The Record of Unusual Creature

Hao Ren knew he yet had another problem as if he had caught the bad luck of Vivian, he felt that problem always came looking for him.

“What is the situation? What is the bad news?” Hao Ren tried to remain calm and would decide to choose what size of brick to use depending on how smutty the MDT was.

But the MDT wasn’t kidding this time. “The bad news is that we wouldn’t be able to open the world gate from within. It could cause the space to collapse and even endanger other spatial bubbles, and possibility of an implosion.

Hao Ren froze. “Why it that?”

“Because it is the heart of the collision between the two worlds. The two worlds with different laws had torn the space here, leading to a fragile mathematical order—think of dismantling the load-bearing walls from inside a building after an earthquake, that’s what it’s like.”

With this analogy, Hao Ren immediately got the picture. His brows pulled together as he said, “So the only way to open the world gate is from the outside?”

“Now the worse news,” the MDT sounded just as annoying. “In fact, the entire bubble zone isn’t suitable for opening a world gate—the world gate is unlike Petrachelys’ void drive. Void drive is just a propulsion device, capable of sending thing from one world to another but the process is entirely self-contained and wouldn’t cause information interference to the outside world. But the world gate is entirely different thing; it is a ‘structure’ which takes root here, and will have a certain impact to the surrounding environment. The power output of the tiniest world gate is tens of times the drive output of a spacecraft, that doesn’t sit well with the dangerous structure of the bubble zone. You can refer to The Incompatible Mathematical Erosion Equation in Unified Information Theory, that is…”

Hao Ren was stunned as he hadn’t expected this situation. But the MDT’s explaination was loud and clear, and made sense—after all, anything he couldn’t understand, he would definitely think it makes sense. He blinked and turned to look at Y’zaks and Vivian who looked curious on their face. “The MDT had come back with one bad news and one worse news, which news would you like to hear first?”

Lily grinned, revealing her fangs. “Let’s hear the worse one first so that the bad one would feel like a silver lining later.”

“I think I better tell the bad news first, or else it would be logically challenging to deal with the information,” Hao Ren spread out his hand with a wry smile on his face. “There’s a problem in opening the world gate.”

He then proceeded to explain the complex situation of the spatial bubble zone. Lily immediately nodded as if she understood it all despite she wasn’t at all—Hao Ren looked at her, and found, albeit sadly, that he and the husky were having a common language. Meanwhile, Vivian’s brows knit together. “This turns out to be a bit of a surprise… we’ve never thought about it in the beginning.”

“Of course we didn’t,” Hao Ren twisted his mouth and said, “We thought that we were coming here just to pick up some people. Who would’ve thought we’ve to haul back a space fortress of four-hundred-kilometre long? My dimensional pocket is only good at accommodating things as large as five-hundred-metres or less in radius. Maybe we should consider cutting it into smaller pieces for easier transportation if it isn’t for the needs of scientific research. But then, Wang would have to chop his house up.”

“Shut up if you’ve no real idea,” Vivian glared at Hao Ren before she turned to look at Y’zaks. “Biggie, what do you think?”

“The world gate is opened outside the bubble zone, which means we must haul Helcrown and the wreckage through the bubbles.” Y’zaks studied the operation plan like a half-scientist. “First of all, we will inevitably face fierce attack when Helcrown is out in the opene; secondly, how do we tow such a massive spacecraft wreckage? Use the Petrachelys?”

“I’m afraid it’s not possible,” Hao Ren shook his head. “The world outside has gravity. The antigravity field of the Petrachelys couldn’t possibly cover hundreds of kilometers. It’s just an official vessel which would make do as a tugboat in space, but not in gravity environment.”

“There is another thing; how do we let a hundred-kilometre wreckage pass through the gateway?” Lanina probably had understood what they were discussing. But she was more concerned with the practical problem rather than things like world gate and spacecraft wreckage which she knew nothing about. “The space bubbles are connected by the naturally-occured teleporting portals, the largest of which are only hundreds of metres across which seems like a pinhole to a few-hundred-kilometre monster.”

Vivian thought for a moment. she said, “Why not just teleport the wreckage to the fringe of the bubble zone by using the Petrachelys?”

Hao Ren shook his head as he said, “Impossible. I’ve let the MDT record the data each time it passed through the protal, the connection between each bubble is very confusing. Following the existing routes to leave the bubble zone is the safest way to go. Creating another teleporting gateway is dangerous and unpredictable.”

While they were having discussion, a blue light suddenly flashed next to the table and the MDT emerged from it. “Hey, what Lanina mentioned is just a small problem. The Petrachelys can read the connection pattern of the portal, and expand it into a larger one—hundreds of kilometers, it shouldn’t be a problem. But for stability’s sake, this ‘hyperlink extension’ must be carried out in the vicinity of a natural portal. And that is after we deal with the hostile interception en route.”

Hao Ren was stunned for a moment. “What? There’s such a feature in my spacecraft?”

The MDT knocked Hao Ren’s head and said, “So what did you usually read in the textbook?”

Hao Ren grabbed the MDT and knocked it against the the table twice to quiet it down. “Well, it seems we’ve solved the problem of the gateway. What’s left is for Raven to open a gateway at the border of bubble zone, and find a way to tow Helcrown and the spacecraft to the border. Wang, don’t you have anti-gravity magic? How long does it take to cover the entire wreckage with anti-gravitational array?”

Y’zaks shrugged and said, “Forget it. It’s like making the entire mountain range to float in the air which we don’t possess this kind of technology yet. In addition, even if it floats we’ve another problem to deal with— do you think the garrison at the portals would let us pass through just like that? Helcrown has only enough firepower for self-defensive, your spaceship’s firepower isn’t suitable for the job. That leaves the rest of us have to deal with the millions of hostile enemies, and the best case scenario would be die a martyr’s death.”

Hao Ren scratched his chin in thought. He knew exactly what he needed now: a large-scale transport equipment which didn’t necessarily have to be of advanced technology but must ensure that the hundred-kilometre wreckage could be hauled to the portal, and an escort team to deal with all the troops in this world.

He thought of Kabala and 883, the little green men, and the private armed caravans who all could fit the job, but they all cost money, especially Fairy Void Consortium, the gang of notoriously vindictive profiteers.

A group of long-eared figure suddenly crossed his mind.

“I’ve got an idea!” Hao Ren clapped his hands and said, “I have hundreds of millions of male lions…”

Using her hand to touch Hao Ren’s forehead, Vivian said, “Are you having too much stress? Don’t worry, we will solve the problem together, don’t stretch yourself too hard.”

Half-cryingly and half-laughingly, Hao Ren took Vivian’s hand off him. “I’m serious—I indeed have hundreds of millions of male lions. Though Aerymian elven technology isn’t that advanced, their fleet of spacecrafts is formidable! You think how many Y’zaks do you have in this world?”

A glow suddenly appeared in Y’zaks eyes, then there was a sense of worry in his face. “Would Goddess even allow it? Would it be seen as dragging yourself into the war? If Aerymian elves and the locals here were to go to war, that would be unimaginably horrible.”

Hao Ren took out a workbook from the dimensinal pocket with a wry smile on his face. “The wreckage has been classified as a major research sample, inspector who was in-charge of the shipment of such cargo is entitled to an armed escort. It’s not a troop, just security guard! Don’t forget that Aerymian elves are under my custody, I can issue them a private army permit.”

Then Hao Ren waved to his men. “Prepare to take off, I’m going back and will return with my armed escorts!”

Lily looked at Hao Ren dumbfoundedly, and murmured, “Landlord has gone mad… WOOF WOOF.”