DipNovel Chapter 33 Continues to Deteriorate
Chapter 33 Continues to Deteriorate
"Linguists from the Kingdom of Ivan Bear deciphered the symbols on the metal plate, which read: 'There is more iron to the north.'"
Carrie's pupils contracted slightly: "They found it themselves?"
"They found it themselves. The Ivan Bear Kingdom hadn't taught them anything, but after they dismantled the steam engine plant in Kutsk, they discovered that the iron ore was being transported from the Ural mining region in the north. So they started heading north, along the railway line, against the direction of the ore transport, towards the mines."
Lu Cheng put down the report.
"The problem Chairman Fra is facing now is not what the upright apes are learning, but that they have already learned to trace the industrial chain. From the steam engine to iron, from iron to iron ore. They are not learning about a single factory, but about the entire industrial system."
Carrie unconsciously clenched the hem of her dress: "Why didn't Nafra sign the Burrow Treaty?"
"Because he felt he could still control it." Lu Cheng stood up, walked to the window, and chuckled.
"Ivan Bear Country claims to be the fifth strongest country, and its Far Eastern wasteland is larger than the entire United States of John. Fra's logic is—no matter how smart an upright ape is, it can't cause any trouble in the icy wilderness. He has space to buy time, so there's no need to sign a treaty dominated by Winner Monkey Country."
"Can he control himself?"
Lu Cheng looked out the window at the water dragon beast basking in the sun in the square. It was round and lazy, with its big fangs pointing skyward.
"It's out of control! But he needs to discover that for himself."
……
Meanwhile, several signatory states to the Burrowing Treaty were experiencing the same thing.
The underground network is showing initial results, while the situation on the surface continues to deteriorate.
John Bull, the Foggy City.
The Tyrell fish in the Tyrews River have reproduced to the second generation.
After the second stage of strengthening of the crushed jaws was completed, their jaws expanded by 300%, enabling them to swallow an entire steam-powered fishing boat.
There's a saying among the dockworkers at Wudu Port: "Going out of port depends on luck, returning to port depends on fate."
An old fisherman sat on the dock with a fishing rod stuck in front of him.
It's not about fishing, it's about fishing for your own boat.
His steam fishing boat was chewed up by Tyrell fish three days ago, and the boiler sank to the bottom of the water twelve meters deep outside the harbor.
The insurance company will not pay out – the natural disaster clause does not cover “being chewed by a fish”.
"I've been fishing in the Taywoods River for forty years," the old fisherman told the reporter who came to interview him.
"The biggest fish I've ever seen was a two-meter-long sturgeon. The thing swimming in the Taywoods River now has a mouth big enough to fit a steam train. The Prime Minister brought back a pot of soup from the Winners, and I heard it was made with the bones of a burrowing animal."
The reporter asked him what he thought of the Burrowing Treaty.
"How do you see? Look with your eyes." The old fisherman put away his fishing rod.
"The Prime Minister signed a treaty to bring back twelve burrowing animals from the Winners. They're digging burrows on the outskirts of the city, deeper than the bottom of the Taywoods River. Once they've dug through, I'll move them underground. This river above ground, let that fish have it."
……
Jacques-Chicken Country, Port of Marseille.
Anomalocaris from the other country, with its second-stage spring-like claws, has sunk over four hundred ships.
The fishermen's union in Licheng Port organized a strike—not against the government, but against Anomalocaris.
A group of fishermen sat silently in front of George's Prime Minister's residence, holding up the planks of their boat that had been shattered by the Anomalocaris.
A line of words was painted on the deck: "It bounces once, and we sink one boat; it bounced four hundred times."
George looked out the window at the fishermen and asked his secretary, "How many water dragons have been delivered?"
"One hundred and twenty have all been deployed to the alluvial plain of the Seine River. The underground network has been excavated to connect Licheng to Le Havre, at a depth of eighteen meters."
"Speed up! Anomalocaris's launcher is faster than the Waterdragon's digging speed."
……
Zhu Sailang Kingdom, Luocheng.
The concentration of toxins in the barbs of giant nautiluses that swam from countries across the sea has increased by 300%, and twelve sailors have already died from poisoning.
The shipping companies of Rochelle wrote a joint letter to Vito, which contained only one line: The entire Mediterranean is turning into a giant nautilus lake.
Vito placed the letter on his desk, opposite the Minister of Works.
"Where has the Water Dragon Beast dug up?"
"The underground network of Rohdea has connected both banks of the Tiber River, reaching a depth of twenty-two meters. The excavation speed has doubled after the limestone layers were pried open by the water dragons with their large fangs. Prime Minister Vito, you used to sit in the quarry watching the water dragons pry open stones, and now the entire underground of Rohdea is being pried open by them."
Vito stood up and walked to the window.
Outside the window is the outline of the ancient Roman Colosseum, inhabited by ten million upright apes.
"Where are the upright apes in the arena?"
"This morning they used copper tools to build a new structure in the center of the arena—not dismantle it, but build it. Our observer said it was a smelting furnace."
……
Taro Tanuki Country, Kyoto.
Massa's dry landscape garden has been completely destroyed.
It wasn't destroyed, it was transformed.
It was modified by the Water Dragon Beast... and shoveled into the surface of the moon.
The baby water dragon, which was airlifted from the Winner Monkey Kingdom, has been dug three meters underground, and a small hill of mud has been piled up at the entrance of the cave.
It transformed Massa's dry landscape garden into an entrance to an underground network.
The spiraling downward passage has smooth, flat walls and an enlarged chamber at intervals.
Massa would squat by the construction site in the backyard of the official residence every day and watch it dig.
Professor Yamamoto stood behind him, holding a notebook:
"Prime Minister, the excavation of the twelfth water dragon beast begins today. Currently, the excavation direction of all twelve beasts conforms to the unified standard of the Burrowing Treaty—spiraling downwards with the burrow walls compacted. The deepest is three meters, and the shallowest is one and a half meters."
Massa nodded, his gaze never leaving the cave entrance.
"What about the upright apes?"
"The number of bronze tools made by the upright apes has exceeded 10,000, the existence of smelting furnaces has been confirmed, and the architectural structures of Kyoto recorded by them in bronze sheets have been bound into a book."
"Binding?"
"They used vines to thread through the holes in the copper sheets and bound them into a book. Our linguists confirmed that it wasn't a drawing, but writing. Homo erectus invented binding techniques to preserve the civilization they recorded."
Massa remained silent for a long time, then stood up and looked at the water dragon beast that was continuing to dig down into the ruins of the dry landscape.
It has dug to a depth of twenty meters, and the excavated soil has been piled up into a small hill in the courtyard.
"Keep digging. They are binding our civilization on the surface, while we are digging our escape route underground."
"Yes, Prime Minister."
"Yamamoto, do you know what I'm thinking every day when I'm squatting here watching the Water Dragon dig its burrow?"
"Please enlighten me, Prime Minister."
"I was thinking, on Advent Day, the Sky System gave us sixty seconds to choose. Within those sixty seconds, the Kingdom of John Bull chose the upright ape, the Kingdom of Jacques Chicken chose the upright ape, the Kingdom of Giuseppe Wolf chose the upright ape, and the Kingdom of Taro Tanuki chose the upright ape, but..."
"But what?"
"But he made the right choice, while we all made the wrong ones. The four major powers, without prior agreement, all chose the upright ape. Lu Cheng ranked tenth, a full nine rounds later than us in the selection process."
Professor Yamamoto did not respond.
"Later I figured it out. We chose the upright ape because we saw its present state—weak, harmless, and easy to control. Lu Cheng chose the water dragon because he saw its future—digging downwards, not competing or fighting, leaving a way out for humanity. We saw the organism itself, he saw the direction of evolution."
Massa stood up and patted the dirt off his knees.