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Even so, if the monster tide hadn't suddenly retreated back then, humanity would have almost been driven to extinction.

And now they were being told that mutated monsters not only vastly outmatched humans in raw strength, but had also grown more intelligent?

If the mutated monsters came back in force, would humanity have any chance of surviving?

For a moment, the group was overwhelmed by conflicting emotions, their faces frighteningly pale.

"Chirp..."

Tao Qiu nuzzled the man very, very gently, then stepped back twice and signaled with his eyes that he really had to leave this time.

Lou Yu was still reluctant to part, but he didn't lose control as he had before. Instead, he smiled and waved. "Goodbye."

He hoped they would meet again.

Snow Bird left, but Lou Yu's gaze lingered long after he was gone, the light in his eyes gradually dimming.

Two minutes later, Lou Yu let out a long breath, composed himself, and turned around.

Before he could say, "Let's head back," he caught sight of his teammates' ashen faces.

"Captain..." Liu Qi'an looked ready to cry. "Do you think we'll live long enough to die of old age?"

Lou Yu: "?"

Ten minutes later, on the road back to the base, Lou Yu finally understood what his teammates were worried about.

Lou Yu neither laughed at them nor affirmed their fears. Instead, he said, "The evolution of mutated monsters is also reflected in their intelligence. Otherwise, humanity's war of defense back then wouldn't have been so difficult. They're clever, but not to the extent you're worried about. That includes Snow Bird. His intelligence is only a little greater than that of other mutated monsters, and he bears no ill will toward humans. You don't need to be so anxious."

Lou Yu felt a little guilty saying that.

Snow Bird could take human form and speak human language. His origins were certainly no simple matter, to say nothing of his intelligence.

But Lou Yu couldn't let the people at the base start paying attention to Snow Bird. If Snow Bird's secret were discovered, the consequences would be unthinkable.

Naturally, he was helping keep it hidden for selfish reasons. He didn't want anything to happen to Snow Bird.

But as he had said, Snow Bird had never shown any ill will toward humans. Perhaps that had something to do with his secret.

As a human, Lou Yu naturally cared about his own kind, because his friends and family were among them, and because he had been taught since childhood to uphold humanity's interests for his entire life.

If Snow Bird ever attacked humanity, he would stand at the very front and fight back until he died.

But he hoped that day would never come.

After Lou Yu finished speaking, an odd silence settled over the car.

After an unknown length of time, Liu Qi'an was the first to speak. He laughed heartily and said, "The captain's right. No matter how clever those monsters get, can they really outsmart us? There's nothing to worry about. Our predecessors survived back then, and now our defenses are better, our weapons are more advanced, and we have ability users too. If we really fought, there's no telling who'd win."

Once the others recovered from their initial shock, they gradually came to understand what even Liu Qi'an had managed to figure out.

They weren't as spirited as he was, though. They wore smiles, but their eyes kept wandering, as if searching for something.

John: That windproof lighter was gone.

Huo Lan: The little first-aid kit had disappeared.

Chen Lin: They had finished their mission ahead of schedule this time, so there had been plenty of food left. The place where it had been stored was now empty, with nothing left.

Those were the things that were visibly missing. There might have been others they hadn't noticed yet.

After briefly checking their belongings, the group exchanged glances, then all looked at Lou Yu.

Lou Yu suddenly felt their gazes prickling against his back. He gave an awkward laugh and said, "Put it all on my tab. I'll replace everything when we get back."

Huo Lan waved a hand. "We ate the prey Snow Bird gave us too, so let's consider these things a gift from all of us. But... Captain, you didn't give him a gun too, did you?"

Lou Yu said nothing.

Huo Lan's eyes widened. "Captain, you..."

"No." Lou Yu suddenly laughed. "Why would I give Snow Bird a gun? He doesn't even know how to use one. The mood was too gloomy, so I was just joking with you."

"You scared me to death." Liu Qi'an patted his chest. "Captain, don't joke about that again. My heart can't take it."

Giving him some food and supplies was fine, but their respective positions and Snow Bird's were what they were. Even if they had given Snow Bird a weapon, he wouldn't have one, but weapons were too sensitive a matter. Giving him one and not giving him one meant two entirely different things.

He wasn't one of their kind. No matter how close they were, there was a line they couldn't cross.

Lou Yu knew that as well as anyone, which was why he had never considered giving Snow Bird any lethal weapons from the start.

Everyone was a little reluctant to continue the subject, so Chen Lin spoke up at just the right moment. "The research institute specifically sent you out to collect this plant sap, Captain. I imagine it must be a big help in developing the Awakening Reagent."

A few months earlier, Lou Yu had brought back some important documents from the basement of an abandoned base, which had indeed advanced research on the reagent. But the researchers had hit another roadblock not long ago, and no further news had come for some time.

Theirs wasn't the only team sent out this time, and the plant sap wasn't the only material they were looking for. Collecting it was simply the most dangerous task, which was why he had been sent.

Even Lou Yu didn't know what the researchers had in mind.

He shook his head. "No one can say for sure. The Awakening Reagent itself appeared without warning back then. The Shen Family said they developed it by accident. Maybe the researchers will have the same kind of accident, and maybe they won't."

Ability users possessed the greatest individual combat strength humanity currently had. Most ordinary people wanted to become ability users themselves and hoped there would be as many of them as possible.

But some people's ingrained selfishness made that difficult to put into practice.

After the Shen Family developed the reagent, they used it to compete for power and profit. Later, when several other families obtained the technology, they too chose to keep it to themselves, giving the middle and lower classes and the other satellite bases no opportunity at all.

When interests were at stake, humanity's nobility and selfishness clashed and tangled, often with no clear winner.

They had already seen such an outcome at Central Base.

The group wore varying expressions as silence fell once more.

Unlike the grave, solemn atmosphere around Lou Yu, Tao Qiu was feeling a little elated on his way back.

He wondered what the man had put in the backpack for him. It felt like opening a blind box, a novel and exciting experience.

When he reached the cave entrance, Tao Qiu took human form and ran inside with the backpack in hand.

"Babies, look at the goodies Daddy brought back for you!"

The cubs, who had been fluttering their wings low in the cave, heard him and hurried to find places to land. Second Cub lost her footing and nearly fell, but fortunately, Third Cub, who was standing beside her, caught her in time.

"Chirp!"

—Thank you, little sister!

By the time Second Cub finished speaking, Tao Qiu had reached them.

The bird cubs looked at the object Tao Qiu was carrying, something completely unfamiliar to them, and couldn't help asking curiously, "Chirp?"

—What's that?

Tao Qiu chuckled, thinking that the knowledge of human civilization he had gradually passed on to the cubs could finally be put to use.

Tao Qiu crouched down in front of them and said with a smile, "Do you remember the nursery rhyme Daddy taught you before?"

He began to sing. "Little, little schoolboy, carrying his schoolbag to school, not afraid of the sun beating down..."

"Chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp~" The bird cubs knew the rhyme well. They naturally picked up where he left off and sang it through to the end.

"Chirp." Eldest Cub was the first to realize it, and he grew very excited. "Chirp, chirp!"

—I know! That's the schoolbag from the song!

"So clever. That's my baby." Tao Qiu rubbed his head and showed the bird cubs the bag. "A schoolbag is one use for a backpack. Students use it to carry books and school supplies, but it can hold other things too, like it does now."

When Tao Qiu taught them the song, he had also told them that human children had to go to school and roughly what they learned there.

The cubs had pestered Tao Qiu with plenty of questions at the time, and in the end, they had remembered most of what he'd told them about schoolbags.

Tao Qiu put the backpack on the ground, and the cubs gathered around to look.

They had never left the valley since they were born. Mountains, streams, and plants were what they saw most often, and the most advanced implement they had ever used was a bamboo bucket Tao Qiu had cut.

Although they had heard a great deal about the human world from Tao Qiu, no amount of description could match the impact of seeing the real thing.

For the cubs, it was like stepping straight from primitive society into a new age. They couldn't help being curious and astonished.

Second Cub pecked at it with her pointed beak. The backpack was grayish black overall, and the fabric on its surface was stiff and sturdy, producing a dull "thock, thock" when she pecked it.

Eldest Cub sniffed it and said, "Chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp."

—It's an unfamiliar smell, different from ours and the big snake's.

Tao Qiu said, "That's the scent of humans. You can remember it, babies. If you encounter them in the future and Daddy isn't around, it's best to stay away from them."

Tao Qiu didn't eat humans himself, nor did he want the cubs to eat them, much less want either side to hurt the other. So whether or not the cubs were stronger than humans, it was best that they not meet casually, cutting off accidents at the root.

The cubs remembered that the last time Daddy had told them to hide was when the big snake came.

Third Cub couldn't help asking, "Chirp, chirp? Chirp, chirp?"

—Are humans scary? Do they eat little birds?

Tao Qiu said, "Think of humans the same way you think of the big snake. Whether we fight them or trade with them will depend on how things develop in the future."

Second Cub looked at Tao Qiu. "Chirp, chirp?"

—Did Daddy trade with humans for this backpack?

"Hmm, I suppose so." The man had said it wasn't a gift in return for the prey, but Tao Qiu thought there was no harm in considering it part of one.