20. Fist Mosquitoes, Giant Fish, Monkeys
Jinri let out a high-pitched scream.
It was indeed a terrifying sight.
"They found us…"
But the clerk reacted with the mild irritation of someone bothered by a single mosquito.
As the swarm of monsters approached, the clerk crouched down, carelessly scooping up the muddy brown earth and smearing it on her body.
"Everyone, hurry and cover yourselves in mud," she urged with a self-deprecating smile.
"Get yourselves muddy. Otherwise, you'll get bitten."
"What happens if we get bitten?"
"You'll get discharged. Worst case, you might need a battery pack replacement."
"That's the last thing I want."
Battery replacement, a repair 53 times more painful than gum surgery without anesthesia, was one of the most dreaded maintenance procedures for humanoid robots.
Jinri seemed to shudder, more terrified of the repair than the fist-sized mosquitoes themselves. Well, since the mosquitoes could cause the need for such repairs, it was essentially the same thing.
In any case, Jinri and I hurriedly crouched down and began smearing mud on our bodies like the clerk. Being naked, we were especially vulnerable to having our electrical energy directly siphoned if stung.
With no time to spare, we ended up rolling in the mud to coat ourselves entirely.
Jinri followed my lead.
The clerk carefully applied mud only to her uncovered areas, her movements practiced.
By the time the fist mosquitoes reached us, we were completely coated in mud.
The mosquitoes closed in, their ferocious expressions twisted as if in rage.
Suddenly, they slammed into us with their entire bodies.
"What?! What's happening?!" Jinri shouted.
"Wasn't the mud supposed to stop them from attacking?!"
"No," the clerk replied calmly.
"It only keeps them from stinging you with their proboscises. So, frustrated that they can't sting, they'll ram you until the mud comes off. With the force of a fist punch."
"Ow!" I yelped as I was struck. "This actually hurts!"
"Well, they're punches," the clerk said matter-of-factly.
"What do we do?" I asked. "At this rate, we'll either get stung and discharged or smashed to pieces. Don't you have any insecticide?"
"Uh, I forgot to bring it," the clerk said.
"What?!"
"Sorry. The insecticide is big and heavy, and it's a hassle."
"So what do we do about this?!"
The clerk hunched over, enduring the onslaught like a turtle trampled by a crowd, and explained.
"But it's fine. You're lucky."
"What do you mean?"
"Luckily, we're near the river, so we can manage."
Before she finished speaking, something happened.
A massive silhouette burst out of the river.
Slicing through the water's surface, a peacock bass leaped out with force, revealing itself.
Its enormous body was roughly twice the size of the polar bear we'd picked up hitchhiking. With sharp teeth bared, the giant fish charged toward us, crunching a portion of the mosquito swarm like biting into an apple.
Undigested fresh blood sprayed from the mosquitoes' bellies, splattering the surroundings.
Like a shower of blood, vivid red stained the air.
Next, a zebra-striped arapaima, easily ten meters long, burst out with the ferocity of a fish escaping a net, chomping another section of the mosquito swarm.
Another deluge of blood poured down, painting the jungle's colors red.
In an instant, the fist mosquitoes' numbers dwindled to a third, and they fled frantically to escape their predators.
The two giant fish, having leaped from the water and landed in the mud, thrashed vigorously while chewing the mosquitoes. Their violent flailing sent mud flying in all directions, creating a scene like a grenade explosion.
If this continued, we might get caught in the fish's thrashing and damaged if struck. The giant fish, driven by hunger to leap out and feast on the mosquitoes, hadn't thought about how to return to the water. They writhed in the mud, gasping with their gills flapping painfully.
It didn't look like they could escape.
In fact, they were gradually sinking into the muddy depths.
"Let's help them!"
Jinri shouted, rushing to the peacock bass and pushing its massive body toward the river with both hands. I quickly joined her, pushing together, but the more we pushed, the deeper our feet sank into the mud. Eventually, we had to give up and climb out of the marsh.
From the edge, we looked down at the sinking giant fish with pity.
Their eyes were turning gray, like those of dead fish.
Jinri asked me in a tearful voice,
"Can't we do something?! They'll die like this! They saved us!"
I thought for 0.00025 seconds, then pulled out a subatomic-sized inventory backpack and retrieved something from it.
It was the cloth made from the polar bear's fur.
I twisted the cloth into a rope and tied it securely to a sturdy nearby tree trunk, ensuring it wouldn't sink into the mud with the fish in the worst case.
Then, I tossed the rope's end toward the marsh, hoping the giant fish would bite it. But they seemed to mistake it for a fisherman's trap, refusing to take it in their mouths.
"It's okay!" Jinri shouted to them. "Grab it! It's your lifeline!"
The two giant fish glared at Jinri suspiciously, their gills heaving as they struggled to breathe. Finally, as if thinking, "Might as well try," they bit the rope I'd thrown. I began pulling with all my strength.
"…Heavy!"
It was heavy, but not entirely impossible.
Jinri quickly joined in, and I felt we might manage. Despite their size, we were high-performance humanoid robots, and I was surprised by my own strength.
Gradually, we could see the giant fish being pulled from the marsh.
But I also felt our power waning.
We needed just a bit more strength, but Jinri and I alone weren't enough.
"Clerk!"
I called out to the beautiful clerk.
"Help us!"
But she didn't move, just stared at us.
I thought her laziness was keeping her from helping, but her expression was different. Her eyes, once lifeless like a dead fish's, now held a decadent beauty with a new intensity, as if the air pressure had shifted.
Her gaze wasn't on us but fixed on the taut rope of cloth connecting us to the giant fish.
If she wouldn't help, we'd have to manage alone. Just as I resigned myself to that, I heard monkey voices from afar, calling out as they approached.
Turning around, I saw a large group of monkeys swinging swiftly through the trees like Tarzan, heading toward us.
Perfect timing.
Before we could even ask for help, the monkeys reached us, grabbed the rope with both hands, and started pulling alongside us.
It was like a tug-of-war at a jungle sports festival.
Thanks to the efforts of about 30 small monkeys, the giant fish were visibly being hauled out of the marsh.
The rope was long enough for everyone to hold.
With the monkeys' help, the two giant fish were safely extracted from the mud.
"We did it!"
Jinri and I exchanged a high-five, and as we turned to offer high-fives to the monkeys who helped, we were speechless.
The monkeys had started eating the giant fish.
Jinri, too drained to stop them, averted her eyes and buried her face in my chest to block the sight from her visual sensors.
It was a harsh scene, but I didn't look away. This was the law of the jungle, the primal course of nature, I thought, reflecting on the ways of the world.
The monkeys devoured the giant fish at lightning speed, leaving only clean bones behind.
As I stared at the remains with an objective, meta perspective, a voice called out from beside me.
"That…"
It was the clerk's voice.
With an expression more excited than I'd ever seen, she pointed at the polar bear's cloth in my hand and asked,
"Where did you get that cloth?"