Alien creatures destroy homes? Start by killing upright apes!

The Winners' Kingdom, the Executive Yuan meeting room.

The table in front of the representatives of the seven countries was covered with newspapers.

It's not just one page, it's the entire front page of today's major newspapers from various countries, all translated into common language.

In front of David was an apology statement from the John Bull.

In front of Georges is a photograph of the eyes from the Jacques Chicken newspaper.

In front of Vito is a close-up of the symbol of the Giovanni newspaper.

Before Massa were the two large characters from the "Taro Tanuki News" newspaper, occupying the entire page: "Replacement."

Before Wood lay a collection of front-page articles from various countries, reprinted from newspapers in the United States.

The front page of the newspaper in front of King William featured an aerial photograph of the Black Forest being completely devoured.

The front page of the newspaper in front of Louis showed a comparison of the statue of Queen Elizabeth II before and after it was dismantled.

No one speaks.

Lu Cheng sat in the main seat, holding a cup of tea in his hand, but did not drink it.

The only sounds in the meeting room were the rustling of newspapers and the occasional dull thud of King William's tin boots hitting the table legs.

After a long while, Massa was the first to speak.

"Regent Lu, the people of Taro Tanuki already know where the Prime Minister is. They know I've come to plead with you. They haven't protested; they're waiting."

"Waiting for what?" Lu Cheng asked.

"Wait until I bring back an answer. They made the wrong choice by selecting the hominids; they've already realized that themselves. What they want to know now is—is there any hope left?"

Seven pairs of eyes looked at Lu Cheng at the same time.

The leaders of the four major powers, along with the United States, the United States of Hanscat, and the United States of Boulder... all had the same thought in their eyes at this moment.

It's not an order, it's not a request.

It is a request.

Lu Cheng put down his teacup.

"There is hope! But the method of salvation is completely different from what you think."

……

The representatives from the seven countries have been in the country for three days.

Over the past three days, Lu Cheng led them to do three things—watch the water dragon beast dig a hole, watch the water dragon beast dig a hole, and watch the water dragon beast dig a hole again.

Prime Minister David of the United Kingdom was the first to lose his composure.

"Governor Lu, we flew all the way from Earth to see animals digging in the dirt."

Lu Cheng squatted down in the square without turning his head: "Squat down."

David hesitated for a moment, then squatted down.

He has squatted down only a handful of times in his life—the last time was when he was punished by being made to stand at Eton College.

But at this moment, he was squatting in the square of the Winner Monkey Kingdom's government, watching a water dragon dig in the soil with a young governor in his early thirties.

"What did you see?" Lu Cheng asked.

"An animal is digging in the dirt."

"Let's see."

David patiently watched for another five minutes.

Then he noticed something—the direction in which the water dragon was digging was not random.

This water dragon beast would crawl into the cave, and each time it would emerge, it would be 30 centimeters to the left of where it entered.

It is digging in a spiral.

"Is it digging in circles?" David's voice carried a hint of surprise.

"Spiral excavation." Lu Cheng stood up and patted the dirt off his knees.

"The water dragon's digging claws have a three-arc structure that rotates and cuts into the soil, compacting the tunnel walls as it digs. This structure is three times more stable than vertical digging. If your coal mine tunnels in the United States of John Bull used this structure, the collapse rate could be reduced by half."

David was stunned.

He squatted down and looked for another five minutes, this time not at the water dragon beast, but at the cave wall.

The cave walls were smooth and flat, and the digging claws of the water dragon beast had made them even more solid than the walls plastered by a mason.

"How did it do that?"

"Its digging claws secrete a kind of viscous substance that mixes with the soil to form a concrete-like structure. My engineers have analyzed it, and the compressive strength of this natural concrete is five times that of ordinary rammed earth."

David stood up, remained silent for a long time, and then asked a question that struck at the heart of the matter:

"Can this kind of mucus be synthesized artificially?"

Lu Cheng looked at him and smiled.

This was the first time in three days that David had asked the right question.

Representatives from the other six countries gradually crouched down to join them.

George, with an unlit cigar dangling from his lips, squatted at the entrance of the Water Dragon's cave, watched for a while, and then blurted out:

"It can dig faster than our Yakji country's engineers."

Vito squatted at another cave entrance, measuring the thickness of the cave wall with a ruler. After he finished measuring, his expression became very subtle.

Massa was the quietest, squatting for a full hour, his notebook filled with structural sketches of the water dragon's digging claws.

Wood initially refused to squat, saying that the president of the United States of America could not squat on the ground to look at animals.

Ten minutes later, he was squatting lower than anyone else, his face almost touching the hole.

King William's iron boots made a metallic scraping sound as he crouched down, startling the water dragon beast, which poked its head out of its hole to glance at him.

His face was covered in mud, and tree roots clung to his large fangs; he was shockingly ugly.

The water dragon and King William stared at each other for three seconds, then decided that the man in the iron boots was not tasty, and retreated back into the hole to continue digging.

Louis crouched in the corner, poking at the soil turned up by the water dragon with a twig.

The soil was dark brown, mixed with a slightly shiny, sticky substance.

"Ruler Lu, you're saying this kind of slime can be used as building material?"

"More than that, my lab is testing its other uses. So far, we've identified applications such as waterproof coatings, metal rust prevention, and wound dressings."

The branch in Louis's hand fell to the ground: "Wound dressing?"

"Waterdragons spend most of their time digging underground, and their digging claws are often injured. This mucus has antibacterial properties and promotes healing. My medic tried it on rabbits, and the wound healing speed doubled."

Louis looked as if someone had shoved a whole lemon into his mouth.

The Kingdom of Boulder chose the upright ape, and the upright ape tore down his bronze statue, his steam mill, and his mine.

The Water Dragon Beast, chosen by the Winner Monkey Kingdom, not only helps dig holes and turn over the soil, but its secreted mucus can also heal wounds.

This gap isn't just a slap in the face, it's a full-blown slap.

That evening, Lu Cheng led the representatives of the seven countries to a room in the basement of the Executive Government.

The room was small, and the walls were made of mud, but the surface was so smooth it looked like it had been polished.

This is the hole dug by the water dragon beast.

"Sit down." Lu Cheng sat down first.

The representatives of the seven countries looked at each other in bewilderment.

There were no tables, no chairs, only eight low mounds made of mud.

David looked at the mound of earth with an expression as if he were watching a prank.

But Massa had already sat down, sitting cross-legged and upright.

Vito also sat down.

Then came George, Wood, King William, and Louis.

Finally, David sighed and sat down.

The eight most powerful people from the eight countries sat in a circle inside a burrow dug by a water dragon.

"To put it simply, choosing the upright ape is a hopeless situation," Lu Cheng said.

"It's not that it's almost hopeless, it's that it was hopeless from the very beginning. On Advent Day, you chose the upright apes, which was equivalent to putting a hundred million evolving human replacements into the heart of your country. Now they have completed the second stage of evolution—language system, social division of labor, environmental modification, symbolic unification, and military prototypes. The third stage is even unpredictable."

No one refuted.

Twenty-seven days ago, if someone had said that, the Four Gangsters would have walked out immediately.

Now they sat quietly in the hole dug by the water dragon beast.

"But when I say it's hopeless, I don't mean your country is hopeless; I mean the very act of choosing Homo erectus is hopeless..."