The Record of Unusual Creatures

The new steel city stood on the endless prairie as hundreds of needle towers that discharged lightning formed a strange landscape. The city was mainly a huge machine, and each needle tower was connected to a sophisticated control core and a line leading to the First Born through the foundation, keeping the planet from collapsing.

Hao Ren named the city ‘Requiem’, which was in line with its role, and to commemorate the sacrifice of the ancient souls in suppressing the First Born for the past 10,000 years.

The Requiem was now the largest and only city on the planet, but other than the ancient souls involved in the construction, the other indigenous people had not come to stay here. Gezer and his people built a temporary settlement on the fringe of Requiem, and all his tribal people have moved to this place. In their belief of following the Goddess, they believed that it was necessary to guard the city of the miracle. Meanwhile, the other tribes were also moving to this place. Some members of the Fire tribe had arrived and were now right next to Wind tribal settlement.

Vivian summoned the representatives of the ancient souls in this tribal settlement and asked about what happened here in the half month after she left. Though Inferno had been contacting them with the communication devices, something was better asked in person.

In a unique yurt, Vivian and Hao Ren were debriefing Gragon. The elder replied, “The lullaby ceremony has been transferred to the needle towers. Now the machines have taken over the role of the ancient souls. Everything is going on smoothly. As you can see, the Throat of Toka is very stable.”

“How about the control of the machines on the First Born?” Hao Ren turned to ask the MDT that was floating next to him.

The MDT turned on the holographic projection. “Let the city AI tell you directly.”

A human face devoid of expression, of unknown gender, appeared. Similar to the collective consciousness of the drone cluster, this was the iconic feature of the low-level Xi Ling AI. Born just a few days ago, this AI greeted Hao Ren and then proceeded to report the situation of Requiem. “All needle towers are online, the system runs just as planned and has complete control over the First Born. The ‘Lullaby’ ritual initially performed by the ancient souls has been compiled into software, run directly by the system, operating at 80% efficiency—up to 100% when further data is collected.”

Hao Ren nodded and then asked the AI, “How well you could control the First Born?”

The city AI sent a bunch of dazzling charts. “Control of all tentacles, control of all organs, control of all auxiliary glands and control of natural plants associated with maintaining the ecosystem. The system has taken over and rebooted the tentacles related to atmospheric and temperature control seventy-two hours ago. At this point, the control is at 87%. Considering that the remaining 13% is a structure without a nervous system, it could be considered that control is perfect.”

Hao Ren scratched his jaw with a satisfied smile on his face. “Well, that means we finally have created an artificial brain for the First Born. Could the technology be applied to other First Born?”

The city AI replied with a flat voice. “Theoretically, it is possible, but the operation is complicated. The system met strong resistance from the underground biological tissue during the first few days after the transfer of control. It turns out that even though the First Born has lost its brain and soul, its instinct is still powerful. On this basis, it is tough to control a First Born with a brain and a soul.”

Hao Ren collected his thoughts, thinking to himself that at least things had got progress. He pointed at the sky from inside the yurt. “The Fairy miners have begun cutting the crust, and in the process, the divine shield of the Goddess—I mean the local Goddess— would shut down automatically as the planet would receive the natural sunlight. You have to be ready for that.”

The planet Inferno had been without sunlight for the past 10,000 years. It had formed a sophisticated and efficient self-circulation system that included not only the surface crust but also the cloud above, and the underground ecosystem. Now that the sun was about to shine on the planet and the powerful natural energy would fill the dead planet, but the planet must quickly adapt to the new energy. Otherwise, the power of the sun will promptly destroy the existing ecosystem. It was the reason why Hao Ren had waited for the completion of the Requiem before allowing the Fairy miners to start work. He could use the power of the First Born to switch the ecological model of the planet, to transit to the initial stage smoothly after the opening the planet’s crust.

The AI acknowledged it and stated that there was already a viable solution to be injected into the various organs of the First Born. With the collapse of the surface crust, the foundation of the Heaven’s Pillar trees would be reactivated. New microorganisms for regulating air pressure and light filtration would be released into the atmosphere. There was still a long and delicate process of fine-tuning. By continually changing the composition of the atmosphere and creating functional giant flora, the AI intended to bring the planet back on track within six hundred to one thousand years—Earth time.

After talking about the First Born, Vivian turned to Gragon and the ancient souls. “Now, let’s talk about you. What plans do you have in mind future?”

Gragon bowed his head slightly. “Your will is our plan.”

Not accustomed to their pious attitude, Vivian took a step back subtly. “You have completed the mission, and you all have done a good job. I don’t know what is in store for you, after all, I only have a fragmented memory of the past. If you have any wishes and demands, I will satisfy you to the best of my ability. You deserve all this.”

Gragon looked up and ‘talked’ with another soul, the other souls began to discuss among themselves too. They ‘talked’ silently as they were using telepathy to communicate with each other as if they were just a bunch of flickering shadows. Soon, they all came to a decision. A soul, who was a captain of the Knights of the Sun Dynasty by the name of Pan Dong, came forward and said, “Our Lord, we hope to continue to stay in the world and educate our children to free ourselves of ignorance.”

The reply was in Hao Ren’s expectation. “It takes a long time,” Hao Ren said.

Pan Dong smiled. “We are not afraid of time.”

It was the decision of the ancient souls. After completing the long mission of loyalty to the Goddess, they now had to do something for their people. The technology of this world had been lost for 10,000 years—5,000 years according to the local calendar, the magical civilization that was once interstellar had gone backward to become a primitive tribal civilization. However, the knowledge itself had not disappeared, it was still in their memories. Gragon and his courtiers would re-establish themselves as leaders of the people of the Sun, and impart the knowledge and skills of the ancient times to the young and ignorant children.

It would take a long time to rebuild civilization. It was not enough to instill knowledge alone but also needed the continuous evolution of ideas from generation to generation.

As Pan Dong put it, they were not afraid of time.

Hao Ren and his team left the large yurt. Standing at the door waiting for them was Gezer and Bonia. The little saintess had dozed off again with a giant snot bubble on her face. Gezer woke Bonia who wiped the snot bubble of her face before staggering up to Vivian. Gragon placed his hand on her head affectionately. “Do you like the story of the ancient times?”

Bonia immediately nodded.

“Very good, let us the old guys lead you there again.” Gragon nodded with a smile. “The people of the Sun will rise again in this land.”

Bonia nodded her head again, but she did not have a clue what Gragon was saying. She was too young to grasp the idea of the revival of their race. Maybe after a few decades, she would stand on the high wall of in the first city of the New Sun Dynasty and understood what future held for her.

“This is your city,” Vivian said. She had an understanding with Hao Ren. Pointing to the high tower of the Requiem not far away and said to Gragon. “You all can get the energy from the tower. It is your temple of the spirits, and you will continue to guard the world as heroic spirits.”

On the canopy of Heaven’s Pillar in the distance, a thick and heavy rocky dome was cut away and lifted into space by the anti-gravity field. Sunlight was shining through the clouds onto the ground.

It was the first day of the new solar calendar.