The Record of Unusual Creatures

Panda Novel

Even without the MDT’s help, it was a simple matter for Hao Ren to memorize a star map. His already-enhanced-human brain was busy processing a flood of data that was beyond the logical functions of common intelligent beings. In the past, the MDT would simply plug into his mind to assist with the processing via an AI program, but now he could do it himself for the most part… There was a side effect of overheating though.

As Hao Ren stored the star map into his mind, he started to place markers on the missing parts while Vivian summoned up a mini blizzard to cool things down…

Once the processing was completed, Hao Ren heard an audible *Ding!* in his mind. God knows what other crazy settings that lunatic goddess had placed in his mind when she enhanced him.

“It’s time to leave.” Hao Ren took a deep breath as his mind cooled down. “You know how to get out of this place?”

Vivian smiled as she pointed to a place not too far away. “Look, the door is just over there.”

Over on the sand mound not too far away, the sand faded away like flowing water and a rather familiar building appeared out of nowhere.

The motley, two-story structure with a new roof; of course Hao Ren would recognize it. It was his home for twenty odd years, and now it was home for a group of otherworldlings.

“…I never thought that you’d design the exit to look like that.” Hao Ren was surprised seeing his old place before laughing. “That surprised me.”

Vivian smiled as she shook her head. “No, it was always there. It was already there when I realized I was deep into the dream…”

The two came before the door of the old house as Vivian pulled out a key from her side pocket. The rust on the key quickly came off as she put the brand new key into the lock before turning it gently. An audible ‘clack’ was heard.

As the clack faded, the door opened and the Malevolences on the battlefield behind them faded into dust as they re-assimilated into the spiritual world.

“Let’s go home.”

The silence collapsed around them as the dust and chaos waned like the tide. Hao Ren felt that he suddenly fell into an endless dark tunnel, and lost all sense of direction. He felt neither gravity or any temperature. He was nervous at first, but he soon felt another presence beside him, as a slightly cold hand held his.

Vivian appeared from the darkness and was the only other scenery in the dark tunnel. She smiled at Hao Ren. “Now I remember everything, all my memories, and power… every segment of my memory now has you. It’s really an incredible feeling.”

Hao Ren grinned back. “So does this count as me messing with your memories? In real history, there’s no place for me in your past 10,000 years.”

Vivian shook her head, appearing calm. “Real history? All that’s hogwash. To me, history is just a part of life, so only those that I’ve been through myself is worth something. Anything written by humans is about as good as fairy tales.”

Hao Ren fell into thought before Vivian spoke once again to break the silence. “And I prefer it this way; much better than last time. I was wandering aimlessly for 10,000 years, everyone I know was simply a passerby in my memories; after knowing each other for hundreds if not thousands of years, then came apart by death, or being forgotten. There was no one to walk beside me until the end…But now there’s you… the first person I saw when I opened my eyes in the ice age fields was you, and the person who took me in 10,000 years later too was you; you know how much that meant to me?”

Hao Ren looked deep into Vivian’s eyes. The 10,000-year backtrack had brought up so many memories, not just Vivian’s, even his. And these memories were important to her, so are they to him.

He then reached out and held Vivian by the waist. This bold move caught the latter by surprise. “Hyaa?!”

“So, wanna stay with me for the next 10,000 years?”

“That’s not something you’d normally say,” Vivian was flustered for a bit before reverting to a gentle smile. “Sneaky, but I’m not your ordinary lass, this still needs a lot of work.”

“Oh, stop pretending. I saw your flustered look.” Hao Ren pouted. “Your life experience throughout the years too have to depend on what sort of experience you learned. So aside from putting all skill points into being broke what had you done… Oh yeah, fighting with others for potatoes… Eeek!

Vivian wrapped her arms across… halfway across Hao Ren’s waist and Hao Ren felt that his Steel Membrane shield was close to being activated.

“Truth be told, I’m quite surprised.” Vivian blinked. “I never thought you’d actually dare to say something like this. You didn’t give me the impression of something being so bold.”

“Nonsense, I’ve sat on that hill for over a hundred and twenty odd years, I’ve steeled my resolve in that period of boredom.”

Hao Ren was simply finding excuses, as he did not know how long he had sat on the hill, and he was actually asleep for the most part. He thought to just blabber randomly to calm himself down.

Vivian did not respond and simply just looked at Hao Ren. Her eyes were particularly bright in the dark, with a tint of mesmerizing red. This was proof of her quest to seek her lost powers.

Vivian only spoke after a good while. “You know, if we were to count from the time we met three years ago, the adventures I’ve gone on with you is just a small fraction of my life, but these three years were the most eventful, stable and meaningful of days. Even though its just three years, yet I’ve lived for 10,000 years. I’ve gone through the rise and fall of the gods and seen human civilization reached for the skies. These days were much longer than being together with you, by many folds.”

“Although I’ve always been interested in you, and I really enjoy our time together; I simply could not see you as a lifelong partner. Our time together is just too short, and we have been through too little, too little to the point of insignificance in my 10,000 years.”

“But now, that 10,000-year gap has been filled.”

“From the northern barrens of the ice age, to the encoding of the Hammurabi laws in Babylon, to the Israelite leaving Egypt, to the fall of the last pantheon, to the times where the Dutch ruled the seas, to the information explosion of the 21st century; I’ve seen all of them, you too have seen all of them. Together with me.”

“So.. let me say this…Thank you for accompanying me for the past 10,000 years, and I hope you can walk together with me for the next 10,000, and if possible, 10,000 more years to come…”

Hao Ren and Vivian looked at each other in the eyes; Hao Ren thought that he would be very excited. Flustered even, but he found himself calmer than expected. Even if he was elated, he was not too surprised. He finally understood why: He had already backtracked through 10,000 years of history, there were many things that were now well known to him even without verbalizing it…

So he calmly popped the next key question. “Did you just thought that whole cheesy lines out?”

Vivian glared at him. “It was not easy for me to be chee… No, I’ve just poured my entire feelings out and this is all you have to say?”

Hao Ren chuckled. “It’s not like you don’t know how I operate.”

Vivian’s facial expression tightened for a good part of a minute before she said, “Pffft…” She pinched Hao Ren on the arm. “Alright, alright. If you were any different I’d probably found it difficult to accept. I don’t even know how am I supposed to respond to that.”

Clearly, everyone had their habits and ways of getting along, and Vivian enjoyed such an atmosphere.

“Even if I promise you that, I still need to remind you that the issue with the Plane of Dreams is far from over. I cannot severe my ties between the Plane of Dreams and the goddess of creation, and you cannot bail from this ‘job’. So the Mad Lord will always be on our minds, and I hope you don’t get distracted.”

“Of course. I know that very well myself. We won’t have time worrying about anything else before this massive shitshow is over and done with. That aside, I also need to start farming rep with Hessiana…”

“Don’t worry, she’s not a bad kid, and she can tell right from wrong. It’s just her potty mouth. I can see it, she is actually rather into you… at least her attitude towards you is much better than her nemesis.

“So… I’m exalted now?”

“Don’t be greedy…”

While they spoke, something appeared in the dark “time tunnel”.

Obscured light soon appeared from the darkness and formed into mirror-like fragments, and on them were ever-changing images. Hao Ren looked over and saw it was fragments of history, some of it that he went through himself, some too difficult to discern, and these fragments of history soon faded away as it sped up chronologically from past to present.

And at the end of the images, was light…

As he stepped on solid ground again, Hao Ren stumbled a little before managing to balance himself, as headache and vertigo struck him at the same time. It took him a few moments before he realized what was around him.

He first confirmed that he was standing on the platform of the “dimension gate” that Raven 12345 had created. This assured him that he was back into the real world, and soon he saw his group of friends waiting by the gate, and he was soon overwhelmed by emotions.

The Nangongs were playing mahjong, Raven 12345 and Y’zaks, with paper strips all over their faces playing Landlord by the side of the gate. White Flame was smashing her PSV while Hessiana was playing armchair general by the side. Facing Hao Ren was a table filled with fresh vegetables and meat slices and a boiling hotpot was in the middle; Lily, Hesperides, Rollie and a few others were around the table. Rollie was in tears after being scalded, while Lily was busy dunking meat into the hotpot…

Everyone looked at Hao Ren and Vivian stupidly as they appeared out of nowhere…

Hao Ren wanted to cry.