Chapter Ch90.2 - Triassic Period
Chapter Ch90.2 - Triassic Period
translator: xiin
editors: apricot & juurensha
The team put together their reports from over the course of the night. There had been no special movements in the middle of the night, but the roving robots from the program group had come over twice. The Lystrosaurus, who weren’t picky about food, had eaten quite a bit of grass, or nibbled at each other, or had been eaten by the Archosaurs in the swamp.
The Archosaurs that lurked in the swamp were nowhere to be seen.
Ming Yao finally relaxed his vigilance and continued to complain about the program group as he opened up the supply box––
“What the hell!” Ming Yao’s brain crashed, “Where’s the Evolution Point? What happened to the Evolution Point we put in yesterday?!”
Wu Jin froze and probed around inside.
The supply box was completely empty.
At the edge of the swamp, the team quickly went back over the events of the night. In the first half of the night, Sora and Ming Yao had been on duty first, then Wu Jin had replaced Ming Yao, then Lin Ke had gotten up to replace Sora. There had always been two of them monitoring the swamp, and there was no way anyone could have snuck in under their noses.
Other than the program group’s robots.
Ming Yao’s expression looked like he’d swallowed two dragonflies as he squeezed his words out from between gritted teeth, “This can’t f*cking be the program group...”
Lin Ke hastened to comfort him, “Think positively. Perhaps it was stolen away by the small animals nearby!”
“......” Wu Jin thought to himself that there were hidden buttons outside the box. It wasn’t like mice stealing rice, or even if it was a monkey, they’d still need training before being able to open a box! However, it was possible for them to snatch it back if it had been stolen by animals. If it was taken away by the program team, then they probably wouldn’t get it back even if they decided to start rapping in front of the camera.
But, since this was a competition––the program group wouldn’t do such a thing for no reason. The emergence and disappearance of the Evolution Points must follow some rules.
Finally, the team of four decided to go out and look around again. They would purposely keep an eye out for anything that looked like they could swallow a cube, or anything that had the bulge of a cube in its belly.
An hour later, the team had combed through the area again before reuniting and all reported that there was nothing of note nearby. Only Lin who was good at catching small animals mentioned that there was a delicious looking marmot-like creature next to the sands of the nearby riverbank.
Wu Jin suddenly interrupted him, “Marmot?”
Lin Ke nodded and gestured, “It’s sunken into the soil and only half of its head is exposed. It’s furry, and looks like it would be lunch if it was plucked out.”
Wu Jin: “......Marmots are primates. They’re one of the species that are most genetically similar to humans––and they only appear after the Cretaceous period.”
Lin Ke was silent for a long time, and then seemed to suddenly have experienced a shock, “!! Holy sh*t! Then what did I see?”
The team quickly followed Lin Ke back to the sand. On the way over, Sora slowly spoke up, “I suddenly thought about how someone once said, if you see the head of a marmot in the ground, you never know what the lower part of its body looks like before pulling it out of its hole. Maybe it’s like a snake with a furry head...”
Lin Ke’s face was pale. After they arrived at their destination, he only dared to point over with a trembling hand.
Wu Jin suddenly thought of something and rolled up his sleeves, “It’s in this direction?”
Lin Ke nodded repeatedly, “It’s about 150 meters to the north. I encountered it over there...”
Wu Jin’s eyes seemed to glow, and he was itching to take a look, “Alright, I can see it.”
The youth’s muscles bunched up, then he charged out like an arrow released from the string. Ming Yao, who was behind him, was shocked, “He was still really quiet earlier. How come he’s so wild now?”
Wu Jin ran extremely quickly, putting in an explosive burst of speed without concerning himself about endurance, like a cheetah in the process of hunting. The &#k2018;marmot’ who had half of its head exposed on the beach was startled and leapt up to its feet to escape&#k2013;&#k2013;
Ming Yao stared dazedly for a few seconds before also following over with a swish. His eyes couldn’t help but show his surprise, “If I’d known, I would’ve run over first. Little Witch––hey, Little Witch, slow down, wait for me!”
The animal was dark and hairy and had a mixture of scales and feathers. Its big eyes were terrified, and its two sharp incisors quivered. The forelegs that had just pawed through the sand were extremely short, and it could only run on its hairy hind legs, but perhaps because it was too small––it was only the size of a domestic chicken––it was easily captured by Wu Jin.
Wu Jin carefully avoided the attack from its incisors and lifted it up.
Ming Yao came over and chattered quickly, “Let me touch it let me touch it!”
Sora finally reacted as well and his eyes showed his excitement, “This, this, this, this is...”
Lin Ke: “Local chicken?”
Wu Jin brought the little thing over, and it was soon snatched away by Ming Yao.
“Look at its gait.” Wu Jin gasped for air after his vigorous bout of exercise and explained to Lin Ke, “It walks upright. From the start of the Triassic period, there is only one species that managed to defeat the other mammalian creatures with its upright gait and continued on to become the overlord of the entire late Triassic period, Jurassic period, and even the Cretaceous period.”
“Dinosaurs.”
“This is just a Daemonosaurus, which is one of the earliest and most primitive species of dinosaurs in the world.”
On the other side, Ming Yao was embracing the Daemonosaurus like he was holding a lover from a previous life––even before learning words or starting school, dinosaurs were countless children’s first love in the fields of biology and geology.
The world’s most most most most biggest dinosaur.
The world’s most most most most powerful dinosaur.
Ming Yao pinched the Daemonosaurus’ small claws. It was very difficult to imagine that this little marmot-like thing could evolve into the ferocious Allosaurus or the scary Spinosaurus.
He suddenly thought of something and looked at Wu Jin, “So the Evolution Point––”
Wu Jin nodded, “If I’ve guessed correctly, the Evolution Point didn’t disappear. Instead, it was used by the Archosaur in the swamp. Last night’s robots came over to replace the species.”
“The Archosaur has evolved into a Theropod, the Daemonosaurus.”
All the clues finally connected together. Wu Jin looked up
“The Evolution Points can be used not only by the players, but also by the natural species––all of us together are participants in the Red Queen evolutionary game.”
Ming Yao stilled, “Evolution Points are prizes in the competition, and they’re also rare materials. In other words, in order to win, contestants will probably snatch up all the Evolution Points they can in order to strengthen their own team and block any possibility of evolution for natural species?”
Wu Jin shook his head and replied swiftly, “No.”
“This is due to the conditions that come with the Evolution Points.”
The gazes of the others in the team all sharpened, and they all looked towards Wu Jin.
Since the start of the game, they had only encountered a handful of supply boxes, which contained varying amounts of Evolution Points. They were almost impossible to find.
Wu Jin stroked the Daemonosaurus that was still struggling constantly.
“The supply boxes usually appear in environments where multiple species coexist. I’m thinking about the evolutionary scale, the balance of the species––balance might be one of the conditions for Evolution Points.”
“The supply boxes have shown up three times. The first two showed up at the end of the Permian period, and the triggering condition was the ecological balance of the Therapsid, represented by the Anteosaurus and Moschops. The third time was during the early Triassic period, and there was an ecological balance between the ancient crocodiles, the Choristodera, and the Lystrosaurus.”
“There were more Evolution Points in the first two instances, and there was only one point the third time––assuming that Evolution Points are related to the balance between species, then based on the perspective of biodiversity and the stability rating of an ecological niche, then, if 10 points can be given at the end of the Permian period, then the maximum score at the start of the Triassic period is only one point.”
“This is because there’s an important difference before and after the great extinction. A full 90% of the ecology disappeared in the early Triassic period, and it took millions of years of evolution to make up for it.”
Ming Yao slapped his thigh in understanding, “There’s a ten times difference between them. The number of Evolution Points is an entire order of magnitude lower!”
Even without further analysis from Wu Jin, Ming Yao was able to quickly continue, “Your point is that the conditions for generating Evolution Points is based on the ecological balance, and the amount that is given is determined by the level of biodiversity.”
Wu Jin nodded, “This point alone is enough to change the way the players make decisions.”
He gestured to the team to look at how the teams were all separated by steep mountain ridges and rivers that blocked retreat, “After the volcanic eruptions, the teams were isolated by obstacles and have to operate their ecosystems within the basin.”
“Assuming that a team uses all their Evolution Points in order to arm themselves, one Evolution Point can be obtained every day from the swamp’s ecological balance during the early Triassic period.”
“However, if a certain team puts all their points into biological evolution on the first day, after X days of contributing to the ecological prosperity that will exist at the end of the Triassic period or the beginning of the Jurassic period, then they will be able to obtain at least 20 Evolution Points every day after day X.”
“Over time, the rewards of investing in biological evolution will increase.”
Lin Ke blinked, “So, every team will choose to invest in evolution as a priority––opening up a dinosaur farm?”
Wu Jin’s eyes curved, “Basically!”
Ming Yao snapped his fingers to indicate that he understood.
Sora also nodded and continued watching Wu Jin.
1~20 Evolution Points as rewards, 90% ecological niche, the rules of the game. Wu Jin was able to infer the entire model of the game from several seemingly unrelated pieces of data and conditions, and even infer the decision-making process beneath the model. Wu Jin’s sensitivity to logic design was much higher than he’d imagined.
If White Moonlight had Wu Jin as a substitute for the first special event after the Star League playoffs...
The four of them quickly reached a consensus on the riverbank.
Adding on the booty that Ming Yao had looted from their opponents, the team only had three Evolution Points left. Other than leaving one for emergencies, the rest were placed into the follow-up evolution of the Daemonosaurus. After higher level dinosaurs appeared and started to fill up the niche, they would use the harvested Evolution Points to arm up the team.
They moved their camp over to the river shallows.
Lin K explored the area and marked out the first ‘dinosaur breeding ground’ by the river that would belong to the team. Ming Yao tossed quite a few Lystrosaurus into the area, and the two extremely valuable Evolution Points were placed in a tribute position in the middle.
“After we’ve finished arming ourselves up, we’ll charge out of the valley and kill everyone!” Ming Yao was in high spirits.
Out of the valley––
Wu Jin looked towards the ridge where they’d previously set up camp, and his eyes were shining.
When they were able to leave the valley, he would go and look for someone.
Ming Yao was feeling very emotional, “I really never thought that we would be running for our lives in the volcanic ash in one moment, yet now we’ve already started up a farm.” He thumped his chest, “I’m now also a person who has experienced the transformation of an era!”
Seeing that Wu Jin’s thoughts seemed to have wandered elsewhere, Ming Yao went to find Lin Ke instead, “When the Triassic period began, I was waiting for Little Witch at the door!”
Lin Ke: “I was roasting lizards in the cave!”
Sora: “... I was ventilating the cave to get rid of the oil fumes. What about Little Witch––oh, right, at the time, Little Witch had been shot by a tranquilizer gun...”
Wu Jin’s heart beat faster as he went back over his memories.
The big boss had casually kicked a camera into the ash.
He himself seemed to have survived the rock attack, and then seemed to have run foolishly towards the big boss. He took off his last set of breathing equipment in a last, chivalrous act, and his breathing came short due to the sudden loss of oxygen––
The big boss pressed down on his hand that was attempting to change equipment. His roughened fingertips were inserted into the soft curls behind the back of the youth’s head, and he bent over to force him to look up.
And then.
His pupils suddenly contracted, and the sky spun overhead.
There was an exhale that was as hot as the lava at the center of the crater.
The flow of heat solidified into ancient lava, and smoke and dust was everywhere. The giant fern forest underwent earth shaking changes, and the rudimentary shape of the Pangaea continent began to take form due to the impact on the earth’s crust. Sauropsida, Synapsids, the first batch of angiosperms and even the first flower came into being and began to flourish.
Lips and tongues entangled together.
The end of the Paleozoic era, the end of the Permian period. After experiencing a rebirth, all living beings were like blank slates in a nearly empty ecological niche.
An almost frenzied breath was exchanged between lips and teeth. Coming full circle, with continuous life and growth.
Before the anaesthetic snatched away all consciousness, the two crescent moons were replaced by the rising sun, sprinkling light on the big boss’s face.
He seemed to be smiling.
God said, let there be light.
The Triassic period began.
Juurensha: Super dramatic kiss during an extinction event!
xiin: so that’s why Little Witch was totally hyper for a while...