Chapter 537

Chapter 537: Playing at Being a Fake Fisherman, Especially for Catching Little Fish

Trilobite, the king of last-minute saves, remained unaware.

But he found it immensely amusing now.

It was mainly due to the "Deep♂Dark♂Fantasy" hood.

Ah, no—the Hood of the Altered Oddball.

This hood seemed to offer little beyond adding a Deep♂Dark♂Fantasy atmosphere.

Yet after studying it, Trilobite discovered hidden secrets within.

And these secrets proved wildly entertaining.

【Special Item: Hood of the Altered Oddball】

【Usage cost: 10,000 Chaos Energy per hour.】

【Cooldown: 24 hours.】

【Effect: When worn, the user transforms their head into another creature’s, gaining biological traits of that species without impairing intelligence. The target animal must share the host’s superfamily-level taxonomic unit.】

Fascinating, no?

A human wearing this could become a Neanderthal, chimpanzee, gorilla, or orangutan.

But turning into a monkey? Impossible.

Since gibbons belong to the human superfamily, sporting a gibbon head looked nearly identical anyway.

For Trilobite, this became exponentially more useful!

Or rather, exponentially more amusing.

His Megalodon superfamily exhibited the most extreme "head-shape" diversity among theropod dinosaurs.

Virtually unrivaled.

Other groups showed variation, but none matched the Megalodon superfamily’s thoroughness or extremity!

"Just a tad pricey!"

"No matter!"

"Expensive it shall stay!"

Seeing Themis’s "fisherman outfit" in the system—trident in hand, utterly dumbstruck—made Trilobite stifle laughter.

*Ahem.*

Still, explanations were due.

"Right then! This hour… I’m no Beautiful Nodosaurus!"

"But a pint-sized fishing expert—Megapnosaurus!"

Megapnosaurus ranked among renowned dinosaurs. Its relatively complete fossils were unearthed on England’s Isle of Wight, dating to the Barremian stage of the early Cretaceous period.

The holotype specimen exceeded seven meters, though fossil scraps hinted some Megapnosaurus individuals might approach ten meters.

This mere six-meter-long creature…

Trilobite could be considered a small one among Megapnosaurus.

“But I can still grow larger!”

“I’m still a baby, not fully grown.”

Trilobite shamelessly called himself a baby.

“But this head…”

“Tsk tsk…”

“Who said that the spinosaurus in Jurassic Park was reconstructed based on the Megapnosaurus superfamily?”

“That’s just nonsense!”

Members of the Spinosauridae and Megapnosaurinae, like Giganotosaurus, Megapnosaurus, Baryonyx, and Carcharodontosaurus, actually…

looked quite similar.

There were only very slight differences in their fossil bones.

They all shared one big feature — their long and narrow mouths.

The spinosaurus in Jurassic Park looked nothing like that; of course, the Giganotosaurus in Jurassic World had a wide and fierce snout.

Its mouth was wide and thick, like a bull crocodile’s.

But in truth…

Compared to the bull crocodile, the Megapnosaurus’s mouth was more like fish-eating crocodiles such as the gharial, and their teeth were smaller and denser, good for holding onto fish.

Simply put, they were fishermen too.

Also, compared to the Spinosaurinae, the Megapnosaurinae ate more fish, and the types of fish they ate were different.

The spinosaurus’s snout was wider and thicker than the Megapnosaurus’s, and its back skull was higher than the Megapnosaurus or Giganotosaurus, with a throat big enough to swallow large fish whole.

In contrast, the mouths of Giganotosaurus and Megapnosaurus were as thin as herons or cranes, and since their throats were narrow, they probably lived like today’s wading birds.

They might wade while diving or stand still, using their long beaks to catch passing fish.

But in shallow water, very big fish didn’t come near.

Catching fish over two meters like the spinosaurus was impossible; so paleontologists thought Megapnosaurinae dinosaurs could only eat fish shorter than one meter, which were small.

Twisting the necks of other theropod dinosaurs like in movies wasn’t doable.

But that didn’t mean Megapnosaurus and Giganotosaurus were gentle.

Still, like in Jurassic World II, attacking things the size of humans…

That was possible.

Because in Megapnosaurus fossil stomachs, many fish bones and scales were found, plus broken bones of young Ornithomimus.

This showed Ornithomimus didn’t just eat fish; they likely scavenged or hunted small animals for extra food.

Human size…

Wasn’t much bigger than most young Ornithomimus, so tearing them apart was still doable.

“Of course, I’m not here to eat humans!”

"I came here to fish!"

Megapnosaurus belonged to the Megalodon superfamily. Though it looked nothing like Beautiful Nodosaurus with its standard theropod dinosaur head, they indeed shared the same superfamily.

This was why Trilobite could temporarily reshape his head into a Megapnosaurus appearance.

As for the rest of his body…

Whether it changed or not mattered little.

After all, everything was modified from Megalodon’s "chassis."

Naturally, he couldn’t replicate Megapnosaurus’s signature "big claws."

But this half-baked limitation didn’t stop Trilobite from catching fish.

"Splash… splash…"

Each step Trilobite took was cautious.

Not that he feared scaring the fish—

The fish still struggled against the "reverse current" conjured by Themis.

Though they’d swum beyond the dense waters of the ancient cup animal colony, the currents hadn’t weakened.

Trilobite worried about crushing young ancient cup animal sprouts or brushing against swaying tentacles below.

Yet his concern proved unnecessary.

"Oh… quite obedient…"

Those tendrils seemed to "recognize their master." Upon touching Trilobite’s feet, they retracted their fearsome, sharp nematocysts, lying still as seaweed.

"Now I can fish without worries!"

"Heeey—!"

Trilobite drew his neck back.

"Whoosh—!"

His head plunged downward!

"Pshhh—!"

Massive teeth clamped onto a large fish still fighting the current!

"Ah, not too big—barely half a meter."

For humans, a half-meter fish might seem huge, but to a six-meter-long Megapnosaurus, it resembled a tiny crucian carp.

"Gulp… gulp…"

Trilobite swallowed the fish whole without hesitation.

Truly living up to his Megapnosaurus form!

"Hmm! Not bad!"

"Though gulped down too fast to taste properly, the briny flavor and fullness felt real!"

"Onward, then!"

"Gulp—!"

Trilobite devoured fish after fish.

The big fish dwindled steadily…

Until not one "fish-shaped lesser master" dispatched by the Abyss remained in this Ether Sea behind the dam.

Only two "fish" escaped.

They bore back tidings that terrified every ether deity—and ignited the Abyss’s fury!