I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

They seem to be terrified of the presence of humans, and will kill them at all costs once they spot them—you know, those carnivorous Tyrannosaurus Rex wouldn't even consider keeping them alive to taste! This shows just how much they value humans!

Duke was really curious about what Talia and her Tarfic mute followers had done to this world. Her memory fragments contained no relevant information, or perhaps Talia had never been involved in the affairs of this world, and all matters were handled by the five Tarfic executives.

"...Or perhaps, the degree of importance that Tyrannosaurus Rex and ants place on humans is related to the core gameplay?"

"What are you talking about, human?"

"Oh, sorry, sorry, I was just talking to myself." Duke waved his hand and apologized to Dr. Ant. "By the way, I don't know what to call you. I can't just call you Dr. Ant, can I?"

"Call me Dr. Ye Qiao."

It used a translator to produce a somewhat strange and awkward name.

“Dr. Nightjoy, we will be leaving here soon. You can rest assured that I will not bring disaster to your city.” Duke nodded and solemnly promised Dr. Nightjoy. Although the latter was skeptical, this was what Duke thought, and he was prepared to do so. “However, I have a proposal.”

"What proposal?"

Dr. Ye Qiao immediately tensed up.

“I’m an outsider and don’t know the exact relationship between you ants and the Tyrannosaurus Rex civilization, but I have some guesses.” Duke snapped his fingers. “The forelimbs of Tyrannosaurus Rex weren’t suited for highly precise technical work. In this day and age, they might be able to do it with robotic arms, but what about before? I can’t help but wonder, how exactly did they develop to their current level of civilization? Those skyscrapers seem very much suited to the size of Tyrannosaurus Rex, but even the largest creations need to be assembled from tiny parts, don’t they?”

Dr. Ye Qiao stopped speaking and listened attentively to Duke's words, pondering their meaning.

"Similarly, how did the ants develop to such a level of civilization? To put it bluntly, Dr. Nightjoy," Duke squinted, scanning the ant army before him—which, if not well-trained, was at least extremely amateurish—"Ants aren't smart enough. I find it hard to imagine how you created such war machines, such biotechnology, and even such sophisticated translation machines."

Duke's words sent chills down Dr. Nightjoy's spine, for every word he uttered pointed directly to the essence and key to the Dragon Ant Civilization.

“I think… the Dragon Ant civilization and the Dragon Ant civilization are not separate and independent, but rather cooperative civilizations that fit together. The Dragon Ant civilization is a ‘brain-hand separation’ civilization. You are the hands of civilization, while the Tyrannosaurus Rex are the brain of civilization. Both are indispensable. But to be honest, I don’t think this form of civilization can last long. When it reaches a certain point where it is about to collapse, the Dragon Ant civilization will be as fragile as glass.”

After a long pause, Dr. Ye Qiao regained control of the translation machine and questioned, "What exactly are you trying to say?"

"What I mean is, are you interested in wiping out the Tyrannosaurus Rex and becoming the rulers of this world yourselves?"

Duke gave the ants a devilish smile. Although the ants, except for Night Joe, did not understand the meaning of his smile, almost all of them still felt a kind of inexplicable tremor when he made this tempting offer.

Unbeknownst to them, they might be about to witness a moment that would change the fate of the world.

"Of course, if you already have a plan, I can help you."

He appeared before Faust, who was unaware of his own destiny, as if he were a demon named Mephistopheles.

Chapter 203 The Creation Myth of the Dragon Ant Civilization

When Cecil returned to the tunnel, looking at the messy ground that looked like it had been trampled by a large number of creatures, he tilted his head in surprise: "What were you doing just now?"

"Selling crutches to ants."

"?"

Duke didn't care whether Guangbao could understand the jokes he was making. Anyway, the Spring Festival Gala now is far inferior to what it used to be... cough, he meant that he had fooled the fans before.

Do you need me to explain what I want to do?

Cecil hesitated upon hearing Duke's question. After a moment's thought, she solemnly shook her head:

"Forget it, I wouldn't understand even if you explained it."

The Radiant Witch is very self-aware; she knows she's better suited to be a mindless henchman than a character who uses her brain.

Although she was very concerned about what Duke wanted to do, she also chose to trust Duke and believed that what he wanted to do would definitely not disappoint her.

“So, I want to confirm exactly what you want to do, Cecil.” Duke’s voice was unusually serious as he looked at Cecil. “What is your desired outcome? Is it to capture the Second Brother and Millie, who are hiding somewhere, and kill them, or to get involved in this extradimensional problem?”

Cecil was slightly taken aback: "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is, if this world is on the verge of collapse right now, would you choose to destroy it so we can easily return to the floating city, or would you choose to save it? Even if the dominant civilization in this world is a Tyrannosaurus Rex that doesn't speak your language and attacks you right away?"

Cecil looked at Duke, her expression somewhat bewildered, as if she hadn't expected to face such a serious question at this moment. But without much hesitation, she made up her mind and said, "Is there even a question? Of course, it's saving the world."

She was a naive idealist, and Duke knew that all along.

The world needs true idealists; these brilliant individuals will inspire those who are working hard.

Duke laughed.

"Okay, then let's go save the world."

Seeing Duke's smile, Cecil felt her mood involuntarily improve, and she smiled back, looking as adorable as if she had returned to her teenage years. However, her silly smile didn't last long before Guangbao, unusually, realized a problem:

"But who wants to destroy this world?"

"Tyrannosaurus Rex and the ant itself."

……

One day 65 million years ago.

It was a very ordinary day, so ordinary that no dragon would have realized its great historical significance at that time, and no Tyrannosaurus Rex historian could actually trace it back to the exact date. They could only speculate, through various historical materials, what the beginning of the dragon-ant civilization, which has now coexisted harmoniously for so long, was like.

In those ancient times, every life was struggling to survive. Even the most skilled hunters needed to conserve their energy and find the perfect opportunity to hunt.

At that time, the dominant land animal was the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Compared to the Tyrannosaurus Rex of 65 million years later, which relied on various modern technologies and even had excessively high body fat percentages due to overnutrition and were in a sub-healthy state, the Tyrannosaurus Rex of that time were the true overlords of the land, and they had relatively less to worry about in terms of their livelihood.

A Tyrannosaurus Rex, leisurely carrying its freshly hunted lunch (perhaps a plump lizard, or maybe half a herbivorous dinosaur), strolled to a sunny clearing and began to enjoy its meal. Soon it had eaten its fill and was dozing in the sunlight.

Not needing to worry about food today, it drifted into a dream. Its idle brain was working in the dream; it might have dreamt of the future, of Tyrannosaurus Rex one day venturing into the stars. But soon, its beautiful dream was disturbed by an uncomfortable feeling, and it restlessly patted the ground in its sleep.

The massive tremor destroyed a nearby anthill, and the ants fled as if in exile. In human terms, it was a barren village inhabited by more than a thousand ants who had been starving for a long time. If things continued like this, this dry season might be their last.

And just then, they smelled an aroma, a very pleasant aroma.

That was the trouble that plagued the Tyrannosaurus Rex—the bits of meat stuck between its teeth.

These scraps of meat were barely enough to fill a Tyrannosaurus Rex's teeth, but for these thousand-odd ants, they were a precious food source enough to feed an entire village of ants. They had little capacity for thought; upon smelling the aroma, they set off and, driven by hunger, climbed onto the Tyrannosaurus Rex's body.

An exciting chemical smell filled the air among the ants. They formed a long line, starting from the Tyrannosaurus Rex's claws, and strode proudly onto its body before marching in formation toward its gaping maw.

The deafening snoring sounded like thunder to the ants, and the breathing was like a storm that made them stagger, but they still struggled to crawl into its teeth and began to tear at the pink flesh.

Within the dozen or so gaps between the Tyrannosaurus Rex's teeth, thousands of ants were busy at work, meticulously cleaning away the remaining flesh from the gaps.

The Tyrannosaurus Rex, now comfortable, exhaled contentedly, blowing over a thousand ants out of its mouth. It then rolled over and continued its slumber. Because of their light weight, the ants didn't suffer heavy casualties from being blown away; instead, having eaten their fill, they left to search for new anthills.

In that continued beautiful dream, its brain underwent its first evolution and began to think about something.

Perhaps we can let these little guys do it again sometime in the future.

And so began the symbiotic relationship between the dragon ants.

……

"This is roughly the creation myth of the Dragon Ant Civilization."

Duke and Cecil listened as Zun, with his almost flat electronic synthesized voice, roughly recounted the creation myth of the Dragon Ant Civilization. Guangbao was as excited as a child who had heard an interesting story, while Duke showed an expression of "just as I expected," and then began to ponder with great interest.

Zun continued:

"In today's world, the Tyrannosaurus Rex, or rather the dinosaur civilization, is divided into two major empires and some small countries, while the ants maintain a federal system. Ants from all over the world have united to form a somewhat loose national alliance. The dragon and ant maintain a close cooperative relationship, but in reality, conflicts of all sizes always exist. Because the dinosaur civilization has an absolute advantage, the ant civilization is relatively weak, but indispensable... In recent years, the 'ant life is precious' phenomenon has gradually emerged, and many extreme events have occurred."

"It seems that intelligent beings are all pretty much the same, whether they are humans, dinosaurs, or ants."

Duke smacked his lips.

Chapter 204 Decapitation Operation

Duke clicked his tongue and looked ahead, where a huge electronic screen displayed the scene outside. Cecil, sitting next to him, curiously examined the interior of the cockpit, seemingly unable to comprehend how such a magical machine was manufactured.

To be honest, Duke didn't know how Zun did it either. But no matter what Zun did, it wasn't surprising. After all, it wasn't an ordinary magical mechanical creature, but a magical mechanical creature with self-awareness. It was the pinnacle of magical technology in the ancient magical empire and an artificial intelligence capable of self-evolution.

Even if Zun really did handcraft a one-to-one mechanical Tyrannosaurus Rex, it would be perfectly normal.

That's right, the two of them were inside Zun's body at this moment, and Zun, relying on the materials brought back by Cecil, manually created a mechanical Tyrannosaurus Rex body, and then returned to the ground in a grand manner, entering the Tyrannosaurus Rex city.

Zun even found a huge phone booth on the side of the road in Dinosaur City. He went inside and pretended to make a call, but actually used the phone lines to hack into the dinosaur network. He found the creation myths of the dragon-ant civilization mentioned above and relayed this valuable information to Duke and Cecil.

In fact, besides the creation myth of the dragon-ant civilization and the current world situation, Zun has also improved the dinosaur and ant dictionaries a lot by surfing the Internet. He even made a chemical odor translator by himself using simple structural diagrams found on the Internet.

Duke was initially worried that such a mechanical dragon would cause a sensation and eventually expose their existence, but it turned out that the tolerance of this world was similar to that of his previous life. They wouldn't make too much of a commotion by having a metal can appear on the street; they would just think you were wearing a cosplay outfit.

Just like the Tyrannosaurus Rex that's now coming up to talk to Zun.

"Dude, you're so cool! That cosplay outfit must have cost a fortune! What character are you cosplaying as?"

Facing this unusually friendly Tyrannosaurus Rex, Zun's eyes flashed red for a moment, and then he used the specially modified speakers to play a very realistic voice: "A very obscure work."

"Actually, I also do cosplay, but this is the first time I've seen a cosplay outfit with such a high degree of accuracy. Where did you find this? I want to buy it too!"

“I had someone I know in the military specially commission me to make it.” Zun maintained his concise style, answering the other party’s question perfunctorily. “Generally speaking, it is very difficult to achieve such a high degree of accuracy. As you can see, this is real metal armor.”

"Yes, I'm so envious."

The overly friendly dinosaur let out an extremely envious roar, and after a long while, it finally shook its head and left, allowing Duke and Cecil, who were inside the vessel, to breathe a sigh of relief.

As the saying goes, too much talk leads to mistakes. Although Zun has already learned dinosaur language through the internet, and Duke has a modern mindset, they can now communicate normally with strangers. However, if they continue chatting like this, Duke and Zun will eventually be exposed.

After all, languages ​​can be learned, but the customs and culture of this world cannot be learned in a short time. To give a simple example, if this overly friendly dinosaur said, "Can we exchange contact information?", Duke wouldn't know whether the dinosaur used WeChat or QQ.

Once the overly friendly Tyrannosaurus Rex was out of sight, Zun's signature electronic voice suddenly rang out, posing a question to Duke:

"Mr. Duke, where should we go now?"

Zun's core remained in its previous dragon baby form, installed in the cockpit and connected to the entire massive Tyrannosaurus Rex "mech." Its eyes flickered a few times, as if it were pondering its next move. However, the problems in such a complex environment seemed too early for Zun at this moment. After thinking for about a minute without finding an answer, it had no choice but to ask Duke for help.

Cecil also looked at Duke; she seemed to care about this issue as well.

"Of course, we need to find the location of the second brother and Millie. Saving the world isn't urgent, and I seriously suspect that the two of them will push the world one step closer to collapse and destruction."

Duke clapped his hands. He wouldn't overestimate the moral bottom line of the two Tartar aphasic leaders. They were usually wicked and utterly despicable villains, not to mention that they were now enraged by Talia's death. He had no doubt that they would do everything in their power to take revenge on him.

“Let’s analyze the possibilities of their location, Zun.”

“Mr. Duke.” The dragon baby’s face, which had been standing in front of Duke and Cecil, transformed into an electronic screen displaying a sweating emoji, said, “Sorry, I don’t have that function.”

"Huh?" Duke was slightly taken aback and said incredulously, "That shouldn't be the case. Doesn't artificial intelligence even have this much analytical ability?"

"In the real world, there are simply too many influencing factors, and my current processor cannot handle this level of analysis task."

Although Zun's voice was flat, it sounded somewhat awkward to Duke at that moment.

“Alright. In my opinion, there are several possibilities for the location of those two Tower faction cadres.” He sighed. “First, it could be in the capital palace of the two great dinosaur empires; second, it could be in the decision-making level of the Ant Federation; or it could be in front of the Ant Queen; in addition, it could be at the Dragon Ant Summit to be held next month… Besides that, the most likely possibility is that they are directly in the core of the game, but we don’t know what the core of this Dark Witch game is yet, so we don’t know where to start.”

"So what should we do?"