The Record of Unusual Creatures
chapter-630

Chapter 630: Sorting

While the two MDTs were “happily” exchanging their feelings, Hao Ren was beginning to bust his buns.

Originally, the Petrachelys only had one instrument to analyze the vengeful spirit, but immediately after learning about Saint Sur IV, he immediately ordered the onboard factory to work overtime to roll out a new instrument. It did not take the shipboard plant long to manufacture it as he had the blueprint. Hao Ren took the new instrument out of his Dimensional Pocket, installed the energy core and calibrated it. The device gave off a soft buzzing sound, and the bowl-shaped groove in the center of the instrument began to shimmer.

“Now place the vengeful spirit in here. You’ll then be able to read its data.” Hao Ren pointed to the instrument. “But as per our last tests, the data reading will be very confusing. It will include not only the memory of the vengeful spirit, but also its own ‘existing information’. It’s like a messy hard drive, where all stored data and system files have been scrambled into garbled characters. It won’t make sense when you read them.”

Galazur looked with great interest at the instrument Hao Ren took out. “This thing looks sophisticated… No harm trying.”

She controlled the magic stones, and the strong magnetic field dragged the vengeful spirit towards the analyzer like an invisible container. With great caution, the irascible light was transferred into the groove without much hassle.

The instrument’s analysis module immediately went online and began to read the information from the vengeful spirit with a buzz.

Nangong Wuyue watched anxiously. Anything related to the vengeful spirit invariably reminded her of her missing parents, so she was particularly nervous in that moment. The people around her had long known about her issues; they all stepped back from her instinctively, lest they were caught by her tail…

Rollie roamed around unsteadily on one leg, staring at the lights on the instrument. The electrostatic environment made her feel nervous and restrained. Hao Ren had noticed the cat’s reaction; he reached out and held her head. “Don’t move.”

Thanks to the previous vengeful-spirit decoding program, the instrument was now working a lot smoother. Besides, the vengeful spirit sample Galazur provided was better than the one caught by Hao Ren in terms of “health”. Soon enough, some information was extracted. The hologram on the analyzer began to display some bizarre images and characters, which flashed by quickly, giving off a high-tech feeling. But as always, it was all useless.

“I knew it would turn out like this.” Hao Ren shrugged. “The same happened when it read the other vengeful spirit. It’s all garbled codes.”

Galazur looked at the garbled symbols thoughtfully and suddenly said, “Wait a second, these may not be garbled codes.”

Hao Ren immediately looked up at her.

“Although I don’t have as much experience as you have in dealing with the vengeful spirit, I have more experience in other aspects,” said Galazur, pointing at the garbled symbols. “Look at these symbols… Although they appear messy, there are repetitive points just like markers. Look at these chaotic images. They’re sequential, meaning that they should be able to form a video clip.”

Hao Ren scratched his chin. “Well, I had the same thought too, but it doesn’t make sense to label and connect these continuous, repetitive images. It’s still a mess. At most, it changes from a static mosaic to an animated mosaic. What’s the difference?”

Galazur shook her head. “At least it proves that the information is not meaningless. The existence of a pattern means there’s information. The problem isn’t in the data, but how we interpret it.”

Hao Ren quietly waited for her next sentence as Galazur closed her eyes and meditated. The dragon had been an inspector for thousands of years, seen enough worlds and races. Her extensive knowledge was the most valuable asset. After a moment of recollection, the dragon queen opened her eyes and continued, “I’m reminded of a strange race I encountered previously. They were infected with a very special condition called ‘non-linear memory’.”

Lily ears stood on end. “Non-linear?”

As she was straight-minded herself, she was particularly sensitive when she heard the word “non-linear”.

“Yes, non-linear.” Galazur nodded. “It’s also known as ‘disorderly memory’, where memory is in no particular order, and there’s no concept of time. The patient’s memory is just like a plane, and all information is stored on the same plane. Yesterday’s memory is mixed with today’s; things from childhood are mixed with things from adulthood. When the condition is mild, you can still identify the memory in terms of the year. However, when it gets worse, it’s a complete mess, with the memory of one second mixing with the next, byte by byte. Do you know the consequences of this?”

Hao Ren tried to imagine, and cold sweat started to trickle down his forehead. “They can’t think at all.”

“Yes, the essence of this disease is the lost of the ability to organize memory. Hence, the patient will feel that everything is happening at the same time. From their first fall when they were young to every detail in their adulthood, they will all be piled together. Patients in the late-stage will end up bedridden like a turnip. Their brains will be stuffed with memories, but because of the lack of an index, they can’t do anything, not even knowing what they’re thinking themselves.”

Hao Ren thought of the files on a computer’s hard disk: files, which were originally arranged by the date of creation suddenly losing all their timestamps, and the whole folder becoming a mess. He knew what Galazur was trying to convey. “You’re saying that vengeful spirit’s memory is non-linear?”

“I suspect it, but I’m not sure,” said Galazur, frowning. “The race I mentioned had this illness that produced non-linear memory. If this is congenital, how do they live? I can’t imagine how they think with a non-linear memory.”

“Don’t forget that they’re ‘vengeful spirits’,” Hao Ren said. “They’re actually dead. The First Born has destroyed the conscience as well as the sorting mechanism of these spiritual creatures, leading to the disorderly accumulation of all their information. We should first think of ways to create an index table for them, then we can reorganize the useful information instead of crack the code.”

“How do we go about it?” Galazur looked at Hao Ren. “Restructuring this information without an index is as difficult as reconstructing a city from yellow sand.”

Hao Ren had no idea what to do. His knowledge was not as good as that of Galazur’s in the field. The MDT suddenly came up to them. “It’s not necessary to use the timetable for indexing. I can try some other algorithms—at least it’s something for now.”

Hao Ren stepped back from the console. “Well, you can try it.”

The MDT inserted itself into the analyzer’s console. It flickered in a blue light as data and images quickly flashed past in its holographic projections. Then something came up; some symbols were extracted, and a brand new entry was created. Hao Ren did not understand what it was trying to do, but he knew that the MDT was trying to compile a directory for the memory of the vengeful spirit.

This list did not necessarily have to be arranged chronologically. It could have been sorted based on size, or similarity between the data packages. For a creature that had died more than 10,000 years ago, the timestamp of each event it went through was not important, but rather the events themselves were.

“Looks like it works,” said Nangong Sanba, looking serious.

Hao Ren looked at the holographic projection, wide-eyed. “How do you know?”

“I don’t. I was just guessing. Yeah, I’m toffee-nosed.”

He was met with silence.

However, Nangong Sanba had guessed right; the new algorithm worked.

The blue light from the MDT was switched off as it popped out of the slot. It was elated. “It’s done. I’ve reset the search method. Our previous idea of decoding is problematic. What it needs is not decoding at all.”

Hao Ren looked at the analyzer in surprise. “Can you read it now?”

“Reading it… As the algorithm isn’t perfect yet, reading speed and accuracy won’t be great, but it’s better than nothing,” said the MDT happily and proudly. “Now we can start with the first sample.”