Alien creatures destroy homes? Start by killing upright apes!

John Bull, the Foggy City.

More than 100,000 people gathered outside the Royal Park.

It's not a protest against the upright apes, it's a protest against the Prime Minister's Office.

Leading the group was a retired Royal Society biologist, a white-bearded old man holding a wooden sign with only one line written on it:

Intelligent Brain – don't you recognize these three words?

"I'll write to the Prime Minister's office on Advent Day!" The old man stood at the front of the crowd, his voice already hoarse.

"I told them that the defining characteristic of Homo erectus is its intelligent brain! Intelligent brain! The other nine species evolved organs, but only Homo erectus evolved a brain! What does that mean? It means its danger isn't in its body, but in its brain! They wouldn't listen! They thought I was a senile old man in retirement!"

A roar erupted from the crowd.

"David, step down!"

"The four major powers made the wrong choice! The whole world will be dragged down with them!"

"Why did the mighty Dragon Kingdom choose the Water Dragon Beast? Why did the Winnie the Pooh Kingdom choose the Water Dragon Beast? Because they have brains!"

A dockworker, holding up pieces of a fishing boat torn apart by Tyrrell fish, rushed into the crowd shouting:

"I've been fishing for twenty years! My boat was chewed up by a fish! And the people at the Prime Minister's Office are still saying that the upright apes are controllable! Controllable what? The upright apes drew the map of the Royal Park as a map of the entire planet! They even know what the planet looks like! Is that what you call controllable?"

The newspapers in Chongqing printed three extra editions that day.

The front-page headline consisted of only two sentences: "Upright apes have intelligent brains, we have no brains."

……

Taro Tanuki Country, Kyoto.

Tens of thousands of people gathered outside Massa's official residence.

They were not rioters, but ordinary citizens.

Merchants, craftsmen, teachers, students, and even a few monks in robes.

They held up signs with the three words spelled out by the upright ape using white pebbles: "Replace Human."

A linguistics professor from Kyoto University stood at the entrance of the official residence, holding up a research manuscript on the symbolic system of upright apes.

"I've studied them for twenty days!" The professor's voice trembled.

"Their symbol system is not random; it follows a grammatical system! Nouns, verbs, and modifiers are arranged in exactly the same order! From Kyoto to Osaka to Nagasaki, all the Homo erectus tribes have the same symbol system! They are not ten independent groups; they are a single entity!"

The crowd erupted into an even greater uproar.

"What is Prime Minister Massa doing?"

"He went to the Wynners Kingdom!"

"Should we ask the person who chose the Water Dragon Beast?"

"Yes! Because he chose right! We chose wrong!"

An old woman squeezed to the front of the crowd, carrying a child on her back.

The child's arm was wrapped in bandages—injured by a beam that had been knocked down by the upright apes.

The old woman didn't shout any slogans; she just looked at the gate of the official residence and said something in a low voice, but everyone around heard it.

"I've lived for sixty-seven years, experienced war, plague, famine... but I've never been as afraid as I am now. It's not because those monsters are so powerful, but because we, the smartest people, have made the stupidest choices."

……

Yakji Kingdom, Licheng.

More than 50,000 people gathered in the square of Notre Dame Cathedral in Licheng.

In the center of the square is the giant eye of the upright ape, pieced together from salvaged stones.

My eyes were fixed on the spire of Notre Dame, where the gargoyles were no longer.

A stonemason stands next to the eye pattern, holding in his hand a fragment of a gargoyle that had been removed by the upright ape.

"My grandfather sculpted the gargoyles of Notre Dame, my father repaired the gargoyles of Notre Dame, and I have maintained the gargoyles of Notre Dame for twenty years." The stonemason's voice trembled.

"Now they're gone, not smashed, but dismantled. After dismantling, they were sorted and stacked, each stone numbered. They're telling me—what you can do, we can do too; what you can't do, we can learn."

Someone in the crowd shouted, "Where is Prime Minister George?"

"In the Land of the Winnie the Pooh!"

"Should we go and ask the governor who chose the water dragon?"

"What else? We chose a patriarch ourselves!"

A steam engine factory worker in overalls squeezed through the crowd, his face still covered in coal dust.

"I work at the Licheng Steam Engine Factory. Yesterday, I personally witnessed the upright apes dismantling a spare steam engine. After dismantling it, they drew the parts on the ground, a perfect one-to-one scale, down to the last detail. They weren't destroying it; they were drawing blueprints! Drawing blueprints with the parts!"

The square fell silent for a moment, then erupted into an even louder roar.

……

Zhu Sailang Kingdom, Luocheng.

Tens of thousands of people gathered outside the Colosseum in ancient Rome.

In the center of the crowd was a stone that had been moved from the Colosseum, with the symbol of the upright ape carved on it.

A circle, inside which is a square, and inside which is an even smaller circle.

An archaeology professor stands next to the stone, holding up a photograph.

The photo shows the pattern carved by the upright ape in Kyoto, Taro Tanuki Kingdom, on a dry landscape rock.

"This was carved by the upright apes of Taro Tanuki Country, while this was carved by the upright apes of our Zhu Sai Lang Country." The professor held up the photo.

"The two countries are separated by the entire Mediterranean Sea, and it's impossible for Homo erectus to cross the ocean. But their symbols are exactly the same, exactly the same!"

A buzz of discussion erupted from the crowd.

How are they connected?

"I don't know! Nobody knows! But they're connected! One hundred million Homo erectus, scattered across ten countries, have never met, yet they use the same symbol system, establish the same social organization, and develop the same technological path. They are a unified whole! And we're still treating them as minor troubles scattered across various countries!"

A fisherman squeezed to the front, his face bearing scars from the barbs of a giant nautilus's tentacles.

"I've been operating steam fishing boats for twenty years. Last week, right outside the harbor, my propeller got tangled in a giant nautilus that swam over from another country. I tried to cut it with a knife, but it wouldn't let go. I tried to burn it with a steam gun, but it still wouldn't release. In the end, my boat sank, and it took me three hours to swim ashore."

The fisherman pointed in the direction of the Colosseum, "And what is Prime Minister Vito doing? He went to the Kingdom of the Wynners to plead with someone who chose the Water Dragon because he made the wrong choice."

Passersby: ...? ? ?

……

Sam Eagle Kingdom, Waimeming Plain.

On the ruins of a town flattened by a Tyrannosaurus Rex, several thousand survivors have gathered.

There were no signs, no slogans, only silence.

A farmer stood on the ruins of his house, whose walls had been swept away by a Tyrannosaurus Rex's tail, and whose roof had collapsed, crushing all the furniture.

He was holding a fragment of a Tyrannosaurus Rex bone.

It was shot off the Tyrannosaurus Rex by the army using heavy machine guns for two hours.

"My farm has been passed down for three generations." The farmer's voice was calm, so calm it was unsettling.

"Three days ago, a herd of Tyrannosaurus Rex passed through here. My wheat field was gone, my cattle were gone, my house was gone. The army came and fought for two whole days. They ran out of bullets, but not a single Tyrannosaurus Rex died."

He held up the bone fragments. "They got bigger, they got bigger after being hit, and they kept getting bigger with each hit. President Wood is still saying that the United States never admits defeat, but if you ask me, I wish they had chosen the Water Dragon back then."