The Record of Unusual Creatures

Panda Novel

The moment Lily lunged out, Hao Ren could not help but think to himself: would he go down the path of no return as a bully? People said that all bullies started as dog owners abetting their dogs to bite when things did not go their way. But he had pondered it carefully; he felt that he was in no such danger of becoming one. After all, Lily would still bite without abetment.

Hao Ren knew that things would unfold this way from the very beginning. The real world was not a manga. It was impossible that two persons are getting together, talking about love and justice, and they would understand each other. Dialogue would not solve conflicts all the time. When negotiation failed, a confrontation was inevitable. Especially when both sides had different worldviews, there would be little common ground.

So Hao Ren’s goal had always been obvious: before chaos arose, he would first observe the form of existence of Twilight Capital to fulfill the observatory obligation of an inspector. Then they would inevitably meet the local forces, and when the local forces inevitably became an obstacle, they would have no choice but to force their way to meet the ancient sage at the Iron Throne.

He was not taking things for granted. Before making these conclusions, he had learned from Wendell and Borcen about the operation, past achievements, corporate culture, and management philosophy of the Steam Assembly.

A mature social governing institution that could keep the city alive after the end of the world and maintain its order while everything was in jeopardy, it needed first not flexible thinking and enterprising spirit, but conservatism, stability, and caution. Especially when it came to the dark wilderness outside, the attitude of the Steam Assembly was even more so. Hope’s seemingly paranoid misunderstanding was not entirely subjective. In fact, in the two thousand years since the establishment of Twilight Capital, the city had faced countless rumors and scams that had caused social unrest and even the threat of evil sects. Trapped in the shroud for so many years, the probability of having a mental illness, escaping from reality or retaliating against the society was high. Once every century, there would be someone claiming that they had found a way to save the humankind. All these claims were pointing to the dark wilderness outside.

Being trapped in the dark for so many years, people had the choice of believing either that flood of beasts was opposite the darkness, or that paradise was true. Few believed the latter, but their harm was many times greater than the former.

There had indeed been incidents in which Lightseekers collaborated with evil sects to create the illusion of a paradise. A large Lightseeker team had stepped into the night, and soon lost contact with Twilight Capital. They were lost in the sea of hot sands in Jotunheim. In the twenty days in the sea of hot sands, everyone died except one survivor. No one knew how he made it, but what was certain was that he suffered significant mental trauma during the twenty terrible days. This Lightseeker had an illusion. He firmly believed that he had found the paradise, and depicted the oasis that existed only in his imagination as real. When he returned to Twilight Capital and began to preach the new homestead, it caused terrible consequences.

He eventually set up an organization that was more like an evil sect, falsifying evidence to prove the existence of the oasis. He even confronted the investigation team of the Steam Assembly and incited thousands of people leaving Twilight Capital towards Jotunheim to find the beautiful paradise that only existed in his false memories.

Thousands of skilled people had thus died in the dark wilderness.

Since that day, the Steam Assembly had set strict rules that any Lightseeker who returned from the night must be subject to rigorous questioning. It would be easier to answer questions if there were at least two people made it back home. But if he were only person returning, then everything he said would hardly be believable.

Because under the erosion of magic radiation, even Lightseekers themselves were not sure whether they were sane. The Lightseeker who returned alone might be insane. Even if he was mentally sound, hallucination could have brainwashed him. Without witnesses, no one could prove whether their stories were true.

So Hope’s questioning of Wendell was utterly excusable. He was only a little more radical than the ordinary members of the Steam Assembly. He did not just suspect but thoroughly distrusted his father. Anyway, the outcome was the same: Hao Ren and his team could never go down to the lower city through normal channels.

What if Wendell accepted the Steam Assembly’s questioning? It would mean that they had to wait for the inquest, which could take months to complete. What about discussing with a bunch of experts and scholars about worldview and life? These might be the formal procedure, but to be honest, Hao Ren had no time to go through the formal process.

Lily had turned into a shadowy werewolf. Before everyone knew what happened, she had almost knocked out all the security officers at the scene. Hao Ren took out his spears and brandished them while coming to the edge of the platform. “Where is the lift?”

Wendell was wrapped up by a swarm of bats summoned by Vivian and carried to a hundred meters away. As thing had developed into this stage, he could not care less about solving the problem through dialogue anymore. Indeed a two-time survivor of a light-seeking journey, he shouted, “Left! Right there, where smoke is coming out! Rush over!”

The security officers of Hope were down. These men were not combatants. Their duty was to maintain the public order of the upper city. Their power came from the uniform, which represented authority. So, until Hao Ren and his team disappeared on the platform, the last hapless chap only staggered up to his feet. In a hurry, a security officer threw out the metal stick in his hand, but Lily caught it with her mouth, and he was unable to get it back ever since.

“Sir!” An officer with a broken nose and swollen face staggered up to Hope. “What should we do?”

Hope’s face stiffened, sweat rolling down his neck. He only had one thought in mind; Father is hopeless and beyond salvage. He’s bringing those men to intrude the Iron Throne. He must have gone insane since the last light-seeking journey. No doubt about it!

“Go and inform the wizard and armed security teams. And Steam6 too!” Hope shouted, pressing a button on the small metal box on his waist. “Sanctis, Roland, sound the alarm! Herbert, go to the lift, evacuate the civilians, and seal off the station platform.”

“The rest of you follow me to the city hall. Check the background of that group of people and see which evil sect they belong to!”

Meanwhile, Hao Ren and his team had left the locomotive platform. They moved along a steel-cast beam as per Wendell’s instruction, leaving the station far behind them in no time.

The upper city of Twilight Capital was full of all kinds of steel beams, frames that carrying pipes, reinforcement beams between buildings, and suspended roads. These crisscrossing structures were like a cobweb over the city. Smoke and steam released from the factories and boilers shrouded this cobweb of beams and frames. As they passed through an extensive piping system, gas leaking from the pipes was blocking their visibility. But in the smoke and steam, there were two rows of fluorescent light guiding the way forward. These lights were runes embedded in the building structure.

To reduce the load of the massive structure on the lower levels of the city, the builders of Twilight Capital had used a lot of such runes in the buildings. These unique runes, popular in the Nordic region, were not as powerful as Letta runes. But it had excellent auxiliary uses. When Vivian saw these runes, she smiled and said in a low voice, “Odin invented these runes. But if not for the Twilight of the Gods, the mortals would never have a chance to see their secrets.”

*Whoooop—*

A low and loud whistle sounded from afar, followed by a second and third sound.

Whistle blasted throughout the upper city. The vapor hovering between the superstructures began to dissipate as if the whistle had chased it away. Wendell’s face darkened. “It is the highest alert! They have sounded the alarm!”

Hao Ren twitched his mouth. “I would be surprised if they don’t sound the alarm when there is an attack on their presidential palace.”

They came to the end of the massive steel beam. Up ahead was the roof of a building. Getting down from the steel beam, they hopped from roof to roof. The city continued to retreat under their feet. At this moment, extremely heavy footsteps suddenly came from the surroundings, followed by a powerful voice broadcast over the air. “Terrorists! Stop immediately! We are Steam Six! You are surrounded! Give up resistance immediately! Give up resistance immediately!”

Heavy footsteps and weird metal grinding sounded continued. Hao Ren curiously looked around. Immediately, some massive machines appeared before them.

The first thing that appeared was huge claws that lingered on the surrounding eaves, followed by robotic arms that are continually hissing in high-pressure steam. The last thing that appeared was a big, insect-like steel monster.

Many five-meter-tall black machines with a ring of robotic arms on their body crawled up from the surrounding building, pipes, and beams. The shape of these things was difficult to describe, much like a product of Frankenstein from the old comics. They had a body that was like a mixture of spider and scorpion, and eight to twelve robotic arms. High-pressure steam always leaked out from the valves and joint gaps in their body. The hissing sounded as if roar coming from their throat. Runes were glowing on their belly too.

One of the biggest mechanical monsters climbed up in front of Hao Ren. Two rows of red lights, like many pairs of eyes, flickered on the head. A laser beam appeared and scanned its targets as a low voice was heard saying, “Put down your weapon immediately! Put down the weapon immediately!”

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