The Record of Unusual Creature

The energy flux from the forced dimensional warp had finally died down as the Petrachelys’ sensors came back online and started to monitor the situation outside. Soon, images of the scene outside the ship appeared before everyone.

Hao Ren commanded Nolan to switch into scenery mode, and half of the bridge’s walls were covered by the live feed. This turned the ship almost transparent all of a sudden, and on the live feed, everyone saw a clear azure sky as well as a sea of clouds in the distance.

The starship seemed to be floating high in the sky.

Nolan adjusted the monitor’s angles and the situation beneath the ship was also displayed. Hao Ren looked down and saw mountain ranges stretching across the land. Between two snow-capped mountains was a long, narrow plain, which was dotted with rivers and lakes. Some cities and village-like structures were also scattered across it like jewels upon a green velvet blanket.

“This is an unexpected ‘Umbral Realm’…” Everyone was silent as they witnessed the verdant and peaceful world (at least on the surface). In the end, Vivian was the one who broke the silence. “Sure we are in the right place?”

That same question too was going rounds in Hao Ren’s head. Did Raven 12345 mess up the coordinates and give him a random one just to get by? How could that possibly be the Umbral Realm?!

What was the Umbral Realm? The result of the goddess’ kingdom catastrophically exploding! The entire Star of Creation and the goddess’ entire reservoir of power were compressed then blasted out, it tore the entire fabric of the universe and smashed an entire system out of the world order into the gap between universes and the void. That was how the Umbral Realm was created. For such an apocalyptic birth how could a nirvana-like world be left behind? And frankly, with that level of shock, even planets would have been torn into shreds, much less an ecosystem. So Hao Ren thought that the best of scenarios would be a broken dimension with lots of floating debris in space, and between the debris were dangerous rifts and energy currents. A place where even a pilot like Nolan would need to struggle to get a proper docking spot, that was what the Umbral Realm should have bloody been!

Yet the data did not lie, and Nolan soon finished her analysis of the marker. “There’s no mistake. This is the Umbral Realm. We are at the edge of the Plane of Dream’s zone of order, and our current location is the chaotic zone between the World Barrier and the void. The barrier’s remaining power is preventing the area from being consumed by the void, but we can still detect very powerful void signals. This signal will not be wrong.”

“F*ck me, this is not dark at all…” Hao Ren mumbled. “So much for me preparing an arsenal of firepower.”

Lily too chimed in. “I too thought I could use my battle gear.”

“Oh stop with your violent penchant. We still have two armies waiting for our signal.” Nolan said resignedly. “Should we broadcast the signal? The plan earlier was to broadcast the signal once we find a safe area. This… This place is beyond safe.”

Hao Ren frowned as he looked at the view outside. His instincts were telling him that there was something off with the lively place. As he heard Nolan, he gently shook his head. “No, don’t broadcast yet… The situation is way different than what we had expected, and we need to collect more intelligence before we can proceed further. Nolan, go up higher, lets see what’s outside this planet. And also run a scan on the entire planet beneath us. Maybe we can find any ruins or traces when the kingdom fell.”

Nolan nodded. “Nolan understood. Commencing ascend. Target, the space beyond the planet.”

The Petrachelys’ usual thrusters were roused to life, and the ship started to slowly gain altitude, moving towards the outer atmospheric layer. Yet after climbing for a while, Nolan suddenly stalled.

“Unable to climb further.” the shipgirl was confused. “Seems like we’ve been stopped by some supernatural phenomenon… Weird, I’ve already increased the output but our altitude remains the same… We are still within the atmosphere!

“We’re unable to leave the planet?” Hao Ren’s eyes widened and something immediately crossed his mind. Just as he thought, there was something weird with this world!

Nolan quickly activated her various sensors. “Running a comprehensive environmental scan… Weird, the sensors are returning normal readings, and there are no dimensional overlaps. There are no gravitational disruption or any fake signals. There’s nothing weird at all, but we are still unable to leave the atmosphere, and after hitting a certain ‘altitude’, the value seems to be locked dead!”

This unusual situation woke everyone from their temporary comfort, and realized that there was something odd with this place. Everyone turned serious and Y’zaks popped the key question. “Can the warp engine be used.”

“Let me try activating it,” Nolan replied. “…The warp engine can be activated, and the mark is working normally, and even the reverse analysis of the marker works as well. Seems like it can work, but I dare not guarantee there would not be any problems after the jump. Should we leave?”

“No, don’t activate the jump unless we run into something that we need to get away from.” Hao Ren stopped Nolan in her tracks. “This world is weird, and before we understand what is stopping us from leaving, let’s not provoke the place. Nolan, descend. We’ll head down.”

As they were not able to leave the atmosphere, that meant they could only land and figure a way out. Collecting intel now would be a good idea.

The starship started descending and as the altitude dropped, the buildings along the narrow plain were getting clearer, and soon they could see the finer details with their eyes. On some of the more iconic buildings, Hao Ren noticed traces of the middle ages: Massive buildings were made out of stone and some sort of clay mixture while having intricate roofs and decorations which is more form than function hanging all over. The smaller houses were made out of wood and stone, and usually no larger than two stories. Most of the settlements were simple and lacked any proper planning, usually with a few bigger structures and a plaza as the center. Around them were a circle of commoner dwellings, and outside were either farms or pastures. By the looks of things, this world is probably no more advanced than the late middle ages back on Earth.

But considering that there may be supernatural powers in that world, they could not afford to take things easy.

To connect intel of this world, that means communicating with the locals, while a sudden utopia had appeared within the Umbral Realm, the fact that there were living citizens there meant that everyone had to be alert. As now things were already before them, they could no longer ignore it. Hao Ren had Nolan close in the edges of the plain near the settlement with the mountain to its back (it was the biggest settlement there) before deploying some probes.

The images of the city soon appeared on the holographic display.

Lily’s ears perked up as she looked on in amazement. “Such a lively place… There are so many people on the streets.”

“If not for seeing them with my own eyes, who would believe that this place is the Umbral Realm?” Nangong Sanba shook his head. “Doesn’t look anything like an exploded kingdom of the goddess. Don’t tell me that as the kingdom fell into the Umbral Realm it had dragged many other innocent planets along with it? And maybe because they were only dragged in they were relatively intact?”

“The force of the explosion is beyond comprehension. Even if it was dragged it there’s no chance of it being unharmed. For a fragile ecosystem, just by tilting a planet’s illumination angle by two to three degrees is enough to be catastrophic.” Hao Ren shook his head as he monitored the local’s actions, speech, and clothing. “Interesting… not all of them are humans. There’s every race here.”

“I don’t need to hide my ears and tails!” Lily suddenly pointed excitedly at the projection. “Look, a werewolf!”

From the images sent back by the probe, there were many people moving along the streets and there were not only the common humans, there were other races with their unique features as well. The werewolf that Lily saw was one of them, and Vivian also discovered there were many others as well. “A lizard-like being… and a felinid? That means even Rollie can go out in her regular form.”

“It’s not only a stable planet with a surviving ecosystem. Let’s say its a planet, and also a utopia where all races coexist?” Hao Ren showed an interested look. “All right, while this place may be weird, its still better than running headfirst into an energy vortex of a broken kingdom. Nolan, get us some local clothing. We’ll make landfall.”

The shipgirl nodded. “Understood, what should I do next.”

“Stay in stealth mode in the air and act as our support,” Hao Ren said. “But, don’t get too close. This is a place that has everything to do with the goddess of creation. It would be bad if any of the ruins react to you.”

“Understood.”

After some preparations, Hao Ren and the rest swapped into the local dress and stepped onto this mysterious and bizarre utopia.

Considering that unfamiliar faces suddenly appearing would make it difficult for them to blend with the locals, the crew did not wear the local’s common wear, rather they chose an adventurer getup after analyzing the references from the probes. Adventurers were a common sight and based on their speech and actions they were most likely unique groups like mercenaries or wanderers (adventurers), and using this as a cover, it would help with their next course of action.