The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 563

Chapter 563: Crapple Research Station, CARS

 

A beam of light appeared over the Alamanda teleporting station. After the light faded, Hao Ren and his team appeared on the portal platform. Now that the planet was just in time for the sunset, the sun was already about to fall completely below the horizon. The last rays of light were dispersed on the ruins of the City of Gold as the entire city was enveloped in a dim golden glow.

Vivian looked up to the sky, there was an irregular silver light in the dim sky, which was becoming clearer as sunlight subsided. The size of the light was slightly smaller than the moon on Earth. The edge of the light was jagged like mountains. She looked at it carefully, and began to notice the neat structure in that silver light. “Oh, that’s the research station?”

Lily looked up and saw the moon had come out. She immediately squatted back on the ground, happily stretched her neck and tilted her head up toward the ‘moon’ and howled. “I wonder why it doesn’t have that kind of feeling.”

Hao Ren grabbed the ear of the naive maiden and held her up. “This is not the moon, idiot!”

“Actually I’ve been curious, why werewolves are so excited about the moon?” Y’zaks scratched his chin quizzically. “I don’t feel any special energy in the moonlight. It’s just the normal reflection of the sunlight.”

Vivian shrugged her shoulder. “God knows why. I haven’t it figured out even though I’ve known werewolves for more than 10,000 years.”

At this time, a buzzing sound suddenly came from the sky in the east. It turned out that the Petrachelys had received the command to come down from its orbit. Hao Ren led everyone on board, and they soon arrived near the crystal-like space facility. Everyone was amazed looking at the spectacular behemoth at close range. Lily looked regretfully and said, “I should’ve followed you to come here earlier! I’ve missed the chance to witness it construction…”

Hao Ren ignored her, waiting for the spaceship to slowly approach the docking bay of the space facility. He could visualise the structural layout of this ‘Crystal City’ in his mind, knew that the docking bay was located in the middle section of the station. The building was a compact structure, the huge control centre was right in the middle section, with compartments for spacecraft docking, material transfer, accommodation and so forth. Connecting with this middle section were many crystal domes which had containers within and were the main working units of the research station.

Two of the units of work had been activated, but only one First Born had been stuffed into the container. Not only that the First Borns were a very troublesome and bulky, but also brought along with them a large amount of ‘impurities’ which needed to be cleaned out. Besides, the ‘lullaby’ system must always be online during the transfer journey, so the process was time-consuming.

The one which had been contained was the First Born from the Volcano of Dusk, placed in Container No. 1. The other First Born entangled with the giant tree of life had not been settled.

As the crystal bridge in the docking bay appeared on the screen, Hao Ren let the MDT slow down the spacecraft and then switched on an external monitor. “Look! That is the sample No. 2 that is undergoing containment now.”

Everyone gathered in front of the holographic projection and looked at the spectacular working site in space with interest.

One hundred kilometres away from the Petrachelys was the entrance to Sealed Container No. 2, where Sample No. 2 was undergoing final stage of containment. The massive First Born was still tangled with the giant tree of life, and the huge rocks and other impurities had been cleaned up. Lumps of amorphous gels with faint glow were moving among the tentacles and roots, cleaning up the remaining impurities and completing a full-body scan of the First Born. The light lumps were the ‘workers’ of the research station. As Hao Ren did not have a large enough research teams at his disposal, the research facility was inbuilt with its own crew.

The debris that was cleaned up was mainly rock and soil, but it also contained some of the chemicals that the First Born discharged and epidermis shed during the slow physiological activities from the past 10,000 years. These things were equally valuable. So they would be sent to another workshop on the lower deck of the research station for further decomposing, extracting the useful substance and then dropping them into Tannogost’s atmosphere and let them burn up.

“The giant tree of life and the Sample No. 2 are tangled together, there’s no way to separate them now. So I’m going to stuff them in the container,” Hao Ren pointed to Container No. 2 on the screen, which the shell-shaped crystal dome was opening slowly, revealing a huge space within. “Before putting it in, all connection points between the tentacles and the giant tree of life have been fitted with sensors and nerve blockers. It will be a lot easier to conduct tests later on.”

The dome of Container No. 2 was fully opened, and the entangled First Born and the giant tree of life was slowly pushed into it under the shroud of light. As the sample was completely immersed inside the container, a layer of nearly transparent light film appeared in the gap between the inner wall of the container and the sample, wrapping the sample like a cocoon before a thin, cloud-like liquid was injected and submerged the First Born in it.

After this last step was completed, the crystal dome slowly began to close.

The Petrachelys received a report from the research station. “Container No. 2 confirms the operation… The main barrier has been closed, the inert liquid has been injected, the signal transmission test… normal, secondary safety barrier and the external dome are closed. All safety components passed the test. Signals are connected to the central control zone, the research station host takes over the control of the containers. Containment operation is completed.”

Lily sullenly listened to the report and then nodded. “Okay, report confirmed.”

Hao Ren smacked her head and scoffed, “Stop messing around!”

Lily patted the back of the chair with her tail. “It suits the occasion!”

After observing the mega-container’s containment process, the Petrachelys docked at the berth. Everyone alighted from the spacecraft and walked on a gorgeous, rainbow-crystal bridge. Overhead was a near-transparent shield. The space could be seen outside the shield, and on both sides of the bridge were crystal building facilities. Lily was overjoyed seeing the glittering stuff. “Yeah! This place looks beautiful! Way much better than Kuiper Station!”

Vivian also scratched her chin and said, “Look! How normal this thing looks! In wonder why you were given the coffin-looking equipment.”

Hao Ren twitched his mouth and said, “Looks like the Goddess has finally done something normal: at least her sense of aesthetics in building houses is normal.”

As they walked on the crystal bridge, Lily and began to went astray as her eyes full of excitement and curiosity. Hao Ren had been keeping an eye on the husky, he managed to stop her. “What are you doing, Lily?”

Lily’s tail puffed up at once and jumped back. “I just wanted to check if the bridge has rail…”

Hao Ren rolled his eyes. “No digging here. I know you want to add two more pieces of crystal to your collection!”

Lily’s ears dropped. “Just one piece, okay?”

Hao Ren was amused by her look. “Don’t mess around, this is a new building—and I don’t think you could knock any stone off this place. This is a prison is holding the First Born.”

“You can go home and check the glass market out, after all those stones are just ornamental, the look the same …” said Vivian jokingly.

Lily flung her tail and ignored them both.

As everyone came to the central area, something suddenly crossed Hao Ren’s mind. “Oh, I haven’t named this research station.”

As Hao Ren’s voice trailed off, and everyone came to a halt. Vivian and Lily spoke in unison. “Please think again!”

Hao Ren scratched his head. “I haven’t said it yet. I think it should be named…”

Vivian placed her hand on Hao Ren’s mouth and said honestly. “Don’t say it yet. Think harder.”

Hao Ren: “…..”

“How good you expect from him when he named his daughter ‘Lil Pea’, his cat ‘Rollie’? The MDT hovered into the air. “You can save that. The research station already has a name, CARS—just floating over your head.”

Hao Ren looked up and saw that an idle screen of some kind of control centre floating on the crystal dome. At the centre of the screen was the name of this research station. He was astonished. “How come Raven has come out with so fantastic name this time?”

“Normal my foot,” the MDT hooked up to the host computer of the research station and quickly learned the truth. “Don’t you think this research station looks like an apple core from afar?”

Hao Ren: “…..”

“So its full name is ‘Crapple Research Station’—the fusion between Crystal and Apple.”

Hao Ren: “…I should’ve not asked in the first place!”

Chapter 564: Studying the Eggs

 

After working for God for the past year, Hao Ren summed up his experience: for everything to do with Raven 12345, there was always a weird side to it. Her goddess look was all a result of special effects. The smartest way to deal with the Goddess was to not harp on the details. Whatever new gadget she made, used it and don’t ask question then you would be fine. If you had to agonize over the details, then you would be guaranteed a place in the sanatorium by the time you are thirty…

Such was the Goddess who seemed to have a bunch of followers. It must be difficult for the Pope and the bishops who were working for the Goddess, as extraordinary writing skill and exceptional adaptability to embellish Raven 12345 would be required. One always needed to take Raven’s word with a pinch of salt—so Hao Ren had never intended to start a cult or something to worship the neuropathy, he knew his conscience and sense of logic did not allow this thing to happen…

“We will just use the abbreviation,” said Hao Ren, glancing at the idle screen in mid-air. “Let’s see how this research station works. The only console I’ve ever used is of the spacecraft, I’ve never seen this mysterious thing before.”

The core area of ​​CARS was huge, and Hao Ren did not plan to go to places like warehouses, factories, and residences for the time being. Instead, he led everyone to the control central of the entire facility, where they could monitor all projects of the research station in real time.

The control centre was a very large ortho-spherical hall. The common technological equipment and metal devices were nowhere to be seen here. Instead, crystal clusters and columns of various forms were in place. These crystals seemed to be a favourite things of Xi Ling Celestials, the entire CARS reflected this notion. The crystal clusters and columns were arranged neatly throughout the hall as if they grew from the ground. They were the main interactive terminals here. A simple mind-matching was all it took for rookie like Hao Ren to completely control the research station.

In the centre of the control centre was a crystal as giant as a hill, which was part of the host of the facility, and also a huge mind interaction device. There was a constant flows of complex runes and wonderful light on the surface of the crystal. Every time when Hao Ren approached it, he would hear a sweet wind bell, and then he would establish an automatic mental connection with it, so all the interactive information on the host would be flashed in his mind.

Like most technological devices, these mystical magic devices also supported direct mind connection, which greatly reduced their operational difficulty. Initially, Hao Ren was still worried that he would not be able to control the thing with his half-baked knowledge of magic. However, now it seemed that all roads lead to Rome, and the simplified and easy-to-understand interface was an inevitably the right direction.

He was very pleased that he did not need to understand the principle of this place before he could use them.

Lil Pea peeked out of Hao Ren’s collar and looked at the place curiously. She mumbled something in her mouth before she jumped happily to the ground and scurried around. This little one had a strong body as she could simply jumped down from as high as two metres with ease. Hao Ren found his worry was really unnecessary as he sometimes worried that she might flatten her tail from the fall.

But her tail was flat anyway.

Seeing the baby fish ran around like headless chicken, Y’lisabet immediately followed her from behind lest Lil Pea lost her way. She had quickly found her position; as the only elder of the two children, she felt she should look after Lil Pea like a big sister. Recently, Y’lisabet was learning changing the aquarium water with Wuyue and was also actively reading aqua cultural books on tropical fish farming and her hard work paid off: her water-changing skills were as good as Hao Ren’s, and Lil Pea said that the aqua cultural book tasted really good.

Anyway, it was good as long as the two little ones could get along well. The elder one looked after the younger one and it lessened the burden on adults.

“Don’t run too far, and don’t let Lil Pea bite things here,” Hao Ren reminded as the two little ones hopped to the edge of the hall. “And, put your little screwdriver away!”

Y’zaks scratched his head. “Never mind, let me look after them both.”

Hao Ren nodded. He then activated the giant crystal in the centre of the hall rather clumsily according to the instructions in his mind to begin to connect to Containers No. 1 and 2.

The giant crystal emitted a series of crisp sounds as a series of holograms emerged around the crystal. The largest image was the two First Borns. The two colossal giants were now quietly sleeping in a balloon-like vesicle suspended in a nearly transparent inert solution. They looked like a baby sleeping in the womb. Lily looked at the images and couldn’t help but twitch her tongue. “It feels like a horror movie.”

“Yeah, we’re like the antagonists,” Hao Ren shrugged. “We’ve never looked normal anyway.”

Vivian said she did not want to give opinion because she did not know much about horror movies—she was poor before she had ever watched a movie…

The two vessels were not completely calm. After the First Borns were excavated and placed in the containers for easy observation, Hao Ren had noticed the giant tentacles were not completely still. Some of the tentacles, mainly near the ganglions, would occasionally twitch or swing a little. This could be a form of somnambulism.

But there was worry that these two big guys would suddenly wake up as the ‘lullaby’ system was still keeping them hypnotised. The nerve signal suppressor was on the bottom of the two containers, and CARS itself had a set of broadcasting devices that covered the entire facility. The Petrachelys had already linked the ‘Lullaby’ signal source with the broadcasting system as a double security suppression system. Besides, there were huge ‘syringes’ above the two containers. Once any First Born got out of control, a high concentration of interfering pheromones would be released into those thin inert solutions immediately.

This was a fool-proof prison. Hao Ren felt that he could use this place to detain and study any dangerous creatures he found while on patrol in various worlds.

Vivian did not quite understand the charts and data on the holographic projections. She tilted her head sideway and asked Hao Ren, “What research plan do you have in mind?”

“I want to read the First Born’s mind,” Hao Ren pointed to the holographic projection of the dark red tissues. “Of course, we all know the First Borns are irrational, probably not capable of thinking at all, but it had been normal once. So I think it still retains some memories before it went crazy. Now that we know nothing about the body structure of the First Borns, we only know that they have some ganglions, so we’re going to them a physical check-up….finding out the functions these organs.”

“Oh,” Vivian said, blinking. “That’s epic!”

Hao Ren scratched his chin and nodded slightly. “So we can do something else while waiting for the scan to finish.”

He opened the dimensional pocket before several autonomous robots push two silver-white boxes out.

Hao Ren stepped forward and switched on the identification device of the safe deposit box. A layer of blue light lit up on the boxes which then gradually opened up with a series of mechanical sound, revealing the large balls which glowed in red.

These were the two strange spheres that were brought out from Helcrown.

Up until now, Hao Ren had not figured out what they were for. But it was obviously not a battery. Now that the CARS was running and there was a huge amount of spare computing power, he could just throw the two balls in there for analysis.

Hao Ren knocked on the shell of the MDT. “Send the two samples to Comprehensive Test Lab No. 1. We’ll be there soon.”

After the autonomous robots took the two balls out of the hall, Lily mumbled as she held up her ears. “You studying the balls?”

Hao Ren was almost choked. “…can you be more euphemistic?”

Lily flicked her tail and said, “You studying the eggs.”

Hao Ren: ‘…..”

At this time Vivian interrupted Lily’s train of thought. “Something suddenly crossed my mind: We can check if the First Borns have organ similar to that spheres, perhaps that would shed light on their uses.”

When the penny drops, Hao Ren’s eyes lit up: this is a good idea!

Chapter 565: They’re Sleeping

 

CARS was a comprehensive, large space station with a functional focus on scientific research and storage of dangerous cargo. Besides the large containers used to hold up the First Borns, several large laboratories on the lower decks of the space station could be used for routine researches. The samples collected from the First Borns and the weird stuff collected from other worlds could all be scanned and analysed here. Hao Ren did not have to worry about the limited function of the on-board laboratory of the Petrachelys.

However, everyone was most satisfied with the architectural style of this place: the design of this building was different from the normal tech equipment that Hao Ren often had seen, its main building material were crystal and a kind of strange ‘metal’, including in the laboratories. Those light and elegant crystal clusters and arc-shaped metal were work of art. Walking in CARS was like traversing in an art museum. Hao Ren used to complain that Raven 12345 had never done things according to common sense, but this time he could not help but thank the goddess for blowing up the original building module: this new space station looked so much better than a coffin.

Two red spheres had been sent to the lab quickly and everyone was eager to know what they were. As per Vivian’s suggestion, Hao Ren ordered a quick body scan of the First Borns Containers No. 1 and No. 2. He was now waiting for the result.

“Guess what it is?” Hao Ren became bored while waiting for the scan. He chatted with Vivian casually. “It had created the illusion of Helcrown—is it the organ that the First Born uses for casting spells?”

Vivian gently shook her head, she was tossing a small bat in her hand unconsciously. The two spheres were suspended on the crystal imaging platform not far away as light beams were sweeping around the spheres collecting information and then comparing it with the scan result of the First Borns. The holographic projection in the center of the laboratory showed the scanning progress of Container No. 1 and No. 2 vessels: The image of the First Borns became clearer.

After a while, the MDT suddenly whistled and said, “Found it!”

“Really?!” asked Hao Ren.

The MDT zoomed in the image on the holographic projection and presented the details in Container No.1. The image of the First Born’s tentacles and tissue lumps showed up, and the most striking feature of those intricately arranged biological tissues was the constant pulsating dim red light. The MDT pointed out a star structure between the red light and sad, “In this position there is a thick connective skin here, and the bioelectric current is very strong. There is a sphere underneath it, exactly like the two red spheres on hand. There are actually more than one…”

The MDT zoomed in image a little further, and seven or eight shining red dots appeared on the scanned image. The red dots were all spherical organs, and they were not evenly distributed.

Lily held her head with her hands and watched for a moment. “One First Born can grow so many balls? Then why did Y’lisabet find only three?”

“Because of malnutrition. Don’t forget that the First Born of the Y’zaks hometown was starved to death,” Hao Ren switched the image back, curiously looking at the star-shaped object that emitted a dull red light and connected with many more smaller tentacles to the nearest tissue lumps, and those smaller whiskers were very light in colour, obviously not of a weapon variety. And star-shaped tissues were wrapped in other tentacles and thick skins, which suggested that they were very crucial to the First Borns. “What does this look like?”

“Some kind of nervous center,” replied the MDT. “Besides, according to the latest test results, those grey-white tentacles are mostly connected to the mesothelioma, and the mesothelioma has been confirmed a ganglion of the First Born.”

Hao Ren tried to use his noodle while scratching his chin. Then suddenly a thought came to mind. “Wait a second! Can it be the brain of the First Born?”

Lily looked at Hao Ren in horror. “You’ve grown a brain, Mr. Landlord?”

“But it’s quite possible,” Hao Ren shrugged. “Look! This thing is already as weird as it can get, what’s wrong if this is a thinking organ? You see, we’ve been searching for the First Born’s brain before but we’ve come out with nothing. This thing obviously is intelligent, so its thinking organs must be a little weird. And anyway, this thing connects with many ganglions, it must be related to intelligence.”

“A very good conjecture,” the MDT affirmed Hao Ren’s thought. “This creature is too big, so much as that might be difficult for a single brain to control the whole body and nutrients wouldn’t be sufficient… so it uses a distributed brain structure. Anyway let’s first perform a rest on it.”

Container No. 1 soon received an instruction from the MDT. The container was injected with a pale green, thin agent, and then several bright masses of light were absorbed onto the antennae of the First Born. Those tentacles shook slightly and then returned to normal.

The control module of Container No. 1 cut one of the star tissues off from the surrounding organs, and then started to feed a simulated signal to it.

“Perhaps it is the brain,” said the MDT, reading the feedback data and was surprised. “This thing is amazing. The thought process of the First Born is actually done by three very different organs—the ganglia, the red spheres, and those grey nerve fibres. These three things are brains, and they are scattered throughout the body.”

Lily glanced at Hao Ren in surprise. “I said so, Mr. Landlord. You really have grown a brain!”

“Stop the crap! This is called talent. It’s not something that you can simply acquire.” Hao Ren rubbed Lily’s head and then turned to look at the MDT. “Why have we not seen it the last time we studied the spheres in Helcrown?”

“We didn’t think of it in this direction,” said the MDT as it did a barrel roll in the air. “Hey, this thing sounds really interesting… Well, basically I now understand how the brains of the First Born work.”

Hao Ren listened attentively to the MDT.

“These spheres are the First Born’s main thinking organ, they bear 70 percent of the brain’s functions. They can be called brain nuclei. There are many, and distributed in various parts of the First Born’s body; those lumps, which are the ganglia, are something that enhance and speed up the signal. Perhaps they also act as a cache, are responsible for relaying commands from the brain to all parts of the body. Since the First Born is too large, it must have such a secondary cache and brainwave amplifier in order to control its own body; those grey and white tentacles are not ordinary nerve fibres, they are actually mutated variations of ganglia. They are capable of logical functions. Their role is to connect several different brains so that the First Born’s thinking process can be coordinated, preventing schizophrenia and brainwave conflicts. The operation of this set of mechanisms is very strange, it is not the same as the various types of known intelligent beings, but it can perfectly solve the problems brought about by the oversized body of the First Born. And more importantly, they have a back-up copy of the eldest son’s memory. I believe that a single brain is also capable of thinking, but its efficiency will be reduced and would be able to control all the tentacles. But if part of the brains are off line, the First Born could still survive on the remaining brain structure, and even to repair the off-line brains … it’s a perfect computing machine. It has its intranet and can upload and download information between its brains!”

Lily counted with her fingers trying to figure out the logic. She suddenly said in amazement. “Only if I have its ability, I wouldn’t have to worry about the character confusion in writing my novels! I can even fall in love with my four selves!”

Vivian gave out a sideways smile. “Unfortunately, you are still a single dog.”

Lily scoffed back. “Arf—”

“Could you not be quiet for a few minutes in such a serious occasion?” Hao Ren glared at the two to quiet them down, then turned to the MDT. “I’ve got it. That means the First Born has a compound brain, and the brain is made up of a combination of brains, and those red spheres are the main organs of thought. Then what was the illusion of Helcrown all about?”

The MDT was silent for a while as blue light surging on its surface. Then it said, “I thinks it was just a dream.”

Hao Ren asked, “What do you mean?”

“The strength of the First Born’s mind is strong enough to directly trigger natural phenomena. Although it still couldn’t reach the point where it interferes with reality, it can at least create a large-scale illusion,” the MDT flew over the two spheres. “These two brain nuclei, although severely damaged, are not dead. They are sleeping and they occasionally dream.”

Chapter 566: Brain Nuclei

 

Two red spheres floated on the crystal platform, a red glow was surging under the knotted rough skin, like a pair of weird lava lamps. Some crystal clusters were suspended above the platform and light was from the crystal clusters was scanning the electrical signals in the spheres and carrying out some harmless, simple stimuli.

Y’zaks looked at this incredibly strange brain with interest—strictly speaking, there were just a part of the brain. “Why does the seed and not the brain was left behind after the First Born died?”

“Because the brain is the seed!” The MDT seemed to have discovered suddenly. It switched on a series of holographic projections, not only displaying the images of the First Borns in Container No. 1 and No. 2, but also of the remain of the First Born they had brought out from Y’zaks’ hometown and part of the tentacle structure scanned on the surface of Tannagost, as well as a large number of strange tentacles and living organs. Those were simulations of the various forms of the First Born in different stages of growth. “I’ve surmised the findings of the First Borns, and conducted a simulation of the growth of these creatures. We can say that the First Born on board the shipwreck as infant, the one Planet Holletta a youth, and adult on Planet Tannagost. Through the comparison of these three stages, I’ve made a surprising discovery: perhaps the First Born was only a ‘brain nucleus’ at the beginning, and as its size increased, they bred other brains in the body. These brains rely on neural networks to form a whole consciousness, that is, the stage that has been scanned in Container No. 1 and No. 2. But after a certain period of development, the First Born would split whereby the brain nucleus splits and grows into a new body. It could also be that only the brain nucleus left, because the red sphere has a lot of structures that are not related to neural activity, and they may develop into embryos. In short, the First Born’s brain is the seed, and its reproduction is extremely interesting. It is an extremely advanced life form, but it reproduces by adopting an approach to cell division. Each descendant is a complete copy of its predecessor, from the body to the thoughts, all of which are identical. Only after the neural connection is broken can they develop separately. The sample on Planet Holletta should be in its middle stage of growth, meaning the old body is divided, and the new body is growing a compound brain. The First Born which withered 200 thousand years ago died at young age. So there is only one First Born and three brain nuclei on the wreckage…”

The more Hao Ren listened, the more he was surprised. He could not help interrupting at this moment. “So there are three First Borns on Planet Holletta? They all were result of division?”

The number of First Born on Planet Holletta had always been of great concern, because after they came into contact with the First Born in Y’zaks’ hometown, Hao Ren had discovered that The Original Seed would only gave birth to one individual, and that the extremely sophisticated “detector” created by the Goddess of creation could not possibly be without the ability to identify each other, which meant that theoretically a planet will not be landed with a compound Original Seed (which would be a waste). So why were there three First Borns on Planet Holletta?

Hao Ren had always thought that there was a defect in The Original Seed. But now it did not seem that was the case. The First Born reproduced through division.

“Then why didn’t the First Born on Planet Tannagost divide?” Lily snapped forward. “It’s been so huge! It’s covered the entire planet!”

“This is not yet clear,” the MDT admitted. “I can only infer its physiological form based on the actual data available, but I can’t know its judgment mechanism in its actions. Perhaps Tannagost was a special experimental venue, so the First Born had chosen to continue to grow here, or it might be that Holletta was very special, and it led to the First Born there to divide into three. We have too few samples at hand, without comparison, there can be no conclusion. ”

“Let’s put the reproductive problem of the First Born to a side,” Vivian suddenly waved. “And let’s talk about these two spheres. They could create a projection of Helcrown in dream?”

“Dream is just a metaphor,” the MDT shook itself a little. “Maybe it’s some kind of neural activity. These two brain nuclei functions are impaired, so they could be severely affected by external stimuli. One of the brain nuclei When Helcrown used one of the brain nuclei as its energy source, large amount of energy was extracted, but in the process its ‘sensor’ had also spread throughout the city via Helcown power grid. And because of the existence of the city shield, its scan of the city was thorough. Under a certain condition, it began to dream. It dreamed of its own ‘new body’, and the projection of Helcrown appeared. Do you also remember what you saw at the top of the atmosphere? In the illusion of Helcrown existed before it was brought to Aerym, there was no land bridge next to the city. So it is an afterimage.”

Lily opened her mouth long and wide and marvelled as her ears dipped. “As a novelist, my imagination isn’t as good as a brick…. I couldn’t even have that kind imagination!”

“This is not an imagination. It is hard facts and reasonable derivation!” The MDT said, pretending it had a big wolf tail. “I have collected the electrical signal pattern of the red spheres and reasoned it out after comparing it with the neural structure of Sample No. 1 and No. 2. After the neural structure.”

Hao Ren scratched his chin in deep thoughts. He suddenly said, “If this is the brain of the First Born… does it mean we have the opportunity to talk with a normal First Born?!”

“I am trying,” the MDT beamed its light to the crystal cluster near the two spheres. “But all communication methods have failed so far. The brain’s response to external signals is very weak and there is little logic. Reading by force will not work: The stability of the brain’s nucleus begins to decline after a certain amount of signal stimulation. Perhaps that was why it blew up when Y’lisbet first tested the reactor.”

Hao Ren glanced oddly at Y’lisbet, amazed by the little girl’s guts where she was using the First Born’s brain to power the entire Helcrown for more than half a year! The mere thought of that sent chill down his spine.

Even Y’zaks had cold sweat trickled down his bare forehead. He patted his daughter’s head and said, “It was lucky that nothing had happened back then.”

Y’lisabet had no sense of danger toward the First Born. She was holding Lil Pea and both of them just giggled.

Vivian shook her head helplessly. “There’s a reason why they both have the same name—they both dare to die!”

Lily looked at the two kids and then the red spheres again. And she sighed regretfully. “These two brains are too badly damaged and there is no way to communicate… Can we cure them?”

“The previous attempts to cultivate The Original Seed and the primitive organs failed. The first creations of the Goddess of creation are not ordinary lives. If the divine information of the Goddess cannot be solved, there is no way to artificially cultivate or repair these primitive lives,” The MDT said regrettably. “At the moment, we can only hope them would self-heal slowly. We can provide them with sufficient external nutrients—such as soaking them in lifeblood, but other than that nothing much we can do.”

“So we can only let them sleep?” Vivian hugged herself. “Or will they dream again? Perhaps their dreams may reveal something.”

Suddenly, Lily lunged forwards and carefully patted one of the red spheres. “Sleeping beauty, it’s time to wake up!”

Everyone: “…..”

“Not working,” Lily scuttled back up to Hao Ren. “Or do you try it yourself?”

Vivian stepped away, trying to keep a distance from Lily. “Do you think it’s all right to do that at all?”

“Why not we say let Mr. Landlord try and see if he could read the brain is thinking. Couldn’t he usually connect with the consciousness of strange creatures sometimes? He used to connect with the gigantic brain,” Lily rolled her eyes. “You can’t hold prejudice against me simply because I’m a husky.”

The girl had admitted that she was a husky, without blinking an eye.

On the other hand, Hao Ren felt that Lily’s suggestion seemed plausible. So he stepped forward. “Then… let’s try it out.”

Chapter 567: The Early Form of Tannagost Base

 

Hao Ren cautiously went up to the side of the red sphere and held his chin. “Say, if I connect with this thing, will I get schizophrenia? The First Born is a creature that can chat with itself.”

“It shouldn’t be a problem if you’re just connecting with one brain,” the MDT said cautiously. “Plus, this is a severely damaged brain. The equipment in the lab can terminate its activities at any time.”

Hao Ren gritted his teeth. He thought of his identity as God’s agent; in theory, his soul should be indestructible. So, he placed his hand on one of the red spheres, and began to focus his mind. Lily, who had been waiting for a long time, started mumbling, “Mr. Landlord, you look like you’re constipated…”

Lily’s words made Hao Ren thoroughly give up. He could not help but take his hand off the sphere and say, “Why isn’t there any response?”

“You saw nothing?” Vivian stepped forward, feeling concerned. “How did you previously see the memories of the other creatures?”

“I have no idea,” Hao Ren said, scratching his head. “The most I can remember is, when I contacted the gigantic brain, I was touching its tentacles. I just saw its memory naturally. It seemed like a passive interaction.”

“Looks like there’s no use trying without knowing how,” Y’zaks said, coming up with his arm wrapped around his body. “First of all, you have to understand the principles behind reading memories. MDT, have you studied this?”

The MDT shook its body. “His weird power manifests randomly. Without real-time monitoring, who can study it? Why don’t you try another posture and see if it works?”

Hao Ren grinned, and put his hands on the sphere again. He tried eight different ways to trigger his ability, including mind focusing, qi circulation, meditation, and even chanting Raven 12345’s name. This last method summoned an inexplicable ball of light in the air, but everything else failed.

Lily pondered for a moment. She suddenly grabbed Hao Ren’s finger and bit it. However, she screamed in pain because she bit into the Steel membrane Shield. Hao Ren was startled and asked, “Are you out of your mind?”

Lily grumbled and groaned. “I just wanted to try dribbling the your blood over the sphere and see if it works. Ouch, that hurts!”

Hao Ren shot Lily a sideways glance and said, “Hey, you don’t do things like that around here.”

“Looks like we’ve run out of ideas.” Hao Ren felt a bit depressed. “Maybe its electromagnetic wave can’t keep up with mine.”

The MDT was rather optimistic. “Maybe the brain nucleus is too weak and it has temporarily lost its connectivity. Let’s think of a way to get recover it. The Petrachelys has catalyzed a lot of lifeblood in the on-board laboratory. We can use it as nutritional supplements.”

Hao Ren nodded and agreed as there was no better way.

The MDT issued a series of instructions, and two transparent crystal tanks, which looked like some kind of biochemical equipment rose up from the floor in the center of the laboratory. The two brain nuclei were carefully transferred into the two large tanks by way of gravitational force. As the crystallized lid of the tanks closed, a red viscous liquid was rapidly injected into one of the tanks and the brain nucleus was completely submerged in it.

The brain nucleus in the other tank was temporarily submerged in a normal inert solution, because it was not certain yet that the lifeblood could cure the two spheres. The MDT wanted to take precaution.

As for the lifeblood, it was teleported directly from the Petrachelys. When the spacecraft docked at the berth of CARS, a set of space-time devices could allow the two to perform rapid material exchanges, thus eliminating the hassle of traditional method of loading and unloading.

The brain nucleus was soaked in the lifeblood, and it seemed nothing had changed. Lily asked a little worriedly, “Is this thing having blood-type compatibility issue? Should we first give these two brains a blood test?”

“Your brain hole is no smaller than the landlord’s,” said Vivian. “Don’t worry about it. The lifeblood is not real blood, there’s no issue of compatibility. The lifeblood is made based on the original body fluid of The Original Seed, it’s the purest raw nutrients, and no worry that the two brain nuclei could get infected.”

Hao Ren looked at the tank and saw no reaction. He couldn’t help but poke the MDT that was drifting around. “Does this even work?”

The MDT carefully checked if there was any reaction in the tank. After a moment of silence, it replied with a relaxed tone of voice. “Oh, looks like it has begun to absorb… Something is being exchanged between the lifeblood and the brain nucleus. However, there’s no sign of recovery yet.”

Hao Ren let out a sigh of relief. It did not matter whether it was healed or not, at least there was some reactions.

Lily couldn’t help but yawn at this time. “Mr. Landlord, I’m drowsy, I want to go home and sleep!”

Then Hao Ren only realized that he and the others had been working for the whole day, and today had been a hell of a day. He himself could not help but yawn too. He rubbed his eyes, confirmed that there was no need for him to stay at the moment, he breathed a sigh of relief. “Let’s go home and get some rest. CARS will run on its own.”

The little girl Y’lisabet was always full of energy. She jumped yelled. “Uncle Ren, let me help you look after the research station!”

Hao Ren shook his head immediately. “I got a bad feeling when seeing the screwdriver in your hand!”

Before leaving CARS, Hao Ren issued a work plan for the management host here: Continue a deep scan of two living samples until an accurate and detailed map of the First Borns’ physiology was obtained; perform analysis on the various tissues and organs of the First Borns and determine the function and characteristics of those organs as soon as possible; find a way to establish contact with the First Born’s nervous system, and figure out what it is thinking without waking it up; follow and monitor the situation of the two brains, if the lifeblood have a good therapeutic effect without any side effects, submerge the other brain nucleus into the lifeblood.

All this works could be done by the automated system here. The only thing they needed to do was wait.

Anyway, this time everyone had obtained an unprecedented understanding of the First Borns. Before that, Hao Ren had never had a living, complete First Born, so there was no way to know its physiological make-up. The remains offered very little information for all its worth. Now he knew at least where the First Born’s brain was—if all went well, he might even figure out what the First Born was thinking.

He might be even able to trace back to the memory of the First Born which had just hatched from The Original Seed, and what kind of commands it had received from the Goddess of creation at that time.

Before leaving Planet Tannagost, Hao Ren stood on the high walls of Alamanda looking at the huge tentacles stretching out in the open. Some autonomous machines and engineering equipment were busily working around those tentacles, there were the ‘engineering teams’ from the Petrachelys.

These teams would work throughout the planet in the next few months. They would continue to multiply themselves and build signal towers and monitoring equipment. They would solve the problem of the vengeful spirit once and for all and build bases there. Hao Ren had no idea what these projects would look like in the future, but he knew that more preparations were always good.

The more he learned about the Goddess of creation and the First Borns, the more he felt that something was brewing under the surface in The Plane of Dreams and he needed a base.

An autonomous robot flew past from a distance shiny lines rolled up on its mechanical arms. It was installing an energy dome generator above the Alamanda portal. Hao Ren could imagine that the next time he came, at least the portal square might be as pleasant as the Earth.

But he would try to adjust the scope of this ecological transformation, not letting it threaten the nature outside the dome: after all, the planet had just escaped from the calamity of the First Born.

After arranging the engineering works on the planet, Hao Ren led the others who had been all yawning returning to Earth.

Chapter 568: A “Calm” Morning

 

A few days after returning to Earth, everything was calm and quiet on the Western Front. Hao Ren was pretty much content with the quietness of his recent days. On top of that, he took the time to study up on the Disciples of Glory, the Cult of Origination, and various inspector knowledge. His time was also occasionally devoted to teasing the cat, fish, and dog. Life was comfortable. He had now adapted to an inspector’s rhythm of life, whereby when things came up, he would work like a dog, and when there was nothing do, he would be as lazy as a cat to balance his life. The good news was, he had both creatures around him and he could observe their habits at any time.

Just as the past few days, once the first ray of morning sun shone through the window into his room, Hao Ren was woken up by the scratching sounds and a ton of voices outside his door. There was Lily’s howling when she woke up, followed by flapping sounds from Vivian’s bat swarm flying through the open windows into the living room. They had brought back freshly plucked wild vegetables still covered in morning dewdrops, and herbs for tonic food. Then there was the silly cat’s long cry coming through the door. “Big Boss Cat! Big Boss Cat! Where’s my breakfast? Give me my breakfast! Open the door, I know you’re inside. Why have you been locking the door lately? Let me go in and lick you. Why did you lock the door?”

This noise finally woke Lil Pea up, and the small table in Hao Ren’s room began to creak and squeak: Lil Pea was doing stretching exercises in her pot. While Lil Pea was only half way into her workout, half of the pot’s water had already spilled out.

Hao Ren slowly got changed amid the buzzing noises of the cat, the bat, and the splashing water. It felt like he had been sleeping in a zoo, and the situation looked like a good shooting scene for Animal Planet—as long as the director and audience liked it, the ecological environment in his house was enough to make at least 20 episodes of animal documentary!

After Lil Pea was done with her water splashing, she leaped over Hao Ren. He held her up in his hand and headed for the door. As soon as he yanked the door open, he saw the silly cat standing at the doorway, looking up at him with watery eyes. “Why did you lock the door?” the silly cat asked.

“Because of this!” Hao Ren pointed at the floor by the doorway; wood chips were everywhere. The good old door was scratched almost like a terraced field. “Whenever you wake up early, remember not to scratch the door. Then, I’ll let you in.”

Lil Pea saw the wood chips on the floo and jumped down immediately. She began to savor and eat them up, sounding like a rodent grinding its teeth. Soon the wood chips were gobbled up by the little one. This had been a regular affair lately: the silly cat would get up early in the morning and scratch the door, while Lil Pea would eat the wood chips as breakfast, cleaning up the floor in the process. This saved Hao Ren the trouble of feeding the fish. But in all honesty, Hao Ren would rather not feed the fish this way, because the door would be gone before he knew it!

However, how could the silly cat understand this? She bluntly said, “I used to wake you up this way. But you’ve changed and been really weird recently. Give me a little dried fish.”

Holding two pieces of wood chips in her hands, Lil Pea looked up at Rollie. The silly cat’s ears twitched and she immediately took a step back. “Maybe a small cookies will do…”

“Look at you!” Hao Ren picked Lil Pea up from the floor and poked the cat-girl on her head. “Let me teach you one last time: No. Door. Scratching! Don’t your fingers hurt? Do you want me to install a security door in my room?”

The cat-girl thought for a moment and lifted her paw. “That works too. It sounds nice!”

The thought of the screeching sound of metal suddenly gave Hao Ren goose bumps all over his body. He found that he was completely unable to deal with the cat. The good news was, he had never been able to do so in the past, so in a sense, the situation had not gotten worse.

Vivian was picking through a large amount of wild vegetables and herbs in the living room. Several small bats were flying around her. They were helping her to pick out the rotten leaves, straw sticks and roots, as well as throwing them away. The whole thing looked very efficient and fun. Vivian had developed the habit of sending a swarm of bats out at night before going to bed, leaving only her consciousness behind to issue commands. The next day, the bats would come back with enough harvest to feed the entire family. The maiden who had a hard enough life in the past could always find ways to save Hao Ren a few pennies, although it was not necessary.

Nevertheless, the dishes she made with these wild vegetables were pretty well-liked, so Hao Ren let her be.

Lily was squatting and reading a book on the sofa not far away. As usual, she was in her werewolf form in the morning. Hao Ren said hello to her. “Hey Lily, what are you reading?”

However, the maiden did not respond. Hao Ren curiously went up to her and found two thin cords attached to her pointy, hairy ears. The headphones were deeply coveredby her fluffy ear.

Lily suddenly twitched her nose as she picked up Hao Ren’s smell. She turned her head around and greeted him with a smile as she pulled out four ear plugs from her pointy ears under her hair. “You’re awake, Mr. Landlord!”

Hao Ren was stunned. “…Four channels?!”

Lily froze for a moment before she came to her senses and bragged, “It’s an amazing stereo! Mr. Landlord, let me tell you, every note feels like it’s being knocked into my head. This headset was built with Y’lisabet’s help, and it sounds fantastic! Do you want to try it?”

Hao Ren shook his head with cold sweat running down his forehead. “I don’t fancy this… Don’t you feel that the noise has become too loud when you’re in werewolf form?”

Lily said with her arms akimbo. “I’m curious that don’t you feel bored when you have no tail to bite at?”

The MDT suddenly came out of nowhere and circled Lily curiously. “Oh, that’s interesting. All kemonomimis here are all four-channel. I heard that the other world’s kemonomimis are are two-channel. It’s really a big world.”

Hao Ren was startled. “There are kemonomimis in the otherworlds?”

“Of course. They are a normal race created by God, why can’t they breed everywhere?” The MDT scoffed at Hao Ren’s shallow knowledge. “The canis protector itself is a two-channel nine-tailed fox.”

“…that’s a funny position in Xi Ling Celestials!”

After the breakfast, Y’zaks was taking his daughter out for a walk. Lily and the Nangong Wuyue were going out too. Hao Ren was redundant and had nothing to do. He stood up and said to the great demon. “Wang, I’ll go with you.”

Hao Ren conveniently passed Lil Pea to the Nangong Sanba who was immersed in making of letta Rune card on the coffee table. “Keep teaching her the knowledge of demon hunter. Do not let her eat too many books, the ink will make her fat.”

Nangong Sanba nodded with a smile. “Don’t worry. I’ve put together the tutorial materials, I can teach the little one even without any tools. But there is something I want to tell you about…”

Hao Ren saw Nangong Sanba’s hesitation, so he waved to him. “Whatever it is, please say.”

“At present, I still can deal with the basic part of teaching,” said the Nangong Sanba, pointing to the little mermaid who was jumping on the table. “But I guess my knowledge will soon be insufficient to teach the kid. She is highly gifted. Besides the fact that she is a little too small in size limiting her fighting power, she is a fast learner. She could memorise the Letta Runes in just a glance, her control of her mind powr is better than menow, and she learned the Second Sight skill on her own. She a genius, and my half-baked skill will not be enough to teach her in two months.”

Hao Ren scratched his chin. “What can we do? After all, she derived her strength from The Sacred Relic of Origins. In theory, she has got the earliest demon hunter bloodline. I guess no one else was purer in ancestry and more talented than her except your ancestors.

“The demon-hunter is a race that valued bloodline. Although the hard work may also create miracles, the role of congenital pureblood can not be underestimated,” said Nangong Sanba, shaking his head finally admitting his inadequacy. “I won’t be able to teach her soon.”

Hao Ren looked at Nangong Sanba. “What’s your suggestion?”

“Find a more suitable teacher as soon as possible. A professional demon hunter, not necessarily a purebred one, but at least he must have a complete knowledge and heritage, or else it would be a waste of this child’s great talent.”

Hao Ren thought for a moment, then something crossed his mind. “Wait for a second. Isn’t Lil Pea just a foot long?”

“Yes.”

“…she can learn all she wants but what’s the point? Only to be able to slap on people’s faces?” Hao Ren couldn’t help laughing. “Right now, teach her how to control her ability. I don’t expect much from her anyway. I honestly don’t think she could beat anyone other than overpowering the vengeful spirit with her singing.”

Palace Sanba said, “… maybe you’re right.”