Chapter Ch88.2 - Pelycosaur

translator: xiin

editors: apricot & juurensha

Wu Jin made a sound of acknowledgement.

The pupils of the youth were bright with electricity, reflecting a cold light. His figure flashed as he calmly stated the facts, “The indicator for the end of the Permian period is the P-Tr extinction. 90% of the existing species disappeared, the largest percentage in the geological era, and this event became the mother of mass extinction.”

There was silence in the forest. A long time later, Ming Yao hissed, “The stakes are high. I was just thinking, why would the program group push the time forward? Isn’t this just killing off the contestants?! What should we do?”

Wu Jin didn’t give a precise answer. The environment in the fourth elimination match was too complex, and he still didn’t fully understand the competition system. “Collect as much supplies as possible and observe.”

“10% of the species survived. We’ll do what they do.”

The four man team finally finished their short rest on the lush branches of the reeds.

The spine sail of the Pelycosaurs allowed them to adapt to the temperature for a short period of time, but it also ensured that they couldn’t remain in the cold rain for too long.

About half an hour later, the leading creature finally left with the rest of the Pelycosaurs.

Wu Jin sat high in the branches, hiding under the parachute cloth as he watched the long line of blood red sails lumber away. Those towering, terrifying fan-shaped sails showed hints of intimidating eyespots that hadn’t yet been fully evolved.

Like the moths from the second elimination match.

From the Permian period to the Holocene epoch, there were countless mass extinctions, changes, and endless cycles of life and death.

It rained for two straight hours before finally coming to an end.

After the rain subsided, the team began to look through the supplies they’d obtained from the Anteosaurus.

In this big Crosson Show map, supplies consisted of far more than just guns and ammunition. Almost every trainee knew not to let their supplies get wet.

Water could cause irreversible damage to precision instruments or cause heat to release prematurely if it entered heating devices ahead of time. Food would also suffer from dampness and deteriorate––the most painful example was one time during a competition with scarce resources, a trainee received a rare ranged AOE lethal weapon and kept it for a long time, but it happened to rain when he opened up the bottle.

This weapon was a large piece of sodium metal that the Crosson Show had perfunctorily stuffed into a kerosene bottle.

The contestant was blasted into his life-saving capsule by a physical explosion on the spot and was said to have been nearly disqualified for ‘retaliatory acts against the program producer’ after he came back out.

At this time, all the supplies they had were in Ming Yao’s hands.

The team jumped down from the tree and gathered around the sniper to watch as he opened up his backpack.

“Give us an SSR, hey.” Lin Ke’s hands were clasped together, “Or an oversized bottle of non-contact vertebrate disposal hormones&#k2026;”

Wu Jin hurriedly added in his wish, “A scanner like a pokemon detector! It can scan the species’ strengths, weaknesses, and capture methods with a beep!”

Ming Yao laughed and expressed surprise that Wu Jin would actually watch this kind of animation that had been out of fashion for hundreds of years. He also wondered if he’d followed the comic series carved in the caves by the cavemen. Then, he made a serious wish for an A12 neutron weapon––

The backpack was opened up.

They all looked blank.

Eight small cubes were piled up in Ming Yao’s backpack, like some sort of chips used at the gambling table. There was nothing else.

The first one to speak in a trembling voice was Ming Yao, “I spent so much effort, just to snatch up 8 pieces… of metallic rice crispies or what…?”

Wu Jin reached out and plucked out a cube.

One side of the cube was printed with the logo of the Evolutionary Scale Laboratory, and five out of the six sides were made of metal. The last side was thick and transparent––

Wu Jin suddenly felt a protruding button and pressed down on it.

A virtual screen slowly appeared along the surface of the glass. A long list floated up into the air, filled with densely packed words. The entries began from 0: ‘0. Breathing equipment’, ‘1. Gun supplies’, ‘2. Clues and maps’, ‘3. Food and medicine’…

There was silence in the forest, and then it exploded with noise.

Ming Yao said everything in one breath, “Is this an exchanger? Can we trade for anything with it? Holy shit we really got a good deal this time how do we use this thing should we hurry up and get some weaponry to snatch more of these things… let’s trade for a few guns first?”

However, Lin Ke raised his hand, “I don’t need one for the time being.” Sora followed suit and expressed that he didn’t need one, either.

Wu Jin thought for a moment, “We’ll trade for one first?”

Ming Yao flushed slightly, “Um, you guys really don’t need one?”

Wu Jin grinned, “Didn’t you say we have to protect the team’s DPS core and arm up the sniper first?”

Wu Jin consulted with his teammates and gave three of the remaining 7 pieces to himself and the other two teammates. The rest were kept by the team as a whole.

By this time, it was already thoroughly dark. The team continued to trek along the hillside towards the rock and gravel shelter belt in the distance.

Ming Yao swiftly studied the exchanger in his hand, and then half of his initial joy disappeared, “42 types of tranquilizer guns, but only two types can be traded for. The rest are greyed out.”

Wu Jin’s eyes shifted, and he seemed to have thought of something, “What about the other categories?”

Ming Yao poked around on the virtual screen, “Maps, medicines, vehicles, and armor––there are 80 or so types listed, but only one or two kinds can be exchanged. There are 366 types of miscellaneous items, but only 8 of them can be obtained.”

Ming Yao selected one out of the two tranquilizer guns available even as he spoke.

The virtual screen changed to a 15 minute cooldown. A quarter of an hour later, the trainees all looked up towards the sky.

The law enforcement machine that was in charge of punishing illegal team formation and passive inactivity during the game glided to a stop above them, landed, collected the cube, and handed Ming Yao the tranquilizer gun.

Wu Jin looked on thoughtfully. Before it left, the law enforcement machine made two rounds around him before flying away.

“I bet it was secretly recording Little Witch!” Ming Yao was delighted as he collected the gun and immediately began to question Little Witch, “––What’s Little Witch thinking about?”

Wu Jin cautiously waited for the machine to disappear before saying in a low, embarrassed voice, “The robot flies quite low to the ground. In case, I’m just saying, in case we really lack supplies, we can take advantage of the time when it lands to stuff it in a sack.”

Ming Yao: “……”

The rainstorm faded, and the double moons broke through the dark clouds one again.

In the bright moonlight, the four of them dug out a Dakota fire hole in the mountain ridge and hesitated between roasting a dark brown lizard or a light brown lizard.

After dinner, Sora volunteered to keep watch. Ming Yao was still trying to explain the theory that ‘lizards are not the ancestors of dinosaurs’ to Lin Ke.

During the second half of the night, Wu Jin, who was keeping watch for the middle shift that night, felt drowsy from his spot by the fire hole.

The hand holding the exchanger twitched lightly.

His mind was confused and floaty as images appeared in his head of a chubby Anteosaurus, a chubby Tyrannosaurus Rex, a chubby Brachiosaurus, the well-proportioned figure of the big boss, a chubby Brachiosaurus…

His fingers subconsciously tightened around the cube.

Big brother had given it to him!

His fingertip rubbed along one side of the cube. He could feel the familiar Red Queen logo even without opening his eyes, and a line of small words was carved beside it…

Wu Jin looked down in confusion.

He wasn’t dreaming.

He woke up fully with a start. At the bottom of the cube shaped chips, there really was a line of faint writing. It had been difficult to detect in the dark, but it could now be seen in the shadows of the fire.

“Evolution Point: 1 point.”

Wu Jin stared at it blankly for a long time before once again glancing over the Red Queen logo.

Memories surfaced.

The Red Queen hypothesis. If any species wanted to gain a favorable position in the ecosystem, it would have to run faster than any other species. In the long run, the victorious competitors weren’t the ones who won in the current period, but rather those whose projected evolutionary potential was superior to the other species.

Wu Jin suddenly stood up from his spot by the fire.

Ming Yao was startled.

Wu Jin held up the cube in his hand, “Rules… the rules of the competition are right here!”

Juurensha: Little Witch is still the smartest! (And the cutest, wanting a pokedex)

xiin: someone asked on the NovelUpdates forums about the Azure Competition Zone, battle teams and how the whole thing is set up. in case you guys also want some clarification, the entire post can be found here.