The Record of Unusual Creatures

After ensuring that all the arks had landed safely on Io, Hao Ren and Lorenz discussed the details of their landing and decided to open up the dome of the ark—something that the ark’s structure allowed. When the dome was opened, the enclosed spherical sanctuary within would transform into a flat terrain. It was only then that the ark’s life support system and propulsion system, which was located at one end of the ark, could be shut down completely and undergo reparation.

The only reason these arks were functioning now was because they had been sharing gears and parts to make up for each others’ malfunctions. Since it was impossible to fully shut down the ships, these mechanical parts were invariably overworked, and an impending threat. In fact, malfunctions that occurred on the Royal Throne were mostly the result of accumulated stress on the mechanical parts. Therefore, opening up the dome was essential for the repair works that were to come. It was inevitable that the people on the ark would finally see the outside world.

However, the civilization on the ark would definitely be deeply affected by this exposure.

The people on the ark would finally see a real horizon in the distance. They would see the open sky for the very first time. Their spherical “world” would spread out into a flat land. All in all, their worldview was about to be dealt a heavy blow. Hao Ren remembered what happened when the Aerymian Elves first arrived in their new home—when they first viewed the boundless sky above, most of them developed a phobia of it, including the erudite magisters and technicians. If the knowledgeable elves could even suffer like this, what about the people of the ark? For generations, they had lived in an enclosed space of only a hundred kilometers across. It was the only world they ever knew.

Lily was busy preparing her script when Hao Ren and Lorenz brought this issue up. She was shocked to learn that they wanted to open up the ark. The werehusky was a little dim, but she was not a total fool. In terms of technical knowledge, she was perhaps the most knowledgeable out of the group. Hence, she could not help but ask, “Wouldn’t that incite a massive social catastrophe? How are the ark people going to digest what they see?!”

“When you left us the first time, I already started to prepare them for this day. However, it’s still a little too soon,” Lorenz spoke slowly. “I tweaked many of the details in their legends about the world and the idea of the Giant Turtle. I described the Giant Turtle as a divine artifact, which could open up. When the Sea of Eordos finally calms, God will open the Giant Turtle and let the people see the world He created in all its magnificence. I tried my best to teach them the concept of the sky and land… even though the latter’s probably not necessary.”

“Do you think all that talking is enough?” Lily glanced at Lorenz skeptically. She knew that the old man had worked hard, but it was harder to see how much the ark people understood from him…

“Ignorance impedes the progress of a civilization, but it works wonders on maintaining social stability.” Lorenz sighed quietly. “I am actually thankful that they’re still ignorant now, whereby legends and myths are sufficient to explain almost anything away. Even if their world is turned upside down, if a god comes to them and explains that everything is normal, their society will be able to function normally.”

Hao Ren nodded in agreement. “Besides, Lorenz is still highly regarded by the ark people. They will believe him even when he makes claims about how the world works. If their ‘world’ really transforms just as he had described, he will be respected even more, for as long as the next few centuries perhaps—that’s long enough to serve a solid foundation to the civilization on the ark.”

“Short-term confusion is unavoidable. As long as it doesn’t get out of hand, it’ll be fine,” Lorenz said, looking at Vivian and Lily. “Your help will be greatly appreciated. If the goddesses of fire and ice are there to ‘open up their world’, the people will probably feel more at ease.”

Lily was already jumping in excitement before Vivian could put a word in. “I’m going, I’m going! This is going to be so much fun!”

Hao Ren raised his brows at the werehusky—this was exactly what happened the last time. All that jumping around previously… But when she saw the massive crowd, she quickly backed out. If this lady tried to run away again this time…

Nevertheless, Hao Ren did not stop Lily for she seemed eager to participate. It was not very often that the werehusky would be so enthusiastic. Hao Ren nodded at Vivian and Lily. “If that’s the case, both of you, please follow Lorenz back to the ark. Make it a grand entrance, prepare a big light show or some kind of special effects to help the people realize something important is about to happen. When Nolan gives you the signal, the dome above the sanctuary will start to open.”

He then turned to Nolan and said, “What’s the state of the mechanical parts for when the sanctuary transforms?”

“The gears are working normally. The artificial gravity generator circuits have also been rerouted. When the dome opens, I will be remotely controlling the ship’s gravitational fields to gradually merge them with Io’s.” Nolan lifted her head. “On the other hand, I have cut off all the power to the Royal Throne except for the area in the sanctuary and redirected the power to the city in the ship. It’s going to work.”

Hao Ren nodded in acknowledgment. He then looked at Vivian, Lily, and Lorenz. “Well, you should get going now. Vivian, you’re in charge.”

Vivian smiled. “Don’t worry, I have plenty of experience in this—what with all tricks I’ve seen the old devils used during the Mythological Era to create their own following.”

The trio left the bridge for the Royal Throne. By now, the choppy waves outside were beginning to subside. This unnatural “storm” came and went quickly, ending after no more than a quarter of an hour. Katreina watched the holographic screen as it showed her home planet outside, musing quietly. Meanwhile, Hao Ren and Nolan huddled together at the control station to plan the engineering works on the arks.

Based on their plan, Hao Ren wanted to repair all 12 arks. Since the sirens had promised at least 200 years for their lease, they could take their time fixing the ships until they could be airborne again. For the next two centuries, the 12 arks would have enough time to become fully functional again.

After analyzing the structure of each ark, Nolan finally gained a detailed understanding of their primitive structures and life support systems. He then reverse-engineered a blueprint of them. Hao Ren hoped that the blueprint could help the drones and autonomous robots to modify the arks. The arks would be interlinked to form a massive island, while the cities would be rebuilt to help the ark people recover their population size and social structure. Merging the cities on the 12 arks would make the people stronger as a whole, and the wider living space would help them adjust their worldview.

The arks were distributed around in a circle and linked to each other with strong alloy bridges. The wheel-shaped city slowly came to form. Nolan tapped the holographic panel, placing towers and floating harbors around the ring structure as he did some calculations. “They will be living here for at least 200 years, then maybe move on to another planet. To do that, they must learn to get used to living on a planet. We have to teach them how to survive outside their sanctuaries—they must learn how to not rely on the ship’s resources. Based on their lifestyle on Io, we can expect at least tens of thousands of people within the next century here, living off the ocean’s resources. Moreover, I’ve found some aquaculture techniques within the archives on the arks. We can make use of them too.”

Nolan looked up. “As long as we plan carefully, living on this blue planet isn’t impossible. The only difficulty is mining for ores and minerals.”

“You’re quite knowledgeable in these things.” Hao Ren studied Nolan in surprise. “What else did you find in the arks’ archives?”

“For thousands of years, most of my ‘dreams’ were of surviving the apocalypse.” Nolan smiled. “I remember a planet in particular, which was covered with water. The survivors relied on their gigantic mothership to keep their civilization alive. I was one of the crew members on that ship. It was only a dream, but the experience gathered is still applicable in the real world.”

Hao Ren was stunned by this and expressed his admiration. “Wow.”

Suddenly, Katreina cried in surprise. “Hao Ren, can you come over here?”

Hao Ren approached the queen. “What is it?”

Katreina pointed at a spot, somewhere far from the ark fleet. There was a patch of green in the waters.

“Can we go over there and have a look?”