Chapter Ch97.1 - Cretaceous Period
translator: xiin
editors: apricot & juurensha
Wu Jin’s heart skipped a beat.
The beast’s bulging eyes stared coldly at Wu Jin, reflecting the frightened, round, amber eyes and the seized supplies that were piled up to Wu Jin’s chin––
Wu Jin tossed the supplies away and turned around to run, “Oh god AHHHH––”
The jungle shook violently.
Wu Jin didn’t even pull out his tranquilizer gun as he ran for his life.
Even if four months of training had transformed Wu Jin completely from a boy group lead dancer to a survival show trainee, it hadn’t erased his basic instincts and sanity.
The gap between the two species was huge, and subjective initiative depended on objective conditions.
Wu Jin, who was carrying supplies in front of a Tyrannosaurus Rex… was like an ant carrying a green bean in front of Wu Jin.
Countless branches and leaves cracked and snapped behind him as Wu Jin shuttled frantically between the obstacles.
A Tyrannosaurus Rex’s maximum instantaneous running speed could reach up to 35km/h. Homo sapiens boasted a top speed of 45km/h, but this was an Olympic sprinting champion’s record speed.
––If Wu Jin could run at a top speed of 45km/hour, the entertainment company that had originally packaged him up for the boy group wouldn’t have had him attend the audition. They could’ve bought a water army and hyped up <Surprise! Boy group trainee achieves Olympic results, customized finish line theme song hit list!>
In fact, based on human beings’ general physical fitness, their long-distance running speed was only 16-18km/h. It was far slower than the Tyrannosaurus Rex’s burst of speed during the hunt.
The heavy head charged forward again, and Wu Jin staggered as he dodged, falling to the ground before scrambling back up again. Countless dead branches and crushed leaves fell on his head, and there was an empty, cleared out area behind them.
There was no grass left wherever the Tyrannosaurus Rex had passed by.
The Tyrannosaurus Rex showed its teeth once again.
At this moment, his vision seemed to be broken down frame by frame. Wu Jin tried to look up, and he could clearly see the dark shadow of the skull that was nearly two meters long and the closely arranged sharp teeth that were like curved knives. In the dimness, the creature secreted mucus mixed with blood foam, and the gums at the front and back were full of serrated teeth.
The Tyrannosaurus Rex was a dominant predator who ruled for 160 million years.
Each of its genes had undergone the most brutal screening process––compared to it, a Homo sapiens with a history of merely 400,000 years was like a remnant on the evolutionary tree.
The smell became stronger and stronger. Wu Jin cursed and backed away as fast as he could with both hands. Just as he was about to cry for help from his teammates, he found that Lin Ke was pointing over in his direction from a distance, his shrill cries sharper than a howling ghost.
Wu Jin was shrouded by the dark shadow. The Tyrannosaurus Rex’s thick cervical vertebra were like hammers, supporting the jaw that was perfectly designed to bite through its prey’s throat as it dipped down––
Ming Yao’s heart hung in his throat, “Little Witch!”
The huge tree that the youth had originally been hiding behind was smashed apart. The Tyrannosaurus Rex’s tail swung violently, dragging with it all 6 tons of its heavy body as it rotated&#k2013;&#k2013;Wu Jin quietly dodged in the other direction.
Ming Yao was just about to rejoice when his face suddenly froze. Wu Jin’s right hand clenched violently, his left arm filled with pain, and his face turned white.
He may have smashed against the broken tree.
The youth gritted his teeth, dispersing the dizziness he felt from the pain. By then, the Tyrannosaurus Rex had already locked onto his position again and gave a low roar––
There was a sudden, long cry from the sky.
The people in the area, including Ming Yao, all looked up in dismay.
The Quetzalcoatlus that had been hovering in the clear skies three kilometers above the ground swooped down. It was one of the Pterosaurs that Wei Shi had brought with him. It shrieked in the direction of the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Wu Jin
It seemed anxious to land, but it also seemed like it lacked permission to come down.
Ming Yao murmured, “What is it waiting for…”
The Tyrannosaurus Rex stopped paying attention to Wu Jin for a while as it lifted its head to respond to the provocation.
Wu Jin’s eyes widened abruptly.
––“It’s yours.”
––“It will circle up above. As soon as you wave, it will come down to pick you up.”
The corner of Wu Jin’s mouth pulled up, and his pupils shone.
The fist that had originally been clenched tight loosened slightly before clenching again.
This was a gift from the big boss.
But he couldn’t hide beneath the big boss’s protection; he wanted to win fair and square.
Wu Jin no longer looked towards the Pterosaur. He rose up soundlessly, his hands moving quick as lightning to turn on the propulsion device.
Gear 0, with a maximum 6th gear. It would provide an acceleration boost for 56 seconds––56 seconds later, the thruster’s energy would be completely exhausted.
He would either succeed or perish.
The 6 ton Tyrannosaurus Rex was the most efficient killing machine in the Mesozoic era. From its bones to its armored skin to its flesh, it could utilise all its power to erupt at a speed no slower than Wu Jin’s, but it was bound to sacrifice a certain degree of mobility.
Just like earlier, when it swept its tail and turned, its movement was much slower than that of Wu Jin, who was much smaller than it was.
Wu Jin narrowed his eyes slightly and checked over the calculations in his mind.
It weighed 6 tons and was 13 meters long. When it turned around, the force that acted on its central axis of gravity was even greater than that of an elephant. Any creature that grew to such a large scale inevitably lost some flexibility––just like how nobody had ever seen an elephant turn around in circles like a top.
Also––
High weight meant high metabolism. The Tyrannosaurus Rex couldn’t keep up such a fast running speed for a long time. As long as he could consume up its energy from constant turning, the T-Rex may not be able to catch up with Wu Jin.
The youth quietly took out his tranquilizer gun.
There was a gaping wound on his left arm, but Wu Jin ignored it. Considering the Tyrannosaurus Rex’s keen sense of smell, it’d make no difference whether he had a bleeding wound or not.
Before the thruster started up, Wu Jin suddenly stepped back from the Tyrannosaurus Rex and pulled away before aiming the gun at the dinosaur’s stomach!
The Tyrannosaurus Rex that was engaging in a roaring match with the Quetzalcoatlus was caught off guard. It bowed its head and roared again.
Wu Jin decisively ran off after provoking it!
The Tyrannosaurus Rex behind him shifted its hips and roared, chasing after him. Ming Yao, who’d been trying to clear up a path for Wu Jin was also surprised into a daze, “So bold––”
The Dolma Entertainment contestants who were holding the fort for their Tyrannosaurus Rex were equally stunned, “This is like pulling the tiger’s beard…” They were obviously full of confidence towards the T-Rex that they’d smashed their entire team’s Evolution Points on.
However, Wu Jin knew that there was a big difference between the Tyrannosaurus Rex and a tiger.
It lacked the cat’s flexibility and softness, and the brain of a T-Rex––it wasn’t so much a brain as an integrated device that ran at a high speed and reflected all the conditions on the hardware board.
Dinosaurs didn’t need to learn and didn’t need to think. They just needed to keep their philosophy of empiricism and simply subsist in the world.
They were even more unable to complete any calculations.
The stench came wafting over. The Tyrannosaurus Rex was less than two meters away from Wu Jin––and the youth suddenly shifted in a Z-shaped turn!
In the Mesozoic era, there was no lack of snake-like prey. The Tyrannosaurus Rex reacted in a few fractions of a second and controlled its huge body to rotate. Wu Jin had pulled away slightly, but it was confident that it could catch up. Soon, it had gotten close again, and Wu Jin didn’t hesitate to perform another turn.
The Tyrannosaurus Rex was obviously enraged as it turned around again and ran after Wu Jin in a frenzy.
The third turn, the fourth turn.
The conditioned reflex device carved into the Tyrannosaurus Rex’s skull cavity finally adapted to Wu Jin’s movement rhythm. It was like a program that had taken in and processed a set of data, and its output became faster and faster, its predictions increasingly accurate. It was finally able to offset the distance between them that occurred with each turn, and shortened the distance back to 2 meters––
The Dolma Entertainment students were delighted and slapped their thighs in excitement, “This is it! Hurry, hurry, pound the drums for the king!”
Ming Yao exploded with a curse and no longer worried about exposing his position, wanting to go up and support Wu Jin with the gun on his shoulder. Lin Ke had also driven a small Diplodocus over, and muttered toward the Tyrannosaurus Rex before going to intercept Dolma’s team with Sora, “Have a chicken leg… don’t eat Brother Wu…”
At this time, Wu Jin made the seventh turn.
The youth suddenly changed speed. He switched the booster to gear 2, 25km/hour!
The Tyrannosaurus Rex who’d thought that it was just one bite away from its food had just launched itself into the air. This domineering model collapsed and almost toppled over because it couldn’t control its momentum––
Nothing was more deadly to a 6 ton behemoth than a fall.
Wu Jin turned, and two shots landed on the dinosaur. Ming Yao had also taken aim at the same time!
A total of 7 shots. Wu Jin had been counting.
There was no pause in this chase, and it started up again seamlessly. This time, Wu Jin continued to fly this T-Rex kite at his original speed, until he turned––the thruster switched to gear 4, 30km/hour!
The Tyrannosaurus Rex stumbled again, and its steps hesitated significantly.
Wu Jin took advantage of this pause to turn around. The 15th shot.
The anesthetic dosage was enough now!
He let out a long sigh of relief and finally accelerated to the 6th gear to pull away. After 56 seconds had passed, the booster ran out of energy, and the screen flickered before turning off. The Tyrannosaurus Rex was still stumbling behind him, with Ming Yao chasing behind them with his gun, and his thruster had also been exhausted.
The Tyrannosaurus Rex’s body swayed slightly, and its movements finally began to slow.
The anesthesia had finally begun to kick in.
Wu Jin was no longer running. He was plastered to the back of a tree as he gasped violently for breath, but the right hand that held the tranquilizer gun was still vigilant.
All the way until the Tyrannosaurus Rex fell to the ground.
Ming Yao was also panting for breath as he made his way over. He stepped on the Tyrannosaurus Rex’s small arms and bared his teeth, “Behind… there’s fighting behind us…”
The two of them mutually assisted each other and followed the source of the sound. Sora was still fighting despite the Dolma team’s siege, but Lin Ke was already oblivious to the world from a tranquilizer gun shot.
Nine minutes later, the two people from Dolma were eliminated. Ming Yao tried to wake up Lin Ke, “Stop sleeping, those who are sleeping are considered eliminated when the competition ends!”
There were 20 people remaining.
The team of four quickly seized Dolma’s and Thin Fire’s equipment, and gathered together the herbivorous dinosaurs that still remained.
juurensha: Yaaay, Little Witch using his own smarts to beat the T-Rex!
xiin: once again, Wu Jin chooses to rely on himself rather than make use of Wei Shi’s protection even though they’re already together…and makes me love him even more <3