The Record of Unusual Creatures

Panda Novel

The idea of upgrading Lily’s combat strength had never crossed Hao Ren’s mind until Lily asked for it. Hao Ren found that it was not a bad idea; at least Lily’s case, it seemed promising.

The reason was simply that Lily’s long-range tactical capabilities were apparently inadequate.

There were many people in the family, but not everyone needed a firepower upgrade. Vivian and Y’zaks were both superior in strength; they were the typical example of multirole fighters, skilled in both short-range and long-range attacks. They excelled in magic arts and other talents, and had no apparent weaknesses. Likewise, the little demoness, Y’lisabet was talented just like her papa; what she needed most was to learn to grow organically, not upgrade externally. Good looks comprised Nangong Sanba’s core strength, and DPS took a backseat; so, he needed selfie and posing skills more than others, and Hao Ren would be of no help in that case. Meanwhile, Nangong Wuyue’s DPS was a constant zero, hence no upgrade path was available for her. Rollie was barely an operations team member, and her biggest weakness was her lack of intelligence; as such, upgrading was out of the question.

All things considered, Hao Ren still thought that giving Lily power upgrades was the easiest and most effective option because he already had a plan in mind.

Hao Ren smiled as he looked at the husky, whose eyes were already shining. “Leave it to me. Since I’m free now, I’ll work out an upgrade path for you.”

“What are you two talking about?” Vivian was suddenly heard saying. She asked because while cleaning up the table, she noticed the two had acted strangely at the side. So, she could not hold back her curiosity. “What a silly smile you have there, Doggie.”

“I asked Mr. Landlord to upgrade my gear!” Lily wagged her tail excitedly, and her ears flicked uncontrollably. “Mr. Landlord has agreed!”

Gear upgrade?” Vivian blinked. “Oh, ya. Your claws really need an upgrade to live up to their name.”

Lily pouted. “It’s not that!”

“We’re studying how to improve her combat effectiveness,” Hao Ren explained with a smile. “Beast mode not only increases her various combat abilities, but it also magnifies her weakness. She lacks long-range capabilities and endurance. She can’t perform refined motor control and movement, plus she has a communication problem, which I intend to tackle as well.”

The others in the house had come up curiously with Nangong Sanba saying, “Gee, sounds like a big upgrade. How is it that you suddenly thought about solving this?”

“She asked me about it.” Hao Ren pointed at Lily. “This weakness has become obvious in recent battles. I will take this opportunity to fix it in the next few days.”

The upgrading of Lily’s combat capability had caused a stir. Perhaps everyone was bored at home already; they flung themselves into the discussion and started to give opinions. They were comrades in battles and knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses. So, the rowdy debate had actually come up with something constructive that might otherwise be overlooked.

But implementation wise, they could not help much. Hao Ren was planning to redesign a set of high-tech gear for Lily.

As Hao Ren and the MDT was discussing the blueprint, everyone except Lily left, and the room became quiet.

“Are you planning to wait for the blueprint here?” Hao Ren glanced at the husky maiden with a forced smile. “It will take some time; at least a day or two.”

Lily thought it made sense and went back in to watch her TV show.

But after a short while, Hao Ren could vaguely someone was prowling up to him from behind. He turned around at once. “Did I not tell you… Rollie?”

It was not the husky but the dumb cat. The cat maiden jumped out of her skin and nearly sprung up the backrest of the sofa when Hao Ren turned around. “Meow! Big Boss Cat, you scared the hell out of me!”

“It was you who scared me. Why were you sneaking up behind me?” Hao Ren shot Rollie a glance. He suddenly remembered that Rollie was not participating when everyone was here in the discussion earlier. It was out of her character. “Where have you been? What is the fan for?”

The cat maiden waved a paper fan and asked curiously, “Big Boss Cat, what big fan of cats means? Show me! I have brought the fan.”

Hao Ren was startled for a while. He then smacked himself on the forehead; he was right, the biggest problem with this cat was her intelligence—or the lack of it.

In a nutshell, the upgrades of Lily’s firepower was all about automatic weapons system and mobile battle station.

Lily had gotten used to her werewolf form for a century, and under in that form, there was no more room for further upgrades of combat techniques and weapons. It was all the more so once her fighting techniques had matured. But beastification was another story. Lily had only mastered the skill of beastification three years ago. Even if she was a husky, it did not mean that she could make good use of her fangs and claws immediately after transforming from her human form, in which she had been in for a century. In other words, she still depended on her instincts, and her control of Doggoblast was rudimentary at best. She had to build up her energy and could only aim when she was standing still. Her wide-open mouth while firing Doggoblast also affected her line of sight.

Practice makes perfect, and Lily was the only one who could help herself in this regard. But Hao Ren could first design a set of idiot-proof equipment that Lily could readily use when she was in beast mode. It was just too wasteful not to leverage the two-story-tall body and the incredible physiques.

The massive body of the beast meant she could carry a humongous number of missile launchers on her body.

Based on this design concept, the superior computer simulation of the MDT, and the full range of weaponry solutions in the database, Hao Ren had come up with a set of weapon systems, which he aptly called Lily Reloaded MK-I.

Earth was not the testing ground for such a weapon system. So, Hao Ren had brought Lily to Aerymian satellite where there was plenty of room for her to play around. No one would blink an eye even if she broke something.

Lily had ants in her pants. She could only longer hold back her excitement when she arrived at the test site. “Mr. Landlord, my new gear, where is my gear? How awesome is it?”

All those who came along waited in anticipation. But Vivian was seen knitting her brows. “I don’t know if you have ever thought of this: Lily’s clothes will be completely torn when she transforms. Even if you can solve this problem, she has only a pair of claws and a mouth of which she could make use. How is she going to put on the gear by herself?” she asked.

“No worries, I have taken care of these problems.” Hao Ren smiled, pulling out something from is dimensional pocket and threw it to Lily. “Catch it. It is your battle armor.”

Lily caught it in her hands. Her expression changed when she saw the thing. “A collar?”

Hao Ren had given her a silver-white collar.

“Are you kidding me, Mr. Landlord?” Lily’s expression looked as if she was looking for the best spot of Hao Ren’s body to bite on. “Is this collar the so-called high-power gear?”

“It is just a switch. Or do you want to carry a full set of weapons all the time?” Hao Ren smiled slyly. “Put it on, and transform. You will know what it is all about.”

Doubtfully, Lily glanced at Hao Ren. But she was used to wearing the life-support collar, and since she could have cared less about things like the dignity of the wolf, she snapped the collar on her neck at once.

“Whoa, it is feather-light, almost like it’s not there.” Lily moved her head a little and took out some Spicy Sticks from her pocket. “Step back! I’m about to shapeshift!”

A moment later, with a smooth and squeaky roar, a silver-white giant wolf roared and strode out in a gust of wind.

The collar was still on her neck, but it had enlarged several dozen times and was glowing in blue and much cooler than before.

“That’s all?” asked Nangong Sanba curiously.

Lily looked down curiously, but she could not see the transformed collar on her neck. She lifted her front paw and pulled it a little. As she did it, the blue glow on the collar suddenly turned into a space fissure followed by a series of complex transformation.

A synthetic voice was heard saying, “Heavy combat armor activated. Initial start-up… Basic self-diagnostics completed. Energy module, normal. Life-support module, normal. Tactical support module, normal. Shield generator, normal. Tracking system, normal. Micro-nuke launcher array, normal. Laser weapon, normal. Integrated radar, normal. Medical center, normal. Hair comb, normal. Head scratcher simulator, normal. Doggie communication device, normal. Khorium headlights, normal. Wiper, normal.”