**Chapter 9: Unexpected Visitor**
The visitor glanced around the room, ensuring no one was present before entering. It scratched its ear and casually closed the door with its tail.
"A monkey?!" Raymond was taken aback.
Indeed, it was a monkey, a rather agile and lively one at that. Raymond furrowed his brows. The appearance and form of this monkey were no different from what he knew of monkeys.
Before, when Raymond encountered the large dog, he described it as "suspected of possessing intelligence." If there were degrees of evolution, he believed the large dog's level of evolution was likely low, explaining why its appearance hadn't changed.
But this monkey was different. Raymond was certain it possessed intelligence. Its countless visits left almost no trace, and had Raymond not tampered with the sliding glass door, he might not have noticed its presence at all. While monkeys were known to be clever animals, this level of intelligence was beyond normal.
It possessed high intelligence, likely a significant degree of evolution. But why hadn't its appearance changed? Did evolution triggered by meteorites lead to different results from Ben Mao's evolution? Impossible! Evolution inevitably meant change. The evolutionary history of countless species on Earth had proven this. Yet, here was a creature that evolved significantly without any visible change in form. From a biological perspective, this was impossible!
So, something was definitely amiss. But what was it? What was causing this growing sense of unease in Raymond?
Raymond felt like he was grasping at something, yet it remained just out of reach. Before he could fully process his thoughts, he suddenly widened his eyes, dumbfounded.
In the surveillance footage, the monkey entered the living room, didn't search for anything, but instead, turned on the TV. It then opened the TV cabinet drawer, retrieved a DVD, inserted it into the DVD player, and pressed a few buttons on the remote control. The TV began playing. Raymond was too familiar with what was being played - he had watched it countless times since childhood, even owning a DVD copy as an adult.
"Bang, bang!" There was no sound in the surveillance video, but in that moment, Raymond automatically supplied the nostalgic theme song. It was the movie "King Kong"!
Watching the monkey watch the movie, scratching its head, occasionally mimicking the actions of the gorilla in the film, Raymond was stunned, then plunged into deep thought.
Raymond had imagined many reasons why the creature might come to his home, but never had he thought: Damn it, it's here to watch TV!
Not here to investigate? Not here to harm him? Not here to steal the meteorite? It's here to watch TV??!
Excuse me?!
Raymond was utterly bewildered.
A few days ago, when he had seen the giant meteorite crater and discovered all the meteorites had disappeared, he had thought about the countless evolved beasts lurking in the darkness, eyeing him. He had felt a mix of nervousness and excitement. But now...
Damn it! The lurking creature in the darkness turned out to be this fool?!
"No way! I have to talk to it!" Raymond's mouth hung open, a look of disbelief on his face. It couldn't continue this nonsense. It couldn't.
Raymond began attempting to communicate with the monkey.
Direct contact was impossible. It only appeared when he and Ben Mao were not at home. Whenever they were present, the monkey wouldn't approach. Whether it was because it had evolved, or because it had companions or sentinels nearby, it always seemed to sense Raymond and Ben Mao's presence and left before they returned home. So, face-to-face communication was out of the question.
Since leaving a note on the coffee table yielded no results, Raymond tried to see if the monkey could understand human language. Judging from its inability to read, the chances of it comprehending human speech were slim. Plus, if it didn't understand human language but was watching the TV series "Journey to the West," that wasn't an issue. After all, visual storytelling was the core of audiovisual works, not the text or dialogue.
Recalling his encounter with the large dog, Raymond had spoken to it many times without feeling like it understood him. So, the likelihood of the monkey understanding human speech was also low.
With that in mind, Raymond went out and found some crayons. He then drew a comic strip for the monkey. In the first panel, he depicted the monkey watching TV in the living room, indicating that Raymond knew it had visited his home and what it was there for. He then drew several panels expressing his desire to sit down and talk with it. In the final panel, he drew a rock with many DVDs on it, each depicting King Kong.
Satisfied with his creation, Raymond nodded to himself. Since verbal communication wasn't possible, he had to resort to the most easily understandable form of communication: drawing.Chapter 9: Looked Down Upon by a Monkey!
Raymond couldn't go back home for the time being. With nothing else to do outside, he decided to take a stroll in the supermarket. It had been almost nine months since the day of the apocalypse, and most of the items in the supermarket had expired. After all, the products on the shelves weren't all freshly produced.
Thinking about this, Raymond felt a pang of regret. Snacks like chocolate and jelly might not be available in the future unless he learned how to make them himself. Picking up a bag of chips, he sighed as he saw they were over half a month past their expiration date. He put them back and grabbed a chocolate bar instead, but upon closer inspection, he noticed a small hole in the packaging. Had it been nibbled by insects? Raymond tossed the chocolate aside in disgust. As for the jelly… Why was the packaging sticky? What on earth?! He quickly threw it away. Emmm…
If characters from post-apocalyptic novels saw this scene, they'd probably burst into tears and cough up blood. What a leisurely life! Even without hot girls. What a rich food supply! Even without hot girls. Snacks were still available! Even without hot girls. Most importantly, he didn't have to worry about his life safety! Although… without hot girls…
Raymond: "…"
That said, sometimes Raymond felt like this was just fine. His life was too long, not on the same scale as ordinary humans who lived only for decades. Perhaps it was better for him to be alone, unable to die. There was hardly anything edible left in the supermarket. After looking around, Raymond shook his head.
Some of the food in the supermarket had rotted, some had expired, and a large portion had been eaten by stray dogs, cats, and the like. Locked supermarkets rarely attracted such animals, but once Raymond opened them, they flocked in. So, for Raymond, a supermarket wouldn't last long. The luckiest one so far lasted only about half a month. After that, he had to find a new one.
Of course, Raymond could lock the supermarket when he left to prevent stray animals from getting in, but why bother? Why be so stingy? With all humans dead, he couldn't finish all the food by himself. If necessary, he could just find another supermarket. Especially now.
Ten minutes later, Raymond got out of the car and stood in front of a Lianhua supermarket. He looked at Ben Mao and said, "Smash the door."
"Meow~" Ben Mao approached, lifting his chubby little paw. Then, the paw came down.
Boom!
The sturdy anti-theft rolling shutter, along with the glass door inside, was smashed directly.
Dust filled the air.
Raymond stepped back two steps, waved his hand, and walked into the supermarket after the dust settled. Due to the power outage, even though it was daytime, the light inside was dim.
Raymond leisurely walked around and picked up four large bags of snacks, carrying two in each hand. Although most of the food was expired, it was still a intact supermarket with plenty of choices, so four bags of unexpired snacks were more than enough.
When Raymond walked out of the supermarket, he found many stray dogs and cats had gathered nearby, probably attracted by the loud noise of the door being smashed.
However, they only watched from a distance and didn't approach.
"Go in and eat," Raymond said. Of course, the stray dogs and cats didn't react to his words or take any action, just continued to watch from afar. Raymond wanted to shrug helplessly, but with both hands full, it was inconvenient, so he didn't bother and simply left. When he drove away, he saw from the rearview mirror that the gathered stray dogs and cats rushed into the supermarket.
"Are they afraid of me or you?" Raymond asked Ben Mao.
But as soon as he finished asking, he continued, "It should be afraid of you."
After checking the time, Raymond drove directly back home.
Opening the door, he was somewhat surprised. Everything at home was normal, with no traces of anyone visiting.
"That monkey didn't come today?!" Raymond was puzzled.
According to his expectations, the monkey should have understood his message after seeing the comic strip. In a panic, it might have even bumped into things and left many traces behind. Most importantly, now that it understood the situation, there was no need for it to clean up any traces. So, at this moment, when Raymond saw that everything at home was normal, he couldn't help feeling uneasy, suspecting that the monkey might not have come today. But when he checked the surveillance footage, he found that the little monkey had indeed come.
Not only had it come, but it also looked at the comic strip on the coffee table.
Just as Raymond had expected, when the monkey saw the first panel depicting it watching TV in the living room, it was startled, showing its teeth and becoming very alert, constantly looking around. After a while, when it confirmed that there was no one in the room, it relaxed, hesitantly picked up the comic strip, and flipped through it. But as it looked through it, it suddenly became furious, raised the comic strip high, as if to smash it on the ground. However, it then seemed to think of something, carefully placed the comic strip back in its original place, and then, after shaking its butt and cleaning up the traces it left behind, opened the glass door of the balcony and left.
Damn! What's going on?!
Raymond couldn't quite understand.
Did the monkey understand the content of the comic strip?
It seemed like it did, but if it did, why did it deliberately clean up the traces before leaving?
It should have known it was discovered, so why bother cleaning up the traces? Why do that?
Was there a special reason or meaning behind it?
When things go contrary to the norm, there's definitely something fishy.
Rubbing his chin, Raymond lowered his head in contemplation.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder? Virgo? High-quality monkey?
Given the situation, cleaning up the traces before leaving as usual was a bit too much of a high-minded thought!
Hmm? Wait a minute!
As usual?
Could it be… it wanted to convey the message "as usual" to him?
Thinking of the monkey twisting its butt towards the comic strip, Raymond suddenly brightened up, understanding its meaning—your soul painting, this monkey can't understand, this monkey can't understand, so it still cleaned up the traces before leaving as usual!
Damn, so arrogant?!
Raymond was furious: "I'm going to kill this damn monkey!!"