The Record of Unusual Creature

Hao Ren knew that the ancient souls did not appear to him just to chinwag. As an inspector, he had the obligation to properly deal with the remnants of the extinct civilization, so he took initiative. “What can I do for you?”

“Stranger, we’re helpless. We can only ask any traveler who happens to pass by for help,” said the Tannaean collective souls. “There’s a repository of our civilization in all three shelters, where all our culture, history, technology, and knowledge are stored. Please take them away and bring them to a place where people can understand as well as read them. During our lifetime, us Tannaeans didn’t manage to explore the secrets among the stars. Now, our civilzation has become extinct, and we hope that at the very least, people will know there was once a civilization of Tannaean people, even if only a symbol was left. This is the last wish of the Tannaean people before this collective consciousness loses itself. This memory hopes it can be realized.”

“I’ve seen from my workbook that 80 % of extinct civilizations have similar desires before dying. ‘Preserving one’s own information’ is an instinct of intelligent creatures,” Hao Ren said with a sigh. “Okay, tell me the location of the repository, Alamanda’s repository.”

The phantom told him all the details of the Alamanda Repository and expressed gratitude to Hao Ren. However, just before their mental connection was lost, something that had been bothering Hao Ren for suddenly crossed his mind. He knew whom to ask now.

“I found two strange devices, two keys,” Hao Ren tried to describe the two keys he received from Igor and Ogyust. “…One is a triangular, another is round. Why do they have a ‘seven-day curse’ effect? Why can’t people get rid of them after being embroiled? Why do the keys come back in seven days? Why would the person concerned die after leaving the key for more than seven days?”

The collective souls pondered and said, “You must be talking about the ‘resonance stones’ that we used to control the equipment around us. The triangular one is the ‘vocal mark’, and the round one is called the ‘echo stone’. We don’t know how it causes death, but the nature of the inevitable return of the echo stone within seven days is actually normal…”

Hao Ren was flabbergasted. “You call that normal? What is it used for?”

“It’s an anti-theft feature.”

Hao Ren was speechless.

“Newer models of the resonance stone have an identity locking system that will activate the auto-return function if the owner is away at a certain distance for a certain period of time. Entering the device’s serial number and password will cancel this return setting. Of course, it can also be placed in a strong magnetic field, or any other energy field, but its memory will be erased. You won’t need that memory anyway, it’s usually for recording music and photos.

Again, Hao Ren was at a lost for words.

The curse that had been agonizing Ogyust for three centuries was a freaking anti-theft system! Hao Ren decided not to tell the poor old man the truth. Having an anal fissure was bad enough, he had better not further aggravate him with this inconvenient truth.

“Are there any more questions?” The soul collective was very patient, but Hao Ren did not really want to say anything for the time being. “No, thank you… I must go back and lick the wounds of my worldview.”

As the chaotic spiritual tide faded, Hao Ren returned to the real world in a daze. He heard that the MDT had found an old, readable memory device—although he felt as if he had spent hours in the memories of the Tannaeans, it had actually been seconds in the real world.

Lily had a very sharp sixth sense. She was the first to feel that something was off with Hao Ren. She twitched her ears and turned her head around. “What happened, Landlord?”

“I met the memory of the Tannaeans.” Hao Ren rubbed his forehead, and his mental fatigue quickly subsided. “A fragment of their collective memory’s still floating on this planet, but it’s invisible and intangible. Well, it’s making me dizzy.”

“You saw the memories of other creatures again?” Vivian looked at Hao Ren in surprise. “This time it was of the Tannaeans? What did they say?”

“We’re going back to Alamanda and retrieving something from the city hall.” Hao Ren nodded. “But, let’s talk about it later. What have you found?”

“A memory device. It’s 10,000 years old,” said Nangong Wuyue as she drew out a pentagon-shaped crystal plate from a device. “The brick said that it’s still readable but it’s badly damaged. We need the equipment onboard the Petrachelys to fix it.”

The MDT made a sharp whistling. “It’s the brick! Don’t follow what the noobie says…”

Everyone looked at the flying coaster silently. The latter responded by saying, “…What the heck did I just say?”

“Let’s go. I promised to help retrieve that thing.” Hao Ren shook his head and went out. “Think of it as thanking them for their gold even though there isn’t much difference between gold and bricks in this place.”

They then left the ancient observatory. Vivian looked in the direction of Alamanda, the desolate City of Gold, feeling worried. “Vengeful spirits near the city may still be there. Will we be in trouble?”

“The vengeful spirits won’t be bothering us anymore.” Hao Ren shook his head. He looked into the sky in the distance. As he focused his eyes, his vision began to change. Lines and colors gradually appeared in the once empty as well as monotonous sky. Magnetic fields, soul fragments, memories, and ripples that were left behind by the vengeful spirits swept across the sky. It was another world that could only be seen from the perspective of the spirits. The ancient memory had brought him something—something good he did not expect. The vision of the spirits may come in handy in the future. “I’m now one of them, sort of. The vengeful spirit is able to distinguish between enemy and friend.”

Under the guidance of the ancient memories, Hao Ren led everyone back to Alamanda. He could feel that the vengeful spirits were lingering around him. Even if he did not activate his spiritual vision, he could still feel countless amazing energies watching him from heaven. Those Tannaeans who had lost their consciousness still seemed to retain some semblance of intelligent beings. They circled over the city blindly, staring at the group of strangers who entered the city. Their offensive instincts were suppressed due to some sense of identity.

There was an almost completely collapsed dome in the city center. It was the city hall of Alamanda. Hao Ren sent out several autonomous robots from his Dimensional Pocket to clean up the metal piles on the ground. They cut open four layers of heavy armor plates and exposed a secret chamber secured by a layer of super-strong alloy.

A one-and-a-half-meter tall, metal cylinder was taken out. It glittered in a lavender light; this was the repository.

All the achievements of the entire civilization, and all the information regarding the Tannaeans, including information that they had collected so far from the stone engravings were there. Their writings, art, history, philosophy, and thoughts about the universe as well as themselves were all condensed in the repository. There were countless video materials and drawings, formulas and cognitions of the world left behind by different generations of scientists. The Tannaeans’last words had also been recorded for later generations. The entire civilization was compressed in it.

Sixty-two centimeters and seventeen kilograms.

“This is all of it.” Hao Ren sighed and placed the cylinder carefully into a metal safe, a standard issue equipment for inspectors. It was used specifically to store special items such as the remnants of a civilization.

He closed the lid of the safe and typed an annotation on it: “Tannagost Civilization, full information, yet to be coded”.

“I wonder if the information left behind by the humans after their extinction someday will be able to fill this box up,” Hao Ren said slyly.

“Oh, it depends on when the extinction occurs. If humans don’t develop better storage technology, perhaps the volume of information would be very large, filling the entire cabin to the brim. Then, you’ll have to compress it with a translation equipment,” replied the MDT. “Stop lamenting. This is the destiny of most civilizations. No matter how brilliant it is, how high its achievements, how many artists, philosophers, leaders, heroes, dictators, politicians it produces… All these things are just a few bytes of information in the end. A lot of things just disappear in the end. For an inspector, whether these civilisations are destroyed by a sudden disaster or a slow whithering, there is no difference. They’re just like patients who die on the hospital bed.”

Hao Ren nodded and said, “Okay, let’s go.”