The Record of Unusual Creatures

Panda Novel

All the changes happened in a short time.

Amid the system announcement, a set of complex, sophisticated and seemingly powerful combat armor unfolded. It began to transform from the collar as if there was a space-folding effect at play. When the armor fully unfolded, it covered 70% of Lily’s body in silvery-white metal. The sturdy and sophisticated plates extended from her back to her belly and formed freely movable parts at the joints of her limbs. A translucent blue light, a type of energy shield, covered the exposed portions of her body.

The armor was only the underlying skeleton. The various weapon kits installed in the armor were the most powerful parts of the system. Two sets of dual-mounted missile launchers were mounted on both sides of Lily’s body. There was also an antenna, and an anti-air laser weapon on her back. Meanwhile, the front portion of the armor held sophisticated sensors and weapon muzzles. The entire armored gear looked like a terrifying doomsday machine.

Everyone was rooted to the spot. Besides its mean appearance, they were more flabbergasted by the weird equipment mentioned in the system announcement.

“Holy cow!” Nangong Sanba’s mouth was agape, and he finally managed a sentence. “This looks so badass.”

Nangong Wuyue thoughtfully drew circles on the ground with her tail and mumbled, “It looks like Garurumon.”

“How do you feel, Lily?” Hao Ren did not care about what the Nangong siblings thought. He looked Lily The Armored Siegebeast proudly. “Try moving around and feel how it goes.”

Lily had frozen since the beginning and was cockeyed looking at the gravity radar on her nose. Hao Ren jolted her out of her daze. But the husky maiden seemed to have no idea how to control her body. She wagged her tail stiffly, then clumsily lifted one of her front paws in front of her eyes. “Is this still me? I can talk now?”

A voice was heard coming from Lily’s chest, but it was slightly distorted like the sound of a machine. It was still recognizably her voice, though.

“It’s a doggie communication device.” Hao Ren nodded matter-of-factly. “I told you I would fix your speaking problem, which has been one of your biggest weaknesses. It causes a problem for your comrades during battles. So, I’ve asked the MDT to create a voice synthesizer that converts your brainwaves into speech.”

Vivian could not help but whisper, “It is an awesome function, but are you sure the name is okay?”

“There is nothing wrong the name.” Hao Ren dismissed it with the wave of his hand. “Please do not mind the trivial details.”

The name might sound unpresentable, but there was no denying that the voice synthesizer was one of the greatest functions of this armored system. Without this device, communication on the battlefield would be impossible, and attempts to use eye contact to exchange information with the husky was nearly impossible. Under such circumstances, Lily usually had only two things in mind: ‘What the heck does it mean?’ and ‘What the heck I want to say?’

The speech synthesizer was a lifesaver.

Knowing that she could now talk, Lily came out of the shock and was now bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. She could not wait to test out what this armor could do.

The giant husky began to jump up and down, run in a circle chasing her own tails. The system control, integrated with the brainwave reader on the head armor, allowed Lily to monitor the different modules and information of the entire armor system in real-time. With her learning aptitude (after all, she was a four-time graduate of Peking University), it only took her one glance to know every function of the system.

Hao Ren was all smiling. “I have taken agility into account when designing the system. Since you are used to close-quarters combat, every joint of the armor is flexible enough to allow you to move freely and to compensate for the resulting decline in armor strength, I have added shield generators at various key points. But they are of low-power model meant for the autonomous robots, so you must not over depend on them.

“The antenna and sensors mounted on the armor are retractable. It is just there for the convenience of demonstration and testing. When you select combat mode, those things will retract under the armor to prevent damage from fighting.

“The missile launcher is also retractable, but only partial. Part of the shield is exposed. The launcher is preloaded with four micro-nukes and four Graviton guided missiles with 16 spare guided missiles inside the armor. When you run out of ammunition, you can replenish it through the supply portal, which is connected directly to the arsenal of Nolan. But power output limitation will limit the speed of resupplying. So please take note.

“The laser beam array on your back is for air defense. It has relatively low DPS but rapid firing and low energy consumption. It works like a charm to defend against the light enemy units in the air. So, you do not need to use Doggoblast just to deal with little things like the gargoyles.

“Doggoblast is still your most powerful offensive skill. For this reason, I have designed a piece of auxiliary equipment for you. There is a tactical visual aid on the helmet, with which you will not have to worry about not being able to see clearly your target next time. Do you want to try it out now? Of course, just activate the visual aid, you don’t have to really fire here.”

Lily could not wait to try it out and did not mind that Hao Ren called her gorgeous light cannon as Doggoblast. She shook her head and immediately, a set of instruments appeared over her eyes. Now, the Khorium dog eyes had turned into four tactical electronic eyes glowing in red.

“Awoo… This… this… this gadget can even correct my color blindness!” Lily exclaimed in awe.

She looked around excitedly. “Wow! There are multiple crosshairs and target locations! Distance and defense readings! Ammunition selection suggestion! And firing prioritization!”

Everyone began to step back. Nangong Sanba shouted, “Calm down! You don’t want to play with them here!”

“I am not that childish, okay!” Lily said. “But then again, I do not think you can design this suit in just a few days. It looks familiar to me. Mr. Landlord, did you plan to make me this suit a long time ago?”

Hao Ren had to admit that the husky had excellent instinct, although most of the time her mind was a muddle. He nodded awkwardly and said, “Production only began in the past few days, but I already had the idea at the back of my mind for a long time. Do you still remember the half-beast half-machine Cerberus in the underworld during our journey back in time? I thought what a waste not to take advantage of your gigantic body size, and so I took inspiration from it.”

Lily bared her fangs. “Mr. Landlord, how could you took inspiration from the disgusting monster?”

“The final product still looks good.” Hao Ren spread out his hand. “Don’t you like it yourself?”

“Never mind. It is awesome, and I am not going to make a fuss about it.” Lily wagged her tail and pretended to be magnanimous. The new suit was keeping her busy. She switched on the Khorium lights, and the four electronic eyes began to sweep around like a searchlight. She activated the hair comber and moaned with pleasure. Then, a wiper that popped out from under her neck started to swing in a back-and-forth motion on the electromagnetic radar cover.

Hao Ren had lost track of how he came up with this genius design.

After experimenting nearly nine out of ten of the functions, something suddenly crossed Lily’s mind. She looked down at Hao Ren. “Mr. Landlord, how are you going to ride on my back with this armor over me?”

Nangong Sanba buried his face in his hand. Did Lily think that she was Hao Ren’s mount? He thought to himself.

But soon, Nangong Sanba found that he was wrong. Hao Ren had taken out a remote from his pocket. With the press of a button, the armor on Lily’s head opened up, and a chair rose from the inside.

“There is a passenger pod below your neck and two rows of seats on you back.” Hao Ren said matter-of-factly.

“Mr. Landlord, I think something is still not right,” Lily said.

“So, are you done yet? Let’s tuck it. You will feel a little tiring using brainwave control for the first time.”

Hao Ren had gotten Lily’s attention. “Aah, no wonder I feel dizzy although I have had my meal. I thought I had low blood sugar. Wait a minute, form-shifting—”

After Lily transformed back into human form, the combat armor returned to become a silver-white collar, just like a necklace around her neck.

“Unbelievable!” Lily curiously fiddled with the collar. “It shrank just like that. before this, it was such a giant set of gear.”

“As I’ve said before, the collar is just a switch,” Hao Ren said with a smile. “It is a small portal device designed according to the space expansion concept onboard the Petrachelys. Your armor is actually stored in another dimension, to which the collar connects.”

Lily finally got the picture. There was a broad smile across her face. “Thank you, Mr. Landlord! I love it!”