Chapter 168 Sympathy and Fear
Zhang Fei lay on the ground and coughed violently.
"Cough cough... Ugh!!!"
A tiny worm like a tadpole was spit out.
“It’s out!! It’s out!!!” the Sandworm couple shouted, “Our child!!!”
The medical staff quickly picked up the insect gently with tweezers and placed it in an incubator with a life support system.
"Only one." Xiao Zhen said.
Liu Bei turned around and asked Director Lu Meng: "How many are there in total?"
"There are five more children."
"Tsk." Liu Bei raised his fist and approached Zhang Fei, who was lying on the ground groaning, "Brother, I'm sorry."
"What do you want to do? Don't come over here!!"
"Brother, please be patient! I won't hurt you." Liu Bei swung his fist down fiercely.
Guan Yu Jiamoer cheered beside him: "Come on! Try harder! Does it hurt? It's normal to hurt, just bear with it and the baby will come out!!!"
"The baby is coming out!!! Hold your breath and hold on!"
Zhang Fei angrily said, "Why do I feel like I'm giving birth to a baby! Ouch!! Big brother, hold back a little! Aa ...
"Come on! The baby is coming out!" The Sandworm couple gathered around and said, "I think it might be a girl this time."
"It will be a brave girl."
“…”
"It's out! It's out!!!" Xiao Zhen said, "Then there are four more."
Roken 89 stepped forward and extended a mechanical arm. Electric sparks jumped and flashed between its metal pincers. "It's too inefficient to hit you with your limbs. I will use electric shocks. Don't worry, it won't cause any harm to your body. It will only stimulate your nerves to the greatest extent. Your pain level will definitely be the strongest."
Zhang Fei yelled, "Don't come over here!!!!"
After a chaotic and indescribable process, Zhang Fei finally vomited out all six worms one after another. The medical staff carefully put the worms into the life support system box and pushed them away. The sandworm couple followed the medical staff with joy and worry. The monkey also followed them curiously and stared at the life support box.
"Will our children be in trouble? Will they have any sequelae? Will their intelligence be damaged and become idiots?" they kept asking.
"It's hard to say now. We have to wait until the children are stable. We just found that several children have very weak vital signs."
"What?"
"The child is too weak now. We need to observe him further." The doctor said, "Please wait a moment."
The medical staff, the sandworm couple, and the ape left.
Director Lu Meng asked Zhang Fei, who was lying on the ground with a dead look on his face, to go for another check-up.
"Do more?" Zhang Fei muttered.
"To prevent accidents and to prevent the possibility of other larvae being left behind."
After another period of waiting, the doctor announced that there were no larvae in Zhang Fei's body and his health was normal.
Xiao Zhen’s communicator also received the notification that his clearance and jump review had passed.
It's time to leave.
Director Lu Meng escorted them to the port. Xiao Zhen had to admit that the sandworms were a very friendly species. Before they left, Director Lu Meng also gave them several boxes of local specialties as gifts.
Zhang Fei asked somewhat embarrassedly: "Excuse me, are those children and their parents okay?"
"Three children have died."
"What?"
Seeing Zhang Fei's expression, Director Lu Meng said, "Breaking out of the shell itself carries certain risks. Few hatchlings survive, not to mention that they are in the bodies of non-Toko alien species. We are mentally prepared for this to happen. You don't have to feel guilty."
"Then will the remaining children really become idiots or have physical problems?"
"I can't say for sure what the sequelae will be. The children are still in danger. Don't worry, the children are our future, and we will protect them well."
Guan Yu suddenly said, "I was a little excited about the couple earlier. Please apologize to them on my behalf."
"No need to apologize. I know that most aliens, especially those close to Homo sapiens, will not accept our way of reproduction." Director Lu Meng said frankly: "But this is our way of survival. Toco is an inseparable part of our culture. Just like you Homo sapiens and the Gnus raise poultry and livestock for food and riding. No matter what planet it is, the evolution of a civilization must come at the cost of other lives. Some aliens claim that eating poultry and livestock is harmful to life, so they become vegetarians. But on some planets, plants themselves are intelligent life that can think. On some planets, although plants are not intelligent life, they can fly and walk like animals, and can also feel the pain of being injured. The collision of different civilizations will always lead to various conflicts and confusions."
"I understand what you mean, but I still..."
Director Lu Meng smiled and said, "Continue to maintain your disgust. This is very important ."
"Yeah?"
"Having this feeling of disgust means you have empathy for other animals. We sandworms believe that this is the most important emotion in life. All love comes from this."
“…”
Guan Yu waved goodbye to Director Lu Meng thoughtfully.
…
After getting on the boat, Captain Ban curiously asked them how their trip to Zangnom was going.
"Zhang Fei gave birth to six children." Jia Moer said with a smile.
"What?"
Liu Bei nodded, "Indeed."
Xiao Zhen stroked her chin and said, "He gave birth to six children and almost had a difficult birth."
"What!!!" Captain Ban stared at Zhang Fei with strange eyes.
"Don't talk nonsense!!!"
Ms. Fei deadpanned, “Well, the result is six children.”
Roken 89 responded, “Yes.”
"Why are you two like this too!!!"
The Zejin was about to enter the jump station. Xiao Zhen was floating in her seat, looking at the outer space through the transparent bulkhead. A silvery ring stood in the center of the port, and ships were orderly arranged in front of the ring. After a period of time, these ships would instantly twist and disappear, flying to the next transportation hub in the galaxy. Stars shone in the dark universe. In a universe whose size could not be calculated, the Milky Way was just a drop in the ocean among billions of stars.
The Zangnom before us is just a tiny planet in the vast Milky Way.
From this perspective, the civilization of the Zangnoam sandworms is extremely small in the Milky Way.
"Are you looking at the stars?" Jiamoer floated to Xiaozhen and asked.
"Yes." Xiao Zhen held the handle and controlled his body balance. Now the gravity system in the cabin was not turned on, and the crew remained floating. Captain Madara flew over his head, "Xiao Zhen, that Gnus man has been acting strange since he came back."
Captain Madara was talking about Guan Yu. This Gnus man was leaning against the transparent wall and looking straight at the yellow planet in the universe. He seemed to be very worried.
"What did he encounter down there?"
"I guess he hasn't recovered from the shock of some cultural tradition."
Ms. Fei's cold voice echoed in the cabin, "I just looked up the history of the Tibetan Gnommian civilization and made some unexpected discoveries."
"What?"
"Millions of years ago , the species that dominated the Zangnom land was the Tomiah ape, and their staple food was sandworms. It can be said that millions of years ago, apes were the natural enemies of sandworms."
“They are natural enemies.”
"Yes. At that time, the sandworms had not yet developed a true civilization and were a social creature." Ms. Fei clicked on the screen and projected the image data into the air. "For a long time, apes were almost invincible on this planet. They were good at collective hunting and had a sense of teamwork. During that period, they mainly lived in primeval forests. But then the climate in Zangnom suddenly changed, global temperatures rose, precipitation dropped sharply, and large tracts of forests and species became extinct. The Tomia apes had to change their lifestyle and move into caves. It was at that time that the sandworms living underground became their staple food source."
"At first, the sandworms had no ability to fight back and could only allow themselves to be slaughtered and eaten by the Tomia apes. After tens of thousands of years, the sandworms, which had long been in danger of being exterminated by their natural enemies, evolved a new way of reproduction, which is the characteristic that the eggs in the sandworms' bodies can still hatch after being swallowed by their natural enemies. This characteristic continued to evolve over the next hundreds of thousands of years, and finally evolved into the ability to swallow and control the brains . In the hundreds of thousands of years of struggle for survival, the sandworms also evolved the talent of group emotional connection. They can feel the emotions of their own kind, and this rich emotion allows them to unite and socialize, which in a sense also accelerated the birth of the Zanggnome sandworm civilization."
"So, in the life-and-death struggle for survival with apes, the sandworms took the lead. They found the best way to control and deal with their natural enemy, the apes, which was to lay eggs in the apes' brains and tame the apes. When civilization was born, this lifestyle was already engraved in their genes."
"This is the result of the struggle of evolution." Ms. Fei looked at Guan Yu, "For the sandworms, this is the way of survival that their ancestors spent millions of years to find."
“……” Guan Yu’s eyes did not move away from the yellow planet.
Xiao Zhen said, "You are still confused, or disgusted. Because monkeys are really similar to us. I can understand."
"I……"
"Like Captain Lu Meng said just now, it's a good thing to feel disgusted." Xiao Zhen said, "It's natural to feel sad, disgusted and fearful when seeing species similar to us being treated this way. We all feel uncomfortable. But in this vast sea of stars, both Homo sapiens and Gnus are just the smallest existences. Maybe on another planet similar to Zangnom, the apes won the final victory of evolution, while the sandworms did not evolve into civilization. They can only become delicacies on the apes' tables. Then will you sympathize with these sandworms?"
"This..." Guan Yu replied, "The appearance of sandworms is very different from ours, so I won't have any extra feelings for them. But if they showed the intelligence to communicate but could only be eaten as food, I would be suspicious and shaken, and maybe even sympathize with them."
Roken 89 said: "This is what makes you valuable as an intelligent life form."
Guan Yu said unhappily, "Is it a good thing that I am so entangled now?"
"Sympathy and fear are both the most remarkable qualities of intelligent life. Whether you question, think, or doubt, these are the shining points of intelligent life." Roken 89 said calmly, "There are only two types of creatures that are indifferent to any life. One is the lower life, and the other is our enemy."
“Is that what your programming tells you?”
"This is the result of my logical calculation. The Overseer's Eye has a motto that I would like to share with you: Stay afraid."
Guan Yu looked at the robot and smiled: "Thank you. But I will never come to this planet again."
"We will come again." Xiao Zhen said, "After we find Liu Xingquan, we will come back here again. This warp station is a must-go place."
Zhang Fei suddenly floated over. He was holding a bag in his hand, which was also a gift from the local sandworms. He shouted, "Look, what did I find in the gift given to me by the sandworms?"
Everyone asked, "What?"
He took out an oval object from his bag. It looked like an egg. "Look, it's the most popular Ika pet egg in the galaxy right now!! Maybe I can hatch a rare legendary pet!!"
"..." Captain Ban stared at the egg in Zhang Fei's hand, and then said clearly: "Fuck!"
