Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics Chapter 6194: The Soul of the Machine Utopia (62)

Chapter 6194: Chapter 5205: The Soul of the Machine Utopia (62)

The method for thawing the ice coffin was unbelievably primitive, simply digging a pit and making a fire to smolder it. However, to prevent roasting the alien inside, Dexter needed to check it regularly. While waiting, they just held onto their cat, sitting there gazing across the snowfield.

At times like this, people always enjoyed talking to themselves. They didn’t expect the small animal to understand, but expressing their thoughts would make them feel much better. Yet, Dexter remained silent, resembling a bottle of wine undergoing an important transformation stage, where all changes happened quietly and without sound.

He must be pondering numerous thoughts, such as whether the alien would awaken, and if it did, whether it would attack him. If it didn’t attack, what would they say to each other, and what significant meaning would this first contact between the human race and aliens hold. Yet, he seemed as though he wasn’t thinking at all.

The Arctic is just such a place, where, when you stand at one end of Earth, chaotic thoughts become very small and gradually vanish. In such an environment, a person is re-nurtured by nature, experiencing a complete emptiness akin to a baby lying in its mother’s amniotic fluid.

Dexter checked several times until the sky darkened. However, now they were completely experiencing polar day, so night wasn’t as dark, and the magnificent auroras in the sky made everything appear dreamlike.

The ice layer had completely melted, and the body lying in the pit felt closer and more real. Every detail proclaimed that this was not some man-made odd suit or a suddenly mutated monster, but another intelligent life form emerged from millions of years of evolution in another natural environment, conforming to the logic of evolution.

Dexter looked as if he was admiring, yet simultaneously analyzing, placing a blanket beneath the alien’s body and dragging it into the tent. He was confident the other would wake up shortly, and he also took out a notebook, prepared to document whatever the alien might say.

Dexter never anticipated smooth communication right away. After all, when these aliens came to Earth, there might not have even been humans, so it’s impossible for them to understand human language. Though basic communication could be achieved through drawing and sketching, given the alien’s lengthy slumber, its sensory condition was uncertain. Hence, he could only record its behavior and sounds to decipher later on.

Of course, he also prepared a gun, but even without one, this alien wouldn’t walk out freely. His analysis previously concluded that this race completely couldn’t withstand the cold. Even human warming gear couldn’t allow them to move in the Arctic.

This was why Dexter wasn’t worried about the alien killing him and then walking into human society, because they simply couldn’t get out. Without a heat source, they’d soon be frozen again.

Suddenly, beneath that barrel-like swollen body, the starfish-like legs twitched slightly. Dexter carefully observed the alien’s condition, and placed a hot water bottle beside it. This method was rather primitive but effective. Soon, the head shaped like a pentagram started moving, though the eyes at the tip of the pentagram remained closed.

Shiller was bolder; he jumped onto the Ancient One’s chest, then walked up to its neck, attempting to warm the Ancient One with his body heat. After a while, the bat wings behind the barrel-like torso flapped, and it opened the first eye, coincidentally locking eyes with Shiller.

Shiller hadn’t moved, but the Ancient One clearly got startled. The wings flapped, performing a startling sit-up like from a dying illness, unwittingly tossing Shiller aside.

Shiller smacked his lips; considering the Ancient One’s appearance, what might seem like a cute cat to humans probably appeared terrifying to them. It’s like a human waking up to find an octopus perched on their head; they’d likely be scared too.

The Ancient One was evidently bewildered, its pentagram-like head rotating constantly, with eyes opening and closing in turns as if verifying whether it truly awakened or was an illusion. Then, the tentacles below its barrel-like body began to stretch, resembling a lazy stretch.

This enormous alien life form, although appearing entirely different from humans, and with a terrifyingly ugly appearance according to human aesthetics, might share a commonality with intelligent life forms. They possess behavior patterns humans can comprehend, making their initially frightening exterior less impactful upon waking, even peculiarly cute.

Suddenly, the Ancient One seemed to be hit by something again, laying back down as if lying on the ground questioning life. Shiller attempted to move forward, but Dexter stopped him; obviously, the other did not favor cats quite like humans did. Getting closer and scaring it again would be troublesome.

It appeared that the Ancient One suddenly realized there was another living being in the tent. He slowly turned his head, freezing momentarily upon seeing Dexter, but not reacting as dramatically as seeing Shiller. Particularly, Dexter’s skin was black, akin to the Ancient One’s color, and although the basic structures differed, the Ancient One seemed to see that this was an intelligent being, not a wild animal acting solely on instinct.

A sudden vibration emitted from the barrel-like body, making Shiller and Dexter immediately realize he might be clearing his throat. Indeed, rhythmic buzzing emanated from inside, evidently he was speaking.

Dexter also opened his mouth, saying a sentence: “Hello. Though I don’t understand what you’re saying, I think you might be asking if I rescued you.”

The other said something again, this time more extended. Although still incomprehensible, both guessed the alien might be asking what happened, so Dexter lifted a corner of the tent and pointed outside, making the Ancient One sit up again to look out of the tent.

He wanted to wriggle out, but as soon as he got close to the door, the biting cold deterred him. Interestingly, when they feel cold, they shiver like the human race, their tentacles instantly curl up, even their heads retract, and their whole body shrinks into a ball.

Shiller walked over and patted the barrel-shaped shell of the Ancient One with his claw. The Ancient One seemed very afraid of him and quickly squirmed the tentacles away to hide. But at this moment, Dexter handed him a water bag and stuffed it under its tentacles, which made the Ancient One feel much better.

He stuck his head out to glance outside the tent, and upon seeing those pentagram-shaped graves, he was obviously stunned.

Although the pentagram’s head really didn’t show any expression, from its body posture, it was clear he was trying to recall something, then became very sad, all the tentacles drooped down, and its eyes shut.

However, shortly after, as if he thought of something, he extended all his limbs and buzzed a few more phrases, attempting to use his tentacles to reach for Dexter. Dexter cautiously kept his distance, not out of fear of being attacked, but because the tentacles seemed to have some kind of mucus that he worried he might be allergic to. In such a case, acute allergies would definitely be fatal.

The Ancient One realized too, looked around, and moved his body back a bit, drawing a picture on the ground in front with his tentacles. First was a pentagram shape, then he used an arrow-like pattern to point towards Dexter, finally drawing a figure resembling tentacles wrapped together.

Dexter studied it closely, deducing the aliens might desire him to revive their companions from the pentagram graves and that the final gesture of tentacles wrapped together signifies gratitude.

Sure enough, the Ancient One bundled the foremost tentacles together and lightly leaned his body forward, resembling a human bowing in several aspects. Dexter, however, shook his head and started drawing on the ground.

Biologists are good at drawing, after sketching animals and then plants, and cells afterwards, Dexter’s drawing was much more elaborate than that of the Ancient One. First, he sketched a dinosaur, worried that the Ancient One might not recognize it, then added some ferns.

Next, sketched something similar to a monkey followed by the classic illustration of how monkeys evolved into upright walking humans, narrating the origin of his race to the Ancient One.

The Ancient One immediately understood, even appearing somewhat shocked, carefully inspecting Dexter with his eyes, then extending a tentacle to tap on the dinosaur, seemingly implying, “So you didn’t evolve from dinosaurs.”

Then, pondering briefly, he began collaborating with several tentacles in drawing, producing a very exquisite image. Dexter, at first glance, identified it as a very primitive dinosaur, preceding the Tyrannosaurus Rex’s imagery of the dinosaurs he drew, actually not belonging to the dinosaur clade but rather a more ancient ancestor of dinosaurs.

It seemed the Ancient One feared Dexter might not recognize it, or perhaps he wasn’t quite sure himself, he drew another animal he might be more familiar with. With spiraling outlines gradually appearing, what manifested in Dexter and Shiller’s eyes was an ammonoid.

This animal was extremely famous, for so many fossils remained to this day, even regarded by biologists as a marker fossil for defining geological time. Dexter examined the shape of the ammonoid the Ancient One drew, deducing it might be some species of goniatite from roughly three hundred million years ago.

This indicated the Ancient One’s visit to Earth should precede this time point. Following this, he drew a type of fish, leading Dexter to ascertain it was at least earlier than the Carboniferous period, because the Ancient One depicted a fish with a gigantic armored head, renowned within the paleontological circle, precisely the famous Dunkleosteus.

If the Ancient One witnessed Dunkleosteus, then he should have lived during the Carboniferous period, which was far earlier than Dexter expected. He initially thought the alien visited Earth a few million or tens of million years ago; unexpectedly, billions of years back, they had already visited Earth.

Then, the Ancient One drew a circle, encircling the ammonoid and the Dunkleosteus, drawing a pentagram within the circle. At this point, both the human and the cat understood. The alien was indicating that they were marine creatures, actually living together with ammonoids and Dunkleosteus.

Dexter pondered, then gestured outside, prompting the Ancient One to think carefully and again tap on the primitive dinosaur he drew.

Dexter thought for a moment, if they hadn’t misunderstood each other, the Ancient One seemed to be indicating that, by the time of their demise, dinosaurs had already developed to this stage, or that before he died, he had seen creatures of this appearance, approximately 250 million years ago.

Then suddenly as if recalling something, the Ancient One began to flap his wings incessantly, tentacles started rapidly waving, and swiftly, he sketched on the ground. However, Dexter couldn’t comprehend any of it.

It was a mess of tangled lines mixed with shapes resembling eyes, randomly arranged among the lines, resembling an abstract painting overall.