Well, to be fair, for certain individuals, it did feel like doomsday had suddenly arrived.
Only this ti, doomsday had horns, hooves, and a shocking love for expensive herbs.
Because standing right in the middle of the newly established spiritual herb garden was the goat.
The "demonic" goat.
It was another horrific mont as the goat bleated as if to mock the redhead as he chewed on another dical shrub that would probably cost enough to sponsor a small civilization.
Jax, frozen in place, stared in pure horror.
"That’s a dicinal-grade recovery bloom!"
CHOMP.
Another leaf disappeared into the goat’s mouth with a crunch that sounded personal.
Left with no choice, Jax called on D-29 to inform Luca about this terrible scenario of an escape artist managing to bypass the security of the cow’s barn where the goat was temporarily staying.
Elder Pao Xi ended up apologizing since he figured it must have been his mistake, only for Luca to start wondering how a goat could escape such an automated facility.
Wait.
"Jax, did you actually continue installing security caras in the barn?" asked Luca, who suddenly rembered when Jax asked if he could install surveillance so they could regularly check on Lulu and her friends.
It was then that Jax rembered to check his terminal to see if it had caught sothing, and what do you know?
There it was.
D-64.
The uncanny assistant who was caught red-handed.
The tiny round system body had slowly, very carefully, rolled toward the door. Then waited. Then physically wedged itself in the fra so Elder Pao Xi couldn’t shut it all the way.
And the mont the elder turned his back, the goat slipped out like a fuzzy shadow.
The room fell silent.
Everyone could not believe how that had been possible. The baby system had always been following D-29 or Sid around, save for when Luca needed D-29 as a system instead of a cha.
So no one knew what to say as they all watched footage of the baby system rolling forward with glee and headbutting the goat like it was congratulating it on winning its freedom.
Surely, this couldn’t be happening to them, right?
But it was, and while it was right to discipline D-64 for this, just how were they going to do that?
Also, it didn’t feel right to scold the baby system, especially after it rushed to surround and play with the goat the mont it was called to "explain" itself.
They ran in small circles. The goat chased it. It beeped happily. They both flopped down near the brush pile like they hadn’t just committed grand herbicide.
"..."
"..."
"So, is this so sort of mutiny? A coup?" Kyle looked at what would normally look like a touching scene before him, but couldn’t help but worry since their last experience with a goat wasn’t exactly the most peaceful one.
"Uhm, I don’t think so...But if I rember correctly, it may be because goats are normally herd animals and would need companions or they would get...lonely"
Well, lonely was lonely, but D-29 was unimpressed. "That was a bad thing. A very bad thing. Worse, you even got caught!"
D-64 drooped imdiately.
It beeped twice, then slowly rolled toward Luca with little side flaps lowered like it was pouting.
It paused by his leg, then lightly nudged his ankle in a clear attempt at a silent apology.
Luca crouched. "You’re sorry?"
Another beep.
Soft. Ashad. Adorably guilty, and all learned from the shows that it has been watching with D-29.
Luca sighed. "...Okay. But no more letting out goats."
D-64 spun once in agreent, then hurried back to its goat friend.
Considering this situation, Luca stared at the goats before turning to Elder Pao Xi to ask whether it would be best to get one or two more goats.
The elder nodded. "If you’re planning to keep that one, then yes. They don’t do well alone. Especially if you don’t plan on...well...eating it."
And so he did, because it really would be too difficult to eat a goat that had sort of terrorized them, or worse, one that was clearly D-64’s buddy.
But this was only after getting a goat barn, which, surprisingly, still cost 700,000 CP for Barn III even though it was smaller than the cow barn. However, Luca’s heartache didn’t last long once they realized that it was because small sectioned gardens were attached inside.
It wasn’t just pasture; it was an actual garden with shrubs, a few small trees, and bushes whose tid release allowed them to alternate between areas for better disease prevention.
Elder Pao Xi was most definitely interested in the setup of this barn, but more importantly, the dungeon goat, and surprisingly, D-64 seed to like the new barn as they played around.
It was just that what probably interested them more were the three new goats.
But when the new ones arrived, it was the humans who blinked in confusion.
"Why are they so small?" Jax asked, staring.
Compared to their original goat, the new arrivals looked smaller, well, they weren’t really tiny, but maybe compared to the chicken bosses, they do look smaller.
Elder Pao Xi chuckled. "Well, that’s because your current goat is a buck. These are does."
"Oh," Luca said, tilting his head. "Right! I didn’t even check before!" He admitted, embarrassed, because in the last few days, he really hadn’t had much ti to check on the goat.
"Well, hopefully like this, we’d be able to get a few more goats in no ti."
The three goats were settling in well.
D-64 had introduced them one by one to the garden section of the barn, rolling excitedly in between them like an overenthusiastic tour guide. The original goat—now dubbed "Billy the Buck" by Jax—seed very pleased with his new herd.
Luca watched them play and thought maybe this had turned out better than expected.
That was until Elder Pao Xi turned to him with a thoughtful expression.
"Lord, considering your plans," the elder said slowly, "why not just build a pig pen too?"
Luca blinked.
"Pigs?"
Well, it wasn’t like he never thought about it. In fact, it had been one of the things he considered first, but felt rather guilty about their situation.
"I—I thought that might be too much," Luca admitted. "I didn’t want to burden you. You’re already looking after the cows, the fish, and the chicken bosses."
"And now there are even goats too!"
But the elder only laughed. A low, creaky sound. His exposed rib cage shifted with the motion.
"Oh, this?" he said between chuckles. "This has been the easiest animal husbandry I’ve ever done."
Luca looked genuinely confused.
The elder waved a hand toward the barn. "These barns clean themselves, adjust their climate, and even diagnose problems before they beco real problems. I don’t even have to shovel anything!"
"Oh."
Elder Pao Xi continued, now quite animated. "If a beast’s spiritual energy drops or its appetite changes? The barn notifies . If they need a different feed formula? The system prepares it."
He placed both hands behind his back and gave Luca a firm look. "I only need to check on them and butcher when needed."
"So," the elder finished, "if we want pigs, we should start now. With the way you’ve been feeding all these people, you’ll need more soon anyway."
Luca looked around. The others were listening now. Even Kyle had paused mid-step.
Clearly, the word "pig" had drawn attention. For each new word was like a totally different door opening for all of them.
And so the little penny pincher who looked at everyone’s shining eyes could only sigh before saying, "...Okay. I’ll do it."
And just like that, another heart-wrenching facility, costing 700,000 CP, was built.
Then ca the livestock: 11 pigs, one boar, ten sows, and another 165,000 CP, gone in seconds.
It hurt, and their CP balance that had just recovered after six days of CP from the soldiers was again experiencing a great slashing.
But hopefully this would help.
He took one more look at the pigs being released into the space. They waddled around with snorts and curious oinks, tails wagging like happy commas.
"...Maybe I should’ve bought more," Luca muttered.
Everyone else nodded. They don’t know it just yet, but maybe Luca should’ve really bought more.
Say, triple, at least?
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