The Record of Unusual Creatures

Becky was stunned when she heard what Hao Ren said. She had a bewildered look on her face. "Huh?"     

"We need to find a way to destroy this thing." Hao Ren turned back to look at the First Born. It seemed near impossible to communicate with the powerful and chaotic ancient creature. Even though it probably had some form of cognitive ability, given its current condition and process of evolution, it was in an extremely volatile state. Even if they could talk to it, they would probably need to pull the trigger on the thing as it would cause the destruction of an entire civilisation. This was a calamity beyond normal proportions. "I'm bringing the Petrachelys here and we'll blast it apart with the orbital cannon. But, we'll need to evacuate the place first."     

Becky was still stunned but, this was already beyond her comprehension. She was at a lost for words. At the same time, the MDT started contacting the conversion facility in the Surface World, and prepared to bring the Petrachelys into The Plane of Dreams.     

Most inanimate items would need a living person to bring them into The Plane of Dreams and the Petrachelys was no exception. However, as Hao Ren was already in The Plane of Dreams, this required a special conversion and guidance process. The MDT needed to utilise the Xi Ling Celestials' special spatial and information manipulation technique to build a "super conduit" to split Hao Ren's spirit into two. Part of it would remain in The Plane of Dreams and guide the other part to the real world, opening his Dimensional Pocket and storing the spacecraft into it. After that, the MDT would need to convert all the data into The Plane of Dreams before Hao Ren could release it. This was a process beyond human comprehension. Even the most basic explanation involved a series of super dry mathematical calculations. So, Hao Ren decided to not even bother understanding it. He just focused on letting the MDT complete the necesary.     

He suddenly felt like he had another pair of sensory organs popping out of nowhere. It was almost as if a spirit was being torn from him, yet he still retained all his five senses. He could even see his real body from an angle. At the same time, the body on the ridge looked up as well.     

However, his real body did not see anything. The spirit doppelganger was not visible.     

"Stop fooling around, let's go!" The MDT's voice snapped Hao Ren out of his stupor. In a flash, he felt his vision move to the Surface World. His shapeless, receptive phantom floated in front of the conversion unit on Kuiper Station and he saw a row of neatly arranged sleeping pods. In one of them was himself. Using some minute connection, he could sense his body was there.     

"This is rather interesting I tell you," Hao Ren said as he looked down at his own body, which lay in the sleeping pod. "Do you think this is like my spirit being ejected from my body? Or... in contemporary terms, am I just a soul fragment? If someone nearby scanned this place with a sensor, what will they see? A picture of my spirit?"     

"If only you could use this curiosity to study the job manual..." The MDT's voice rang in Hao Ren's head. "You are now just a set of data, in any case, you are simply just a set of data. Remember the Unity of Information, you are you. Your data will simply reform into a different format under different circumstances. Just as a binary computer process cannot read 8-bit data, the detectors and sensors on the Surface world cannot see your current form. This current form is far smaller than Planck's constant of microworlds, almost down to the most fundamental point. Of course, due to some special conversion rules, you can still affect certain things in your current form. But, it is only limited to the imperial units that you are authorised to use."     

Hao Ren felt a bit down upon hearing that. "So many restrictions. I thought of looking for Lily's sleeping pod..."     

The MDT was a little surprised for a moment. "F*ck... What do you plan on doing?"     

"Draw a moustache on her face or something... " Hao Ren grinned. " I knew you were veering off track there. Do I look like such a devious person to you?!"     

"Can you actually play by the rules for once?"     

As the two bickered, they continued on with what they came to do. After allowing a few seconds for the connection to stabilise, the MDT then transported Hao Ren directly to the place where the Petrachelys was docked. This teleportation experience was rather refreshing: no dizziness, no bright lights and no sense of the process. Hao Ren just felt his vision immediately shift to the Petrachelys' docking bay. It was almost like going into The Plane of Dreams, the nauseating sensation was no longer there.     

Hao Ren did not bother studying what sort of natural laws governed his current state, but he could easily open his Dimensional Pocket and chuck the entire spaceship into it.     

There was another flash, and he thought that he was back in The Plane of Dreams. However, his separated psyche had yet to merge back with his body. He was floating above a verdant blue planet. Looking around, he saw a sea of stars around him. It was outer space.     

"The target is beneath us," the MDT's voice snapped him out of his awestruck stupor. He looked down towards the planet and saw a black mark on the verdant planet. While the mark was small from this distance, a more focused look enabled one to see that it was slowly expanding.     

Hao Ren proceeded to release the Petrachelys from his Dimensional Pocket. As he looked at the stars around him, he demurred. "...What's that... Ah, I suddenly remembered Raven 12345 mentioning something like this before... Why did I not think of it at first?"     

"Which one?"     

"Look at the sky."     

A silvery-white spaceship suddenly appeared on the planet's outer orbit. The main battery was deployed from the retractable deck, and the cannon pointed coldly towards the surface.     

Back on Dragonspine Ridge, Hao Ren turned back, facing the rest. "We are completing the final firing. Becareful of the blinding light and shockwave... Marshal Ophra, you may want to stand back."     

Hao Ren suddenly remembered that he and his group could leave The Plane of Dreams at any time. In a worst case scenario, they could just disconnect from the plane to save themselves. However, Mashal Ophra was a common person, hence he gave her the warning.     

"No worries, I'll only be able to get a few extra steps in if I turned back now," Marshal Ophra said as she crossed her arms on her chest. Her eyes were filled with curiosity. "I'm curious though, what are you planning to do?"     

Hao Ren thought for a bit. In the event that the shot went wide, the whole mountain range would just evaporate regardless, so did not insist further. He did not answer the marshal's question either. He simply sat cross-legged where he stood earlier on the ridge. Looking in the First Born's direction, he could see the ancient creature creating the Blood Tide at an alarming place. It had already consumed almost 80 to 90 % of the Beinz area. It was not only devouring everything in Beinz, it was also moving towards the Virulent Flatlands. Perhaps the creation of the Blood Tide required a lot of effort, or perhaps, it had lost interest in the "weaklings" on the mountain ridge. The First Born did not attack those on the ridge.     

Maybe, it did not matter in the grand scheme of things. If the Blood Tide was to drown the world, nothing would survive.     

In the orbit, Hao Ren's "spirit" was directly controlling the weapons system of the Petrachelys. As he locked on the coordinates to fire, a warning message appeared... "Warning. Dangerous Use of Weapon. The Safety Protocol forbids the use of this weapon on a planet. Warning. Dangerous Use of Weapon. The Safety—"     

"Computer, turn off the warning. Disable the Safety Protocol. Authorisation code sent. Please verify."     

The warning message suddenly stopped and the droning voice of the mainframe computer rang. "Authorisation code received and activated. Safety Protocol disabled. Main weapon controls switching to manual firing. Please manually unlock the safety trigger."     

Hao Ren looked at the MDT, which was slotted into the console. "What's this safety trigger its talking about?"     

"Up, down, up, down, triangle..." the MDT mumbled, "...didn't you say read the manual?"     

"That bloody manual isn't a product manual. How would I know what the safety trigger is... Say... why does this command look so weird?"     

The MDT grinned. "It's the Empire's tradition for manual console commands."     

"...Help me calculate the variables and track the planet's rotation. I'll control the firing mechanism."     

Thank goodness the MDT was there to help him out in finalising the firing or else, he would not have had the guts to perform the planetary bombardment even if you pointed a gun to his head!     

A blinding, white orb started forming at the mouth of the cannon, and a world-destroying energy began to focus at the tip of the charging crystal. The First Born seemed to have sensed this danger and it stopped creating the Blood Tide. It drove all its tentacles towards the sky as countless beams fired towards the Petrachelys.     

"Give it hell!"     

The cannon roared and the world faded into white.