Next to a certain reef on the sea, there is a sea pavilion made of many coconut leaves. It is the temporary palace of the Octopus Empire. At this time, a kingdom meeting is being held here.
Twelve Claws was silent for a while after listening to the replies and suggestions from the two scout octopuses.
"Your Majesty, I agree, the humans here are so stupid, it's time for us to lead the world!" A minister, Octopus, said excitedly, waving his eight claws.
The other octopuses also talked about each other, and for a while, the crowd was excited under the pergola.
"If we want to rule humans, we must solve the problem of breathing ashore." Some octopus ministers have already begun to plan the next step. "This world seems to be a low-demon world. Many octopuses have lost the ability to breathe ashore. We need to change our genes." , to evolve shore breathing organs.”
"Quiet, quiet," Twelve Claws waved its thick arms and legs, "What did I tell you before? What is the 12-word motto of our Octopus Empire?"
The octopuses calmed down, and an old octopus tried to test: "Tell the truth, be honest, and do honest things?"
"Yes, the elder gave a good answer. Even if the world is different, we cannot deviate from this policy. Does what you are saying now conform to this twelve-word motto?" Twelve Claws said seriously.
At this time, the two scout octopuses, Octopus Armor, quickly defended themselves.
"Your Majesty, we are telling the truth. The humans we met are stupid and stupid, and do not even have basic scientific literacy."
"Oh, according to the teachings of Teacher Tianshu, you have made the mistake of generalizing. You have not seen a sufficient number of human beings. You have only seen a few fishermen in a remote place, and you use this to define the entire human race. That is obviously wrong. And do you know our current situation?" Twelve Claws said calmly.
"I don't know." The eight claws of the octopus armor were already drooped, and they answered weakly.
"Now we have just solved the problem of survival and built large fishing grounds, but we have lost the mysterious power of the past. We are just a group of octopuses with ordinary power. We can deal with those large sea beasts, but we want to launch a conquest action against the humans on the shore. , It’s simply impossible. How many octopuses can come ashore for a long time now? Not one in a thousand." Twelve Claws laid out this information.
The octopus minister who just made the first suggestion that "octopuses develop lungs" took the opportunity to say: "What does your Majesty mean, as long as we solve these problems, we can launch a conquest of mankind?"
Twelve Claws was silent. It finally discovered that it could not fully control its own kingdom. At this time, it missed Teacher Tianshu very much. The other party would definitely be able to give it an answer.
"Why do you have to conquer humans?" It decided to understand the thoughts of these subjects first.
"After conquering humans, we won't have to spend money to buy jars in the future..." an octopus said matter-of-factly.
"But humans will resist, and they will choose non-violence and non-cooperation." Twelve Claws retorted.
"Then give them violence." The octopus said plausibly.
"..." Twelve Claws said with a headache. It was originally just an octopus that wanted to stay quietly. It was really out of control when it was involved in such a topic. "Humans occupy the land and we occupy the sea. It seems that everyone can live in peace."
"My King, you are too honest," a powerful octopus shook his head and said, "Once humans develop, they will pollute the sea just like the people on Earth, leaving us with nowhere to live, and future generations will have to eat fish full of plastic... Therefore Even if we don't compete with them for land, we will be unlucky sooner or later. Instead of doing this, it is better to strike first. The sages of mankind have said that those who strike first will control others, and those who strike last will control others."
"That's right. Your Majesty, you can't give up this great opportunity just because of our previous friendship."
"Yes, people on earth are people on earth, and this world is this world. This opportunity cannot be missed, and it will never come back."
Everyone was talking, and Twelve Claws was confused. It was the first time that it discovered that all of its people were so ambitious? Don’t they like to dig into jars the most
"Since you want a jar that costs nothing, why don't you make it yourself? We have 8 hands and can make it faster and better." Twelve Claws persuaded.
"Okay, we can make the jars ourselves, but we absolutely cannot trust humans. They will endanger us sooner or later."
"That's not the case. I remember that there are many good people among humans." Twelve Claws insisted.
"My King, you will be slapped in the face soon." An old octopus shook his head.
Obviously losing his extraordinary power, the authority of the twelve-clawed king has declined a lot. In the past, there were not so many voices who dared to question it face to face.
In the past, the Twelve Claws could not be beaten but could still run away. Now, if there are about a hundred of them, I will catch it.
At this moment, three octopuses swam all the way to the sea pavilion.
"I'm sorry, my king. The batch of big pearls we just collected with so much hard work were cheated by humans!" The three octopuses cried out bitterly.
"What exactly is going on? Please tell me carefully?" Twelve Claws asked.
"That's it..." one of the octopuses started to say.
The story is simple. In order to buy wood for shipbuilding and rope for fishing grounds, they made an agreement with a group of fishermen to pay the bill with pearls.
However, these fishermen said that they were very poor and could not afford to buy wood, so they had to get a deposit before ordering the goods.
So these young octopuses, who had been nurtured by the Twelve Claws to become honest people, believed them when they heard what they said sincerely...
Finally, they waited and waited. A month passed by the delivery date and no one came.
It wasn't until I met another group of fishermen and heard their envious comments that I realized that the group of fishermen who took their pearls had already taken their pearls to the big city to enjoy themselves, and had not even gone around to collect goods for them.
In fact, humans in the 21st century are still often fooled by this seemingly simple scam, let alone them.
So it's no wonder these octopuses are stupid.
"Sure enough, these damn humans are a bunch of liars at heart. They are not like us at all, who are smart and honest. God damn humans..." an octopus said indignantly.
Twelve Claws looked at this guy with contempt. How honest is an octopus? There aren't many at all, it was just one.
It said seriously: "Don't generalize. There are bad guys among humans, and there are bad guys among octopuses. We have to identify those with high credibility. Teacher Tianshu said that this is how trade is, develop 10 trade partners, and then select from them. 1-2 people who can stick to their credibility, long-term cooperation, and slowly develop trust. This is the first time of cooperation, it is normal for this to happen. The next transaction will be divided into small batches, and only one pearl will be given each time, so that the loss will be small."
When the three octopuses heard this, they said: "Yes, what the king said is that this time we were lazy and gave them a lot of deposits. Next time we will not do it. We will trade with those humans separately."
"Your Majesty, you need to make an idea. What should we do now?" an octopus minister urged.
"Well, we still have to focus on self-development, conduct moderate exchanges and trade with humans, and at the same time look for land in other places to develop, rather than rashly launching a war of conquest." Twelve Claws made a decision.
"Your Majesty is wise." A group of octopuses looked at each other and felt that this decision was not wrong for the time being.
After all, if the problem of going ashore is not solved, they will be like the navy, unable to occupy land and can only control sea power.
After the kingdom meeting ended, the octopus ministers left in twos and threes.
One of the red octopuses and the blue octopus walked together. Octopuses are very capable of mimicry, and no one knows what their original color is.
After they were far away from the sea shelter, the two octopuses began to discuss.
"Our king is no longer adapted to this world, we need to change to a new king." Red Octopus took the lead.
"Yes, it has lost its previous strength and lacks a proactive attitude, which is not conducive to the development of our octopus family." The blue octopus said, swinging one of its arms.
"It is still very useful for the time being. After all, it is still very powerful. Let it occupy the position of the king first. After this early stage of development, we will replace it." Red Octopus continued.
"Well, it didn't originally come from the big octopus tribe, it was just a wandering octopus. It used to be powerful on the earth and it could speak. The world is different now. It relies on brains and ferocity. It must be replaced by a cunning and ferocious octopus. King, this can make our octopus family the ruler of the world." Blue Octopus suggested.
"That's right, let's split up and contact the octopus leader of the previous tribe. I remember there is a guy who is quite suitable." Red Octopus agreed.
A coup conspiracy in the Octopus Kingdom began to brew.