The Record of Unusual Creatures

After some discussion, the group decided not to return to the surface. They found a room near the main hall and spent the night there.

It was Rheia who suggested this arrangement, which she said was the best advice according to her experience and professional knowledge. It seemed to be a risky business to spend the night in the underground ruins, but in fact, the interior of the Anno ruins was safer than the outside. Firstly, the magic-mutated devouring monsters were only active outside the ruins; there would be no monster on the inside. Secondly, the ruins buried in the ground was stronger than anyone thought. Rheia had examined the structure and building materials, and she found that the temple’s main structure was made of super-high tensile alloy; the annexes on the surface had all collapsed, but the main structure had not budged one bit despite being buried underground. Of course, it was safe unless there was a sudden new breach in the Great Pit that tore the temple in half, which was almost impossible. Thirdly, Rheia thought that staying overnight near the Great Pit was exciting, and she could brag about it later for at least half a year.

It seemed that the third reason was the one Rheia really cared about.

In all fairness, any mercenary in his or her right mind would not have accepted this daring act. The mercenary would have even parted ways when knowing that the underground temple was so close to the Great Pit. But Hao Ren and his teammates were doing the exact opposite. How they wished they could stay even longer there. That was why no one had objected to the arrangement of spending the night there.

Nonetheless, this had also worried Rheia, who began to suspect that these mercenaries were going to kill her and usurp her property.

Once underground, it was hard to tell the time of the day. Even if there was a clock to tell the time, the lack of environmental light changes made people feel at a loss. The influence was especially apparent on Rollie and Y’lisabet. Rollie thought that they should sleep irrespective of time, but Y’lisabet thought the exact opposite. At last, her papa had to wheedle her with a ‘kid who does not sleep will not grow up’ to get her in bed.

When even the night owl Vivian had also hit the sack, the underground temple finally quieted down.

It was all dark again.

Hao Ren had no idea how long he had slept as he had not had a dreamless night like the past few days for a long time. Deep sleep might help restore energy, but Hao Ren had lost the sense of how long he had been sleeping. When he woke up, he thought it was morning but only found that everyone was still asleep. Even Vivian, the early riser, was still hanging asleep on the ceiling.

Hao Ren rubbed his eyes. As his vision slowly adapted, the darkness around him receded. He glanced at Vivian helplessly. The vampire lady usually used the bed. But the ruins of the temple had apparently driven her up the wall, literally. Or perhaps she found the environment familiar, just like the catacombs or caves, she decided to hang herself up for the night for nostalgia’s sake.

“Sometimes, people do like to act extemporaneously.” Hao Ren muttered. He was alert now. So, he got out of the sleeping bag and tidied his wrinkled clothes before getting out of the room.

It was a test of guts walking in the ancient underground temple, especially one that had long been abandoned. But it was an alternative way of unwinding for Hao Ren. While meandering along the corridors where the lavish decorations were still vaguely visible, he contacted Nolan in his mind.

“How is the situation up there?”

“Nothing changes,” the shipgirl said listlessly. “I am bored hovering in the sky all day. I cannot even get out of the atmosphere. As a spaceship, I feel like a dead loss.”

“Stop complaining, it is only for a few days,” Hao Ren said helplessly. “I have never heard you complaining when the spaceship is docking for maintenance.”

“That is not the same. During the maintenance, I would just shut down and go to have fun in the virtual space. But here, I have to switch on all the sensor and stare the world where there is hardly anything happening. Don’t you think it is boring?”

“I did ask you to send out the probes. Is there any news?”

“The probes have almost mapped the entire planet,” Nolan still said listlessly. “I have synced it to the MDT, you can check it out. Just like you have guessed it before, there is something suspicious about L’Haronne. I found the traces of almost every race of the Plane of Dreams on this planet. Not only are there species created by the goddess of creation such as werewolves, vampires, and humans, but there are also native races like the sirens. But some of these races seem to have undergone some changes as if they only retain the ethnic characteristics of the appearance, but have another name. For example, the sirens here is divided into the terrestrial Snake People and the aquatic mermaid. People in L’Haronne see them as two distinct species. Also, I have found a race in the desert in the south; they appear the same as the Tannaeans, but they are called Jelonnean. And there are many more similar situations.”

Hao Ren slowed down his footsteps. “The planet sounds like a species sample vault, and some of the species in the vault have been renamed.”

“Maybe it’s really a vault?” Nolan said. “As for the change of name, could it be due to the civilization divide in the last 10,000 years?”

Hao Re’s brows knitted together. “Muru once mentioned that the goddess of creation has a Plane of Dreams Species Vault. Heve has one served as a guard in this vault. It is said that this vault is used to preserve the sample of all lives in the Plane of Dreams. They did not elaborate on the form of the vault. Perhaps, it is just a virtual database, or it could be a planet that stores physical samples. If the latter is the case and L’Haronne is the said vault, then many things will be explainable.”

“There will be a lot of number crunching if we want to verify this matter,” Nolan said.

“Yeah.” Hao Ren’s brain neurons began to fire up. “Life is not limited to mere intelligent races. Things from birds and animals to bacteria and viruses are all living things. The Seed of Origin evolved by adapting to the local environment that it took root and spawned different ecosystems. Each ecosystem is probably made up of tens or even hundreds of millions of species. If L’Haronne is the vault, then the number of species on this planet will be mind-boggling. Even if you increase your sensor performance and processing power ten folds, it will not be easy to complete the compilation.”

“With so many species cramp on a planet, it is just incredible,” Nolan said. “Aside from the question of how so many species are squeezed together on a planet, the fact that the different ecosystems have to co-exist is already hard to make sense of. How could different living conditions with different basic life structure coexist on a planet? Was this how the goddess of creation made the species vault?”

“That is why I have not confirmed that this planet is the vault.” Hao Ren laughed. “I can only say that this place is not what you think. There are indeed all kinds of races, and it contains all the species samples of the intelligent creatures in the Plane of Dream. But here, the siren has branched out to become the snake people and the mermaid, the Tannaean is the Zeronnean, the elf has become the wood elf, sea elf, fel elf, and so on. Many races have not just name change but physiological changes. It is hard to believe that these changes have only happened within 10,000 years. Do you know that there is an old legend in this world that L’Haronne is actually the new world? The original L’Haronne was destroyed. There are many flaws to this claim, but it gives me inspiration.”

“Inspiration?”

“This planet has experienced the explosion of the divine realm, and yet it is still alive and kicking. It seems too real to be true.” Hao Ren smiled. “I am afraid it is a fake.”

The shipgirl thought for a moment and then said, “It sounds like real every time you talk nonsense.”

“But it is well-founded nonsense.”

Hao Ren stopped. He had left the atrium of the underground temple unknowingly. Now, he was standing at the promenade that had broken in half with a crevasse shrouded in darkness before him.

He was right before the entrance of the Great Pit.

Hao Ren hung up and then squatted down near the Great Pit entrance. No. He did not stroll here by accident; he had long been curious about this strange Great Pit and wanting to study it although the place looked not very hospitable.

A flapping sound was heard behind him before Vivian ‘s voice came. “I know you are here.”

“Just wake up?” Hao Ren asked without looking.

“My head hurt hanging from the ceiling,” Vivian said while giving her head a massage. “I could not imagine how I slept back then. I still prefer the bed.”

“When people flashback, they always question why they did what they did.” Hao Ren smiled. He then pointed at the crevasse. “Do you know how it looks like down there?”

Vivian stared at Hao Ren. “Are you telling me that you are going to jump straight down the rift?”

Hao Ren shook his head quickly. “Are you kidding? Inspector might be a reckless profession, but I am not as stupid as this. I just have a bold idea—tossing the MDT down—”

Before Hao Ren finished, the MDT had rushed out from his pocket. “Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Hold on! I also have a naive suggestion for your bold idea—you f*cking jump down there yourself!”

“Get out of my sight! It is a preliminary plan.” Hao Ren shoved the MDT away and took out a probe from his dimensional pocket. “I am going to try it with a probe.”

“You scared the hell out of me,” the MDT mumbled.

Hao Ren shot the PDA a glance and then activated the probe and tossed it into the dark rift in front of him.

According to what Rheia said, the Great Pit would indiscriminately devour everything with life or magical energy. So, was the probe in its menu?