Chapter 522: The Cat
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Sitting on the sofa in a daze, the Nangong siblings were thinking of their parents. It seemed like it was impossible to get any lead from the vengeful spirit. The memory of the vengeful spirit was bound in an energy field in the form of chaotic debris, and after contacting it, only some vague, random memories could be read. Even a talented child like Anna could not read the details of the vengeful spirit's memory. Probably nobody could find out where the Nangongs' parents had been sent.
What was more, the vengeful spirit had already been smashed by Lil Pea's voice. Only part of it remained.
Hao Ren had noticed that Vivian and the Nangong siblings were depressed. He came up and asked, "What happened?"
"It's about my parents," Nangong Wuyue sighed and continued. "I thought this time there would be some hope... never have I expected the vengeful spirit is just a chaotic natural phenomenon. There's no lead now."
Hao Ren thought for a moment, then he took out a small apple box from the dimensional pocket. The box was actually the container used to sealing in the vengeful spirit. It looked just like any other normal box and it was empty. But there were occasional tiny sparks inside which was a phenomenon caused by the rapid turbulence of the vengeful spirit.
"This is part of the sample... I don't know if I can analyse anything out of it." Hao Ren said.
"It's only fragments," Vivian sighed. "The memory of the vengeful spirit is already confusing enough, now you have here is only some debris... How much valuable information can there be?"
Hao Ren remained silent. The MDT suddenly floated up from the sofa armrest and said, "All of it."
Hao Ren and Vivian spoke in unison, "What?"
"The whole memory of the vengeful spirit is stored in here," the MDT hovered above the box. "You're still not correctly understand the life form of vengeful spirit—you mustn't think of energy field or spiritual creature as a 'substance' in the ordinary sense. Don't assume that these fragments are really 'fragments' of the electromagnetic waves. As long as the critical frequencies are not destroyed, every piece of the vengeful spirit contains all of its entire information, just like the exponential repetition of a mathematical model, each component is a complete template, each detail stores the whole information that can be duplicated and expanded indefinitely—this is the key that enables the vengeful spirit to extend from a small group of white light to hundreds of square kilometres without loss of details. It is self-explanatory, there is no physical limit."
The MDT's explanation was very technical. But given Vivian's long experience mingling with major mathematicians in history, she immediately understood what it was all about. "Ahh, it's like Roman cauliflower where countless similar bodies make a complete body, isn't it?"
Hao Ren: "….." He marvelled at the vampire girl's train of thoughts which seemed to have developed around the kitchen.
"Though the metaphor is a little weird, it's apt," the MDT gently landed on top the apple box. "The size of the fragment only affects the vengeful spirit's strength, and the information it stores will become weak, but the volume of data will not be affected. As long as it's given sufficient external energy, it can be completely restored to its peak level just like when it was under Andrea Castle. And if the energy environment on Earth is conducive, it can grow further. Of course we don't need to do that. As soon as it's slightly recharged, we can try to read its strange electromagnetic wave."
After listening to all the technical jargons, The Nangong siblings were none the wiser. But when they heard the last sentence, they understood what it was and their eyes lit up. "Then let's do it now!"
"It's just an idea. But knowing how to read it is an entirely different matter," the MDT poured cold water on the idea, trying to calm Nangong siblings down. "This is the most wonderful life form I've ever seen. Even the Encyclopaedia of Life Forms in the Imperial Database has no record of this spiritual body. The sublimation technique of Tannaeans and the spiritual field of the First Born together have produced such distorted, weird structure. We need to design a comprehensive reading process in the laboratory, and be careful not to let this thing escape."
Hao Ren poked the MDT. "Is there a spare lab on the Petrachelys?" he asked.
"All labs are occupied and dedicated to studying and cloning of the Seed of Origin. But some workbenches could be vacated," the MDT rolled up Hao Ren's arm onto his shoulder. "You want to open a new research line?" it asked.
After obtaining the permission of Hao Ren, the MDT immediately issued an order to the Petrachelys which was parked in the Kuiper Station. Although Hao Ren could tuck the spacecraft in his dimensional pocket for long-term, there were many research projects going on on board the spacecraft. Besides, he often needed to send some autonomous robots to New Aerym or Tannagost, so he had sent the spacecraft to the Kuiper Station when he came back earlier.
The spacecraft carried out the instruction after receiving a new order. In the lab of the core compartment where analyses of the Seed of Origin group was conducted, agile robotic arms and precision scanners were busily at work. But after the new directives were issued, on some test benches, analysis equipment was transferred to somewhere else while containers that had developed prototypes of strange meat were temporarily sealed and stored by the autonomous robots into the safe. The research host began to simulate a decoding device based on the information on the characteristics of the vengeful spirit sent by the MDT. Very quickly, the on-board processing plant of the Petrachelys began to its works.
When Hao Ren stepped onto the spacecraft next time, there will be a new set of equipment waiting for him in the lab.
Now he and Nangong siblings could only wait.
"Let's wait for two days. There is no readily available decoding device in the world that can communicate with the vengeful spirit, and the Petrachelys needs some time to perform the R&D." While keeping everyone calm, the MDT had not forgotten to brag about. "Fortunately for you, the Imperial science and technology are warm-hearted. The R&D host on the inspector's spaceship is absolutely more awesome than scientists in Tannagost. All thanks to my wisdom and command."
"Oh yeah?" Hao Ren knocked on the outer shell of the MDT and asked, "What reward do you want?"
"I am a noble PDA. A pure PDA. I am not a PDA of poor taste. I am thinking of..."
Not waiting for the MDT to finish, Hao Ren took out a sticker from his pocket and stuck it on its shell. "This is for you. I picked it up from the street earlier."
The MDT swiftly flew up. "What…what... what did you just stick on me?! Is it Pleasant Goat or SpongeBob?! Is it Pony? Ouch, you're so cruel to your own PDA…"
Hao Ren held up a mirror in front of the MDT. "See for yourself."
The MDT suddenly calmed down. "Oh, it's ¥9.90 price tag. You should tell me earlier. Get this thing off me immediately!"
Amid the teasing and noise, suddenly Lily hurriedly down the stairs and said, "Mr. Landlord, Rollie is missing!"
For some reasons, Lily was currently the person in charge of feeding the cat.
Of course, for the sake of clarity, we have to clarify that Rollie is the one who is in charge of feeding the fish.
That's how well-organised the ecological chain of this family is.
"Rollie is out?" Hao Ren lifted his eyebrows. "Maybe it has gone for a walk. I saw it watching TV in my room in the afternoon."
Both Vivian and Nangong Wuyue looked at Hao Ren with strange expression on their faces. Vivian reminded him. "Don't you think it's weird that a cat would go into your room and turn on the TV and switch to pet channel on the dot every day?"
Hao Ren thought for a moment before he began to realise that. "Yeah... Cat's claws are not quite suitable for operating remote controller."
Vivian facepalmed and said, "This is not the key!"
She felt that the man beside him must have his worldview ruined as a result of mingling with the otherworldlings for too long.
Lily took the cat food stumbling down the stairs. "I don't think it's strolling outside. It usually will be home at this time waiting for its meal to be served."
Hao Ren thought for a long time, recalling the strange behaviour of Rollie the other day. His normal 'human awareness' only began to come back. He now also thought that something was amiss about the cat.