The Record of Unusual Creatures

The mad, wretched man—that was what Nolan's men began to call the stranger who was holding on to a woman's body. Although Hao Ren had only been there for less than two hours, he was already famous throughout the base. He had no idea who made the story up, and which big mouth spread it, but he managed to attract stares for all the wrong reasons.     

However, Hao Ren did not have time for this. He was busy studying the MDT-possessed body. Not what you would imagine in your dirty mind; he wanted to know how this second-generation Evolved ended up becoming the carrier for the MDT. The Plane of Dreams was a real world; everything that happened in there had to follow the laws of nature. Since the MDT's awareness could leech off the corpse, the corpse and the MDT's consciousness had to have some compatibility.     

Finding out this compatibility would probably allow the MDT to restore its sensory ability.     

Hao Ren cautiously took the cloth that he used as a bandage off the blonde. The fatal through-and-through wound on her abdomen was still gross. The blood had dried up; meanwhile, the silver and white half-flesh, half-machine cables, which grew in her body were visible. Hao Ren tried not to look at another part of the body. Anyway, considering the scary wound, he did not have much appetite for other things.     

The MDT still had not recovered its sensory ability, but it was on audio-visual sharing with Hao Ren. It was now seeing through Hao Ren's eyes in its current appearance. Even a machine with a problematic worldview found the experience novel and interesting.     

"I guess the chip in the second generation Evolved's brain works with her artificial nerves." Hao Ren put on his gloves and carefully examined the broken tubes. "The operating mode of these parts should be closer to a machine. Your consciousness may survive in them."     

"I think you're a pervert," the MDT scolded Hao Ren, for his eyes were darting across the girl's body. "You're essentially molesting her; sadomasochistic... Your hand is in my stomach!"     

"If you're not helping, just shut up," Hao Ren muttered. But in the eyes of others, he seemed to be talking to himself. "Look at these tubes. They grow with the body—the ultimate form of mechanical devices. It's as if they're biological..."     

The MDT began to make frivolous comments, "Do you think my titties are too small? Hey, the nipples are black, aren't they? I don't like black. Is there any chance to help change them to blue ones?"     

"Get the hell out of here! Who's the pervert here?" How Hao Ren wished he could whack the freaking PDA. "And they're not your titties!"     

"For now, they are! And you dare say that you didn't see them? Stop denying. We're sharing the same pair of eyes. I even know how fast you blink."     

"I can't believe that I have such a PDA..." Hao Ren said haplessly. "I've just reconnected a few broken lines. Do you feel anything?"     

"I feel nothing. I don't know how a human feels. I need to remind you; this body is already dead. Can't you see that there isn't a single electrical signal in the cables? The biological and mechanical parts of this body have ceased to function. Connecting the dead cables will make no difference."     

Hao Ren sighed. "I know that in theory, a dead body wouldn't carry a soul. But, let's call a spade a spade; aren't you in her body right now? And don't the undead move like zombies, which shows that a dead body can also move."     

"The undead's blood veins no longer work, but they have other sources of circulation and metabolic activity, such as magical powers or alchemical drugs. So, in a broad sense, their bodies are still 'alive,'" the MDT sounded serious this time. "But the physical condition of the body in front of you is different. She's completely dead. She has stopped working. At least, from what I can see through your eyes, there is no activity in the body…"     

"Right, I just tested the signals on these lines, which are broken. I really can't explain where you're living in the dead body." Hao Ren sighed and got to his feet. "So, let's go back to the starting point and scan again. This time, I'll check the brain. Maybe there's a chip that's using the remaining cellular energy to keep itself working, just that it's off-line—"     

But before Hao Ren finished his sentence, someone knocked on the door. He looked up and saw a dark-skinned, middle-aged woman standing outside, staring in.     

"The door wasn't locked," the middle-aged woman said.     

Hao Ren quickly took his hand out of the MDT's stomach (which sounds strange) and suddenly realized that he had been talking to the MDT for a while, not only in his mind but also out loud. He rubbed his hands and said, "You heard everything?"     

"Just the last few sentences," the middle-aged woman said. She reached into her pocket, took out a cheap ciggy and put it into her mouth. She then lit it up and took a few puffs. "But I'm not interested in what you said. I'm a doctor. Nolan asked me to handle a... to see your girlfriend."     

Hao Ren scratched his head. "I'm not crazy. I talk to it a little."     

The MDT had yet to shut up. "Do you think chatting with a dead body isn't mad?"     

"Shut up!" Hao Ren shouted in his mind.     

The middle-aged woman looked at him with strange sympathy. She had already heard about this man from Nolan, as well as other mercenaries who had formed their perceptions of him—she thought that Hao Ren was just a poor guy who did not want to accept the tragic death of his spouse and thus became crazy. She did not say much; instead she picked up a small black box next to her feet and walked into the room. "Do you mind if I interrupt your solitude for a moment? I need to jab your girlfriend."     

With a hapless face, Hao Ren said, "Just do whatever you like but please don't say she's my girlfriend, will you?"     

The "doctor" looked nothing like what Hao Ren had in mind. She did not have a white coat on, and she did not bring any medical apparatus with her. She even had cigarettes in her mouth. The doctor was wearing the same gray and black combat suit as the other mercenaries. She had a stony face, which looked like she had gone through a lot of hardships. She seemed like a soldier through-and-through, except that she did not carry any weapon. No one would doubt for a second that she was as good as other soldiers if she took up a gun. Hao Ren watched as the woman removed a silver, pistol-like vacuum syringe from her black suitcase. He asked, "Do doctors here all dress up like this?"     

"Are you doubting my qualifications?" The woman took out a metal tube from the small compartment in the box and stuffed it into the vacuum syringe. "Well, I admit that I don't have a practicing license. After all, the last professional licensing agency in the world closed down more than 20 years ago. However, I have handled more than hundreds of the wounded, which is more important than having a license."     

While she spoke, she pressed the vacuum syringe against the MDT's neck and injected something into the body. Hao Ren looked on, not knowing why she gave the corpse an injection. He even suspected that the "doctor" that Nolan sent was playing along with his "schizophrenia." "What did you give her?"     

"Nanomachine Swarm," the so-called doctor said. "The simplest model. They'll guarantee that the body won't decay for a month, but their energy will be exhausted after a month. Oops! Nolan told me not to mention 'decay' in front of you…"     

Hao Ren twisted his mouth and said, "It's fine... But then, isn't the Nanomachine Swarm hazardous?"     

He remembered the information he had previously seen on the Internet. But at that time, he did not have time to read about what happened to the nanotechnology right after the accident. He thought that the technology was lost.     

"In the eyes of ultra-conservative Naturals, probably all things high-tech deserve to die, right?" The doctor shot Hao Ren a glance. "But without the Nanomachine Swarm, 99 % of people in the world will die of hunger and suffocation. Do you think there are still lands that can grow vegetation? Where do you think the oxygen you breathe comes from? You should be grateful to the Nanomachine Swarm. At least they feed humans."