Chapter 1498 - The Day of Reckoning (1/2)

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

A painful roar rang as a sabertooth fell lifelessly on the ground. Its fear-inspiring fangs, speed, and ferocious attack did nothing for it. The ancient apex predator did not even understand how it got hurt when its heart was burnt to crisps in an instant by the plasma spear.

Hao Ren swung his plasma spear to the side, and even though the blade itself was not coated with blood, Hao Ren felt that the motion was a plus in the cool factor. After he looked at his surroundings, he confirmed that aside from the overly-eager sabertooth earlier, there were no more hostile parties in the area. He breathed a sigh of relief.

The ancient wilderness was teeming with danger, and humans in this age had not climbed to the top of the food chain yet. There were beasts that could prey on humans everywhere, and while they were no threat to Hao Ren, getting rid of them was still quite the headache.

Hao Ren turned back and saw a distortion rift about two-persons wide hanging in the air. On the opposite side of the rift, the mysterious tower of ice lay on the ground, and the scenery of 7,715 BC was captured within the rift and was covered by a shade of grey that came with the time stop.

To be frank, Hao Ren had no idea which year he had ended up in his backtrack through time, the precise date is probably only available in the sandbox system logs. What he had was an instinct, a sense of premonition that was getting clearer the closer he was to the starting point of this time warp. He now knew that he was in the final frontier, perhaps here, or the next one, he would arrive at the starting point of this long time stream. The end of this long journey… was not too far away.

“So… the sabretooth actually lived till this age huh…” Hao Ren looked at the fallen beast before him as he mumbled to himself. “Archaeologist will probably faint of joy if they see this…”

He was not all that interested in the sabretooth but he needed something to talk about. In this foreboding prehistoric world, traveling alone was not something fun, and Hao Ren realized that he needed to find something to distract himself.

As he left the dimensional rift behind him, Hao Ren lifted his plasma spear and left.

He continued moving across the frigid plain as he tried to find traces of settlements or any activities of intelligent beings, but he was unlucky throughout the day. This was Earth in its prehistoric days, and humans were in the stone age, and the small population of men all lived in the sparse and scattered settlements in the hospitable zones while the rest of the lands were wildlands. This ice age too had prevented humans from expanding their area of activity and to actually search for a settlement, it was all down to luck.

Hao Ren already knew of this and was not dejected. From the date he started going back in time, he had already run into all sorts of trials and tribulations, there was very little that could break him now.

As night fell, Hao Ren rested in a cave. The food items in his Dimensional Pocket had now become a rare luxury and were only eaten when he craved the “taste of home”. Instead, he hunted for meat in the plains, and after dinner, he used the stars to determine his position. And while the skies above were different 10,000 years ago, Hao Ren came prepared and had recorded the star maps of each era in his mind, and he could easily make out his current location: somewhere in northern Europe.

He then started studying Vivian’s diary and had a rough idea of his current location now and he was sure that he was close to his destination.

As the sun rises, he went forth again upon the vast grassland.

He was not moving without any destination however; he was following the “guide” within his inner self. While he was not very used to depending on his “instincts”, something so intangible to go about things, but he had to admit, as a demigod that has already linked with the will of the universe, his instinct was much much more reliable – at least compared to shoe or coin tossing – guide.

After entering this dimension, he felt that his instincts were more honed and pronounced. Simply closing his eyes and opening it again will tell him which way he should go, and this unseen guide was so clear, that he could hear a voice ringing in his head: It’s just ahead, the person he is looking for is just ahead.

Under this guidance, he continued through the wilderness. In this cold and barren Earth, only the rising sun and the starry night was his companion, and of course, those already extinct animals in the present day.

Mammoths or sabertooths were actually a rather rare sight, and in this post-ice age world, the climate was getting warmer, the change in the ecosystem had driven many glacial species on the path of extinction. While they still lasted a good few thousand years, but species’ decline was obvious. The scenes of men hunting mammoths were ending with the warmer climate, but the coming of the “Age of the Gods” was set to derail Earth’s original development path.

As the sun rose through the horizon for the twelfth time, Hao Ren had left the barren wilderness and entered grassland in warmer zone teeming with plans. He had run into a stone age settlement by the grassland. The tribespeople treated the god-like Hao Ren like a deity but they were clueless about Vivian or any other gods.

On the twentieth day, Hao Ren had crossed the grassland and into a mountainous area. He had not seen any otherworldling settlement along the way, like smashed landing vessels, antennas secured with rocks, or any purification magic circles near water sources or swamps. These were visible in the last track, even more so in an earlier one. They were proof of the otherworldlings’ efforts in survival and were all over the place during the starting years of the Age of Mythology.