Chapter 92 - Leaving The Valley
Chapter 92 - Leaving The Valley
translator: xiin
editors: apricot & juurensha
Early in the morning, the first ray of sunlight came into the mountain basin––and Lin Ke was so shocked that his eyes almost fell out of their sockets.
12 Evolution Points were stacked up tidily in the middle of the camp. Ming Yao was smiling so broadly his eyes couldn’t be seen, and the head of a giant creature popped out of the dense forest off in the distance. It had a narrow head, and a body that was nearly ten meters long. Its two short hands were dark green with a back that was mottled with orange patterns––
The largest herbivore in the Triassic period that symbolized the ecological peak of its time, the Plateosaurus.
Lin Ke was shocked into a daze. By the time he looked up again, there was a dark shadow in the sky. “Brother Ming, what’s that? Where’s brother Wu?”
Ming Yao pointed at the Evolution Points, “We put in 26 points yesterday, and they returned 12 back to us. It should be that we’ve almost reached the top of the evolutionary chain. As for Wu Jin,” he said, pointing towards the jungle, “He’s raising a Pterosaur over there!”
At the edge of the jungle, Wu Jin had pulled out a rope from somewhere and tied it to the small feet of the Pterosaur. He would occasionally give it some slack and sometimes reel it back in. He even ran after it in delight.
Ming Yao watched for a while, “How come it looks like a child flying a kite?”
Lin Ke murmured, “It seems like the kite is flying Brother Wu...”
The Pterosaur’s wingspan was no more than 60 cm, and it might be one of the most primitive types of Pterosaur. It couldn’t fly too high and could only flutter up and down.
As soon as it was time, Wu Jin picked up a small food bowl and clanged against it. The Pterosaur wanted to keep flying, but was shocked to find itself carefully reeled back in by Wu Jin via the nylon rope. Two fragrant roasted lizards rested on the fern leaves. It looked around at everyone, then finally headed towards the meat.
“Is this dinosaur training?!” Ming Yao looked at the small food bowl in Wu Jin’s hand.
Wu Jin nodded, “Building up conditioned reflexes. Pavlov once performed a series of experiments...”
Ming Yao tore off a chunk of roasted meat and listened. Suddenly, he stretched out a hand, wanting to poke the Pterosaur’s wings––but he was shocked into pulling back by its squawks.
This was a Peteinosaurus that was halfway to adulthood. As the first vertebrate that could ascend up to the skies, it was very beautiful––specifically speaking, its body was a mess of color.
Wu Jin was obviously very interested in it.
The next day, after consuming another small amount of Evolution Points, the ecology flourished further, and the second batch of Pterosaurs appeared as expected. For the first time, Ming Yao traded points in for a 100 meter sniper thrust gun, while Wu Jin traded for armor and a small amount of ammunition. The reward in the supply box had increased to 54 Evolution Points.
On the third day.
Ming Yao crouched on the ground and was fully dedicated to counting dragons. Suddenly, he looked up at the sky in shock, “That one... the wingspan is one point five meters, right? Is it one of ours?”
Sora was dazed, “It doesn’t seem to be...”
Ming Yao leapt up with a swish, “There are other teams that have cultivated Pterosaurs!! I’m going to go find Little Witch!”
Very quickly, Wu Jin appeared with a small food bowl in hand. The four of them made a unanimous decision.
Leave the valley.
The ecosystem in the mountain basin was now saturated, and it could almost be said that they had too many species. Further expansion of the ecological niche was limited by the size of their territory––unless they annexed valleys that belonged to other players.
Their team had abundant supplies and weren’t afraid to fight it out with other contestants, except for the trainee who’d released that strange Pterosaur.
As Wu Jin had expected, Pterosaurs were the only signal that could be communicated between the isolated mountain basins, and it was also the symbol for impending war.
Lin Ke slapped his thigh, “Ah, I get it. It’s like that, a letter from afar, wrapped up in the belly of a fish!”
Ming Yao retorted, “Can you even use words? It’s a battle letter! When they released the Pterosaur, it was a signal to fight!”
On the last night before they set out, the valley was steaming hot with the heat of the Triassic period.
Lin Ke woke up in a daze and suddenly saw a figure moving in the forest, “Hey, Brother Wu, you’re not sleeping yet&#k2026;?”
The thin fog covered the mountains with a light layer of haze. Wu Jin turned around to greet Lin Ke, and the Peteinosaurus behind him struck out half of its long head.
After Lin Ke left.
Wu Jin loosened the nylon rope that was tied to the Pterosaur’s claw, then retied it on the other claw.
The Peteinosaurus had a very small brain capacity. It called out as it followed behind him. One cry meant that it wanted to eat, and two cries meant that it wanted to eat, hey, it still wanted to eat.
However, Wu Jin was still very earnest with giving it some early training, “The Quetzalcoatl, also known as the Quetzalcoatlus, lived during the late Cretaceous period, and was by far the largest king of the skies.”
“It was also the most tragic king.”
“Its niche was constantly filled up by bird species that emerged later. It could choose to adapt and evolve, become smaller, burrow, and snatch food like the birds, or it could choose to specialize––reduce its population in future generations, cut off any path of retreat, and become larger.”
“They chose the second option. Specialization is a road of no return.” Wu Jin gestured with the little Pterosaur’s wingspan, “From 60 centimeters to two meters, to five meters, to twelve meters. Once its wingspan increased, it would become locked in with the fate of the Cretaceous period––no longer able to resist natural disasters and face extinction. It could only survive and coexist with the Mesozoic era.”
The little Pterosaur called out in high spirits.
Wu Jin sighed and stroked a hand over the Pterosaur’s head.
The Pterosaurs were born to be masters of the skies, and in death, they still had the aura of kings.
The Mesozoic era was its country, and the birds were its people. Its people could survive, and the monarch had died with pride.
“Grow up quickly.” Wu Jin stroked the little Pterosaur, his eyes sparkling and bright.
He wanted to give the Pterosaur to someone.
After the last mass extinction of the Cretaceous period, only birds remained in the sky, and Pterosaurs were forever buried in legends and fossils. The entire Pterosaur population were legendary existences in evolutionary history––they clearly had countless opportunities to give up on specialization, yet they’d been completely unwilling to deviate from their path.
All Pterosaurs that remained until the late Cretaceous period, including the Quetzalcoatlus, all had a distinguished name––
Azhdarchid Pterosaurs.
Abide by honor, spread their wings and fly, living and dying together without regrets.
The sky slowly grew bright.
The team of four took one last glance around the bustling valley.
Lin Ke was commandeering a huge Plateosaurus to clear the field in all directions, herding a group of small animals beyond the warning line and taking the opportunity to pull out a Coelophysis that didn’t seem to understand its position in life from the Plateosaurus’ calf, “Hey, holy crap, how could there be a little fellow like this? Don’t bite, don’t bite, can’t you wait until we’ve finished clearing everything out before eating breakfast?”
Ming Yao was holding the Pterosaur kite for Wu Jin. He looked at the lines that Wu Jin was drawing, “Set off the explosion here?”
Wu Jin nodded, “C4’s ** safety is high. It has a strong degree of damage, but no fire. Just blow up a hole here!”
A barrier towered in front of the two of them. The mountain blockages designed by the program group weren’t very thick, and the C4 bombs that could be obtained with two Evolution Points had been enough since a long time ago. Their team had already accumulated a full 160 Evolution Points before now, but Wu Jin had rejected the suggestion to leave the dinosaurs behind and have the four of them cross the mountains to engage in guerrilla warfare.
A growth rate of 70 Evolution Points was far from enough in Wu Jin’s point of view.
If they could take over the valley nearby and use the dinosaurs they had on hand to colonize that evolutionary niche––then they would have 140 points per day. Even Ming Yao was shocked by Wu Jin’s ideas, and finally gave him a thumbs up.
“Boom––”
The mountain collapsed first, releasing clouds of billowing smoke, and then the shock wave and loud noise hit, causing the animals to run around in a panic. The little Pterosaur that was being held by Ming Yao was so scared that it tried to make a break for it, pulling the nylon string into a straight line.
Wu Jin hurriedly took back the rope and opened his mouth.
Ming Yao: “?? Wh––at––? I––can’t––hear––you! My eardrums hurt from the explosion!”
Wu Jin: “Are you––unable––to––comfort––it a little?”
“......” Ming Yao stared at the little Pterosaur that was shaking in Wu Jin’s arms and rubbed his eyes, “If I dare to try and hold it, this thing will peck through my head!”
A while later, everything was ready.
On the other side of the mountain, the group of trainees who were observing the small crocodiles in the swamp were stunned when they saw the gap that had appeared out of the blue, “How come it exploded? Wait, how could there be something over ten meters long moving over there––”
Their vision cleared up.
A huge Plateosaurus appeared in the middle of their field of vision. A fully armed Wu Jin sat up straight on the dinosaur’s back, his dark goggles blocking out the roiling smoke. Beside him, Ming Yao was riding on a Kannemeyeria, while Sora and Lin Ke were seated on two separate herbivorous dinosaurs. They were all well-equipped from top to bottom.
Behind them.
Dinosaurs and beasts of various sizes travelled overland or flew in the sky as they stepped out of the huge hole created by the blast. They were all howling one after another as the originally crowded and overflowing evolutionary niche in the valley finally found an outlet––
The prosperous and mature late Triassic period ecology poured in like a flood into this early Triassic period valley.
The original overlord of this valley––the Lystrosaurus, ran off. The Archosaurs that were about to climb out of the swamps looked stupidly at the Plateosaurus before unhesitatingly diving back in.
“......” The primitive trainees of the valley jumped back, “Holy shit!”
Wu Jin had no idea that at the same time, on a mountain ridge over ten miles away, Wei Shi swooped down from the sky on a triangular glider, eliminating two players and completing the first raid. Nearly 100 Pterosaurs flew in behind him.
Crosson Show broadcast studio.
The atmosphere in the livestream was once again pushed up to a peak as the camera view switched back and forth between several groups of contestants.
Ying Xiangxiang’s words were extremely fast, and she was obviously as excited as the audience was, “Little Witch and Ming Yao’s team has left their mountain valley! Contestant Wei has also started making a move! ––Now then, we can see that there are five teams with an abundance of supplies.”
“Among them, only Wu Jin and his team have evolved in an all-round way. Contestant Wei has placed all his chips on the single species specialization of the Pterosaurs, while in the other three teams, Zoe has given up on the dinosaurs and instead focused on the crocodile types. It’s a very bold choice,” Ying Xiangxiang sighed emotionally, “He can obtain advantages that the other teams don’t have.”
Blood Pigeon nodded, “In the Mesozoic era, the only ones who can compete with the dinosaurs are the Sarcosuchus, the emperor crocodiles. However, Zoe’s choice in evolution means that he can only fight land battles.” Blood Pigeon continued watching the camera, “Zuo Botang’s team... this group has chosen to go with Theropods, which will also exist for a long time. However, nobody has been able to guess what he’s trying to do up till now. There’s one other group...”
Blood Pigeon was unable to find another team with ‘abundant supplies’.
Ying Xiangxiang smiled, “Caesar. From the Permian period to the Triassic period, he’s accumulated the most abundant food reserves.”
The camera panned over several key players. Blood Pigeon spoke again, “Contestant Wei Yan... At the start of the game, he directly killed off two large Lystrosaurus and a crocodile, destroying the initial ecological balance. He was unable to generate new Evolution Points, but I still believe that Contestant Wei Yan is a powerful contestant who can win without making use of the rules. Instructor Ying, who do you think will win this competition?”
Ying Xiangxiang thought about it, “I pick one of the Scarves, because of the Pterosaur––I believe in the ability to control the air.”
Blood Pigeon smiled, “Let’s see how it plays out.”
On the screen.
Wu Jin’s team quickly broke through to the unprepared valley belonging to another team, using their advantage in equipment to eliminate the other three trainees.
After finding the location of the supply boxes, the team pushed forward again.
Ying Xiangxiang suddenly froze, “Wait a minute, they’re heading towards coordinate E006?!”
The camera lens switched. Almost at the same time Wei Shi had led the Pterosaurs to the other side of E006.
The sound of an explosion rang out again.
In the limited field of vision, the two teams were far away from each other.
Wu Jin’s heart skipped a beat.
In his ears, strange animals cried out loudly, and his field of vision was shaking constantly due to the trampling from giant beasts. The air was filled with a dense flock of Pterosaurs that gathered around the leading Pterosaur that had a wingspan nearly two meters wide.
The leader of the Pterosaurs followed beside the big boss.
Wei Shi also saw Wu Jin at the same time.
Across a distance of hundreds of meters, his line of sight swept across the youth’s pale lips, the eyebrows and eyes that were covered by goggles, and the tight yet soft waist. His gaze burned hot with aggression.
He licked his lips briefly.
It was like a secret signal had been sent and received. Wu Jin suddenly leapt up from the back of the Plateosaurus.
He hadn’t been dreaming, he hadn’t remembered wrong––
The man raised his brow.
The Pterosaurs circling around him took off from the top of the mountain ridge one after another as he leapt down from the cliff. His pure black cloak flapped out with a predatory sound.
In the live broadcast room, Ying Xiangxiang gave a quick cry of surprise, “We were just saying that kings won’t see other kings––”
Wu Jin leapt out like an arrow released from the string. The Plateosaurus beneath his body roared, and the Pterosaur that belonged only to him quickly followed suit.
From the birth of an era to the end of an era, the Phanerozoic, Mesozoic, spanning 50 million years of the Triassic period.
From the first birth in the ashes to the first flying Pterosaur.
They finally meet each other again.
Juurensha: Dinosaur army, so cool.
xiin: this is like the epic version of SAHRJ omg~ also i’m fanning myself over Wei Shi here ahhhhhhhh