Chapter 576

Chapter 576: So I Wasn’t Playing Single Player!?

“Young one, do you want to grow bigger?”

Trilobite asked the small fellow that appeared before him, crawling on four legs, measuring only two meters in length, and looking like a lizard.

To an untrained eye, this creature would remind one of the “horned lizard,” which could spout blood from its eyes to scare off enemies.

But in truth, this “little fellow” was not a lizard.

Instead…

“From this triangular head and the odd horns sticking out, it should be…”

“Lizard-like, part of the Secondary Reptiles evolutionary branch, Protorosauria order, Anchisauria suborder, Saw-toothed Lizard superfamily, Saw-toothed Lizard family, specifically a type of Elgin Dragon.”

Trilobite said the animal’s full classification.

This was because these “Secondary Reptiles” gave him a hard time in school.

Turtles used to be in this group.

Since turtles and tortoises lack temporal holes, this thing also lacked them.

But later…

New paleontological finds showed the handout was wrong—turtles and tortoises actually had temporal holes that closed during evolution.

The big news excited the whole paleontology community, and many paleontologists were thrilled.

Hooray! More papers to write!

For Trilobite, who was working on his thesis then…

It hit him like a bolt from the blue!

He looked at his nearly done thesis—“The Family Ties of Turtles and Protorosaurs from Anatomy”—and thought hard.

What on earth was I writing?!

In fact, this creature looked like a lizard, acted like one, and filled a lizard’s Ecological Niche, but it was no lizard and had little to do with scale dragons.

In anatomy, like turtles and tortoises, they lacked temporal holes, but that was just a lucky fluke…

Nature is full of strange chances; in similar natural environments and pressures, later creatures often repeat old paths.

At most, they add small tweaks.

Those who try new things in evolution are rare.

These “nice chances” caused big trouble for Trilobite’s graduation, keeping him up late for a month; without his youth and stamina, he’d have been worn out.

“Hrmm… Hrmm…”

Trilobite shook his head, trying to forget those bad memories.

“But, by looks…”

Trilobite stared at the little fellow for a long time, then said—“It looked a lot like a Triceratops.”

“Maybe I’ll call it the ‘Triceratops Mini’ version!”

Though small, its limbs weren’t all on the sides like a lizard’s, not straight; instead, they were half-upright like those big “Saw-toothed Lizard” descendants.

On the back of his head, two horns like a bull’s grew outward.

Combined with their triangular heads instead of diamond-shaped lizard heads, they resembled miniature Triceratops.

“Hmm…”

“They just lacked a neck shield!”

“However, the triangular skull paired with the dermal ossicles on their bodies…”

“Rather than looking like Triceratops, they seemed more like ankylosaurs.”

“Hmm… ‘Ankylosaurus Youth Version’?”

As Trilobite observed this small creature and crafted a tailored “upgrade plan” for them…

【Ding——!】

【The other party accepted the group purchase plan for evolution consultation.】

【The other party was willing to accept the consumer loan plan.】

“Great, I knew you would agree!”

Trilobite rubbed his hands excitedly and entered the “evolution little black room,” taking bold action.

“Ha ha!”

“This time, I’ll let you evolve across orders!”

“By the way, one more thing…”

Trilobite watched the “Ankylosaurus Youth Versions” while opening the system’s “spawn interface,” locating his two spawn colonies—“red tree fern” and “bracken fern.”

The so-called “red tree fern” was similar to what Trilobite created along the coast for “Ecological Niche” and “red trees,” but it had sturdy roots and large bulbs, with top-notch sand-anchoring capability.

They had formed a huge tree dam, enclosing a lagoon.

Thanks to them, the ancient cup animal colony grew and multiplied fast in a stable setting, spreading into the “tree dam lagoon”; under their wild reef-building, the first wave-blocking defense started taking shape.

The “bracken fern” was the “plants” Trilobite planted outside the “swamp.”

He had casually pulled a “scalebark tree” sapling from the Chaos Swamp and moved it to the wasteland, hoping to plant trees during rain and add green to the barren land.

He also aimed to build a better environment for his future spawn.

He knew the sea retreat was an “unstoppable trend,” something he could only slow or ease, steer in his favored direction, but never halt.

Creating a new habitat for his group of “jumping spiders” and “freshwater Trilobites” was the final fix.

That scalebark tree was the first stronghold Trilobite left for his spawn in the wilderness.

But unexpectedly…

Whether it mutated or he misjudged, this sapling wasn’t a scalebark tree at all; it became a “bracken fern.”

What embarrassed him more was that the “scalebark tree” from the swamp spread out.

In the heavy rain, it grew wildly fast, quickly forming a canopy that stopped the “bracken fern” Trilobite planted from expanding.

Trilobite seized the chance to evolve those “Troodon” into “Plateosaurus,” not just to help handle the “Megalania” but mainly to curb these scalebark trees’ numbers.

With too few tree types, the ecological chain would be shaky.

But now, since the Plateosaurus made the “scalebark forest” “patchy bald,” all he needed was to simply pump in Chaos Energy, letting them grow quick and fill the empty spots!

“Let’s also add a bit more to the ‘red tree fern.’”

“They had not only reached a big scale by the coast, but they had spread into the swamp too.”

“Also, I felt this tree was very adaptable; it seemed to grow well in wet spots.”

“Maybe they could even grow on this once-barren land.”

So, Trilobite added a bit to the “red tree fern.”

Not much.

He poured almost one million Chaos Energy into it.

After eating two Colossal Creature Cranogryphus and six Megalania, he gained about 4 million points of Chaos Energy.

He was now rich in Chaos Energy!

With so much, he was ready to go wild.

Then, trouble hit!

【Beep—— Beep—— Beep——!】

【Warning!】

【Too much spread of Cenozoic Era spawn plants will make all native ecosystems around the “native plants” go on alert.】

【Get ready for battle plans.】

“Oh?”

Trilobite woke up startled by the system’s warning.

This was the first time he saw…

“Oh…”

“So I wasn’t just eating and drinking, playing evolution games, and being a ‘caretaker’ for endangered creatures.”

“This world had enemies too!”

Trilobite saw for the first time…

“I wasn’t playing a solo game!”

“But…”

“Not for sure.”

“Enemies might not even be humans or similar things.”

Trilobite thought anyone who threatened him in a big way and attacked him as a group was an enemy.

Like humans facing a wolf pack in the wild.

“Plus, new species rising and grabbing ecological niches, and old species fighting back, was normal.”

“If the old species had evolved well, with many layers and stable conditions, outsiders might not win.”

“For example, stray cats, called small animal killers, got beaten badly in Southeast Asia by the native predator, the Swamp Lizard—that was one case.”

“But if they were weak…”

Trilobite remembered how the thylacine died out in Australia—wiped out by humans and then by wild dogs that turned back into “wolves.”

Thinking this fired up his spirit at once.

“Bring it on!”

“Let’s play ecology!”

“Who can’t do it?”

“In the wave of change, if you didn’t adapt, extinction was your only path!”

Maybe Trilobite was just mumbling to himself.

But his will, through Chaos Energy and through the “red tree fern” and “bracken fern” filled with Chaos Energy, echoed in higher dimensions!

In the end, it boomed across the whole Divine Realm!