Chapter Ch90.1 - Tria.s.sic Period
translator: xiin
editors: apricot & juurensha
The dream was dizzying, and the sky seemed to spin.
Thick smoke drifted up and dispersed, lava turned solid, and the era changed. After being shot by the tranquilizer gun, the anesthetic spread out all over his body. The rough touch of a gun-callused finger easily drew out heat in its wake, and his secret antic.i.p.ation was like an explosion of fireworks. Wu Jin gasped for breath, his chest impacted by his heartbeat, and his pupils contracted––
His field of vision was flooded with dazzling light.
Lin Ke, who’d been crouched beside him, suddenly howled, “Brother Wu woke up––!!”
Footsteps thumped through the cave as Sora came over and quickly checked Wu Jin’s pulse. Lin Ke spoke in a low voice to Ming Yao, “Brother Wu looks so pitiful…”
Ming Yao crouched down, holding a half-cleaned tranquilizer gun in his hand as he practically shrieked, “Hey, Witch! The hero who sacrificed for the team! How pitiful! Who was so cruel! Tossing a drugged Little Witch on the side of the road! This is this world’s Tria.s.sic period! Little Witch was just like an abandoned rag doll––Little Witch is so aggrieved that he’s bitten his own lips!”
“Witch, you just wait. You covered us brothers’ retreat, and we’ll help you find out who your attacker was sooner or later! Lin Ke swears to get 10 pounds heavier if we don’t help you get revenge!”
Lin Ke: “???”
There was a lot of noise and bustle in the cave as the three teammates pieced together a story and allowed Wu Jin to continue sitting dazedly in the corner.
Light streamed in from one side of his field of vision. The air was still filled with a light dusting of ash, but the sky was already bright.
Wu Jin suddenly sat up after some struggle and rushed to the outside of the cave. Ming Yao quickly followed behind to keep an eye on him–-
The rolling mountains had been reshaped by the natural disaster. The towering fern forest had been destroyed by the volcanic eruption that took place after the meteorite impact. The landform had been restored to the most primitive levels of vegetation, and only a thin layer of moss was left at the entrance of the cave that had once been covered by green vegetation.
There was no big boss.
Even the rock he had climbed up on didn’t seem to exist.
Wu Jin looked dazedly at the weathered rock belt that had been razed to the ground.
Ming Yao rushed over and caught up, “What’s the matter, what’s the matter?”
The small round face looked lost. The volcanic ash that dirtied it hadn’t been wiped away, and the small, soft curls looked aggrieved. Ming Yao silently lifted up a hand and attempted to touch his head––
Wu Jin flashed past him with a swish.
Ming Yao was regretful. He went over and brazenly hooked an arm around his shoulders, “Thanks, brother. Back then, seeing that you hadn’t come back, we looked around a few times before finding you unconscious by the side of the path. Lin Ke and I searched the area, but didn’t find anyone. It should be that someone had seen that you were under anesthesia and came to intercept you. They only had enough time to take your equipment before being driven away by the rising asphyxiation layer. Or, maybe Little Witch lost your equipment somewhere––”
Ming Yao took out a tranquilizer gun and held it out, handle first. “Take it, we’re not angry! What are you thinking about?”
Wu Jin accepted it and whispered, “Nothing, I just had a dream…”
Smoke started to rise up again from outside the cave.
Ming Yao darted everywhere and started to complain to Lin Ke again, “It’s already the Tria.s.sic period. Are we still eating roasted lizards?”
Lin Ke spread his hands, “We started roasting this lizard during the Permian period. Sigh, how about I go and take a look outside.”
Lin Ke picked up a gun and wandered out into the barren landscape. He actually really managed to catch another reptile. It seemed to be of the same origin as the Anteosaurus and Moschops, but it was a lot smaller. It was about one arm’s length long, and looked like a small hippopotamus, its actions slow and unresisting as it was carried by its neck.
He looked at it for a long time before realizing that this thing had probably existed during the Permian period. It was usually hidden in the forest, but could no longer remain hidden after the forest burned down.
Lin Ke meandered his way back and suddenly looked down, “Hey, why is there a camera here that’s inserted itself into the soil? Is the positioning broken, or did it get trampled…”
He crouched down and straightened the camera.
Although Wu Jin had woken up, the effects of the anaesthetic hadn’t yet faded completely, so Ming Yao a.s.signed him a small stump as a bench. He sat at the entrance of the cave and looked down the mountain.
Nearly 90% of the ecological niches in the originally lush mountains had been destroyed by the volcano, and only half of the trees were left. Moss and exposed ferns now occupied most of the s.p.a.ce on the mountain that had once held complex vegetation. Almost all of the large herbivores that depended on the giant trees to survive were extinct––more deadly than the lack of food was the reduction of oxygen content in the atmosphere.
At the end of the Permian period, the continuous volcano eruptions released a large amount of carbon dioxide in the land and methane hydrate in the sea bed, resulting in the oxygen content of the air of the Tria.s.sic period dropping from 32% to 16% and directly killing the survival chances of larger animals purely through the oxygen supply conditions. Only a few, smaller fish species had been able to escape extinction.
The tree that stood out in the forest would be destroyed by the wind.
Wu Jin’s thoughts wandered, and his eyes gradually turned blank as he flashed back to his dream. His ears turned slightly red.
Ming Yao glanced over at him as he pa.s.sed by and worried about whether or not his brain had turned foolish from the drugs.
It had already been an hour since Lin Ke returned. Ming Yao had almost finished calibrating the fourth tranquilizer gun, while Wu Jin had already practically melded with the tree stump.
Lin Ke’s brand new cooking ingredients were instantly welcomed by all his teammates.
“After the ma.s.s extinction, only this kind of thing is left.” Lin Ke shook the small hippopotamus in his hands as he spoke, “Look at the rough skin and thick flesh!”
Ming Yao recognized it with a glance, “Oh, it’s a Lystrosaurus!”
Lin Ke and Sora also immediately came to a realization. This animal had been mentioned several times in the Crosson handouts––it had no special advantages and had just been lucky enough to survive through the great extinction while those who’d been better than it somehow returned back to Mother Earth. So, the Lystrosaurus was somehow able to dominate the land for millions of years until the rise of the Archosaur.
“Don’t eat it. We’ll raise it.” Ming Yao waved his hand, “For better or worse, it’s the future overlord, and we should give it some respect. Now, the first thing we need to do is find new Evolution Points––”
Ming Yao suddenly froze.
The only clue they’d had for obtaining the Evolution Point rewards were the Moschops footprints. Once the Permian period was over, the Moschops had already become extinct.
“Back to the valley.” Ming Yao finally decided that they should still take the team back to take a look.
Before leaving, the few of them tied up the Lystrosaurus tightly, and Sora carefully controlled the length of the rope so that it wouldn’t be able to gnaw at Wu Jin’s beloved small tree stump.
The team once again set out by foot along the mountain path. The sight that greeted their eyes had been completely changed.
Without the giant trees and predators that lived among them, the contestants’ sense of security rose up. Sora reported the situation as they walked without taking any pains to lower the volume of his voice:
“We might be the only team nearby. I’m not completely sure––nearby refers to the entire valley surrounded by mountains on all sides. Smoke rose up from the southeast before the volcano erupted, but it was very far away and was at least beyond the ridge. That team shouldn’t pose a threat to us for the time being.”
Ming Yao was immediately much more relieved, “We don’t have many Evolution Points left. If the other teams don’t come over, we won’t head their way, either.”
Wu Jin listened to them and suddenly spoke up to remind them, “The valley basin… is very wide.”
Sora looked at him.
“The teams are basically all isolated. If the program group’s ultimate goal is to gather all the players together, they wouldn’t have left us such a large s.p.a.ce for survival.” Wu Jin thought about it and gave an example, “It’s like every team has an ecological niche position that won’t be interfered with. After the ma.s.s extinction, resources are limited, and the teams are unlikely to engage in any sort of warfare before they acc.u.mulate sufficient capital.”
Ming Yao understood, “Is it possible that… We need to climb over the mountain ridge in order to fight for supplies?”
Wu Jin looked up towards the mountains.
After the Permian period, the tectonic plates shifted, and the most famous continent in geological history was formed after the great extinction. In the simplified model created by the Crosson Show, the changes in the map were also very obvious.
The high mountain ridge blocked their way forward, and the river behind them acted as a natural moat.
Wu Jin shook his head to indicate that it was inconclusive, “It requires too much effort to cross the river. I’m guessing that it might be deliberate.”
“In order to give each team enough room to develop.”
In the valley plain.
A steady stream of water surged among the rocks. With the extinction of the Moschops, the half-eaten body of the Moschops by the river bank had also disappeared.
Wu Jin seriously suspected that when the program group came by to pack up the two Anteosaurus, they’d also packed up the remains and stuffed them into the cage with them like leftovers.
There were no supply boxes along the empty riverbanks.
Ming Yao thought about it for a long time, “The emergence of the supply boxes in the previous two instances was related to the top existences during the Permian period. After the great extinction, the next overlord is the Lystrosaurus… should we go back and follow the Lystrosaurus?”
Lin Ke raised his hand, “When I caught that thing, I followed it around for a while. It seemed that it was just moving randomly and eating whatever it saw like a happy little domesticated animal. I didn’t see any others with it.”
“……” Ming Yao thought to himself that they might as well have eaten the Lystrosaurus that morning, and Sora suddenly felt strongly that only those who weren’t picky eaters would be able to survive and not become extinct.
Ming Yao thought for a moment, “Then, let’s go and look for the next evolutionary overlords after the Lystrosaurus. The Archosaurs seem to become dinosaurs in the future. What form do they take at this time––”
Wu Jin answered him quickly, “Ancient crocodiles and Choristodera––in short, they all look like crocodiles!”
Ming Yao slapped his thigh, “Let’s go to the swamp!”
Based on the view from the ridge, the river spread out into a swamp delta further downstream from the rocky landscape. To the surprise of the team, the happy and chubby Lystrosaurus was also present at the swamp. Other than during the Tria.s.sic period, there didn’t seem to be any other herbivorous overlord like this who were so casual about food on the blue planet.
Lin Ke immediately walked ahead of them and held up a torch to keep all the other living beings at bay. One or two predatory crocodiles would occasionally appear in the swamp, and the closer they came to the bank, the more creatures were gathered together. At their feet was a Lystrosaurus that was busy eating some kind of aquatic algae.
The swamp mud roiled suddenly.
Lin Ke shouted out and dodged to the side, while Ming Yao reflexively raised up his tranquilizer gun. Suddenly, something long and sharp broke out of the water, fiercely s.n.a.t.c.hing up the Lystrosaurus before sinking back down and splashing mud all over Lin Ke’s body. There was a stir in the dirty water, and Wu Jin’s eyes brightened––
The other three reacted at the same time and ran towards the silver light that had just flashed on the other side of the bank.
A supply box!
Ming Yao quickly opened it up. The supply box seemed small and exquisite resting next to the swamp, and there was a dice-shaped Evolution Point exchanger placed in the center on a soft satin surface.
“Stingy!” Ming Yao was unhappy, “There were at least 20 Evolution Points the first time, and there were 12 the second time. This time, there’s only 1.”
When he looked back, he found that Wu Jin was currently staring after the crocodile-shaped Archosaur that had disappeared into the mud. His eyes were still shining brightly.
By the time Wu Jin came back to his senses, he was surprised to find that the rest of the team had already finished their discussion and agreed to place the Evolution Point back into the supply box.
According to Sora, the supply box would be recycled by the program group after the Evolution Point was removed. However, they were unable to determine if there were any other teams around––they might as well simply wait in the swamp and use the supply box as bait to try and see if anyone would send themselves their way and then catch them.
Wu Jin nodded. The tip of his ears shifted slightly when his teammates mentioned ‘other teams’.
That night, they could no longer hold back their curiosity and ate a small roasted Lystrosaurus. They then concluded that the biological taste of living creatures prior to mammals were nearly the same as that of lizards.
Ming Yao quickly raised up a hand to refute this point and suggested a variety of dishes like insect BBQ, giant fern salad, and so on. He was very regretful that the giant dragonflies from the earlier era had been exterminated before he could eat them… Lin Ke choked, and almost spat out the roasted meat that he hadn’t finished swallowing down.
After having enough to eat and drink, the team put out the fire, set up traps, and camped beside the river. They decided to watch over the swamp in pairs.
Wu Jin and Lin Ke were in the same group. Based on the task distribution, they were to stay up for the second half of the night. However, as they were sleeping on the soft river bank, they would still wake up with their ears perked up whenever a breeze came by.
Lin Ke was a large shape beside him, sleeping without a care in the world as he listened to the murmur of the river. Seeing that Wu Jin was sitting up again, he spoke in a half-awake state, “Brother Wu, who are you waiting for? You’re keeping watch so diligently… just like a little sister waiting in a bamboo house for a big brother to climb up the ladder for a visit. Hey, as I said, we’re the only team around here. Just go to sleep…”
After talking in his sleep, he went right back into dreamland.
Wu Jin sat by the river bank and seemed oblivious to his surroundings.
He suddenly took out the tranquilizer gun and read the list of ingredients for the anesthesia that was printed to the side of the gun by moonlight, then compared it with the after-effects.
After one day and one night, the anaesthetic had fully made its way through his system along with his body moisture. Rationality returned, and his logical thinking was once again precise.
It was impossible. It couldn’t be a hallucination––the river was surging, and the heartbeat in his chest became more intense as he suddenly bounced up.
At the edge of the swamp, Ming Yao was startled by Wu Jin who’d come over looking both happy and fanatical, “Ah? You can’t sleep? You want to stay up all night? You slept too much after being hit by the tranquilizer gun… Oh, that’s okay… Ah, you’re okay, right? There’s really no after effects?”
Nothing happened that night.
After Ming Yao woke up, he looked at Wu Jin like he’d just seen a ghost.
This person was as energetic as someone who’d gotten a full nine hours of sleep. His small curls were still fluffy, and there was no layer of exhaustion at all––could it be that White Moonlight had a special night watch position?!