The Record of Unusual Creatures

Regarding Hao Ren’s operation in the Umbral Realm, Raven 12345 expressed her great appreciation for her own ability to have a sharp eye for discovering capable ones. She admitted that the information Hao Ren had gathered on his trip far surpassed her expectations and that the most valuable part of it was about the Umbral Realm’s nature.

Hao Ren lined up tube-shaped metal containers containing samples of rock, soil, air, water, and a bouncing shimmer of light trapped in a force field, in front of Raven 12345.

“These are the specimen I asked the Petrachelys to collect. These are samples of materials from L’Haronne, and the shimmer of light comes from the edge of the Umbral Realm. The edge of the Umbral Realm isn’t completely dark. There are some cool glowing clouds scattered and floating there. They have weird properties somewhere between matter and energy, completely out of line with the laws of physics, so I collected them.”

When Raven 12345 touched one of the sample jars with her finger, the metal container vanished, and the sample inside quickly transformed into a series of light spots on her fingertips. Her analysis was completed in a matter of seconds. “Interesting… What an amazing discovery…”

“What is it?” Hao Ren and Vivian asked at the same time.

“There’s a sixty-percent difference in its information structure compared with a product of the Plane of Dreams.” Raven 12345 snapped her fingers, and the sample, as well as storage container that disappeared, were instantly restored to their original positions on the table. “That means they were produced under different rules of physics, or in other words, different worldviews. And the light… Its nature is more intriguing. Can you guess what it is?”

Hao Ren pondered for a moment and said, “I don’t know…”

“This is the World Barrier after being smashed and solidifying.”

“…Oh, my God!” Hao Ren was dumbfounded. “The thing that separates the World of Order from the void? A precursor to the Wall of Reality?”

“Yes, a broken and solidified World Barrier. Inside it is a physical space that is neither of the Plane of Dreams nor of the Surface World. It existed on the Plane of Dreams as a World Barrier but never had material exchange with the Plane of Dreams until the outbreak of the god-slaying war. What’s more… this space clearly predates the God-slaying War, which means it was there from the start… We need to fix the model of the universe.”

Hao Ren had a vague guess previously, but he was not as sure as Raven 12345. “We’re not dealing with a twin universe, but a… triad?”

“Yes, the Umbral Realm is most likely a separate universe.” Raven 12345 nodded. “But it is weaker than the Plane of Dreams and needs to cling to the World Barrier to survive. It’s more like the debris of a universe that has been destroyed. How long has the debris been stuck to the World Barrier of the Plane of Dreams? After or before the collision between the Plane of Dreams and the Surface World? There’s a lot to find out…”

Hao Ren was still wondering about what historical secrets were waiting to be discovered on L’Haronne in the Umbral Realm, but Raven 12345 thought of something more profound, and that gave him some ideas.

“If it was there before it collided with the Surface World… that would form a clear arrow of time.” Hao Ren projected a hologram and drew his own concept map on it. “At first, the Umbral Realm was a complete and normal universe, then it was destroyed for unknown reasons, crashing into the World Barrier of the Plane of Dreams. After that, the Plane of Dreams was attacked by the Mad Lord, and it crashed against the World Barrier of the Surface World…”

“In fact, the Plane of Dreams’ original destiny is probably the same as that of the Umbral Realm.” Vivian also caught the key point. “Without the goddess of creation, a normal universe would not have been able to withstand the ravages of the Mad Lord. It would have been completely shattered and smashed in our universe. It was the goddess of creation who alleviated the disaster.”

“So the Plane of Dreams is not the first victim, but the Umbral Realm?” Hao Ren frowned.

Raven 12345 nodded gently. “It’s just a bold assumption, but it’s rooted in clues. The clues now suggest that the Umbral Realm was originally an independent universe, but now it has crashed into the World Barrier of the Plane of Dreams. This situation is very similar to the Plane of Dreams crashing into the Surface World, except that the Plane of Dreams hasn’t been completely destroyed.”

Vivian gently rubbed between her eyebrows. “Our judgment of the Mad Lord… It’s not deep enough. He could be like some kind of virus, infecting one universe, using up the universe’s resources and energy, then riding on the wreckage of his ‘victim’ to find another universe. Then he infects the next universe through world collisions and so on…”

Hao Ren looked at Raven 12345 and asked, “So our deduction of the Mad Lord being some kind of ‘primordial life’ with a confusing will at the beginning of the Plane of Dreams’ birth was wrong? It was not born in the Plane of Dreams but a foreign pollutant?”

“No, our first judgment should be correct. That was the conclusion I came to after careful calculation,” Raven 12345 said, shaking her head. “Now, I’m guessing that the Mad Lord has some sort of ‘regeneration mechanism’. After destroying a host universe, it should revert back to some kind of information singularity, like a sporocyst, or else it wouldn’t survive the collapse of cosmic information. Then, as Vivian mentioned, it rides the wrecked universe through the void and enters its new host through the collision of worlds. The sporocyst wakes up, and the Mad Lord is born again. In the process, the Mad Lord acquires the information characteristics of the new host universe, which can have an impact on the new universe. This process is necessary because the physical rules and information structures between two universes are very different in most cases. Without this form of rebirth or transcoding, the Mad Lord will not have the ability to infect different universes.”

Hao Ren felt goosebumps all over his body. Such infections were scary enough at the microbial level, let alone on a cosmic scale. He shuddered at the thought. “Wait a minute, since it infects a new universe by means of world collision, isn’t it going to infect our universe after it infects the Plane of Dreams?!”

Raven 12345 glanced at Hao Ren and said, “If only it were so—I’ve been waiting for this day for years! If it dares to come, I’ll end it with one punch!”

“Go and kill it if you can.” Hao Ren looked at Raven 12345 with contempt.

He was at a loss for words.

“In short, it’s too important. I need to investigate the Umbral Realm further. Next, I’m going to study L’Haronne,” said Hao Ren.

“Yes, L’Haronne is very valuable. It’s a planet of life in a destroyed universe, and it has traces of artificial modification. You have to do some research. If we’re on the right track, there’s a good chance that there are hidden traces of the Mad Lord’s influence on L’Haronne. And since the planet managed to survive it… perhaps the Mad Lord’s weakness is there,” said Raven 12345.

After they finalized the strategy for their next action, their conversation became more relaxed. Raven 12345 began to ask Hao Ren about some interesting episodes in his operation, including the experience of falling into “the Dream of L’Haronne” and finally getting out of the dream after being inspired by the brainless Noobie. The goddess could not help but laugh and say, “I really didn’t expect that—she’s so weak, who knew she could be so helpful. That deserves a reward.”

As she spoke, she began to look around for Noobie. The little one was running around on the floor, having a good time. But when she sensed that Raven 12345 was looking at her, she shivered and immediately rushed into Vivian’s hair.

Ravens 12345 was a little hurt inside. “Why did she react like that? Did I abuse her?”

Hao Ren thought to himself: Noobie would rather be abused than eat what Raven 12345 cooked…