The Record of Unusual Creatures

The truth was, when the door to the other dimension shut, Hao Ren knew that his luck had ran out—that turned out to be true. When he returned to Kuiper Station and re-activated the powerful scanning antenna, the solar system did not so much as ping back.

Gungnir’s resonant frequency was sent out without receiving any response whatsoever. There was no resonant feedback from the entire solar system.

Back in Kuiper Station’s laboraory, Hao Ren watched Gungnir’s broken pieces slowly descend on a platform. The equipment around him quieted down as they were turned off. The IDT had checked the numbers and concluded that the alternate dimension had already left the system.

“I found some faint traces of spatial distortion at the edges of the Oort Cloud, probably left behind when Yggdrasil left the system. However, the trail vanished soon after it left the solar system. It was moving too quickly that Kuiper Station’s surveillance system could not keep track of it. It’s gone.”

“The entire Nine Realms… Gone, just like that?” Hao Ren was still trying to accept the fact that the massive alternate dimension had made its way out of the solar system in just a few minutes. The energy required to achieve this was unimaginable. “Anything else on the tracking?”

“It is all irrelevant data that cannot help us.” The IDT sounded regretful. “The only thing we can be sure of is that the movement of the alternate dimension was intentional and directed. It took a trajectory that avoided all the larger planetary objects in the solar system when it left, and it hid its tracks beyond the Oort Cloud. All these, together with what we saw in the alternate dimension, suggest that Yggdrasil has a mind of its own. In particular, Yggdrasil is most likely a mature body of the First Born… and probably a mutated version of it.”

Nolan’s holographic projection appeared inside the lab. She was doing a power system check on herself at the docks, but managed to allocate some computational power to send herself here and follow up with the tracking progress. When she heard the IDT’s conclusion, she added, “Looks like the dimensional space was never caught in Jupiter’s gravitational well after well. It just never had reason to leave. Our interference had probably provoked the, uh… Yggdrasil.”

Hao Ren nodded as he approached the broken pieces of Gungnir to store it in his dimensional pocket. Now that Kuiper Station’s antenna array failed to find a resonant signal source, the pieces were useless here. He stored the broken remains of the weapon and muttered in contemplation, “I think Yggdrasil was probably ‘scared away’ by us.”

Vivian agreed with him. “I think so too. Once a First Born has gone mad, it is highly aggressive, and will attack even when at a disadvantage. That Yggdrasil chose to run away means it has not entered that stage yet. Moreover, it is.. Err, it’s timid.”

It was weird to describe the First Born as “timid”. Vivian uttered the word with an odd expression on her face. As Hao Ren looked at Vivian, he suddenly remembered something. “Oh, by the way, weren’t you very close to the Nordic Gods back then? If that was the case, you must have seen Yggdrasil before. Didn’t you realize later when you first saw a First Born that Yggdrasil could also be one too?”

“Do you know how big Yggdrasil is?” Vivian spread her arms. “Back then, I did not have the means to explore outer space, so I could only watch from afar. Odin and his family called it the World Tree since they could only ever see some parts of it. No one knew what the wildly proliferating plant looked like in its entirety. Besides, it has been more than two thousand years since I last saw Yggdrasil, and since it did not look like the typical First Born… I did not recognize it as such.”

In fact, Vivian did not have to explain in such detail for Hao Ren to understand her. After all, the First Born was something truly unique. It was probably the ultimate organism in the Plane of Dreams, second only to the Goddess herself. Under normal circumstances, no one would have imagined that the massive being would crash down onto Earth! Besides, before Hao Ren saw Mimir, he would never be convinced that the guardian giant would crash down onto Earth…

“Now what?” Y’zaks asked the obvious question on Hao Ren’s mind. “Now that we have lost Yggdrasil, and have no idea how far it could move the Nine Realms, it’s not quite feasible to go around borrowing antennas in the universe to scan for it.”

“Actually, I think we can narrow down the scope of our search.” The IDT interrupted as it activated another holographic display that showed parts of the Milky Way. “We can’t follow the exact trajectory of the dimension, but based on the faint tracks I found near the Oort Cloud, I believe that it would not leave this general area. This is very likely the first time it made a warp jump. If it could jump continuously, then we’ll have a hitch. However, that is extremely unlikely, since it will an immense amount of energy to do it. I did not sense that much energy coming from Yggdrasil when it made its jump earlier. Just the single jump it made will use up all the energy it has accumulated in the past two millennia.”

“So what we need to do is to search in this area…” Hao Ren studied the star chart and tried to recall what he knew about the area, no longer the newbie who would get overwhelmed by just the sight of the stars. Despite how complicated the star chart was, he could glean something information from it. “Hmm, these places are all under other inspectors. We’ll request for civilian facilities in the few areas that are not under any government’s jurisdiction.”

Vivian did not expect Hao Ren to decide to manage this by himself. “Aren’t you going to discuss this with the Goddess?”

The Hao Ren who was new to his post would have done so, but now he simply nodded confidently and said, “It’s not as if there is nothing I can do now. I have read many past cases, so I know what we need to do in this situation — inter-regional cooperation and collegial assistance is the way to go. The instructors are an organization, and I cannot bother the Goddess every time there is trouble.”

“Take care of your own missions, as is appropriate.” The IDT agreed with Hao Ren’s decision with unusual solemnity. “Do I send out our request for assistance now?”

Hao Ren waved it off. “Let us return and discuss this in length first. Please give me a name list of the instructors in the area.”

It was pointless to continue their stay in Kuiper Station. Hao Ren packed his things and put the station’s laboratory back into standby mode, and then led his group back to their home on Earth.

The Nangong family was busy at work when they arrived, leaving behind Lily to look after the house. Hao Ren was teleported straight to the living room. The first thing he saw was the werehusky crouching by the entrance, absorbed in her cellphone. Her ears were pulled up straight and listening intently to any activity outdoors, the image of a faithful doorkeeper.

The lady must have been waiting for him like this every time he left the house.

When Lily noticed Hao Ren’s arrival, she immediately pounced on him. “Ah! Landlord, you’re back! So soon? Did you find it?”

“Don’t even start. Yggdrasil escaped from us.” Hao Ren fended off her paws and replied helplessly. He looked around the empty living room and asked, “Where’s the trio?”

“Elizabeth’s watching cartoons. Rollie is cooking Lil’ Pea.” Lily answered dismissively. “What do you mean it escaped?”

Hao Ren’s reply took Lily by surprise. “Yggdrasil is a matured First Born! It is also alive!”

The werehusky stared wide-eyed at him. “What?!”

Her surprise was immediately replaced by disappointment. “Ah, I’ve missed all the action…”

Vivian raised one brow at Lily. She felt like rolling her eyes at the werehusky’s great enthusiasm for the unusual but also her cowardice against it.

When the Nangong family were back, Hao Ren informed them of what had happened. Rollie busied herself by rubbing against the sofa, while Lil’ Pea focused on chewing her chopsticks. Nevertheless, the rest of his audience all had something useful to say.

“I’ve replicated the resonance frequency between Gungnir’s broken pieces. Once I send it to the other instructors, they might be able to help us locate Yggdrasil. However, there is also the problem of not letting it escape again.” Hao Ren spread his arms helplessly. “Moreover, even if it did not try to escape, I’m not sure if the First Born will cooperate with us.”

Nangong Sanba spoke with the air of an expert. “According to your description, it will probably not cooperate willingly. After all, it did not even try to speak with you. Besides, now that you have agitated it the first time, it might simply start fleeing again the next time it sensed something nearby.”

Nangong Wuyue considered the situation. “I think we need to find a ‘negotiation specialist’ to make Yggdrasil lower its guard.”

Hao Ren looked at the siren lady. “What do you have in mind?”

Nangong Wuyue wagged her tail eagerly. “Have you forgotten where Norse mythology came from? Mimir had always stayed close to Yggdrasil in the past.”