The Record of Unusual Creatures

Hao Ren had experience in larger-scale relocation and rescue operations. Whether it was the relocation of the one billion Aerymian Elves or five hundred thousand population of Helcrown, the population sizes were many times more than Inferno’s indigenous people. But Inferno had a unique problem that posed a challenge to the migration operation; the civilization was very backward.

They did not have global communications, no high-speed transportation, and no census and system of address. They did not even have cities and other fixed settlements; tribes were scattered all over the prairie and mountains, and only having a loose union relationship among the different tribes existed. They only communicated with each other a few times a year through messengers. Information and traffic occlusion were the challenges. No matter what Hao Ren wanted to do with this planet, the first thing hurdle was communication. He needed to establish a communication network so that he could contact everyone on the planet so that the elders of other tribes could hear Vivian’s orders and carried out that order in their respective tribes.

Gezer had quickly gathered enough messengers before Hao Ren, who was now setting up equipment near the tribal village.

He took out a portal-building and communication equipment from the dimensional pocket. These were portable equipment for emergency use. Though limited in functionality, they were perfectly suitable for the situation at hand. Five portals were lined up on the ground, their silver casings appeared shiny under the skylight, with blue light which indicated standby mode in the gap between the metal panels. Vivian looked at him curiously. “You’re asking the messengers to use the portal?” she asked.

“You don’t expect me to send one by one by car, do you?” Hao Ren smiled. “The tribal villages are scattered all over the world; we need to contact them as soon as possible before the world changes.”

“Okay, but do you know their locations?”

“Remember the probes that I released earlier?” Hao Ren nodded. “They have completed the mapping of the planet, and sent back information of more than thirty villages of various sizes, that’s more than what Gotarug knows. Some tribes have been in isolation for very long and lost contact with other tribes, but they are still alive. The probes would be location beacons for the portals.”

Gezer’s voice came from the side. “The messengers are here.”

Hao Ren turned around and saw dozens of young and robust tribal members standing behind him. Their faces were painted to in the colors and patterns of special envoys of Wind tribe while colorful ribbon on their waists as proof of identity. They all looked motivated. Standing at the front was Bonia, the saintess of Fire tribe, who was going to return to her tribe to deliver the message.

Hao Ren nodded to Gezer. “Well, except for the little girl, they all are great guys; it’s just that their physical strength is not up to par. Are they the most eloquent?”

“They are the smartest young people in the tribe.” Gezer put up an innocent smile on his face. “I’m sure they will be able to bring the message of the Goddess to the destinations.”

“Not only to convey the message of the Goddess,” Hao Ren said as he shoved a silver, cigarette box-sized device in Bonia’s hand. “I want you to learn how to use this thing.”

Bonia fiddled with the little box cluelessly and put it in her mouth. Hao Ren grabbed the box from the little girl, warning, “Don’t do that. It’s a communication device. I want you to bring along this thing back to your village. Can you see the two buttons here? Press and we can talk to each other thousands of miles away.”

Bonia was wide-eyed. Hao Ren just told them briefly without going into the details, “Treat this as a miracle. Now I’m going to assign each of you a destination; these portals will send you directly to the destinations.”

There was one good thing about primitive society; the people were very obedient. The devout tribal messengers had no two minds when it came to the will of the Goddess. They just stepped into the portals, never questioned if the thing called gateway was safe at all.

After the messengers left, Hao Ren looked up at the sky, as he had sensed something.

A blue light swooped down from the sky, and then there was the voice of the MDT. “Hey, buddy! Your spaceship has arrived!”

The MDT descended on his shoulder. The blue-light from where the MDT came out oscillated and gradually enlarged to a few hundred meters tall with a buzzing sound, and then a silver spacecraft emerged from the space crack of a few hundred meters tall. In the eyes of this world, the Petrachelys was a monster.

Hao Ren came up quickly to alleviate Gotarug’s fear for the excitement was too much for him to handle.

“It’s a miracle!” Gezer and other tribal warriors stared with their jaws dropped to the ground. It was beyond their comprehension. Though some of them might have heard of the legends of the magic-driven, flying warships of the Sun Dynasty, the appearance of the spacecraft was beyond their imagination. The Petrachelys, which looked like a magnificent temple to them, emerged from the space crack. It gracefully adjusted its angle before descending slowly and hovering less than one meter above ground just right next to Hao Ren. The captain’s voice came, sounding happy. “Hey! Hao Ren! It’s been a long while!”

That was Nolan.

“Long time no see, Nolan!” Hao Ren smiled. “How are you doing?”

“Great! I think I have gotten used to my new body,” Nolan said with a pleasant tone of voice. “I’ve waxed the lower deck. Do you mind?”

“Err, not at all. Not at all.”

The MDT buzzed into Hao Ren’s ears. “Let me tell you; she is a tough lass. You wouldn’t believe what I saw. When I found her in Andromeda Galaxy, she was racing there.”

Hao Ren was startled and looked up at Nolan aka the Petrachelys. “Racing? With who?”

Nolan flashed the bow lights. “A neutron star. Those spacecraft didn’t dare to race with me.”

Hao Ren jumped to his feet and said, “Holy crap! It is an official ship! An official ship of the highest level! Have you ever seen anyone racing with the police before?”

He buried his face in his hands, screaming. “Oh gosh! Did she violate the rules?”

The MDT comforted him. “That’s okay. Nolan was driving ‘herself,’ it was not a violation of the rule, and the only problem is that you are famous now.”

“Shut up!”

While Hao Ren was talking to his spaceship, Hessiana and her two sidekicks stood still like fossils in awe. Only after a long while, Turcan said, “Master, don’t you think this thing looks like the one in our studio?”

Suddenly, Hessiana ran into Vivian’s arms. “Ma’am Vivian! Men like to fool around when they have money! Look, this man called Hao Ren has an evil motive; he is trying to impress you with this ship! Don’t fall into his trap!” she said.

Hessiana’s sudden action startled Vivian. When she finally came to her senses, she grabbed Hessiana by her head and yanked her out a dozen meters away. “What are you doing? Please behave yourself!”

Hao Ren was watching while Hessiana got a good slap from Vivian. He shrugged his shoulders and finally said, “That’s enough! Do you all want to come onboard my spaceship to have a look? I’m going up to the cloud top.”

Hessiana was the first to raise the hand. “I’ll go!”

Vivian woke Gezer, who was still in awe. He boarded the spacecraft with Hao Ren. Then, the silver spacecraft slowly lifted off and disappeared in a flash of light into the air. The tribal people on the ground exclaimed in awe and bowed to worship it.

“The Goddess has ascended to heaven! The Goddess has ascended to heaven!” some of them exclaimed.

Fortunately, Vivian did not hear it.