The Record of Unusual Creatures
chapter-1275

Chapter 1275: Long Time No Talk

Hao Ren certainly knew that the original function of Sunscorch Tower was not of a wifi adapter, but it did not stop him from piggybacking the new application on the tower. After some reasoning, he figured that the fascinating force of Order was the reason why the tower could act as an antenna. In other words, it concerned the power of the goddess of creation.

The external, signal-blocking of Collow was almost certainly something the goddess of the creation had left behind. It was precisely this firewall that blocked the communication with the outside world. Hao Ren had been suspecting from the very beginning that the force of Order in Collow was a variant of the power of the goddess of creation.

It had become a force that mortals could touch, but the goddess of creation’s attributes remained.

So it was not surprising that a tower used to broadcast the force of Order could also act as a signal antenna that penetrated the goddess’ power shield.

There was still a strong interference when the communication was first reestablished. But Nolan had started the number-crunching to filter out the clutter. After an intense debugging session, Hao Ren began to feel that the voice coming into his mind became clear and the connection was stable.

“Buddy, it’s good to hear from you again.” The first to speak was the MDT, which had been hanging on the line all this while. “You daughter, cat, Battie, and Y’zaks have been torturing me for the last couple of days.”

Hao Ren had not heard the babbling of the MDT for a while. He did not know what to react. “Save the nonsense. I might have found a way to get a stable connection. Hurry up and jot this frequency down. It will be the standard frequency we use while I am here. Lock the search band of all devices to it. Don’t lose me again.”

Hao Ren heard a noisy sound at the other end. It was the robotic voice of Nolan, the MDT giving its commands, and the babel of his other tenants. He felt warmth in his heart when hearing the racket. But there was a pain in the neck when he heard Nangong Wuyue hurling, “Hurry up and get Lil Pea down. Do not let her spray water on the console. Her dad-dee is not there!”

The baby fish was still as mischievous as ever.

Fortunately, Vivian and Y’zaks were holding down the fort. The noisy creatures quickly quieted down and let the MDT and Nolan a space to complete the calibration of equipment. While Nolan was adjusting the signal amplification, Hao Ren told the MDT about his situation.

“Oh my gosh, buddy. What an adventure you have there. Like the goddess said, you are a busy body.” The MDT sounded as if it needed a good smack, but Hao Ren felt it cordial at this moment. “Collow, the War of Chaos and Order, the legend of Rockmarton; all these things sound like pretty much like of the Plane of Dreams. Give me a minute. I will send the information to the CARS and compare it with the big database. Maybe we could find something.”

“Do it.” Hao Ren said. “What is the situation on your side?”

“Everyone in the family is fine. Your daughter just sprayed me with water and is now getting an earful from Wuyue. Vivian has been calm, but she has not cooked for three days. Everyone ate instant noodles every day.”

“I didn’t ask you this!”

“Ahem. Outside, everything is normal,” the MDT replied matter-of-factly. “I have called back a group of drones to help hack the divine energy shield and be ready for any eventuality—Vivian suggested it. The drone cluster has set up a large number of armed outposts and monitoring stations near the location where you disappeared. Nolan had also towed several asteroids, which after modification, we made them into an orbital cannon base. Besides that, there is an information base station, a drone nest, ultra-high power gain antenna, armory, and other things. I am sending you a summary report, you may confirm it.”

Sensing something amiss, Hao Ren interrupted the MDT. “Hey, wait a minute. Who come I got the feeling that you are preparing for a war? Are you going to fire at me as soon as I get out?”

“Hey, buddy, in all fairness, if you were me, what would you do if the situation is unclear?”

Hao Ren thought for a moment. Considering the security situation of the Plane of Dreams, the various threats he had encountered in this universe, the Mad Lord and his lackeys, he replied slowly, “If that is not enough firepower, bring the cannons from the CARS.”

“All right.”

“Can you track my current signal and find a way to open a teleporting channel from the physical universe to the Kolo dimension?”

The MDT, silent for a long time, seemed to be doing some calculations.

“Buddy, I am afraid it would be difficult. If Nolan and my calculation are correct, the Collow dimension you are talking about is a locked dimension with a radius of about 2-4 light years, outside which has a phase transition zone of 10,000 light years. It is the reality of the material world that we can only see from the outside. This series of blockades is done with the blessing of the true God. It is correct to say that except the existing vulnerabilities, it is almost impossible for us to create a new one out of thin air.”

“Not even the slightest possibility?” Hao Ren frowned.

The MDT was silent for a while before it said, “It is not entirely impossible. The fact that you can communicate with the outside world means this locked space does leave a window for external information exchange. Hacking the firewall of the true God with brute force attack is less effective than working with it.”

“I can contact you through the power of the Sunscorch Tower, which is the carrier of the goddess of creation’s divine power. But it is hard to find a more powerful divine medium in Collow than this. At least I haven’t found one. If you can find a more powerful relic of the goddess, maybe we can build a more stable two-way connection and even carry out physical transportation.”

“I have an idea,” the MDT replied. “The CARS has many relics of the goddess. We can build a conversion device.”

“Good. Do it as soon as possible,” Hao Ren replied. “Is Vivian next to you? Let me speak with her.”

It was still noisy on the other side of the connection. A moment later, Vivian’s voice sounded. “Hao Ren?”

Hao Ren suddenly choked his words. He could not think of anything to say although he had a lot to tell Vivian earlier. After a long while, he managed to say, “I am great here.”

“Me too,” Vivian replied. She was a little hesitant too, but the atmosphere quickly to come to life when she said, “Have you found Doggie?”

“I have no idea where she is,” Hao Ren had a headache when Lily came to mind, “but I know she is fine—better than me. Oh, don’t worry, she is a husky, missing for a week or two is entirely normal. She can survive in the wild, much stronger than anyone else.”

“That’s true.”

After a while of casual chattering, the line was back to the MDT. “Ahem, do you have anything else to say? I’m going to hang up now,” Hao Ren said.

“Are you busy there?” the MDT asked curiously.

Hao Ren looked up and around. Rudolph III’s family of four, several officials, and a tower guard were standing not far away in a semicircle staring at him. Having no idea what was going on in the mental communication in Hao Ren’s mind, they could only see the ancient guardian squatting by the pool, one hand in the pool, and was in meditation. But looking from behind, it was as if Hao Ren was having constipation.

“I tell you what; I am now kneeling beside a pool, dipping my finger in the liquid. There was a group of people standing behind me watching me playing with water. I feel stupid.”

“Buddy, try to sit with your legs crossed, point at the sky with the finger on the other hand while putting up a poker face. Doesn’t it look cool?”

“Well, pass the line to Lil Pea.”

The MDT suddenly freaked out. “Oh, no no no. I have something to tell you.”

“Say it quickly—I look stupider with every passing minute here.”

“The CARS had done the number crunching. After the central computer analyzed the sample of the language of Collow, guess what it has found?”

“What is it?”

“Many of the vocabularies that you submitted are not native to the Collow language. Instead, they are all of the foreign languages, and closer in structure and pronunciation to the text we have collected in Coldpath. They are the languages of the gods. In their language, Collow means ‘prison’, and Rockmarton means ‘the original, the first.'”