The Record of Unusual Creatures

Everyone seemed unusually quiet and orderly. Although the atmosphere of inevitable estrangement and mutual vigilance still hung over everyone, at least order was assured. After being teleported by the portal to a place beyond most people’s reach, the strange sight and incredible journey that followed greatly diverted the participants’ attention. They could no longer concentrate on the problems they wanted to think about because even if they put all their energy into understanding and observing the place, it seemed inadequate.

The Petrachelys moored in the exclusive star harbor broke the silent and dull atmosphere slightly. It was a beautiful spaceship. Although it was not as massive as some of the giant civilian transport ships or low-tech warships, they could see that it was a distinctive spaceship from the special port it occupied and the large as well as sophisticated servo facilities near the port. The participants were marveled when they heard that this was the spaceship Hao Ren had arranged for them. However, Hao Ren felt that more than 90% of their attention was on the husky head painted on the ship’s deck…

“It’s a sticker. Have you seen a car sticker?” Hao Ren made a stern effort to explain the husky’s huge head on the ship.

Lily’s big, innocent face stretched across the spaceship in three armor belts, from the sub-battery at the waistline to the engine cover at the stern…

Vivian’s expression remained the same, but she squeezed her voice out through her teeth, “I don’t think you should have been fooled by the doggie in the first place. It would have been better for you to draw anything on the spaceship other than a silly husky face.”

“We are leading a group. Be serious…” said Hao Ren.

Fortunately, no one kept asking what it meant to have a husky head on the spaceship. They embraced the style in surprise and amusement, and some of them even smiled: it was as if they had finally seen something familiar after seeing a lot of incomprehensible things in the cold, strange space station, and the husky’s face had warmed their hearts.

Under Nolan’s guidance, the passengers boarded the spaceship in order under the guiding light. So far, nothing unexpected had happened.

Hao Ren came to the bridge and took a look at the passenger cabin (which was actually the big lounge). After making sure everything was okay inside, he sent a request for the spaceship to leave the station.

“Now it’s time for us to lead the team to witness the miracle,” Hao Ren said, rubbing his hands after giving the signal, looking very confident and proud. “This is a trip I have carefully planned for them. This must be an eye-opener for them…”

As he spoke, the feedback from the guide station at Kuiper station was transmitted to the bridge. “Departure request accepted—special line Z88-1350 confirmed. The Sunset Homecoming Tour Group is leaving Star Harbor now. I repeat, Sunset Homecoming Group is leaving Star Harbor now…”

“Seriously… this name…” Nangong Sanba said, looking at Hao Ren with strange eyes. “You dare say from the bottom of your heart that you’ve carefully planned the trip?”

“Of course. Can you think of a name more memorable than this? And anyway, this kind of informal personal flights do not record in long-term files. So what’s the big deal?”

The others on the bridge kept waving and said, “Okay… Okay… You’re right… You’re right…”

Petrachelys sped away from the gravitational shackles of the Kuiper station and vanished into a mirrored sphere of warped space, leaving a blue glow through space. A recorder at the observation tower of Kuiper station recorded the scene:

“Yyyy-mm-dd, inspector Hao Ren led his Sunset Homecoming Tour Group to embark on a journey. This is the first time that the survivors of the Plane of Dreams have officially returned home after ten thousand years on earth. Although this is a small, short-term return, it marks the biggest advance yet in the Plane of Dreams event. Perhaps we can finally look forward to the lost descendants who have been lost in foreign lands will have a chance to return home. Perhaps today is a new turning point in history…”

Hao Ren was right. Special flights like this would not leave a long-term file in the Data Vault– but it had gone down in history…

But those on the spaceship would not know what the recorder had written. Now they were inside the closed vesicles created by the warping space and hurtling at superluminal speed toward the fissure deep in the universe.

Adnie stayed quietly in the lounge, watching every stranger around her with a wary eye, trying to remember everything she had seen there. She knows that everyone around her is the same, so there was no need for her to hide her attitude or her eyes: rather, this kind of open and aboveboard wariness was one of the conditions to ensure ‘peace’.

She was a silver witch who took refuge in a South American vampire priory as a high counselor and mentor. ‘Silver witch’ was a special term for a true member of the ancient gods. Adnie’s memory went back to ancient Sumerian times. She was also the patron saint of a city in Mesopotamia during the barbaric civilization. But those glory days are long gone. Now she was bored and depressed by the fragmentary memory of the sand-stained city-states and the ruins of the old cities that fell and burned. Perhaps in order to relieve this boring life, she agreed to participate in the journey.

Now she was looking curiously at the place and the strange members of the team.

The werewolves from South America, it seemed, were the Ebben boys, loud and frivolous as ever.

Vampires from Europe were dull, dark and unsmiling. Everyone, except for Hessiana, was basically having a zombie-like face, but they called it the elegance and reserve of a gentleman.

The Runic Dwarves from Australia, who were aware of the danger before the end of Mythological Age, built a ship to escape from the center of the vortex and lived in seclusion underground. If they had not left Northern Europe so early, the Aesirian may have held on a little longer.

The sirens from the deep sea—this mysterious race had actually appeared, and their queen appeared in person. That Katreina and her entourage were probably the only happy ones here. They were not involved in the wars, nor were they involved in any of the fights. Sometimes she really envied those who lived in the deep sea and stood aloof from worldly affairs.

And them, the demon hunters from the North Pole…

Adnie’s gaze inevitably fell on the demon hunters. They sat at the other end of the room, in distinct circles from almost all other creatures. They were surrounded by an invisible energy field that even the fiercest werewolves would not look in that direction. However, these demon hunters seemed to be somewhat different in Adnie’s impression.

They did not look murderous, and there’s a complete lack of inexplicable fanaticism in them. They sat together, whispering to each other or exchanging food and drinks, and they even occasionally looking this way and nodding their heads with a little smile—a look so stiff that it was obvious they did not want to do it themselves, but they managed to say hello.

Adnie frowned but nodded reluctantly.

The demon hunter girl called White Flame looked very active. She was talking loudly among her companions as if to show her knowledge of the place. She mentioned star wars, halo, and steam, a lot of strange words, which did not sound like a reliable explanation, while her companions listened with great interest.

So, the demon hunters would also chat and laugh.

“This is such a strange place.” Why are creatures of all races, camps, and generations being packed into this metal-clad vehicle for a ‘trip’ that’s ‘significant’ yet mysterious from beginning to end? Adnie thought.

Adnie remembered what she had seen along the way and then had to admit that it had seriously shaken some of her perceptions.

And so did everyone else sitting here.

For the first time they had to add the concept of ‘cosmic level’ to their thinking, and then they turned back to the infighting and scheming they had been doing on that little blue planet for thousands of years. Those grand battles, magnificent shrines, and countless treasures seemed to count for nothing at the moment when they looked up at the universe.

“Attention, the spacecraft is about to leave the hyperspace state. Attention, the spacecraft is about to leave the hyperspace state…”

The lights in the lounge suddenly switched, and as it dimmed, a holographic projection slowly emerged from the metal walls on both sides, showing the scene outside the spaceship.

Some red and blue stripes formed something like a tunnel and the spacecraft traveled through it. The tunnel then rapidly shortened and dissipated, forming a stable pattern of stars and nebulae and staying still.

The spacecraft was still flying at an amazing speed. But on the large scale of the universe, its relative velocity with the surrounding celestial bodies was almost static.

A magnificent spiral nebula appeared before them, causing everyone who saw it for the first time to hold their breath. The sense of terror and oppression brought about by the material storms that engulfed everything even made an old demon hunter like Hasse missed a heartbeat in an instant.

“…I probably won’t enjoy playing VR anymore…” murmured White Flame.

The huge space complex around the Scarred Nebula and the blue-green planet, which was very different from the Earth and operated as a sentinel near the eye of the storm, had attracted a lot of attention. They speculated about the function of the space buildings and discussed whether the gate was the rift in the center of the nebula. At the same time, some of them also noticed the ‘strange sight’ floating over the blue-green planet: something like an alien continent floating in space, connected by huge green vines. Some of the demon hunters and those who had some knowledge of the Aesir Gods looked thoughtful as they were looking at such a scene.

“My fellow passengers, I am the captain of this spaceship.” Hao Ren’s voice sounded in time. “You have come to a critical part of this journey. In front of you is the gate that connects the two worlds, the Gate of the Universe. You can see it in the rift in the center of the nebula. Later we will pass through this gate and you will truly reach the Plane of Dream, the home of all of you. Before I do that, I’m going to tell you a little bit about the planet next to the eye of the rift storm. It’s called Inferno, and some of you may know that name because the portal to Inferno has been on earth more than once in the last thousand years…”

“That’s Inferno!?”

“It actually exists in this place!”

The participants in the lounge were astounded.

Hao Ren’s explanation did not end there. “Some of you may have noticed the ‘alien continents’ floating above Inferno and the plants that grew between them. Some of you should be more familiar with it: that’s Yggdrasil. In the information that I gave you, I mentioned its other identity, which was the hyperspace ark that all the supernatural beings on earth rode in when they entered this universe 10000 years ago. It was once the domain of the Aesirian, but now it’s part of the Inferno.”

The participants in the lounge exchanged stunned glances, and many of them quickly pulled out their thick portfolios (which were part of the plan, which Hao Ren had dubbed the “DLC package for the Sunset Homecoming Tour Group”) and began to read the sensational facts for the first time.

Apparently, they had not really read it before… Lily’s cheap travel advertisement cover, which she downloaded from the Internet and then photoshopped herself, was one of the major factors contributing to this.

Petrachelys was slowly accelerating and getting close to the ‘Gate of the Universe’ at the center of the Scarred Nebula. The image of Yggdrasil was gradually swept to the rear.

Ten thousand years ago, countless refugees of the Plane of Dreams arrived in this universe in that gigantic hyperspace ark.

Ten thousand years later, a hundred survivors of the Plane of Dreams who had forgotten their homeland passed by the ark in an inspector’s spaceship and embarked on their first journey home in a daze.

“We are about to pass through the Gate of the Universe,” said Hao Ren, switching the internal lines on the bridge. The communicator displayed the image of the UAV fleet’s cluster consciousness. “Fleet, unlock all monitoring points. From now on, I want you to monitor the cosmic parameters of all known spaces in the Plane of Dreams.”

Petrachelys, like a shining droplet of mercury, fell lightly into the gate.