The Record of Unusual Creatures

The vast space was a lonely place. Only the stars, at who knows light-years away, became one’s companion. Such an endless and lonesome environment would be hard for most sentient beings to withstand, yet Nolan was already used to it. In fact, she enjoyed it.

She really liked the feeling of being able to jet around in space without any restraint. The vast space did not cause her to feel lonely or isolated, rather, it set her totally free. She did not understand why she felt that way either, perhaps being trapped in that dream-like cycle for so long had totally changed her attitude. She was sick and tired of narrow, confined spaces, and the vastness of space was where she felt most at home.

Just like that moment, flying about in space without any regard and enjoying the starlight that beamed upon her. If not for the fact that she had a mission to accomplish, she would have really wanted to whirl about for a few more hours.

“I’ve reached the space outside the system’s gravity well.” Nolan sent a message back. “No signs of lockdown or attack. I’ve only detected a very minute energy signature, probably the network performing the scan, but it seems like I’ve passed the ‘check’.”

Hao Ren’s voice then came from the command link. “Very good. You can make your way back, don’t push your luck.”

Using the sensors, Nolan gave the stars in the distance a reluctant glance before she turned the ship toward the star system and sped into hyper lightspeed.

Very soon, she had arrived at the forward base on the Executor’s planet.

“How’s everything outside?” Lily pounced on Nolan as soon as her hologram appeared. “You weren’t attacked at all? Nothing popped out of nowhere and extorted you to pay a toll?”

“Where did that toll even come from?” Hao Ren pulled the werehusky to the side as he looked at Nolan nodding back at him. “Well, it’s good that everything was smooth sailing. So it seems like our guess was right on point. The problem isn’t with the ship, rather it’s us, the passengers.”

“In that case, who’s going first?” Vivian crossed her arms in front of her chest as she looked around with the poise of a matriarch. “Since all of us need to have a go, first or last doesn’t matter.”

Just as Vivian finished, Nangong Sanba grabbed a bunch of cards and went over. “Let’s draw lots! Save ourselves the headache!”

Hao Ren immediately recognized the cards as Letta Runic Cards and gasped. “You actually painted on these enchanted cards for us to draw lots?”

“Ahem, these are junk cards anyway.” Nangong Sanba tilted his head, feeling slightly embarrassed. “I was drinking a little too much when I was making the cards two days ago, and I accidentally poured a third of a bottle of vodka into the magic solution…”

More like he freaking added the magic solution into the vodka!

Hao Ren stopped just as he was about to draw his lot. “Wait a minute, did you feed Lil Pea these cards?!”

“How did you know? Nangong Sanba asked.

“F*ck! Of course! Lil Pea was mad drunk for two hours last night, and she soaked my entire room with water! I was wondering why she stank of alcohol when she burped!” Hao Ren glared at Nangong Sanba, “For God’s sake, Lil Pea’s only three years old!”

In the end, with a unanimous decision, Nangong Sanba was the first to be tossed into the ship for the test while the rest drew lots.

Just as Nangong Sanba was about to reach the edge of the system’s gravity well, he ran into the violent interception by the network.

In the following tests, just about everyone was not able to leave the system. Every time they were about to leave the gravity well, they would be met with the divine power net’s scan and interception. Even Rollie triggered the alarm—side note here, the catgirl initially thought she was going to be thrown away and threw a massive tantrum. Hao Ren had no choice but to stuff her face with a bag of fish jerky before she piped down. Nevertheless, she was also stopped at the last phase of her journey.

Upon seeing the catgirl’s sly smile as soon as she got off the ship, Hao Ren suddenly had a feeling that this cat was not as dumb as she seemed to be…

However, not everyone was stopped. In the end, only three people managed to board Nolan and successfully break through the “border”: Hao Ren, Vivian, and Lil Pea…

Once they touched down, the three of them (bat/fish) looked at each other… Alright, it was only Hao Ren and Vivian who looked at each other, Lil Pea was laying on Hao Ren’s arm looking around curiously. The little mermaid practically did not understand what was going on and only heard daddy saying that she was going on a ride. When she got back, everyone was looking at her funny, and that confused the little rascal.

“So how do we conclude this?” Hao Ren said, perplexed as he hugged Lil Pea. “Vivian’s unique trait is being a creation of the goddess. Me, I’m a pope from the Surface World, and Lil Pea, she’s the scion of life from another dimension… Who can figure out the similarities between all these traits?”

It was not just him and Vivian who were confounded, practically everyone was confused. Lily looked up into the sky as she thought and thought before she came up with something befitting her stature of a literary hound. “…Does throwing any of you three into a story and making you the main character count?”

“Bullsh*t, which of us here isn’t like a main character.” Hao Ren brushed her off. “Even you have the template of a reborn female protagonist, but given your doggone life story, it’s probably one of an abused main protagonist role…”

Hao Ren was just joking, but Nangong Sanba answered seriously, “I’m not like one. Just see how plain-looking I am…”

“Go roll off a gangplank!” Lily and Vivian blasted back. “You think we’ve never watched any idol dramas before?”

The catgirl who was munching on her fish jerky suddenly chimed in, “Anyone called me? Time to eat, nya?”

“This doesn’t concern you.” Hao Ren rudely chased away the almost useless dumb cat, who only knew how to eat and sleep, before he shook his head and sighed. “I can only boldly assume that… the divine power net locking down Star Cluster X is probably using a complex scan to operate. That leaves us without a simple answer on what sort of rules it operates by. It probably detects any high-level life forms first, so the Petrachelys and the droids, all without any life signatures, can pass through the scan. Next, it determines the unique traits of the objects with life signatures like divinity and stuff. Lil Pea aside, Vivian and I have pretty powerful divine affinities, and that could be why we managed to pass the check.”

Lily raised her hand as she heard Hao Ren’s analysis. “But all of us have some level of divinity in us. We’ve all eaten the stuff you brought back from the goddess. I even managed to acquire a holy-type Sky… What was it again?”

That dumbass actually named that move of hers randomly! And she forgot it at the turn of her head!

“Our levels of divinity are different.” Hao Ren had an explanation for that. “I’m a pope directly reporting to Raven 12345, and Vivian’s a direct creation of the goddess of creation. That means we both obtained our divinity from the ‘source’, while the rest of you obtained yours through a medium (that year-end bonus worth of sundries and the occasional snacks pilfered from heaven). It’s hard to say if the net out there doesn’t recognize such an ‘identification’.”

“What the heck? So the tenancy agreement doesn’t count? Discrimination, hmph!” Nangong Wuyue shook her tail grumpily as she heard that. “Even if Mr. Landlord’s analysis is right, what about Lil Pea? She’s just a mermaid from another dimension, and even her divinity was gained through munching on Raven 12345’s snacks. How did she pass the scan?”

Lily rubbed her chin. “Perhaps free entry for children under 120cm…”

“Enough!” Hao Ren and Vivian snarled at her at the same time.

“Regardless, we’ve found the crew that can breach the lockdown,” Vivian said, looking at Hao Ren and Lil Pea, who was in his arms. “Hao Ren, Lil Pea, and I… What a mind-boggling team, and I don’t even know if she can be considered a proper combatant.”

The little mermaid rose up with her fist when she heard Vivian. “Lil Pea, supah powahful!”

“So, what are your plans?” Y’zaks glanced at Hao Ren, wanting to hear the latter’s plans.

Hao Ren nodded. “Now that we’ve found three crew members who can bypass the lockdown, it’s better than all of us being trapped here. I believe the security system encompassing this system will surely have a central control center or something. Now that the three of us can move about in Star Cluster X, I plan to go look for that control center and attempt to cease the lockdown, or at least open a path for all of you to leave.”

That was the only workable plan at the moment, and no one had any objections. Just as Hao Ren was about to go ahead with the preparations to explore, Nolan’s voice suddenly rang from the comms. “Boss, message from CARS! Asurmen knows what those glowing bodies are!”

Asurmen, the crystal starship from Collow, housed the Denizen of the Stars who once fought alongside the goddess of creation.

He never thought that while Muru and the other guardians had no inkling what the thing was, the Denizens would! Perhaps the radiant disc-like space beings were not creations of the goddess?

Hao Ren and the rest rushed over to the command center of the base, and Asurmen was already standing by on the channel. The ancient Denizen of the Stars was a ray of hazy light on the screen, and within the light was a starry glow. He did not waste time on needless banter as soon as he saw Hao Ren. “What you saw was a dormant Denizen of the Star battleship.”

“A battleship?” Hao Ren had considered many possibilities when it came to the true identity of the radiant discs, but that did not cross his mind at all because he had seen a Denizen of the Star’s spacecraft with his own eyes before. The crystal mountain that was Asurmen was such a ship. The disc-like light clouds were just too different from Asurmen’s form, and he did not even consider the two to be linked. “Like how you transformed into a spaceship? So that’s how you guys look like when you’ re dormant?”

“The Denizens of the Stars spaceship is created with our minds as a base, and from there, materials are solidified to form the ship. Once we have entered a special dormant mode, the mental frame will take a mist-like form. And that is what we call energy-conserving alert mode,” Asurmen explained with his distinct emotionless voice. “As for the ones you saw, I’ve seen their details. They are much larger than me, most probably frontline warriors. There were many of these types of battleships back then, not so much now.”