The Record of Unusual Creatures

Looking at those busy robots and traction beams on the console, Hao Ren asked the analysis host of the laboratory, “How long will it take to repair her?”

“It is expected to take 48 hours,” the analysis host quickly replied. “The damage is so severe that some logic circuits cannot be reverse-engineered, and the default plan is to replace them with a universal module. There’s a lot of testing and virtual booting to do because there’s no way to determine how the AI would fit into a common module.”

48 hours… It only took a week for the Petrachelys to be repaired to the point where it could be re-launched, but it took two days and nights to repair a robot adjutant robot from an indigenous civilization. Hao Ren was a little disappointed, but he could understand it.

He himself brought back the wreck, so he knew the state of the robot adjutant. They could not say they were ‘repairing’ the robot. They were actually recreating the robot, or to be exact, they were recreating a product under a whole new technology system. The analysis host could make up this process forcibly with its powerful research and calculation ability, but it was completely impossible to skip the massive virtual tests that needed to be carried out.

Nolan had a blueprint for self-recovery, but no one had a blueprint for this robot.

“It’s not enough just to fix the hardware,” Vivian said, “The most important thing is her memory… Can you extract the memory bank first? We’ll know what’s in her head even if we can’t fix the logic circuits.”

“The AI module used by this robot is special. The memory bank and logic circuit cannot be separated, while the logic circuit is rooted in the motherboard. This structure makes it necessary to use its original logic circuit to read the memory accurately and correctly. In other words, only its initial logic circuit can understand the files in its memory bank- so it is recommended to read the memory after completing the basic maintenance work.”

Moments later, the analysis host added, “you may try to break the memory, but there is a 50 percent chance that the data will be compromised.”

“Well, then just wait for two more days,” Hao Ren said, waving his hand, “sure you can fix it?”

“It can be restored to 70 percent. After it wakes up, it can be completely repaired with its active cooperation.”

This time, the analysis host gave a relatively satisfactory answer.

“Do you think the robot adjutant will cooperate with us when she wakes up?” Nangong Sanba asked. “In my impression, AI is quite rigid. What if she’s programmed with some sort of recognition module that automatically switches to the berserk mode when she meets a stranger?”

“Watch your mouth, I’m a super advanced and flexible AI assistant! I’m not rigid at all!” yelled the data terminal.

Hao Ren pushed the data terminal aside and said, “It’s okay if the robot doesn’t cooperate. After repairing the motherboard and logic circuit, Nolan can directly get involved in her thinking part. If she doesn’t want to cooperate, we’ll just take her hard drive and the card reader and plug it into Nolan, and we’ll still be able to read it…”

It would take a while for the robot to be repaired. Hao Ren did not understand the specific process, so he handed it over to the laboratory host, and he himself returned to the crew rest area.

The crew cabin was the best-preserved part of the spaceship. Because it was deep inside the ship, there was little physical impact during the attack or fall. Despite losing gravity and power for a while, it was fully functional after Nolan reconfigured the power flow. In the center of the residential area, there was a small bar with complete functions, spacious space, and all kinds of drinks created by synthetic mechanism were available at any time, and therefore, this was the favorite place for them to come when the spaceship was on a long voyage mission. Now everyone had no task, and outside the spaceship was a strange and dangerous planet, no one was interested in going out for a night outing, so everyone came here, chitchatting and playing cards to kill time.

Hao Ren felt that a bar should have a bartender, so he specially arranged a task for this autonomous bot, pretending to be a bartender, but no one liked cocktails or anything like that except Nangong Sanba.

Hao Ren saw Rollie coming up as he sat down in front of the bar. The cat girl climbed up onto a high stool and beckoned to the bartender, “I want a vodka!”

“Give her a cup of warm water, no sugar,” Hao Ren corrected.

“And Sliced Fish in Hot Chili Oil!”

“Give her a bowl of cat food — and a small dried fish. The one with less salt.”

The bartender quickly prepared the cat girl’s food, and she held the bowl with a happy look on her face. “Thank you.”

The cat did not really know what food she ordered, it’s all learned from TV and other people’s conversations, so every time she asked the bartender for food, Hao Ren had to correct it, or the food would kill her sooner or later. Not all food could be given to cats, and what’s worse was that she wanted to try everything. Last time she even wanted onion rings and garlic…

Hao Ren ordered a glass of ice cold coke to cool his slightly overworked brain, so as to think carefully about the mysterious planet. Lily was sitting nearby with a glass of coke, playing cards.

“Bartender! Two dishes of edamame!” Y’zaks ordered while paying card.

“Please give me some tea by the way.” It’s Nangong Wuyue’s voice.

Y’lisabet, who was playing with Lil Pea in the far corner, shouted, “I want ten mutton kebabs!”

“And two chopsticks!” This was undoubtedly Lil Pea’s voice.

“Hao Ren, to tell you the truth, I advised you to change this place into a chess and card room long ago.” Vivian sat down next to Hao Ren. “Do you think any of the people in the family are in tune with the bar? And why don’t you put a barbecue stand here?”

Hao Ren waved his hand and said, “There should be a bar on the spaceship! Don’t you think it’s nice for us to come back to a nice bar, sipping a drink and chitchatting after a mission? And what the hell does a barbecue stand do in a spaceship?”

After hearing this, Nangong Sanba, who was playing cards, echoed, “That’s right. And who says nobody cares for the bar? Where can I find cocktails in a chess and card room?”

Vivian rolled her eyes and said, “Which one do you think is more abnormal, eight people ordering peanut, edamame, kidney in a bar or one person ordering a cocktail in a chess and card room?”

Hao Ren thought for a while and found it quite convincing…

Vivian looked thoughtful at the juice and asked, “Hao Ren, do you feel that this planet… is a little strange?”

“Strange? You mean the Firstborn of the planet?”

“Yeah, I heard Nolan say that the Firstborn of this planet is in a very ‘inert’ state. Traces of bombing missions by the rebels can be seen everywhere on the continent, but the Firstborn of this planet has only made a rather limited counter-attack, doesn’t look like it’s going crazy. But it’s not like he’s sane, because he shows no sign of communicating – and he responds decisively when attacked. Although there’s no further pursuit, it’s also relentless in the counter-attack.”

“And no significant changes in the tentacles of the Firstborn were observed after the lullaby system was activated,” Hao Ren said, nodding. “Normally, once a lullaby is activated, the Firstborn’s tentacles will show short tremors, stiffening, wilting signs, and in severe cases, organic atrophy and exfoliation of the skin, which is the result of a nervous system shutdown. But it’s been nearly 48 hours since Nolan started the lullaby, and the nearest tentacle doesn’t seem to be affected at all.”

“Could it be another special model?”

“Only God knows.” Hao Ren shook his head. “Anyway, it’s good news that the Firstborn of this planet is not so active, so our safety factor can be greatly improved.”

Vivian also thought so.

Just then, Nolan’s voice interrupted Hao Ren’s thoughts. “Boss, I found something here.”

Hao Ren looked at the robot bartender and said, “Connect it.”

Nolan’s hologram immediately appeared before Hao Ren’s eyes. Nolan waved to Hao Ren and said, “Boss, I fixed a set of optical observation module of the spaceship, and then looked up at the sky. What do you think I saw?”

Hao Ren raised his eyebrow and said, “Don’t keep me guessing. What did you see?”

Nolan switched the screen directly. A huge silver, egg-like space structure was then presented on a holographic projection, with bright cosmic stars in the background.

“Ohhhhh.” Lily gasped at the screen. “Is this a… space station?”

A stream of information flowed quickly through Hao Ren’s mind when he saw the space station. He quickly put together the information he had gathered so far, along with his own thoughts, and an idea then emerged:

“Let me guess… That’s the huge spaceship that was launched into space, the one that recorded on the relief?”