Chapter 144 Little Chick

When Vivian returned home with Lily, carrying a basket of groceries, they happened to see Hao Ren putting away the scroll. She casually asked, "Still messing with that cursed thing?"

Lily, however, wasn't interested in the scroll. She whooped with joy and dashed to the water room, gulping down a bellyful of cold water. After quenching her thirst, she started complaining, "Bat, Bat, hurry up and cook! You have to drag me along just to buy groceries. Was I in debt to you in my past life?"

Hearing this, Vivian brandished a cucumber towards the water room as if to throw it: "It's only ten thirty, what are you hungry for?! Was I in debt to you in my past life?"

Lily's voice came from the other side: "Nonsense, you killed me in my past life… oh wait, I was killed by you in my past life."

Vivian: "...Why is this mutt so quick-witted only at times like this?"

Hao Ren watched the daily squabble between these two nemeses and smiled slightly: "I've already started deciphering the second scroll."

As soon as Vivian heard this, she showed an interested expression. She casually handed the grocery basket to Nangong Wuyue, who was wriggling on the floor wiping it, and moved closer to Hao Ren: "Found anything?"

Hao Ren pointed to the data projected by the data terminal: "I suspect these four scrolls each record a major chapter of the ancient history of the Dream Plane, because the recording contents of the first and second scrolls have clear divisions. The first scroll records the stage when the Lord of the Mad was ruling the universe, which is also the most dangerous scroll: it's full of the names and deeds of evil gods. It took me almost a week to read those things. The second scroll begins to record the history for a period of time after the Creation Goddess defeated the Lord of the Mad. The scroll calls this period the 'Pastoral Age'. I've just read this part so far."

Vivian curiously looked at the projected data. This data was actually a translated and organized version of the scroll content. It was still full of the Lord of the Mad, but as Raven 12345 said, these copied words had lost their danger, and anyone could read them safely.

"You suspect the Pioneers are the People of the Stars?" Vivian asked.

"Just a guess, it could be something else, anyway, it's an indigenous intelligent creature that existed before the birth of guardian giants like Muru. The most useful thing on this is this paragraph: In order to better suppress the Lord of the Mad, the Creation Goddess redesigned and reinforced that cage. This time, the cage has three distinct layers and ninety-nine barriers, and a group of jailers was arranged inside. I'm very curious about the fate of these jailers later."

"They probably didn't end up well… after all, even the gods have fallen. It's hard to say how many of the mortal jailers could survive," Vivian shook her head, shifting her attention away from the data. "Don't be too obsessed with these things. Lady Goddess said these things are all cursed. The process of learning this knowledge is like taking drugs."

Hao Ren smiled, indicating that he would be careful. At this moment, a sudden rubbing sound from the corner of the wall interrupted the conversation between the two.

The large cardboard box in the corner of the living room was laboriously pushed open, and Little Chick cautiously poked her head out of the mouse hole. She carefully observed the surrounding environment and quickly spotted Hao Ren and Vivian, who were in the middle of their conversation. Immediately, the little thing raised her hands and scurried over. She struggled to jump onto the armrest of Hao Ren's chair, waving her claws in a show of force: "Ha—hiss-ha!"

Hao Ren held Little Chick's head down with one finger and took a small dish from the table, pouring some water into it and placing it on the armrest of the chair.

Little Chick looked down, waved her arms, and screeched a bunch of nonsense at Hao Ren before lowering her head and gulping down the water.

"Noticed it?" Hao Ren asked Vivian, watching Little Chick intently drink the water. "She's changed a bit."

Just then, Lily wandered out and casually replied upon hearing Hao Ren's words, "Yeah, yeah, I noticed. She didn't drink water before."

"That's not what I meant," Hao Ren waved his hand. "Have you noticed that she seems… gentler lately?"

Little Chick licked up the last bit of water, grabbed the dish, and swung it around, slapping it onto Hao Ren's face: "Hiss-ha!!"

Lily was immediately shocked: "You call that gentle?"

Hao Ren hurriedly caught the dish and pressed Little Chick onto the table. He shook his head: "That's not what I meant… I always feel like she's been a little more obedient lately. Have you noticed? She seems to be able to understand human speech?"

Vivian frowned as she looked at Little Chick, who was still struggling while being held down on the table. She tried to greet her: "Can you understand what I'm saying?"

Little Chick heard the sudden sound and was quiet for a moment. She looked up at Vivian and began to shake her head frantically.

Hao Ren, Lily, Vivian: "..."

"When did you notice these changes in her?" Vivian immediately became serious. She hadn't really paid attention to these subtle changes in Little Chick. Although she also cared about this unexpected clone, she didn't interact with her as much as Hao Ren did. The reason was simple—Little Chick had recently discovered that Hao Ren was the kindest person in the house. Dou Dou would hit her, Gun would hit her, and even the wimpiest Nangong Wuyue would slap her away several meters with her tail. Only Hao Ren often just laughed it off even when harassed. So, after a period of muddled calculation in the little thing's chaotic brain, she determined her best target. Usually, when she had nothing to do, she would go to Hao Ren to provoke him. After messing around like this for a while, Hao Ren was the first to notice the changes in the little thing.

"Since we left that forest last time," Hao Ren nodded. "Strictly speaking, the change probably happened when we were still in that other dimension. Do you remember? When we left the other dimension, we found this little thing quietly staying in the can. After returning home, she slept for a whole day and night, and after waking up, she was a little different."

After saying that, he released Little Chick. After gaining her freedom, Little Chick let out a sharp cry, and then shot off the table like a black flash, instantly diving into the mouse hole in the corner of the wall.

A moment later, Little Chick climbed out of the mouse hole, panting. She laboriously dragged the cardboard box next to her to block her "gate". Before finally crawling back in, she poked her head out and glanced at Hao Ren. Although her chaotic eyes couldn't reveal any emotion, she was clearly—angry.

Hao Ren, Vivian, and Lily stared at each other in wide-eyed silence. Little Chick's actions were filled with a quality she had never had before: emotionality, and quite obvious emotionality at that.

The three of them had a discussion on the spot, and soon Nangong Wuyue, who had finished cleaning the floor, also joined the discussion. They gathered all the recent words and deeds of Little Chick that they had seen, and quickly came to a conclusion:

"Obviously, she can now understand human speech and has more obvious emotional reactions," Hao Ren said, stroking his chin. "But her mind is probably still incomplete—so far, her most complex emotional reaction is also extremely 'childish', and often she can't control her behavior. Lily mentioned earlier that the little thing still insists on throwing magic arrows at the wall and biting wires every day, even though she should know that it's meaningless—I think this is a manifestation of a lack of self-control."

Nangong Wuyue frowned: "It's certain that there are changes, the question is what caused her changes."

"Let's assume her changes are related to our experience in that other space-time. What suspicious things there could have affected her?" Vivian spread her hands, counting them one by one. "The great barrier built by the demon hunters counts as one, then the scepter, and then the four scrolls. All three of the above are very strong sources of energy. I think they are all possible."

Nangong Wuyue raised her tail, wiping the table with a rag wrapped around the tip of her tail as she casually said: "Then I don't know—I didn't go with you, I don't know the situation."

Hao Ren carefully recalled the previous experience and shook his head gently: "There's another big factor that's been overlooked."

Vivian raised her eyelids: "What?"

"Your moonlight."

As soon as these words came out, the scene fell silent.

"Moonlight?" Vivian was stunned, pointing at herself. "You mean the Crimson Moon? That thing has always only made people more crazy. I didn't know it had a healing effect."

"But didn't you say that the Crimson Moon summoned last time was different from usual?" Hao Ren spread his hands. "Perhaps that's the problem: your moonlight mutated, causing the little evil spirit you split off to mutate as well."

Vivian stroked her chin: "Looks like you have a plan?"

"Not really a plan, just an idea," Hao Ren nodded. "I want to take another look at your Crimson Moon and conduct a thorough examination of it."

Upon hearing this, Vivian didn't show any hesitation or resistance, because she now had a strange trust in Hao Ren. She felt that as long as it was a plan proposed by him, it would definitely succeed. There was no basis for it, but she just believed it.

But in the end, she shook her head: "I don't mind, but it's probably not possible for the time being—summoning the Crimson Moon is a very magic- and energy-consuming ability. I estimate that I'll need to recover for a while before I can do it again."

Hao Ren of course expressed his understanding. In fact, he wasn't too anxious about this issue. He was just researching scrolls and Little Chick these past few days, and life was really boring. He just wanted to find something to do…

But soon he wouldn't need to be bored, because on the same afternoon, the data terminal gave him a special good news:

One of the drone swarm's listening stations found the corresponding gap in the Dream Plane for the Rifts Nebula of the Surface World.