The Record of Unusual Creatures

Hao Ren stayed in the temple of Raven 12345 for almost a day.

Considering all things, Coldpath was situated in Earth’s periphery, so the mission in Coldpath was a short trip by this definition. But the significance of the information he obtained overshadowed all the previous operations. The Godslayer, the origin of Coldpath, the new lead to the fall of the goddess of creation, the movements of the supernatural races on Earth, and the things that happened to Vivian as well as Lily. Every single one of them was worth a separate report. Piecing these things together, he spent a whole good day analyzing them with the goddess.

Presented with such fruitful findings, the stingy Raven 12345 could resist no more. She generously invited Hao Ren for lunch. She played host today although her cooking still sucked and noodles were her only specialty.

Finally, Hao Ren was done with the debriefing, during which Raven 12345 had also given him some valuable advice about future operations. He took the Godslayer that had just become his personal sword along with his year-end bonus and left the mansion. After he went, silence returned to the goddess’ grand office again.

Raven 12345 sat in her office staring blankly for a while. Lowering her head, she switched on the MDT and continued what she left off, which was what she did when Hao Ren first came in today. The complex data was spread across a dozen holographic windows. Except one, all holograms synchronously refreshed with new data. In the static hologram, a simulation of a phenomenon that was incomprehensible to humans was running.

The two chaotically formless things were surging in the hologram. It was as if two entangled clouds spinning and colliding in flashes and mutual annihilation. Part of the clouds merged, and the remaining portion slowly changed shape in the aftermath of the collision. When the fusion process finally stopped, a bright but blurry boundary formed between the two clouds.

As if after a long time and also as if only a short instant, the boundary between the two clouds suddenly shook. Something restless was trying to disrupt the balance. Tiny cracks began to appear in the border, and the two chaotically formless things started to merge.

“The model is basically complete, but it lacks some driving force,” Raven 12345 murmured. Her core of thought, which once had a trauma, was spinning at high speed, piecing together all the intelligence she had mastered. Though her mind was still less than normal, her wisdom seemed unaffected. “It is really not easy to just rely on guesswork to fill the laws of the two universes. Sigh! Fragile cosmic structure. Only if I could take a gander at the collision belt, even if it’s just a glance, things would be much easier.”

She turned off all the holograms, hand spread in front of her eyes, and the black fragment of the Godslayer was in her palms. The chunk still filled with endless darkness and lights in the darkness twinkled like cosmic stars. Raven 12345 fiddled with it and murmured again, “The Plane of Dreams might have lost more than this…”

Knock-knock!

A series of knocking sounds were heard, interrupting her train of thought. Raven 12345 looked up and out the window. No one was outside the massive window that stretched from ceiling to floor. She squinted and finally saw a little figure standing on the window sill outside. It was a girl of almost the same size as an adult’s palm, wearing a black dress with long blue hair and a blue-violet metallic luster on the tips of her hair. The girl was jumping on the outside window sill like a restless bird, and continually slamming the window with her head: that was the knocking sound she had heard just now.

Raven 12345 quickly waved into the direction of the window. She then opened the window to let the little girl slipped in. The girl swiftly flew up to the desk, happily jumping around and babbling a bunch of obscure words.

“The next thing I’d have to count on you,” Raven 12345 said to the little girl. She then took a few fresh leaves out of nowhere and fed it to the tiny girl. “I cannot help because I need someone to help me. So how is the situation in the Scarred Nebula that you’ve just visited?” she asked.

The tiny girl, holding a piece of green leaf and having a mouthful, quickly swallowed before replying loudly, “Croak—”

Surprisingly, Raven 12345 could decipher the sound. “Not expanding? Not expanding means good news. At least the Wall of Reality has stabilized on this side.”

The tiny girl tilted her head. “Croak?”

“I know the situation is bad, but it was even worse in the past few hundred years. It was expanding. Though slow, it was still visible.” Raven 12345 continued to tear off the fresh green leaves and handed it to the tiny girl. Suddenly, Raven 12345 appeared as if in thought. “But ever since Hao Ren first entered the Plane of Dreams, the cracks had stopped expanding. It seems that the crystal is correct, he is the key,” Raven 12345 said.

“Croak…”

“Yeah, I know. The overall strength of the Wall of Reality is still declining. The space-time structure of the two universes could be the cause. It could also be related to the god of the Plane of Dreams. It is too complicated. I still can’t wrap my brain around it. Anyway, at least these visible cracks are no longer expanding, which is a good thing. What is a good thing? The good thing is the vegetable leaves! Just eat it!”

The tiny girl immediately jumped up in joy. “Croak—”

“Besides, I have a question.” Raven 12345 looked at the tiny girl who was still jumping around on the table. She could not help but poked the tiny girl with her finger. “Couldn’t you talk properly, could you? You’re a crow goddess, not a cow goddess.”

The tiny girl jumped up again and said cleverly, “Croak! This is a tradition!”

While Raven 12345 and the mysterious tiny girl were talking, Hao Ren was already back at home.

As he pushed the door open, he almost collided with a shadow that lunged out from behind the door. Shoving the shadow out of his way, he was surprised to find that it was Rollie. The cat maiden, who had bumped into his stomach before throwing herself on the ground, scrambled to get up and lunged out the door in a panic.

With a swift reaction, Hao Ren grabbed the tail of the dumb cat. He was not going to allow her to go out without first tucking away her ears and tail.

“What happen?” Hao Ren pulled her back. The dumb cat instinctively turned around and scratched him. But her claws only scraped his Steel Membrane Shield, producing a string of sparks. Using the other hand, Hao Ren fenced off her sharp claws and snapped, “What is wrong with you?”

“Big Boss Cat, help me!” The cat maiden came to her senses. She immediately lunged at Hao Ren and clung to him like a koala. If not for her body size, she would have climbed on his shoulders; she used to do that when she was still a cat. “Big sister wants to stew me!” she said.

Hao Ren pulled the cat maiden down while trying to figure out what she meant. Apparently, Vivian was the big sister whom the cat maiden held in high regard. At this time, Vivian had run out the doorway with a towel in her hand. “Don’t you dare to run! Stop the cat!”

Hao Ren grabbed Rollie by her neck and dragged her back to the living hall. He closed the door behind him with his foot before looking at Vivian curiously. “Did she provoke you again? Did she throw the rats into the pot or did she throw a fish bone into the bag?”

Already a scourge since a juvenile, the dumb cat had grown into a humanoid of natural disaster!

Waving her hand at Hao Ren in greeting, Vivian came up and wrung Rollie’s ear. “I just want to take her for a shower!” she said.

Initially being protective of the cat maiden, Hao Ren now shot the dumb cat a sideways glance upon learning the truth. Looks like she had turned compulsive and did not back down. “No! No! I don’t want to shower! I’ve just taken it the day before!”

Not all cats dislike shower though most of them don’t.

Unfortunately, Rollie was the kind that disliked shower.

The dumb cat would create a scene whenever she was asked to shower as if the shower room to her was a gas chamber. Except when she first became a humanoid, she was cooperative out of excitement. Now, only Vivian and Nangong Wuyue could make Rollie comply. Hao Ren was inured to this situation. He just ignored all the protests and struggles of the dumb cat and watched as Vivian held the cat by her neck and dragged her all the way to the bathroom. Meanwhile, Nangong Wuyue was already on standby in the bathroom. Rollie still tried to struggle when Vivian dumped her inside the bathroom, but a ball of water that suddenly emerged from the bathroom swallowed her.

Up next was hours of screaming and protesting. Through foresight and to avoid any unnecessary attention, Nangong Wuyue had set up a sound-proof enchantment around the bathroom. Otherwise, the loud cry of the dumb cat could have alarmed the policemen who were patrolling nearby.

When the commotion finally subsided, Vivian began to inquire about the result of Hao Ren’s ‘pilgrimage.’ Hao Ren first tipped the things out of his dimensional pocket before he said, “Wait a minute. I have got a year-end bonus. It is for you.”

Vivian’s eyes brightened up. She could not help but held those treasure that glittered in golden light in her arms. “Ahh! I had wanted to buy a new set of pots and spatula a few days ago!”

Yup, this was the year-end surprise that Raven 12345 had prepared for Hao Ren, known as the ‘super practical’ year-end bonus.

A set of pots and pans, spatula, spoons, and chopsticks.

Hao Ren was shocked beyond words when he first got them.