The Record of Unusual Creatures

It was the real function of the Creation’s Engine.

It was not an engine with physical propulsion. The way Vivian described it was more like a ‘system engine’ that acted on information and modified the content of the universe at the information level.

The only function of this engine was to rewrite the information registry of the universe, and ‘delete’ the goddess of creation and the Mad Lord.

“The Mad Lord in the original state was almost invincible. It was born in the chaos of the ancient times of the Plane of Dreams, from which it was inseparable. Its activities would eventually drag the universe into destruction, but it was still one of the cornerstones by which the universe existed.” Vivian shook her head gently. “The goddess of creation was able to defeat the Mad Lord and even imprison the Mad Lord again and again, but she could never really destroy it. Her war with the Mad Lord pushed the universe rapidly to its doom, which was an inevitable result of the battle of the two forces.”

Hao Ren smacked his lips and said, “So, she chose to perish together with it?”

The goddess of creation chose to perish together with the Mad Lord, but it was no surprise in itself. From the clues Hao Ren had in his hands earlier, Hao Ren could already roughly infer the decisions that the goddess of creation took in the face of this eternal war. Everything that this goddess did was to end the threat of the Mad Lord, and for this purpose, she could sacrifice herself.

What really surprised Hao Ren was the goddess of creation choosing to perish together with the Mad Lord and the truth about the Creation’s Engine.

As Vivian put it: The Mad Lord in its original state was invincible. It lived in symbiosis with and as long as the universe; it was a component of the fundamental law of the Plane of Dreams and could not be destroyed. But the war of the goddess of creation and the Mad Lord had produced an unexpected change; the Mad Lord had turned into a god.

The Mad Lord who had acquired divinity had instead become destructible.

“The Gilded Discs that we are looking for are essentially the storage of divine power and ‘comparator’ that can calculate divinity. When the Creation’s Engine is started, its core system will index the divine information recorded in the Gilded Discs and forcibly delete any information that meets the index criteria. The process was as if clearing the registry information by looking up keywords. The divine information is actually the ‘sample’ of the goddess of creation.

“We found an ancient crystal disc and supporting facilities in Collow and thought that they were prototypes of the Creation’s Engine and the Gilded Discs. But we were thinking the wrong way. We assumed that the Creation’s Engine was a propulsion engine or something that had influences on the material world. We ended up making little progress in studying the prototypes. It is not wrong to call those things prototypes. It is just that they more like work on the information level than the physical level.”

Hao Ren nodded as he finally understood what the Creation’s Engine and the “deletion of the gods” were all about. “What does this have to do with the Heart and the Throne of Destiny? What does it have to do with you?”

“It is to ensure that the world will survive after the departure of the gods,” Vivian explained. “Because of the lack of technical knowledge, the Creation’s Engine that the goddess of creation created was rather rudimentary. It deleted the data of the true gods from the universe by indexing the keywords but was not capable of repairing the system of the universe system. And the end result was—”

“The law of the universe would face a wide range of logical loopholes and data breakpoints!” Hao Ren had learned a lot from Raven 12345 about the Grand Unified Theory and naturally knew what Vivian was talking about. “The Mad Lord is the fundamental data of this universe, and the fact that the goddess of creation has been active in this world for so long, she has an inextricable influence in the Plane of Dreams. So, it is impossible to forcibly remove their data. Of they must do, there must be a replacement. Wait a minute! Could it be that—”

“I am the replacement. Other than me, the Throne of Destiny, the planet Heart, and the divine network outside the X-Galaxy all add up to fill the void after the demise of the goddess of creation and the Mad Lord.” Vivian drew some magical patterns in the air using her finger. The first pattern was a big circle. “Do you still remember the divine burst network that we have found in the universe of the Plane of Dreams—the one that you detected while bringing the otherworldlings visiting their homeworlds? It is based on stars and the peripheral execution unit of the entire system. The neutral divine burst could control the operation of the universe like nerve signals do in our body.”

Vivian then drew a small circle inside the big one with shiny lines dancing like sprites in the small circle.

“This is the Heart of Destiny in the X-Galaxy. The planet is the middle-level processing unit of the entire system. The sprites are actually the neural nodes. Their bodies that is, those resonant crystals, process and store a huge amount of information. Just like a supercomputer, it gives instructions to the peripheral execution units. The reason why the sprites are such a confused bunch is not that they are stupid, but because the supercomputer lacks a core.”

Vivian formed a blood-red runic symbol with magic in the center of the small circle.

“The Throne of Destiny is in the crystal mountain. We have not seen it, but I can already sense its existence. In the blueprint of this system, I am sitting on the Throne of Destiny, responsible for running all the commands,” Vivian pointed at herself, “akin to a CPU and an OS. But this is not an accurate analogy because it is not quite the same as the computer. It is more like the highest node, the queen of the sprites. Back then, the goddess of creation sent me to the surface world to protect her highest node and to complete the Ultimate Absolution. But I would eventually return to this place according to the original program.”

A few seconds of silence ensued. Hao Ren quietly looked at Vivian, and finally said, “So, this is the real mission that the goddess of creation has left for you.”

“Ye. My mission is to replace their position and role after the complete removal of the influence of the goddess of creation and the Mad Lord from the universe.” Vivian sighed. “And this whole plan and the finished product is called the Weaves of Destiny—the final order of the universe after the death of a god.”

It reminded Hao Ren about his conversation with Muru and the other two guardian giants about the words and deeds of the goddess of creation before her death.

The goddess of creation had once raised a question: Should there be a god or no god?

At that time, he only associated these words with the deicidal war and thought that it was the arrangement and foresight of the goddess of creation for her death. But now he realized that it was a plan bigger but crazier than he had thought.

The removal of the concept of God from the universe was not only about the killing of the gods but also about the complete erasure of any traces of divine influence and interference, be it from the goddess of creation or the Mad Lord.

It would be followed by the creation of a new world where gods and the Mad Lord did not exist and that operated according to the laws of nature.

The Weaves of Destiny that Vivian mentioned did not have the same divine power. It was, in fact, an underlying database and a low-level program, which contained various basic parameters, such as the concept and value of the speed of light, the way the fundamental forces worked, the expansion and contraction coefficient of the universe, etc. required for the existence of the world. Its replacement of the goddess was not to add a new ‘manager’ to the universe but to fill the various missing constants after the departure of the goddess. Hao Ren knew the meaning of this thing well; it was the system environment or the runtime library.

It was the product of the goddess of creation’s efforts to clear the divine influence. Its initiation denoted the end of the god’s era.

It was not the Mythological era on the earth, but the true god’s era.

“It is the same as we know it,” said Salaman, who remained silent until now. “But the explanation of the Lord of the Throne of Destiny is more detailed.”

“Call me Vivian. I am not used to be called that title.” Vivian waved her hands. “Salaman, what do you think?”

“Since the Guide has returned, you should go back to the Throne of Destiny as soon as possible,” Salaman said. “The Throne of Destiny has great power; as soon as you activate the various systems that Mother has left behind, all the evils of this world will be no match for you. As for the Creation’s Engine, I have just learned that you are assembling it now. With the help of the Weaves of Destiny, it should be completed very soon.”

The general of the guardian giants had deep faith in his mother. He was quite optimistic about the future as if the crisis of the universe was over. But Vivian did not say yes or no but just turned to look at Hao Ren with a smile. “What do you think?” she asked.

Hao Ren spread out his hand with a smile. “I do think otherwise.”

Salaman was startled. “What?”

“I don’t think Vivian should sit on the Throne of Destiny—at least not now and before I figure out how the thing works and whether it is safe.”

Salaman seemed to be controlling his emotions. “Do you know what you are talking about? It is the only hope of the universe!”

“Firstly, I know what I am talking about because I am a person of stature. Secondly, a mere Throne of Destiny cannot be the only hope of the universe, because there is me here. Thirdly, have you forgotten that the Throne of Destiny had a BSOD—the blue screen of death—two hours ago?”

Salaman was struck dumb.

Hao Ren turned to Vivian. “What I am most worried about is that once you get on the Throne of Destiny, something unpredictable might happen. I have seen many similar incidents, such as you would turn into an AI, integrate into the network, become like the sprite, or unable to get down once sitting in there frozen in a block of ice with twenty-five violent guys raiding the throne regularly.”

Vivian smashed a small bat at Hao Ren’s chest. “What the hell are you talking about?”