The Record of Unusual Creatures

Panda Novel

The MDT was very quickly intrigued by the Godslayer’s “intelligence model”. It pushed Hao Ren and the Godslayer to try all sorts of connection and conversational methods. This included the most direct mental link as well as the most common chatting, and after a series of test, it was very sure that the sword had an “echo wall” sort of intelligence model.

The Godslayer’s intelligence will only appear when someone speaks with it, and the intelligence level will become stronger the deeper the level of conversation gets. When Hao Ren conducted a simple conversation with the Godslayer, the latter only displayed a very primitive level of artificial intelligence, but when Hao Ren connected the mental link, the Godslayer’s response was surprisingly intelligent.

But regardless of how its responsiveness is, the intelligence core is undoubtedly the same, just unstable.

“Such a curious intelligence model…” Hao Ren was curious. “Any special meaning to it?”

The MDT gave its analysis seriously. “If under any other circumstances, its probably a very common scientific find, but on the Godslayer, I think we should focus on that ‘echo wall’ attribute it has. How did the demon hunters got affected? The answer lies with the echo wall’s effect. While it cannot generate any sort of mind control noise, it could distort and amplify anyone’s inner voice. And under most situations, mortal races have gaps in their mind, and they are incapable of bridging that gap, so distorted murmurs, once amplified is much more terrifying than any other mind control techniques. The Godslayer’s intelligence model is clearly a weapon… a weapon against the mortal races, a weapon to drive them insane.”

Hao Ren nodded. “I’ve thought of this, but when I’m connected to the Godslayer, the murmurs I hear are all fragmented. You mean to say that’s my inner voice? Is there anything wrong with my mind?”

Hao Ren was very curious about it. He was not afraid of the murmurs affecting him, but after learning how the swords acted as an echo wall, he was starting to worry if anything was wrong with his psyche as his inner voice, upon rebounding on the wall came back as nothing but noise. That led to him wondering if he had some hidden psychiatric issues…

“Let the others try.” the MDT came up with a very simple suggestion. “Let’s see what sort of echoes the others hear. These sword has already been greatly weakened, and now only those who wield it can hear the echo. Let someone else hold it and see how it goes.”

Hao Ren turned towards Vivian and Rollie, “Wanna give it a go?”

Before Vivian could even say anything, the dumb cat had already leaped up happily. “Yes, yes, yes! Big Boss Cat, let me play with it!”

“Not play with it.” Hao Ren gave Rollie a stern look. “It’s an experiment. Later you’ll hold on to this sword. It should not affect you negatively. But you will hear a lot of things. Tell me what you hear.”

The dumb cat pondered for a bit. “Small Fish jerky?”

She actually learned how to bargain.

“Alright, alright. Two packets of small fish jerky…but that depends on you being a good girl”

Rollie immediately nodded excitedly, indicating that she will be a very very good girl. She then grabbed the hilt of the sword.

Something flashed in the cat girl’s eyes as her mind ran into the echo wall, and started producing a series of murmurs. Remembering what Hao Ren had asked her, she started repeating what she heard word for word. “Eat fish jerky, eat cat food, comb my fur, belly rub by Big Boss Cat, no showers, don’t get beaten by Lil Pea, Big Dumb Cat’s teeth-grating is annoying, cannot scratch Big Boss Cat’s door, but I can blame it on Lil Pea’s biting them…”

“Ugh, that’s enough.” Hao Ren started sweating as he pulled the sword from the dumb cat’s grip. He now knew that that the sword really works, even a simple creature like Rollie could have her true self revealed, and to think that the cat actually only thinks about that all day long…

“Give it a go.” Hao Ren carefully passed the sword to Vivian. While the sword had violently reacted to Vivian’s divine blood scent, it has now been neutralized and that incident would not reoccur.

Vivian gingerly took the sword by the hilt and was immediately flooded with a cacophony of noise in her head. “Poor, broke, penniless, impoverished. dirt poor, pauper….”

“….” Vivian stayed silent.

“What did you hear?” Hao Ren asked.

“Can I not say it?” Vivian almost cried.

“Alright, seems like what you heard is pretty legit.” Hao Ren could sense the flux of information from Vivian’s expression. Sighing again, he said. “Seems like only I am hearing fragments of the murmurs. It can’t really be me being a latent lunatic right….”

“What to ask Madam Raven?” the MDT suggested.

Hao Ren thought for a bit, and he did not want to disturb the goddess for something this trivial. Or more because that lunatic would suddenly decide to ‘bless’ you with a bolt of lightning. But as this has to do with his mental state, he was getting more worried by the moment, and finally decided to gave his superior a call for help.

Raven 12345 answered his call rather quickly this time around and showed rare patience in listening what Hao Ren had to say. Demurring for a few seconds, Raven 12345 gave a rather incoherent answer. “…Could it be I’ve bitten a little bit too hard back then?”

“…Boss, this is not the time for jokes!”

“Alright, alright. Sheesh, serious business now.” Raven 12345 adjusted her tone. “I was trying to put you at ease, because the truth is, I’m not sure myself.”

“Ah?”

“First, I’m omnipotent in this universe, but not in the Plane of Dreams. Anything to do with the Plane of Dreams, what you see is what I can see, so I cannot be totally sure where the problem is. Secondly, your psyche is definitely fine. You’re my hand-chosen pope, there’s a dozen of active blessings on you twenty-four-seven. Even a bloody imbecile would become godlike with so many blessings. And lastly, I think the problem actually arises from those divine blessings.”

“Ah?”

“You’re a demigod. The Godslayer is probably something about the same level as you, perhaps even slightly lower. What do you think? The problem lies here. The sword’s echo wall ability is an uncontrollable intrusion and interference, and even if it does not have that negative effect, its innate ability was meant to be negative, and your divinity will automatically help you to ward off all the negative stuff, and its ‘echo wall’ ability is being shielded against. Theoretically at least.

Hao Ren then disconnected the call with Raven 12345. Vivian and Rollie immediately swarmed him with concern. “What’s the cause?”

“Fish jerky!”

All right, seems like neither of them was concerned…

“She says it’s something to do with my divinity, and it’s being shielded against.” Hao Ren calmed down a little. Waving his hand, he then pulled out two packets of fish jerky and stuffed them in Rollie’s arms. “Let’s leave that aside for the moment.”

Vivian heaved a sigh of relief after hearing that before her tone changed. “I’m very curious about the last words the goddess had said before her fall that the Godslayer had mentioned. She said, “So it still has to come to this.” What do you think it meant?”

The MDT quipped. “Means that she probably knew that day would come? What’s there to it?”

“No, I don’t think it is that simple.” Hao Ren shook his head. “She said “So it still has to come to this, instead of “It still had come to this.” Just a different tense changed the meaning altogether. The point is she said it ‘have to’ means that something had to have happened, rather than happening eventually. So what she faced was not some inevitable end, but … something that she must have chosen.”

Vivian was quick on the uptake. “Sounds like almost as if she arranged for it to happen…”

“I’m getting that vibe too.” Hao Ren rubbed his chin. “While it may sound like I’m jumping the gun, but that sentence made me feel like the goddess of creation had something to do, and to complete that task, she had to choose death. That’s why she would say that to her killer during her final moments.”

Vivian’s eyes widen. “So after this godforsaken roundabout, our conclusion is that the deicide was engineered by the goddess herself?!”

Hao Ren thought for a bit, before shaking his head. “No, we don’t have sufficient evidence, and that conclusion has many unanswered questions. I’m more inclined to think that there is a third force behind the deicide, but the goddess of creation was probably not simply just a victim. She was probably not as passive as we thought she would be, but to find a way to fight back because she had control of some of the situation then!”

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