The Record of Unusual Creatures
chapter-254

Chapter 254: Navigating Loopholes

A sense of relief filled Hao Ren as a solution had been found for the Aerymian elves. After all, he had just put in little effort; he thought about it and made a decision, that was it. As the saying goes, “somebody’s gotta to do it”—and this was the only thing Hao Ren could do. He was the only one who could accomplish this.

Nonetheless, he was clear that the real work was yet to come. It would take more than just a phone call to accomplish it. Until the elves safely arrive in their new home and are able to adapt to their new environment, his mission was not accomplished. Therefore, he had to get down to work.

Before meeting up with Hilda and informing her about all this, he had to write a report to Raven 12345.

“If I tell Raven 12345 everything, is she going to kill me?” Hao Ren asked the MDT worriedly as he wrote his report. “I’m clearly taking advantage of the loopholes. Just writing this alone would have God strike me with lightning: In order to conduct exploration, mining, scientific research, and build outposts as well as settlements, 1,076,520,000 elves have been recruited as employees and tenants…”

Meanwhile, Lily was squatting on the bench and scratching her face with her foot. As she listened to Hao Ren reading out his report, she said, “Landlord, honestly, it wouldn’t just be a lightning strike…”

“There’s something you lot don’t know about Madam Raven; not only won’t she become ballistic after reading the report, she’ll also feel that you and her are totally in sync with each other temperamentally…”

“What you say has no difference from being struck by lightning.” Hao Ren smacked the MDT back onto the table. “And you say it like you know her very well.”

“My system almost crashed when she meddlled with some of my plug-ins, it was during that life-and-death moment that I got a deep impression about Madam Raven. You must impress her by unleashing your wild imagination because her brain is already unresponsive to normal levels of brain activity.”

After working his fingers to the bone, Hao Ren finally completed the thousand-word report, which was filled with a death wish and open-minded views. He knew he was not good in writing, but the report was important. After he entered everything into the MDT, as usual, he pulled Lily over and said, “Help me with the editing part…”

Not to be misled by the husky’s flaky outlook, she was a literary worker through and through. No doubt, the weirdness she displayed before Hao Ren and Vivian was her true self. She did not have to fake it before the very people she was familiar with. Lily took over the MDT and started correcting the bad grammar, death-wishing sentences and other minutiae. When she was finally done, the report had been reduced to 700 words…

“It’s still not more than 800 words. I couldn’t get 800 words in my high school exam either. It looks like I’m stuck there forever.” Looking at the edited report, which now sounded nicer, Hao Ren shook his head haplessly. He then sent it out, sat in the chair and waited for the lightning to arrive—if there was no lightning strike in five minutes, that meant the MDT’s assessment of the psychopath was right.

Five minutes had passed. Nothing happened. Only a one-sentence reply from Raven 12345 arrived. “Reading, please wait, no comment so far.”

The check-post was passed. As long as the god on duty had no opinion, the migration of Aerymian elves should be clear sailing from now on.

It was time to meet Hilda. But, Hao Ren had another thought: He and Hilda needed a break as much as Battie, Doggie and Y’zaks. Since they arrived from Earth, they had been snowed under with the propulsion system explosion and its aftermath, followed by writing up reports and meeting with the elders. Be it a superhuman or mage of the higher-order, both Hao Ren and Hilda were really exhausted. A day off was an absolute necessity. Not forgetting that the 883 captain was still in his long-haul flight. If he was not in a hurry, there was no point for others to haste.

After keeping quiet for a moment, Lily began mumbling as she lay on the table. She was feeling hungry and bored. To a husky, the latter was fatal. Food was not a problem here. She had enough supplies in Hao Ren’s Dimensional Pocket for her to pig out several rounds. However, when it came to boredom, not much could be done: in Aerym, there were no video games, no entetainment, no places for shopping. The highly restrained society had long discarded activities that were deemed unproductive; their people did not have the privilege for leisure activity and they had not been in the mood for it. The fact that Hilda was in shock when she saw a balloon with a banner in the air was telling. What’s more, the city was experiencing a disasterous aftermath. Lily could not just go scampering outside. Looking at the pitiful maiden mumbling to herself, Hao Ren grabbed the MDT and passed it to her. “What about playing tetris?”

“Damn you! Can’t you use me in a more proper way?”

“No. I have to control myself. People are suffering here, I can’t allow myself to be immersed in pleasure.” Lily suddenly got serious. She was not in the mood. She approached the window, looking out. “They’re clearing the Royal District now. Landlord, could you please pass me the spicy strips. I just finished mine.”

“You should eat a proper meal.” Hao Ren took out a few packs of spicy strips from his Dimensional Pocket. Lily took them and walked into her room. A loud noise came from afar, then a Royal Guard came in hurriedly. “A giant, white monster just jumped off from this level. It’s scaling the wall in front of the shield. Do you know what it is?”

Hao Ren fell off his chair. He now realised why Lily asked for the spicy strips when she saw the street-clearing work in the Royal District beneath them; the fidgety husky felt the need to help and she shapeshifted.

They scurried to the window. At the edge of the Royal District, they saw a three-storey-tall husky scrambling left and right, up and down, trying to get away from a group of halpless elves who were encircling her. Both were in a stalemate. The naive maiden always dived in headfirst—probably due to eating too many spicy strips. She could only bark like a dog in her transformed body. There was no way the guards were going to understand her. Worry filled Vivian’s face. She spread out her wings and attempted to go. “I’m going after her. She may get into even bigger trouble in her shapeshifted form.”

Hao Ren quickly reminded her, “Go to her room and check if she left her clothes. Bring it to her.”

Vivian had taught Lily how to not spoil her clothes during shapeshifting, but Lily had not mastered it. So, Vivian had to follow with her clothes wherever Lily went. During the last few times she shapeshifted, Lily did it in the wasteland behind their house whenever she felt like getting some fresh air during the full moon. As such, she did not cause any trouble to those around. That aside, Hao Ren noticed an interesting thing: the two did not seem to like each other very much, and fought like cats and dogs at times; apart from that, they appeared more like friends than foes, Hao Ren thought.

The elven guard who came in was dumbstruck. Hao Ren tried to explain with a hollow smile. “That’s our friend. She would like to help clear the streets.”

The elven guard left in confusion; the mind of another good lad was destroyed by the arational creature. Hao Ren did not have time to lament because the voice of Raven 12345 came into his head. “Whoa, it seems you’re doing very well over there.”

Hao Ren instantly became nervous. “Thanks to the administration…”

He knew Raven 12345 would eventually call after she saw the report.

“Save it. Where the hell did you learn that from?” Raven 12345 sounded like she was in a good mood though. “I’ve read your report. You’re pretty broad-minded. In fact, I knew you were going to evacuate the entire elven race, but I didn’t expect you to bring them over to my place—and hell, you actually still remember that planet.”

“That’s…”

“Approval granted. It’s not a big deal. Since you can already handle it yourself using help from civilians, I don’t have to send a colonial fleet. And this will be kept as a Category-E operation. As long as the operation doesn’t go against civilisation preservation, everything’s negotiable. Regulations of the Macroworld are a lot more lax now compared to the past. The MDT must have taught you about this, am I correct? Navigating loopholes in the regulations and incident laws is beyond the ability of a rookie.”

Hao Ren glanced at the MDT—it shut ifself off and lay on the table, pretending to be a coaster.

It was the first time Hao Ren felt that the MDT was awesome.