Alien creatures destroy homes? Start by killing upright apes!

Chapter 8 Partial Online Meetings

This is not a question.

The intelligence chief opened his mouth, but ultimately just nodded.

Fula opened her eyes and looked at the huge map on the snow.

An arrow was deliberately drawn on the edge of the map, pointing to the weakest point of the patrol station's defenses.

Thousands of upright apes drew a military map overnight.

They also used knocking sounds to convey information.

All they had in their hands were tree branches.

"Order all military districts nationwide," Fula said in a low voice, "to enter Level Two alert. All residents in areas inhabited by the upright apes are to evacuate inland."

"Comrade Chairman, won't this cause panic—"

"Execute the command!"

Fula turned and walked toward the steam snowmobile, his boots leaving deep footprints in the snow.

Halfway there, he suddenly stopped and looked back at the birch forest.

In the woods, countless pairs of clear, black and white eyes were watching him.

Quietly.

Attentively.

Like a hunter observing the habits of its prey.

……

The Presidential Palace of the mighty Dragon Nation.

There's something new on President Kerry's desk today.

a photo.

The photo shows a field.

The crops in the fields are growing neatly and lushly green, better than in any previous year.

Several water dragons were squatting on the ridge of the field, sunbathing, their round bellies bulging.

"What is this?" Kerry looked up at the Minister of Agriculture.

"Reporting to the President, this is the field that was turned over by the water dragon." The Minister of Agriculture's expression was complicated, as if he were laughing or crying at the same time.

"When the water dragon beast turned the soil, it brought up the nutrients in the deep soil and buried all the weeds and insect eggs underground. As a result, the soil in this field is more than twice as fertile as that of fields that are manually plowed. This year, not only will there be no crop failure, but the yield is expected to double."

Kerry was stunned.

He picked up the photo and looked at it carefully.

In the photo, the water dragons are lying lazily, their large fangs sticking out of the ground like two shovels stuck in the soil.

They were really ugly, but at this moment Kerry thought they looked much better.

"What about the other affected provinces?"

"The situation is the same everywhere. The soil quality of the fields that the water dragons turned over has been completely improved. Moreover, we have discovered that the water dragons' excrement is an extremely high-quality fertilizer, with a fertility several times higher than that of farmyard manure."

Kerry put down the photo, took out Lu Cheng's telegram from the drawer, and read it again.

He then stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the crowd still protesting outside.

The banners and slogans are still there, but the number of people is significantly less than yesterday—because today's morning paper published the news that the water dragon beast was turning over the fields to increase production.

"Notify the propaganda department! Spread the word about the water dragon beast's ability to plow fields and increase yields. Send as many messages as you can. Also—"

He turned around, his gaze sharp.

"I want to personally thank Lu Cheng from the Winners' Kingdom for picking me up."

……

The Winners' Kingdom, the government.

Lu Cheng was squatting in the kitchen cooking instant noodles for himself.

To be precise, it's a parallel world version of instant noodles—a type of fast-cooking noodle dried with a steamer. The taste is so-so, but its advantage is convenience.

Lu Cheng traveled through time for ten years, but he didn't learn anything else; he brought instant noodle culture to this steam age.

Just as the water in the pot boiled, Carrie pushed open the door and came in.

"Honey, President Wood of the United States is waiting for you online."

"Tell him to wait a moment, the noodles will be ready soon."

"Chairman Vla of the Ivan Bear Kingdom is also online."

"Let him wait a bit."

"President Kerry of the mighty dragon nation is also here."

Lu Cheng scooped the noodles into a bowl, sprinkled on the seasoning, picked up the bowl, walked to his office, and sat down in front of the communicator. Three microphones were placed side by side, each connected to one of the three countries.

"What is it, you three?"

Wood's voice was the first to explode: "Lu Cheng! Why didn't you choose the Homo erectus back then? Do you know something?"

Fula's voice followed immediately: "Chief Lu, I need all the information you have regarding the evolutionary direction of Homo erectus."

Kerry's voice came last, but was the calmest: "Brother Lu, thank you. I owe you a favor regarding the Water Dragon Beast."

Lu Cheng slurped up a mouthful of noodles and said slowly, "One at a time. President Wood, you go first—how's Tyrannosaurus Rex?"

There was a five-second silence on the other end of the communicator, followed by Wood's gritted teeth: "It's gotten bigger."

"What got bigger?"

"Tyrannosaurus Rex! The Tyrannosaurus Rex we wounded with heavy machine guns! After its wounds healed, it grew larger! Its size increased by fifteen percent! Its bite teeth also became longer!"

Lu Cheng slurped up another mouthful of noodles: "That's normal. The grinding teeth of the Tyrannosaurus Rex, the cutting teeth of the Gyrodon, the jaw teeth of the Tyrannosaurus Rex... these combat organs will become aggressive after being injured. The more you hit them, the stronger they become."

There was a sound of something breaking on the other end of the communicator, probably Wood's coffee cup.

"What do we do? If we don't fight it, it destroys our railways and farmland! If we fight it, it gets stronger! What kind of crazy system is this?!"

"Who told you to choose the Tyrannosaurus Rex?" Lu Cheng's tone was laced with undisguised schadenfreude. "I said before you made the choice that the more dangerous the creature, the harder it is to deal with. You insisted on choosing it, so whose fault is it?"

Wood was speechless.

Fula's voice broke in: "Chief Lu, what about the upright apes? What changes have occurred in the upright apes?"

Lu Cheng put down his chopsticks, his tone becoming serious for the first time.

"The evolutionary direction of upright apes is towards intelligent brains. They will not grow bigger, will not grow fangs, will not harden... they will only become smarter."

"How smart?"

"In three days, the upright apes of the Kingdom of John learned to march in formation. The upright apes of the Kingdom of Taro began to create primitive writing. The upright apes in your country drew military maps and even used knocking sounds to transmit information."

Lu Cheng paused for a moment.

"It's only been three days. Just imagine what they'll look like in a month."

The sound of Flah lighting his pipe came from the other end of the communicator; he was taking deep drags.

Kerry's voice rang out, tinged with lingering fear: "Brother Lu, what will the upright ape eventually become?"

Lu Cheng picked up the bowl of noodles, finished the last sip of soup, and then said something that silenced all three heads of state.

"They will become us."

"But not us now—it's another version of humanity, stronger, smarter, and more adapted to this world. And they have black blood and won't consider us one of their own."

"At that time, it won't be upright apes that are locked up in zoos."

All that could be heard from the communicator was the hissing of electricity.

After a long silence, Fura's voice rang out, as if coming from an ice cellar: "How much longer?"

"At the current rate of evolution..." Lu Cheng glanced at the Water Dragon Beast sunbathing in the square outside the window.

"At most two months! Two months later, the first batch of upright apes will complete the first stage of evolution. At that time, those countries that chose upright apes will find that they are not ten million monkeys, but ten million enemies who are learning how to become humans."

Lu Cheng hung up the call, leaned back in his chair, and stared at the ceiling.

Carrie came over and draped a coat over his shoulders: "What you just said was true? Two months?"

"Maybe even faster." Lu Cheng closed his eyes.