The Record of Unusual Creatures

4In deep space, starlight was the only companion to the boundless darkness. A bright silver arc suddenly swept across the darkness as the Petrachelys jumped in and out of the sparial rift as part of its star chart calibration sequence.      2

The Petrachelys followed a general direction while it headed towards Io, using warp jumps and regular flight alternately. Soon after the voyage neared its end. The spacecraft's navigation system had recalibrated the star lens two days ago and entered the star chart from Nasaton into its navigation program. After some comparisons, the ship's host found a star region where the siren's home planet was probably located. The spacecraft was now heading in that direction.     

Since the siren's star chart was not accurate, and the drift of celestial bodies over 10,000 years had seriously affected the reliability of teleportation, the spacecraft would not be able to reach the coordinates directly. For safety reasons and in order to collect as much information as possible of the universe, the Navigation Assistant recommended that the spacecraft performed a series of warp jumps and subluminal flight alternately. Although it would probably take a slightly longer time, the delay caused no harm.     

The spacecraft was now flying in a monotonous and boring region of the universe. It was cold, and empty with some extremely thin but radioactive clouds. Apart from the far-away starlight and a bright, star-forming nebula, there was nothing else. Hao Ren sat in his captain's seat, staring at some documents in boredom, while enduring Lily's occasional crazy howls.     

He was not the rookie who first came into contact with the sea of stars a year ago; the scenery of starlight no longer attracted his interest. Of course, the sight of the universe was still as spectacular as ever, but he had something more important to do.     

He was studying the data extracted from the computer in Nasaton.     

"Io... the planet of water. The ocean covers 100 % of your home planet, where huge ice floes and storm clouds formed in an annual cycle. The ecosystem started out in the deep sea. It wasn't until your ancestors built an outpost on the first ice floe that you all knew the concept of 'atmosphere'," Hao Ren said as he held the MDT and looked at the siren queen. "Such is the fun of exploration—the universe is so big that you'll always find some strange place out there."     

The siren queen looked at the star chart on the navigation screen, feeling very impressed. "I can't believe it. I'm here at this moment. I've lived with my people in the deep sea for 10,000 years. We thought that living in the deep sea was the nature of sirens, but our ancestors had studied the secrets of the stars. Do you often do this kind of travel?"     

"Quite often. We're experts," Lily said, leaning back on her seat and wagging her tail. "Have you ever heard of a space dog? Let me tell ya…"     

Hao Ren knew that the husky was about to spew nonsense. He tucked the MDT back into his pocket and headed to the door. "I'm going to the lab."     

Nangong Wuyue had curled up in a ball with Shaqira as well as Sorma, and they were resting on the deck. She suddenly opened her eyes and pulled herself out. "Wait, I'm going with you. It's boring here."     

With a stupefied expression, Hao Ren looked at the snake maiden, who crawled and rolled up before him. He then glanced at Shaqira and Sorma, who were curling into a new ball. "It's really hard to understand the sirens' culture…"     

"That's a symbol of friendship!" Nangong Wuyue shook the tip of her tail in the air like a rattlesnake. "I just learned about it from them!"     

After Hao Ren and Nangong Wuyue left the flight deck, Shaqira and Sorma looked at each other and said, "She still needs to familiarize herself with this way of resting."     

"Yeah, she's too loose and she'll fall out once she's asleep."     

"No, I mean she tied me up with her tail."     

"Oh, that was me. I was having a nightmare."     

Nangong Sanba was holding a magazine, pretending to read. He suddenly put the magazine on his face and said, "The world is just too amazing..."     

Hao Ren left the deck with Wuyue and went to the laboratory through the central isle. Various equipment and platforms used in the First Born research used to occupy the laboratory, but now the research project had been transferred to CARS, so the laboratory was empty. There were only two remaining projects running there: one was the "Vengeful-Spirit Scanner", which had yet to complete the decoding process; while the other was a large restraining instrument. It was brand new, and it was in the center of the laboratory.     

"Looks like it's still trying to study the vengeful spirit's memory code," said Hao Ren as he and Wuyue walked past a set of scanners. He saw the instrument flashing with a regular glimmer. The glow in the instrument's center groove was the same as the last time. "I hope this gadget will quickly come out with result."      

Wuyue glimpsed the vengeful spirit and felt a sense of uneasiness. She quickly turned, looking to the center of the lab. "Are you sure it won't suddenly get out of control?"     

There was a large transparent container at the center of the laboratory. It was a vertical, crystalline pipe that was nearly 10 m in diameter and emitted a faint blue light. There were various sensors and recording devices around the container. A weird creature, a lump of swollen meat that almost looked like a brain, was suspended inside the container.     

It was the brain monster that Hao Ren had captured in Nasaton.     

"The protective crystal illuminates this thing 24 hours a day. It can't escape," said Hao Ren as he pointed to the bottom of the container, which was inlaid with a colorful, diamond-shaped crystal. The crystal shone light on the giant brain, causing it to twitch from time to time. "It'll be fine as long as it doesn't collapse inside."     

Wuyue curiously pressed her face against the container, looking at the brain inside. "I heard that this thing will eat anything."     

"We've successfully tested it with several organic compounds," Hao Ren said, nodding. There was a robotic arm handing meat to the brain, and it grabbed the meat with its tentacles before absorbing it in the blink of an eye. "It uses tentacles to eat. The tip of its tentacles secrete a super corrosive, digestive fluid. Then, it opens its mouth to reveal a series of fine 'teeth' to catch its prey. Hasse asked where its mouth was: it's the tentacles. I now feed this guy according to the recipe given by the sirens. It needs to eat four to five times a day; both plants and meat are fine. However, according to Katreina's memory... it likes raw meat more. But don't mention this in front of her," he said.     

Wuyue stuck her tongue out. "...In that case, I'm not going to ask about its excretion process," she said.     

"Before we get to the station, I'll try to communicate with it again," Hao Ren said as he started a device next to the container.     

There was an invisible traction field in the container, which bound the brain monster. It was slowly pushed to the edge of the container and one of its tentacles was fixed to a silver-white cylinder. A similar cylinder had also risen up in front of Hao Ren and the hologram above the cylinder showed the words "Connection Ready".      

He did not want to get into direct physical contact with the tentacles to read the thoughts of the brain every time, so he had ordered the design of this device. The device replaced direct physical contact with the subject. It not only sustained a perfect mental connection function, but also enhanced the connection as well as record the data during the connection. In other words, Hao Ren could now not only see the memory of the brain monster, but also visually record it. Although the recorded data was always severely distorted, it was an important function nonetheless.     

In this way, he could rewind the video to find the footages that appeared in his subconscious mind but were ignored by the conscious mind.     

Hao Ren placed his hand on the top of the silver-white cylinder, and a wave of strange thoughts immediately rushed into his mind.     

The chaotic red, the cloudy sky, the slanting falling starlight, and all kinds of grotesque sights came into his field of vision as though they were all real. Hao Ren realized that he was on a certain doomed foreign planet. However, this was not what he wanted to see.     

A mushroom cloud rose beside him, and countless horrifying shadows came from all directions like they were about to rip him apart. He remained in the illusion for a few seconds and began to be baptized by the horrifying images. There was a bust of rumbling and incomprehensible screams in his mind. The screams and the surrounding scenes seemed to join forces to bring the world's most horrifying thoughts into the mind of the invader. It was using fear—the inborn weakness of mortals—to drive the invader out of its ​​spiritual world. Hao Ren stood within the illusion of a star-studded alien scene. He watched the strange things tear his body into pieces, over and over again. He looked up at the starry sky, which was constantly falling, and called out from the depths of his heart.     

"You know it's useless! Come out and talk to me face to face!"     

Only an empty echo came from all directions of the chaos in his mind. The brain monster refused to answer any further prying questions.     

Yes, this complete brain monster had the ability to build a mental barrier. Even if Hao Ren could directly peer into its memory, it was difficult to maneuver.