booktalesy Chapter 9: The finest leather shoes, now it's up to you.
Chapter 9: The finest leather shoes, now it's up to you.
When Wang Lin smiled while staring at an ugly lizard, the live chat exploded.
Wait, wait, he smiled? He smiled!
[Holy crap, that smile is kind of creepy...]
So what did he take a fancy to? That rock?
Wait, there seems to be something lying next to the rock... What is that?
Not to mention that Wang Lin couldn't see the comments at all, even if he could, he would just ignore them.
He moved swiftly and then fell from mid-air.
However, he did not land directly next to the creature, but instead landed on a high ground a dozen meters away from it, observing it from above.
At this distance, it won't disturb it, yet it can be seen clearly.
The scientists from the Dragon Kingdom research team finally saw clearly what Wang Lin was looking at.
A young researcher tilted his head and stared at it for a long time: "What's that? A lizard?"
Another person pushed up their glasses: "Unlike a lizard, lizards aren't this flat... and look at its mouth, it's much longer than a lizard's."
Old Li didn't speak, squinting at the image on the screen, his fingers lightly tapping the table.
The creature rolled over, belly up, lying sprawled on the mudflat, looking just like a salted fish being dried.
It flicked its tail twice, splashing up a small patch of mud.
Old Li's lips twitched.
The viewers in the live chat went absolutely crazy with laughter.
What is this thing? Sunbathing your belly? Are you sunbathing here?
Look at its legs, they're so short they look like it hasn't even finished growing! It's hilarious!
[Its mouth is quite long, has it been stung by a bee?]
[The person above, where did bees come from in the Triassic period...?]
So what exactly is it? Does anyone recognize it?
Nobody knows him.
Humans in this world have almost zero knowledge of ancient creatures. Let alone protosuchians, they only saw dinosaurs for the first time in the version preview.
Everything they see is new and strange.
But Wang Lin was different.
He knows him.
He had kept this thing in the Ark.
Not only did he keep it in the Ark, but he also specifically looked up information about it in his previous life—because this guy was just too good at surviving.
Having survived from the Triassic period to the present day, how many mass extinctions have it experienced?
It survived three mass extinctions: the Permian, the end of the Triassic, and the end of the Cretaceous.
All the dinosaurs died out, but it didn't.
All the pterosaurs had died out, but it hadn't.
Ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, mosasaurs... each one more ferocious and more capable of fighting than the last, but what was the result?
All gone!
But it is still alive.
Having lived to this day, I'm living much the same way I did two hundred million years ago.
So what exactly is it?
It's the ancestor of your Uncle Crocodile, who has lived from the dinosaur era to the modern era!
The reason is simple: your Uncle Crocodile can't do anything else but patch things up.
Planner: I want to weaken land creatures. Crocodile: I am an aquatic creature.
Planner: I want to weaken aquatic creatures. Crocodile: I am a land creature.
Planner: I want to weaken amphibians. Crocodile: I am a swamp creature.
Wang Lin squatted down, rested his chin on his hand, and stared intently at the creature that was still sunbathing its belly.
Minimal body shape change?
Aside from her long legs turning into chubby ones, her figure hasn't changed much.
The game mechanics won't be changed?
Your Uncle Crocodile's survival strategy of lying still and eating whatever he can catch, along with that death roll, has been used since the Triassic period and hasn't changed at all.
Even if Uncle Crocodile came to the Chinese server, he would only have these two moves, yet he managed to reach the top of the Chinese server with just these two moves.
Isn't this a kind of bestial talent?
As for extinction?
Don't be silly, Uncle Crocodile is laughing. If crocodiles could go extinct, then dinosaurs could be resurrected!
The crocodile's greatest enemy to date is the shovel.
But it will be hundreds of millions of years before the shovel is invented!
So your Uncle Crocodile is now invincible!
In the research group, Professor Li finally spoke.
"That creature," he pointed to the screen, "enlarge it for me."
The technicians quickly operated the camera, and the image gradually zoomed in, making the details of the creature clearer and clearer.
It has a flat head, protruding eyes, rough scales, and a large tail that makes up half of its body length.
Old Li stared at it for a while, then slowly said, "This thing... looks somewhat familiar."
The person next to him was taken aback: "Old Li, do you know him?"
Old Li shook his head: "It's not that I know him, it's just... how should I put it, I feel like I've seen something similar somewhere before."
He frowned and thought for a long time, then suddenly slapped his thigh: "Doesn't it look a bit like a crocodile?"
Everyone turned to look at the light screen.
Now let's look at a file photo of a modern crocodile.
Then look at the light screen.
silence.
"You know what...it really does look a bit like it," a researcher muttered to himself.
"What do you mean, 'looks like'?" another retorted. "How big are modern crocodiles? This thing is only a little over a meter long, nowhere near that!"
"What if it grows bigger later?"
"This thing is way too weak now! A water dragon beast could crush it with a single stomp!"
"Why choose this one when there are so many powerful dinosaurs available?"
"It can't possibly be a crocodile. Look, they don't look alike! What crocodile has four long legs?"
The scientists are arguing again.
But this time, despite the arguments, everyone shared a common question—
Why did Wang Lin take a liking to this thing?
The viewers in the live chat were completely bewildered.
So what exactly is it? Can a class representative summarize it?
[I can't summarize it, I don't recognize any of them...]
I've searched through live streams in every country, and not a single person is watching this.
Observers from other countries are all scrambling to get their hands on dinosaurs, but my husband is just staring at a gecko...
That's not a gecko! Geckos aren't that ugly!
Watch your words. What if this is the species we're choosing? Are you being polite?
[Politeness my ass! If I choose this thing, I'll do a handstand while washing my hair live on stream!]
[Screenshot taken, don't run away later!]
Wang Lin was circling the creature, examining it from top to bottom and left to right.
The creature seemed to sense something, turned over, and looked around blankly with its large, protruding eyes.
I didn't see anyone.
From its omniscient perspective, Wang Lin is essentially invisible.
So it closed its eyes again.
His mouth was slightly open, revealing a row of small, sharp teeth.
Wang Lin squatted down and looked at it at eye level.
"This little thing is really ugly... but ugly as it may be, as long as it's alive, that's all that matters."
He turned around, his gaze sweeping over the observers from various countries who were still fighting tooth and nail for the dinosaurs in the distance, and then looking at the contestants who were flying around in the sky.
Time passed by, second by second.
There are three minutes left before the selection ends.
Observers from other countries are either already battered and bruised, have locked onto their targets, or are still hesitant.
And Wang Lin—
I walked over to the creature that was still sunbathing and took one last look.
Then he looked up, stretched out his hand towards the virtual interface in front of him.
Please confirm the species you wish to observe.
Wang Lin's finger hovered in mid-air.
The chat fell silent.
The research team fell silent.
The entire Dragon Kingdom, with its 1.4 billion people, fell silent.
Wang Lin's lips curled up slightly.
He clicked "confirm".
[Confirmation successful. You have selected the species to observe.]
Before the words on the screen had finished displaying, Wang Lin had already turned around, his back to the creature, and walked away into the distance.
As he walked, he muttered something under his breath:
"These are excellent leather shoes; now it's up to you."