Seized by the System

The sea breeze of the polar night was cold and lonely.

Fang Ning stared at the sea, puzzled. The tide was getting stronger, and the moon was getting nearer, but the observatory did not give any early warnings. It was obviously not normal.

He subconsciously looked around him to pass the time while waiting for the Dragon Carp to return from investigating.

In the dark night, in the far distance to the west, under a mountain peak, he could vaguely make out obviously man-made markings on an ice wall, neatly stacked and layered like a great wall of ice.

Through the cracks on the ice wall, with his current super eyesight, Fang Ning could occasionally see several fat black and white objects moving around.

Curious, he looked closer, and realized that it was a huddle of fat penguins. However, he could not tell what species it was.

Fang Ning pondered and asked Old George, “Do you usually encounter penguins while working here?”

Old George was stunned. Although he did not understand what the Pharos of the East meant by that, he answered happily, “Yes, I often meet them while I work nearby. They’re just like my grandchildren. I love playing with them, I’ve even taught them many things.

“In fact, they were the ones who told me about the changes in the waves a few months ago. That was when I started to observe and record.”

Fang Ning nodded and said, “In other words, it was you who taught them how to build the ice wall below the mountain on the west?”

Old George turned to look and cried out in astonishment, “Mister, your eyesight really is amazing. That’s an emperor penguin tribe. They’re seven kilometers away from us, I can’t see them from here at all.

“Indeed, I taught them how to build that ice wall. They’re a bunch of idiots, they don’t have hands. I initially wanted to teach them how to make Inuit igloos.

“However, even after months of tinkering, they only learned how to cut ice bricks out of the ice using their beaks which became strong and sharp after mutation. They managed to build ice walls, but they can never build an elaborate igloo. It seems that it’ll take a few years for them to master such a complex building technique.

“However, this is also a hundred times better than when they could only rely on their own bodies to break the wind. This should save them from a lot of fat consumption. I believe that this winter, the male penguins that are hatching eggs will be able to have a comfortable winter for the first time.”

Fang Ning marveled at his words. If animals gained sapience, many big problems for survival would be easily solved by learning just a little from human beings.

He had seen some documentaries. One of the major difficulties for Antarctic penguins was that the harsh and cold climate greatly reduced the survival rate of chicks.

Fortunately, this cold also prevented the most ferocious predators from appearing, and only a few natural enemies existed. There were both advantages and disadvantages.

Fang Ning nodded and said, “It looks like we’ll have to go ask the locals to find more clues.”

The truth was that he was getting too bored, and just wanted to find something new to see.

After all, this was the south pole. There was no wireless signal here, so he could not surf the net…

He ordered the Black Dog to stand guard there and wait for the Dragon Carp to return.

Afterward, he took Old George as well as Robert. They rode on the flying sword and arrived at the ice wall in an instant.

Looking at it from above, Fang Ning was even more amazed. He felt like this trip had been worthwhile, and that he had greatly broadened his knowledge.

It turned out that the ice wall was stacked on top of each other. There were a total of three layers inside and outside, and each layer was higher than the other. Since it was at the foot of a mountain, it looked like city walls. The large area was firmly and tightly enclosed.

There were only two openings. One seemed to be the entrance, while the other was the exit.

Inside the ice-made walls, there were many fat penguins packed together.

They were not doing anything. They just stood there and occasionally cried at each other.

It was just as Old George said. The howls of the wind became much softer inside the ice walls.

This large waddle of emperor penguins grew to around one meter in height. They were all plump and fat, all streamline, and black and white in color.

When they saw the three men appear, they did not panic and just stood where they were. Instead, they started twittering and calling. No one knew what they were talking about.

After a while, the tallest and fattest penguin forcefully squeezed out of the waddle.

It went towards a vacant space and raised its head to look at the three people. Then, it said towards Old George, “Oh, it’s our dear Old George. Are you here to teach us something again?”

What surprised Fang Ning was the fact that this penguin could actually speak English. However, its accent was very strange.

Oh, right, maybe Old George was too old and could not learn Mandarin, unlike Robert. The three of them had been conversing in English.

Old George introduced Vigilante A to the fat penguin and said that he would like to ask it some questions.

Hearing this, the fat penguin shook its body and turned its eyes, and said, “Oh, you want to ask about the waves getting bigger? I can tell you about that, but this time, you need to teach us a cultivation ability. I know you humans have lots of those.”

Old George was speechless, “Hey, Mike, you weren’t this greedy before. I’ve already taught you how to build a house. After you learn it, you can use it to avoid the gulls, the wretched cold wind, and even your old fur seal adversaries.

“You shouldn’t push your luck like this. After all, what I want to ask is of no value to you. It’s just a passing mention.”

Old George was no fool. He was a scientific researcher with a high IQ. He naturally knew how long it would take to develop a cultivation ability that would be suitable for penguins…

However, the crisis was imminent. Where would they find that sort of time?

The penguin leader Mike shook its head, “It might not be of any value to us, but it’s very important to you. I often see you run towards the sea, braving the dark nights and cold winds. Is it because if the waves continue getting bigger, the houses that you build by the sea will be flooded?”

Old George sighed helplessly and turned towards Vigilante A.

Vigilante A said, “You’re only a bird. Why would you want to learn the cultivation methods of humans? What will you do with it?”

The penguin leader Mike turned towards the east with a fierce look in its eyes, “I want to kill all those damn fur seals in the east…”

At this time, another fat penguin interrupted in, “Those fur seals ate Chief Mike’s first wife. Ever since Chief gained sapience, he remembered this matter and always wanted to get revenge, but he couldn’t beat them.”

The penguin chief Mike heard this and suddenly cried loudly. Its voice was full of pain and hatred.

Fang Ning shuddered, but not because of the cold. A biological community without sapience could have the mentality of revenge, but it was impossible to have such a strong sense of purpose and planning.

Judging from the simple conversation with this penguin leader, he knew that it had already developed complete thinking abilities and self-awareness, which caused a new pressure to appear from the bottom of his heart.

Was the world big? It was, extremely so.

However, to a species with strong fecundity, it was very small.

In a place that humans obviously did not pay close attention to, now, two different species were going to have a bloody conflict to decide on the winner…

For predators like fur seals and earless seals, penguins were a large part of their recipes.

Before, penguins did not have self-awareness and did know how to escape. All they did was wait to be eaten, and wait until the meat eaters had their fill.

Now, it was different. They were the same as humans. They wanted to take the initiative to destroy their natural enemies.

Sir System suddenly said, “How dare those fur seals commit such an atrocity? They deserve to be killed! I have a cultivation ability suitable for penguins here. We can teach them the Crane from the Five Animal Frolics.” ¹

Fang Ning was speechless, “Sir System, please don’t apply our human morality to animals. The hunting behavior between their species is a law of nature.

“On the contrary, if this penguin were to learn human abilities, it would definitely first kill all those fur seals, then the earless seals, then the walruses, and finally dominate the antarctic biosphere. They’ll breed like crazy and cause ecological chaos.”

Fang Ning knew very well that humans already had a long experience of ruling the earth, and understood the importance of maintaining ecological balance and protecting the natural environment.

Although not enough had been done, this conception had become an unshakable consensus.

However, these new intelligence race might still be dreaming about excluding dissidents and dominating the earth.

In the modern human era, there was no intention of protecting wild animals. They ate what they saw, and destroyed what they ate.

Who knew how many species would have to be exterminated until they learned a lesson paid in blood and changed their ways.

If even an emperor penguin, an animal that was such a cute thing in the eyes of humans, could have such a strong killing intent, nevermind the more aggressive species.

When they got stronger, they would surely slaughter all other hostile species and turn the earth upside down.

How could Fang Ning not feel the new pressure?

Hearing this, the System said honestly, “I don’t get it… So what do we do?”

Currently, Fang Ning had no idea either.

After a while, the penguin chief Mike seemed to become impatient and urged, “Will you teach me or not? The waves are getting bigger every day.

“As for why the waves are becoming bigger, we don’t know either. However, we know specifically when it started becoming bigger. We haven’t told this bit to Old George yet.”

Old George touched his head and said helplessly, “Mike, you’ve only learned our language half a year ago, but you’ve become more cunning than humans. You even know how to hide the most important information. I taught you how to build a house out of the kindness of my heart, but you actually lied to me.”

Mike said in amusement, “We learned all these from you humans. You used fake penguins to pretend to be our kind, you lied to us, and collected information about our changes. Did you think I wouldn’t know?”

Before it finished speaking, a tall figure covered its line of sight.

Robert grabbed the smug emperor penguin by its beak and said coldly, “You smart alec, ungrateful fool! You only have two options now. One, is to immediately confess, or two, I’ll send you off to see your first wife again.”

“Let go, let go, we need peace,” the emperor penguin hurriedly shouted, and panicked, “I’ll talk, I’ll talk. The waves started getting larger since this time last year. No, no, maybe delay it for a month or two. Ah, it was just after that star fell from the sky. We realized that the waves during high tide were slowly becoming bigger then.”

Hearing this, Fang Ning felt a shock. A flash of lightning flashed through his mind.

“Who has such a great ability to push the moon against the laws of nature?”

Detective Fang Ning suddenly recalled that Robert said this. He had a vague inkling.

He said immediately, “Let it go. I know what’s causing this. Let’s go.”

Robert instantly let go. Old George glared viciously at Mike who hid within the penguins, and hurried after them.

“I’m really sorry. I didn’t expect that even a penguin would be so cunning.” Old George explained.

“Haha, they’ve only just learned how to speak. They haven’t learned moral concepts like kindness and gratitude yet, so only the most primitive means will be effective.” Robert acted as if he just did something trivial, and had no intention of taking credit.

Fang Ning secretly agreed. Professional work should be done by professional people. Something that he found difficult to do, others might find it to be very easy.

This Robert was a former SBI agent. For him, getting a confession was just something from a fundamentals course.