DipNovel Chapter 64 The Price of Taking Advantage
Chapter 64 The Price of Taking Advantage
Chapter 64 The Price of Taking Advantage
The upright apes stacked the Tyrannosaurus Rex bones into neat square piles, wrapped the muscles in sheet metal salvaged from the train wreckage, and transported them all to the northwest—towards the Kingdom of Ivan Bear.
All that remained at the firing range were a pile of Tyrannosaurus Rex entrails and a copper coin engraved with symbols.
The inscription on the copper plate reads:
An exchange. Last time it was metal tools, this time it's a Tyrannosaurus Rex carcass. Even.
Wood threw the copper coin on the ground.
The upright ape used the life of a seven-headed Tyrannosaurus Rex to repay a favor from someone who had previously traded metal tools.
He was killed by human hands, and now he has to repay the debt with human favors.
The upright ape didn't move a single finger from beginning to end.
Hanscat Kingdom, on the edge of the Black Forest.
King William squatted beside the venom collection point, with the upright ape scooping up the venom in front of him.
Today, there were two more rows of pottery jars at the collection point than usual, neatly stacked, for a total of eighty jars.
The upright ape sealed the last jar, placed it on top of the pile of pottery jars, then squatted down and drew a line of symbols on the ground with its front paws.
The translation by King William's intelligence officer:
This is for you. Last month, your soldiers were poisoned by giant millipedes, and these are the ingredients for the antidote. Applying millipede venom diluted a thousand times to wounds can neutralize neurotoxins.
King William opened one of the earthenware jars, which contained a dark green venom, as thick as engine oil.
The accompanying medic took a small amount of the diluted venom and applied it to the back of his hand, which had been burned by the giant millipede venom.
The redness and swelling at the burn site subsided within half an hour.
King William looked at the upright ape crouching beside him, and the ape was also looking at him with a calm gaze.
"It's paying us. Last month, our soldiers were poisoned, and now it's paying us with an antidote made from venom."
"Why are they paid?" the intelligence officer asked.
King William stood up, his tin boots clattering on the ground: "Because they need the giant millipedes to continue secreting venom here. If our army drives the millipedes away, their venom collection points will be gone. The antidote is not a reward, but the cost of preserving the venom collection points."
They pay the costs, we maintain their collection points, and we even feel like we're getting a good deal.
Jacques Chicken Country, Licheng Port.
George's fisheries minister was named DuPont, the same person who said that the upright apes had inadvertently done him a great favor.
He can't smile today.
After the Anomalocaris' spawning grounds shifted three kilometers south, the shipping lanes of Licheng Port were indeed safe.
Fishing boats can go out to sea, and merchant ships can enter the port. DuPont was praised twice at the Prime Minister's Office meeting.
Then he discovered that three kilometers to the south was Toulon Port, the largest military port in the Kingdom of Yakji.
The Anomalocaris' new spawning ground is located right in the middle of the Toulon Port shipping lane.
The port of Toulon is home to the main force of the Jacques-Chicken Mediterranean Fleet, including twelve steam battleships.
The second stage of Anomalocaris's spring claws can sink fishing boats, and it can sink the waterline armor of battleships.
That afternoon, the fleet commander ordered martial law to be declared throughout the port, and all battleships were prohibited from leaving the port.
Dupont was summoned to the Prime Minister's office, where George threw the report on the garrison at Toulon in front of him.
"You said the upright apes unintentionally did a huge favor; the shipping lanes were cleared, but the military ports were blocked. They traded the safety of fishing boat channels for the blockage of battleship channels. Who do you think benefited?"
DuPont opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a single word.
Zhu Sailang Kingdom, Luocheng Port.
Vito's intelligence officer delivered a new record of the deciphering of the upright ape symbol today.
Linguists have deciphered a new passage from the copper wall covered with symbols at the Homo erectus village outside the port.
It's about the recipe for calcining giant nautilus barb powder.
The recipe ends with a line of small print:
Pottery made from barbed powder is three times harder than ordinary pottery and can be used to make cutting tools. We no longer need giant nautiluses.
-
Vito put down the deciphering record.
Yesterday, the upright ape was helping the giant nautilus maintain its barbs, and today it's researching how to use barb powder as a substitute for the giant nautilus.
It's not a replacement, it's an upgrade.
The giant nautilus is a production tool; once enough barb powder has been produced, the tool itself can be discarded.
"They're using giant nautilus shells to produce barb powder, then using that barb powder to make cutting tools, and finally using those cutting tools to replace the giant nautilus shells themselves, which are consumables from start to finish," Vito said.
The intelligence officer's voice was dry: "What about the humans?"
Vito did not respond to this.
The Winners' Kingdom, the government.
Lu Cheng was squatting in the kitchen, helping Jia Li with her work.
-
Today is Friday, not a day for soft-boiled eggs.
But Carrie still made soft-boiled eggs because the rules had changed.
She was frying eggs at the stove, while Lu Cheng was chopping scallions beside her.
As Carrie chopped the third scallion, she said, "President Kerry's telegram: the engineers of the Great Power Dragon Kingdom discovered something while helping the locals build an underground network in Bertswana."
"What is it?"
"The way upright apes tamed the Lystrosaurus was completely different from other species. Other species used mutualistic guidance—the Lystrosaurus got minerals, the Tyrannosaurus Rex got metals, and the giant millipede got detoxification. The Lystrosaurus was different; the upright apes didn't give the Lystrosaurus anything."
Lu Cheng paused, his knife still: "You're not giving me anything?"
"They didn't give them anything. What they piled up at the entrance of the cave wasn't food, but the excrement of the water dragon. The water dragon smelled its own excrement and thought it had dug the cave itself, so it kept digging. In reality, it was digging in the direction that the upright ape wanted."
"Using feces as territorial markings? Who came up with such a despicable trick?"
"The upright apes. The engineers in Bertswana observed that when the water dragons dug to a fork in the road, they would stop to smell their own droppings and then dig in that direction. The upright apes would then pile their droppings in the direction they wanted the water dragons to dig. The water dragons thought they were walking the path they had chosen, but in fact, every step was planned by the upright apes."
Lu Cheng put the chopped scallions into the bowl: "At least the other species got some benefits, but the Water Dragon Beast didn't get any benefits at all; it was completely deceived."
"Because the Water Dragon Beast has the lowest intelligence, and the lower the intelligence, the lower the taming cost. You don't even need to give it any benefits; just use its excrement." Carrie put the fried eggs on a plate. "Kerry said that after the old chief of Bertswana read this, he remained silent for an entire afternoon, and then said one thing: 'Aren't the benefits we humans receive also in the form of excrement?'"
Lu Cheng took the plate, and the soft-boiled fried egg wobbled slightly in it.
The border of Angula.
Li Wei squatted outside a makeshift tent, facing the commander of the Angula border outpost.
The commander was in his early thirties, his face tanned dark red, and he held a piece of broken glass in his hand.
"I took a picture and counted seven, but I knew they were fake."
Li Wei was taken aback: "You knew they were fake, yet you counted them out?"
"Counting them is the eye's job, knowing they're fake is the brain's job; they don't conflict." The commander threw the shards of glass on the ground and continued, "When the refugees in Lesotho squatted on the border counting their fingers, I knew this stuff was contagious. I took a picture of myself first, and after confirming that my eyes would see seven fingers, my brain could choose not to believe it. As long as my brain doesn't believe it, the gray won't spread."
Li Wei stared at the edge of his pupils.
There is no gray line.
"How did you do that?"
"Before looking in the mirror, I told myself: I have five fingers on my right hand. If there are two extra fingers in the mirror, it's the mirror's fault, not mine. After looking in the mirror, I said it again, and the gray didn't spread."
Li Wei wrote down this method and sent it back to the Wynners by telegram.