The Record of Unusual Creatures
chapter-319

Chapter 319: Your New Car

Hao Ren had compiled a report of what he saw and heard in Athens, especially about the Sacred Relic of Origins and the Day of Return. After doing so, he sent it to Raven 12345. He was now idle at home. But, he was planning to study the stuff he had brought out from the sanctuary once the research facility was ready.

The research lab was not on Earth though.

The Sacred Relic of Origins he had brought back from the ruins was huge and his house was too small for it to fit. Besides, there were other samples waiting to be analysed. He needed a dedicated research facility that was hidden and could even stand natural disasters. He had thought of many options; an underground factory, a coal mine—places like that, but they were all unreliable. Drawing from the mistake of the sorcerers who were blown to the high heavens by explosives in their sleep, he made up his mind; he was going to place his lab as far away as possible, for example, aboard his spacecraft on the Kuiper Belt.

Living on Earth, but conducting research on the Kuiper Belt; Hao Ren felt this was something he could brag about: look, my house is big, isn’t it? Everytime I wake up in the morning, I have to use the gateway to travel from my bedroom to the lab; the rocket is way too slow…

The night before, he had fixed a teleportation device in his basement. He felt that he was becoming more familiar and experienced in the job. He had to travel frequently—sometimes with his tenants—to his spacecraft. The MDT was not a good choice. It was an uncomfortable experience and its physical presence was needed to do the teleportation; with these limitations, he finally decided to install a dedicated gateway in his own house. Once the gateway was up and running, he sent everything including the Sacred Relic of Origins, which was in the Dimensional Pocket to the garage on the Petrachelys. The autonomous robots had already set up a scientific lab on the spacecraft, so everything was ready. The robotic squids would conduct a preliminary analysis on the Sacred Relic of Origin, and the onboard factory would make the necessary tools for research. Meanwhile, all Hao Ren had to do was wait—wait for the the lab report.

Hesperides had completely recovered from the “millennial hole” in her head as the demon hunter’s spell was removed. The only problem: she was weak as a baby. God’s name had not only dispelled the demon hunter’s spell, it had also cancelled out Hesperides’ magical strength. She probably needed a couple of days before she could regain her strength. Meanwhile, Vivian was hoping this old friend of hers would stay a few more days so that they could catch up on the old days. Hence, Hesperides really had no choice but to stay.

Of course, Hao Ren had no problem with that since it would be on the Space Administration’s expense. Furthermore, he could not wait for his house to achieve 100% occupancy rate.

Just as long as she did not cause any trouble.

It was nine something in the morning. Lily was out on house call. Y’zaks had gone for job interviews and was probably scaring the hell of out the pretty receptionists now. Becky and Nangong Wuyue too, had gone out early in the morning, God knows where they were at this point. The house had a rare moment of serenity when those creatures were not home—a perfect time for Hao Ren to do what he needed to do as a dad: educate Lil Pea.

It had been some time since Lil Pea was hatched. Hao Ren had basically figured out the little mermaid’s habits and characteristics; aside from an occasional defiance, she was just like any other kid. Sure, in terms of cognition, she was out of the ordinary—she understood words not long after birth and her intelligence was clearly a few notches higher than that of normal human kids.

So, Hao Ren had a busy day educating Lil Pea. He held her in his hand as he stared at her big eyes with a retarded smile on his face. “Say Dad-dee.”

Lil Pea’s braininess was obvious. She was a quick learner too. She wagged her tail and Hao Ren got two free slaps on the face. She then said in a crisp voice, “Say Dad-dee!”

Something must be wrong with my method , he thought. He awkwardly put the little one down and pointed at himself. “Dad-dee!”

“Oh.”

Hao Ren was speechless.

Both of them were engaged in this word-wrestling for like half an hour. Now you see, raising children is hard labour, especially when the kid is clearly smarter than you. No one knew where the small fry learned her wittiness from!

But, Hao Ren enjoyed it. In fact, he loved it. He liked playing the giddy goat with the little mermaid, enjoying the process as he taught her. However, Lil Pea got bored very quickly. She suddenly spotted something. She jumped down from the tea table and scurried over to the TV cabinet, biting the power strip underneath. Hao Ren was totally overwhelmed by her cuteness, his heart blooming with joy. “Hey… look at you. But that thing isn’t edible, you know!”

He had to pluck Lil Pea down from the power strip and he was shocked to discover the internal copper wire exposed.

“You should have taught her some life skills so that she won’t be so defiant,” Vivian said, coming up with an intarsia box in her hand. “Didn’t the goddess say when the going gets tough, the tough gets the mermaid going? Lil Pea may still have her teeth grinding habit; I saw her biting on the cooking gas cylinder this morning only to find that it was too hard to gnaw.”

Hao Ren had cold sweat flowing down his forehead. He asked, “This kid was that brutal?”

Vivian nodded before taking out a tape measure to measure Lil Pea. The little one laughed and flinched from the itch. Vivian threw Hao Ren a look and said, “Please keep her still.”

Hao Ren held her still, but asked, “What are you planning to do?”

“I’m going to make her a couple of new dresses.” She measured her chest and the length of her body. “Haven’t you noticed that she’s grown a little?”

Speaking of which, he indeed realised that Lil Pea felt a little weightier than before. He asked, “Do mermaids grow taller or longer?”

Vivian looked down at Lil Pea, exhanging looks with her before saying, “…Longer, I guess.”

Blinking and staring at the adults, Lil Pea flapped her tail a few times as if to tell them, yes, she had grown longer.

A sudden jingle came from the back door and a flash of white light shone through the narrow window next to it.

While Hao Ren was still wondering what had happened, the MDT called out happily, “Hey, hey, it’s your payday. Quick, check it out. Your new ride has arrived!”

Hao Ren’s face lit up. He had earlier asked for a car, which he needed for local missions. But, he put the matter on the back burner after he made the request; he figured if Raven 12345’s style was anything to go by, it would be months before anything concrete would be done. However, it was surprisingly quick this time.

With Lil Pea still in his arms, he dashed out of the back door. His new car was already waiting on the vacant spot just at the back of his house.

Hao Ren was at a lost for words.

“This is good stuff.” The MDT followed him to the back of the house, talking like a shrewd businessman. “An inspector is supposedly not entitled to a car, but Madam Raven asked one of her friends to design one for you. It’s a special privilege. The car has a strong shield, much stronger than what you have on your body. The entire car structure is built using aerospace-grade alloy; light-weight, yet strong. Its power source is a military-grade psionic reactor, you won’t have to worry about refueling until the end of the world. It’s got bold lines and looks graceful too; it’s also got a panaromic-view cockpit, CVT transmission, smart satnav, climate control, space expansion device and most important of all, it looks perfectly earthly so you don’t have to worry about attracting unwanted attention…”

Hao Ren was still silent. When the MDT finished, Hao Ren flung it out with a snap. “Please tell me what the heck is with this design?”

Still on its way out, the MDT replied, “What’s under the hood is more important!”

“Hood my foot! This thing can’t even go on to the Third Ring Road!” Hao Ren was mad. “Don’t you know that tricycles are banned from entering the city?”