The Record of Unusual Creatures
chapter-652

Chapter 652: The Goddess Has Died

In the spiritual space formed by virtual links, it was bustling with activity as the figures of inspectors from various parts of the world were shuttling through this chaotic space. Many were reviewing the innumerable materials of civilisations the entire macro world. Hao Ren was one of them.

The database of the Ark civilisation was laid bare in his head with vast amount of information flooding his mind.

Having had the experience with the Tannagost database, Hao Ren was already familiar with such ultra-high-bandwidth virtual connections and was no longer as over-excited as when he first made the link. He just stayed focused and slowly navigated through the vast amount of information looking for the things that were most representative of a civilisation – history, art, law, religion, and social models. Any civilisation that had left the ‘Doomsday Database’ would meticulously categorise things and place them in the most easily accessible location, just as plants leaving behind seeds, animals leaving behind their offspring, ‘preserving their own information’ was an instinct of all living things.

Witnessing a civilisation coming out from ignorance, stepping into space amid the flames, steel, war and peace, and finally disappearing in the night sky like fireworks was not a pleasant experience. Very quickly, Hao Ren had finished with the history section and begun to focus on the logs before the destruction of the Ark civilisation.

The people who left these logs apparently realised that their civilisation was teetering on the edge of destruction, they recorded in detail all the things that happened in the last days, especially the anomalies—the shaking of the earth, the changes in the sky, the magnetic field, and the sun etc. Everything had been recorded with great care. Like a dying victim in a murder, trying to leave behind as much evidence as possible, if things came to the point of no return, someone could help them find out the truth of the murder. Many of these clues were not of help, because the level of civilisation of the race that left behind the log was low, their understanding of the First Born was still superficial, and they did not know what clues were most useful, but Hao Ren still found something of great concern. It was a diary left behind by a scientist, reserved for the people to come.

“…re-compiling the astronomical records before the arrival of The Denizens of the Stars and found the record of the observations of a red supernova ‘Eaton’. This mystical object is one of the most bewildering phenomena to our race. It hangs in the emptiest sky and always maintains the same brightness, and no observation of it has ever determined the distance of this star. Its characteristics do not meet the standard of stars, and planet should not be so bright… Before the arrival of the Denizens of the Stars, ‘Eaton’ had exploded mysteriously and became the brightest star in the night sky before it disappeared completely in the universe… No technology could determine the cause of Eaton’s explosion and disappearance… These data may be of great value and should be preserved…”

“The red new star…” Hao Ren could not help but temporarily withdraw from the linkage. “As expected, there is also a record of the star here.”

The voice of the MDT sounded in his head. “Have you found a record of the red star in Io before?”

“The ancient instruments of Io was destroyed by the tsunami. Nasaton was just a colonial ship. The database was incomplete and there was no information of the red star.” Hao Ren shook his head. “But I have good reason to believe that the siren had seen a red star—but not sure if they had seen it exploded.”

“This star seems to be visible in any part of The Plane of Dreams and is equally bright from whatever viewing angle,” the MDT sounded very seriously. “This defies the optical rules. If so, maybe even if we could find the fourth observation point there is no way to confirm the position of the red star. When it doesn’t conform to the laws of observation, then we won’t be able to measure the distance. It could be at any point in the universe.”

Hao Ren had also thought of this, but he was out of option. “Wait until we find the fourth observation point, if we can find it. Anyway, the Goddess of Creation is definitely related to the explosion of the star… maybe she had exploded together with it.”

Putting these things on the backburner, Hao Ren continued to browse the database. This time he began to concentrate on finding out information about The Denizens of the Stars, and they were abundant in the database.

According to the description of aborigines of the Ark, The Denizens of the Stars not only was an amazing life form, but also possessed a special way of thinking and communication. They could not speak; they communicated with one another through telepathy—but communicating in telepathy required special talents, and the Aborigines seemed to be not very good at it, so they had difficulty understanding the overly complicated words of The Denizens of the Stars.

Some scribes who were known as ‘spirit whisperer’ specifically responsible for dialogue with The Denizens of the Stars had each of their exchanges with The Denizens of the Stars recorded in the database. A spirit whisperer named Freeman seemed to be a leading expert of telepathy had left behind the clearest record of his conversation. Hao Ren had found the record, which read something like this:

[Freeman: “…How did you come here from such a great distance?”

The Denizens of the Stars: “(a string of complicated thoughts, could be some sort of technical explanation, but incomprehensible) …The universes are interconnected, we use this connection to jump, like data transfer in your computer system, but much faster.”

Freeman: “…sorry I don’t understand these things, but I will record them truthfully. Does the kind of ‘natural disaster’ you mentioned appear everywhere in the universe? Is it a common phenomenon?”

The Denizens of the Stars: “(seems to manifest a pronounced mood swings) It should not have happened, but a shameful (unrecognisable thought) has caused this catastrophe. Now that it has spread throughout the universe, we cannot even predict to what extend it will develop but only minimise its harm.”

Freeman: “Is it a human-induced disaster?”

The Denizens of the Stars: “(Mood swings) It is human-induced. The roots of this universe are disturbed, seriously damaged by a group of unreasonable creatures… (An incomprehensible thought) but I cannot explain to you, you would not understand.”

Freeman: “What is the origin of the universe?”

The Denizens of the Stars: “Ninety percent of the lives in the universe is rooted in Him (then another completely incomprehensible thought) … It is impossible to explain to you. We are deeply influenced by this root, which makes it impossible for us to describe it to ordinary races His form of existence. In your understanding, He should be similar to a deity.”

This was followed by some unstructured conversations. At least, Freeman asked, “Is the disaster the result of someone attacking the ‘goddess’?”

The Denizens of the Stars: “They killed Her.”

Hao Ren completely pulled his mind out from the database and looked shocked.

“Someone killed the Goddess of Creation?” Hao Ren felt unbelievable. “And it looks the work of a group of mortals?”

“The Denizens of the Stars say so,” the voice of the MDT also shuddered markedly. “I think they would not fabricate these things out of thin air.”

“This information is… unexpected.” Hao Ren took a long whole to digest the facts. He had never expected there was such mind-blowing truth hidden in the Ark database. Whether it was the truth or not, at least it was an astonishing clue. Suddenly the admonishment of the dragon queen Galazur came to mind: “Do not ignore the little clues around you, because things happen when it least expect it.”

However, the records in the database stopped there. The exchanges between the spirit whisperer and the Denizens of the Stars were not smooth, and they were not paying too much attention to the problems of the origin and religion of the universe when the end of the world was imminent. They were more concerned about the technical details of the Ark. Hao Ren read repeatedly the log books many times and found no details of the ‘mortal killing Goddess’ incident. Either that no one asked, or the Denizens of the Stars had tried to answer but no one could understand.

“What a f**king problem of language barrier…” Hao Ren felt a pain in his eggs. “Why couldn’t The Denizens of the Stars study interstellar languages?”

“It seems that only by finding them can we find out the truth.” The MDT sounding regrettable too. “I always feel that there is a dark side to it…”

Hao Ren sighed. “Nonsense. Even the Goddess has died. Do you really think there’s no dark side behind all of these?”

After several unsuccessful searches, Hao Ren decided to pull his plug from the virtual link, and then compiled the information into a report and gave it to Raven 12345.

Raven 12345 took this information very seriously, but there would be no new instructions in the short term. So what is next? That Hao Ren himself would have to investigate it out slowly.