DipNovel Chapter 23 Your Excellency, We Need You
Chapter 23 Your Excellency, We Need You
The last four words on the screen silenced the entire world.
Metal smelting.
The upright ape is learning metallurgy.
Lu Cheng stared at those four words, his pupils slightly contracting.
He always thought that upright apes needed to learn to use metal tools first, then learn to make metal tools, and finally learn to smelt metals.
But the upright apes skipped all the intermediate steps and went straight to metal smelting.
"How do they know that the metal was refined?" Carrie's voice was a little tense.
"Because of their observation, they observed human factories. The metal parts in the factories were finished products, but they saw the smoke billowing from the factory chimneys, the flames of the blast furnaces, and the ore being transported in and the metal being transported out. They may not know the chemical principles of smelting, but they know that fire plus stone equals metal."
"Is that enough?"
"That's enough. Knowing the result and working backwards to deduce the process is ten thousand times faster than starting from scratch."
……
Sam Eagle Kingdom, Waimeming Plain.
Wood stood atop a makeshift steel watchtower, his binoculars revealing a group of Tyrannosaurus Rex and a group of upright apes.
They are facing each other across a railway line.
The Tyrannosaurus Rex is located on the north side of the railway. There are twelve of them, each fifteen meters tall, and their skulls, reinforced with bones, resemble cast-iron battering rams.
There were about three hundred upright apes on the south side of the railway, clutching sharpened iron pipes—torn from the train wreckage.
Wood lowered his binoculars: "Are they going to fight?"
The intelligence officer shook his head: "They're not fighting, they're exchanging weapons."
"What are we exchanging?"
The telescope was raised again.
Three hundred upright apes squatted neatly on the south side, with the first row placing iron pipes on the ground and then taking three steps back.
A slightly smaller Tyrannosaurus Rex emerged from the group on the north side, carrying something in its mouth. It placed it in the middle of the railway and then retreated.
That was a piece of dinosaur meat.
Fresh, bloody dinosaur meat.
One of the upright apes was sent to the middle of the railway to take the meat.
One of the Tyrannosaurus Rex's creatures went to the middle of the railway and took the iron pipe.
Both sides retreated simultaneously without conflict.
Wood nearly dropped his telescope.
"Are they making a deal?"
The intelligence officer's voice was as dry as sandpaper:
"It started three days ago. The upright apes were trading metal tools for Tyrannosaurus Rex meat. Tyrannosaurus Rex needed metal, and we observed them ingesting metal, possibly to supplement the minerals needed for bone strengthening. The upright apes needed high-protein food, and although Tyrannosaurus Rex meat was unpalatable, the upright apes did not have any allergic reactions after eating it... They established an interspecies trade."
Wood put down his binoculars, his hands trembling.
It wasn't because of fear, but because of something deeper.
On the twenty-first day after the arrival of the upright apes, they not only completed their internal social organization but also established trade relations with another apex predator.
They are not passive survivors, but active players.
"They are more adapted to this world than we are," Wood said.
No one dared to speak.
……
Hanscat Kingdom, on the edge of the Black Forest.
King William stood at the front line wearing a pair of boots with iron soles.
The boots were specially made three days ago.
Giant millipedes will eat even leather, but they won't eat metal.
Before him lay a forest that had been completely devoured by giant millipedes.
This isn't a metaphor; we literally devoured it all.
The trunk, branches, leaves, and roots all disappeared.
The ground was bare black soil, which was covered with giant millipedes.
The stimulating glands on both sides of their bodies constantly oozed a dark green liquid, which dripped onto the ground and emitted white smoke.
"They've eaten up the forest," King William said calmly. "What will they eat next?"
No one answered.
Because everyone knows the answer—when the forest is gone, the city is formed.
King William turned to the officers behind him and said:
"Send a telegram to the Kingdom of Winner Monkey, telling Governor Lu that the Kingdom of Hanscat needs help! Any help at all! He can name his terms."
……
Taro Tanuki Country, Kyoto.
Massa stood outside the courtyard, holding Lu Cheng's document about the Water Dragon Beast's stress response.
He has watched it countless times, and each time he discovers something new.
A handwritten note was tucked inside the document:
The water dragon always digs downwards, never upwards.
Massa didn't understand this sentence at the time.
Now he understands.
The fact that the water dragon only digs downwards suggests that their evolutionary direction is away from the surface and away from humans.
All of the behaviors of the upright ape are: disassembly, observation, learning, and imitation.
They all point to the same goal: to replace humans on the surface of the earth.
One goes down, the other goes up.
One yields, the other takes over.
Massa closed the document and said to Professor Yamamoto behind him, "Let's go to the Kingdom of Winner Monkeys again. This time, bring the sincerity of the Kingdom of Taro Tanuki."
Yamamoto hesitated for a moment: "What sincerity?"
Massa stared at the words "Substitute" spelled out in white pebbles in the courtyard and remained silent for a long time.
"Tell him that Taro Tanuki Kingdom is willing to unconditionally share all its observational data on the upright apes. And... if one day the upright apes start disguising themselves as humans, Taro Tanuki Kingdom will be the first to release all information to the entire world. Not to the four major powers, but to the whole world. Just like he said."
……
The Winners' Kingdom, the government.
Seven letters were laid out in front of Lu Cheng.
John Bull Country, Jacques Chicken Country, Giuseppe Wolf Country, Taro Tanuki Country, Sam Eagle Country, Hans Cat Country, and Boulder Country.
The seven letters were largely similar in content, though the wording differed, but the core message was exactly the same—we need you.
Carrie stood behind him: "The letter from the Four Great Thugs arrived yesterday. When do you plan to meet them?"
"Tomorrow." Lu Cheng stacked the seven letters together. "See you all tomorrow."
"Together?"
"Yes! Let them sit at the same table and tell them what happened in their own countries. Let them admit to each other that they made the wrong choices on Advent."
Lu Cheng stood up and walked to the window.
In the darkness of night, the water dragon beasts on the square were changing shifts.
The day shift workers crawled out of the hole, and the night shift workers crawled in.
Their digging claws gleamed damply in the moonlight, and their large fangs were covered in fresh mud.
One of the water dragons dug out a stone, held it in its mouth, and tilted its head to look at it for a long time, probably trying to determine whether the stone was edible.
The result was no, so he spat it out and continued digging.
"The whole world is watching the upright apes, but what's truly reassuring are these ugly creatures that only know how to dig holes," Carrie remarked.
Lu Cheng did not answer.
Looking out the window at the water dragon beasts, he suddenly remembered the cold text on the Sky System on the day of the Descent: "The ten most dangerous creatures from other realms have been exiled to various countries of Earth to reproduce."
The system lists Homo erectus as one of the "Top Ten Dangerous Creatures," but it has never said that Homo erectus is the "most dangerous."
The system simply lists them side by side—Anomalocaris, Giant Nautilus, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Giant Dragonfly, Giant Millipede, Antiodon, Gyrodon, Lyssaur, Tyrannosaurus Rex, and Pisciformis.
Ten types, listed side by side.
Everyone assumed that the upright apes were the safest because they appeared to be the weakest.
However, the system's sorting logic is never based on "safety level".