As much as Lily wanted to know how Vivian split, Vivian could not control it. She could not pop another ‘herself’ out of thin air at will. Now, they had to finish what they started, beginning with the building of a substitute control system.
According to Vivian, the First Born on the planet was ‘dead’ ten thousand years ago after ‘the other Vivian’ aka Vivian’s split swapped out the soul and thinking organ of the First Born with her own, but there was a potential safety hazard. Ten thousand years had passed, the split had become insane and was defeated eventually. When Vivian re-absorbed the split, the First-Born subsystem on which the planet depended for survival lost its core program. The loss of this core program meant that the planet could not keep its thermal balance and natural cycles.
What they needed to do now was to establish a new control system, rebuild the central nervous system of the First Born and take over the ‘lullaby’ of the ancient souls.
Vivian summoned Gragon and let the MDT follow him to collect information about the ‘Lullaby approach.
There was a commotion when the other ancient souls learned that the Goddess wanted to replace them with something new. They elected Gragon to convey their concerns to Vivian. “My Lord, are you not satisfied with our work?”
Vivian stood in front of the assembly hall, gazing at the Throat of Toka at the end of the path and shaking her head gently. “No, I want you to take a break. You all have been working relentlessly for ten thousand years—five thousand if according to the calendar of this world. You people deserve a vacation.”
Gragon’s illusive shadow flickered, there was no emotion on his blurry face. He bowed slightly and said, “As you wish.”
Then the old soul turned and left, without raising any further questions. Hao Ren sighed. “They treat you as their Goddess. How about you? Does it feel real?”
“Somewhat.” Vivian pointed at her chest; her expression was a little weird. “It is as if having an extra life with these extra memories, which reminded me that I had once led the people here building the city ten thousand years ago. I felt it weird when Gezer first called me Goddess, but now I think I can accept the title already.”
Hao Ren became worried. “Wait a second. Have the foreign memories affected you? I’ve seen on TV when two souls merge, the person’s character would change completely.”
“That would be unlikely.” Vivian laughed. “It’s just fragments of memory, like watching the life of other people. I am still me. I won’t dare to take in the foreign memories if I am not confident.”
Hao Ren peered at her in suspicion. After a long while, he finally let out a sigh of relief. “I guess you’re right; you have been very cautious. By the way, something suddenly cross my mine; it’s about the crystal.”
Vivian frowned. “You mean Beatrice’s crystal? What’s wrong?”
“Who made that crystal? Was it you or the other Vivian?”
“The other Vivian made it if the memory in the crystal is anything to go by.” Vivian seemed to have thought of something. “Somehow, it fell into Beatrice’s hand.”
“That’s weird. You split ten thousand years ago, and that crystal was made on this planet, but it was Beatrice who got it. How?” Hao Ren’s face was serious. “Someone brought it to the Earth? Or could it be that Beatrice visited Inferno in the early years and found the crystal by accident? Or let’s stretch the imagination a little: she brought the crystal back to Earth? Since that thing is the memory bridge between you and your split, it must possess some unknown power.”
Vivian arced her mouth. “Well, the last theory sounds whimsical, but you are right, there are many secrets hidden in the crystal.”
As she spoke, she took out a blood-colored crystal, which Pavel had kept previously. Hao Ren asked curiously, “Are you going to eat it as well?”
“Wait a minute.” Hesitating, Vivian tucked the blood-colored crystal. “I’m still confused. I need to calm down.”
Hao Ren peered at Vivian again, until she felt it uncomfortable. “Why are you staring at me like that?”
“Nothing, just want to make sure you are okay,” Hao Ren said with a smile without revealing his thought. He had the feeling that Vivian was nothing short of amazing. First, the vampire maiden was not afraid of daylight, she had a taste for garlic, her spawned bat had transcended, and she could become a kilometer-tall Vivian Mk-II. When he thought that was pretty much all about her, she became divisible!
Hao Ren dared not imagine how many times Vivian had split in the past ten thousand years. If that were her talent, the picture would only get strangely fascinating; from mini Vivian to demon-god Vivian, it made him wonder if there would be a Kaku-San-Sei-Million Vivian split. When that happened, people would think that Korean plastic surgery craze had landed in Southern Suburb if they had not known the truth.
While thinking about that, Hao Ren could not help but mumble to himself, “What a complicated personality.”
“What did you say?”
Hao Ren said with a deadpan face, “Ahh, nothing.”
The MDT had collected enough data and came out with a comprehensive design. All that was left was to summon a construction team to build the new ‘electric shock regulator.’ The brick was pretty reliable when it came to serious business as always.
Hao Ren saw the design drawing; it did not deviate much from the previous concept: a group of electric-discharging needle towers connected by a bundle of cables, piping, and tentacles of the First Born. The connection part was borrowed from the mechanical design of the Dream Ark on the former planet Zorm, and the electric-discharging structures were a replica of the stone columns in the underground city.
The size of this complex was comparable to that of Dorasil. The project was neither very big nor very small, so Hao Ren thought that maybe he could attend to another problem first before the facility construction began.
He wanted to get this planet out of the crack in the Wall of Reality.
Letting this space debris on the Wall of Reality was a bad idea because every time it drifted it wreaked havoc to the fragile balance between the Plane of Dreams and the surface world. This planet needed sun, and its fragile ecosystem was not a long-term solution.
He was contemplating to move it back to either the Plane of Dreams or the real world, as both of these options were better than leaving it here as it was.
Before returning to the surface, Hao Ren called Raven 12345 to report the situation.
A familiar heavenly ring tone rang, and then Raven 12345’s passive, muffled voice sounded through the comm. “Hello… Who is it? What’s up?”
The voice sounded affable to Hao Ren. Before he got into the ‘wrong job’ as an inspector, he was answering the telephone in a similar ‘half-dead’ tone of voice too.
“It’s me, Hao Ren. I have a bit of a situation here. By the way, why do you sound like you’re going to die soon?”
“You know, Goddess is a very busy person, okay? It’s normal when I feel a fair bit of tiredness.” Raven 12345 heard that it was Hao Ren and became a more alert. “What situation?”
Hao Ren told her everything of what had happened, particularly about Vivian’s divisive phenomenon. Then, he asked very professionally, “As the planet could no longer remain stuck in the edge of the space and time, I would like to ask you for your opinion: how should I do it? I have never handled this kind of project before.”
Raven 12345 was silent before she replied with a relaxed tone of voice, “You always have surprises for me… Anyway, about the planet Inferno, I have a good suggestion.”
“The surface world?”
“You guess it right. In the surface world, there is a place called the Scarred Nebula.”