Hao Ren knew that the ancient souls did not appear to him just to chinwag. As an inspector, he had the obligation to properly deal with the remnants of the extinct civilization, so he took initiative. "What can I do for you?"
"Stranger, we're helpless. We can only ask any traveler who happens to pass by for help," said the Tannaean collective souls. "There's a repository of our civilization in all three shelters, where all our culture, history, technology, and knowledge are stored. Please take them away and bring them to a place where people can understand as well as read them. During our lifetime, us Tannaeans didn't manage to explore the secrets among the stars. Now, our civilzation has become extinct, and we hope that at the very least, people will know there was once a civilization of Tannaean people, even if only a symbol was left. This is the last wish of the Tannaean people before this collective consciousness loses itself. This memory hopes it can be realized."
"I've seen from my workbook that 80 % of extinct civilizations have similar desires before dying. 'Preserving one's own information' is an instinct of intelligent creatures," Hao Ren said with a sigh. "Okay, tell me the location of the repository, Alamanda's repository."
The phantom told him all the details of the Alamanda Repository and expressed gratitude to Hao Ren. However, just before their mental connection was lost, something that had been bothering Hao Ren for suddenly crossed his mind. He knew whom to ask now.
"I found two strange devices, two keys," Hao Ren tried to describe the two keys he received from Igor and Ogyust. "...One is a triangular, another is round. Why do they have a 'seven-day curse' effect? Why can't people get rid of them after being embroiled? Why do the keys come back in seven days? Why would the person concerned die after leaving the key for more than seven days?"
The collective souls pondered and said, "You must be talking about the 'resonance stones' that we used to control the equipment around us. The triangular one is the 'vocal mark', and the round one is called the 'echo stone'. We don't know how it causes death, but the nature of the inevitable return of the echo stone within seven days is actually normal..."
Hao Ren was flabbergasted. "You call that normal? What is it used for?"
"It's an anti-theft feature."
Hao Ren was speechless.
"Newer models of the resonance stone have an identity locking system that will activate the auto-return function if the owner is away at a certain distance for a certain period of time. Entering the device's serial number and password will cancel this return setting. Of course, it can also be placed in a strong magnetic field, or any other energy field, but its memory will be erased. You won't need that memory anyway, it's usually for recording music and photos.
Again, Hao Ren was at a lost for words.
The curse that had been agonizing Ogyust for three centuries was a freaking anti-theft system! Hao Ren decided not to tell the poor old man the truth. Having an anal fissure was bad enough, he had better not further aggravate him with this inconvenient truth.
"Are there any more questions?" The soul collective was very patient, but Hao Ren did not really want to say anything for the time being. "No, thank you... I must go back and lick the wounds of my worldview."
As the chaotic spiritual tide faded, Hao Ren returned to the real world in a daze. He heard that the MDT had found an old, readable memory device—although he felt as if he had spent hours in the memories of the Tannaeans, it had actually been seconds in the real world.
Lily had a very sharp sixth sense. She was the first to feel that something was off with Hao Ren. She twitched her ears and turned her head around. "What happened, Landlord?"
"I met the memory of the Tannaeans." Hao Ren rubbed his forehead, and his mental fatigue quickly subsided. "A fragment of their collective memory's still floating on this planet, but it's invisible and intangible. Well, it's making me dizzy."
"You saw the memories of other creatures again?" Vivian looked at Hao Ren in surprise. "This time it was of the Tannaeans? What did they say?"
"We're going back to Alamanda and retrieving something from the city hall." Hao Ren nodded. "But, let's talk about it later. What have you found?"
"A memory device. It's 10,000 years old," said Nangong Wuyue as she drew out a pentagon-shaped crystal plate from a device. "The brick said that it's still readable but it's badly damaged. We need the equipment onboard the Petrachelys to fix it."
The MDT made a sharp whistling. "It's the brick! Don't you all follow what the noobie said..."
Everyone looked silently at the flying coaster. The latter responded by saying, "...What the heck have I just said?"
"Let's go, I've promised to help retrieve that thing," Hao Ren shook his head and went out. "Think of it as thanking for their gold though there is not much difference between gold and brick in this place."
They left the ancient observatory. Vivian looked at the direction of Alamanda, the desolate city of gold, worried. "Vengeful spirit near the city might still be there. Will we be in trouble?"
"The vengeful spirit won't be nothering us anymore," Hao Ren shook his head. He looked into the sky in the distance. As he focused his eyes, his vision began to change. Lines and colours gradually appeared in the once empty and monotonous sky. The magnetic field, soul fragments, memories, and ripples were left behind by the vengeful spirit as it swept across the sky. It was another world that could only be seen from the perspective of the spirit. The ancient memory had brought him something—something good which was unexpected—the vision of the spirit might come in handy in future. "I'm now one of them, sort of. The vengeful spirit was able to distinguish between the enemy and friend."
Under the guidance of ancient memories, Hao Ren led everyone back to Alamanda. He could feel that the vengeful spirit was lingering around him. Even if he did not activate his spiritual vision, he could still feel innumerable amazing energies watching him in heaven. Those Tannaeans who have lost their self-consciousness still seem to retain some instincts of intelligent beings. They blindly circled over the city, staring at the group of strangers who came into the city with their offensive instinct suppressed under some sense of identity.
There was an almost completely collapsed dome in the city center. It was the city hall of Alamanda. Hao Ren sent out several autonomous robots from the dimensional pocket to clean up the metal piles on the ground, cut open the four-layer heavy armour plates and exposed a secret chamber secured by a layer of super-strength alloy.
An one-and-a-half-metre tall metal cylinder glittering in lavender light were taken out. This was the repository.
All the achievements of the entire civilisation, all the information of the Tannaean, including all the information that they had collected so far from the stone engravings were here. Their writings, art, history, philosophy, and thoughts about the universe and themselves were all condensed here. There were countless video materials and drawings, formulas and cognitions of the world left behind by different generations of scientists, and also the last words the Tannaeans had recorded for the later generations. The entire civilisation was compressed in here.
Sixty-two centimetres and seventeen kilograms.
"This is all of it." Hao Ren sighed and placed the cylinder carefully into a metal safe, a standard issue equipment for inspector which was used specifically to store special items such as the remnants of a civilisation.
He closed the lid of the safe and typed an annotation on it: Tannagost Civilisation, full information, yet to be coded.
"I wonder if the information left behind by the humans after the their extinction someday would be able to fill up this box." Hao Ren said slyly.
"Oh, it depends on when the extinct occurs. If humans couldn't develop a better storage technology, perhaps the volume of information would be very large, until it fill the entire cabin to the brim. Then you must compress it with a translation equipment." replied the MDT. "Stop lamenting. This is the destiny of most civilisations. No matter how brilliant it is, how high their achievements had beve, how many artists, philosophers, leaders, heroes, dictators, politicians they produce...All these things are just a few bytes of information in the end. A lot of things would disappear in the end. For an inspector, whether these civilisations are destroyed by a sudden disaster or slow whithering have no difference, just like a patient who die on the bed."
Hao Ren nodded and said, "Okay, let's go."
Hao Ren knew that the ancient souls did not appear to him just to chinwag. As an inspector, he had the obligation to properly deal with the remnants of the extinct civilization, so he took initiative. "What can I do for you?"
"Stranger, we're helpless. We can only ask any traveler who happens to pass by for help," said the Tannaean collective souls. "There's a repository of our civilization in all three shelters, where all our culture, history, technology, and knowledge are stored. Please take them away and bring them to a place where people can understand as well as read them. During our lifetime, us Tannaeans didn't manage to explore the secrets among the stars. Now, our civilzation has become extinct, and we hope that at the very least, people will know there was once a civilization of Tannaean people, even if only a symbol was left. This is the last wish of the Tannaean people before this collective consciousness loses itself. This memory hopes it can be realized."
"I've seen from my workbook that 80 % of extinct civilizations have similar desires before dying. 'Preserving one's own information' is an instinct of intelligent creatures," Hao Ren said with a sigh. "Okay, tell me the location of the repository, Alamanda's repository."
The phantom told him all the details of the Alamanda Repository and expressed gratitude to Hao Ren. However, just before their mental connection was lost, something that had been bothering Hao Ren for suddenly crossed his mind. He knew whom to ask now.
"I found two strange devices, two keys," Hao Ren tried to describe the two keys he received from Igor and Ogyust. "...One is a triangular, another is round. Why do they have a 'seven-day curse' effect? Why can't people get rid of them after being embroiled? Why do the keys come back in seven days? Why would the person concerned die after leaving the key for more than seven days?"
The collective souls pondered and said, "You must be talking about the 'resonance stones' that we used to control the equipment around us. The triangular one is the 'vocal mark', and the round one is called the 'echo stone'. We don't know how it causes death, but the nature of the inevitable return of the echo stone within seven days is actually normal..."
Hao Ren was flabbergasted. "You call that normal? What is it used for?"
"It's an anti-theft feature."
Hao Ren was speechless.
"Newer models of the resonance stone have an identity locking system that will activate the auto-return function if the owner is away at a certain distance for a certain period of time. Entering the device's serial number and password will cancel this return setting. Of course, it can also be placed in a strong magnetic field, or any other energy field, but its memory will be erased. You won't need that memory anyway, it's usually for recording music and photos.
Again, Hao Ren was at a lost for words.
The curse that had been agonizing Ogyust for three centuries was a freaking anti-theft system! Hao Ren decided not to tell the poor old man the truth. Having an anal fissure was bad enough, he had better not further aggravate him with this inconvenient truth.
"Are there any more questions?" The soul collective was very patient, but Hao Ren did not really want to say anything for the time being. "No, thank you... I must go back and lick the wounds of my worldview."
As the chaotic spiritual tide faded, Hao Ren returned to the real world in a daze. He heard that the MDT had found an old, readable memory device—although he felt as if he had spent hours in the memories of the Tannaeans, it had actually been seconds in the real world.
Lily had a very sharp sixth sense. She was the first to feel that something was off with Hao Ren. She twitched her ears and turned her head around. "What happened, Landlord?"
"I met the memory of the Tannaeans." Hao Ren rubbed his forehead, and his mental fatigue quickly subsided. "A fragment of their collective memory's still floating on this planet, but it's invisible and intangible. Well, it's making me dizzy."
"You saw the memories of other creatures again?" Vivian looked at Hao Ren in surprise. "This time it was of the Tannaeans? What did they say?"
"We're going back to Alamanda and retrieving something from the city hall." Hao Ren nodded. "But, let's talk about it later. What have you found?"
"A memory device. It's 10,000 years old," said Nangong Wuyue as she drew out a pentagon-shaped crystal plate from a device. "The brick said that it's still readable but it's badly damaged. We need the equipment onboard the Petrachelys to fix it."
The MDT made a sharp whistling. "It's the brick! Don't you all follow what the noobie said..."
Everyone looked silently at the flying coaster. The latter responded by saying, "...What the heck have I just said?"
"Let's go, I've promised to help retrieve that thing," Hao Ren shook his head and went out. "Think of it as thanking for their gold though there is not much difference between gold and brick in this place."
They left the ancient observatory. Vivian looked at the direction of Alamanda, the desolate city of gold, worried. "Vengeful spirit near the city might still be there. Will we be in trouble?"
"The vengeful spirit won't be nothering us anymore," Hao Ren shook his head. He looked into the sky in the distance. As he focused his eyes, his vision began to change. Lines and colours gradually appeared in the once empty and monotonous sky. The magnetic field, soul fragments, memories, and ripples were left behind by the vengeful spirit as it swept across the sky. It was another world that could only be seen from the perspective of the spirit. The ancient memory had brought him something—something good which was unexpected—the vision of the spirit might come in handy in future. "I'm now one of them, sort of. The vengeful spirit was able to distinguish between the enemy and friend."
Under the guidance of ancient memories, Hao Ren led everyone back to Alamanda. He could feel that the vengeful spirit was lingering around him. Even if he did not activate his spiritual vision, he could still feel innumerable amazing energies watching him in heaven. Those Tannaeans who have lost their self-consciousness still seem to retain some instincts of intelligent beings. They blindly circled over the city, staring at the group of strangers who came into the city with their offensive instinct suppressed under some sense of identity.
There was an almost completely collapsed dome in the city center. It was the city hall of Alamanda. Hao Ren sent out several autonomous robots from the dimensional pocket to clean up the metal piles on the ground, cut open the four-layer heavy armour plates and exposed a secret chamber secured by a layer of super-strength alloy.
An one-and-a-half-metre tall metal cylinder glittering in lavender light were taken out. This was the repository.
All the achievements of the entire civilisation, all the information of the Tannaean, including all the information that they had collected so far from the stone engravings were here. Their writings, art, history, philosophy, and thoughts about the universe and themselves were all condensed here. There were countless video materials and drawings, formulas and cognitions of the world left behind by different generations of scientists, and also the last words the Tannaeans had recorded for the later generations. The entire civilisation was compressed in here.
Sixty-two centimetres and seventeen kilograms.
"This is all of it." Hao Ren sighed and placed the cylinder carefully into a metal safe, a standard issue equipment for inspector which was used specifically to store special items such as the remnants of a civilisation.
He closed the lid of the safe and typed an annotation on it: Tannagost Civilisation, full information, yet to be coded.
"I wonder if the information left behind by the humans after the their extinction someday would be able to fill up this box." Hao Ren said slyly.
"Oh, it depends on when the extinct occurs. If humans couldn't develop a better storage technology, perhaps the volume of information would be very large, until it fill the entire cabin to the brim. Then you must compress it with a translation equipment." replied the MDT. "Stop lamenting. This is the destiny of most civilisations. No matter how brilliant it is, how high their achievements had beve, how many artists, philosophers, leaders, heroes, dictators, politicians they produce...All these things are just a few bytes of information in the end. A lot of things would disappear in the end. For an inspector, whether these civilisations are destroyed by a sudden disaster or slow whithering have no difference, just like a patient who die on the bed."
Hao Ren nodded and said, "Okay, let's go."
