The Record of Unusual Creatures

Earth’s otherworldlings were scheduled to stay in Holletta for three days. It was a tight schedule, and Hao Ren could not arrange the itinerary at his whim because there was a deadline on which the “border crossers” could not cross. This deadline was determined by the capacity of the Wall of Reality. Within this limited span of time, Hao Ren had to get everyone to visit several “key destinations”, including Holletta, Tannagost, and Io while the drone cluster collected data. Behind the “free-and-easy” tour package was a well-designed, massive operation. And to pull it off, Hao Ren left no stone unturned.

The cooperation of the Royal Family of Holletta was a pleasant surprise. Hao Ren did not expect King Mhoren to give this matter such priority. But as soon as Earth’s otherworldlings arrived, the Royal Family extended their generous hospitality to the otherworldlings, providing tour guides, and even opening some galleries as well as museums for the foreign compatriots. These were not things that could be easily arranged.

When Ophra talked about them, she had a proud expression on her face. “The king is known to be stingy, but he is very generous this time. He has organized a team of the best scholars to analyze and rehearse the whole process. He will materialize it using the best that the kingdom has. We have temporarily opened and built six galleries as well as four museums. To ensure that there is a comprehensive list of things to showcase, many of the museum and gallery collections have been borrowed from nobility. There is a set of planetarium instruments inherited from the Ancient Magic Empire Planetarium, and it is the most valuable item in the Royal Treasury. We have mobilized the nobility of the Royal City. A dozen noble families will open their family estates or villas to receive the guests. We have also recruited a large number of craftsmen and scholars, who possess the skills and knowledge known to be lost in the modern era. With the exception of this ancient kingdom, you will not find them anywhere else.”

“Your concern on this matter is beyond my expectation,” Hao Ren said frankly while looking up at the mage’s zone in the distance. With the guidance of two royal mages, a small group of delegates from the Athens’ sanctuary was visiting and observing the working of the mage tower. They marveled at the incredible magic installation. “Can you tell me why?” Hao Ren asked Ophra.

“First of all, we must consider your attitude.” Ophra looked at Hao Ren. “You have a great influence on this world. Even the king could not ignore this fact. But what is more important is the dignity of the kingdom. You may say it is just a matter of face, but the kingdom has a practical consideration.”

Ophra paused, and the corner of her mouth tilted slightly. “Holleta is not the only kingdom on this planet. It is the most powerful kingdom, but there is still an empire that could match us in the north of the mainland. So Holleta must find ways to maintain its advantage and status and to do this, it requires some long-term investment. The people you bring here today seemed to be a good investment.”

Hao Ren thought for a moment and shook his head slightly. “Fortunately, I’m not into politics.”

The female marshal was a busy person; she left after a while. Hao Ren began to mooch around.

The 100-strong tour group had been separated into different smaller groups according to races and assigned to different tour routes. It was a large tour group, but for a city, it was just a drop in the ocean. The different smaller groups went into different parts of the royal city, but Hao Ren roughly knew where they went. If he looked purposefully, he could still bump into the Earth’s otherworldlings on the streets sometimes.

Most of the Earth’s otherworldlings were busily seeing this world and comparing everything here with those on Earth. Some were learning the knowledge from their Holletta’s compatriots to complement what they lacked in cultural heritage. Some were looking for books and magic objects, which were common as dirt on the streets and alleys but valuable for the Earth’s otherworldlings.

The siren queen Katreina and her besties especially agreed with this.

The sirens were a bunch of eye-catching creatures. They might have tucked their sea-snake tail away, but their jibber-jabber and selfie-mania did not help. Katreina was exploring the entire commercial district with a selfie stick in hand, capturing the mugshot of many clueless royal guards and patrol knights, who would set to be recorded in history. The siren queen’s maidservants were struggling to carry all the queen’s shopping bags. Earlier, Hao Ren had given every otherworldlings some ‘pocket money’ specifically for the tour in Holletta. They exchanged the money for magic books, drug formulae, history books, and alchemy materials. But the sirens turned it into shiny beads, metal bracelets, embroidered bags and a variety of strangely dark dishes (scientific name: local delicacies). But why these elemental creatures with almost no sense of taste were so keen on eating was beyond anyone’s guess. The water element in their body would break down the snacks into individual elements, but the sirens still enjoyed eating street food.

Siren was a race that liked to travel.

It was almost midnight, and the otherworldlings finally went back to their respective ‘hostels’ accompanied by the tour guides. Just like Ophra said, the nobility had responded to the call and opened up more than ten manors and villas to receive these visitors, who had special significance to the kingdom. The otherworldlings were assigned to each place according to their races or forces they represented. Such an arrangement could prevent fighting among the opposing forces.

Becky was also one of the “progressive nobility” who responded to the call directly. Her suburban estate was large and so the number of guests assigned. All demon hunters and the sirens were to stay in her manor.

Even though it was midnight, the sirens seemed to be unable to quiet down. There were exchanging photos that they had snapped and the rare gadgets they bought during the day. But Katreina did not join them this time. She instead came up to Hao Ren with a solemn look on her face. Hao Ren was of course stunned: the queen of the siren was a leader after all. She was now coming up to him to discuss some serious business, he thought.

Hao Ren also put on a serious face. But to his surprise, Katreina handed him a box of power banks and camera batteries. “Do you know where I can charge them?”

Hao Ren smacked on his forehead; he should not have high expectation for the deep-sea creature.

“It looks like there are many modern gadgets in the deep sea, eh?” Hao Ren’s eyes twitched as he looked at the power banks and chargers. “Oh, there are mobile phones too. Is there cell signal down there?”

“We are solving this problem,” said the queen of the sirens. Her face looked like she meant business. “We are deeply aware that isolation from the world will lead to backwardness, so we have been trying to catch up with time. I have a plan to raise Nasaton’s antenna to the surface to first provide 4G coverage to the deep-sea city, and then to consider laying fiber optics in the city. We have a submarine generator and mobile phone base station. Now we are figuring out how to tap human mobile network signal.”

Hao Ren’s jaw dropped looking at Her Majesty, the queen. She was indeed advancing with times. After a long while, Hao Ren said, “Ahem, you can find someone from the Shadow Council. Many of them have various business undertakings in human society. You can rent an offshore platform from them.”

“Ahh! What you said makes sense!” Katreina agreed.

“As for charging the batteries, leave them to Vivian.” Hao Ren shook his head, took the box of chargers and batteries from the queen of the siren, and then shoved it to Vivian, who was whispering to Nangong Wuyue. “Help charge them,” Hao Ren said.

The sirens’ jaws dropped to the ground when they saw the most ancient vampire charged their gadgets with the bats.

Just after solving the problem of the sirens, Hao Ren heard someone screamed near the fireplace. “Wow! Why there is a wifi connection in this place?”

Hao Ren turned around his head and saw White Flame was holding his mobile phone, wide-eyed as if she had seen a ghost.

“Becky’s home is my base camp in Holletta.” Hao Ren rolled his eyes. “Congratulations, you found your basic life-saving element. I told you what; this place is the only wifi hotspot on the entire planet. Two sets of trans-world communication antennas are here.”

At this time, White Flame could not care less about what Hao Ren said. She had jumped into the mobile game world playing her favorite online title. But the “mage empress”, Lorissa, who was sitting opposite White Flame, seemed to be in a daze. Earlier, when she was busy explaining the design ideas of the Sacred Flame and the early demon hunters, White Flame suddenly screamed.

“She is the young genius in your world who is the best at Sacred Flame magic?” asked the mage empress clone hesitantly.

Hasse shot White Flame a silent glance and then grabbed the mobile phone from her. “Don’t play games during a lecture!”

White Flame was stunned.