Fantastic Creatures’ Travelogue - Chapter 28

Chapter 28 Real High-tech

Hao Ren curiously looked at the small silver gadget in his hand, and while he was very excited, he was also confused. The gadget was only about as big as his palm and had a silver-white metallic luster to it, but it did not feel cold in his hand. The texture of the material felt soft somehow, very different from the common metals of Earth. The gadget was shaped like a perfect hexagon, no thicker than a few centimeters in its thickest part, and its surface was pulsing with blue and white light, like the gentle breathing of a living creature. Hao Ren rubbed the surface of the Metal Plate curiously. The plate’s central hexagonal region brightened immediately and a holographic image suddenly appeared in the air, shocking him greatly!

In his surprise, Hao Ren almost threw away his earnings for the first month. As he held the metal plate he stared at the holographic image floating above it: There was a blue cross composed of four crystals slowly rotating on the image, floating before a chaotic black background. Below the image were a few lines of characters: Space-Time Authority – Node en35 – World No.az655 – Universal Personal Data Assistant. Current operator has passed the permission authentication, equipment on standby.

“A fully Chinese interface, flawless operation and even a novice can easily control it.” Raven12345 raised her finger and pointed at the “Data Terminal” in Hao Ren’s hand, attracting his attention, “Enclosed within are your work instructions, a briefing of the Space -Time Authority, basic intelligence about the empire and some things you need to learn about the Macro World, the Space Time Route, the Code for the World Gate, the Process for Authorization, List for Material Supply, Protocols for soliciting support, etc. It’d be a lot of effort to personally explain all of these things to you, so why don’t you read it yourself? Learn it at your own pace, and when you’ve memorized all of these… Erm, you should have completed the first phase of the internship, and you can transition to the second phase.”  Hao Ren was suddenly pessimistic about his life in the future. Holy crap, he had put in so much effort to graduate from school, why did he have to return to the identity of a student?!

“What is this? How should I use it?” Hao Ren decided to temporarily put aside his thoughts of his miserable student life and pointed to the blue cross emblem on the hologram. Although he didn’t know what it was, he had the feeling that it must be of great significance – Because it could also be seen in Raven12345’s house frequently, and even on some of the magic servants. As he put his finger on the hologram and pushed at it, his finger went directly through the screen. Apparently he couldn’t control it by touching the image, as he had imagined.

Raven12345’s expression immediately became serious, to Hao Ren’s surprise. He couldn’t have imagined that this sloven and abnormal Goddess could actually reveal such a solemn expression. Raven12345 looked straight at Hao Ren’s eyes, as if trying to push her thoughts directly into his brain, “This is the emblem of the Hilling Empire, the symbol of our Empire, and the stamp of the Hilling civilization. It stands for the Empire – Right now, you’re still a newcomer, and you probably can’t understand the meaning of the symbol. You just need to remember that it’s of special significance, and that in the whole of the Void, countless races survive under the protection of this emblem and the soldiers that fight under its guidance.” Hao Ren listened, stupefied.

Seeing that, Raven patted her forehead. “Oh, I shouldn’t have told you these things so early…In short, you just need to remember that, no matter how dangerous or how complicated of a situation you encounter in the future, as long as you carry this emblem, you are a part of the Empire. Understood?”

Hao Ren understood this time, nodding strongly.

“So how do I use this thing?”

“Put your hand on any of the edges and try to control it with your mind – It will judge your confirmation protocol automatically, so there can be no misoperation,” Raven guided Hao Ren on how to start the small device, “Of course in the beginning, you might need to take some time to adapt to it. After all, its reaction speed is really fast, and it’s intelligence is no lower than your own. Sometimes it will automatically help you to do something, so that even if you think you screwed something up, everything will still be alright. For now, try to start the main system and tell it that you’re a Rookie.”

Hao Ren stared as he listened, repeating the words endlessly in his mind: Holy shit, this was really high-tech!

“Didn’t you say that you Hilling Disciples are Gods? Why do you Gods use such high-tech things? Did you evolve your Tech Tree?” Hao Ren grumbled as he concentrated on communicating with the metal plate in his hand unskillfully. Raven12345 answered his question. “Is there any difference between the scientific and magic technology? We Hilling God Tribe started developing both lines simultaneously, and just used whichever is easier to use. Anyway, both are just tools used to control the world, and if you throw this gadget into an uncivilized world, it may be called an Artifact. Then again, I’m not very skilled at using technology-based products, as I prefer the creations of Magic. Unfortunately, you can’t use those.”

Hao Ren didn’t pay attention to what Raven12345 was saying, as he had successfully started up the small data terminal.

A series of images flashed through the holographic projection, and though they seemed disorganized, Hao Ren didn’t have the feeling that he could not keep up with the rhythm or couldn’t understand the images: the refresh rate and switching method perfectly fit his comprehension, as if the data terminal could scan his brain and create new messages customized to the state of his brain in real-time. As Hao Ren’s eyes focused on the holographic images, the most important information was always in the center of his focus, and whenever he wanted to know something new, even without bothering to give instructions, the holographic images on the screen would follow his idea, letting him to gain new info very efficiently. Initially Hao Ren had thought that he might not be able to handle such advanced equipment, but he soon realized that there was one important thing: for a civilization whose power was enough to freely rule multiverses, to create a simple-to-use gadget was not a problem whatsoever, just like how humans could easily produce feeding machines that could even be used by chimpanzees and dogs. As scientific technology became more perfect, the usage became more simple and the complicated things were contained out of the user’s’ sight.

Here is the simple example: Hao Ren was sure that if he broke the small gadget in his hands, he was afraid that no one on Earth would be able to fix it…

“The request for support … What does it mean?” Hao Ren suddenly found a very noticeable word in the rapidly refreshing information, and without him giving specific orders, the intriguing entry automatically stopped at the center of his vision and surrounded itself with relevant pictures and videos on the holographic image: It looked like all kinds of weapons and equipment, soldiers standing in formation, and charts which he couldn’t understand. These were all listed neatly in the front and center of his view, but everything above it was greyed out.

“Do you really think that the Examiners are Lone Rangers? That your jobs are nothing more than taking care of abnormal creatures in their homes?” Raven12345 shrugged her shoulder, “When you have graduated and officially joined us, you will know that the work you’ll deal with is really complicated. What if I ask you to repress an insurgency in the Centaur Galaxy right now? What if I send you to the Scorpion Tail Nebula to establish a military mediation? Then the Support Request and Armed Agreement can come in handy, you can choose to use these things when you are in mortal danger – of course, they all require the corresponding permissions, and permissions correspond to a variety of rigorous assessment. We can’t give these killing gadgets to a rookie who wasn’t mentally strong, though these things are just innocuous civilian products in our eyes… Right, even civilian products are enough to reenter the Ice Age on your planet if left there.”

Hao Ren broke into a cold sweat. Although he hadn’t finished the “Examiner Instruction” and “STA Work Outline”, these two documents, he had heard something incredible from Raven12345’s words… This work seemed to be really dangerous!

Hao Ren opened his mouth: “Now I…”?

“Can’t resign,” Raven12345 smiled evilly, “Even if you’re dead, your soul is still hung on my attendance table, and you still have to work after I give you a new body. How difficult do you think it is for me to recruit a new employee? You want to run away? I won’t allow it! ”

Hao Ren: “…”

“Do not reveal such an expression,” Raven12345 beamed at Hao Ren’s side and patted him on the shoulder after giving him a great shock, “I never bluffed, and soon you will know, this is an opportunity that normal people can only dream of – and as long as you don’t seek death, basically you live to… ah, anyway, quite a long time. After all, you Examiners are not military personnel. There won’t be so many wars that we’d have even you auxiliary police take part.”

Hao Ren tried several times to speak, but he was stopped by the words of the white-haired witch so he could only pursed his lips and put the data terminal into a pocket: There were too many things to read, and since it was clearly not realistic to try and read it all here he decided to digest it all after returning home.

“Then let’s talk about the nightmare stuff,” Hao Ren could only accept it and sat on a chair, “I think you are keeping something from me – yes I am honest, but that doesn’t mean that you can bully me at your will right? You should at least tell me more about it, so that I can at least go back and have a good sleep.”

Raven12345 glimpsed at Hao Ren, and finally sighed reluctantly: “Alright alright, You are really stubborn today. Well, maybe I can select those you are allowed to know about and tell you.”