Because of the old commander, Dan Moss, Hao Ren began to understand what Raven 12345 meant by "Even if you're dead, I could resurrect you and make you my slave."
His superior was a real god!
They tactfully declined the invitation of Dan Moss for a taste of the exotic alien food in the space station. Hao Ren was desperate for home to ensconce the egg—he teleported back home straightaway while Raven 12345 was headed back to her place. Hao Ren let out a long sigh the moment he stepped through the door: The journey to foreign planet and space station was really cool for him to brag for the rest of his life, but the surreal feeling was still choking his thought, he needed to take his mind off.
Rollie was napping on the couch handle. It raised its tail lazily when it saw its master, like a king waving off its servant "Yeah, I know you're home. So what?" Hao Ren snugged the egg in his arm and went upstairs. But Vivian and Lily weren't home. He was wondering. "Where the hell are they?"
Nangong Wuyue and Y'zaks overheard Hao Ren's mutter. The siren looked around the house. She found a piece of paper was pinned under a heavy cupboard in the living hall. She lifted up the cupboard and took the paper out, it was a note. "Ohh, Lily just left a message. Thanks to Raven 12345, they knew that we're coming back today, so they've gone to the market."
Hao Ren stared at the cupboard flabbergasted. "...Why pinned the note under the cupboard?"
"Hell, only God knows. Maybe she found it convenient, she's got strong muscle." said Nangong Wuyue. She was just making a wild guess, she didn't really know the husky very well. Actually, Lily was simply being dumb. Nangong Wuyue yawned. "I'm going for a nap."
Hao Ren waved bye-bye at the siren, and continued wondering. "What should I do with the egg?"
He looked at the cupboard—no, it wasn't a good idea to put the egg on there, nor in there. He looked around his house and couldn't find an ideal place. The egg was a little too big for the drawer, and wasn't appropriate enough as a handicraft on the table. He carried the egg and strolled around the house for like half a day, before he came to the tiny storeroom at the basement—a very ideal location. The egg should be safe there. No-one would ever go down there. Then Y'zaks reminded him. "The egg's going to hatch."
Hao Ren realized it. Raven 12345 had told him the egg is alive. So he couldn't just leave the egg at a corner and forget about it for good. What if when it hatched? The little thing might starve to death if it was left forgotten.
"The goddess said it should be near somewhere with water, the baby mermaid needs water when it hatches." Y'zaks yanked out a small notebook where he had jolted everything Raven 12345 had said about the egg." Better still, put it near to a pond where the little mermaid could jump into it by itself. Do not try to put it close to any toxic stuff, once hatched, the baby mermaid might bite anything within reach..."
"...I bet you'll make a good nanny." said Hao Ren as he looked at Y'zaks in amazement.
"Yeah, I used to be. But I'm sure I'm not a good daddy." said Y'zaks with a flash of strange expression on his face. "Let's not talk about that now. We've got to find a proper place."
Hao Ren nodded. He carried the egg into the kitchen and about to put it near the sink. But he hesitated: what if Vivian unknowingly turned it into an omelet? So he instead went into the bathroom, filled the tub up with water and put the egg in there. He finally felt so relieved: there would be more than enough water; and the floor was flat and clean, the baby mermaid wouldn't hurt itself when it was out of the water; what's more, the bathroom was regularly used and people would know when the egg hatched—there was simply no better place than that!
Hao Ren went back out in the living hall. His mind was busily recalling if he had missed anything. Then something hit him. He smacked himself on the forehead. "Oh f*ck! I've almost screwed up!"
"What's wrong?" Y'zaks turned his head around as he was about to leave the house, wearing his yesterday's cloth.
"About The Plane of Dreams! I've totally forgotten about it. I need to see Raven." Hao Ren grabbed the MDT about to teleport, then he only noticed Y'zaks was headed for the door. "You're going out?"
"Just want to get some air. I'm bored here." Y'zaks' smile was very ingenuous.
Hao Ren was curious that after an eight-hundred-light-year journey, Y'zaks had still got the energy to mooch outside. But he shouldn't be concerned, after all it wasn't his business. Hao Ren nodded and said, "I see. But don't forget to come back for dinner, Vivian would be making some really filling meals."
He then activated the teleporting function on the MDT. in a flash of an eye, he was already in the garden of Raven's mansion.
Raven 12345 was seen wielding a silver and white machete walking into the garden purportedly to trim the bushes. She was shocked to see Hao Ren was there. "Gee, what brings you here? Desperate for yet another mission?"
"No. Actually I've something to ask you," Hao Ren quickly waved his hand dismissively. "about The Plane of Dreams."
Noticing the seriousness on his face, Raven stopped poking fun. She strode over to the tea table and said, "Let's take a seat. I'm all ears."
Hao Ren and Raven 12345 sat across the fine tea table facing each other. Out of nowhere, the arcane servant had already brought tea and biscuits and placed them on the table. Hao Ren tried to collect his thoughts about what he had seen in The Plane of Dreams. "In The Plane of Dream, people there had runes on their walls like a decoration..."
He told her everything he had seen, and about the absurd 'Goddess banished the world' legend. "Have you heard about that legend? Did you do that actually?"
"You really think I made ado about nothing?" Raven 12345 shot him a glance while holding a can of sugar in her hand. "Do you actually think banishing the world is some kind of playing house at my whims and fancies?"
Hao Ren scratched his face and said, "But it was said that people in the Magic Empire was playing god by creating gods, and they had given themselves loads of divine titles. If that's true, how would you not be angry?"
"Why should I be?" Raven 12345 felt it amusing. "If that was true, it only showed that this civilization was highly developed, talented and independent; I should be happy instead. Do you know that I, as a Goddess, would get a high mark in the critical appraisal at the end of the year for having such an intelligent race under my rule?"
That was totally out of his expectation. But Hao Ren felt that didn't make sense. "No, I mean human was encroaching into the realm of God and yet you didn't bother?"
"Only when things get out of hand. Only when they were clearly stepping out of their boundary and destroying the world. And according to what you said, clearly they hadn't violated any of that. Some biological researches wouldn't endangered and caused the world falling into chaos, not even worthy of alarm, much less banishing them." Raven 12345 grimaced. "The only thing that warranted discipline was they were crowning themselves as gods, but then it was an innocent act and innocence wasn't a sin. After all, they didn't know how god really looked like, as long as they didn't hurt someone using God's name, they could enjoy themselves. Who doesn't experience puberty?"
Hao Ren: "....."
In the eyes of the Goddess, the ancient civilization which was thought to have encroached the realm of God and deified themselves was likened to a bunch of high school kids, and she didn't even care!
While Hao Ren was silent, Raven 12345 continued. "What you said about the 'knowledge of God' was an utter nonsense, knowledge doesn't belong to anyone. The truth is, the truth is out there waiting for discovery. If you could grasp it, that's yours; if you can't, don't blame God for your ineptitude—doing that akin to blaming the exam paper because you failed the exam. But then again, people who had failed during the civilization development didn't have the chance to complain though for they'd already dead now."
"So the legend of the goddess banishing the world has nothing to do with you?"
"I swear to god, it wasn't me."