The Record of Unusual Creatures

0A beam of light appeared over the Alamanda teleportation station. After the light faded, Hao Ren and his team appeared on the portal's platform. They were just in time for sunset on the planet, as the sun was already about to fall completely below the horizon. The last rays of light were dispersed throughout the ruins of the City of Gold as the entire city was enveloped in a dim golden glow.     0

Vivian looked up to the sky. There was an irregular silver light in the dim sky, which was becoming clearer as the sunlight subsided. The size of the light was slightly smaller than the moon on Earth and the edge of the light was jagged like a mountain. She looked at it carefully, and began to notice the neat structure upon that silver light. "Oh, that's the research station?"     

Lily looked up and saw that the moon was out. She immediately squatted back on the ground, stretched her neck happily. She then tilted her head up towards the "moon" and howled. "I wonder why it feels a little different."     

Hao Ren grabbed the naive maiden by her ear and held her up. "That's not the moon, idiot!"     

"Actually, I've been curious. Why are werewolves so excited about the moon?" Y'zaks scratched his chin quizzically. "I don't feel any special energy in moonlight. It's just a normal reflection of the sunlight."     

Vivian shrugged her shoulders. "God knows why. I haven't it figured out even though I've known werewolves for more than 10,000 years."     

At this time, a buzzing sound suddenly came from the eastern part of the sky. It turned out that the Petrachelys had received the command to come down from its orbit. Hao Ren led everyone on board, and they soon arrived near the crystal-like space facility. Everyone was amazed once they saw the spectacular behemoth at close range. Lily looked at it regretfully and said, "I should've followed you here earlier! I've missed the chance to witness its construction…"     

Hao Ren ignored her, waiting for the spaceship to slowly approach the space facility's docking bay. He could visualize the structural layout of this "Crystal City" in his mind, knowing that the docking bay was located in the middle section of the station. The building was a compact structure, the huge control center was right in the middle section, where there were compartments for spacecraft docking, material transfer, accommodation as well as much more. Connected to this middle section were many crystal domes, which had containers within them. They were the main working units of the research station.     

Two of the units of work had been activated, but only one First Born had been stuffed into the container. Not only that, the First Borns were very troublesome and bulky. They also brought along with them a large amount of "impurities", which needed to be cleaned out. Besides, the "lullaby" system had to always be online during the transfer journey, so the process was time-consuming.     

The contained one was the First Born from the Volcano of Dusk. It was placed in Container No. 1. The other First Born entangled with the Giant Tree of Life had not been settled.     

As the crystal bridge in the docking bay appeared on the ship's screen, Hao Ren got the MDT to slow down the spacecraft and switch on an external monitor. "Look! Sample No. 2 is undergoing containment now."     

Everyone gathered in front of the holographic projection and looked at the spectacular space working site with interest.     

One hundred kilometers away from the Petrachelys was the entrance to Sealed Container No. 2, where Sample No. 2 was undergoing its final stage of containment. The massive First Born was still tangled with the Giant Tree of Life, but the huge rocks and other impurities had been cleaned up. Lumps of amorphous gel with faint glows were moving among the tentacles and roots, cleaning up the remaining impurities as well as completing a full-body scan of the First Born. The light lumps were the "workers" of the research station. As Hao Ren did not have a large enough research team at his disposal, the research facility was inbuilt with its own crew.     

The debris that was cleaned up mainly consisted of rock and soil. However, it also contained some of the First Born's discharged chemicals and shed epidermis from its slow physiological activities for the past 10,000 years. These things were equally valuable, so they were sent to another workshop on the lower deck of the research station for further decomposing. Useful substances would be extracted, after which they would be dropped into Tannogost's atmosphere to combust.     

"The Giant Tree of Life and Sample No. 2 are tangled together. There's no way to separate them now, so I'm going to stuff them into the container." Hao Ren pointed at Container No. 2 on the screen, and its shell-shaped crystal dome slowly opened, revealing a huge space within. "Before putting it in, all connection points between the tentacles and the Giant Tree of Life have been fitted with sensors as well as nerve blockers. It will be a lot easier to conduct tests later on."     

The dome of Container No. 2 was fully opened now, and the entangled First Born as well as the Giant Tree of Life were slowly pushed into it under the shroud of light. As the sample was completely immersed inside the container, a layer of nearly transparent light film appeared in the gap between the inner wall of the container and the sample, wrapping the sample like a cocoon before a thin, cloud-like liquid was injected and submerged the First Born in it.     

After this last step was completed, the crystal dome slowly began to close.     

The Petrachelys received a report from the research station. "Operation for Container No. 2 confirmed... The main barrier has been closed, and inert liquid has been injected. Signal transmission test… normal. Secondary safety barrier and the external dome are closed. All safety components have passed testing. Signals are connected to the central control zone, the host has taken over control of the containers. The containment operation is completed."     

Lily sullenly listened to the report and nodded. "Okay, report confirmed."     

Hao Ren smacked her on the head and scoffed, "Stop messing around!"     

Lily hit the back of a chair with her tail as she said, "It suits the occasion!"     

After observing the mega-container's containment process, the Petrachelys docked at the berth. Everyone alighted from the spacecraft and walked across a gorgeous, rainbow-crystal bridge. Overhead, there was a near-transparent shield. Space was visible outside the shield, and on both sides of the bridge, there were crystal building facilities. Lily was overjoyed as she saw the glittering things around her. "Awesome! This place looks beautiful! Way better than Kuiper Station!"     

Vivian also scratched her chin and said, "Look how normal everything here looks! I wonder why you were given coffin-looking equipment."     

Hao Ren twitched his mouth and said, "Looks like the goddess has finally done something normal: at least her aesthetic sense in building houses is normal."     

As they walked across the crystal bridge, Lily began to go astray. Her eyes were full of excitement and curiosity. Hao Ren had been keeping an eye on the husky, so he managed to stop her. "What are you doing, Lily?"     

Lily's tail puffed up at once and she jumped back. "I just wanted to check if the bridge has rail—"     

Hao Ren rolled his eyes. "No digging here. I know you want to add two more pieces of crystal to your collection!"     

Lily's ears dropped. "Just one piece, okay?"     

Hao Ren was amused by her look. "Don't mess around, this is a new building—and I don't think you can knock any stone off this place. This is a prison for holding the First Born."     

"You can go home and check out the glass market. After all, those stones are just ornamental. They look the same..." Vivian said jokingly.     

Lily swished her tail and ignored them both.     

As everyone came to the central area, something suddenly crossed Hao Ren's mind. "Oh, I haven't named this research station..."     

As Hao Ren's voice trailed off, everyone came to a halt. Vivian and Lily spoke in unison, "Please think again!"     

Hao Ren scratched his head. "I haven't even said anything! I think it should be named—"     

Vivian placed her hand on Hao Ren's mouth and spoke bluntly, "Don't say it out yet. Think harder."     

Hao Ren was speechless.     

"What great name do you expect from him when he named his daughter 'Lil Pea', and his cat 'Rollie'? The MDT hovered into the air. "You can save it. The research station already has a name. It's called 'CARS'—just floating over your head."     

Hao Ren looked up and saw an idle screen of some kind of control center floating on the crystal dome. The name of the research station was at the center of the screen. He was astonished. "How did Raven come up with such a fantastic, normal name this time?"     

"Normal my foot." The MDT hooked up to the research station's host computer and quickly learned the truth. "Don't you think this research station looks like an apple core from afar?"     

Hao Ren was stunned.      

"So, its full name is 'Crapple Research Station'—the fusion between Crystal and Apple."     

"...I shouldn't have asked in the first place!" Hao Ren exclaimed.