The Record of Unusual Creatures
chapter-534

Chapter 534: Out-of-Control Hibernation

Vivian carefully tried to recall her memories before she shook her head. “I have no impression.”

“Do you remember what happened before you slept 300 years ago?” Hao Ren felt like he was now a psychologist. “After you were done with the vengeful spirit, you went into hibernation because of drowsiness. Do you have any impressions of those days?”

Vivian’s brows were knitted together as she struggled to recall. After a while, she shook her head. “I still don’t have any impressions. But I’m sure I forgot about some details before I slept, including giving this box to Pavel. I only remember that I was tired and sleepy after defeating the vengeful spirit. The only thing on my mind that time was to find a quiet place so that I could sleep. I still vaguely remember handing two pieces of stone to two minions, but I have no idea under what circumstances they were given those stones, and what other items I’ve also given out. I totally have no impressions whatsoever.”

Hao Ren drew on the table with his finger and put the information revealed by the manuscript and the clues he gathered. “Now talk about what is known. Just like you said, you had two types of sleep; one is that you went into sleep on your own to get through hard times. Let’s not talk about this type now. The other type is drowsiness and you couldn’t help but sleep, resulting in a substantial weakening of power and amnesia. This type of sleep has one thing in common: you experienced a state of irritability, and it was usually followed by a fight. Sometimes you didn’t even remember who you were battling, but nevertheless you had to fight with someone before you exhausted yourself and fell asleep. After waking up, you forgot about what had happened earlier, especially the negative emotions. You only learned from the manuscript that you were plagued by those negative emotions after waking up.”

Vivian gently nodded and pointed to a sentence near the end of the manuscript. “I have left some comments here, which should have been written seven hundred years ago. It says ‘I have been confused. A detailed reasoning was carried out seven hundred years ago but it failed to figure out this matter. So I decided to set aside the truth for the time being, and concentrated on keeping a record of every sleep and waking up, hoping to accumulate enough information to crack this strange phenomenon in the future.”

“Besides, I don’t know if this is an important, there was one more thing in common before you slept,” said Hao Ren, his hands locked together under his nose, his face serious. “I was only after the restoration of your strength that you started another sleep. The manuscript mentioned that in more than one occasion that after your ‘full recovery of strength’ you decided to take on a journey or do something. But every time after that you became restless and looked for fight.”

Vivian blinked. “Is my passive sleep related to my recovery of strength? As soon as I recovered my full strength, I would immediately feel drowsy again?”

“It’s just a guess.” Hao Ren scratched his chin and his face gloomy. “Anyway, I feel that something is amiss. Your condition… is a bit worrying.”

“I’m worried too,” said Vivien, compressing her lips anxiously. “I don’t even know what’s going with me… For the first time ever that I feel forgetfulness is bad. I’ve been used to the forgetfulness but now I feel that the most troublesome thing in the world is to have forgot what I have forgot. Even I’ve forgot that I’ve forgot what I’ve forgot…”

Hao Ren was stunned, drawing with his finger for a long while trying to figure out what she was saying before he finally looked up. “I think the most troublesome thing in the world is to understand what you’ve just said.”

Revealing her fangs, Vivian said, “I suddenly feel helpless. I can’t believe that I’ve lost control of it.”

Then the two of them were silently for a while before Hao Ren suddenly broke the silence by asking, “You feel sleepy now?”

“A bit,” Vivian took a little stretch. When she saw Hao Ren’s reaction, she laughed. “Don’t worry. It’s just a normal drowsiness. I think there’s still some time before the next sleeping cycle hits, at least after my strength has recovered to its heyday. The symptom of my passive sleepiness is very obvious, you should be able to notice my abnormal emotion. Remember to remind me, maybe… maybe this time I could be controlled.”

Hao Ren laughed, confidently patting on his chest. “Don’t worry, I have high technology—if I can’t figure it out, I can ask the Goddess to treat you. Like the old saying goes: Prolonged illness makes the patient a good doctor. Raven 12345 has had several thousand years of brain damage, treating your amnesia would be just a walk in the park.”

Vivian was almost freaked out, thinking that the goddess couldn’t even cure herself, what made her capable to treat others? But at the end of the day, the vampire maiden still feared the Goddess, she did not say it out.

But judging from the magical power of Raven 12345, Vivian’s faith in the Goddess had increased a little. As incompetent as the Raven 12345 was, she was still a Goddess and should have no problem treating the mortal.

If her ‘amnesia’ was really an illness.

The two of them continued to discuss the contents of the manuscript, and about the discrepancies between what Vivian had recall and the contents of the manuscript. At last they found out that Vivian’s amnesia had a strong pattern, she would forget everything about the ‘negative emotions before the hibernation’. The records of these negative emotions in the manuscript were all written before the sleep, and were copied again word-for-word after waking up. For now, there was no discrepancy between her memory and the contents of the manuscript. Also, the authenticity of these records was unquestionable: Vivian would absolutely not be wrong in regard to her own blood.

Apart from that, there was not much progress made.

Luckily, though Vivian had completely forgot about the manuscript, she had found it back somehow—it was the luckiest moment for this 10,000-year-old poor vampire.

Looking at the small wooden box that was ripped apart on the table, Hao Ren could not help but say, “Why did you hide the manuscript in the interlayer of the box? Have we not ripped it apart today, I’m afraid no one’s going to find it.”

Vivian was not surprised. “It’s a safety measure. A three-hundred-year-old jewellery box is still a box no matter how exquisite it is. It would not attract attention when placed alongside your grandma’s old dowry. But thing would be very different for a well-preserved manuscript from the ancient Egyptian era—the fabric is unknown, the ink is unknown, the text is unknown, carbon isotope detection can trace it back thousands of years ago, who would dare to let it be exposed on the outside? But then I didn’t know that Pavel could live until now. I must be worried that his descendants would be unreliable, so I hid the manuscript in the wooden box.”

Hao Ren was silent for a moment and suddenly stared into Vivian’s eyes. “No matter when your next sleep would be, we must find a way to solve this problem now. I don’t want to suddenly find you in a hibernation and could only say hello to you after a couple of centuries.”

“Me too,” Vivian smiled. “And it’s hard to find a good life like now… I don’t want to forget about everything this time around.”

The two of them felt the atmosphere was a bit boring. Hao Ren steered the conversation away as he pointed to the blood-red crystal that was brought out along with the manuscript: “What is this again?”

“I don’t know. There’s no mention in the manuscript.” Vivian caressed the crystal with her hand. “But I can feel this thing is a condensation of my blood. The time of making should be three hundred years ago. I must have probably forgot to record it down. By keeping till this day, it must be of something useful.”

Vivian said, shoving the blood-red crystal into her pocket and then looking up at Hao Ren. “Let’s not talking about me. You come here for something?”

“Oh, I want you to see the lifeblood.” Hao Ren passed a tube of lifeblood sample to Vivian. “Part of the samples are being nurtured in the spacecraft lab. Please help study this sample by using your blood magic and see if you can find a way to contact the goddess. I have been staring at this thing for a long time but haven’t been able to figure out its relationship with the brainwaves.”

“Is it urgent?”

“Not at all. Things about The Plane of Dreams is a big project.” Hao Ren waved his hand. “Take your time.”

The two of them chat for a while before Hao Ren left the basement and returned to his room.

He looked out of the window at the moonlight in a daze. He then summoned the MDT that was projecting a movie for him on the table. He said, “Write a report to Raven 12345.”