The Record of Unusual Creatures

Hao Ren did not know why Hessiana was so bitter towards him. He kept wondering when he would unknowingly rub her the wrong way again. There was no reason for it, and he could only attribute it to the inevitable psychotic disorder one would have as a left-behind child. For a thousand years, Vivian left Hessiana behind in Athens. It was fortunate enough that Hessiana turned out mentally tough and just a little neurotic as a result of the neglect.     

A long awkward moment ensued when Hessiana called Hao Ren "pops".     

However, Hessiana could not care less; she was pleased with herself. For the first time in a thousand years, she saw improvement in her relationship with her beloved Lady Vivian. She was on cloud nine. Hao Ren could not be bothered about the neurotic bat-demon so long as she did not create any trouble. He passed the buck for disciplining the kid to Vivian and went back to his work.     

The new ecosystem of Tannagost-Zorm was booming. The drone cluster had multiplied itself and increased its range, whereas the construction units on planet Inferno had erected the first electric-discharging needle tower later yesterday. Meanwhile, Becky had sent everyone a letter of greetings. Everything came in at once but it was not difficult for Hao Ren to handle them. He had gotten it down to a fine art.     

Y'zaks did not go out with his daughter to scavenge for electrical waste that day. Instead, he killed his time by reading the People's Daily on the sofa. When Hao Ren exited his room, Y'zaks put on a big grin and asked, "Done with your work?"     

"Yeah." Hao Ren patted Y'zaks on the shoulder and flung himself on the sofa, edging the dumb cat off the armrest. "Didn't I tell you not to squat on the armrest?" Hao Ren chided.     

Rollie tumbled to the ground with a meow, but she quickly flipped around and bounced up. She then balled her paw into a fist and swung it at Hao Ren's face. She did it all in one fell swoop. Hao Ren took it slowly as he chatted with Y'zaks about his day. He learned about the situation in Helcrown and Y'lisabet's learning progress while Y'zaks was more interested in things about Inferno; he regretted not following Hao Ren to the planet.     

Although retired, Y'zaks was an explorer at heart; his curiosity and adventurous spirit never died down.     

Y'zaks suddenly became silent and looked past Hao Ren.     

"What's wrong?" Hao Ren asked. He turned his head around and almost sprained his neck. "What the hell?"     

A familiar skinny blonde girl with a faint glow on her body, emotionless face, and shoulder-length hair was standing behind him. She was the corpse girl whom the MDT "borrowed" in the Ark of Dreams in Zorm.     

"Hi!" The blonde girl waved at them. The expression on her face turned from stiff to animated rapidly. "Buddy, how are my restoration skills?"     

Hao Ren finally realized that it was the MDT, but he was slightly startled because he did not expect to see "her" here in the real world. "Why are you doing this?" he asked.     

The blonde girl pointed to herself happily. "Because I'm a girl at heart."     

Suddenly, the door opened. Lily returned from the outside. The husky maiden was stunned to see a strange and foreign girl in the house. "Who's she, Mr. Landlord?"     

"It's the freaking brick!" Hao Ren had a headache; as if the imaginative husky was not playful enough, the MDT was even more coltish. He reached out to grab the brick's arm. "Girl at heart my foot! Did you download some apps again? Oh, wait a minute!"     

His hand went through the girl's body, and the girl flickered. Half her body had sunk into the floor like a ghost. The blonde girl took a step back and yelled, "Don't touch me! I've yet stabilized it!"     

"Is this a holographic projection?" Hao Ren finally figured it out and was speechless. "Going through all this trouble just to give yourself a new theme?"     

The blonde girl stood with her arms akimbo—in the hologram, of course. "I've decided; I'm going to compete with Nolan for the post of the battleship's host. Didn't she want to pull me out of the console the last time? Well, I've thought it through. Since we both are AIs, what gives her special rights over me? Is it because she has a human look? That's the only difference between us."     

While she said this, the blonde girl spun around and said, "I, the cerebral-thrombosis corpse maiden, Pattianne must make the b*tch give up the console slot!"     

Hao Ren looked at the neurotic MDT, feeling dumbstruck. He did not know what to say. He was undecided whether to rail at the MDT for taking "cerebral thrombosis" as its name, or inveigh against the power struggle between two AIs over a host slot.     

Y'zaks looked on, equally dumbstruck. He scratched his jaw and nodded thoughtfully. "Interesting... I remember in my hometown, there was this creature called the mirage demon. It was a type of large insect that could project an ultra-realistic image using the crystal on its back to disguise itself as something attractive to trap its prey. That was a fascinating one."     

Hao Ren smiled wryly. "I don't care if it's interesting. I want to remind this fella that it has sunk into the floor again."     

The MDT quickly lifted the holographic image like a ghost with no movement in its limbs. But it raised the image too high, two centimeters above the floor, which made it look like a ghost hovering in the air. "She" had to make several adjustments before finally she got it right. "Phew! It's not easy at all. My altitude sensor isn't suited for this purpose."     

Lily curiously went up to check out the virtual body. She reached inside the blonde girl and fumbled around with her hand. "It doesn't look fake from the outside, except that it appears a little shiny. Wait a second! I think I've touched something," she said.     

As she spoke, she shook the thing in her hand. The blonde girl swung back and forth. "Stop! That's me. You're grabbing my body!" the MDT pleaded.     

The protest did not work. Instead, it aroused Lily's playfulness. The husky maiden lifted the MDT's body in the air. Visually, it was the blonde girl, and Lily still had her hand stuck inside the blonde girl's stomach. The whole thing looked like a scene in an age-restricted horror movie minus the blood. Rollie, who was sprawled on the sofa, watched and bounced up with a meow. She stepped over Hao Ren's head and the back of the sofa before she scrambled to the other end of the living room.     

Hao Ren watched on but did not let Lily go overboard with it. He suddenly heard a noise in the kitchen. Shortly after, Y'lisabet ran out nervously. "Uncle Ren! Something's gone wrong! Lil Pea looks..."     

The little demoness paused. She looked up and saw Lily swinging the body of a person in the air. Her jaw dropped. "That's fun!"     

Hao Ren waved his hand in front of Y'lisabet. "Don't bother with them. What did you say about Lil Pea?"     

Y'lisabet took her eyes off what Lily was doing. "I don't know what happened! Lil Pea suddenly said that her stomach didn't feel right, then she kept swimming in circles."     

Hao Ren became nervous and ran into the washroom.     

In the washroom, Lil Pea was in the big water basin where she was swimming in circles. Her body was in a weird posture, and she occasionally kicked up water with her tail. The little mermaid jumped out of the water when she saw Hao Ren, looking very spirited. "Hi, Daddy! Swimming?"     

She looked just fine.