out the pattern of resonance and the method to amplify and transmit the signal.”

Lily listened with her ears stood erect. She had understood some of them. “Using them as a signal source to find the other Gilded Discs? Any progress so far?” she asked.

“Unfortunately, not much progress,” the MDT said. It was Hao Ren’s de-facto technical director. “This thing is entirely supernatural, and even a little inconsistent with the physical laws of this universe. The operation is somewhat cumbersome. At present, I can only transmit these signals within the boundary of CARS. So there’s still some distance before we could achieve the desired result.

“That means it essentially useless,” Lily said while rolling her eyes. “I can howl, and the whole station will hear my voice.”

Hao Ren ignored her skewed logic. He was busy in thought: when he realized that the operation of the Gilded Disc was more complicated than imagined, he became more and more suspicious the Creation Engine artifact. As its core was running based on a set of principles different from the laws of physics of this universe, most likely its designed purpose was not to interfere with this world, or at least it was for other purposes, which were not related to the Plane of Dreams universe.

It is like someone has placed a telescope at home, but the telescope does not point to the sky nor girl dormitory, but to an empty place, then you have to question the use of the telescope. The core components of the Creation Engine were operating in ways that did not conform to the current cosmic laws, so Hao Ren was also skeptical about this engine whether it was designed to deal with the problem of the Plane of Dreams.

Seeing Hao Ren fell into deep thoughts, Lily mumbled, “Mr. Landlord has become strange recently.”

Suddenly, Rollie meowed and pointed at Lily’s tail. “Your tail isn’t moving now! I won. Now, you owe me two packs of dried fish.”

Looking at the carefree duo, Hao Ren could not help but sigh; it was much happier being a cat or a dog, he lamented.

The testing of the Gilded Discs was not as exciting as they had imagined. It was only the mechanical process of energy release, collecting data, summarizing and then it started all over again. The group of weirdoes was curious as to why a couch potato like Hao Ren had suddenly become a workaholic these few days, thinking that there might be something interesting here. After watching the light shows, they were bored. Rollie was the first to get upset. When Lily stopped playing with her, she could not help but start scratching Hao Ren’s clothes. “Big Boss Cat, meal. Where is my meal?”

“I told you so. Nothing is interesting here, but you guys still insisted on coming over,” Hao Ren said, bending over and held Rollie up so that she would stand up right before considering whether to feed her. He forced a smile. “I’m hungry too. What say of we head down to the cafeteria and grab something to eat? The remaining test procedures are fully automatic. There is no need to monitor it.”

Lily instantly livened up and hurried everyone, including Hao Ren, down the cafeteria. Hao Ren turned his head around and said to Vivian who was standing next to the Gilded Disc, “Vivian, what are you doing? Let’s go to have something to eat.”

Vivian suddenly woke up from her thought. She had been unwittingly attracted to the Gilded Disc just now. “Yeah, coming.”

---

Chapter 924: An Urgent Message

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

The Crapple Research Station, CARS, was a space station that was constantly undergoing minor adjustments and reorganizations. Although its grand appearance would hardly change, within the space station, a large number of crystal filled compartments were a group of seemingly living facility. Under the instructions of the space-station central computer, the crystal hill, the internal crystal structures gradually formed individual rooms according to Hao Ren’s requirement. Firstly, the living area for Muru, then research facilities and huge lifeblood culture vessels for Zorm, and finally, living and dining compartments for humans and humanoids, considering that Hao Ren would occasionally bring his housemates here.

In the beginning, they could only stay in the standard crystal-structured room. Later, with the help of the MDT, Hao Ren had figured out how to reset the structure of the core area and built a dining room that made everyone in the family happy, especially Lily.

The dining hall in the CARS was as crystal clear as other places, though it had not been decorated, it was still very splendid. In this vast and rectangular crystal-structured room, there were two rows of thin pillars connecting the roof and the floor and large irregular-shaped crystals arranged between the pillars to form a fixed portal that linked to other parts of the space station—due to the size of the space station, there were similar portals in every large crystal-structured rooms. The long dining table in the center of the dining hall was also made of crystal. When the master was dining here, the space station servomechanism would synthesize food that was indistinguishable from the natural products and filled the table. The arcane creature formed by pure light and energy would shuttle around the table, like the elven waiter in a fairy tale.

Only at such time and in such an atmosphere that Hao Ren would feel he was clergy-like.

Only if Rollie could get down from the table, and Lily not to squat one the stool.

It was a hearty meal nevertheless. Though Vivian did not get to cook today, the food synthesizer made as good a meal as any famous chefs on Earth. The dining table was full of everyone’s favorite food: ramen, flat noodles, fried bean-paste noodles, gravy noodles, beef noodles, Korean noodles, dandan noodles, and even instant noodles. The food synthesizer had also made plastic forks that looked just as flimsy to ensure that the instant noodles tasted the same as on Earth. Lily rolled up the noodles with a pair of chopsticks in the shape of a chicken drumstick and happily gnawed. Nangong Wuyue poked the noodles before her, looking confused. “Mr. Landlord, I had wanted a long time ago: why are there only noodles on the space station?”

“Raven 12345 was the one who set up the food synthesizer. You may look for her if there is a problem,” Hao Ren said and continued to take a few sips of noodle soup. “There are several hundred types of noodles. Enjoy it slowly. I haven’t got tired of them yet.”

It should be the most regrettable part of this advanced CARS. If you do not want to cook your meal, then you can only accept the food made by the machine. You have hundreds of set meals to choose from the menu, just that they are all noodles.

Hao Ren had challenged the system numerous times. The most successful one was he finally added a menu to the food synthesizer, but he later found that he still could not escape from the noodle-mania of Raven 12345 as the dining hall had only added one hundred types of instant noodles to the menu.

After Hao Ren’s last successful attempt that added a Plastic Fork option in the synthesizer, he gave up on the catering system. There would not be any inquisitive reporters coming to this place to interview the pope of Raven the Goddess about the dinner here.

“I don’t like noodles,” Rollie said. She was chase from the table again. Sitting awkwardly on the chair, she clumsily held the chopsticks and poked it in the bowl and harassed Hao Ren with her tail. “Get me small dried fish, and I’ll let you touch my ears. You know I’m cute, right?”

“Who taught her these?” Hao Ren asked as he corrected the way Rollie used the chopsticks.

“For a cat who could read newspapers and watch TV, do you think she still needs to someone teaching her?” Vivian twitched her mouth. “A while back, she was watching online the footage where cats were going to rule the world, she thought that it was real and packed up in the middle of the night to search for her organization, purportedly wanting to return to her parent star. She had even slid a farewell letter under your pillow. Fortunately, I found it out on time and managed to drag her back and gave her an earful,” Vivian said.

Hao Ren was stunned. “She did that? Why didn’t I know?” he asked.

“Cats are nocturnal creatures. She is at her most alert state when you sleep like a pig,” Vivian said, pointing at herself. “Fortunately, I’m also nocturnal.”

Hao Ren thought for a moment; he suddenly recalled there seemed to have such an incident a while ago where he found a note on the side of his pillow when he woke up. The note read: “Big Boss Cat, I’m helping my race to conquer the world, after which I will appoint you like an imperial guard. Lick you.” Half of the words were written in pinyin.

He later found that Dumb Cat was still at home, so he did not take it seriously, only thinking that the cat was practicing her writing skill.

After Hao Ren coaxed Rollie to take a few bites of seafood noodles, she became restless, took Lil Pea and disappeared from the dining hall. After the two clowns left, the conversation over the meal finally normalized. Y’zaks asked, “About the resonance experiments on the two Gilded Discs, other than knowing that they resonate with each other, is the resonance carrying any messages or information?”

“There is a pattern in the signal, as if some information exchange, but it is very fragmented. There is no way to decipher it,” Hao Ren said and shook his head. “There are many discs, and when there are enough discs to resonate together, it will produce a signal that is complete enough to be deciphered.”

“Speaking of which, I always have a weird feeling when looking at the discs,” Vivian said suddenly. “I didn’t think so at first, but when the two discs were placed together, I couldn’t help but want to look at them,” she said.

What she said triggered the alarm in Hao Ren. “So you had zoned out when I called you just now?” he asked.

“Yeah, I think so,” Vivian said. “It’s hard to describe that feeling. I just looked at them a few times more. Maybe that was just my illusion. The Goddess of Creation created the disc and me. It makes me a little sensitive towards them.”

After learning her birth and relationship with the Goddess of Creation, Vivian had learned to face it with an open mind and others would also take the link of Goddess of Creation and Vivian as a precondition in their discussion about the goddess.

Hao Ren thought for a moment. “Have you ever touched the two discs? Direct contact?”

“No.”

“Aside from being attracted to them, is there any other abnormal reaction?”

“Neither this.”

“Well,” Hao Ren said, “no matter what, this inexplicable phenomenon needs to be taken seriously. I suggest that you keep a distance from the disc, don’t touch them directly, and it’s best to have someone accompanying you if you ever want to go near that laboratory.”

Vivian acknowledged with a nod. Hao Ren further mentioned what he saw in the illusion of deicide. “Speaking of which, I saw a lot of inexplicable things when the divine blood dragged me into the illusion. I could still vividly remember when the Goddess of Creation fell; she said ‘forgive’ to me, which I haven’t figure out what she meant.”

“Forgive?” Nangong Sanba came up curiously. “Did she mean forgiving the treacherous child?”

“Who knows?” Hao Ren spread out his hand. “All I heard were this word, but it should be a part of a sentence. What if she meant “never forgive”? Then things would be different. What’s more, there were many doubts about the fall of the goddess. A black, strange sword killed her. She was injured like an ordinary person, bleeding, and then died. Her death itself was very peaceful and not causing the slightest energy fluctuations. It was the subsequent sacred punishment and the explosion of the Star of Creation that destroyed everything,” Hao Ren said.

Y’zaks scratched his jaw and his brows knit together. “It sounds like a mortal.”

“A powerful creature with the power of the gods, her death cannot be so ‘peaceful,’” Nangong Wudi, who was having his meal quietly, joined the discussion. “Her energy would be released, and it would ignite or destroy everything in the surroundings, produce explosions or heatwave. Even when an ordinary demon hunter dies, his blood will burst into flame. What you said makes me feel like the Goddess of Creation had lost her power.”

“Was it because of the sword?” Vivian guessed. “How did those treacherous children make such a weapon?” she asked.

Hao Ren shook his head with a regretful look on his face. “There must be something to do with the sword that was used to kill the goddess. Unfortunately, the sword has fallen into the Umbral Realm together with the Star of Creation.”

Suddenly, an incoming urgent message interrupted the conversations.

The MDT floated above the table and projected the message in a hologram. “Hey buddy, the drone cluster has found something.”

---

Chapter 925: The Drone Cluster’s Discovery

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Hao Ren was startled for a while when the MDT sounded. “The drone cluster? What have they found?”

“A group of drones in the L-B-35 exploration program found traces of suspected original superluminal engines on the flight path. It was left behind decades ago judging from the degree of dissipation.”

“A few decades ago? You sure?” Hao Ren asked, his face suddenly looked serious.

“All intelligence collected by the drone cluster is a result of meticulous calculation, it is unlikely to go wrong,” the MDT said while projecting the details of the findings. “The drone cluster thinks we may have found the survivors in exiles who could still be highly civilized.”

Hao Ren’s eyes affixed on visual projected by the MDT. It was the scene of space where unfamiliar nebula and the cosmic landscape shone in the distance, and in between these stars, there was a dimly distorted, discontinuous strip of space. The discontinuous strip of areas was colorless, but it changed the surrounding light like a lens and thus was observable. The MDT explained the phenomenon on in the visual, “The original superluminal engine propelled the spacecraft by changing the curvature of the space, but the immature technology was not able to recover the spatial curvature near the start and end of the flight, so after they entered or left the hyperspace, it left behind a twisted lens phenomenon. Usually, these lens effects will dissipate in decades or hundreds of years.”

Hao Ren remembered that he had read in other technical materials the advantages and disadvantages of the original superluminal engine. He not only knew about this kind of “lens trail” phenomenon that the MDT mentioned, but he also knew that at many relatively backward civilization spheres, people tracked the target spacecraft based on this twisted lens phenomenon. Mercenaries and pirates were masters of it. But other people at the scene might not have learned this.

Lily was surprised. “Whoa, if this low-tech spacecraft shuttle around, wouldn’t space be like a sieve?”

“The universe is very a big place. The original engine wouldn’t be able to do any damage to it,” the MDT said, shaking its body a little. “Is there a sea of space junks around the earth? Humans are still launching spacecraft into space. As long as you powerful enough technology to solve the mess left by the predecessors, all long-term problems are not problems. It is short-sighted thinking, but many civilizations are like this. However, the lens tail left behind by the original engine has its bad effects, so the civilizations that have just developed the superluminal technology will usually set some rules. For example, no spacecraft shall enter hyperspace state around the parent star, but fly at sub-light speed until beyond a certain safe distance to accelerate again. Anyway, they always have a way.”

As Hao Ren already this knowledge in his mind, he just focused his attention on the lens phenomenon that remained in space. It was a piece of inspiring evidence. If an artificial engine indeed generated these trails, it meant that at least there still were highly-developed civilizations in this universe!

Unlike the civilizations of Holletta and Zorm, which were in a state of extinction or materially destroyed, the civilization that left behind these lens effects was a race that could sail at superluminal speed and move through the deep universe!

Hao Ren felt a sudden sense of excitement. He could not wait. “Only found the trails? Can you lock them down?”

“At present, only these trails. The LB-35 exploration series is the fleet of a newly completed outpost. It is millions of light years away and not manage to expand in the local area, so there is very little information that has been collected. But more drones have warp-jumped from the nearest support node to the area, and they should be able to find clues after expanding the search area. Now we should hope that these lens trails are the exit point rather than an entry point into hyperspace.”

Nangong Wuyue could not wrap her brain around it, asking, “Why?”

Hao Ren explained, “If it is a trail of an exit point of hyperspace, it means that the spacecraft is currently traveling at sub-light or lower speed, and we would be able to directly and easily observe in the physical universe. But if it is the trail left behind after doing the wrap-jump, the spacecraft might have been flying at superluminal speed for decades, the search range will be an astronomical vast, and the spacecraft would never be found.”

Nangong Wuyue thought for a while, lowered her head and continued her meal. “I was just asking,” she said.

Still not satisfied, Hao Ren turned to the MDT. “Where is the L exploration series? Are there any traces of the First Born or other guardians?” he asked.

The MDT hovered in the air. “In a galaxy newly listed in the exploration plan. The drones were dispatched there to search for the original coordinates of the planet Inferno. These lens trails are an accidental discovery. There are no signs of the First Born nor other destroyed civilizations. It is a safe, deserted region. If the exiles have fled in that direction, they will have a high chance of surviving—provided that the black battleships of the guardian giants haven’t tracked them down. Do you want me to prep the spacecraft and go to check the area out?” it asked.

Hao Ren got to his feet immediately. “Right away. We can’t afford to delay.”

Lily looked up from her bowl of noodle soup, the noddle-chicken drumstick was still in her hand, looking pitiful. “Can you wait for me to finish this?”

“We’re not as hurry as not to let you finish your meal,” Hao Ren said.

The husky’s face immediately turned from cloudy to sunny: it was so easy to read her mind.

The MDT had prepped the spacecraft, without further delay, they set off to the frontier of the drone cluster. It was an unprecedented trip, as everyone in the family was onboard this time. It was a coincidence though; everyone happened to be free at the same time—not just the fish and the cat but also the Nangong couple.

Hao Ren thought of the restaurant of the Nangong couple. He asked, “We will be spending at least three days there regardless of the progress of the drone cluster makes. Will there be a problem with your restaurant?”

Ayesha smiled and shook her head. “Business has been slowing down during the winter. There are mostly the elderly in Southern Suburb, and it has been snowing for the past two days, they’re not eating out, and so we might as close for a few days.”

Hao Ren agreed. The Nangong family restaurant was located in the ghostly town of Southern Suburb where it was more like a retirement place. The old folks would typically order a dish of peanuts and hog the tables in the restaurant for hours. It was not a money-making business anyway, so it was good that the couple was willing to take time off.

Going for a mission trip did not sound like taking a break.

Nangong Wudi smiled. “More importantly, my wife and I have wanted to go back into the field for a long time. We feel sorry to see the kids risking their lives out there while we idled at home,” he said.

Vivian immediately said, “I’m not a kid.”

Lily looked at Vivian with a weird look on her face. “He means you look young, shouldn’t you feel happy?” she said.

Hao Ren was not interested in the chatter. Calling up the database of the drone cluster, he checked out the situation of the drone cluster at the destination.

He still remembered the scene where he released the first group of drones two years ago. At that time, there were only a few prototype drone modules that looked dumb and like a coffin. The early type drones departed from the Petrachelys, flew into the cold universe like a bunch of clueless worker bees, and acted as Hao Ren’s eyes and ears to explore the post-disaster cold world. At that time, the drone cluster was still weak and insignificant. He could hardly imagine how long they had come after these two years. He was even worried that those lonely drones would encounter dangers at the beginning of the mission and were lost due to various reasons. So he had formulated a large number of alternative measures for this purpose.

Like many novice employees, he lacked confidence at that time.

But to this day, those ‘worker bees’ had developed into a mighty force in this universe, and it justified Hao Ren’s decision to send out the drones in the first place.

He called up the star chart, displaying the range of millions of light years, and the many light dots that represented the information nodes. Unlike the randomly distributed, chaotic natural nebulae, these light dots were a neat, dense, and well-organized colossal matrix.

It was an empire: the drone empire.