novelsite Chapter 20 The Collapse of a Small Nation
Chapter 20 The Collapse of a Small Nation
Is there any hope?
"I don't know, but one thing is certain—the ten countries with hominid populations, totaling one hundred million hominids, are releasing this toxin into the environment every day. Rivers, soil, and groundwater will all be polluted. The longer it goes on, the wider the pollution will spread."
Carrie fell silent.
The sound of a water dragon digging a hole came from outside the window, muffled, like distant thunder.
That was a reassuring sound, because the black blood of the water dragon beasts contained only trace amounts of toxins, and they lived underground, so they did not pollute surface water sources.
"India was the first to give up," Lu Cheng said, standing up and walking to the map. "And it won't be the last."
……
Meanwhile, in the Lion Kingdom, Narobi.
Prime Minister Nguyen squatted on the grassland, with a wall in front of him.
It was made of stones, about half a person's height, curved, and with a surface as smooth as if it had been polished.
The inside of the wall was covered with dry grass, and three upright ape babies were sleeping on the grass.
Three adult upright apes crouched outside the wall, clutching sharpened stones in their hands, their eyes fixed on Nguji.
It's not fear, it's vigilance.
They are protecting their young.
Nguji stood up and took three steps back.
The three upright apes followed his movements with their eyes, gripping the stones in their hands even tighter, but they did not attack.
They don't move as long as he doesn't get close to the wall.
"When did they start building the wall?" Nguji asked.
The tribal elder stood behind him, his face etched with sweat through his wrinkles.
"Seven days ago. First, the first wall was built, half a meter high. The second day, it was raised to one meter. The third day, an arc shape was built. The fourth day, dry grass was laid. The fifth day... the cubs were born."
"Was there a specific reason why they chose those locations?"
The elder pointed into the distance:
"Look. The wall is positioned right in the wind path of the prairie monsoon, and its curved shape can block the wind. Thirty paces behind the wall is a dry riverbed, which will fill with water during the rainy season. In front of the wall is an open area, where anything that gets close can be seen immediately."
Nguji remained silent.
Site selection, orientation, materials, structure... every aspect of this wall built by the upright ape conforms to the principles of human architecture.
No one taught them; they figured it out themselves.
"What's even more terrifying is..." the elder's voice lowered further.
"This morning we discovered that the same walls have appeared in other parts of the grasslands. Not just one, but hundreds. From Nairobi to Mombasa, a straight-line distance of over 400 kilometers, all the Homo erectus tribes began building walls of the same structure at the same time."
Nguji felt a chill run down his spine: "How are they connected?"
The elder shook his head: "I don't know, but they must have some kind of connection that we can't see."
The first thing Nguyen did after returning to the Prime Minister's Office was to call Kerry.
After the call connected, he only said one sentence:
"President Kerry, the Lion Country was wrong. Choosing the Homo erectus was the biggest mistake the Lion Country ever made."
Kerry did not comfort him.
Because Kerry knew that soon more people would say the same thing.
……
The Kingdom of the Boulder, the Golden City.
Prime Minister Louis stood on the balcony of the Parliament building, looking down at the square below.
There was nothing in the square.
It's not that there's nothing at all, it's that what was there before is gone.
The statue of Queen Victoria in Jincheng Square was torn down by upright monkeys last night.
It's not about knocking down, it's about dismantling.
The bronze statue was disassembled into bronze plates, strips, and nails, which were then neatly arranged around the base.
The Queen's portrait was completely removed and placed squarely in the center, facing the Houses of Parliament.
Louis stared at the portrait, his hands trembling.
"How long did it take them to dismantle?" he asked.
The police commissioner wiped his sweat:
"For three hours, from one to four in the morning, there was a patrol that passed through the square every half hour. Nobody saw anything, nobody heard anything."
Are the patrol team idiots?
"It wasn't that they were brain-dead, it's just that the upright apes were too fast. We later checked the rooftops of nearby buildings and found that before the upright apes dismantled the statue, they had set up lookouts on the rooftops of the surrounding buildings. When the patrol came from the east, the upright apes on the eastern rooftops would make knocking noises, and the upright apes dismantling the statue would immediately stop and crouch down, blending into the darkness. When the patrol passed by, the knocking noises would start again, and they would continue dismantling it."
Louis turned around: "You said they have sentries? Communication signals? Covert discipline?"
The police commissioner nodded.
Louis closed his eyes.
When ten million upright apes descended upon the land of the Boulder, he felt he had gotten a great deal.
Now he knows that it wasn't cheap; it was a time bomb.
Moreover, the bomb's countdown has already gone by more than halfway.
……
Yakji Kingdom, Licheng.
Prime Minister George sat in his office with three photographs in front of him.
First picture: The gargoyle sculpture on the roof of Notre Dame Cathedral in Licheng has been removed.
The second picture shows the dismantled gargoyle parts neatly arranged and stacked in the square.
The third picture shows the upright ape using salvaged stones to create a new pattern in the square – a giant eye.
George pushed the photo aside, picked up a cigar, but didn't light it.
"Why are they making eye contact?" he asked.
The intelligence chief hesitated for a moment:
"Our psychologists believe that the eyes represent observation. The upright apes were telling humans—we are watching you."
George's cigar fell onto the table.
"And another thing," the intelligence chief said, his voice even lower.
"This morning we discovered that in the center of all the hominid settlements in Licheng, there appeared an eye pattern made of stone. Not just one, but all of them. They are using this method to announce—that they have formed a unified symbolic system."
George stood up and walked to the window.
Outside the window is the skyline of Licheng, and the spire of Notre Dame Cathedral gleams golden in the setting sun.
The three gargoyles that used to be crouching on the spire are now empty.
"When will they dismantle Notre Dame itself?" George asked.
The intelligence chief did not answer.
But everyone knows the answer—it's coming soon.
……
Zhu Sailang Kingdom, Luocheng.
Prime Minister Vito stood on the ruins of the ancient Roman Colosseum, looking down at the densely packed upright apes below.
The Colosseum is the pride of Giuseppe's Kingdom, a two-thousand-year-old historical site that attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists every year.
Now, ten million upright apes have made the Colosseum their home.
They live in the archways, squat in the stands, and create patterns with stones in the center of the arena.
Vittoria saw the pattern clearly through the telescope—it was a circle with a square inside, and a smaller circle inside the square.
It's exactly the same pattern as the one in Kyoto, the land of Taro Tanuki.
"Are they related to the upright apes of Taroko Country?" Vito asked.
The intelligence officer shook his head: "We have no evidence that the hominids of the two countries had direct contact. The two countries are separated by three oceans, and it is impossible for hominids to cross oceans."
Why are the patterns the same?
The intelligence officer did not answer.
Because the answer is chilling.
One hundred million upright apes, distributed across ten countries, had never met before, yet developed the exact same symbol system.
The way they connect remains undiscovered by humankind.
Vito put down his binoculars and said something in the local language:
"We made the wrong choice."
No one dared to speak.
Admitting to making the wrong choice is tantamount to admitting that the Kingdom of Zhu Sailang, one of the four major powers on Earth, committed the biggest strategic error of the century on Advent Day.