Chapter 462

Chapter 462: My Card, Even if Ugly, Cannot Be Torn Casually!

"Huff… Huff…"

"Almost there!"

"But what a mess this is."

Trilobite huffed and puffed as he poked his head from the bushes, watching the churning muddy water, giant splashes, and ancient creatures tearing into each other in a frenzied brawl.

"And I just realized—I could get another *Nature* paper out of this."

Mentioning *Nature* meant Trilobite had stumbled upon something that overturned old paleontological beliefs—like confirming an ancient creature’s habits or diet, or discovering a new species…

Any of these would be *Nature*-worthy breakthroughs.

"Ah, but now’s not the time for that."

"Where’s my ‘Devoted One’? The one I can elevate to symbiotic spawn?"

Amid the chaos, his system vision grew useless.

Everything blurred into swathes of blue, green, and red—a dizzying kaleidoscope where nothing stood clear.

Luckily…

The system’s [UnitUnderAttack] alert had slowed, suggesting the crisis wasn’t immediate.

That bought Trilobite time.

"Hmm…"

"Gotta search carefully. Patiently."

"Should find her eventually…"

"But that thing ahead—glowing bright red in system vision—must be packed with Chaos Energy."

"And these creatures…

"Dream Beach Crocodiles!"

Old habits died hard. Even after all this time, living "fossils" no longer shocked him, yet he couldn’t resist classifying every new specimen.

As for Dream Beach Crocodiles…

"They thrived during the mid-Triassic Latin stage, classified under true dragon form."

That sounded complicated, but it simply meant true dragon morphology covered true dragon forms and their close relatives. True dragon forms included true dragons and similar kin.

Specifically calling them "true dragon form" meant they weren’t actual crocodiles or dinosaurs—but shared a common ancestor with them.

They haunted coastlines, ambling on beaches or swimming in shallow seas on surprisingly long limbs, hunting small fish and crustaceans.

Hence their modest size: two to three meters long, no bigger than a Swamp Lizard.

Tiny coastal terrors, really.

Yet "Dream Beach Crocodile" was a misnomer.

Their build was utterly ordinary—heads, tails, and limbs utterly unremarkable. Dull as ditchwater.

He had some distinct features, including a well-developed skin bone structure.

But having layered bone armor wasn’t remarkable among lizard-like creatures.

After all, everyone was used to crocodiles.

As for why they had such a dreamy and poetic name as "Dream Beach Crocodile"…

That credit went to their discoverer.

In 2016, the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences organized a scientific expedition to the rich area of Qujing, Yunnan Province. They discovered a fossil with a very high degree of preservation in the limestone strata of the mid-Triassic.

That was the "Dream Beach Crocodile."

Perhaps influenced by his thoughts during the day, Researcher Li Chun had a dream a few days later. In his dream, he saw a massive crocodilian creature striding majestically along the coastal area.

Thus, the name "Dream Beach Crocodile" came to be—meaning "the crocodilian creature on the beach in a dream."

"However, these Dream Beach Crocodiles were a bit outrageous in size!"

"Four meters long? What the heck!"

"Some fellows even grew to five meters!"

"And I had never seen these guys before. Where did they come from?!"

After pondering for a moment, Trilobite finally formulated a hypothesis that seemed reasonable to him.

"Maybe these Dream Beach Crocodiles lived on an island?"

"So did island gigantism happen?"

Island gigantism refers to the phenomenon where some species living on isolated islands grew larger than their relatives on the mainland, sometimes two to three times bigger.

Common examples of island gigantism included various small lizards, geckos, turtles, birds, and rodents.

These creatures, which would normally be small animals, no longer had natural enemies on the island, so they didn’t need to use their small sizes to hide in rock crevices or bushes.

The food available on the island, relative to these already small-bodied creatures, was still quite abundant.

So they could grow large, even two to three times the size of mainland relatives, or even bigger.

Conversely, those species that were originally large on the mainland would likely shrink in size when moving to isolated islands due to food scarcity.

The most famous example was the saber-toothed species that once lived on various islands in Southeast Asia; their shoulder height was less than two meters, and even some larger horses appeared bigger than them.

"These Dream Beach Crocodiles probably lived on some unknown island, connected to the ocean via a huge lagoon, isolated from the mainland and oceans; yet still linked to food sources."

"On that island, there weren’t any hunters like me to threaten them."

"The lagoon that connected to the ocean could provide them with a stable food source, allowing them to grow so large."

"Ah, but why was I even thinking about this?"

"What about my paper young lady I hadn’t summoned yet?!"

Just then…

[Unit Under Attack!]

A piercing alarm sound echoed again.

However, this time, the system’s warning indicated the direction. Before his eyes, several small red dots flashed brightly.

"Is it over there?!"

Trilobite turned his head…

"Ugh—!"

He immediately made a displeased sound and even thought that if this "paper young lady" looked like that, it might be better if she were eaten.

Fortunately, this thought only lasted a moment.

"Never mind, just because the species represented by the paper young lady didn’t look good didn’t mean she herself didn’t look good!"

"Besides, even if the appearance wasn’t great, she was still my card!"

"Who told you to move recklessly?!"

Trilobite looked towards the source of the system’s alarm.

There, a worm-like creature confronted the enormous "Dream Beach Crocodile"!