The Record of Unusual Creatures

When Hao Ren saw the dim crystal, he instantly knew that the condition of the crystal was worse than he had expected.

The flight computer of the planetary battleship was not a conventional system. It might not even be the creation of the guardian giants but the goddess of creation. Perhaps it was more than merely a flight computer. Hao Ren found that there were too many mysteries behind the resonant crystals. The goddess of creation had spent most of her attention in creating these crystals during the last moment of her life. She had also secretly created the Star Cluster X surrounding these crystals, the significance of which might not be any lesser than the Creation’s Engine.

Did she use the resonant crystal as the flight computer to give the battleship some unique capabilities?

In any case, these crystals still appeared as if some dark technology to Hao Ren. He might have the equipment to analyze the physical and chemical properties of these crystals and the energy, but the secrets of the crystal were beyond these properties. And more importantly, Hao Ren had no idea how to resurrect a dead crystal.

But Hao Ren felt that he needed to do something. Not doing anything in the face of the unknown was not the quality of an inspector.

With the guidance of the sprites and the analysis of the MDT, Hao Ren had found a way to lower the large crystal. He reenergized the old lifting mechanism, which began squeak loudly. The fixture above the crystal moved and lowered the more-than-ten-meter-tall giant crystal down before it stopped less than half a meter from the floor.

After a brief observation, Hao Ren realized what was so strange about this crystal.

It was a perfectly symmetrical octagonal cylinder, which tapered at the top and bottom, with some patterns covering the dim surface of the crystal. The MDT emitted a beam on the crystal, revealing the shallow structure inside, where there were equally intricate and mysterious patterns.

No other crystals that Hao Ren had collected so far had this level of finishing. Even those crystal lattices in the sprite settlements were not as neat and exquisite as this one.

“I cannot detect any deeper structure.” The MDT was surprised after flying around the crystal. “It has very complex encryption. Even if the crystal has stopped working, the software-based encryption protection still works. I cannot crack it even with my processing capability.”

“A goddess is still a goddess even though she has never gone to school.” Hao Ren could only let out a sigh. “The goddess of creation has put in a lot of effort into creating this crystal. It is only natural that you cannot decrypt it.”

The MDT did not give up. It used its beam to scan the crystal again but to no avail. It even used energy stimulation trying to wake up the crystal, but it did not respond.

“This thing is completely broken.” The MDT landed on Hao Ren’s shoulder in frustration. “It no longer receives any external energy stimulation. This crystal is as if a black hole when it is silent. As long as we cannot break through its ‘vision,’ we are not going to see the truth inside.”

Hao Ren smacked his lips in disappointment. Meanwhile, Vivian reached out to touch the crystal curiously. “Speak of which, I remember I have seen such a crystal in the sea of the Crimson Moon. It feels incredible—”

Before she finished her sentence, the unthinkable happened.

The dim crystal suddenly burst into light, which happened in a flash before the light shrank back inside the crystal, leaving the crystal glowing softly. Meanwhile, the spot where Vivian’s palm had contact with the crystal was rippling. As the milky-white ripples spread, the intricate patterns on the surface began to pulsate irregularly.

The crystal had come back to life.

“I…” Shocked by what happened, Vivian instinctively pulled back her hand. “I did not do anything!”

Hao Ren quickly comforted her. “Don’t panic, it has just come back to life. I have experience with this.”

Indeed, Hao Ren had many similar encounters when he accidentally touched those ancient relics.

The crystal did not dim after Vivian let off her hand. Instead, it remained glowing softly while emitting a pleasant, wind chime-like sound. And then, a gentle female voice came.

“Administrator connection detected. Authentication completed. Please try to get core authorization and activate the default protocol.”

“Error. Unable to connect to the heart. The throne is not activated, the heart administrator is missing.”

“Administrator has used the wrong connection method. Please first activate the heart. This access session is closed. The Naqdal crystal goes into standby mode.”

The gentle female voice went silent, and the glow on the crystal surface gradually dimmed but not went out. It still maintained one-third of its original brightness, which should be the case in the so-called standby mode.

The three little sprites looked on, wide-eyed. They suddenly came to their senses and yelled, “Ahh, ahh, ahh! It is activated! It is activated! Administrator Permission!”

“The queen! It is the queen!”

“This is how the queen looks like?”

“The queen does not look the same as us!”

“She may look different, but she is certainly the queen!”

“That’s right! That’s right! That’s right! The goddess has set it up like this…”

The three sprites babbled while running around Vivian as if runaway electric current. “You are the queen! You are the queen! You are the queen of the sprites!”

“I didn’t know the queen looks different from us.”

“My Queen! My Queen! Why didn’t you tell us earlier?”

“La la la ~~ finally sprites have a queen!”

Vivian finally came out of her daze, but she was still baffled. “Stop running around me, I am getting dizzy. Who can explain what is going on? How come I become a queen suddenly? I didn’t even know you all before this!”

“You are the queen!” said the long-haired sprite. “Only the queen can activate this crystal that I directly connected to the heart!”

“And the crystal has just said, you are the administrator!””It is just you are not aware of it!”

The three little sprites began to dance around Vivian’s head, cheering, “Queen, Your Majesty! Queen, Your Majesty! Queen, Your Majesty!”

At first, Hao Ren thought that the little sprites reaction was just a farce, that these guys, with their unpredictable thinking, must have made a mistake. But after piecing things together, he could not help but look at Vivian. “I think we have to take the words of these sprites seriously.”

“What?”

“Don’t be fooled by their unseriousness.” Hao Ren pointed to the three sprites. “They are the last creation of the goddess of creation. The goddess made these creatures for a reason, and you—you could be also be counted as the final legacy of the goddess of creation. And don’t forget; the reason why we come to this galaxy is because of the star chart in your soul. The resonant crystal was first discovered in your sea of the Crimson Moon. We can connect all these clues together.”

When Vivian saw the serious expression on Hao Ren’s face, she began to think. “You mean—”

“I guess the goddess of creation created Star Cluster X for you. When thinking along this line, it is not something incredible anymore to think that you are the queen of the sprites.”

Vivian glanced at the sprites, which danced and cheered around her, dumbfounded.

“But I do not feel happy at all to be a queen.”

Hao Ren spread out his hand. “It does not matter; the goddess of creation has already decided.”

“Pff.”

“If she is really your queen, then now the sprites have a queen, right?” Hao Ren decided not to tease Vivian anymore. He turned to the sprites. “You said that as long as the sprites had a queen, you would know your mission? So, do you know now?”

“Not yet!” The youngest sprite fluttered her arms. “The queen must sit on the throne!”

“The queen must be on the throne.”

“The sprites will hear the queen’s voice.”

“Only with this connection…”

“Will the commands of the goddess be revealed!”

“Sit on the throne?” Hao Ren’s brows knitted together. A scene he once saw in the illusion suddenly crossed his mind.

On the crystal planet was an ancient palace, in which there was a throne made of crystal. A figure, seemingly of the goddess of creation, was sitting on the throne, fusing with the crystal as one.”

Was this the true meaning of that illusion?

But Hao Ren could not get the answer from the sprites. All the sprites knew were only bits and pieces inscribed in their souls. They only knew that the sprites needed a queen, and the queen needed to sit on the throne. But they had absolutely no clue about what the queen was supposed to do, and what the throne was all about.

They said that the Queen herself should know this.

“I can’t help.” Vivian looked at Hao Ren and forced a smile. “My memory fails.”

“Then we can only bank our hope on this crystal to tell us something.” Hao Ren did not force Vivian to recall anything. He just turned to look at the crystal emitting a soft glow.

Apparently, the crystal had come back to life, which meant the MDT can further examine it.

Even if the MDT could not retrieve the secrets deep inside, it should have no problem to read the data stored on the surface.

While the MDT began to work on the crystal, Hao Ren was going to take a look at the wreckages he had salvaged from the battlefield.