The Record of Unusual Creature

“So we just put that thing on the throne?”

Vivian could not help but ask after three seconds as she looked at the green orb that sat quietly on the crystal throne.

“…Based on the guide book, yeah.” Hao Ren ruffled his hair. “It also states that this thing is idiot-proof, one-key installation with an upgraded automated system meant for inexperienced new users. As long as it’s placed on the target, this thingamajig will automatically determine its surroundings and sprout, blah blah blah…”

“Why does this sound like snake oil the more I hear about it…” Lily’s dog ears fluttered. “Does a proper World Tree even boast such features?”

Nangong Wuyue summoned a water orb and tossed it about. “Mr. Landlord, wanna give it some watering?”

“Or perhaps dig a hole beneath the throne and plant it there?” Nangong Sanba said as he rubbed his chin.

As they spoke, more than ten seconds passed, yet the Seed of the World Tree sat silently on the throne. Sprouting notwithstanding, it probably would grow hair if they wait any longer…

Hao Ren too was impatient by then and he walked ahead with an awkward expression on his face, “Maybe I didn’t put it right, wait a… eh?!”

As he took half a step forward, the green orb suddenly shuddered, and just as he thought he was seeing things, it shuddered again. This was definitely not his eyes playing tricks, as the orb leap up at least a few centimeters high!

The next thing he heard was a loud “ding dong” sound coming from the orb. There was no need to imagine much. That was basically the sound a USB drive made when it was plugged into a PC.

“…”

“Did it just react?” Y’zaks rumbled softly. “Ah, something is coming out.”

As the sound faded away, many green runic lines appeared on the orb’s surface as the intricate patterns appeared and faded on the lines as they slowly extended to the throne and all across the crystal prism in the hall. A holographic projection then appeared above the orb, one was the version number and welcoming message in green, and beneath it was some anniversary edition markings. But before Hao Ren could take a good look it had disappeared as a slowly climbing loading bar appeared in its place.

Vivian could not help but commented, “This thing also has the same style when it boots up …”

“It activated!” Hao Ren grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the exit as he called to the rest. “Let’s head out. We’ll come back once the system is ready. Rollie, come back! Don’t you know curiosity killed the cat?”

So the whole team left the hall and went along the crystal slope towards the plains. And just as they reached the safe zone, the World Tree’s growth had reached its peak, and a massive tree was stretching across the top of the crystal peak!

The entire process could only be described as a “stretch”. The entire crystal mountain that the throne was on had been covered in a green light veil, and the veil, like drapes, drooped in layers downward while between the moving veils, countless massive tree branches spanning kilometers grew rapidly in all directions. They formed a canopy that covered the entire dome. Thick clouds kilometers away were driven back, and they disappeared as clear sky formed around the canopy. Bright stars appeared for the first time in the planet’s night sky.

However, Hao Ren could see much farther than the rest: As he squinted his eyes and focused his senses into a wider spectrum, the canopy disappeared from his sight. Replacing it were countless fine, dilating light beams, and around the beams were billions of thin fiber extending outwards from the planet’s surface deep into the stars, forming into another canopy; a grand, supermassive canopy in space!

The canopy is centered on the Throne of Destiny on the Core, and the fine lines of the canopy were connected to the stars and the void, and many disappeared into the deep space. Hao Ren could fell that the Plane of Dreams had shuddered as the fine lines appeared. This universe was given a heart, and its breathing merged with the World Tree in that instant. They could no longer be separated unless the system was reinstalled.

Hao Ren blinked again and the wide spectrum vision faded away. The world in his eyes returned to normal, and the extension of the World Tree had ended. A… something that is no longer a ‘plant’ or a ‘tree’ had now covered the entire plains.

Its trunk was originally the crystal peak, and many thick vines extended downwards from the canopy as they coiled around the peak like a root structure. The original crystalline structure of the peak could be seen among the gaps of the trunk: As the canopy had blotted out the sky, even from a distance that was what they saw, and around the canopy was the only clear sky on the planet as stars danced along the branches, forming a glowing ring around the World Tree.

The plains beneath the canopy did not fall into darkness, conversely, it was the brightest place under the night sky: The leaves of the World Tree were glowing. Even if it was just a faint glow, with the massive amount, the entire plain looked it is was basking in a mysterious radiance at all times.

“Waooooooooooooo…” Lily’s voice dragged out as she was at a lost for words to describe her feeling: While she had run around with Hao Ren all over the place and was quite well-acquainted with things, not to mention she had also run into the First Borns and planetary-scale monsters, witnessing the World Tree sprouting with her own eyes was something beyond those. After a long “wow”, she blurted, “it sure grows fast” in the end.

At that very moment, the four-time graduate from Beijing University was speechless.

Frankly, the reaction of the rest was no better. Only Salaman seemed much calmer. While the goddess of creation lacked education, and she crashed and burned halfway through, she still had massive projects ongoing. Salaman was there to witness such a monumental scene. A World Tree, while high-tech it may be, did not seem to faze the old giant.

What he was surprised at, was the method of resonance the World Tree had with the wider universe after it grew. As a demigod himself, he could sense this sort of metaphysical matter.

Hao Ren had expected such a reaction and said in his heart, All you country bumpkins have yet to see how this ‘tree’ is projected on the universe level. That information structure, which was bigger than a star system, would have driven everyone’s jaw into the ground.

“This… It’s fully grown?” Vivian looked at Hao Ren. “What’s next?”

“Next, we can go back into the throne hall.” Hao Ren grinned. “Now that the place has stabilized, it will be the main control center of the World Tree, and of course, this system is pretty much autonomous, so there’s technically nothing to control there.”

“Let’s go see it, let’s go!” Lily got excited.

The crystal peak was at the center of this massive change, and it was inadvertently affected. Within the trunk of the World Tree, new spaces were being created, and the originally compact crystal peak displayed some absurd traits: some looked like temple structures, some looked gardens and forest within the trunk, and even a landmass and sky appearing out of nowhere. These were all “simulated zones” created by the World Tree’s operations, but for the throne hall itself, there were not many changes.

The crystalline cavern was still spartan and wide as usual. Its walls were also still made out of rock and crystals. Only the massive crystal had been totally covered with vines, becoming a massive vine that linked to the top of the dome. Meanwhile, the crystal throne had been fully sealed within the heart of the vines and was no longer visible.

Around the massive vine in the center of the hall, there were many mysterious floating runes and letters. As Hao Ren approached, the runes and letters quickly reformed into a window, and Hao Ren saw a few prompts at the corner of the screen:

“You took 36 minutes and 15 seconds to boot up, beating 66.6% of the World Trees. As this is a new World Tree without any mods or plugins its boot-up speed is rapid. Please do not take this time as a standard. Wait until your hands get itchy and you start installing all sorts of mods, then come back and talk about the boot-up speed. This system comes with a complete crack, and one-key restore function that will automatically read the most recent image of the universe should there be a failure and do not need any external input. Please, do not, do not, I repeat, do not alter the files yourself. If you are a Goddess of Life series, please do not even touch the control panel. Yours sincerely, the Chief Technical Consultant of the Creation Pantheon, Bryndis Venomwing.”

Hao Ren pondered for a bit before deciding to pretend that he did not see this

After the welcome screen disappeared, the World Tree only displayed a very simple interface. As all its systems had been set to automatic by Raven 12345 beforehand, there were not many things for the administrators to do. Hao Ren stood before the screen and started to focus. The screen immediately reacted and a prompt appeared on the interface, “Detecting Pre-registered User access. Identity confirmed. Saved. Welcome, administrator, your login has been authorized and recorded.”

“Now, the first batch of those following me into the Umbral Realm, come here.” Hao Ren took a deep breath as he turned to his mates. “Prepare to set a resurrection point.”

Everyone stood in line, and the World Tree’s system started saving everyone’s details as programmed. Rings of light appeared from the sky and covered them, while Salaman, who did not need to have his information bound stood outside. As he saw the scene before him, something struck the elderly guardian commander.

This group here… Are they already planning to die there?