Peter told the others that the locker was in a forest about three kilometers away. However bright they were, the stars could not be brighter than two mother stars, so they could only see the shadows of dark trees in that direction, but could not see the thick foliage. However, this did not affect their approach. Soon they reached the edge of the forest.

The woods was not so terrible as the lighthouse. Both places would have felt exactly the same if You-Know-Who hadn't threatened William. "Go in here." Sierra led the others along an almost unrecognizable path deep into the woods.

But Natalie was still a little scared. "Master, you follow me..." Her voice trembled. "Don't worry, it'll be all right." William clutched his laser gun and calmly replied.

A gentle breeze rustled the leaves. There was the faintest sound of footsteps. Except for that, there was no other sound.

Suddenly, Rebecca's sharp eyes spotted an unidentified shape on the ground ahead of her. "Stop!" Commanded William, "I'm going to see."

"Will it be dangerous for you to go alone, William?" Ranran held him. But he pulled gently away from her. "I can be invisible," He said, "so I won't be exposed." With that he disappeared into the sight.

William approached the object cautiously with small steps. When he was about two or three meters away from it, there was enough light for him to see what it was. There was nothing to be nervous about -- it was actually a sleeping monkey. His belly rose and fell regularly, his tail relaxed at his side. His expression was very natural, and occasionally he smiled. It looked like his dream world was quite good.

William looked at him with a smile on his face. He went back and told the others about the monkey, and then they all went up to the monkey.

The monkey continued to sleep for a few minutes. Then he rolled over, sat up, and opened his eyes. When he saw William and his party, his expression became surprised and a little nervous.

"Who are you?" He asked, "I know those two, but I've never seen the rest." He pointed to Sierra and Peter.

William briefly told the monkey who they were, and the monkey let down his guard. He said, "Oh, that's nice. We monkeys know about the endurance race just because of introductions of they two."

Ranran was at a loss. "We used to come here to play in this forest and we are very familiar with the monkeys," Sierra explained to her.

"But we have our troubles, too." Said the monkey a little sadly.

"Why? I think you have a very good life here." Asked William, puzzled.

"We haven't been able to get a big increase in population. The forest is big enough to accommodate five times more monkeys, and we would love to have more friends, but our fertility has not improved."

"Oh, I see." Said Photon, "By the way, Master, don't you have the cloning technology?"

The plane reminded his master. It sounded strange to William at first, but within seconds he realized that this was a new technology his mother had conquered. He used this technology to build Ranran.

So he introduced cloning technology to the monkey. "What I need is very simple." He said to the monkey, "All you need is to give me cells that can divide."

"Hmm... But where do we have cells that can divide?" Asked the monkey, puzzled. "Like hematopoietic stem cells." William replied, "My little robot will go inside you and do this job."

"Wow, you aliens are really advanced in technology. You have some technologies that the inhabitants of this planet have not yet used, like this little robot of yours." Said the monkey, watching the little robot go into his mouth and body.

The little robot quickly found the hematopoietic stem cells, collected them rapidly, and flew out of the monkey's mouth. It handed the sample to William, who smiled with satisfaction and signaled it to return to the backpack. Another little robot handed William the cloning device. He took it, put it on the ground, and then poured the hematopoietic stem cells he had just collected into the device.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Photon connected the device to the computer. A dialog popped up on the screen,

Cloning is ready. Would you like to start now?

William clicked "Yes" and the next dialog appeared,

The same catalysts that Larry used are available. This will reduce the cloning time to about nine hours. Do you want to use these catalysts?

"Let me explain." Natalie said, coming up to the monkey, "We've done a successful cloning experiment before. In that experiment we used the catalysts, and the finished product came out very quickly. You're so eager to boost the population, so I'll add some for you. What do you think?"

"Of course it's wonderful. I even want to see my companions in the next second!" Replied the monkey with great excitement.

So William clicked "Yes" and the screen read,

Cloning is about to begin. Please wait.

The monkey said, "Why don't you sit down and have a rest? It looks like we need to wait a while."

"You're right." William and the others reached the side of the path and began to rest. An hour later, the two mother stars popped out again. Photon and Rebecca discovered that the monkey's hair was actually green.

"It's amazing!" They both cried together.

"What? Is there anything special about our hair?" The monkey asked. "Nothing. It's just that this color is very rare on our planet. It's really good looking, better than any kind of monkey hair on my planet." Replied Photon.

The monkey couldn't believe an alien complimented him on his hair. To him, it was a perfectly ordinary color.

And so they waited, waiting for the cloning process to trickle down, until the two mother stars sank. The computer screen said,

The cloning completed.

And then an unthinkable thing happened -- a tiny green monkey popped out of the cloning device, then two, then three... In all, William estimated, the cloning resulted in about 100 additional monkeys.

That was not enough for that monkey to reach five times their population size, but it was a lot better than before. "This technology is awesome!" He cried excitedly, "We'll have more companions soon!"

"Yes, they will soon be able to continue mating and produce new offspring." Ranran said.

"Aliens are so kind! I don't know how to thank you enough!"

"You're welcome. We like to help people in need." William replied humbly.

The monkey whistled, and then there were whistles in the forest. Then, out of the thick leaves sprang dozens of green monkeys, who lined up quickly and orderly around the aliens.

The monkey William had met came to the center of the circle and joined them. He cleared his throat, saying to all the other monkeys,

"Today is a very lucky day. We're lucky to meet a group of good-hearted aliens who are using new technology to help our species thrive. Although the strength is limited, yet the spirit is admirable! I am sure that soon we will have more companions, and our lives will become more interesting and wonderful!"

All the other monkeys clapped and whistled in imitation of the party.

"All right, let's go back." Said the monkey. The monkeys disbanded.

Ranran remembered that Sierra and Peter had not yet found the locker the key could open. "I know where it is." The monkey volunteered, "I will take you there."

"So you know them so well! They even know where the locker is." William joked, while the others laughed.

As they spoke, they had reached the locker. It was turquoise, slightly taller than they were, with diamonds on the handles, a wavy pattern on the door, together with two monkeys.

Sierra took out the key, inserted it in the lock, and opened it.

Inside was a green monkey sculpture. The monkey was laughing heartily. "Every time guests come to the forest, they get this gift as a souvenir." Peter explained.

But there was something else that no one expected -- a sculpture of a cell. To be precise, it was a cross-sectional sculpture of a cell. It contained all the submicroscopic structures of a cell, including tiny mitochondria, lysosomes and so on. Each organelle also presented a cross section. The details of the sculpture were very vivid and lifelike. If he got it, one would think that this was a scaled-up version of a real cell.

"Why is it here?" Sierra and Peter asked the monkey, puzzled.

"None of you noticed, but I've just winked at the monkeys. They went back and found this sculpture that they worked on all night last night and put it in here just before you got there."

William and his party were impressed by the green monkeys. "I was lucky to meet them," William said to himself.

"Well, as you're going to the flying race, I won't delay your journey by allowing you to spend another night here." The monkey said, "When you come out of the forest, you will see a big rock. It says, 'Maxwell Snow Mountain to the left'. Follow that sign. The road through the snow mountain is shorter than the main road, so you wouldn't miss the race. But it's cold there, so keep warm!"

"OK, see you soon!" Ranran said.

"Farewell! If you ever come to this planet again, come and play!" Cried the monkey.

"We certainly will!" William's voice died in the breeze.