As soon as he knelt, the other creepers followed suit. The hall was filled with the sound of people kneeling down, and soon everyone was prostrating themselves.
What kind of weird and outrageous relationship is this...
Hitzfeld twitched the corner of his mouth and said helplessly: "Actually, you don't have to do this, really."
She knew that the other party couldn't understand what she said, but it didn't matter, she was saying it to herself.
However, she was frightened by the big guy's reaction. He immediately jumped up from the ground and muttered to her in a babble, using rich body language to let her understand what he meant, "You can't do this."
What the hell...I can't speak human language?
Hitzfeld opened his mouth and pretended to move his lips, then pointed his finger at his mouth and gave the big guy a questioning look.
The big guy nodded repeatedly, and stretched out two slender fingers with sharp claws in the air to make an "X".
Then, fearing that the girl didn't understand, he simply made a bigger X with his two arms, then evolved to pulling out two knives and overlapping them on the ground, pointing at the X and then at the girl's mouth, and gestured for a while, shaking his head desperately.
What a mess! Why do I feel like they are afraid of me speaking human language?
Hitzfeld understood the meaning, but she was a little confused.
She noticed that when she spoke Sarai just now, not only did the big guy react violently, but the other crawlers who were prostrating themselves also behaved abnormally.
They were probably trembling? It seemed like several of them were covering their ears?
It’s interesting that these two ethnic groups regard each other as mortal enemies and think that each other’s language is difficult to understand... These guys really have a good self-image and have no awareness of being "degenerates" at all.
Yes, Degenerate - Hitzfeld thought the name was very descriptive.
The fact that the creepers had their own civilization, their own customs, and their own language was not unexpected to her.
It would be abnormal if there weren't any, because they were originally human beings. They fell and degenerated from humans into this state at the cost of giving up more advanced civilization and part of their wisdom. It is not an exaggeration to call them degeneration.
But they don't seem to think so. Judging from their acceptance of a series of behaviors here, they have an extraordinary sense of identification with their own identity, or to put it more directly... it is pride.
Hitzfeld opened his mouth, then the words stuck.
She is accustomed to expressing her ideas with words. Even if she encounters someone with whom she cannot communicate in the same language, at least she will say something to let the other person know that she is not being perfunctory - this is a habit that everyone has.
Now even the most basic way of expression is gone, and she can't speak the other party's language. Does that mean both sides will have to communicate using gestures from now on?
Oh... Actually, it's far from that...
She remembered something, and she gestured to the big guy, indicating that she also had a small notebook and a pen among the things she carried with her.
The Creepers didn't quite understand what she meant, and it took her ten minutes to make them understand that she wanted her things back - all of them - before they brought her the book.
And a pen~
After getting the notebook, she saw the big guy walking towards her with her pen, and Hitzfeld stretched out his hand to him with a smile.
The big fool pulled out the pen, looked at it, and broke it in front of her.
“…” The girl froze, and the smile on her face gradually disappeared.
Watching the big guy continue to gesture to her, pointing at the dead body of the pen and then at his own scimitar, and again making a "no" gesture to her, Hitzfeld finally understood - they regarded the pen as a weapon like a dagger!
They do look alike, don’t they? They’re both pointy… They even come with a matching sheath…
What the hell? Are these guys idiots?
Hitzfeld was shaking with anger. This was the first time something made her so helpless.
The big guy saw that she was angry, and he was very happy. He stomped hard on the dead pen a few times and danced in front of her.
Hitzfeld took three deep breaths and finally calmed himself down.
She squatted down and picked up the remains of the pen from the ground.
The big fool and the other creepers looked at her curiously, as if they didn't understand why she was here with the useless weapons.
The pen is broken, but there is still ink in it.
Hitzfeld opened the notebook and used his finger to scrape some of the spilled ink, first drawing a large spider and then a ball of fire underneath.
Then, on the right, he used simple strokes to vividly depict Xia Yibing's big head, added a layer of iron fence to her, and connected the two sides with an arrow pointing to the right.
Seeing this, the crawlers finally showed signs of enlightenment. Some clapped their hands, some touched their heads, and some howled excitedly. The chaotic and teeth-grinding noises made Hitzfeld grit his teeth.
At this point in the communication, her first goal has been achieved.
The original roasted spider legs will be delivered to the companions soon. Xia will like them. The taste is no worse than lobster.
Then it’s time to collect language syllables and travel the city.
Hitzfeld continued, using painting as a link for communication, conveying his intention of "wanting to get out of town more often."
The big fool shook his head quickly.
The other crawlers also shook their heads, accompanied by rich language and gestures, as if what she did was a huge taboo.
No way, right?
Hitzfeld sneered in his heart and drew a circle, confining his activity range within the city.
If you want to open the window, you have to lift the roof first.
This operation always works well.
A group of degenerate apes... do you really think you can restrain me?
As expected, the crawlers were a little confused this time.
They pointed at the area she drew with their fingers several times, and finally made an agreement with her - they could not leave the city, the scope of the parade would be narrowed down, they could not go to the back of the city, and they had to accompany her throughout the trip.
Hitzfeld accepted it completely.
And then comes the most important thing.
She took a breath, carefully drew her own big head on the notebook, and then drew a ferocious monster head next to it.
There were dialogue bubbles floating above each of their heads, and she crossed out the contents of the bubbles to indicate that they did not speak the same language.
When the stroke reaches the empty space, continue in the same way.
But this time, the language spoken by both sides - and the symbols she used to represent the language - began to be half the same.
The symbols in the dialogue in the third picture are all the same. She uses this change to express her desire to learn.
I guess these people won't let me learn...
Hitzfeld was a little nervous, and she didn't dare to look up at their faces.
Worst case scenario, they believed that the language could not be learned and could only be imparted by converting her to one of her own kind.
That would be the end of her, she might be forced to undergo the transformation ritual ahead of time, which would be really bad for her.
But what she didn't expect was that there was a cheer around her.
It was cheering - she didn't use the wrong word. The way these strange things were dancing and shouting, she could tell... the joy contained in those movements.
They seem very happy...
why?
Just because I showed an inclination to learn a language?
Watching the big fool picking up two swords from the ground and slashing excitedly at the air, howling as he slashed, Hitzfeld was really helpless.
A bunch of fools...
She suddenly didn't want to study anymore...
Chapter 66: Correcting Cognition
No matter how helpless Hitzfeld felt about these degenerates, they were at least trustworthy.
Just don't make such a big fuss...
Sitting in a vehicle that was a combination of a sedan chair, a carriage, and a stretcher, Hitzfeld was carried forward by these guys while looking around the street speechlessly, at the ugly faces that had gathered to see her.
The abandoned buildings in this city have long been filled with people, and judging from the breath of life, this situation has been going on for a long time.
This was not a good thing - they had previously guessed that this tribe of creepers might have five thousand enemies at most, but now it seemed that there were far more than that.
The ruins of the ancient city were extremely vast. Standing on the high steps and looking down, one could not see the end for a moment. Hitzfeld kept calculating the exact number of people based on the ones he saw, and estimated that the number was rushing to 50,000 at a very fast rate.
This is not the limit. If all the buildings in the ancient city ruins are full, she thinks their number is at least 100,000, and even 200,000 is not impossible.
The only good news is that not all creepers are fighters.
From what she could see, these weirdos still retained some of the qualities of social animals. Like humans, they divided up tasks and assigned the most suitable people to each job.
Only the tallest creepers are qualified to become warriors. This can be observed from the guards around her. None of them is less than meters tall.
The particularly tall 'big fool' is more than two meters tall.
Non-fighter creepers are much shorter, most hovering around 160 cm. These people are the civilian class in creeper society.
Hitzfeld couldn't really tell them apart based on their terrifying looks; he could only guess at their roles based on the buildings they came out of, the tools they held, and the clothes they wore.
Those wearing floor-length cloaks that cover their legs and feet are probably female creepers. Those with more exposed limbs are mostly male.
Some of them were holding curled up children, some were holding hammers and saws, and some were squatting in the dirty corners fiddling with sewage. But when they saw her being carried over, they all put down their work, crowded to the front and stared at her.
This felt bad. Hitzfeld felt like he had become some kind of rare species that was being watched by everyone.
Especially since they didn't shy away from arguing loudly when she passed by. And based on Hitzfeld's understanding of the 'pride' of this ethnic group, there was a high probability that they thought she was ugly.
Maybe these ugly people would think... well, human teeth are actually covered with flesh, humans have protruding noses and ears, and there are so many disgusting hairs on their heads...
Thinking of this, she couldn't help but laugh at herself.
It is really interesting to understand ourselves from another species' perspective.
It would be better if they didn't want to convert her.
Because of the crowds of people watching, the efficiency of Hitzfeld's tour was quite low, and in an hour he had not explored even one-third of the ancient city.
But she was roughly sure that this was the Sos Fortress because she saw more inner city fortresses and the shooting holes deliberately left on the low walls.
Only by mastering the weapons and tools of modern warfare and being familiar with the combat concepts of modern warfare can such a fortress city be built. The Creeper Tribe does not meet any of these requirements, and the construction of this city has nothing to do with them.
It is very likely that they discovered this place by accident a long time ago and then moved their residence here.
The collapsed city walls were repaired by them over a hundred years. They lived and worked here in peace and contentment, and the city gradually developed into what it is today.
Thinking of this, Hitzfeld remembered what she saw outside at the beginning: these guys seemed to be setting up a camp outside the city wall.
Combined with some female crawlers she saw on the road, and those that were too small and were obviously the young of this tribe, she suddenly realized - it turns out that they can really reproduce normally?
If they want to expand their tribe, the most stable way must be reproduction. Only when they expand to a certain extent, so that the ruins of the ancient city can no longer accommodate them, will they open up their territory and try to extend beyond the city.
Hitzfeld had mixed feelings.
She is not the kind of person who likes to be "superior". Like many people who are too proud of being human, they are not obvious to their own kind but are fully exposed when facing other species in nature, and may even become cold-blooded and cruel - she does not have such abnormal tendencies.
But she couldn't help it - especially since all the books and documents she had read told her that the things in front of her were "lower creatures" - she still had a little contempt for them, and underlying feeling that they were not worth it.
These ugly-looking, miserable monsters would definitely still be human beings if they or their ancestors had not chosen to degenerate.
They can live in a more advanced society and enjoy the fruits of better civilization. Although they will inevitably live in fear in the eternal night, at least they are free, and their souls and bodies will not be polluted as they are now.
…She has always thought so. And this idea is largely based on the "incompleteness" of this ethnic group, that is, many records do not mention that the creepers have the ability to reproduce autonomously.
She also asked some people, some Flintstone Knights, some soldiers, and most of the answers she got were "Those beasts can't have children, they can only bewitch fools to fill their brood."
This is a very obvious chain of contempt or ecological chain: only the inferior and eliminated in the human race will become one of the crawlers.
It is a transformation, a degeneration. The establishment of this relationship means that they directly put themselves in the position of higher organisms, while the creepers are not even recognized as a real species and have always been regarded as a subspecies of humans.
So the name Plain Parish has always referred to these things as "them".
Saying that it is retaining compassion for former companions is actually another form of arrogance.
But what she saw now overturned it.
These things can reproduce on their own. Not only that, they also have complete and sound social relationships.
If there is no human interference and they are allowed to continue to develop for a long time, Hitzfeld is really not sure whether they will gradually return to the old path of civilization, or simply find a new direction and give birth to a brilliant civilization again.
The reason they still look so primitive now is simply because they have not yet found the opportunity to take off.
Then why should I have any sympathy or pity for them?
Hitzfeld's clenched fists gradually tightened, and he became more and more determined in making certain decisions.
