The Record of Unusual Creatures

Hao Ren had read stories from long ago about how cats repaid kindness. It was the traditional version versus the cat girl version. The former involved catching rats for the owner while the latter would become a cute girl who treated her master like a king. He never thought that his cat was the third kind: she had turned into a cute girl, but she still insisted on catching rats...     

It was obvious that she was a mishmash of the two orthodox versions, but Hao Ren found that something was off...     

However, Rollie would not know what her master was actually thinking, and she actually thought that she had done something commendable. She ruffled against Hao Ren's leg happily. "Big Boss Cat, Big Boss Cat! A rat for you to eat! It's still moving!"     

The dumb cat raised her hand to gloat before Hao Ren, and in her hands was a big fat rat. The latter was obviously not fully dead and it still let out a faint whisper. Goosebumps immediately ran all over Hao Ren's body as he recoiled backwards. "Stand there, and don't move!"     

The cat girl gave Hao Ren a puzzled look. "You're not happy nya?"     

"Where did you get that from?" Hao Ren kept his distance. "Throw it out, now!"     

"I caught it on the plains behind our home. Beardy Cat said I can't go to town." The dumb cat swung the rat like a pendulum, her face looking rather dejected. "Why don't you want it? Are you nyangry?"     

Hao Ren was having thoughts about disciplining the dumb cat, but looking at her innocent face, any anger inside of him was immediately extinguished. He knew that the cat girl was still a cat to the bone, and a few days as a human was not enough to teach her all she needed for her to act like one. Besides, all her clumsy actions were all to make him happy. Sighing resignedly, he said, "I'm not angry, but... humans don't eat rats."     

The cat girl lifted the rat and looked at it. Seeing this Hao Ren quickly added, "You're not eating it either."     

"I'm not eating it." The cat girl shook her head. "It's not as tasty as biscuits and fish jerky."     

Hao Ren glared at her. "Then, what are you trying to imply by feeding that to me?!"     

"It's because you don't know how to catch a rat!" The cat girl had that "duh" tone as she spoke. "So, it's up to me to catch them for you."     

Hao Ren was speechless as he tried to reconcile the fact that he was seen as a weakling in the eyes of a cat...     

At the very least, Rollie threw the rat away and as per her usual habit, she began to follow Hao Ren around the house from behind—like she was inspecting her own castle. After one round, she reached the hall and went to her cushion by the staircase to snooze. Hao Ren sighed again as he saw this. "Do you really have to sleep here? Didn't I prepare a room for you?"     

Rollie simply just gave him a lazy stretch before she curled up into a smaller ball, wagging her tail at Hao Ren as she meowed.     

That meant, "Your royal highness is sleepy and wants her royal nap, so make yourself scarce".     

Hao Ren sighed again as he went upstairs to contact Raven 12345.     

For once, the goddess was actually not skipping work and the line connected immediately. Hao Ren briefed her on the progress of the First Born research, and also brought up the matter of creating a space station in the Plane of Dreams for long term research on the First Born.     

Raven 12345's voice was chirpy as always. "You're getting good at this, kiddo. You're really thinking outside the box now. Guess my choice was right on the money... Go ahead with your plan."     

Hao Ren then carefully posed a few questions that worried him the most. "Will this large migration affect the balance between the Surface World and the Plane of Dreams? Using only a dimensional rift, is it possible to build such a big space station? Can I claim the expenses for that?"     

Truth be told, he was most worried about the third question, and if he did not balance it out with the first two serious question first, the crazy goddess would probably bless him with a dimensional thunder strike...     

"Hmm... Your space laboratory is indeed a pretty bold idea... but since you've already found a stable pathway, as long as you ensure all materials and personnel go through that rift, there won't be any issues. Your goddess here will also help you strengthen the connection stability of areas around Earth.... If anything goes wrong, I'll back you up." Raven 12345 was dependable when it came to work. "As for the size of the rift, that's not a cause for concern. What do you take the Empire for? The Xi Ling Celestials are the best there is when it comes to dimensional tech. When the time comes, we'll just compress everything into a small construction cube for you to activate."     

Hao Ren had yet to forget the most pertinent of questions. "So... all of this will be borne by the Administration right?"     

Raven 12345 sniggered. "You sure have a way of asking things. Reminds me of myself in my younger days. Don't worry, Xi Ling's industry and wealth aren't just for show. We won't expect a staff to dig into his own pockets for a space station. No matter how big the expenses incurred for this endeavor are, the Administration will bear the cost. You just need to sign it off.     

Hao Ren was relieved at hearing that. "That's good to hear... and actually, the paint on the walls at my place have chipped and I plan to repaint—"     

"You f*cking stand there and don't move. A blessing is coming your way!"     

Hao Ren quickly terminated the call and heaved a sigh of relief after things were settled. He then made his way to the living room, looking for old Y'zaks to discuss the matter of visiting Aerym and his people. But as he stepped into the room, neither the demon nor his daughter were there. Vivian and Lily on the other hand, were huddled together as if they were studying something.     

"What are the both of you up to?" Hao Ren was surprised. It was a rare sight to see the bickering duo together peacefully.     

Lily looked up at Hao Ren and let out an excited howl, her tail wagging in excitement. "We're doing Science!"     

"You? Doing Science?" Hao Ren was amused by that very notion and walked over to see what the pair was up to. He noticed a few pentagonal crystal plates on the tea table. The plates were emitting a gentle glow. They were mysterious yet intricate, and the MDT was by the side as though it was helping to analyze the items. "These are..."     

"The storage items we managed to salvage from the planetarium in Tannagost." Lily pushed the crystal plates towards Hao Ren. "The MDT said they're still readable... but you've been busy with bigger things, so these were left to collect dust."     

Hao Ren only remembered the matter when Lily brought it up. The group was chased by the vengeful spirits from Alamanda to an abandoned planetarium. Wuyue and the rest then found these data slates. It was also there that Hao Ren managed to make contact with the collective consciousness of the Tannaeans, and uncover the mystery behind the vengeful spirits.     

The ancient data slates were indeed valuable research objects, but the group soon found even more valuable objects; the Tannagost Data Value, the living sample of the Seed of Origin, the lifeblood, and a living First Born. Each and everyone of them were an item of extreme interest, and that left the data slates from the planetarium looking a wee bit insignificant.     

Of course, Hao Ren had not totally forgotten about them, and actually had the data slates restored when he brought them back to the Petrachelys, extracting the data within them. But he soon realized that all of the data were about reading of the stars and did not seem to have anything to do with the First Born. Thus, he just left the things sitting there. That was the last time he touched them, and it soon became part of Lily's treasure.     

Perhaps boredom got the better of the husky as she took the data slates out to study. This was probably inspired by the research done in the Petrachelys' lab.     

"So what have you found?" Hao Ren asked casually.     

Lily's face was serious. "According to Battie and my professional analysis, of course mainly mine, we think that the last diary entry was just before the First Born's apocalypse...     

Hao Ren was about to turn away before he heard that. "Diary? What diary?"     

"Astronomical diary entries, penned by one of the staff in the planetarium," the MDT said as it floated. "Because they looked like normal diary entries, they were not given much attention. I only thought of them earlier and got Lily to take out the data slates for re-analysis. Well, their professional analysis not withstanding, these two here are merely part of the crowd."     

Lily and Vivian were speechless.