The Record of Unusual Creatures

Panda Novel

It was a colossal tentacle that grew on the earth like a mountain range.

Hao Ren had lost count of how many such scary things he had seen on the planets in the Plane of Dreams. The first time he saw it was when he was in the underground of Holletta. At that time, the tentacles were just the little twigs of a young First Born, but still, they were horrific enough to make everyone shake like a leaf. Later, it was found that these things existed in all habitable planets, including those former habitable planets, in the Plane of Dreams. As the drone cluster expanded in the universe, there was news of the discovery of the First Born every day. These powerful creatures living inside the planets and designed to maintain the ecosystem used to be the nanny and gardener of all races, but today, they had become the nightmare of this universe.

The discovery of the tentacle on this mysterious planet was something unexpected.

The tentacle grew around the edge of the forest. Its huge mountain range-like body formed a natural boundary where the forest stopped under its foothill as if taken aback by the menacing look of this ancient creature. The MDT quickly zoomed in on the image. Hao Ren saw that the tentacle actually grew out from a canyon and plunged back into the ground after extending out hundreds of kilometers on the surface. Many branches grew from the main tentacle and extended deep into the forest and became part of the landscape. These tip end of these branches thrust up into the air, just like the regular trees.

Perhaps one-third of the forest was made up of the tentacles of the First Born.

Hao Ren almost burst out in swear words. “This thing just does not die.”

Lily’s tail puffed up as she stared at the image of the tentacle in the hologram. “It… it is moving!”

“Yup, it is albeit slightly. You may not sense it because it is so far away. But I bet you will feel the tremor under your feet if you stand closer to it. This thing is active.”

“I have a gut feeling that we should not stay on this planet any longer.” Hao Ren was wide-eyed. “Inform Nolan to initiate the Lullaby Program while speeding up the repair of the engine. Other repair programs can wait, at least until we can go into the low Earth orbit. We must be in control!”

Since the discovery of its effectiveness, the Lullaby Program, a mind-interfering technology to attenuate the nervous activity and suppress the perception ability of the First Born, had been the most critical safety measure while conducting operations in the Plane of Dreams. After a joint study with Zorm, who mainly played the role as a study subject, Hao Ren had successfully improved the efficiency of the program, reduced its technical difficulty and then mass-produced the Lullaby instrument in the CARS. Now, every mother-ship-level drone unit carried a Lullaby device. It had become a standard protocol to activate the Lullaby Program when there was a sign of the First Born detected. Of course, the Petrachelys had a set of Lullaby system onboard.

Fortunately, the Lullaby equipment was a supporting facility of the shipboard lab; it was well protected. When the spacecraft crashed, the instrument only suffered impact force. It now came in handy.

But the Lullaby was not a panacea. One must not expect the neighbor like the mad First Born would sleep soundly every time. The smartest way to get into space when the spacecraft could finally fire up its engine. Even if there was a blockade of the divine storm in deep space, at least it was still safe within the planetary system. A spaceship flying in space was always better than in the stomach of the First Born.

Nolan received the order from Hao Ren and the data sent back by the MDT in no time. She knew it was a matter of urgency, so she had the energy reallocated, channeling all the energy produced by the reactor to the Lullaby device and the engine repair work.

Hao Ren breathed a sigh of relief when learning that the Lullaby device was online. He looked at the other end of the forest, face serious. A dark-brown mountain range dotted with little green spots were there. At first, he thought it was just a regular mountain range, but now he realized it was the tentacle of the First Born. “Since there is a First Born here, could it be the one that—”

Before Hao Ren could finish, a loud roar from the distant sky interrupted him.

The roar came from afar and quickly drew near. Everyone looked up and saw six strange iron-gray aircraft in a formation flying toward their direction.

“Aircraft!”

Lily jumped up immediately. “Mr. Landlord! There are survivors on this planet! Look! Their aircraft!”

“I see them!” Hao Ren said as he shoved Lily back. He looked at the aircraft in amazement. These aircraft looked cumbersome, like a pair of parallel shuttles. Structurally, these aircraft were not efficient flying vessels in the atmosphere, but they still had incredible speed and agility. They could change position and perform subtle changes in heading in the air, which reflected their excellent maneuverability.

These things could be having anti-gravity technology.

The six aircraft flew in arrow-formation zooming past overhead. Lily had spotted missiles and turrets on these aircraft. Something that looked like a massive bomb hung under each of the twin-fuselage planes.

The aircraft seemed to have not noticed people like Hao Ren and his team on the ground. They flew past the city ruin toward the other side of the forest where the First Born’s tentacle lay.

Hao Ren could almost guess the intentions of these war machines.

Sure enough, the six aircraft had flown straight toward the tentacle and began to drop bombs and fire at it. Fireballs rose before Hao Ren and his team heard explosions.

Of course, the tentacle would not sit still to be slaughtered. Hao Ren did not see how the First Born made the counterattack. He only saw three of the six aircraft suddenly hit an invisible wall and shattered in midair. And the remaining three aircraft responded immediately by pulling up at a nearly ninety-degree angle with astonishingly agility and speed while dropping the massive bomb hanging on the fuselage onto the tentacle on the ground.

A few seconds later, another aircraft hit the invisible energy barrier of the First Born and exploded in the air.

As the heavy-weight bomb fell, it released hundreds of glaring light balls followed by earth-shattering explosions and white-hot flashes.

It was not a conventional bomb. The moment the bomb hit the tentacle, a series of plasma ‘bubbles’ burst out, forming hundreds of light balls with a radius of up to 100 meters and high temperature that vaporized everything in the vicinity. After the light balls dissipated, hundreds of spherical pit were what was left on the ground.

The tentacle possessed some kind of energy field that protected it from the blasts, but it was still riddled with holes. Everything around the tentacle had been leveled to the ground.

The footage and images that the MDT had captured reminded Hao Ren of the clearing at the edge of the forest. It seemed that the patch of land had been bombed recently.

So, that explained it all.

After dropping the bombs, the remaining two aircraft did not attempt to stay in the battlefield but kept pulling up as they accelerated away as if they had achieved their mission objective.

The MDT floated up to Hao Ren. “Should I try to make contact?”

“Just track their signals.” Hao Ren shook his head. “Do not make contact rashly. It is hard to tell whether those in close contact with the First Born are immune to mental influence. Even if they are resisting, no one knows for sure if they are still sane. Extra caution is needed when dealing with this race. It is best to first talk to a few locals separately to assess the situation before coming up with a plan of contact.”

“Understood.” The MDT floated up and down. “Oh, I have intercepted their radio signals.”

“Oh, you do?” Hao Ren’s eyebrows arched. “Translate it and see what they are saying.”

“Translation in progress…” The MDT paused for a couple of seconds and quickly completed the decoding. “The radio content is as follows:

N-3 calling the Zenith. The bombing mission is completed. The hit rate is 72%.

This is Zenith. Roger that. Report the losses.

N-1, N-2, N-5, N-6 are down. N-4 sub-engine suffers damage. N-3’s side turrets are overloaded.

Return to base for repair and rearm to get ready for the next bombing mission.

Roger; performing climbing maneuver.”

Hao Ren blinked. “Is that all?”

“That’s all,” the MDT replied. “What else are you expecting? Have a rap session with the base? It is a typical radio communication during a mission.”

Hao Ren scratched his chin and said, “I know that. I was just expecting to hear more useful information. Now, we know at least that these aircraft are from a base called the Zenith.”