The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 446

Chapter 446: Finding an Escort

 

Hao Ren knew he had yet another problem. It was as though he had caught Vivian’s bad luck, because he found that problem always came looking for him.

“What’s the situation? What’s the bad news?” Hao Ren tried to remain calm, and decided that he would choose the size of brick to use depending on how smutty the MDT was going to be.

But the MDT was not kidding around this time. “The bad news is, we won’t be able to open the World Gate from within. It could cause the space to collapse and even endanger other spatial bubbles. There’s a possibility of an implosion.

Hao Ren froze. “Why is that?”

“Because, it’s the heart of the collision between the two worlds. The two worlds with different laws tore the space here, leading to a fragile mathematical order—think of dismantling the load-bearing walls from inside a building after an earthquake. That’s what it’s like.”

With this analogy, Hao Ren immediately got the picture. He pulled his brows together as he said, “So, the only way to open the World Gate is from the outside?”

“Now, the worse news,” the MDT sounded just as annoying. “The entire bubble zone is actually not suitable for opening a World Gate—the World Gate is unlike Petrachelys’ void drive. The void drive is just a propulsion device, capable of sending things from one world to another. However, the process is entirely self-contained and wouldn’t cause information interference in the outside world. The World Gate is an entirely different thing; it’s a ‘structure’ that takes root here and it’ll have a certain impact to the surrounding environment. The power output of the tiniest World Gate is tens of times more than the drive output of a spacecraft. That doesn’t sit well with the dangerous structure of the bubble zone. You can refer to the Incompatible Mathematical Erosion Equation in Unified Information Theory. That’s…”

Hao Ren was stunned as he did not expect this situation. Nonetheless, the MDT’s explanation was loud and clear—anything he could not understand, he would definitely be able to make sense after that. He blinked and turned to look at Y’zaks as well as Vivian who looked curious. “The MDT came back with one bad news and one worse news. Which news would you like to hear first?”

Lily grinned, revealing her fangs. “Let’s hear the worse one first so that the bad one will feel like a silver lining later.”

“I think I better tell you the bad news first, or else it’ll be logically challenging to deal with the information.” Hao Ren spread his hands out with a wry smile on his face. “There’s a problem in opening the World Gate.”

He then proceeded to explain the complex situation of the spatial bubble zone. Lily immediately indicated that she did not understand—Hao Ren looked at her, and sadly found that he and the husky had a common language. Meanwhile, Vivian’s brows were knitted together. “This has turned out to be a bit of a surprise… We never thought about it in the beginning.”

“Of course we didn’t.” Hao Ren twisted his mouth and said, “We thought that we were just coming here to pick up some people. Who would’ve thought we’d have to haul back a 400-km-long space fortress? My Dimensional Pocket is only good at accommodating things as large as 500 m or less in radius. Maybe we should consider cutting some stuff into smaller pieces for easier transportation if they aren’t needed for scientific research. But then, Wang would have to chop his house up.”

“Shut up if you have no real ideas.” Vivian glared at Hao Ren before she turned to look at Y’zaks. “Biggie, what do you think?”

“The World Gate is going to be opened outside the bubble zone, which means that we have to haul Helcrown and the wreckage through the bubbles.” Y’zaks studied the operation plan like a half-baked scientist. “First of all, we will inevitably face fierce attack when Helcrown is out in the open; secondly, how do we tow such a massive spacecraft wreckage? Use the Petrachelys?”

“I’m afraid it’s not possible.” Hao Ren shook his head. “The world outside has gravity. The anti-gravity field of the Petrachelys can’t possibly cover hundreds of kilometers. It’s just an official vessel that can make do as a tugboat in space, but not in gravity-filled environment.”

“There’s another thing; how do we let a 100-km wreckage pass through the gateway?” Lanina probably understood what they were discussing, but she was more concerned with the practical aspects rather than things like the World Gate and the spacecraft wreckage, which she knew nothing about. “The space bubbles are connected by naturally-occuring teleportation portals. The largest of which are only hundreds of meters across. That looks like a pinhole compared to a monster of a few hundred kilometers wide.”

Vivian thought for a moment, and said, “Why don’t we just teleport the wreckage to the fringe of the bubble zone using the Petrachelys?”

Hao Ren shook his head as he said, “Impossible. I’ve gotten the MDT to record the data each time it passed through the portal. The connection between each bubble is very confusing. Following the existing routes to leave the bubble zone is the safest way to go. Creating another teleportation gateway is dangerous and unpredictable.”

While they were having discussion, a blue light suddenly flashed next to the table. The MDT emerged from it. “Hey, what Lanina mentioned is just a small problem. The Petrachelys can read the connection patterns of the portal, and expand it into a larger one—hundreds of kilometers. That shouldn’t be a problem, but for stability’s sake, this ‘hyperlink extension’ must be carried out in the vicinity of a natural portal. And that is after we deal with the hostile interception en route.”

Hao Ren was stunned for a moment. “What? There’s such a feature in my spacecraft?”

The MDT knocked Hao Ren on the head and said, “So what do you usually read in the textbook?”

Hao Ren grabbed the MDT and knocked it against the table twice to quiet it down. “Well, it seems we’ve solved the problem of the gateway. What’s left is for Raven to open a gateway at the border of the bubble zone, and find a way to tow Helcrown as well as the spacecraft to the border. Wang, don’t you have anti-gravity magic? How long does it take to cover the entire wreckage with Anti-Gravitational Array?”

Y’zaks shrugged and said, “Forget it. It’s like trying to make an entire mountain range float in the air. We simply don’t possess this kind of technology yet. In addition, even if it floats, we have another problem to deal with—do you think the garrison at the portals will let us pass through just like that? Helcrown only has enough firepower for self-defensive and your spaceship’s firepower isn’t suitable for the job. That leaves the rest of us to deal with the millions of hostile enemies. The best case scenario would be to die a martyr’s death.”

Hao Ren scratched his chin in thought. He knew exactly what he needed now: a large-scale transport equipment which did not necessarily have to be of advanced technology. But, it had to ensure that the 100-km wreckage could be hauled to the portal. He also needed an escort team to deal with all the troops in this world.

He thought of Kabala and 883, the little green men, and the private armed caravans, who all fit the job, but they all cost money. This was especially true for Fairy Void Consortium, the gang of notoriously vindictive profiteers.

A group of long-eared figure suddenly crossed his mind.

“I’ve got an idea!” Hao Ren clapped his hands and said, “I have hundreds of millions of male lions…”

Using her hand to touch Hao Ren’s forehead, Vivian said, “Are you feeling too much stress? Don’t worry, we’ll solve the problem together. Don’t stretch yourself too hard.”

Half laughing, half crying, Hao Ren took Vivian’s hand off. “I’m serious—I do have hundreds of millions of male lions. Although the Aerymian elves’ technology isn’t that advanced, their fleet of spacecrafts is formidable! How many of these worlds could change like Y’zaks?”

A glow suddenly appeared in Y’zaks eyes, but it was followed by a sense of worry. “Would the goddess even allow it? Would it be seen as dragging yourself into a war? If the Aerymian elves and the locals here were to go to war, that would be unimaginably horrible.”

Hao Ren took out a workbook from the Dimensinal Pocket with a wry smile on his face. “The wreckage has been classified as a major research sample. The inspector in-charge of the shipment of such a cargo is entitled to an armed escort. It’s not a troop, just a group of security guards! Don’t forget that the Aerymian elves are under my custody, so I can issue them a private army permit.”

Hao Ren then waved to his men. “Prepare for take off. I’m going back and I’ll return with my armed escorts!”

Lily looked at Hao Ren dumbfoundedly, and murmured, “Landlord has gone mad… Woof, woof.”

Chapter 447: Landlord Is Coming!

 

Hao Ren shared his own idea with Raven 12345. The latter did not overreact as he had expected, instead she reminded him not to take things too far.

“Armed escorts are okay, but they must be just that. If things go wrong, I’ll have problems answering to my superior. Not to mention, it’ll affect this year’s appraisal. If that happens, I’ll have no choice but to haul you off to avoid another disaster,” the goddess sounded serious as she spoke.

Most people in Helcrown were still dumbstruck by the abrupt announcement of the migration plan. Everyone gathered in the streets to discuss the news while Hao Ren prepared to bring his eight million armed escorts back. On a huge terrace of the palace in Helcrown, Hao Ren discussed his itinerary with Y’zaks. “It will be a few days before I can make it back again—the journey isn’t a problem, but the Aerymian elves will need some time to assemble their troops.”

“That, I understand.” Y’zaks nodded cheerfully. “We’ll be here guarding in the other dimension anyway, we can wait.”

Lanina listened on the side. She had never met the Aerymian elves before and she was curious about their mysterious ally. “Are you talking about a group of elves? Are they coming to help? That’s risky.”

Y’zaks looked at Lanina and smiled. “If you know about our relationship with the Aerymian elves, you wouldn’t have said so. They will help us—just as the demon army will help the landlord if he’s in need; we are brothers-in-arms.”

Hao Ren turned around and looked at the open empty terrace. The next moment, the air suddenly warped and slit open. A silver-white spacecraft then emerged in front of everyone.

The Petrachelys shone with glory while the blue ​​light under the armor of the spacecraft gave out a “breathing” pulse. Its condition had never been so good. Lanina had seen the ship before, but she still could not help marvelling over it. The curious Y’lisabet suddenly jumped up. “Whoa! This is the spaceship you were talking about? Papa, you came back in this one?”

The little girl could not help moving closer to it as she reached her hand into her pocket. She took out a small screwdriver and jabbed the spacecraft. “I wonder what’s inside…”

Y’zaks quickly ran forward and pulled his daughter back. “No, you can’t dismantle this one!”

Cold sweat trickled down Hao Ren’s back. He asked, “What’s wrong with her?”

“Ahem, ahem, she liked to tinker with things since young.” Y’zaks scratched his head awkwardly while Y’lisabet struggled to get away from his hand, demanding to go to see the spacecraft and what was inside. Y’zaks beckoned two attendants to come forward from the edge of the terrace and told Hao Ren, “I’m giving you two aides. Although they aren’t from the same race, they are elves and should be of help.”

Both of the elves who came up to him were very young. They had sharp ears, but one of them was blonde, fair skinned, extremely tall, and wearing a short, light green robe. The other one was wearing a black leather jacket and had dark skin, silver hair as well as shining eyes with a mysterious moonlit glow. Their appearance was so eye-catching that Hao Ren reckoned if they were left in the downtown area somewhere on Earth, within half an hour, their mugshots would appear in Weibo’s headlines.

The two elves bowed politely before Hao Ren. Elves and dark elves were not in good terms in this world. Those who served in the Allied Army did not see eye-to-eye either, as they always operated in isolation from each other. However, these two races were used to working together. Looking at both of them, a question suddenly crossed Hao Ren’s mind. He asked, “Are you male or female?”

The two elves had very different expressions on their faces. The fairer elf was obviously feeling awkward. He smiled slightly and his voice was quite charming. “I’m male. You can call me Ysre.”

Meanwhile, the dark elf’s arms were in akimbo. “Haven’t you noticed that I have boobs?!”

“…”

Hao Ren choked in embarrasment for a long moment as he really could not notice them. In the end, the dark elf sighed and said, “Well, speaking of them, I can’t see them either… By the way, my name is Aylu. I’m a dark elf. Nice to meet you.”

“Your men are really unique in themselves,” Hao Ren’s mouth trembled as he spoke. He glanced up at Y’zaks before he turned to the spacecraft. “Then, I shall…”

Lily finally decided at the last moment to tag along as she flashed up next to Hao Ren like a white shadow. “Wait a second, I’m going with you!”

Nangong Wuyue shoved Lil Pea into Hao Ren’s arms and said, “Bring her along.”

Hao Ren looked down at Lil Pea, who was staring back at him in his arm. He then he looked at Lily, who was wagging her tail next to him, and the two elven aides behind him. He finally threw aside the last remnants of any debonair feeling in his heart. He knew he could never look carefree in his entire life, not even if he could bring the eight million armed escourts back with him.

So, it began—the most powerful landlord in history led his aides, his child, and pet dog to embark on a journey to assemble an eight-million-strong army.

The Petrachelys rose up slowly, then faded into a silver light before disappeared before everyone’s eyes. Y’zaks looked in the direction where the spacecraft had gone and froze for a moment. He then turned to look at Lanina, and said, “Now, we can only wait. Lanina, go to my armory and bring me my sword.”

Y’zaks lost his sword during the final battle in the past. The races in his world speculated that the evil sword had sealed and hidden itself after its owner left. But now, the truth regarding the “Legacy Crystal” was finally revealed. Y’lisbet had found the sword, and kept it in Helcrown. Lanina nodded and left to carry out her order. After a while, she came back with a four-meter-long, giant, black sword. “My King, can you please do it yourself next time? This thing is a little difficult for a succubus to carry…”

It was Y’zaks’ favorite sword when he was in his default demonic form. The sword was made from obsidian and fine gold; forged in hellish magma; clumsy to the eye, but agile in the hand. The engraving of 77 mighty, demonic lines and its powerful high-frequency vibration edge sent chills down the spines of the world’s bravest warriors. Words in different languages were embossed on the back of the sword, while the hilt was inlaid with 14 red crystals. symbolizing seven major races of the human world, and seven demonic races.

“It’s probably going to be the last battle in our world. Since we’re leaving, it’s obligatory that someone pays with his blood.” Y’zaks held up his sword and slid his hand silently across the 13 crystals on the hilt, and then a hole. He sighed softly. “Lanina, bring the crystal. The hilt looks weird.”

In the meantime, Hao Ren had activated the void drive in the Petrachelys and he accelerated all the way back to his own world.

Before going onboard, the two elves were very well-mannered and cultured. Once they were onboard, they began to show their bumpkin nature. Ysre, the white elf was at least better. He kept his gentlemanly manner as he sat in a chair and looked around gracefully. But Aylu, the dark elf, was darting around the bridge, touching everything that peaked her curiosity. Sometimes, she would even be startled by the sound of equipment starting. Hao Ren watched everything through the corner of his eye—the elf could say goodbye to her image.

Actually, Hao Ren felt that he did not need to bring the aides at all when meeting with Hilda and Vimm. Aerymian elves were very efficient and practical people, who fundamentally cared less about formality. But, he also knew that Y’zaks had his own considerations: if Helcrown was to be resettled on Peatopia, hundreds of thousands of them would become the Aerymian elves’ new neighbors. So, he felt it important to send two elves over to say hi to the Aerymian elves first—at least, they would know in advance that there were distant relatives among their future neighbors. More or less, it was going to be useful.

Hao Ren pondered on the matter for a long time. He decided not to care about how these principles worked, as long as the two elves were of help…

They did not say a word for the rest of the journey as the Petrachelys—the agile and efficient official business spaceship—reached its speed limit and soon arrived at its destination just above the atmosphere of the new Aerymian planet a.k.a Peatopia. The two elves were astonished as they gazed the many bright stars in the sky. Hao Ren just smiled, and proceeded to connect to the special channel he left behind for the Aerymian elves. “Yo, your landlord’s coming!”

Chapter 448: Men Who Go Down the Annals of History Are Like That

 

When Hao Ren left Peatopia, he left a dedicated communication channel to the Aerymian elves, so that they could get in touch with him in case of an emergency. It was clear that such an important external communication channel had to be manned on a 24/7 basis. When Hao Ren’s voice was splattered across the channel, a moment of chatter was heard on the other end before the tense voice of a startled elf replied, “Aerymian Communication Tower. Your identity is being verified. Roger… Ahh, is it you, Lord?”

Hao Ren froze for a moment before he realized that the title “Lord” was referring to him—considering the area of ​​land he had rented out to the elves, “Lord” was regarded as an upgraded version of “landlord”.

Hao Ren replied and allowed the operator to inform Hilda and Vimm about his arrival. Before long, he saw a few white dots appearing in space; they were space vessels that the Aerymian elves sent out to meet him. Most of the space vessels were from the old Aerymian Island Chain—they were almost antique. It did not seem like the elves had completely restarted their basic industries, at least they had not been able to produce new spacecrafts. However, among the antique spacecrafts were two new spacecrafts of different styles. They were probably part of the support resources the 883 fleet left behind in accordance with the agreement they had with the Aerymian elves. Judging from the models, these were the low-tech ships limited in the stellar system.

A triangle-shaped Aerymian spacecraft flew near to the Petrachelys and an image of Vimm was displayed on the communitor in front of Hao Ren. The young elven prince was so handsome that it was almost like a photoshopped figure; his face was radiant with a bright smile. “What brings you here, Landlord?”

“Lead the way. We’ll discuss it when I see your mother.” Hao Ren nodded. “There’s something important that needs your assistance this time.”

Vimm instantly felt a sense of urgency after seeing Hao Ren’s serious face. He quickly turned his ship around and led the way. The Petrachelys followed the cruise ships of Aerym, flying down towards the only continent on the planet.

After penetrating through the atmosphere, Hao Ren switched on the external camera and he was pleased to see that the once primitive barren continent had begun to see development. A simple-styled city lined the coast, white towers rose in the forest, and many peculiar installations presumably radio or power towers were being constructed on the once barren, rocky mountain. He raised the sensitivity of the external camera and found that more residences and infrastructure were under construction although they were still very basic. All of this was enough to indicate that the Aerymian elves had adapted to the planet and survived well.

In the ocean far from the mainland, the “colonial eco-sphere” formed by the floating islands had apparent changes: they did noy have to stay back in space and they had been turned into stationary maritime cities. The shield of the eco-sphere was modified with many entrances and there was man-made land extending beyond the entrance, long runways, as well as ports. Aircrafts and newly-built cargo ships were traversing the air and sea between the mainland as well as the maritime cities.They were all transporting a huge number of personnel and supplies.

New residents were exploring the still unfamiliar continent while materials from the continent were brought into the eco-sphere to repair and renovate the ancient sanctuaries. The people of Aerym had taken root in their new homeland and began to seek a peaceful co-existence with this planet in their own way.

“Development is going pretty fast,” Hao Ren suddenly said over the radio. “I thought you would have to take a few years before relocating en masse to the mainland. Now, it seems the empty islands have already begun to relocate.”

“The new environment is better than we thought,” Vimm’s voice was heard over the radio. “And, the ancient secrets of nature have enabled our people to adapt more quickly to the environment outside the dome. Now, hundreds of thousands of elves plant their roots in this new world every day. But the dome cities won’t be abandoned as mother has decided to renovate the facilities on the islands with resources from the mainland. At the end of the day, each dome city will accommodate one third of its original residents, which is the most ideal population. The cities are no longer in a dilapidated state, supplies aren’t restricted, and water as well as food are available in abundance. There is no better time than this.”

The spacecraft gradually descended as the gleaming coastlinea appeared on the screen. The coastline looked rather familiar, but was also quite different: rows of tidy buildings lined the coastline and inland. The land in the city was reinforced and laid neatly with man-made materials; towering white walls surrounded the city in the shape of a crescent, shielding the city from the strong, humid wind, which from the ocean. In parts of the city that stretched deeper into the continent, the elves did not destroy the natural forest vegetation, instead they did some proper transplanting and pruning as they built the city directly into the forest. Under the ingenious design of its architects, half of the city blended seamlessly with the forest.

Minas Elenion, the new capital of Aerym, where the first immigrants landed, and the place Hilda once said she was going to develop was now appeared to take shape. The pace of its construction had exceeded Hao Ren’s imagination. He did not expect the city to grow so large in just a few months.

Then again, the pace of development was not too difficult to understand: after all, the Aerymian elves came from an interstellar era. Even if their scientific and technological know-how were not on par with those monsters who traversed the stars, they were more powerful than humans. Not to mention, they once lived in a space, which was on the verge of going kaput at any time. Their fast-building technology like the “three-minute fast repair”, “ten-minute wall-building” and other similar stuff were not to be underestimated.

Construction in the new city was in full swing, and a large area of yet to be used open space could be seen in the city. The spacecrafts made a circle above the city before they slowly landed near the newly built Royal District. Hao Ren and Vimm each disembarked from their spacecrafts with their men. Vimm immediately came up to Hao Ren and gave him a big hug. It made Hao Ren feel quite embarrassed though.

He was not really fond of hugging a man, who was four times more handsome than himself—speaking of a big ego…

But when he looked back at Ysre, the elven aide behind him, he began to feel better: as good-looking as Vimm was, he was ostensibly a male through-and-through; but the appearance of the elven aide behind him was so ambiguous that he could be mistaken as someone else’s mistress.

As they touched down, the two elves were stunned beyond words by what they saw. They never thought that there would be so many elves in the other world. Although the elves in this foreign world looked similiar to them, a look at the buildings and tools in their surroundings would immediately tell you that these elves were entirely different in other ways. Ysre and Aylu almost forgot why they were there as they were rooted to the spot, looking around curiously. Eventually, Lily had to drag them along to keep up with the rest of the team.

Meanwhile, Lily felt pretty happy—usually, she was the one being dragged, but this time she was the one doing the dragging…

“Mother is having a meeting with the elders in the council hall, so she isn’t able to come out to greet you. She asked me to apologize to you on her behalf.” Vimm walked with Hao Ren and said, “Things are moving on track and there’s no shortage of manpower too. But, since this is the first time we’re living on land, there are a lot of things we need to adapt to. We also have to draft new laws on traffic, farming and building codes, so we’ve been busy for more than a month.”

Hao Ren nodded, indicating that he understood. “I got it. It must be hell of a busy time for the management… Hey, by the way, I have something that needs your help, I think your mother is going to be busier than ever after this…”

Suddenly, Hao Ren froze in his tracks and stared at a huge group of portrait sculptures at the entrance of the square. He was flabbergasted.

The sculptures, which were cast in some kind of alloy were 10-m tall. The leading sculpture was in the image of a man wearing a uniform, which resembled that of a fleet commander. He had his head held high and one of his hands pointing in a forward direction. Behind it was a group of sculptures resembling the Aerymian elves, who appeared determined with their bodies leaning forward. The sculptures formed the picture of a pioneering team led by a forward-looking leader.

Beautiful, grand, solemn, yet very heavy.

Hao Ren was rooted to the spot for a long time before he finally figured it out. He looked at Vimm and asked, “Is that me?”

Vimm laughed as he pointed at the sculpture. “A spiritual symbol is important to the people’s morale at this moment. Nothing is more inspiring than the one who has lead them here.”

For a moment, Hao Ren did not know how to react. He looked down and saw a plate at the foot of the sculpture which read, “Dear Leader, Sun and Lord of the Aerymian Elves—Hao Ren”.

“…WTF?”

Chapter 449: Borrowing Troops

 

Hao Ren looked at the sculpture of himself for a long time, and did not know how to react. After some thoughts however, he found it to be pretty normal. Nonetheless, for a guy who had never been a public figure, the statue was a little too much. Vimm, who was standing next to him, felt nothing wrong about it as he cheerily asked, “What do you think? Are you happy with the sulpture? Mother thought that it was only proper for this statue to be placed in the center of the city square…”

Lily finally came to her senses as she lunged forward. “Landlord, you’re finally being paraded through the streets!”

Just when Hao Ren thought of giving the husky a slap in the face, he heard Vimm laughing and saying to Lily, “Your sculptures are at the city gate in the Western District; you will find your human form as well as your beast form there. The guardian of the Aerymian elves, the beast who cleared the road ahead—there’s a statue of every one of you.”

Hao Ren patted Lily on the shoulder and teased her back. “Look, you’re being hung on the city gate.”

Lily thought about it for a moment, and felt good. “Oh, so that I can ward off evil spirits, I guess…”

“Is all this really necessary?” Hao Ren looked at Vimm as the magnificent sculpture felt strange to him. As a guy from the streets in his twenties, he was of course flattered. But deep down in his heart, he felt more embarrassed than ever—it was like helping an old lady cross the road and finding your heroic mugshot printed on dollar notes the next day; it was especially surreal, particularly unscrupulous, certainly unbelievable, and mostly undeserving.

“What seems to be the matter?” Vimm asked as he nodded matter-of-factly. “The whole idea is, as the entire race is being reborn, it is necessary to leave behind something to commemorate the event, lest our children and grandchildren forget whom this place belongs to.”

Hao Ren folded his arms across his chest, feeling justified. He then turned his head and looked at his sculpture with a brilliant smile on his face—his demeanor resembled a bumpkin more than the reactions of the two elves, who first boarded the spaceship earlier. However, the born-inspector—as recognized by Raven 12345—was just as naive. He quickly recovered his composure and heartily accepted the honor. It was already written all across his face; declining would only make him appear hypocritical.

Despite that, after glancing at the sculpture, Hao Ren felt an unexplainable weirdness. Lily scratched her chin as she walked around the sculpture in circles before she coming back and pulling on Hao Ren’s sleeve. “Landlord, why do I have the feeling that your statue looks like a dummy in a shooting range.”

“…”

Why was the husky’s mind always so sharp at moments like this? Had she been faking her dumbness all this while?

The two elven aides had absolutely no idea what they were talking about. They appeared to be cautiously vigilant in the unfamiliar environment and they slowly drifted into silent mode. After sometime, they finally caught Vimm’s attention. “Landlord, who are they?” asked Vimm.

“My aides from another world. They’re also my special envoy,” Hao Ren so introduced. “This is Ysre, a white elf, and this is Aylu, a dark elf. They come from another world. If you refer to God’s creation workbook, you’ll find that they are also your distant relatives. I have something to discuss with your mother and the both of them must be present.”

Vimm was a down-to-earth person. He reached out to shake their hands with enthusiasm when being introduced—an etiquette he had learned from Hao Ren. “Welcome to Aerym, miss. I am Prince Regent of the Aerymian elves, and the current archon of this planet.”

Ysre reached out his hand awkwardly, looking embarrassed. “I am a male, by the way…”

Vimm was a little surprised. “Oh, I am so sorry. It seems there are some physical differences between elves of different worlds, gentlemen?”

Aylu’s face instantly turned green.

Hao Ren almost laughed out loud. “This is a girl… Oh well, forget it. It’s not that important anyway. Let’s go.”

Aylu looked down at her breasts and found nothing, so she just remained silent.

“…”

They walked past Hao Ren’s eye-catching sculpture towards the new Royal District just across the square. Instead of appearing like a real Royal District, the place was just like any other residence, separated from areas surrouding it. Although some towers were of a royal style, they were overshadowed by a few large factories nearby. They were constructed using recycled gray composite materials from the maritime cities.

Aerymian society, from the top to bottom were already accustomed to thrifty living. During the early stages of city building, engineering teams and factories were the most valuable as well as useful assets. Naturally, these two units were given priority in resource allocation. Meanwhile, the relatively “less useful” royalty could only stay in low-value houses.

In addition to Hilda and Vimm, royalty there also included a large number of princes and princesses. These members of the royalty who currently lived in the Royal District were helping out in various management, and technical researches. Those who lacked ability, or were temporarily “less useful” joined the engineering team. Their only difference was that they lived inside the so-called Royal District away from the civilians. Such was Aerymian royalty.

This was exactly why, in front of the Royal District, Hao Ren could see an elf wearing a high-level official uniform wrapping his arms around a bearded man dressed in worker’s uniform. They were father and son. The son was a member of the city council, while the father was originally the director of Corona Station. He was now temporarily out of a job, and therefore worked as an excavation operator. Aerymian elves did not think this wrong: they made good use of people in areas where they could contribute and took pride in it.

It was Ysre and Aylu who were astonished at what they saw. Hearing Vimm and Hao Ren’s introduction on the Aerymian elves, the two elves from a different world found it incredible. While they both came from different elven societies with different cultures, both societies were of ancient hierarchical dynasties. None of the ethereal or halfling society took part in a social class system, or ever had such a thing. Their understanding of Aerymian elves thus increased.

They finally came to the Council Hall’s humble meeting room in the Royal District. A moment later, Hilda hurriedly arrived.

“Long time no see, My Landlord.” Hilda’s face still glowed with a wonderful lustre and she looked exceptionally good. When she saw Hao Ren, she came up and and gave Hao Ren a warm hug. “Sorry for the less than decent place. As construction is still on-going, I can only offer my guests to meet in this rudimentary place.”

Hao Ren was a little embarrassed by Hilda’s passionate, wifey hug. He quickly sat down and said, “No, no, no. It’s fine. After all, we’re friends.”

Hilda shoved a plate of snacks across the table right in front of Hao Ren, and smiled. “Please, enjoy. It is a wild root that we found to be rich in nutrients. We have successfully grown it in the artificial environment and its growth cycle is short. This is the first harvest.”

By this time, Lily had already stuffed her mouth full with the snack. She nodded repeatedly as she said, “Finally… We don’t have to eat chalk anymore?”

“This is the best time the Aerymian elves have ever had.” Hilda smiled. “The first crops are sprouting in the farm land; the first ship is sailing in the ocean; we have our first mine, and the first set of alchemy equipment; plus, a large amount of technology has been recovered from the museums and archives. Every day is a memorable day—including today. This is the first time that you, Landlord have returned to visit your properties.”

Hao Ren was pleasantly surprised to find that this once serious-looking queen was finally cracking a joke. He laughed, but his face quickly turned solemn. “Hilda, I did not come just to say hi today. In fact, I have something I need your help with…”

Hilda became serious when she saw Hao Ren’s face. “What kind of help do you need? You are the savior of the Aerymian elves. As long as we can be of help, we will try our best to help.”

“I’m afraid that it’s going to be a tough one,” said Hao Ren. “To put it simply, I’m going to transport an object, and a group of immigrants, who are similar to yourselves, from another world—it will be just like before. However, this time, someone is in our way.”

“Due to the private nature of the operation, I couldn’t secure the support of my superior, so I need a number of armed escorts.” Hao Ren spread out his hand. “A large number.”

Hilda replied without hesitation, “How many?”

“The estimated number of enemies we have is eight million.”

Hilda’s glowing being suddenly flickered as though it had encountered a poor connection. “What?! Who have you offended?!”

Chapter 450: Millions of Troops at One’s Fingertips

 

Before Hao Ren arrived in Aerym, he had promised the moon. However, when he was finally before Hilda, he was a little embarrassed to ask her for the favor—he came not for rent, but troops.

Even if everything went well, and the armed escorts were not presented with any danger (very few races from Y’zaks’ homeland were capable in air combat, while space wars were rare), it was too much to ask people to risk their lives in a different world. Hao Ren had also seen the situation in Aerym: it was a crucial moment for the elves to rebuild their homes as they were trying to adapt to an unfamiliar planet. During this critical period, how many men could they set aside to run his errand?

Before Hao Ren came, he thought he had a billion tenants. But only then did it dawn on him that the one billion tenants were actually refugees.

When Hilda heard that Hao Ren wanted to borrow her men as his armed escorts, she was not hesitant at all. But, the glow on her body flickered once she learned that Hao Ren was looking for eight million troops. “Who have you offended?”

Hao Ren sighed. “It’s not me—it’s Wang, the king kong who helped you during your migration operation. The one who hit his head wherever he walked. He has the whole world looking for him. The two next to me are his men. Wang is now packing up his stuff…”

Hao Ren began to tell Hilda about Y’zaks’ glorious past; about how the demon picked the wrong branch in the technology tree to begin his interstellar exploration; about his distorted worldview of pursuing the grand unification of various races; about his wayward military strategy to conquer the whole world until he ended up being conquered instead; and about his misadventures as well as requiring help from interstellar allied troops.

Hao Ren did not realize it before he summed up the life of Y’zaks. It only struck him then, that Y’zaks’ life was the most abnormal among the bunch of unusual creatures in his family. There was nothing in his life that was not wrong; his look was aesthetically wrong, and while he had a daughter, she was genetically wrong.

Hilda was flabbergasted whereas Vimm, who was by her side had a weird gleam on his face. In all fairness, Y’zaks’ problem was possibly not as huge as the one the Aerymian elves faced—after all, the Aerymian elves came from the stars and fell from the stars. The most magnificent part of Y’zaks’ life was not in his achievements, but his unwavering ambition and undying spirit—the determination to study and explore space while being caught in a war with the whole world. And that was not something anyone could have thought of doing.

“Now it seems like it’s time for Y’zaks to retire.” Hao Ren exhaled. “According to his words, he has done what he can, and he has no regrets in life. Now, he wants to seek long-term stability and security for his last remaining people. This is the last thing he would like to do for his people. Of course, officially, your people will act as ‘armed escorts’ for some important, scientific research cargo. I will register Y’zaks and his people as escorts of scientific research materials as well. Then, there will be no problems crossing over.”

“I have a deep impression of that giant.” Hilda nodded slightly. “But, little did I expect him to have such an epic past.”

Then, she looked up at Hao Ren and said, “How many people do you think you will need to act as the armed escort?”

“To be honest, even Y’zaks himself isn’t very sure.” Hao Ren forced a smile. “Because, no one knows how strong the Aerymian warships are compared to the Fireball of the Magic World. Judging from the calculated figures in our data, we have verified that your spacecrafts are deemed to be legendary in those places. That’s the reason I’m here—I have confidence in your people and I won’t let them die in vain. But at the same time, I would like to stress that there is bound to be a certain degree of danger. You would not want to underestimate those ‘ancient people’. The power of magic is difficult to quantify and its productivity as well as combative ability cannot be measured in the normal sense of things. They have weapons that can fold space, and they have super gravity as well as electromagnetic storms.”

Hilda suddenly laughed. “We are no strangers to magic—according to what you have said, we are already a magical civilization. However, after a certain level of progression, the line between magic and technology becomes blurry.”

Hao Ren agreed with her. He nodded and had nothing more to say.

“Vimm”—Hilda turned abruptly to her son—”stop the works in the third spaceport, synchronous orbit delivery station, and also the large-scale exploration project in the Western Continent. Recall everyone.”

Hearing that, Hao Ren immediately knew that Her Majesty was making some real sacrifices. His heart churned as he said, “Will it be okay? Those are your major projects!”

“They are, but they can all be stopped.” Hilda smiled. “We have yet to complete the exploration and infrastructure projects on the continent; the spaceport facilities will not be needed in the near future. It is just to keep the regular spacecrafts busy, and the exploration of the Western Continent can be halted… The impact will be minimal. That should free up some manpower for you. Meanwhile, you can take half of the spaceships with you—we do not need them now anyway. Those spacecrafts may be categorized as battleships… In fact, we have never fought with anyone in space before. Those weapons loaded on the spacecrafts are only for imaginary enemies. They have mostly been used to destroy malfunctioned or failed coronaries and components in the floating isles.”

Hao Ren nodded repeatedly. “That’s more than enough! Such combat capability is enough! How many people can you send, by the way?”

“One million, along with the thousands of spacecrafts, and also small cruise ships. You know, our technology is very limited. We only have a limited number of large spacecrafts and those are intrastellar models.”

“That’s good enough!” Hao Ren clapped his hands. As he listened to the figures, he was greatly touched—he had wanted eight million troops, but after seeing the situation in Aerym, he could not possibly expect the elven refugees to make up the numbers he required. And to be honest, the armed escorts were not expected to engage in a head-on battle with the enemy. He only requied them to guard the spacecraft wreckage and the Helcrown against the ambush of the Allied Forces and the demonic army!

In fact, Hao Ren had no concept of numbers and could not imagine what it would be like to have a million people assembled—he had not seen anything with more than a thousand people in one place since the end of his school years. He came to Hilda for the troops like a rookie, but thanks to their relationship, she did not mind at all.

“Can they fight?” Hao Ren pretended to be an expert. “Although your spacecrafts are superior technology-wise, those mages are not easy targets… It is best to send the veterans, just to be on the safe side.”

“Aside from the elite Royal Guard who are full-time soldiers, the difference between a civilian and a soldier is minimal.” Hilda grinned. “During the floating island era, in order to deal with all the unexpected situations, every elf had to undergo training, and they were assigned jobs appropriate to their own field of expertise. So, civilians can also be skillful in a variety of weapons and equipment, including manning warships.”

Longer living races were good in that they had hundreds of years in childhood experience. As long as there were no tumors in their heads, they had enough time to complete every field of study—no human would ever dare to emulate the Aerymian elves in terms of schooling.

Talk about 300 years of pure classroom learning—the mere thought of it had Hao Ren losing his hope of living.

“I thank you on behalf of Y’zaks.” Hao Ren was sincerely grateful to Hilda. He knew that the possibility of a million people sacrificing their lives for strangers in another world was no joke. These people were not just numbers. However, Hilda shook her head. “You saved the life of one billion elves. Aerymian elves are grateful people. Every elf on this planet would be more than happy to help you in return. But before that, I must first understand the situation of this Helcrown you have mentioned. I do know Y’zaks, but not his people.”

Hao Ren pointed to the two elven aides behind him, and finally found some tasks for them. “These two elves are representatives of the civilians. They know the city of Helcrown inside and out. I guarantee you that they will not lie… Well, Y’zaks guarantees it.”

Hao Ren initially wanted to pawn his honor for the two elves, but he changed his mind after looking at Yrse and Aylu—he figured that his own honor would not have much influence in the eyes of the two elves. However, if the reputation of their boss was on the line, it would certainly work. Just by looking at them, Hao Ren already knew that they were Y’zaks’ brain-dead, diehard fans. Hao Ren even vindictively suspected that should the demon king order the two elves to change their sexual orientation, they would both obey, no questions asked. Above all, he just could not stand it that the male was already more handsome than his entire family!

Oh yeah, and Aylu was a girl.

The two elves had no clue about the things in Hao Ren’s mind. They were immersed in their roles, looking serious as they talked with Hilda. Hao Ren took the opportunity to sneak out to the balcony behind him and enjoy the scenery.

Vimm also went out to join him.

“Mother is learning about the situation in Helcrown,” Vimm said with a smile. “It should not be a problem. She will probably start to identify a suitable site for the relocation as soon as you depart.”

Hao Ren guffawed as he nodded. Suddenly, he saw a group of workers, who were just returning from work. They were surrounding a person in white robes on the new tarmac path in the city. He asked Vimm curiously, “Who’s that?”

“Another spiritual guide”—Vimm smiled—”for the new religion established at the behest of Mother. At the center of the faith is the planet’s god of creation.”

Hao Ren pondered for a while before saying, “What?”