When the two groups met, they were both taken aback. But soon, Du Lushui sprang into action. He quickly grabbed Cheng Shuang and ran in the opposite direction. He did this not for any other reason than that the dozen or so people in front of him were all tall and strong, and they were carrying firearms of unknown danger.
With Cheng Shuang tucked under his arm, she managed to lift her head and try to look at the group of people who were also quickly realizing what was happening and were watching them warily.
This group of people was completely different from the natives of Animal Planet. They had thick hair, wore simple and cool clothing, and had different animal-like marks on some exposed parts of their bodies. They were neither human nor beast, and looked like beastmen who had not fully evolved.
The bald, burly man at the head of the group was particularly tall. He had a curved horn resembling a bull's horn growing from the center of his forehead. He was staring fiercely at the two of them, but when his gaze met Cheng Shuang's, he revealed a subtle sense of confusion.
Both sides simultaneously understood each other's expressions: What the hell is this?!
"Uncle Du... Uncle Du, are we on Animal Planet?"
"Yes...right?"
Panting heavily, Du Lushui slowly stopped, because another group of people came from the opposite direction, blocking the road ahead like an iron tower.
Du Lushui swallowed hard, slowly raised her head, and stared at the enormous creature that completely shrouded her and Cheng Shuang in shadow—an elephant as tall as a building and its herd…
The elephant leader spoke in broken human language, "Brothers, why are you so slow?"
Du Lushui looked up from the elephant's leg with suspicion, but she couldn't see the elephant leader's eyes, so she had no idea whether the "big brother" it was referring to was her.
Cheng Shuang quickly patted her Uncle Du's arm to bring him back to his senses. The elephant certainly wasn't greeting them; she even suspected it hadn't seen the two adorable little creatures at its feet, who weren't even as tall as its knees.
"Brother Elephant!" The horsemen who emerged from the forest changed from a flustered pace to a steady and slow one. The burly man with bull horns at the head of the group raised his hand in a friendly gesture, a sincere yet slightly ferocious smile appearing on his fierce face.
Cheng Shuang's heart sank. So what exactly happened to Animal Planet?
Her gaze swept over the weapon carried on the bull-horned man's shoulder, emanating a familiar smell of gunpowder. As the two groups drew closer, she could see it more and more clearly.
The elephants were towering, making the beastmen look slightly shorter, but compared to humans, they were still incredibly tall. Each member of the beastmen was a little over two meters but less than three meters tall, making Du Lushui's slender figure look like a dwarf.
The burly man with the bull horns glanced suspiciously at Cheng Shuang and Du Lushui. Seeing that Brother Xiang didn't react to the two of them in any particular way, he seemed to be doubting their identities as well.
“Those few bastards were tough to deal with. They hid in the forest and wouldn’t come out until we had to use weapons to take them down.” He answered the elephant leader’s question first, then asked directly, “These two…” He thought for a moment but couldn’t find the right words to describe Cheng Shuang and Du Lushui, so he continued, “Are they also from our alliance?”
The elephant leader was puzzled, but seeing the horned giant staring at its feet, it instinctively took two steps back, lowered its trunk, and saw two figures of human height... "Human pets?"
The elephant leader's screams were deafening. Not only it, but the other elephants in the herd also became agitated and soon surrounded Cheng Shuang and Du Lushui.
Cheng Shuang nudged her Uncle Du's arm again and whispered, "Why don't we run away?"
Du Lushu's expression turned serious. "Little Q didn't mention the timeline for us to enter the Gate of Reincarnation after the Return Tickets are activated, did she?"
The girl was taken aback, then shook her head somewhat awkwardly, "We overlooked it; we didn't ask."
"It seems they don't mean any harm now, so we might as well follow them and find out what's going on." After all, elephants are herbivores, and unless you anger them, they are generally quite mild-mannered.
As soon as Du Lushui finished speaking, their questions were answered.
The burly man with the bull horns stared at Cheng Shuang in shock. "Didn't they say that human-pet animals have been extinct for a hundred years? This little human-pet is quite cute, but it looks so fragile and difficult to raise."
The elephants nodded in unison, "That's why they went extinct after the war."
When the word "century" appeared, Cheng Shuang and Du Lushu were instantly dumbfounded. Du Lushu came to her senses and quickly comforted the little girl, "Don't panic. It is said that the natives of the animal planet can live for more than three hundred years."
The little girl pouted pitifully, "Uncle Du, are you talking about turtles?"
It's not that I don't trust Du Lushui, but when she met Old Axe, Axe looked quite old, at least a young adult. A hundred years have passed, and war has raged. Will they ever meet again?
Perhaps because everyone regarded Du Lushui and Cheng Shuang as delicate creatures, the encirclement did not shrink further. Instead, many young elephants and beastmen who had never seen human pets before kept looking at them with curiosity, their gazes burning but without any malice.
Under the scrutiny of various gazes, Du Lushui couldn't help but ask, "Is the South Community still there? We have a familiar tiger there!"
Cheng Shuang also took out the pink fox's personal terminal and showed it to them. She had secretly clicked on the terminal screen before, but unfortunately, perhaps because a century had passed and the technology had been updated, the terminal did not respond at all.
"Wow, this human pet speaks in a soft voice, it's definitely not as sturdy as it looks!" One orc clicked his tongue and shook his head.
Du Lushui: ...
Du Lushui: "???"
Cheng Shuang patted Uncle Du, who was being criticized, reassuringly. There was nothing they could do; the other party spoke with a booming voice, and compared to that, their voices naturally sounded somewhat lacking in confidence.
The leader, however, immediately noticed the quantum computer in Cheng's hands and asked in surprise, "Little pet, where did you pick up this quantum computer? Quantum computers are obsolete. Even the manufacturers stopped production and business decades ago. The signal channels have been completely upgraded and reformed. The one you have is only good for playing with. Also, how did you know about the South Community? There are no communities anymore. This isn't a time of peace. This is an alliance. You didn't escape from some remote mountain forest, did you? I've never heard of any animals escaping with their pets back then."
Before Cheng Shuang and Du Lushui could react, the burly man with bull horns interjected, "Brother Xiang, let's go back to the base first! It's not safe in the wild after all."
The elephant leader agreed, "Alright, take them with you."
Then, with a flick of its trunk as thick as a tree stump, Cheng Shuang and Du Lushui sat on the elephant leader's head. The elephant leader, still worried, instructed, "Keep an eye on them. These two little guys aren't very heavy. I'm afraid I might accidentally drop them."
Du Lushu turned his head away because of the toothache. He was a man who was 1.9 meters tall and weighed over 100 pounds. But being described so lightly made him feel like a weakling.
Cheng Shuang didn't notice his slight awkwardness, because the leader's evasive answer distracted her.
The elephant leader did not curiously inquire which tiger they were referring to as a "familiar tiger." If it truly understood human pets, it would know that human pets are not only delicate and precious, but also timid and generally avoid carnivores and cold-blooded animals.
Holding the silent quantum computer, the little girl felt a vague unease, no longer experiencing the excitement and exhilaration she felt when returning to Animal Planet.
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