Chapter 56: The mystery of the bonus money

"Damn, that's really hurt!" Sobek didn't remember ever experiencing such pain since reincarnating and perhaps not even in his previous lives. The torvosaur's bites burned his skin as if there was hot iron on it. The wounds that the carcharodontosaurus had inflicted on him days ago were nothing in comparison. As soon as he was far enough away from the humans he threw himself on the bodies and began to consume them as fast as he can. Each of them gave him 7 skill points, which added to the ones he already had gave him a total of 19. "Update [Regeneration]! Now!" he screamed in his head as he watched the skill level rise to 4/5. Unfortunately, he now only had 9 skill points. "What a drag! Why am I missing one!? Are you kidding me?!?" The pain in the wounds had subsided, but they still burned. Sobek wasn't going to hold onto that pain for too long. "A prey... anything..." He ran to the river and began frantically searching the shore. Fortunately, he almost immediately found a group of small crocodiles warming up in the sun. He swooped in on them and grabbed one by the neck. The others fled into the water, but he didn't care. He quickly ate the crocodile and was finally able to maximize [Regeneration]. At that point he lay down and waited for the pain to disappear completely. Unfortunately, he couldn't do anything else. As time passed he felt his shoulder bones move to return to their original position, and even though it didn't hurt it bothered him a lot. Although it seemed like years to him, in reality his body was completely restored in less than half a minute. The description of the ability stated that at maximum level mortal wounds would heal in less than a minute and it wasn't lying. When the tingling finally disappeared Sobek jumped into the water and started swimming. "Hell, I'm not stay here a moment more! Too many carnivores around here!" he thought. He wanted to put at least twenty kilometers between him and the remaining torvosaurs. Unlike the other times, however, he didn't go to the human settlement, but to the opposite side. He no longer had any reason to go to humans: after what had happened, the fame points needed for the next evolution would have arrived very soon. He had done enough, there was no point in taking the risk of being caught. In the end, it could be said that everyone was satisfied. After that bizarre adventure, Sobek had returned to his usual life and the young girl would have returned home, in the safe of the human civilization. It could be considered a 'happily ever after' for both of them. Actually, Sobek was a little sorry to let her go. Despite all the headaches she had given him, he had enjoyed the girl's company. She had been the first human with he had interacted that hadn't shot him on first sight or treated him like a strange wonder of nature. However, he knew he couldn't keep her with him. The girl didn't belong to his world and Sobek didn't belong to hers; it was far better for both of them if their paths parted. Sobek was still worried about the mysterious bond he felt bound them, but now there was little he could do to investigate about it. He couldn't help but wait and see how that little girl would have influenced his future, assuming she would have influenced it. Maybe, he thought, he was just getting paranoid. Some fool might have thought that with his gesture Sobek would have achieved fame points not for one, but for at least three evolutions. After all, when it was ever heard of a dinosaur saving a little girl? The news would surely have caused a sensation. But Sobek wasn't deluded. Fame points didn't accumulate by making himself known, but by impressing his memory in people's hearts. And unfortunately people forgot quickly. Sobek remembered that in his previous life there had been very similar news, where a little girl kidnapped by three bad guys had been saved by a pack of lions. It seemed like it was a sensational story, but within a week everyone forgot. The only ones who had really remembered it were the scientists and enthusiasts who studied the phenomenon. Unfortunately, the people of the modern world were too busy with their chaotic lives to really care about such an event that didn't affect their lives in the least: much better to discuss politics, economics and work, which instead involved them in the first place. Sobek didn't expect that in this world it would be different. The news would have seemed sensational at first but then it would have soon been forgotten. Still, it was enough for the scientific community to take an interest in him, not just because of his bizarre behavior, but also because he was in fact an entirely new species. The fame points he would have obtained would have been more than enough for his second evolution and probably he would have received even more than the ones he needed. He wasn't so optimistic as to think he would immediately have reached a hundred million, the limit he needed for the third evolution, but at least he hoped to get a third of that figure. However at the moment the important thing was his second evolution. Seeing what he had just done, it was only a matter of time before the System warned him that the fame points had reached the required amount. While he waited, Sobek wanted to maximize the abilities he already had, so that he could fully focus on what he would achieve once the evolution was complete. He swam all day, then went out to the opposite bank of the river. Basically he had already noticed that due to the hunting of torvosaurs the prey on the other side was scarce: there was no reason to remain there. "All this thinking about fame points reminded me that I haven't checked the interface for a while. Since I couldn't level up in front of the little girl, I didn't bother to look at how many experience points I had. I would say that it is at least worth taking a look..." Sobek thought. "System, open the main interface!" [Spinosaurus superior] Level: 21 Length: 21 m Height: 6.9 m Weight: 10.5 tons Diet: carnivore, fishivore Strength: 22,105 Agility: 21,710 Defense: 19,390 Maximum speed: 22 km/h Experience points: 200,000/180,000 Skill points: 2 Fame points: 1,080,000/10,000,000 Bonus money: 286,190 He was right: the two torvosaurs alone had given him 100,000 experience points, which added up to all the hunt he had done in the previous days brought his amount to much more than the 180,000 required. If it weren't for the fact that the carcharodontosaurus was dead before he could kill it, he probably would have achieved at least 270,000 experience points. But even without that, he had 20,000 points in excess. "Well, let's not waste time. Let's level up!" After the usual ten seconds of pain, his body had grown to a length of 22 meters and a height of 7.2. Sobek was satisfied: even though his advancement was momentarily interrupted for a while, he still managed to earn a good number of experience points to continue his ascent to the rank of apex superpredator. "Now I have only 2 skill points, but it's normal since I maximized [Regeneration]. After all, that small crocodile couldn't give me much more than 3 skill points. It's not important; from now, I can take it easy. From now on, nothing will keep me in a territory of dangerous carnivorous dinosaurs and I will be able to focus on smaller and easier to catch prey" he thought. "Also, with [Regeneration] to the max, I'll be safe against many predators. The next goal will be to maximize [Deadly claws], and then I'll focus on [Fast eating]. I should have enough time for both of us... and when humans announce what happened here to the world, my fame points will increase just enough for the next evolution. Since with [Regeneration] and [Deadly claws] at maximum level I should be strong enough to defeat almost all the carnivorous dinosaurs if they are alone, then with the next evolution I suppose that I'll obtain skills that will make me powerful enough that I could be considered basically invincible. At that point, I'm sure I'll ascend to the rank of apex superpredator, and I'll be able to start to create my dinosaurs' army" It was a rather flattering and not at all unrealistic scenario; Sobek took a moment to admire it in his imagination. While he was thinking about this, however, he noticed something in the main interface: "Wait a minute... why have my bonus money increase so much?" The last time he checked, he had less than 60,000 bonus money. But now, he had almost 300,000 of them! Sobek couldn't understand what it was happened. "Mh. As I already checked before, I obtain new bonus money every time I interact with another creature. Every hunt gives me a little amount of bonus money. However, every time I interacted with humans, my bonus money increased much more than normal" Sobek reflected. He thought abount this for a while, when finally he understood. "Wait... can this be related to my choices?" Sobek reviewed the events of his life that had given him bonus money: "When I hunt, basically I don't make any choice. It is just my instinct. But when I defeated the poachers, that was my choice... and also when I interacted with the humans on the boat... and also when I saved the little girl. Defeated the poachers had given me not much bonus money, while saved the girl had given me an enormous amount. That means that my bonus money increase more when I make 'good choices'?" In nature, there weren't a 'good' or a 'bad': everything was related to the survival. Every choice a living being could make in such situation could be considered 'neutral': not good, not bad, just what it's need to do. But in the human world some actions were good and some were bad; in that case, the choice of the single individual had an enormous weight. Devouring all the poachers couldn't be considered a good choice: Sobek didn't do it for save the oxalaia or for some other heroic bullshits, but because his own advantage. He wanted the technology of the poachers, that had given him informations of that world, and then he wanted to eliminate the risk that they might return to look for him. Sobek's motivations could be considered selfish, greedy, maybe even cruel; in the human's perspection, he would have been considered 'bad'. For the System it was already better than 'neutral', since it had given him a little more bonus money, but it was clear that bad choices weren't approved. When he encountered the people on the boat, the situation weren't much different: Sobek hadn't kill them, but he showed himself only because he needed fame points for the evolution. Another selfish act, in lesser words. It wasn't a 'bad choice' as serious as killing the poachers, in fact the System rewarded him with much more bonus money. But saving the little girl Sobek had made a 'good choice'. It wasn't a selfish act: he hadn't gotten anything from their meeting and he had never expected to get anything. He saved and protected her just because he wanted to do it. In human's perspective, such act could be called selfless. And even with all the trouble that the little girl caused him, he had continued to help her. That was probably why the System rewarded him so much. It was a rather silly hypothesis, but Sobek couldn't think of anything else to justify the sudden sudden increase in bonus money. "Well, after all, the System was designed by God. God is supposed to be good and favor the good people. Right?" Sobek was a bit confused. If God truly appreciated selfless and kind creatures, why had she created an ecosystem where every living thing was forced to eat others to survive? From his point of view, it was as if a pacifist who preached the importance of love worked in a war industry. "I really cannot understand that woman" he thought in the end. After all, he had no reason to complain. If God liked that he makes 'good choices', it wasn't his problem: he was just pleased that he got so much bonus money. With that amount, when he would have started creating his army he could have bought many weapons, food and anything else provided by the [Secondary systems]. "Now, the priority isn't the bonus money, but level up and improve the skills!" It was time to get back on the hunt and he had a whole new territory to explore. He hoped to find other mammals, instead... [Prey identified: Scutosaurus karpinskii, pareiasauridae. Experience: 10,000 points] Despite the name, the scutosaurus wasn't a dinosaur. It was a creature from an earlier era, the Permian period. Although it wasn't a dinosaur, however, it still had a really considerable size: it was at least three meters long from head to tail and was taller than an adult man. Fortunately for Sobek the scutosaurs weren't certainly what could be defined as runners. Capturing one was very easy. "I can consider it a good start" he thought while he started to eat his first prey in this new area of the forest.