The Record of Unusual Creatures

2Ulyanov wore his full face helmet all the time except when he was back on the base. The helmet was part of his signature appearance. He wore the mask not to look cool, or use it as armor. He wore it to keep himself alive and cover up his horrifying face.     1

A man with a face even a mother could not love sat behind a desk and fiddled with his equipment. His face looked hardly human; large patches of skin had gone, while metal grew within his exposed muscles and bones. Electronic circuits were connected to one of his eyeballs, preventing it from dropping off. A metal tube had replaced his nose. Another tube attached to a cylinder next to the desk. What was left of his teeth was just a row of metal.     

Under the helmet, Ulyanov's real, hidden face was that of a cyborg—a combination of man and machine. It was so strange and terrifying that even Hao Ren was shocked despite having seen many peculiar things before.     

"You're..." Hao Ren could not hide his surprise. "What happened to you?"     

"Sixty-five years ago, I worked near the sea of Nano, studying whether the Nanomachine Swarm could be used to develop space colonies." The remaining muscles on Ulyanov's face twitched with the flexible metal. He was seemingly smiling at Hao Ren, but his smile was even more terrible than Y'zaks'. "I didn't manage to escape when the Master computer hung. A third of my body melted."     

While he spoke, Ulyanov opened his coat slightly, revealing a transparent chest plate underneath. Malformed internal and artificial organs were slowly pulsating in a pale pink solution. He appeared like a cyborg who just walked out of a horror movie.     

"I'm one of the few survivors of the disaster. Maybe the longest living one too," said Ulyanov. He pointed at the bed next to him, motioning Hao Ren to sit down. "Ah, you're probably not interested about this. You're looking for me for something?"     

Hao Ren had just recovered from the shock. He was suddenly at a lost for words. He sat down on the bed nervously and said, "I just wanted to ask... Who should I inform if I need to leave the base?"     

"Leave the base?" Ulyanov sounded puzzled. "Where are you going?"     

"I just want to take a stroll, and check out my new home," Hao Ren shrugged. "And I can't keep bothering you all the time. I'm not planning to join any group. I'll leave when the time comes."     

"I know Nolan's character. She probably wouldn't mind if you stayed here because she couldn't care less," Ulyanov said in a hoarse voice, which was not coming out from his mouth but a resonance tube in his throat. His vocal cords became part of the Nanomachine Swarm decades ago. The machine had replaced more than half of his physiological functions. "I understand your circumstances. I can go out with you if you don't mind; it's my downtime. Furthermore, this place isn't that safe."     

"No, no, I don't want to bother you. I was a soldier. I can take care of myself." Hao Ren waved his hand frantically. "I'm here to find out what else I need to do to leave the base. After all, this is a military base."     

Ulyanov laughed silently. "Relax. Gray Fox doesn't have so many rules because Nolan is the only ruler here. As long as you don't get into trouble with her, no one will bother you."     

Hao Ren nodded slightly. Ulyanov took something from his pocket and tossed it to Hao Ren. "Take it. Even if you aren't one of us, the Gray Fox identity will save you a lot of trouble. You need a 'military background' to be a human here; those without an identity are just 'slugs' from the factory."     

Hao Ren caught the metal plate from Ulyanov. It was a dog tag laser-etched with an insignia of the Gray Fox mercenary regiment. Amid the chaos in Black Street, a strict set of rules divided and governed people by a hierarchy. The leaders and cadres from Zero City were first-class humans. Soldiers and brokers with a military background were "citizens." Those without an identity and combat ability were laborers; they were slugs, whose hard jobs the Nanomachine Swarm could not replace. They worked in the filthy factories and suffered from respiratory as well as other pollution-related diseases. They relied on rough food and anesthetics that the Nanomachine Swarm produced to keep themselves alive throughout their short lives.     

Without a military guarantee, visitors who came to Black Street would end up in the factories in three days. Those who could come out in one piece were rarer than hen's teeth. Even if they managed to escape, surviving in the slums of Black Street was no better than the condition of the "slugs" in the factories.     

Such was the situation of the human society after the collapse of civilization.     

Hao Ren had learned a thing or two about Black Street from the Internet. He knew about the rules and environment, so he knew that the dog tag was a gift from Nolan. To an outsider, this was a precious item. He kept the dog tag in his pocket carefully and looked at Ulyanov curiously. "Are other mercenary groups just as amiable as you are?"     

"Others?" Ulyanov laughed, his rough voice sounding like old broken bellows. "You either join them or be thrown into the factories. Most mercenary groups are also human traffickers. You should be grateful that you met Nolan. She's the toughest and most dangerous mercenary here. She sets the rules herself; she is the rule. Anyone who gets her approval will be safe in Black Street; people respect her."     

Nolan's face flashed across Hao Ren's mind; the eyes of the emotionless, gray-haired mercenary had cast an indelible impression on Hao Ren. Whenever he thought of her, he thought of the indescribable alienation and vicissitude in her eyes. She seemed like a detached person who saw through the world, looking at life like an unconcerned spectator. Goosebumps would rise all over his back every time he thought of these details. He believed that he had seen in Nolan's eyes something that did not belong to her. "Nolan... How old is she?"     

"Seventeen, at most eighteen," Ulyanov said as he looked at Hao Ren's eyes. "Don't ask me more. That's all I know. The warlords in this place fear Nolan; they fear her age. She assassinated two mercenary heads barehanded, in the cruelest way when she was 13. Perhaps you think that you saved her from Khiton, but in fact, Nolan has more than 100 ways to kill all those ambushers she met today."     

Hao Ren was stunned. "Is she a superwoman?"     

"Some say she's a 'third-generation Evolved' disguising as a first-generation. Some say she was a soldier created before the Far East Alliance fell. You can search for War Men's Plan', it was as real as it could get." Ulyanov shook his head and put the adjusted breath filter back into his helmet. He then removed the breathing tube from his nose and put it on the helmet again. "But I suggest that you better not believe it and don't ask Nolan about it too. Though she's usually very good-tempered, you don't want to anger her because she's unbeatable. Ahh, it feels so good to have the helmet back on my face again."     

After putting on his helmet, Ulyanov connected several wires extending from his jacket to his helmet. Shortly after, he pulled up the alloy zip on his coat, covering himself up from head to toe like a weird, biker soldier. His helmet provided him with breathing assistance and continuously released electrical signals to ensure that his severely damaged brain could continue to function. He had a layer of armor beneath his coat, which sent a signal to suppress the remnants of the Nanomachine Swarm to prevent those lethal little things from completely cutting off his spine. The devices and artificial organs in his body formed something strangely deformed, which had prolonged his life for 65 years. As long as his brain lived, his body would continue to live longer than any human being could.     

Sixty-five years ago, he lost one-third of his body. Sixty-five years later, 80 % of his body was renewed and transformed. Such level of transformation was unique even among the second-generation Evolved. It was difficult to say whether Ulyanov was still a human or a cyborg. But one thing was certain; the old soldier had been alive until now.     

Why did he insist on living to this day?     

Hao Ren looked at Ulyanov's less than a healthy body. He knew that the disfigured veteran soldier certainly had more stories, but he did not have the opportunity to get to know more. He just thanked Ulyanov for telling him so many things that day before he left.