The Record of Unusual Creature

Hao Ren’s conciousness had not fully left The Plane of Dreams when his body started to disappear. Becky’s words were still ringing in his head. Unable to speak, he screamed internally. “There’s nothing wrong with my head!!!!”

“Mr. Landlord, Mr. Landlord! Are you okay?!” Hao Ren suddenly heard Nangong Wuyue’s voice very close to him. He quickly opened his eyes only to be greeted by a ray of sunlight shining on him. The glare almost blinded him for a moment. He heard sounds of waves crashing against rocks and the howling of beasts in the distance. A salty smell soon engulfed his nostrils. He was by the sea…

Wuyue smiled brightly as she saw Hao Ren woke up. “What did you run into there? What’s wrong with your head?”

“Ughhh… it’s nothing,” Hao Ren groaned.

It seemed like Hao Ren could not stop himself from speaking what was in his heart the moment he awoke.

He sat up straight and tried to jog his dulled senses into motion again. The image of those Letta runes that he had glimpsed before he woke up still haunted him. The image was so vivid that it was scary. He supposed the difference between The Plane of Dreams and a normal dream was that the memory of what happened in the Dream Plane stayed fresh within one’s mind. In fact, with time, the things that you see in The Plane of Dreams looked so real, they mimic real life. And this convinced Hao Ren that he indeed saw Letta runes. He groggily looked up at Y’zaks as well as Wuyue and said, “I went into The Plane of Dreams last night… and I saw something really weird… Letta runes…”

Y’zaks who came from the other world had no idea what Letta runes were and just simply nodded. Wuyue, who on the other hand had some inkling of the matter and seemed to be very familiar with demon hunters. The words caused her to eyes to widen. “Letta runes you say? Those runes the ancient priests and demon hunters are using now?”

“Yes, they appeared in The Plane of Dreams… They were carved into the wall by the locals…but I couldn’t read the runes to make anything out of them. Vivian should have some idea…. Oh, I better write them down before I forget them.”

“Here!” Wuyue quickly pulled a notebook out of her backpack and handed it to Hao Ren. “I wanted to write my music in it.”

Hao Ren took the notebook and quickly started drawing the runes he saw in it. He always thought his memory was rather good, and he managed to remember at least one line of the runes. While his depiction of the runes may not have been the most accurate, he managed to get the general shape of the runes right. Letta runes are a series of runic letters with a very strong individuality. Each rune has its own unique shape and contour. As long as he got the general shape right, Vivian should be able to read it.

“So… how did you know about The Plane of Dreams?” Hao Ren returned the notebook to Wuyue after he finished writing. He did not recall telling Wuyue about the plane as she was still new, and felt that he had to ask.

“Your MDT told me about it.” Wuyue pointed at the MDT that was floating beside Hao Ren. “After you slept last night, it suddenly activated itself and started screaming, ‘Slip and fall!’. After which, it hold me about The Plane of Dreams. Oh yeah, it also said that you were investigating something really important and I should let you sleep even longer. So, I sang a lullaby for you. Did it work?”

Only then did Hao Ren realize, the song he had heard before waking up was from Wuyue. The enchanting melody lingered at the back of his mind, and the vague memory still gave him an uncanny feeling of calm and comfort. It was as if the song was indeed magical that it seeped deep into his mind. Guess what they say about sirens and their songs were real. He nodded gratefully. “Yes, it did. It bought me a few minutes to grasp the key stuff… Oh, sh*t! I forgot about something!”

“What’s wrong?” The MDT floated towards him. “If you want to say that you actually sold me off, I’ll f*cking murder you.”

“Oh, you. Off to the side.” Hao Ren grabbed the MDT and stuffed it into a pile of pebbles. ” I promised the alpha wolf that I’d bring him a dentist the next time I visit…. Can’t believe I forgot about it… He didn’t even mention it at all.”

“It’s quite clear that he wasn’t counting on you to fulfill your promise.” The MDT popped out of the pile of pebbles with a dried seaweed hanging onto it. “Don’t fret too much. Just make up for it the next time. You didn’t even bring Husky this time around. And frankly speaking, whether you can bring a living person into The Plane of Dreams is a question by itself. I think you need Madam Raven to provide support for that.”

Hao Ren demurred for a moment and concurred. He also needed to report what he saw to Raven 12345 but, that could wait until they return from this foray. He gave himself a good tap on the face and said, “We better get on finding the person… Oh yeah, MDT, have you found the cargo craft? Reckon you’ve scanned the area for a night already.”

“My life as a PDA…. All work, no play… I even need to play bodyguard and radar when you’re asleep.” The MDT grumbled incessantly as it opened up the holographic map. On it, was a very detailed map of the ocean floor. “I’ve marked the three most plausible sites, all have either impact craters or energy signals. They’re probably what’s remained of the cargo craft or the cargo pod. Two of the spots are in the nearby jungle and the mountain 200 km away from here. The last one…is a bit scary, a deep sea trench some 2000km away. I almost wanted to omit it. Hopefully, that’s not the cargo craft. I’m afraid of deep seas.”

“…”

Having a PDA that was neurotic, sarcastic and temperamental to boot… Not to mention, it even has it’s own taste in movies. Now, a fear of the deep? Hao Ren felt that he would achieve a state of nothingness sooner or later.

“The wreck of the cargo pod?” Y’zaks frowned. “I thought the cargo craft arrived safely? What happened?”

“It’s true that the cargo craft arrived safely but, the cargo pod crashed.” The MDT vibrated as it spoke. “Never trust Gnomish technology. I already warned Madam Raven to hire someone more reliable, and not those half baked Gnomish veterans for the job. Their cost control regime is almost cringe-worthy. From what I can discern from the Space Administration datalogs, the cargo craft was unmanned, and it disintegrated upon atmospheric entry. The cargo pod only survived because its own Emergency Decelerator kicked into gear. But, the force of entry burnt out most of its electronics, including its locator beacon. The last signal received was merely a distress signal, and it’s now silent. We will need to search all three spots then.”

Hao Ren took a look at the jungle behind him. “I gues we’ll start here then. It’s the closest… As for the sea trench…”

He turned towards Wuyue. “Did Raven 12345 actually foresee this happening and have me bring you along? Or, should we check the trench first?

Hao Ren almost believed what he just said. His impression of Raven 12345 that she was the puppet master behind the scenes, manipulating and dictating her chess pieces (employees) with sheer impunity. It was no surprise if she had already figured out the whereabouts of the pod and sent Hao Ren to retrieve it just for kicks…

“Unlikely,” the MDT explained. “Madam is a meticulous planner. The planet that we are on is 80% water and the place we are at is the only land mass. The chances of the pod dropping into the sea was high to begin with so, she had you bring the siren along.”

Hao Ren nodded in apprhension. Wuyue also had a confident look on her face. “No worrie. While I’ve never been into the deep before, sirens are still natural dwellers of the deep. I’m immune to darkness and water pressure when I’m in the water. But… I hope that the sea water here isn’t made out of some odd stuff…”

“Oh, don’t you worry!” The MDT reassured her. “It’s your usual sea water. The salinity is a bit on the high side. You won’t turn into a dried fish fillet from the high salt content would you?

Wuyue pondered for a moment. “…I think I won’t… I’m a salt-water being. And I have some special abilities to keep me from turning into a dried fish fillet in briny waters.”

The topic of conversation just turned weird.