Chapter Ch91.2 - Pterosaur
translator: xiin
editors: apricot & juurensha
The young dinosaur stretched out a pale claw. Its brothers and sisters who’d come out of their eggs before it were gathered together beside it. It gave a small, silent whimper and breathed weakly.
The female dinosaur finally lowered its neck.
Seeing that the female dinosaur was making a move, Lin Ke breathed out a sigh of relief. The female dinosaur had originally been using its nose to test the temperature of the nest. It rubbed against the weakest baby dinosaur, then suddenly opened up its mouth, crushing the egg sh.e.l.l with one bite and attacking the baby’s neck.
Then came the sound of the baby dinosaur’s neck breaking.
“F*ck me––” Lin Ke was about to rush out from behind their bunker when he was abruptly pressed back down.
Ming Yao and Sora looked back simultaneously––Wu Jin’s brows were twisted into a frown as he let go of Lin Ke.
Lin Ke calmed down, but he was unconvinced. “Brother Wu, I have no objection to killing in the food chain, but that’s a baby that’s only just opened its eyes, and it’ll live on as long as it’s taken out of its sh.e.l.l. And, there’s still an egg that hasn’t hatched…”
Wu Jin waited quietly for him to finish speaking. Lin Ke’s voice grew increasingly weak. He’d originally been full of confidence, but he slowly started to feel guilty under Wu Jin’s gaze.
“Natural selection. It serves to ensure that only good genes continue.” Wu Jin finally spoke.
“Dinosaurs weren’t the dominant species until the end of the Tria.s.sic period. In order for them to evolve faster towards their superior, dominant position, some female dinosaurs would eat the weaker young who were unable to break through their sh.e.l.ls––removing their ability to pa.s.s on their inferior genes right in the cradle.”
“The female dinosaur’s behavior isn’t something she has a choice on. Besides, she also needs nutrition to raise her young.”
Ming Yao finally understood, and picked up where Wu Jin left off, “About that, Little Witch is talking about natural selection…”
In the nest in the middle of the farm, the female dinosaur finished eating the last baby dinosaur that hadn’t come out of its sh.e.l.l, then brought its healthy offspring to the river.
The team finished watching the show and went back to doing whatever they were supposed to be doing. Before leaving, Ming Yao suddenly looked back and noticed that Wu Jin was still staring at the eggsh.e.l.ls. However, in the next second, Little Witch had already picked up a primitive hoe and left to continue building their infrastructure and it all seemed to be just an illusion.
He suddenly thought about how Little Witch never seemed to bring up his parents and family when they talked. Even if he, Lin Ke, and Sora went on, he would just be listening carefully from the side.
However, Ming Yao tossed it to the back of his mind in the next second.
Night and day alternated six hours later.
The group of giant herbivorous Kannemeyeria ate leaves for six hours and didn’t move until the Archosaur in the swamp leapt up and caught one for a late night snack.
The team then discovered that the original Archosaur had also evolved––its snout was longer, and it had armored skin all over its body. It had turned into a real crocodile-like species.
In the late Tria.s.sic period, after the fat and lazy Lystrosaurus were eliminated, the crocodile-like species were much stronger than the dinosaurs, and their body sizes were much larger than dinosaurs as well. It wasn’t until the beginning of the Jura.s.sic period––that some herbivorous dinosaurs that finally had the s.p.a.ce to grow turned into huge dinosaurs. Carnivorous dinosaurs were constantly pressured and smeared into the earth by the crocodiles.
There were still only a few varieties of dinosaurs in the valley. When the sun set to the west, the mother of the baby dinosaurs returned with its group of young, and there was another conflict with the Daemonosaurus. The two dinosaurs were similar in size, and pecked at each other with no clear winner. The female dinosaur then tried to hunt Wu Jin, who was lying by the riverbank and basking in the sun.
Its hunt failed, and Wu Jin ended up petting a few of the silly young.
In the end, the family of dinosaurs could only eat insects to vent their anger.
Wu Jin was thinking and discussing with his teammates, “It looks like a Coelophysis, but it’s a bit small…”
Sora nodded, “It’s more aggressive than the marmot, and it can probably evolve towards being carnivorous. The marmot just ate some salad earlier.”
Lin Ke waved his hand, “That silly marmot. It seems that it’ll only be able to evolve into a herbivore. I keep telling it, it’s going to lose like that!”
That night, the supply box reappeared. The team sucked in deep breaths when they opened it upk2013;k2013;there were a full 12 Evolution Points.
They used two points for necessitiesk2013;k2013;breathing equipment. The rest continued to be invested back into further evolution by the team.
By the time the sun rose up again, Wu Jin, who’d just woken up from a shallow sleep, felt his breath catch.
There were over a dozen types of herbivorous dinosaurs of varying sizes roaming the gra.s.sland by the river. Small black shadows flashed through the jungle, and sounds of howling came from the dense ferns––
Amidst this scene of prosperity, new predators had also appeared!
Ming Yao came charging out of the forest and returned to the camp. His face was full of delight, “The howling ones are Coelophysis, two adults, and they hunt cooperatively. There’s also a Staurikosaurus and––”
Wu Jin suddenly saw that he was surrounded by a fence. “What is this…?”
Ming Yao waved his hand in a grand gesture, “Oh! It was originally used to enclose the Daemonosaurus, but the marmot we raised has disappeared. They probably went extinct near the end of the Tria.s.sic period.”
“Originally, we enclosed it because it was a treasure, but now––Sora said that compared with the fierce Coelophysis, the sleeping Little Witch is more of a treasure. So we simply decided to use it to block the dinosaurs for you!”
Wu Jin: “……” Were they treating the Coelophysis like they didn’t need to be enclosed?
However, Ming Yao soon changed the subject. He claimed to want to show Wu Jin a strange, curious thing.
The two of them trekked all the way into the depths of the jungle. The vines hung low, and moss covered the branches near the base of the huge trees.
Ming Yao suddenly kicked at a dead tree trunk.
The moss quivered.
Wu Jin was surprised to find that there were living things hidden in the green moss. It was a group of lizards that were a protective green color and walked on four feet––Ming Yao kicked it again, and the lizards quickly attempted to escape, shifting to their hind feet. They had thin skeletons, and a thin, inconspicuous membrane could be seen over their forelimbs.
Ming Yao blew out a breath and said, “I caught one. They don’t have much meat and aren’t tasty. But, I always feel as though I’ve seen them before on some page of a textbook.”
Wu Jin nodded solemnly, and Ming Yao glanced over. Only then did he realize that he looked really excited.
“Scleromochlus.” Wu Jin spoke very quickly, “One of the most primitive versions of the bird variety of Archosaurs. Their skeletons are light, and they eventually evolve towards having hollow bones.”
“They evolve into the first vertebrate in biological history that can fly.”
Ming Yao’s eyes suddenly lit up, “––Pterosaur!”
At the end of the Tria.s.sic period, crocodiles and swamps were practically interlinked. The carnivorous dinosaurs hadn’t yet reached as tall as the human waist, and the four man team had no need to be afraid of any beast.
That night, the team ended up in a trance when they opened up the supply box and found a full 26 Evolution Points inside.
“So this is what it feels like to have enough..”
There were undoubtedly 26 points packed into the box.
That night, when the program group robots appeared to change out the species, Wu Jin instantly woke up in a second.
Since the Scleromochlus had appeared, then it was most likely that the Pterosaurs would be sent over to the valley in this round.
Once the Pterosaurs appeared––
Wu Jin looked at the high mountain ridge to the distance.
The crescent moons gave the mountain a pale glow. When the volcanoes erupted, the tectonic plates had compressed and the entire plane had been cut apart by the ridges. At the end of the Tria.s.sic period, in the newly remodeled ecosystems, the mountains had become a barrier preventing any species from climbing over.
This would last until the sky was given to the Pterosaurs.
The build-up of each team wouldn’t continue on endlessly. Pterosaurs could flap their wings and cross the mountains and skies, moving at will from one mountain basin to another and acting as a deterrent for the players scattered all around. Pterosaurs were the end stop of the evolution in the Tria.s.sic species, and a communication signal that could be sent between teams with blocked flows of information––
When one saw a Pterosaur, they would know that there must be a team that had climbed up to the top of the evolutionary tree.
Which meant that they weren’t far off from war.
In the dark, Wu Jin’s eyes were sparkling as he squinted into the depths of the jungle.
He wanted to personally witness the birth of the first Pterosaur.
Pterosaurs would exploit a niche that had never existed before, doubling a team’s Evolution Points exponentially. Then––he could quickly arm himself up with the Evolution Points, trading it in for sophisticated, technologically advanced equipment.
And then.
Leave this sealed valley.
Go… and confess.
Wu Jin, who was exposed to the cold wind, suddenly jumped up and rubbed his face, walking around a bit to get rid of the heat on his face.
Ming Yao, who was taking the night watch, looked around and blew out a breath, “I thought the Pterosaur were coming. How come it turned out to be you dancing, Little Witch…”
At this time, the Crosson Show robot flew off with a whir and headed towards the next team base.
In the dark jungle, there was the sound of flapping wings, and the two of them looked up in surprise––
There were strange sounding chirps in the night sky!
In the Crosson Show broadcast studio, Ying Xiangxiang smiled broadly as she showed a close up of a Pterosaur.
There was a frenzied riot in the scrolling comments.
“Where is my great G.o.d Azhdarchid Pterosaur!?”, “Hey! Hatzegopteryx Pterosaur, right here! Your Azhdarchid just has a long neck. Wide wingspans represent the real Pterosaur!”, “Is it fun to pretend loyalty to the little Hatz? I’m taking away my male G.o.d Hatzegopteryx so you can’t have it!!”, “Comparing wingspans? @my king Quetzalcoatl!” “Dear Quetzalcoatlus, please flap your wings and blow away my homework…”
Blood Pigeon was confused, “What is that all about?”
Ying Xiangxiang took over the commentary and switched cameras again. She spoke gently, “Enough playing––let’s continue watching the game. Now, it’s very coincidental––”
“There are two teams that evolved Pterosaurs at the same time, even though their evolutionary paths were totally different. The first team is Ming Yao, Little Witch, Lin Ke, and Sora, and the other team…”
The camera rotated.
The winds were cold, and the mountain cliff was steep.
Wei Shi stretched out a hand to feed the wild animal that fluttered in the air. Its long, sharp beak tore the meat out of a hand that was enclosed in a sniper glove.
The creature hadn’t yet eaten enough when Wei Shi let go and tossed the meat off the cliff. The creature squawked and wanted to go and s.n.a.t.c.h it up, but its slender neck was suddenly grasped by Wei Shi––
The pure black sniper glove was placed precisely beneath the long, toothless jaw.
When he let go again, the animal was so frightened that it didn’t dare disobey him.
This was a Pterosaur with a red crown, an iron blue beak, and a wingspan of nearly two meters.
There was another piece of meat.
Even before the beak could touch the meat, the food was once again tossed off the cliff.
It was the fattiest ribeye portion of a Kannemeyeria, something an adult Pterosaur with grown claws might not be able to take down on their own.
The Pterosaur shook its wings and clearly wanted to eat it very badly.
However, four consecutive repeats of the conditioned feeding–throwing meat–getting caught finally made it so that it only dared to stay obediently by Wei Shi’s side.
“Good.” Wei Shi praised indifferently.
The fifth piece of meat.
The Pterosaur’s mouth quivered. Its brain capacity was too small, making it completely impossible for it to think.
“Stop.” Wei Shi suddenly stoked a hand over the Pterosaur’s crown, then struck its long beak.
The Pterosaur obediently stopped and stared at the meat, but didn’t dare to eat it.
Wei Shi was finally satisfied.
The Pterosaur had a wingspan of about two meters, which wasn’t far off from twelve meters. After a few more evolutions, it would be nearly time for the Quetzalcoatlus to appear.
It could be used as a dowry.
The man wore goggles, and the equipment on his body was worth a full 140 Evolution Points and could only be called luxurious. He gestured for the Pterosaur to fly down the cliff.
The Pterosaur was forced to spread open its shoulder blades and was lifted down by the air current. At the same time, Wei Shi also jumped out into the air.
A set of gliding wings unfolded––
The camera that was installed at the top of the mountain could no longer follow after them.
There was a pause in the scrolling comments, followed by a frenzy of comments, “Holy sh*t! That’s so f*cking hot!”
Juurensha: Awww before Little Witch can confess, WS has already brought him a ptresaur as a dowry!
xiin: d.a.m.n, Wei Shi looks so bada.s.s. and WJ might be thinking of confessing, but WS is already preparing for marriage… little witch darling, you seem to be a few steps behind…