Chapter 1317: Competition with the Mankeys
The days passed and the entire 2nd army of the Red Mankeys found themselves in a comfortable position. They had food. They had water. They had everything they needed in order to survive.
Somehow, they had found themselves with the humans more and more. It started with the simple bargaining system. Some food in exchange for the bioluminescent algae. Then, the Red Mankeys discovered beer. They wanted to trade for that too.
"General, we beg of you. Please. We must have this beer!" said the platoon leader to their leader.
The beret-wearing general pursed his lips. "I don’t know what you all are raving about. It’s just alcohol! We can brew that ourselves!"
"But not this one, sir!"
The Red Mankey gave frothing, cold beer to their general. "Have a taste."
Curious, the general eventually took a single sip. And as soon as he did, his eyes widened with great surprise. And unbeknownst to him, he wanted to keep drinking more and more of it.
However, he had to keep up his appearances with his Red Mankeys.
"Fine! Trade for this beer. But that’s it. No more. We can’t interact with humans much more than this!" said the general.
And so, beer was added to their little agreement.
That should have been the end of it. However, who would want to enjoy beer alone?
During nights, the Red Mankeys heard the humans cheering and laughing and making merry as they drank their beers in their tables.
And the Red Mankeys did their best to stay away from them. They did! However, some of the human soldiers called out to them and challenged them to a simple game.
"I bet I could drink more than you," said the soldier. "Come. Sit with us!"
And eventually, they complied.
"What?! You drank with the humans?!" the general seethed. "How could you break bread with them?!"
And in response, the Red Mankeys defended themselves. And they said, "the pride of the Red Mankeys couldn’t be tarnished like that so easily! We had no choice but to enter the human camp and teach them who was the more superior race."
Hearing this, the general pursed his lips. That was true. They had to prove that they were superior.
"Okay, but just that one time," said the general.
And that was supposed to be it.
Unfortunately for the Red Mankeys, they hadn’t been spending their nights drinking beer like the humans had. They were black out drunk while the humans were still ready to drink some more.
"You lost?! What about the pride of our race?!" the general complained. "Come back tomorrow and prove them wrong!"
And so, it then became that the Red Mankeys and the Rebornian soldiers drank with each other every single night. They simply couldn’t beat the humans! They were too good at drinking. And the Red Mankeys were way too prideful to back down.
Eventually, the general himself had to step in. "You useless hominids! I’ll do it myself!"
General and soldier Red Mankey became embroiled in their mission to prove their race superior. They drank and drank and drank, to the point where they even forgot what they were drinking for in the first place.
Eventually, they were just having fun with the humans! There was still competition, but it was more lively now. Both Red Mankey and human cheered and laughed as any one of them vomited beer from drinking too much.
"It’s unfair!" said the general. "You humans must have some kind of antidote to keep yourselves sober."
The Rebornian soldiers shook their heads in response. "No such thing!"
However, the Red Monkey General was doubtful of their words. So, he investigated them. And he soon found out the truth.
"Aha! You guys are using that ’hot spring’ thing to rejuvenate yourselves! It must be some kind of special, magical place!"
The Rebornian soldiers shrugged. "Well, if you want, you can also bathe in our hot springs."
"We definitely shall!" replied the general mankey.
And so, the Red Mankeys didn’t just visit the Rebornian camp during the nights. They also did so during the days! They would spend their nights drinking, and after that, they would bathe in the hot springs to rejuvenate themselves.
"Yes, yes," said the general. "This was your secret to being sober! Mankeys, we shall be spending the majority of our time here in order to acclimate with the hot water. Then, we will finally win against the humans!"
"Hear! Hear!" shouted his soldiers.
With a simple payment of a few precious herbs from the Chasm, they were able to spend the entire day bathing themselves in hot, hot water.
But of course, they couldn’t just end their day there. One didn’t end it there. Everyone knew that you had to drink cold milk after the hot spring!
And so, they did. They put their hands on their hips, chugged an entire bottle of milk, and let out a relieved breath at the very end of it.
Feeling as if they had properly prepared themselves, the Red Mankey soldiers challenged the humans in a drinking game once again.
They came at night, bringing their own kegs of beer.
But to their surprise, the humans were not there!
"What the?"
The Red Mankey general furrowed his brow, until he heard some muffled screaming from one of the building structures in the camp.
Apprehensive, the general commanded his men to slowly stalk the building forwards.
They kept their noise to a minimum, allowing themselves to gossip and eavesdrop on the humans.
Once they put their ears on the walls, they began to hear what they were saying.
"YEAH! HAHAHAHA!"
"I knew they would make a comeback! The Orator Angels always need a lot of time to warm up in the series."
"I really think they could go all the way this season."
The Red Mankey general frowned. These were probably code words! These humans were planning something!
"Aha!" the general shouted as he burst through the door.
And there, inside, he saw the human soldiers all looking towards one gigantic screen on the wall.