For the next two months or so, Haoyuan spent every single day stealing and eating eggs.
Until today, when his mood suddenly turned serious.
At this moment, he was concealed within the nest of a small dinosaur, keeping a vigilant eye on the dinosaur eggs while carefully sensing the ground tremors outside, watching for any movement from the parent dinosaur.
Once he felt the parent dinosaur leave the nest to forage once more, Haoyuan finally relaxed and focused his full attention on the dinosaur eggs in front of him, which were trembling ever so faintly.
Over this period of stealing eggs, he had gradually picked up on the hatching patterns of dinosaurs.
It seemed that the smaller the dinosaur species, the faster the eggs hatched.
In contrast, the eggs laid by larger dinosaurs showed no signs of movement for a long time.
After eating two partially developed eggs a couple of days ago, Haoyuan found himself craving that firm, meaty texture. He had drunk far too much liquid egg fluid before and wanted a change of pace.
For a snake, this was actually an unwise choice.
Eating unhatched eggs carried virtually no risk and offered high nutritional value.
In comparison, devouring newly hatched young yielded little extra benefit and was considerably more hazardous.
After all, as the incubation period neared its end, parent dinosaurs tended to guard the vicinity of the nest closely, venturing out far less often to forage.
If caught red-handed by the parent, danger was certain.
As a crawling thief in the gloomy shadows of the undergrowth, Haoyuan was nowhere near strong enough to take on an adult dinosaur.
Even smaller dinosaurs posed a lethal threat to him.
Yet endowed with intellect, he had desires.
This was a feeling he found intoxicating.
He wanted the freedom to do as he pleased, so long as his safety was assured.
“Right, as long as it's safe. I may be a snake, but I'm an intelligent snake. I have desires, and I'm willing to make choices and take action to achieve mental fulfillment, rather than existing as a beast driven solely by appetite.”
Indeed, mental fulfillment.
That was what set him apart from wild beasts.
Right now, he simply wanted to know what a freshly hatched baby dinosaur, bursting with blood, tasted like.
Finally, the egg he was watching began to tremble more and more violently.
At a certain moment, the shell cracked open.
Haoyuan was already poised to strike.
The moment the little dinosaur poked its head out and took its first breath of the nest's drafty air—before it could even let out a peep in celebration of new life—a bloody maw lunged with lightning speed.
It dragged the hatchling straight into the abyss of death, swallowing both the creature and its nascent cries in a single gulp.
Having swallowed the baby dinosaur whole, Haoyuan couldn't help but feel a twinge of disappointment.
Because an ancient snake's teeth curved backward like hooks—much like those of modern snakes—they had no ability to chew or tear, serving solely to anchor prey in place. In the end, he could only swallow food whole.
He couldn't savor that bursting crunch at all.
His only consolation was that the roof of his mouth possessed sensory organs, allowing him to faintly catch the taste of fresh blood. It wasn't bad.
“Sigh. If only I had dinosaur teeth that could chew and tear... Wait, dinosaurs don't really chew either, do they? Besides, chewing teeth don't seem that lethal...”
Haoyuan pondered where he lay.
“Carnivorous dinosaurs use their teeth for combat. They're weapons meant to intimidate.”
“Ancient snakes need hooked teeth to hold prey because we don't have arms or claws.”
“If I had arms, my teeth could tear opponents apart just like a dinosaur's.”
“Ah, I want claws so badly! I want a row of ferocious, terrifying teeth! Why don't snakes have claws? Why are snakes so weak?! I don't want to hide in damp ditches! I want to fight dinosaurs toe-to-toe! I want to show them the terror of my constriction! That's the sheer power of every muscle in my body coiling tight, so why am I stuck at the bottom of the food chain?! I refuse to accept this!”
Indignation welled up within Haoyuan. Having lived as a human and witnessed formidable beasts, he truly felt that snakes were far too weak, relegated to ambushes and venom.
In a direct confrontation, a snake would get mauled by tigers and leopards, and in prehistoric times, pulverized by dinosaurs. Even when a Titanoboa finally came along, it spent ninety percent of its time submerged in water!
How could a creature be this weak? It possessed not a shred of majestic power! No matter how hard it fought, it only ever came across as sinister!
How could this be acceptable? I want deterrent force! I want power!
Just as Haoyuan seethed in anger, a blue panel suddenly lit up within his mind.
Caught in the middle of his powerless rage, he froze in surprise.
He hurriedly moved to inspect his cheat panel.
Yet before his focus could settle on it, his consciousness plunged into chaos. The strength throughout his entire body ebbed away like a receding tide, leaving him feeling as if struck by a debilitating illness, utterly drained.
Where would a serious illness even come from in the age of dinosaurs?
Even prehistoric viruses shouldn't be that ridiculous, right?
Haoyuan felt like a deflated balloon, limp and incapable of summoning even an ounce of strength.
His mind remained in a daze for a long time before his senses slowly began to return.
He forced his eyes open and surveyed his surroundings, discovering that his entire body was slumped uselessly inside the dinosaur nest, unable to budge an inch.
Looking at the second dinosaur egg in the nest, which had begun to shake...
Haoyuan's heart leaped into his throat.
“Damn it!”
“If the parent comes back now, I'm done for!”
From his observations over this period, he knew that while these small dinosaurs still ventured out to forage near the hatching period, once a large batch of hatchlings began emerging at the same time, the parent would guard the nest without stepping away.
In the clutch he had chosen today, only a scattered few were hatching ahead of the rest.
He had originally planned to eat one or two and slip away.
Yet in his current state, leaving was a death sentence.
Still, how long would it take to recover inside this burrow?
What if the peak hatching wave hit right now? Wouldn't he be doomed?
Haoyuan felt miserable, but his body truly could not muster a shred of strength.
Even the dinosaur hatchling he had just swallowed seemed to have been digested instantaneously. Wave after wave of hunger radiated from his stomach, urging him to eat.
This situation was far too bizarre.
Haoyuan couldn't help but recall the panel in his mind that he hadn't had the chance to inspect yet.
“Right, the panel!”
The moment the thought arose, a blue panel coalesced once again in his mind.
“It wasn't a dream!”
Delight surged through Haoyuan. Forcing himself past his mental exhaustion and the profound weariness in his muscles, he slowly directed his consciousness toward the long-awaited panel.
Name: Haoyuan
Race: Ancient Snake (Customizable)
Evolution Paths: 1. Status Panel (Completed), 2. Teeth (Incomplete), 3. Foreclaws/Arms (Incomplete), 4. Constriction Power (... +), 5. Body Size (... +), 6. Appearance (... +)
Energy: 0
“...”
Haoyuan stared blankly for a moment, completely speechless, before involuntarily blurting, “Holy shit!”
“No wonder... No wonder!”
Taking in the entire panel, Haoyuan suddenly understood what was happening.
The panel adapted to his will, displaying whatever he wished to understand.
Thus, as his gaze rested upon the panel, every piece of information clearly conveyed its meaning to him.
Because of that, he finally understood how his abilities had operated all along.
In the past, he had only wondered whether he possessed a cheat; he had never actively formed the thought of 'wanting' one. Or perhaps he really had formed the thought of 'wanting' a cheat, but the cheat had already existed all along—it was the very 'heat' he had suspected was his cheat. Therefore, the wish of 'wanting a cheat' had already been fulfilled.
In short, his cheat was an ability that governed his own evolution.
It was directly bound to the thought of 'wanting.'
Rate on N.U.
