The Record of Unusual Creatures

Panda Novel

The earliest builders of the Twilight Capital left behind the group of sculptures standing silently in the darkness. When they finally stabilized the urban structure inside the shroud and were able to control the opening and closing of the shroud smoothly, those who were outside the city left these things outside the gate. While 2,000 years had passed and the sculptures had undergone numerous rebuilds as well as replacements, they still looked the same as they did on day one. These sculptures in the dark reminded the survivors of the Twilight Capital of everything that they had lost: the world outside the shroud.

There were many versions of stories about these sculptures. But even if they did not know the stories, Hao Ren could infer a lot of things from the face of these sculptures. It was said that each of these sculptures was indeed a person, the last group of people who fell outside the gate when the Twilight Shroud formed. Wendell was familiar with the stories of these sculptures.

While Wendell told of the stories, they passed through the Gate of Twilight.

Hao Ren felt like he was passing through an elusive wall. The light shield that sheltered the city was thin, he could hardly feel the thickness of it when he walked past it. As he crossed the shroud, he could feel the burning scent and harmful radiation in the air were blocked entirely out on the outside and replaced by a smell of smoke that was just equally bad.

He looked up and found that the entrance to the city was even more desolate and broken than he had imagined. There was not a decent sentry post or people around the gate although it was a crucial gate. Dilapidated gray-black buildings were everywhere while two twisted towers stood symmetrically on both sides. The outer walls of the tower had peeled off, exposing the messy metal structure inside. A wide ramp extended out with abandoned facilities and sparsely lit buildings of various heights lining on both sides. Metal pipes and steel cables intertwined in the sky like a cobweb with smoke shrouding all around as if a mist.

Looking up along the ramp, Twilight Capital was like a spiral mound with buildings stacking up infinitely. It appeared like it was so overcrowded that the city’s terrain had swollen. In between those stacked buildings, groups of white smoke rose up from time to time. Behind those smokes, huge machines were running the whole time, the noise of which could be heard throughout the city. It sounded monotonous yet annoying.

“That is a big boiler.” Wendell could not help but smile upon returning to his hometown. Though he had prepared not to return when he departed on a journey of searching for the light, he still could not help but get emotional when he was back here again. He was overjoyed. “That is the biggest steam boiler. A few large boilers provide half of the power in the city.

“Steam boiler?” Hao Ren suddenly came to his realization. “Your city uses steam power?”

“Yeah, great steam technology,” Wendell said. “It is said that the giants of the ancient times created this thing. Surtr, the king of the flames was the master of all steam powers, but when the gods fell after the collapse of the heavens and the earth, the power of steam spread to the human world and gradually became something that humans could control. I used to have a workshop, and I was good at making gears. But the workshop was closed down a long time ago.”

Hao Ren nodded, his eyes cast around. He noticed that even though the entrance was desolate and broken, it was not without any people. People were emerging from the dilapidated buildings, which seemed to have been in existence for hundreds of years. These people wore ragged clothes, were scruffy and strange. They were surprised to see outsiders, looking from afar but dared not come close. Then someone, recognizing Wendell as the Light Seeker, screaming in fear and ran away.

There were few more people following him running away too.

“Ignore these people,” Wendell said while walking forward. “They are the miners on the outer edge of the city, long exposed to the radiation environment, and somewhat neurotic. They deserve respect but are still unable to integrate into the inner-city community, so they all gather here.”

Miners, as the name implied, were people responsible for collecting resources. But in Twilight Capital, these miners were paying a heavy price.

They were responsible for collecting resources outside the city—outside the Twilight Shroud.

These people went off with heavy protective gear every day, took the steam locomotive and left the city from another exit to the mines in the darkness. The mining site had low-powered protection equipment but was pale in comparison to the Twilight Shroud. These miners were subject to long-term exposure of deadly magic radiation and toxic gases. The toxic environment continued to erode their bodies and spirits, and eventually, these people became dry and suffered brain damage, just like what Hao Ren had seen. The Steam Assembly provided the families of these miners with the best rations and housing in the city.

But the miners’ blood, hair, nails, and even breaths were poisonous. Thus, they could only live in the outer zone.

There were many people still voluntarily coming to the outer zone to work as miners because they wanted their families living a comfortable life. Of course, there were those who came here involuntarily; they were criminals living in exile here, but they usually did not come out as they had to lie low.

Wendell brought them leaving the avenue and walking into a lane hidden in the shadows of buildings. At first, Hao Ren thought that Wendell was trying to avoid someone. “Are you hiding from the people of the Steam Assembly? We are not interested in the assembly, and we are not planning to hide from them.”

“No, I didn’t.” Wendell shook his head helplessly. “If you want to go into the inner city, you have to go through this lane. The avenue is in disrepair. Since the decline of the Light-Seeker team, no one was using that route, and the other routes are more difficult to travel. I will take you to see an old friend who is the administrator of the mine locomotive. He can take us to the inner city. After that, I would be able to get in touch with the Light Seeker’s headquarters.”

Hao Ren nodded but said nothing. He silently followed behind Wendell, hustling towards the dark, dirty building complex that looked like a crouching steel monster while curiously observing this strange, closed city.

Obviously, after the Twilight of the Gods, the survivors of this world did not let the civilization completely stagnate. Though their development route had become very weird and the city within the shroud was also deformed and distorted, their society was still growing. Two thousand years ago, the humans of Midgard were mice of experiments and playthings of the Norse gods. They lived a primitive and rough life like other human beings of the same period. Today, 2,000 years later, they built in the Twilight Shroud a steel city driven by machinery and steam power. Galazur was amazed beyond words.

Despite all these difficulties, their technology tree was still growing!

Wendell brought them onto a trail and went past a lot of old, seemingly abandoned buildings, but there was still sound on the inside occasionally. Judging from the slope under his feet, he had to be on the way up, he thought.

At last, they arrived in an open space.

There was a vast steel platform supported by massive pillars volleying over several tall buildings. Several parallel rails extended out from the platform into the distance, through the Twilight Shroud before disappearing into the darkness. The rail tracks led to the mines, while the other end of the rails extended along the city’s terrain all the way up to the top of the cone-shaped city.

So the railroad was mainly a large artery.

When they arrived at the platform, they finally saw the steam locomotive that Wendell mentioned.

It was made up of two heavy but sturdy mechanical monsters, bigger than any of the trains that Hao Ren had ever seen, including the old steam heads he saw in the movie. Large pipes and rivets lined the cylindrical locomotives, and dark steel made the engines looked heavy. Behind these powerful locomotives were several dirty carriages.

Men in greasy suits were working busily on two locomotives, greasing and calibrating the gears, tightening the valves, and writing sacred runic characters on the front of the locomotives with white paint. These runic letters would bless and protect the locomotives so that they could return safely from the darkness outside the Twilight Shroud. Many miners were waiting to embark the train carriages at the rear. They were wearing heavy protective suits, inlaid with some soft metal silk. Every miner had an ugly helmet hanging from their waist. The helmets were made of leather and metal, joined by two tubes to their suits.

These heavy protective suits looked similar to the one Wendell wore but significantly rougher and more cumbersome. Though they looked massive, they worked quite effectively. The Lightseeker’s equipment and amulets allowed the wearer to cross the ruins of the Nine Worlds. The protective suit and helmet of the miners only allowed them to survive for ten hours under the magic radiation; they had to return to the outer zone to replace some components and recharge the runic characters before they could set off again.

So the most important lesson every miner must learn when they first started their job was to catch the return train.

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