The Record of Unusual Creatures

Hao Ren had many ideas, but most of them were not very safe. The MDT described him as “extremely good at exploiting loopholes, likely to challenge safety protocols and solve delicate problems with simple, crude methods, and having a linear mind.” It was almost like a seal of ridicule for Hao Ren.

Feeling quite depressed over the MDT’s comment, Hao Ren said, “Really, that’s how bad your evaluation is of me?”

The MDT swayed in the air and said, “To tell you the truth, the administration generally evaluates old staff this way, especially those who have over two hundred years of work experience.”

Now Hao Ren felt that he had a deeper understanding of the culture of the inspector community in the Space Administration and that he was a role model in the business.

He double confirmed the process with the MDT and Nolan and ensured that all the systems on Nolan’s side were in tip-top condition. Then he briefly explained the situation to Vivian and petted Lily on her head—this was to keep the husky maiden daydreaming to prevent her from raising objections. Then, he nodded to White Flame and Teuton with an I’ve-got-everything-in-control kind of expression, hoping that this would make him look like a hero. Unfortunately, the two demon hunters had no idea what that expression meant. In fact, after the appearance of Nolan and the MDT spewing high-tech jargons, the two demon hunters were already balled up.

Hao Ren looked at the mass floating above the hall. He couldn’t tell if it was a solid or an energy body. Waving his hands, he yelled, “Come and get me, your son of a bitch! Do you dare to answer me?”

Before his voice trailed off, he had yanked open his dimensional pocket. A huge spatial rift appeared in the air before it swept across the entire ceiling of the ceremonial hall, scooping up the dark energy mass and all the bits and pieces floating in the surroundings.

The black sword that looked like a piece of cosmic debris emitted a sharp whistle, and a strong whirlwind burst into the hall. The rune circle on the floor was flickering as if there was a bad connection. Hao Ren heard loud bangs in his mind, almost at the same time he swept the energy mass into the dimensional pocket. Apparently, the energy-mass was hitting the stable structure of the dimensional pocket.

Hao Ren shouted over the radio, “Nolan!”

Nolan had long been waiting for this moment. Before Hao Ren’s voice trailed off, a column of light appeared out of thin air and teleported him over the onboard portal of the spacecraft.

Almost immediately, all conventional propulsion engines of the Petrachelys fired up, and the spatial rift in the sky above the Netherrealm Clock Tower expanded. By overloading her own system, Nolan had completed the acceleration into hyperspace before the spacecraft had even entered the portal. In a split second, the spaceship disappeared in the darkness of Coldpath.

In Kuiper Station in the surface world, station crew at the inspector spacecraft docking port were conducting routine inspection and maintenance work. The crew was calibrating the axis of the gravity stabilization system. Suddenly, a silver light appeared above the installation. The crew could only see a flash of white light, almost as if the Petrachelys had appeared but disappeared again in the blink of an eye.

A young technician stared at the empty docking platform, stunned. “Did a spacecraft just come back?”

Beside the young technician, a senior crew patted on his shoulder and said, “Don’t ask. It’s the spacecraft of the inspector. Probably he was racing his own spacecraft.”

Meanwhile, Nolan had traveled several million light years by overloading her system, crossing the starry sky in an instant and rushing to the remote and desolate ancient star.

In those few seconds, Hao Ren felt that powerful energy in his dimensional pocket was losing control. The security protocol was giving out warnings through the datalink continuously.

When Nolan jumped out from hyperspace, the external monitor sent back visual of the universe. Hao Ren shouted, “Throw me out!”

Without hesitation, Nolan triggered the ejector. A second later, Hao Ren found himself floating in space before an old orange-red star, the horror of the nuclear reaction was right down there, surging in a sea of fire.

He quickly opened the dimensional pocket and yanked the violent energy mass out. Then he needed to get back to the spacecraft before the gravitational force of the star pulled him into the nuclear fire.

The squirming mass, could be formless or solid, was out of the restraint of the dimensional pocket. It swelled rapidly like a fierce dark beast growing uncontrollably in space. As the energy mass fell towards the star under the strong gravitational pull, a vast area on the surface of the star was slowly collapsing and twisting.

It looked like there was a mutual interaction between the dark energy and the star.

“See? I told you it would work,” Hao Ren said after returning to the flight deck. He let out a sigh and smacked on the console of Petrachelys. “I’ve to say it; your acceleration is getting smoother now.”

“I’ve been exercising and jogging, and firing the engines and running around the Milky Way all this while. If you do that, you will be as fit as a horse,” Nolan said in her holographic body in front of the console, showing off her muscles though it was meaningless in her current bodily form. She did have some complaints though. “But system overload is no joke. I felt that my main capacitors were on fire. I’d better get it a thorough check after this—”

Before Nolan finished, the visual on the monitor caught Hao Ren and her attention.

The dying star was burning brightly and rapidly. Its atmosphere was surging with a storm of fire. All of a sudden, the flare from the nuclear fusion was drawn to a single point on the surface of the star. It was as if a supermassive mass, a black hole, was swallowing it.

Asking Nolan to zoom in the visual, Hao Ren quickly found the root cause of these anomalies: the dark energy mass was still hovering at a distance from the star, but its energy had begun to pollute and spread on the star’s surface. The sun started to collapse.

“Shield is at full power,” Nolan said immediately. “Initiate emergency evacuation.”

The star exploded and the light energy it released illuminated the space.

After a while, the Petrachelys stopped in a somewhat distant part of the universe. The monitor was still showing the spot where the star was at, but there was only an expanding disk of fire and debris spreading at almost the speed of light.

An old star was extinguished in a supernova, sprinkling its stardust into the deep space.

“This is the biggest thing I have ever blown up,” Hao Ren said to himself. Then he remained silent for a long while, wiping the sweat off his forehead before calling the MDT. “I have something to tell you; I just blew up a star. Please draft a report for me,” Hao Ren said.

The MDT was startled for a moment, and asked, “You just what?”

“I just blew up a sun.”

“Pardon me?”

“I just blew up a star; universal ID: Level-IV dark star, estimated the remaining life of 40 million years. I just blew it up, but no casualties,” Hao Ren said and let out a sigh. “It was all because of the dark energy that fell into the star. Before the dark energy reached the corona of the star, the star collapsed and exploded. Nolan had the entire event recorded. According to observation, the pollution was extremely rapid this time,” he said.

The MDT sounded nervous for the first time. “What about the dark energy?”

“Annihilated. Probably the only good news,” Hao Ren said while double checking the data Nolan had sent him. “It withered while detonating the star. There is no harmful substance or energy left on the site. Of course, as per safety rules, I will leave behind a few probes to monitor the area for some time.”

The MDT was silent for a while before it responded. “Noted. I am getting the data from Nolan now and will report the incident. Get back now and tuck away the sword—it has gone quiet. But I think it is still ‘alive.'”

Hearing that, Hao Ren knew there was no time to worry about the star that he had just blown up. The sword of the deicide and the chaos in Coldpath were his priorities. It was time to end the mess.