The prehistoric monster Deinosuchus was initially thought to have reached a length of 15 meters, but the more common view later is that it was about 8-12 meters long and weighed between 2.5 and 8 tons.
Its powerful bite force even surpassed that of the Tyrannosaurus Rex, the dominant land animal at the time. Some large tortoises were as easy prey for it as eating potato chips.
Since the Deinosuchus, like modern crocodiles, was an ambush predator, there was nothing on its menu that it couldn't eat.
Once prey comes to the water's edge, whether it's a herbivore or a carnivore, it's as if it's already stepped into the gates of hell; its life or death is left to fate.
I never expected to find a Deinosuchus lurking here. So, were the crocodiles I saw sunbathing by that big river also Deinosuchus?
Thinking about this, I remembered that the murals also depicted a small horn on the top of the crocodile's head. A species that could be recognized by those indigenous people must not be so simple.
Thinking about this, I didn't want to stay in this extremely dangerous place any longer. I packed everything up, put it in my basket, and prepared to leave with the young native.
Suddenly, another roaring sound, like that of a helicopter, came from behind me. I was startled and cursed inwardly.
"Damn it, this is a seamless collaboration between various forces, isn't it!"
At that moment, Top hid behind me and screamed as he looked in the direction the sound came from.
The young indigenous man also looked at me with a look of fear. He might not be so afraid if it were a large animal, but he really didn't know what to do when facing a group of animals.
"Run first, then we'll figure it out!"
I picked up my basket and started running. When the young locals saw me running, they followed me and fled from there.
There are deinosuchus in the water and a bunch of small fry on land. Staying put will only make us easy prey for either of them.
I even held onto a sliver of hope that as long as I got out of the giant mosquitoes' sensing range, I should be safe.
However, I clearly underestimated this creature that has survived on Earth for hundreds of millions of years and escaped countless mass extinctions.
Even humans, who are known as modern-day extinction machines, have tried everything but have failed to eradicate mosquitoes.
It is evident that in the long history of evolution, they have reached a state of near immortality.
We're running through this real, super primeval forest, even though we're running very fast now.
But I found that neither the young indigenous people nor I were even out of breath. If this were any other time, we would have been panting heavily by now.
However, I quickly understood the reason behind it.
It's probably because the oxygen concentration inside this sinkhole is much higher than in other places, but I can't say for sure how much higher.
It could be several times, or even more than ten times.
In short, we're like we've been given a cheat code, running wildly through the forest wearing an invisible oxygen mask.
When a high concentration of oxygen is ingested, it causes the red blood cells, which are normally responsible for transporting oxygen molecules, to be put on a high-speed highway.
I think even the oxygen consumed by this body from strenuous exercise can't keep up with the rate at which I replenish it.
So having a smaller body structure also has its advantages. Having adapted to the previous oxygen concentration, we are now thriving in this high-oxygen zone.
This feeling is like having been on Earth for a long time and your body has adapted to Earth's gravity.
While we can't jump very far on Earth, our muscle strength allows us to leap incredibly far on planets with lower gravity, such as the Moon.
This is just an analogy; the only difference here is that the oxygen concentration is higher than in other places. But the gravity is still exactly the same as in other places; it still exerts its force.
The most direct feeling when the oxygen concentration is high is that the body's aches and pains are greatly reduced, and the brain receives more oxygen, which helps me keep my mind clear.
The fact that I can still spare some mental energy to think of countermeasures while running at high intensity all the time speaks volumes.
However, this can't go on forever. Although there's no discomfort in the limbs, the law of conservation of energy doesn't change just because the oxygen content is higher.
The energy consumption of running like this is also extremely high, so using it to escape is not an exaggeration in our current situation.
I can feel my body starting to feel weak quickly, like when a car is about to run out of gas, which directly affects its performance.
The young native was horrified; this was beyond his comprehension.
I didn't feel any soreness in my limbs, so why am I getting more and more tired, and why do I suddenly feel extremely hungry?
The young local looked at me with a terrified expression, gesturing wildly as if trying to get me to check if he was sick.
I gave a wry smile. This wasn't an illness at all. It was clearly because we had overexerted ourselves, and our body's protective mechanisms hadn't had time to release lactic acid to protect us in this new environment.
If we had to run like this outside for this long, we would probably be a pile of mud by now, too exhausted to even crawl on the ground.
I glanced back and saw that we had temporarily left those giant mosquitoes some distance behind.
I have to say, this amazing experience was really awesome; we actually managed to outrun the giant mosquito on our own two legs.
However, we never want to experience this again in our lives, because the side effects on our bodies after we returned to the tribe were so severe that we had to lie in bed for three days and three nights like vegetable patients before our health improved.
That's a story for later; for now, we still have to keep running for our lives.
My body couldn't hold on any longer; the hunger in my stomach was churning like boiling water.
My body is now giving me a serious warning: if we don't eat soon, we could all crash on the spot.
"Damn it, let's go for it!"
I suppressed the discomfort and fired a shot backward. As the gunshot rang out, a large swarm of giant, black mosquito corpses fell like rain.
To conserve ammunition, I now fire one shot and wait for the giant mosquitoes to swarm back together before firing the second shot.
Towards the end, we ran slower and slower, and soon we were completely exhausted.
I felt my head starting to spin, and the only thing I could do was mechanically repeat the actions of reloading and firing backwards.
I've lost count of how many shotgun shells I fired, but I'm sure this encounter was the one in my life where I fired the most shots.
Fortunately, we had this shotgun to save our lives. If I hadn't had the foresight to make this life-saving weapon back then...
If we had only relied on those cold weapons to defend ourselves, we probably would have been reincarnated a hundred or eighty times over in this forest by now.
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