The Record of Unusual Creatures

The Petrachelys silently rose into the air as it headed towards an even more desolate area. Hao Ren did not want his movements to draw attention to Nolan’s hiding place nearby. He noticed that the acceleration was much slower than expected, and there was this lack of finesse with its movement. This, to him validated his suspicion that it was not the real Petrachelys.

This was a reproduction of his memory by a series of programmes. On the outside, it looked like the real deal, but as the Xiling Empire’s Psionic techonology was beyond human comprehension, the ship’s core was simply fabricated within the limits of the simulation’s database.

“Do you think we can reach the edge of the world?” The MDT started murmuring as she saw the ship accelerated clumsily and breaking through the atmosphere. “Will the mastermind of this world allow someone to seek out the edge of the stage?”

“We might run into someone, or something.” Hao Ren nodded. “Even if this world is simply a programme, it should have some self-preservation protocols. These protocols will definitely attempt any outflow of data, but before that, we should be able to detect what’s uncanny about this world.”

The MDT gave a short ‘Oh’ before continuing. “What do you think this world is made of?”

“Probably somesort of computer programme, an imaginary world of sorts.” Hao Ren jested. As soon as he knew of the nature of this world he had developed guesses towards this direction. While there are many other possibilities, the argument for it being a programme is probably the strongest and most reliable. “The resetting of the world, and the details in Nolan’s memory, these are all traits of an virtual world. Plus with condition of the Petrachelys and my psionic pistol is also proof of that.”

“So if our current vessel is simulated, where’s the real Petrachelys?” The MDT asked a very important question. “Is it still inside your pocket?”

Hao Ren waved his hand. “No, I’ve checked. The ship is not there. I actually doubted I’ve even opened the Dimensional Pocket. Think about it, we are now is a virtual world, and everything here is detached from reality. ‘Taking out an item from the Dimensional Pocket’ is probably a thought process in my mind. Remember the first time when we got back from Zom we realised that we couldn’t bring the mercenary tag out? And our clothes were as good as new? That’s because the whole process was simulated… it’s just that we can’t find where the programme access port is.”

The MDT nodded again as she sat on the control dais daydreaming. That place was her usual docking port, but now in human form she could no longer fit in. So she just simply sat on her usual spot trying to act busy. Hao Ren gave the MDT a look before sinking deep in his thoughts. It was probably too obvious that the latter glanced at him. “What are you thinking about?”

“I probably have a gist of what happened to you.” Hao Ren pointed towards the MDT’s body. “And why you had turned like this.”

The MDT’s eyes immediately lit up. “Oh oh?”

“Didn’t I told you, this world could only simulate what it could understand as its simulation ability is a programme, and programmes are inflexible. It could not understand my psionic pistol, so it simulated a copy that could eject bullet shells. It could not understand how Petrachelys functions, so it only manages to simulate a shell to contain all the unknown factors.” Hao Ren poinred at the MDT. “So similarly, it could not understand an opinated PDA that could jump about with a potty mouth is…”

The MDT glared back at Hao Ren before stiffly looking at herself and stroking her arm in the process. “…. What the actual f*ck…”

“I suppose this world has not have the sort of techonological level of yours, or even if they have artificial intelligence, their logical functions would have differed, so simulation programme of this world got confused.” Hao Ren raised his eyebrows. “Probably it had used a spiritual scan to determine your body. You think like a human, so it simulated you as one, but you are a non-biological being, so it created a dead body in place, and because you will never shut up, the world have kept you talking even when you’re dead….”

Looking at the gawking blonde, Hao Ren added. “This is all conjecture at the moment, but I don’t think you’ll be able to come up with an even more logical assumption. So this is probably the most possible scenario for now.”

The MDT leapt off from the control dais. “Why was I given this form then? Can’t it choose any other?”

“How would I know?” Hao Ren rolled his eyes. “Probably because the system sees you as what it is?”

As he said that, something suddenly popped up in his mind. “Maybe it’s because at the spiritual level you are a …. OH F*CK!”

The MDT was startled by Hao Ren sudden “OH F*CK!””What’s going on?”

Hao Ren looked at the latter. “You are really not living up to your own image! Can’t you be at your best behaviour on normal days?”

“….What are you on about?!”

Hao Ren shrugged as he turned and ignored the rambunctious MDT to focus on monitoring what was going outside the ship. He was rather confident with his theories, but he could not put his fingers on the real laws that governs this world. He had managed to affirm his idea that the world was a ‘simulation’ based on his observation of his psionic pistol and the Petrachelys. Thus the MDT’s change was not due to some ‘walk-in’, but its change was simply due to the fact that the world’s simulation logic was not complete, and the PDA became a living corpse.

Insofar, the MDT was probably the most that undergone the most drastic of changes amongst his tools, even if the interior of the Petrachelys had turned into a twisting nether, it was not as serious as being given a human form. Hao Ren guessed this had something to do with the MDT’s almost human-like nature: A living soul was far far more complicated than any techonology after all.

As he reached this point, Hao Ren squirmed slightly as he murmured. “A tool huh…”

Even when he argues with the MDT Hao Ren had always treated her as a human. Otherwise he would not be able to argue with a PDA so seriously. But as they entered this world, the MDT was determined by this world to be a tool, and even if she was simulated with a human form, this simulation process had determined that she was not human, as ‘humans’ in this world did not require any simulation.

The MDT’s grating voice came from beside him. “What were you saying again?”

Hao Ren quipped. “Say, you consider yourself a tool or a human?”

Hao Ren was rather conflicted about this topic and felt that he probably had asked too directly. But he never thought that the MDT did not mind that. “What’s the difference? The Xiling Celestials does not on this. Because everything is a cog of the Empire. But if you insist… I’m certain a tool. A very delicate and precise tool! The super capable kind!”

As Hao Ren heard the MDT so proudly calling herself a tool, he immediately facepalmed. “Should’ve known that worrying about you was a waste of effort.”

The MDT’s attention had by the shifted to what was going on outside the ship. While this half-baked ‘Petrachelys’ was clunky, it was still equipped with spacefaring ability. The spaceship was now in deep space and Zom was now a mere fist-size blue orb beneath the ship. Looking at the stars, the MDT pondered . “I was expecting this world to take a more pro-active measure… Like stopping us from flying, or restricting everything at atmospheric level.”

“Since we have managed to get into space, this validates one of my theories.” Hao Ren nodded softly. “This world’s simulation seems to have a prerequisite.”

“What prerequisite?”

“That is needs to follow the laws of nature, and it was to be ‘real’ enough.” Hao Ren pointed to the ever-distant Zom. “To increase the world’s ‘reality’, a programme would need to maintain everything to do with the natural world. Since it has a sky, that means there’s a way to reach for the stars. And since there is space, that means a spacecraft is usable. It could of course use meteors or other natural means to stop humans from going into space, buit it could not set a non-existant natural law to restrict the spaceship’s functions. As there’s no such thing in realspace, so it could not set such a rule.”

“Hmm… sounds possible. But it was smooth sailing all along right?” The MDT was rather cautious. “Is this world not going to stop us from checking out its borders?”

Hao Ren frowned slightly. “I’m curious about that too… but no point worrying about it. We’ll press on forward, and see if there’s an end to this dream!”

The MDT pointed towards the exterior camera display. “Perhaps… that’s the end.”