Those Who Eat Without Labor

One day, while Huang Si was using the global network to monitor the situation across the world, he discovered an ape-man running outside the thickets.

Huang Si checked the relevant records and found the ape-man's ID and name. This ape-man was named Hei Zi. Because he was very intelligent and knew how to use the angle of the sun to determine direction, he had finally found his way back and was running toward the Earth Realm Base with all his might.

Huang Si watched him silently through the ubiquitous network.

Hei Zi was fleeing through the jungle in a sorry state.

He had endured countless hardships, eating every edible thing he could find along the way, and his hands and feet were worn raw and bleeding, yet he still struggled desperately toward the base.

Finally, Hei Zi collapsed on the gravel-strewn ground. Despite his wretched state, his eyes remained fixed in the direction of the Earth Realm Base.

Due to malnutrition and his bleeding wounds, the ape-man's vitality was already extremely weak.

His life was quietly slipping away in this desolate, uninhabited stretch of gravel.

Huang Si sighed. His consciousness descended before Hei Zi, vibrating the air:

"Why are you pushing yourself so hard?"

A glimmer of light suddenly appeared in the ape-man's nearly despairing eyes. He squeezed a few words out of his long-hoarse throat with great difficulty:

"Go back there, have food, no need, to starve."

Huang Si was silent for a moment, then asked, "You could have found food in the thickets. But if you returned, you might have lost your life on the way. Is it worth trading your life for food?"

The ape-man struggled on the ground, twisting his head, trying to see who was speaking to him, but it was useless. Huang Si's consciousness had descended into this space and was vibrating the air to produce sound; there was no physical form.

He could not see anyone, yet a strange feeling arose in his heart.

A savior.

He could definitely save him.

So, he summoned his last bit of strength and shouted, "Beg you, let me, go back. I, love, there."

Love?

Huang Si did not understand what he meant to express. To figure it out, Huang Si directly used his Creation Power to generate hemostatic medicine and bandages to wrap his wounds, then called a group of small robots to carry the ape-man back to the base.

Huang Si had originally hoped that Hei Zi would give him an answer after being well-fed and rested, but Hei Zi might have been too traumatized; not only did he spend his days eating and drinking, quickly growing a layer of fat, but he also picked up the habit of laziness.

In fact, the ape-men in the base were originally quite lazy because Xiao Ke would arrange for small robots to ration their daily food and supplies.

Since they could get food without working, why bother to labor?

Therefore, in the beginning, the ape-men were all idle and didn't even pay much attention to the AI teachers.

That was why Huang Si later changed his strategy: he stopped providing food directly and instead opened up a Planting Zone within the Earth Realm, forcing the ape-men to gather food themselves.

At first, the ape-men were still too lazy to go, but after realizing they were about to starve, they finally went to the Planting Zone to pick food.

However, the gathering efficiency was low, and their hands were easily cut by the vegetation. The ape-men complained incessantly, so Huang Si had the three AI teachers teach them how to make tools.

It could be said that Huang Si had exhausted his heart for the ape-men, and it took over 1,350 years to finally reach the state they were in today.

As for this Hei Zi, he had originally been selected by Xiao Ke to be sent out to the external Ape-man Tribe precisely because of his outstanding intelligence, language skills, and logical thinking, with the hope that he would act as an enlightener to change the entire tribe.

But things went contrary to his wishes. Not only did Hei Zi run back, but after Huang Si rescued him and he recovered from his injuries, he became even more stagnant.

He would even lazily enjoy food that should have belonged to other ape-men while brazenly claiming that he was the Chosen Ape, saved by the Ancestral Deities, and therefore deserved a lofty status.

—Eating without working, superior to others.

Indeed, for the sake of encouragement, before sending this ape-man to the external tribe, Xiao Ke had held a farewell ceremony at Huang Si's instruction, and the AIs had expressed their blessings in the capacity of Ancestral Deities.

But he had returned from the outside.

And he had been brought back by a robot.

This, in effect, suddenly elevated Hei Zi's status among the ape-men, making him mysterious and noble.

Subsequently, he shamelessly demanded that other ape-men gather food and offer it to him, promising that only then would he, as an ape favored by the gods, protect them.

One must know that there were about ten thousand ape-men in the Cultivation Department, while there were only three Ancestral Deities.

The Ancestral Deities could not be with the ape-men at all times; there were always moments when they were absent.

Compared to the high and mighty Ancestral Deities, a fellow tribesman with divine protection seemed much easier to comprehend.

Therefore, even though many ape-men despised him, many others were deceived by him, willingly offering food and submitting to his exploitation.

After discovering that no one was stopping him, this returned ape-man even demanded that several young female apes surround him as his exclusive companions.

When this matter first showed signs of occurring, Xiao Ke had wanted to step in and throw this disobedient ape-man into the Planting Zone to work, but Huang Si stopped Xiao Ke.

In Huang Si's view, this case was worth observing.

Because this was the budding of monarchy and class.

In Earth's history, monarchs often relied on various means to deceive the populace to gain ruling power—for instance, claiming to be the son of a god or ordained by heaven. In any case, whether it was the ancient Chinese title of "Son of Heaven" or the ancient Western "Divine Right of Kings," they were all similar things.

And Hei Zi himself was still clever.

He knew he was a fraud; in front of the truly divine Ancestral Deities, he would be exposed as easily as a sycamore leaf being poked through.

Therefore, all his actions were carefully calculated to avoid the three Ancestral Deities, operating only in the shadows.

Beyond enjoying the benefits provided by other ape-men, Hei Zi was also racking his brains to find that great deity who had healed his wounds and sent him back to the Earth Realm.

Unfortunately, no one knew of this deity's existence; even the three Ancestral Deities seemed never to have mentioned him.

Hei Zi firmly believed that this deity was real, and that as long as he found him, he would surely become a true member of the divine kin.

Huang Si, the mastermind behind it all, only spared a sliver of attention to glance at Hei Zi occasionally.

This ape-man still had some use for now.

Huang Si observed that under the relentless efforts of this ape-man, the ape-man population had begun to split.

Where there is oppression, there is resistance.

Ignorance often coexists with clarity; while many ape-men obeyed Hei Zi's every word, willing to serve him and offer tributes, others remained clear-headed and hostile.

This group of ape-men gathered together, centered around a young male ape-man named Shu Zi.

They not only refused to believe that Hei Zi was favored by the so-called Heavenly God, but they also loathed his greed and evil.

As time passed, the approximately ten thousand ape-men living in the Earth Realm gradually split into three factions.

Hei Zi's Anti-Divine Protection Faction, Shu Zi's Anti-Divine Protection Faction, and the Neutral Faction that sided with neither.

Of course, the ape-men did not necessarily have the concept of political parties; it was merely Huang Si naming the undercurrents surging among them.

Currently, the Anti-Divine Protection Faction was the smallest, while the Neutral Faction was the largest.

After all, the wise were few; most ape-men were content with the status quo, feeling that as long as their interests were not harmed, everything was fine.

The Anti-Divine Protection Faction had once tried to complain to the Ancestral Deities, but the Ancestral Deities simply said, "Do not pay any mind to those people."

After that, the Ancestral Deities ignored the matter entirely.

The Anti-Divine Protection Faction members were helpless and could only repeatedly preach among the ape-men that the Ancestral Deities were the only three true gods, and that all other so-called Heavenly Gods were false gods incapable of protecting them.

Seeing that the Ancestral Deities did not interfere with him, Hei Zi became even more arrogant, taking the opportunity to propagate his own twisted theories about the protection of the Heavenly God.

In truth, the three Ancestral Deities were the ones truly helpless. They had words they could not speak; even though they knew it was Huang Si who had saved Hei Zi, they could neither speak of it nor interfere, because Huang Si had strictly forbidden it.

Time continued to flow, and influence required time to settle.

Huang Si was waiting for the right moment.

Four days of Earth time had passed.

In the Green World, it had been three and a half years.

Earth Realm, Cultivation Department, Zone B.

A female ape-man sat on a wooden stump, teasing the infant ape in her arms.

After generations of evolution, the thick hair that once covered the ape-men's bodies had gradually faded, revealing smooth skin. Except for slightly more hair on her face, denser fuzz on her body, and a darker complexion, this female ape did not look much different from a human from Earth.

The female ape-man bore the heavy responsibility of teaching and raising her offspring. The infant ape was nearly two years old; although still young, it already appeared quite intelligent.

Now, under its mother's guidance, it would even babble, trying to mimic its mother's speech.

The female ape-man looked at the child in her arms, a warm smile spreading across her face.

This laboratory was rather small, so there were few ape-men living there, with only six or seven moving about in small groups.

It looked like freedom, but in reality, they could not leave the laboratory at all. Only during the fixed daily gathering time would they be collected by small robots and taken to the Planting Zone for routine harvesting work.

This female ape had lived in such an environment since she was young, and she was already accustomed to this life.

Furthermore, she now had a mate of her own.

Her mate was named Shu Zi, a sturdy male ape who was currently working hard to sharpen a wooden stick.

This stick would eventually be fitted with a sharpened stone flake to create a primitive stone knife, which would be useful in subsequent food gathering.

This was something the Ancestral Deities had taught them.

The Ancestral Deities, especially the Xi Yuan deity who watched over their zone of ape-men, were truly good deities whom they would revere for generations.

The Ancestral Deities had changed many rules, altering their lives for the better.

For instance, while ape-men were still occasionally forced to breed, young ape-men could now unite according to their own wishes as long as they caught each other's eyes and could get the Ancestral Deities to bless them. Afterward, they would not be forced against their will to be taken for breeding.

The young couple here was exactly such a case.

They had decided long ago that they wanted to be a pair, so they had been trying every way to beg the Ancestral Deities. Whenever an Ancestral Deity passed by, the two would kneel on the ground and plead bitterly. Eventually, the Western God Emperor, Xi Yuan, heard their request and bore witness for them.

At the time, Xi Yuan had pointed upward and said that with her as a witness, the Heavenly Dao would acknowledge their union.

The two occasionally heard the term "Heavenly Dao." Although they did not quite understand it, they were both moved to tears, kowtowing desperately to the deity and firmly remembering her words.