Chapter 419: The Wolves Who Bargain

On Blue Star, humans and wolves are both peak predators.

Even after evolving, human senses like smell, sight, hearing, speed, jumping, and even danger instinct are generally weaker than those of wolves.

By the tenth year of the Cataclysms, the only reason humans could still survive on this wild planet, building one base after another, was the greater evolution of the human brain compared to wolves.

Humanity’s superior brain evolution is an edge painstakingly gained over millions of years, and it’s the one reason people have stood at the top of Blue Star’s food chain for thousands of years.

Our intelligent minds can imagine, invent and craft tools of all kinds, raising the odds of humanity’s survival and growth.

Now, though, there are a handful of brain-evolved wolves among the pack. In Xia Qing’s eyes, their intellect far surpassed what human experts once thought—it’s well beyond the intelligence of a seven- or eight-year-old child.

Take this brain-evolved wolf in front of her—always scheming. It already understands the value of tools, and has started trading with humans to raise the wolf pack’s fighting strength.

Like when Xia Qing helped Old Goat and the injured wolves into protective suits, and Lame Wolf realized their usefulness, it immediately offered to trade.

Granted, the swaps for protective suits and later for the medicinal bath happened only because Xia Qing first ‘pitched’ them—she was the one who showed Lame Wolf their value.

But this time, when Lame Wolf traded for a door, it was because it discovered the door’s usefulness on its own and asked for the deal.

That’s not even the scary part.

After all, ‘doors’ are just sitting out in the open among human goods. Lame Wolf noticing and trading for one—or lining a cave with straw—didn’t really surprise Xia Qing.

But when the wolf wanted to trade for snake skin armor, that truly sent a chill down Xia Qing’s spine.

She’d never explained the uses of snake skin armor to the wolves. She’d never even let them see her snake skin armor—it was always worn under her protective suit!

Somehow, this brain-evolved wolf had figured out she was wearing snake skin armor and what it did. Taking the initiative, it caught a python with better quality skin and offered Xia Qing her favorite Yi Stone in exchange for gear the pack could use.

If things keep going like this, the wolves will only get stronger. If one day they decide they’ve surpassed humans, then humanity, in their eyes, will be no different from the wild boars in the valley.

Just like before the evolution of Blue Star, when people saw wild boars and wolves as pretty much the same.

If that day comes…

Xia Qing slipped off her protective mask and night vision goggles, took a deep breath, and looked anew at the scarily clever brain-evolved wolf—and at the wolf pack itself.

Lame Wolf sensed something was off with Xia Qing and watched her, thoughtful.

With nuclear pollution, cosmic radiation storms, and the dual elements of devastation and nurturing at play, the great evolution of life on Blue Star was still underway—its future impossible to predict. Like it or not, humanity could no longer stand totally above other species. That was already an unchangeable fact.

A new food chain is taking shape, all its creatures holding each other in check. At the top of Blue Star’s new hierarchy, beasts are forming alliances and symbiotic relationships, facing the madness of this world together.

Like up near the north waters of Hill Sixty, the pythons and Devastation Snakes have paired up, while bears and pythons are allies, and the wolf pack stands opposed to the bear-snake alliance.

In the tropics, the web of symbiosis and allegiances is even more tangled than the one near Xia Qing’s home. There, humans fighting alone against nature are losing ground.

And in the most polluted seas, things are impossibly complex. Highly evolved dolphins and whales have formed alliances with hundreds of species, and their battles—driven by reasons humans can’t even fathom—can get titanic.

…

Humans can’t just exist outside Blue Star’s food chain.

To be precise, humanity could wipe out any link in the food web, which has achieved a rough balance after ten years of natural selection. But that might break the whole chain, trigger a reshuffling of evolved creatures, and leave things worse than before.

Right now, humanity can’t afford the fallout from that.

If we want to survive, we have to find ways to get the upper hand within the food chain that exists.

That’s why the top leaders in Huaguo had the foresight to push for ‘coexistence’. Humans must learn to live alongside the fierce beasts of the Evolved Forest and are forbidden from starting fights that could spark wars between species.

Years ago, when Xia Qing was still doing grunt work at the base, she heard a Red One Base reporter interview a senior government leader on a radio show about how to understand ‘coexistence’ between humanity and the beasts.

“Coexistence is surviving together,” the leader answered. “At its core, it means we don’t pick fights or hunt. The evolved form is ‘coopetition’. We cooperate in competition, compete while cooperating, facing the Cataclysms and growing together.”

He also made it clear: in this cooperative rivalry, humans must stay on top. Only that way can we secure our own fate.

Back then, Xia Qing couldn’t imagine what this ‘coopetition’ with beasts would look like. Seeing this wolf pack now, it’s finally starting to make sense.

In the region she can see—the slice of Evolved Forest surrounding the northern sector of Hui Three Base—the only ones who could really have a cooperative rivalry with her, at least for now, are the wolves in front of her.

The wolf pack needs her help to raise their strength. She needs their Yi Stones to grow food and vegetables.

Noticing Xia Qing’s changing mood again, Lame Wolf’s tense muscles loosened just a bit, while Alpha yawned and shut its eyes to rest.

Alpha had been the main fighter last night and was beyond exhausted. Now that he sensed the human in front held no threat, he seized the chance for some much-needed sleep.

With Alpha lying down, goofy Lame Wolf shoved his little sister aside and darted off to play. Lame Wolf’s sister bared her teeth at Lame Wolf, howling out insults that sounded pretty nasty.

Er Gou and Black Wolf stayed dutifully on either side of Alpha, guarding him. Still, each had their own target—Er Gou kept an eye on the huge wild boar just out of Valley One, while Black Wolf glared at the human up ahead.

Xia Qing slid her sniper rifle off her back and gripped it tight.

She and the wolves could cooperate as rivals, but she had to stay in control—not the pack.

So she had to make it clear where the power lay.

Lame Wolf watched Xia Qing’s rifle thoughtfully. Alpha peeked at the weapon, then shut his eyes. Black Wolf bared its fangs at her, while Lame Wolf darted after the boar, and his sister kept howling.

Er Gou started drooling as he stared at a half-grown wild boar.