Chapter 128: 107: Each's Mission (Three More Updates)_2
Staring blankly at the enclosing walls for a while, Number One couldn’t help but say, “This place is really beautiful, what is this place?”
Beta was silent for a moment before he finally said, “Switching to Botanic Garden explanatory mode. This is the Botanic Garden.”
“What’s a botanic garden?”
“A place for placing plants and for people to enjoy looking at them. Bipedal Beasts, that is, humans of the past, were very fond of such facilities. They liked to come here during their leisure time to pass the time by observing plants.”
“Then are these foods delicious?” asked Number Three, drooling.
“Most are only for ornamental purposes and are poisonous, and moreover, they require a lot of sunlight, clean water, and fertile soil, etc.”
“What a waste!” Number Two cried out, “Using precious land and resources to cultivate things you can’t eat, were humans this wasteful?”
“To the humans of the past, this was merely a common way to entertain themselves.”
At Beta’s answer, Number Two fell silent.
The human era was a grand golden age, their advanced technology and comprehensive industry allowed them to dominate the Mirror Universe, even though they had perished, their legacy still guided their pets.
The resources required by a massive botanic garden were beyond their imagination.
And that such a massive structure was merely a facility for entertainment, this luxury left them at a loss for words.
Just as Number Two was about to jump down to experience the plants here, he heard Beta say, “Please do not approach the underbrush, especially not by hopping on one foot.”
“Why?”
“It looks like underbrush, but it is essentially a kind of mimetic plant. This plant preys on a certain one-foot hopping creature known as the Alien Rat, so hopping at a certain frequency will trigger its predatory instinct and result in its attack.”
“I see. Wait a minute!”
Feeling something keenly, Number Two continued to ask, “I have a question, plants don’t move, right?”
“That’s correct.” Beta answered.
“Animals move, right?”
“Indeed.”
“Then why do the plants here move?”
“Because of the need for biological weapons, humans broke down the barrier between plants and animals, merging them into one. So, the plants here look like plants, but essentially, they are evolvable plant-animal hybrids.”
Number Two’s expression became even more solemn.
Thinking of the unavoidable plant disease in their race, he asked incredulously, “Then, our disease… ”
“Connected to the local network, database updated… Yes, it can be inferred that the source of your disease lies here.”
“Our ancestors… were they biological weapons?”
“Yes.”
The sudden truth gave Number Two a sense of absurdity.
They had always been trying to solve the problems within themselves, to understand their origins, but they never expected the truth to be like this.
Biological weapons, that was the reason they were created.
Watching the ashen-faced Number Two Squirrel Man, Number One nudged him and asked while munching on nuts, “What’s wrong with you, if you’re not eating the nuts, give them to me.”
“We are biological weapons!”
“Oh, and then?”
Looking at the bewildered Numbers One and Three, Number Two suddenly realized the crux of the issue.
Right, and then what?
Knowing that their origin was as biological weapons, what impact did it have on them?
They were still themselves, still the squirrels who had outlasted the bipedal human beasts, still the creatures at the top of the food chain.
You were luxurious, you were great, but what of it in the end?
We still stand at the top of the food chain!
And I will find a way to save our kind on our home planet, we Squirrel Men will be perfect again, great once more.
With these thoughts, Number Two was filled with boundless passion. Just as he was about to rise and express the emotions in his chest, he saw a strange fellow walking out from a corner.
The other… was weird.
His body was very uncoordinated; his arms and legs looked slender, and there was only a small pinch of hair on the top of his head. There was no tail on his lower body, and it was unclear how he maintained balance.
He was very tall, six of himself stacked on top of one another would only be as tall as the other party, which was a mystery as to how he survived without breaking any bones.
Immediately lowering his gaze, Beta stood on top of the wall, looking down at the creature below and asked in terror, “What is that?”
“It resembles a human in shape, but there are no signs of life,” Beta said in confusion, “An entity never seen before, it needs to be recorded, temporarily registered as humanoid.”
“Humans look like that? That’s not what I saw in the documents! Aren’t they the species that either don’t have a tail or have it in the front?”
“Documents are mostly speculative, and deviations from the facts are normal. I suggest we continue observing.”
Accepting Beta’s proposal, Beta could only continue observing.
But after only a short while, Beta found that the human’s actions could only be described as bizarre.
From the moment he appeared, he had never been quiet.
He was attempting to invade the Botanic Garden.
Next to the Botanic Garden, there were obvious warning signs, but he ignored them completely, constantly charging toward the garden.
He tried jumping into the garden and was stopped by a machine similar to Beta.
He tried digging holes with his bare hands outside the garden and was stopped.
Climbing up an artificial hill and then trying to jump into the garden from there, he was stopped in mid-air.
Trying to damage the garden fence, then arguing with the machine that a garden without a fence was not a garden, he was stopped with a slap from the machine and then ordered to restore the original condition.
In the process of restoring, he tried to enter the garden to pick flowers and was stopped, then he disappeared for five hours.
After five hours, he reappeared, dutifully restored the garden, politely said farewell to the machine, and then started trying to dive into the lake.
He tried jumping directly into the lake and was stopped.
He tried…
Three Squirrel Men lay on the city wall, staring dumbfounded at the spectacle in front of them.
At this moment, Beta felt that even the most delirious fantasy novel couldn’t write the scenario before his eyes; the humanoid’s actions completely overturned his understanding, making him feel as if he had fallen into madness.
However, strong rationality forced him to return to normal, but his companions had already lost their wits.
Looking at the creature in front of him, Jin muttered to himself, “Who am I, and who is he? Is the world just a dream of My Little Pony or a massive bubble of nothingness?”
Ignoring his two companions for the moment, Beta asked, “Beta, is it possible to speculate what these humans are doing?”
“Insufficient data, unable to speculate for the time being. Please continue to collect intelligence to assist in my judgment,” Beta replied.
After some thought, Beta gave each of his companions a slap to the face, waking them up with a physical method.
Having relayed Beta’s deductions to them, Beta seriously said, “Next, we need to observe these humanoids and then discover the secrets here.”
“I don’t want to die!” Jin screamed in fear.
“That’s right,” the third Squirrel Man agreed with a fearful nod, “Just looking at him nearly drives me insane, there’s no way I can investigate his secrets.”
“But we have no other choice,” Beta sighed.
Glancing at the humanoid who was still trying to jump into the lake, a primal fear came rushing in, preventing him from looking any longer.
However, to save his species from the brink of extinction, he steeled his resolve and started to watch those creatures intently.
“Look at them with me,” Beta said, “Slowly, little by little, dispel the fear in our hearts. We can’t be afraid, we are the last hope.”
“But what if I’m still scared?” the third Squirrel Man asked fearfully.
“It’s okay, just keep looking until you’re not afraid anymore.”
While the three Squirrel Men were overcoming their fears with desensitization therapy, their presence had already been noticed.
The all-knowing Alpha, the explaining robot, had already spotted the three Squirrel Men and his own second-generation product, Beta, invented in another universe.
Their origin sparked some curiosity in Alpha, but their bodies shared the same origin with the animals and plants of this world, yet they had evolved in a different direction.
This peculiar expression aroused its curiosity about these creatures and prepared to observe and record their behavior, identify their covert state, and compile and file a report.
Thus, a bizarre scene began.
The players were unaware that they were being watched by three Squirrel Men, and the three Squirrel Men were unaware that they were being watched by Alpha.
With different goals in mind, their behavior in the Botanic Garden began to intertwine and influence each other.