Chapter 12345 Something's Fishy

Although Raven 12345 was a bit unreliable, Hao Ren had studied the operations manual himself, and he knew that dealing with suspected transmigrators fell within his job scope. If Hilder really came from another world, then he had to find out the cause and effect of her transmigration and find a way to send her back—or place her in a designated settlement of the Temporal Management Bureau, or some other suitable place, but before that, he had to find a way to transfer Hilder from the Dream Plane to the surface world.

The data terminal's voice sounded in his mind: "No problem, just use your coordinates in the surface world as the base point, I'll take care of the modulation, safety factor is 100%."

"You can really send a living person to the surface world?!" Hao Ren was quite surprised. "How is that done? We have bodies outside, so we can just 'return' when we come out, how will Hilder come out?"

The data terminal explained: "If you understand the Information Singularity more deeply, you'll know that so-called 'transmigration' is just a cut and paste of a set of data, and that's what the Xiling technology is best at. Hilder doesn't have a corresponding entity in the surface world, but we can directly package and download all her data in the Dream Plane to the outside world. Remember, the Dream Plane is a real, tangible world, but for some reasons, its 'reality priority' is one level lower than that of the surface world, so things here can be transported outside through complex conversions. Think about how you brought that tuft of wolf hair outside in the first place?"

Hao Ren thought for a while: "Hey, then according to this, we don't need a hibernation pod to enter the Dream Plane? Can we just transmit ourselves in?" He really didn't want to recall the sight of that row of coffins in his basement.

"Unfortunately, that's not possible for now," the data terminal dispelled Hao Ren's thoughts. "Transmission is one-way. The connection between the current Dream Plane and the surface world is in a delicate balance. The Dream Plane can be regarded as a fragile, old system, while the surface world is more robust and complex. You can read data from an old system and write it into a new system without problems, but reading data from a new system and writing it into an old system may cause errors, so entering the Dream Plane from the surface world still requires a hibernation pod as a guide. Of course, with a guide, you can bring in a lot of things, you can even pack a spaceship and stuff it into your personal space—but before that, the first individual to be transmitted into the Dream Plane must use a hibernation pod to guide the process. In addition, if Hilder wants to return to the Dream Plane after leaving, she must also use a hibernation pod."

Hao Ren could now understand these complex theories, and was immediately disappointed.

These exchanges in the mental realm lasted only a few seconds. Hilder had just begun her mysterious ritual: she came to the treant guardian that had been burned to charcoal, took out some strange powder and sprinkled it into the air, chanting words. Under her incantation, the strange powder gradually flickered with green light and slowly fell on the remains of the treant guardian. The remains, which had completely lost their vitality, immediately regained their green color as if withered trees had met spring. Some buds and stems protruded from the treant guardian's charred shell, as if this behemoth was about to be resurrected.

But it ultimately did not resurrect. The green color on the treant guardian only spread within a meter, and after the buds and stems grew to a certain extent, they separated to both sides. Then, something like a flower bud protruded from under the dead wood. Hilder took off the flower bud and opened it, revealing what was inside: it was a seed.

"It followed me from a faraway home, and I must at least take its seed back," Hilder silently said goodbye to the remains of the treant guardian, turned around and looked at Hao Ren, "Now we can get going."

On the way to the Blood Lake, Hao Ren walked with Hilder out of curiosity. He was curious why she was still wandering in the forest even though she had arrived here two days ago. Hilder didn't hide anything: "There are checkpoints on all the roads, and you need a pass to get through. I didn't want to cause unnecessary trouble, so I've been looking for other roads in the forest. But the places without checkpoints are occupied by monsters, so it's not easy to pass through. I summoned the treant guardian—but I didn't expect it to go out of control so quickly. I've basically been tracking this out-of-control treant for the past two days."

"How did it suddenly go out of control?" Hao Ren asked curiously.

Judging from the treant guardian, Hilder had considerable strength. Although he didn't know what level she was in her own world, it was clear that in this world, she could be considered an expert just by relying on the treant guardian she summoned. This was probably also the source of her confidence in acting alone and choosing to cooperate with strangers. But how could a perfectly fine treant guardian suddenly go out of control?

"I'm not sure, but there must be something wrong with the soil and water here," Hilder shook her head. "The environment here is filled with a very peculiar life force. It allows creatures to grow vigorously, but at the same time, it slowly twists and mutates them. At first, I thought I had found an excellent nursery, but I didn't notice the side effects of these life forces."

This time, before Hao Ren could speak, the data terminal took the initiative to speak up: "I don't have this module, I don't know what she's talking about."

The group arrived at the lakeside near dusk, having spent an entire day traveling through the dense forest—this was still thanks to the road in the forest, and the group was moving at a good pace. The scope of this twisted forest was no joke.

The blood-colored lake was right in front of them, and looking at it from such a close distance gave off an indescribable sense of eeriness. After coming out of the forest, Lily ran in the front, but her cheers came to an abrupt halt when she reached the lakeside. The husky might have originally planned to doggy-paddle in the lake, but she chickened out when she actually saw this large expanse of "blood water." She cautiously circled around the water's edge, and after hesitating for a long time, she turned around and dipped her tail in the water, immediately jumping up from the cold: "Wow! So cold!"

Hao Ren stepped forward and patted Lily's head: "Don't mess around, you'll lose your fur if you're allergic... Hey, don't shake it! You're getting water all over me!"

Izhaks came to the lake. He didn't care about these strange lake waters because of his good physique (this was safer than lava). He squatted down and directly cupped a handful of water and drank it: "Hmm, very ordinary, slightly salty, it seems to be just a regular slightly salty lake."

"It's not blood, it has nothing to do with blood," Vivian also created a small bat to taste the water in the lake. "Apart from the strange color, there doesn't seem to be anything special about it."

Becky didn't expect Izhaks to be so brave, actually drinking the water from the Blood Lake directly, and immediately exclaimed: "Hey, don't drink it! There are weird things in this water, ordinary people will get sick if they drink it!"

Izhaks didn't care at all. As a demon, even his blood was poisonous. Vivian quickly dispersed her little bat: "Is the lake water poisonous?"

"You can't say it's 'poisonous,' but it's definitely not normal," Becky pointed to the twisted forest behind her. "It is said that the twisted forest here and the poisonous plains on the other side are the result of the lake water's influence. Do you think this water is drinkable?"

Lily immediately came over with a sad face and tugged at Hao Ren's sleeve, stretching her tail over for him to see: "Landlord, I'm really losing fur... I'm poisoned, I want to eat something good to replenish my body..."

"It's you who's losing fur, not me!" Hao Ren pushed Lily's tail aside. "And this is just normal shedding because it's getting cold. Do you think I can't tell the difference between an allergic reaction and normal shedding?"

Lily wagged her tail: "Then I want to eat something good."

In short, the husky was just hungry, and was finding a reason to have an extra meal.

Becky laughed at the sight, pointing to a small hill that was much higher than the ground not far away. On top of it, you could see simple towers and roofs: "Let's go to the Knights' outpost to report first. There's a place to rest there, and we can also find out which area the search is progressing to."

Vivian glanced at her: "You're still thinking about striking it rich? It seems like the search for the Holy Relic is almost suspended."

Becky looked happy: "It's precisely because the other mercenaries have withdrawn that this is an opportunity! My luck is always good. Maybe I can find the Relic. Even if I don't find it, it doesn't matter. There are many valuable herbs in the nearby beaches and forest edges. It wouldn't be a loss to find some to take back. Haha, you have to believe in my luck!"

Vivian was just saying it casually, but she didn't expect to suffer a heavy blow to her mind and body, and immediately returned to Hao Ren's side with a frustrated expression: "I hate it when people mention luck, I hate it when people mention luck... Rich people should all die..."

Hao Ren: "..."