The Record of Unusual Creatures

Once Hao Ren realized that his arm felt light, he was shocked out of his wits. He only saw the flash of teleportation and the little mermaid lying on top of the crystal not too far away after that. The latter struggled with the zero-gravity environment for a bit before she finally figured out how to keep still. With her hands grabbing on to the crystal, she turned to Hao Ren and waved with her tail. “Daddyyy…”

“Don’t simply run about!” Hao Ren said as he ran over. “Didn’t I tell you to behave outside…”

By then, the little mermaid had shifted her attention to the crystal. She was hugging one of the crystal prism’s protrusions while smacking her tail against its surface. Her face appeared excited. “Wakey wakey! Daddy’s calling you—he’s been calling you many times!”

It was probably Hao Ren, Vivian, and Asurmen’s attempts around the room to rouse the ship that caused the little one getting the wrong idea. She really thought that someone was “sleeping” there.

Vivian looked on with a smile as she shook her head. “Lil Pea, come back. You’ve misunderstood us, that thing won’t wake…”

Just as she spoke, she noticed that out of nowhere a ring of light had suddenly appeared around the area Lil Pea smacked.

Following that, the ring of light rapidly enveloped the crystal prism and blasted out across the hall.

A low hum rang across the place, and the hall, now swept by the ring of light quickly showed signs of an energized glow as the mist and faint illumination vanished completely. In their place were various crystalline equipment and room structures, while above the pyramid-shaped hall, countless crisscrossing crystal beams appeared as light radiated from them!

On the prism that Lil Pea smacked with her tail earlier, something akin to a cluster of flickering stars, made out of light and gas, started to glow brightly.

Hao Ren was halfway across the hall before the scene stunned him, and he almost wanted to slam his head against the prism. “The heck? That actually worked?!”

The dormant ship, which they spent so much effort trying to rouse to no effect, woke up after a couple of slaps from Lil Pea?

“Daddy, daddy, I woke him up!” The little mermaid did not seem to realize what sort of shocking thing she had just pulled. She was only happy with her own success, and after the room lit up, she teleported back to Hao Ren’s arms and tapped her tail excitedly… “Woke up after two slaps!”

“And here I was this close to shattering that thing…” Hao Ren mumbled to himself before he recovered his wits and quickly summoned Asurmen, “Asurmen, quickly! Your kin’s awake now! Ask him what’s going on here!”

“I am on it…” Asurmen’s crystal had also floated toward the prism as he released a couple of blurry light belts to connect with the cognition crystal. The glow of the two crystals soon synchronized, and there seemed to be stars moving in the light belt, yet Asurmen gave a surprising response. “That is odd… I still can’t connect to this kinsman’s main consciousness. There is only a void in this cognition crystal…”

“You still can’t connect?” Vivian had also flown over now, and she frowned when she heard Asurmen. “Hasn’t it just been awakened?”

“Based on your biological explanation, the body is awake, but the spirit is missing.” Asurmen’s crystal flickered. “I can sense that his consciousness has gone somewhere alongside a huge amount of mental energies… The awakening is only on the material level.”

Hao Ren immediately broke into a cold sweat, and he recalled the brain dead First Born on the Executors’ planet. He felt that these two were interlinked. “What is this? Is being brain dead a fad here… Don’t tell me a divine crystal has also pierced deep into this ship somewhere?”

“We didn’t pick up any of that energy signature along the way here.” The MDT vibrated. “Of course, this isn’t discounting the possibility of a divine crystal piercing the ship and subsequently getting lost in space.”

The facilities within the crystal pyramid hall had started to operate, and even if only a little part of the light cloud had awakened, the operation of the equipment did not seem to be affected. Hao Ren saw projections appearing on a few prisms, which looked like a data report, and the image of the space outside appeared on a crystal control panel about half the size of a human.

Hao Ren suddenly thought of something before he grabbed the MDT and threw it toward the closest crystal prism. “Get the readings of these data, quick, while the place is still stable. Perhaps these automated systems have recorded something!”

The MDT zoomed toward the crystal prism as it grumbled, “Can’t you bloody treat this high-tech gadget with more tender loving care?!”

That bugger probably missed the care and protection Hao Ren gave it when he first got his hands on the MDT, afraid of scratching it wherever he went. And the former now totally regretted rejecting Hao Ren’s offer to paste a protective screen over it…

Grumbling aside, the MDT knew its priorities. After it flew over, it started to scan and analyze the pieces of equipment that were projecting all kinds of data reports. It also tried to establish contact with the data processing center (if it existed and could be used). A few seconds later, it shouted, “Partner, the data is a mess! It’s the sort of scrap data pieced together by an automated system once the mainframe’s gone offline. Only about 10% of the data is actually legible!”

“That’s better than not being able to read anything at all.” Hao Ren’s heart fell, but he saw hope in the disappointment. At least we didn’t end up with nothing. What did you get?”

“Processing now…” the MDT said as it projected constantly-updating data log and wordings. Compared with the junk data filled with garbled codes and disrupted images from the crystal prisms, the processed, converted, and edited data seemed to be much shorter. However, they were also clearer and more accurate.

The MDT continued, “This data is ancient. The latest record dates back 3,000 years ago.

“After that, the entire system went into a deep slumber, and most of the automated system’s recording functions failed.

“Even our droid’s search, as well as subsequent encounter and destruction, were not recorded.

“From the remaining data, some are observation readings of the universe, and some are daily logs of an unknown fleet. The places and fleet serials on the logs are totally foreign to us. We can only save them and send them for processing once we get back.

“These are some interesting reports here…”

The MDT placed a clear marker on something that looked like a daily log and pushed it before Hao Ren.

“…Combat Zone XX… broken, barrier 77 to 175 non-functional, invading teams… entering the second phase. The interior zone is locked, all units to transfer energy to sequence XI-35-155… Temporary barrier…

“…Last call completed, confirming the status of the throne… Invaders stopped at the temporary barrier. Energy transfer complete. Unable to reach central command, repeat, unable… All units enter dormancy…”

It was a report without heads or tails, and a large chunk of details missing to boot. Hao Ren and Vivian were totally befuddled as they read it. They then looked at each other while Hao Ren tried to surmise. “Looks like a battlefield report?”

Vivian nodded. “If the Denizens of the Stars’ ship and the divine power network are defensive measures left by the goddess of creation, then this “battlefield report” means that there were intruders here. And by the looks of things, they caused some massive damage.”

Hao Ren’s vision fell on the floating holographic projection, and he focused on one particular sentence. “‘All units transfer energy to sequence XI-35-155’—what does this mean?”

Vivian raised an eyebrow. “You mean to say that all these dormant starships…”

“Didn’t Asurmen say so? This ship’s consciousness and energy are gone,” Hao Ren said. It was something that he connected to naturally. “I believe that the other “light clouds” within Star Cluster X are about the same. If… Asurmen, let me confirm something with you. Do the Denizens’ starships have the ability to perform long-range energy transference?”

“Yes, they have this ability,” Asurmen answered assuredly. “This is one of the important contributors to my people’s survival during the reign of the Mad Lord.”

Hao Ren nodded. “Then it all comes together if they have this ability. I think my guess is right: this is an important area left behind by the goddess of creation, and the divine power lockdown, as well as the Denizen starship fleets, are the guards here. When the goddess fell, a group of invaders attacked, and their attack was very sudden, not to mention brutal to the point that it became so bad they were about to break before all the Denizen starships could get into position. Hence, in a short moment, they transferred all their energies to the frontline, leaving so many dormant starships across the system.”

Vivian’s expression then turned serious. “I feel that we need to find this battlefield asap.”

“Of co…” When Hao Ren was halfway through speaking, the entire hall turned dark.

Following that, all the operating equipment in the hall came to a screeching halt. Massive clouds of mist started to appear on the already-materialized walls and floor. The lights above seemed to experience some power supply problem as they died off one by one. Within seconds, the entire place reverted to how it looked like when Hao Ren and the crew had just arrived.

Lil Pea then leaped out from Hao Ren’s arms again, jumping onto the cognition crystal and using her tail to slap it continuously. However, this time around, her calls were not answered.

“Seems like that was the last remaining energy reserve,” the MDT said as it carefully dragged the little mermaid back. “Not sure why, but Lil Pea activated this little energy reserve and did not actually rouse the ship.”

The little mermaid crawled back into Hao Ren’s arms as she dejectedly curled into a ball. A child’s mood sure was fickle.

“It isn’t your fault, you were great.” Hao Ren gently ruffled the little one’s head as he looked at the MDT. “Got all the data?”

The MDT shook up and down. “Whatever that can be read has been recorded, even those garbled ones.”

“At least we’re not leaving empty-handed.” Hao Ren forced a smile. “Let’s go back and share our findings with the rest, then discuss our next course of action.”