The Record of Unusual Creatures
chapter-452

Chapter 452: Departure

Planet Aerym aka Peatopia. Synchronous orbital position.

Although they hadn’t entered the era of interstellar travel, the Aerymian elves had stayed in their own mother planet for thousands of years and succussfully developed space station technology, planetless space colonial technology and whatnot which had far exceeded the achievement of other similar civilisations. As they moved to the new Aerym, they had also brought along these technological know-hows. The space facilities they brought were now being re-assembled and launched into the synchronous orbits. There they were—the three transit stations on the geostationary orbit right above their new home planet.

On one of the transit stations, the fleet was ready. The silver-gray steel spaceships were in formation with more than a dozen large and slender motherships in the centre. An incalculable number of triangular spacecrafts and small dart-like battleships formed the massive fleet. Even if the Aerymian elves hadn’t been able to colonise any planets in their homeland, they had tried their best to develop a very advanced aerospace technology. Intrastellar fleet could be just as epic.

The one billion Aerymian immigrants had brought thousands of spacecrafts with them. Although they were outdated and could not match the fleet of the interstellar civilisations, they did look quite a presence in space. At least Hao Ren who had never seen such a scene before was widemouthed for a long while. But Ysre and Aylu surpassed him in every aspects in terms of bumpkinness as they both rooted to the spot like for the whole day. Though the two elven aides had been in countless wars, never had they witnessed such a massive fleet of spacecrafts in the space.

Among the thousands of ships, there were many armed cruisers and small escort ships which could not be categorised as battleships. These spacecrafts were surrounding the larger motherships. When looking at a distance, these smaller ships looked like dregs falling off the bigger spaceships.

Hao Ren felt like he was overly imaginative at time.

If in accordance with the professional space code of conduct, unless there was a technology known as the ‘joint shield’ in place, all fleets of battleships were absolutely prohibited from forming such a dense formation to prevent the high-speed shrapnels from an exploded spacecraft destroying the nearby, friendly units. Large and medium-sized space battleships were usually arranged at intervals of thousands to tens of thousands of kilometers apart, the specific value depended on the technical model and size of the fleet. At the moment, the reason why these Aerymians spacecrafts were so arranged was because they were not carrying out regular warfare, and it was necessary to keep them closely enough in order to pass through the temporary World Gate which was limited in dimensions.

Hao Ren stood on the bridge of the Petrachelys with Lily overlooking the mighty forces before them as both were in a state of excitement, with the only difference that Hao Ren would not bite the chair like Lily did. The image of Hilda appeared on the transmission panel. Her Majesty smiled to Hao Ren. “I put my people’s lives in your hand, but Vimm will personally lead them. But I hope you would bring them home safely.”

“You have my word,” Hao Ren assured her as he patted on the chest. “To be honest, your technology may appear inadequate in this universe, but when applied in another, you could almost go in and out like a boss. There are no more than a handful of guys which could shoot down your spacecrafts with Fireball.”

Hilda nodded, and the MDT which was slotted in the control panel snapped. “Get ready. The World Gate is opened.”

As the voice of the MDT faded, a strange phenomenon appeared in space. The space in front of the fleet began to warp, starlights from the distant space appeared to dissipate away, and a film of hundreds of kilometers across popped open. Through the sparkling light film one could see the image of another universe.

Then a glitter appeared on the light film before it transformed into a line of text:

Death is nothing, if you can’t get AROUND it, fight it. SO Let’s not bring shame to ourSELVES. We will not bully as much as be bullied. Success depends on 3% luck, 7% hard work, and 90% rash. Best wishes from the MOSTLY GREATEST AND BRIGHTEST Goddess, Raven 12345.

Hao Ren, “…..”

It seemed even Lily could not stand that. She covered her head in her arms and hid under the chair. “Landlord, please don’t show my face on the transmission screen.”

Hao Ren let out a sigh, and hit the radio button. “Let’s roll!”

Then the Petrachelys led the way into the World Gate as the mighty fleet of battleships followed from behind. Hao Ren gazed again at the words: DEATH IS NOTHING, IF YOU CAN’T GET AROUND IT, FIGHT IT which were transmitted into the cockpit via the external cam, his heart suddenly surged with a sense of pride.

For the first time in his life, he had brought so many people to gang fight.

Passing through the World Gate was only a matter of seconds. In the blink of an eye, the mighty fleet had already arrived in another universe. As the twisted images and radio interference began to normalise, Hao Ren saw scene outside the spacecraft.

“Here we are, at the border of the bubble zone. We’re on the ‘outside’,” Hao Ren gazed out into the space outside. “… Y’zaks is right.”

The vast space with bright stars.

Aside from the splendid fields of stars, the external cam had also captured images of an incredible landscape: it seemed the distribution of stars in the universe looked unnatural, a large area of the stars was twisted as if spinning in the same direction like a whirlpool. In the twisting, swirling centre of the whirlpool was a dazzlingly silver-white spot where a vaguely recognizable image could be seen.

The MDT adjusted the recognition sensitivity and the image differential compensation parameters of the eternal cam, and finally a clearer image of the silver-white spots was captured.

It turned out the whirlpool was a reflective sphere, the so-called silvery-white spot was actually the reflection of the stars and Aerymian fleet.

“If I’m not mistaken, that’s the entrance to the bubble zone.” The voice of the MDT was heard on the control panel. “Strictly speaking, the bubble zone is the projection of the three-dimensional universe. It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand. What you need to do now is floor the throttle and get right in there. Oh right, maybe I’ll do it this time… by the way, when could you finish studying the tutorial, eh?”

Hao Ren slapped the MDT. “No one would blame you if you keep your mouth shut!”

Then he turned his eyes on the communication panel, Vimm instantly showed up in the holographic projection.

“The MDT will lead you in. It will create a series of teleporting portals by using the special function of the spacecraft. If you need assistance, just contact the Petrachelys directly. Meanwhile, we will go and meet Y’zaks. We’re going to do some necessary ‘fixes’ to the wreckage while waiting for you there.”

Wim nodded and said, “Good luck.”

Hao Ren nodded back before he led Lily and the two elves leaving the bridge to go to the teleport station in the Petrachelys.

Though the versatile inspector-official spacecraft could not match the firepower of the military version, it did have many useful features, such as the ability to remotely set its teleporting destination for easier and more convenient execution of missions.

The teleport station was located at the back of the bridge, was a semicircular room, large enough to teleport a dozen people in a single platform.

While the weird spatial structure of the bubble zone presented some challenge, teleporting a small number of personnel in and out was relatively easy, at least not a problem to the Petrachelys. In the case of teleporting a mass not exceeding a certain threshold, the ship’s powerful onboard computer could disregard the chaotic structure of the bubble zone and directly established a transmission path at any point in the bubble zone.

As for the destination coordinates, Hao Ren had it noted down right before they left Helcrown.

Vivian was hanging with Nangong Wuyue at the terrace in Helcrown palace, looking out at the huge wreckage in the faraway darkness. Tiny little dots of light could be seen twinkling at the wreckage of the spacecraft, those were the personnel Y’zaks had sent out to explore the wreckage. For the last two days, technicians who had the ability to go to space had all been assigned to the wreckage to check the state of the wreckage, such as whether there was a rupture in the critical places: it was to prepare for the inpending departure.

Just at that moment, the air on the terrace suddenly warped before Hao Ren and several others appeared before the two maidens.

As soon as they arrived, Lil Pea cheerfully jumped onto Nangong Wuyue and started recounting happily to her fellow fish sister about his dad-dee dummy in the Aerymian square. Hao Ren smiled at Vivian. “Everything is ready. Go and inform Y’zaks ready to repair spacecraft wreckage. I’ve brought in engineering machinery, and our goal is to make that big toy fly within a day!”