The Record of Unusual Creature

Hao Ren and the others had arrived just in time as the problem regarding the “First Born’s remnant” in Helcrown’s energy core only arose an hour ago. However, in the eyes of those in charge of the power reactor, the situation was not as serious: it was just releasing some seemingly harmless, low intensity signals. Plus, these signals had not caused any fluctuations of magic power within a hundred-mile radius. Therefore, the technicians only reported the situation to the technical supervisor, but did not issue a high-level alert.

If it Hao Ren and the others had not spotted the illusion of Helcrown above the atmosphere when they arrived, no one would have thought that the city was having a situation. On top of that, the illusion would not have been associated with that particular energy core.

The rotunda where the power reactor was installed was as bright as ever while the energy core was running. The center of the energy extractor constituted of multiple concentric circles, and the bloody red “seed” was emitting a light pulse as the energy extractor ran. Technicians stood around the circular platform and carefully observed the large equipment, whose inventor did not even fully understand it. They all recorded its latest readings.

Holding a boxy alchemy device she took out of nowhere, Y’lisabet shone its light around the energy core. The alchemy device was emitting some noises very much like radio disturbances. She looked professional. “There’s an interference, and then there’s a real interference.”

Hao Ren poked the MDT, which was resting on his shoulder. “Can you detect anything?”

“This thing is releasing electromagnetic waves, similar to brainwave activity.” The MDT projected a ray of blue light, pointing to the red ball in the center of the reactor. “Due to environmental restrictions, I’m not sure if it’s related to the projection in the air. However, there’s certainly a problem, and the electromagnetic waves are getting stronger.”

The Ethereal technicians had noticed the serious expression on Y’zak’s face and they became nervous. “My King, is the core issue very serious?”

“I can’t be sure for the time being, but using this thing as the power core is certainly not safe enough…” Y’zaks turned his head around. “Does the city still have to rely on this power source? Do we have any other alternative energy sources?”

“At present, the city doesn’t need to fly, so the most power-hungry unit is not in use. The magic reactor we previously used should suffice,” replied the Ethereal technician. “It’s just that this energy reactor produces more power, and since it hasn’t manifested any problem from the beginning, it’s been in use until today.”

Y’zaks thought for a moment and consulted the other technicians. Then, he turned to Lanina. “Power up the original reactor. We are going to temporarily cut off this core and see how it works.”

Hao Ren also patted the MDT on its case and said, “Get above the atmosphere and keep an eye on Helcrown.”

The MDT hummed and disappeared into the air with a blue light. The energy reactor technicians immediately sprang into action under Lanina’s command.

There were two energy sources in Helcrown. The one before Hao Ren was actually a new invention. When the city was swallowed up by the space storm and fell into a different dimension, this energy reactor was activated to harness energy from the “seed” left behind by the First Born. And above the hall there was an old energy reactor built during Y’zaks’ reign. This old energy reactor could also provide energy supply for the entire city, but due to its energy output, it was not enough to power the city’s flying function, hence it was temporarily shut down. Now that Helcrown was grounded to the surface of the planet, the two energy reactors had no practical difference.

Hao Ren did not understand what the technicians were doing. He saw that there were some neat lines of runes on the hall’s floor. They were moving and rearranging them into a closed array, and the energy extractor in the middle of the hall was slowly quieting down. The concentric rings began to stop one after another and eventually settled into their respective slots beneath the hall.

The red “seed” was still floating in place under the force of anti-gravity magic. After losing the catalyst of the energy extractor, the red light on its surface gradually turned dark, and the strange humming sound eventually ceased.

A few seconds later, the MDT sent back a message: the Helcrown projection above the atmosphere had disappeared.

“Looks like it was caused by this thing.” Y’zaks looked at the ball inconceivably. “What the hell is it doing?”

“Before we answer this question, we have to first understand what it is.” Nangong Wuyue squirmed and came up to the side of the ball. She observed the lines on it and tried to peek through its translucent leather case to see if there was movement inside. “We used to think that this was the seed that the First Born left behind. But does the First Born really have seeds?”

As soon as the siren’s voice trailed off, Hao Ren thought to himself, Right, as similar as the First Born is to a plant, does it really have seeds?

Lily thought very hard for a long moment before a thought crossed her mind. “Hey, you know, Mr. Landlord, we’ve already seen the tentacles in Tannagost; they withered and died. Plus, we didn’t find any seeds on that planet.”

Hao Ren shrugged. “But we didn’t really look for it seriously at that time. God knows if the seed’s hidden somewhere on the planet.”

At this time, a flash of blue light appeared next to Hao Ren. The MDT had teleported back from the edge of the atmosphere. It rested on Hao Ren’s shoulder and spoke like an expert, “In short, this thing is very suspicious. We just scanned the structure within the ball but we haven’t studied it in depth. Now I would recommend disabling this reactor immediately and sending the two red balls for further study…”

Hao Ren asked, “What the hell is ‘red ball’?”

“Just take it figuratively, alright?” The MDT hit Hao Ren on the head. “Considering your naming ability, you should just listen to me.”

Hao Ren was speechless.

There was obviously a problem with the “seed of the First Born”, which was being used as an energy core. Therefore, the reactor was about to be shut down. Lanina ordered that the spare core—the red ball the MDT previously mentioned—be checked and handed to Hao Ren. Hao Ren was quite nervous though: nothing good came out of the First Born; the seed was thought to be dead but it had deceived everyone and almost created a mess. It was fortunate that the problem was discovered soon enough before it caused a real disaster.

Y’zaks asked nervously if the reactor had problems in the past. Finding out that everything had been normal, he breathed a sigh of relief and vowed not to use any little-known brands of batteries anymore.

After all the hoo-ha, Hao Ren stared at the two red balls in front of him and said, “Are you sure you’re going to let me put these things into the Dimensional Pocket?”

The MDT hovered around Hao Ren and assured him, “Don’t worry. The Dimensional Pocket is a safe place and I’m not asking you to simply throw them inside. There’s a safe deposit box.”

Hao Ren looked at the balls and felt unconvinced. “…To be honest, I don’t really like things that have anything to do with the First Born.”

The MDT snorted. “Why are you harping on about this? They’re just two little balls that discharge electromagnetic waves. Are you afraid of the balls?”

Hao Ren thought for a second and gave in. He pinched his nose, frowned, and took out two large safe deposit boxes before directing an autonomous robot to place the two “seeds of the First Born” into his Dimensional Pocket for future research purposes.

After that, he asked Lanina with much concern, “After getting rid of these energy cores, will your city have a blackout?”

Lanina was startled for a moment before she figured what “blackout” meant. The succubus smiled charmingly without any conscious effort. “It doesn’t matter. As long as we don’t activate the flying mechanism, there will be enough energy for the city.”

Hao Ren nodded and added, “Unless extremely necessary, don’t’ use any unknown batteries.”

Lanina was silent.

Y’zaks scratched his head and said, “I actually wanted to say that too.”

As the problem was temporarily resolved, Y’zaks and Y’lisabet could now devote their time to catching up with Lanina. Meanwhile, Nangong Wuyue could not wait to rush to the southern wall of Helcrown to lunge down into the ocean; she could now swim as long as she wanted, because there would not be a spot where she could get ashore before she reached the other side of the city.

In the meantime, Rollie took the opportunity to hit the streets again, mooching around the unfamiliar city. But the cat was not as shy as other cats; she was a homeless. Her ability to adapt to unfamiliar environments had almost reached a godlike-level.

Hao Ren also had plans to bring Lily for a few laps around the city, but Raven 12345 had suddenly sent him a message.

“The building module that you want is here. Set some time aside to collect it from Heaven’s Office.