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Five days later, Adelaide Zoo.
Four employees placed the special container on the ground before opening up the door.
Chalk crawled out of the box and surveyed his surroundings confoundedly.
His originally vast and natural park had become a 60 square feet room.
On the other side of the full gla.s.s panel were crowds of people, but Chalk paid no attention to them.
His attention had been lured by a bunch of stacked bamboos in front of him. Starving, he pounced on them and started munching.
The tourists all over the world started snapping photos with their phones.
Looking at all those people of different skin color, Chalk muttered in fear, "F*ck, wait. Do they really think I'm Fatty? So I am now really in Ustaria something? But I didn't learn anything that Fatty did! What do I do? Will there be a problem..."
Someone from the many people taking photographs of him forgot to turn off the flash on their device.
Chalk jumped in shock. He looked up and made eye contact with the crowd.
Seeing Chalk's weird expression, the other humans pointed toward the forgetful man.
The adult panda's words echoed in Chalk's mind: act like a panda.
Chalk lowered his head and continued eating his shoots as if nothing had happened.
The tourists, too, went back to snapping photos.
When Chalk was full from his meal, he gathered the remaining bamboos and laid on top of it to take a nap.
Some time later, he opened his eyes. The tourists were gone and there was only a man in blue sweeping the floor.
"He's a staff and he will close up soon. You really can sleep, can't you? Just like the previous panda," a strange voice said.
Chalk looked toward the source of the voice and spotted a palm-sized frog on the ground.
"Who are you?" Chalk asked, puzzled.
"I'm your messenger. Name's 63. That's my serial number. I'm a rain frog, in charge of sending messages throughout the zoo. We'll be partners from now on," 63 told him.
"Wait. Why 63?" Chalk questioned.
"You have much to learn. What did they teach you over there? There are 120 animal rooms in Adelaide Zoo, and your unit is 63. The one beside yours, 62, is for the j.a.panese leopard cats. Remember this to help with the communication," 63 advised.
"What do I do now then?"
"Wow. You really have a lot to learn. We meet our king, of course. He'll come over when this staff leaves."
"So we just wait?"
The staff put his broom away and brought a pail out before shutting the door behind him.
"Alright, any minute now." 63 smiled.
The metal door within the room shook a little noisily.
Shortly after, a crisp sound was heard and the door slowly opened up.
An anteater had used its tongue as a key to unlock the door and the kangaroo that raised it let it down after.
A koala crawled in, followed by three kangaroos, while the anteater stood guard.
The kangaroos were full of muscles. They must be the koala's bodyguards, Chalk figured.
One of them pulled a sloth that was clinging to him down onto the ground.
The sloth sprawled on the ground to form a chair.
The koala sat down and grabbed a bamboo shoot from the ground. He plucked the leaves and put it in his mouth.
Another kangaroo searched in his pouch and fished out a crown made from tree vines before putting it on the koala's head.
"Hi, young one. Your food's really strange. A little hard."
63 jumped onto Chalk's head. "Greetings, King. This is the new panda."
"My name's Chalk. I'm two years old," Chalk introduced, fl.u.s.tered.
"Name's unimportant. I'm the king of this zoo. I know you're here to investigate and solve the rat problem. We know you're not to be blamed, of course, so we will work together. The koala at your side is my youngest son, by the way. I treat this matter seriously, so first, I'd like to introduce you to our scientist," the koala king said before clapping his hands.
A big mouth entered Chalk's vision. It was a platypus.
"Professor is good enough," the platypus said humbly.
"The humans will usually keep you here for five years before sending you back. We will come up with strategies to fix the rat problem before that. You'll have to discuss this matter with Professor. I believe you'd be a good giant panda so this is an honorary medal."
A kangaroo reached into his pouch for an exquisite s.h.i.+eld badge made from gra.s.s.
The king took it before approaching Chalk.
63 jumped a few times on Chalk's head. "On your knees. Lower. He's going to crown you so don't be rude."
Chalk lowered his body and the koala tied the badge to his chest. "You're officially a horseman. It's a supreme glory, but just remember to take it off during the day. Alright, I'll continue my patrol. Chat with him, Professor."
The king took his crown off and a kangaroo slipped it in his pouch while another kept the king in his.
The last kangaroo grabbed the sloth.
They left one by one, leaving behind only the platypus and the guarding anteater.
63 muttered, "Horseman? Looks like the king's really concerned about this."
The platypus laughed. "How about we let you rest today and we'll discuss the matter tomorrow? I'm 38, in case you need me urgently."
Chalk nodded.
The platypus laughed before exiting.
The anteater spoke quietly, "I'm the locksmith, call me 93. I'm going to lock this place up now! Contact me if you need to go out at night."
63 replied, "Got it."
The door closed and the platypus raised the anteater up to lock the gate.
After a short silence, Chalk asked, "This rat invasion... what's going on?"
"Aren't you an expert in this area? Why don't you know?" 63 shot back.
"I... I just want to hear your opinions," Chalk answered, thinking about how he was going to play his role well.
