Chapter 330: Carboniferous Period 2

Perry Yates changed into a set of clothes made from fabric woven with Desert Spider Silk.

She had performed Ascension on the fabric several times after it was made into clothing, making it incredibly sturdy and durable, as well as breathable—warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

With her clothes and shoes on, she tucked in her sleeves and collar, put on sunglasses, tied up her hair, and donned a hat.

After she finished all this, the ten minutes were up.

Her vision went black, and a severe sense of weightlessness washed over her.

By the time she fully recovered, her vision was gradually returning to normal.

Perry Yates slowly opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was an expanse of enormous plants.

’So this is the Carboniferous Period,’ Perry Yates thought, curiously sizing up her surroundings.

She first sensed for the cards inside her body and, just as she’d expected, they were all gone. A transparent Energy Protection Shield now surrounded her.

The shield came from the Five-star Protective Equipment, which meant the world outside was not suitable for human survival.

But that made sense. This was the Carboniferous Period, after all, a full 350 million years from her own time.

During this period, forget humans—even the ancestors of the dinosaurs were just small lizards in the jungle. Any prehistoric insect could easily prey on them, let alone a human.

Humanity’s ancestors were probably still swimming in the sea during this era.

This was the age of insects.

Perry Yates recalled what she knew about the Carboniferous Period.

During the Carboniferous Period, the four seasons had not yet formed. The climate was humid and stuffy year-round, and the air had extremely high moisture content.

Thinking of this, she looked at the surrounding plants again. They weren’t trees, but ferns.

Just as she’d thought, both the plants and insects of this period were enormous, making Perry Yates look like a dwarf walking through a giant forest.

When she looked up, she couldn’t even see the sun.

Moreover, birds, the natural enemies of insects, had not yet appeared in this era. The sky was ruled by a massive insect called the giant dragonfly.

The insects on the ground were also terrifying. For example, centipedes that were at most a finger’s length in modern times could grow up to twelve inches long during the Carboniferous Period.

And that was nothing. Even scarier were the Millipedes, which could grow up to 8.5 feet long—longer than a single bed—and weigh around 110 pounds. And they were ferocious predators.

The thought of Millipedes made Perry Yates shudder. All those countless legs...

’I hope these bugs are at least a little good-looking,’ Perry Yates told herself, though the thought offered no real comfort.

She held her Spiritual Ability Gun, staying constantly aware of her surroundings. The most important thing now was to find her runaway cards as quickly as possible. She had no idea where they were.

Without those cards, she felt completely insecure.

’Perry Yates mentally reviewed the cards she possessed: Twin Sunflowers, Bicolor Rose, Thorny Rose, Yin Yang Bagua, Cold Moon Guardian, Seed of Life, Clone, Wargod Kai, Dodder Seed, Any Door, Water Lotus, Moon Shadow Stealth, Flame Barrier, Abyssal Roots, and finally, Pointed Explosion.’

After taking stock of all her cards, Perry Yates couldn’t help but suck in a sharp breath. ’This is a huge workload.’ There were fifteen cards in total, and she couldn’t afford to give up a single one. They were all five-star cards, after all. And aside from Clone and Wargod Kai, she had nurtured all the others to this level bit by bit.

"If only I could find the Twin Sunflowers," Perry Yates muttered.

After all, it was her first card and its abilities were comprehensive. It could not only attack and defend, but also heal. More importantly, it allowed her to channel the energy of the sun and moon, and even communicate with plants.

Especially in an instance like this, it was the perfect card for the job.

Perry Yates sighed. The only silver lining was that she could still use Skills like Instant Teleportation and Invisibility. Her Talent and fused Talents were also usable, and her Spiritual Body was still intact.

’When I think about it that way, I’m not entirely helpless.’

With that in mind, she immediately used foreknowledge. She wanted to see what the future held, to see if she could find the cards’ locations.

As the Talent activated, a scene flashed before Perry Yates’s eyes. Amidst a dense patch of ferns, a peculiar Sunflower was growing vigorously.

The Sunflower had two heads, its golden petals shimmering brilliantly in the sunlight.

Perry Yates could even feel a call coming from that Sunflower—no, it was a call from the card.

The foreknowledge ended. Perry Yates replayed the scene in her mind. It seemed that after leaving her body, the cards reverted from their card form back to their original state.

If that was the case, most of Perry Yates’s cards were plant-based, which should make them relatively easy to find. Moreover, it wasn’t just her looking for the cards; the cards were also calling out to her.

Perry Yates recalled the location of the Sunflower she had just seen and sent out her Spiritual Body.

Just then, the rapid sound of flapping wings came from overhead. Perry Yates immediately used Instant Teleportation to leave her spot, then raised her Spiritual Ability Gun and took out the bug that had tried to ambush her with a single shot.

It was an insect of immense size, with huge mouthparts that could have bitten her in two.

But no matter how big it was, it was still just a bug, nothing in the face of the Spiritual Ability Gun.

After dealing with the giant dragonfly, Perry Yates became even more aware of the danger here. She activated her Silver Cross. A silvery light covered her entire body before quickly fading.

’With the Silver Cross active, the bugs shouldn’t be able to find me.’

Thinking this, Perry Yates scanned her surroundings and chose a direction based on what she had seen in her foreknowledge.

Before setting out, she checked her system inventory again. Sure enough, the giant trash can that was supposed to be in her inventory was gone.

She picked up a straight stick from the ground to use for probing the path ahead, as the plants here were just too large.

Furthermore, the trees here didn’t rot after they died. Instead, they would pile up in the swamps.

This was because, during this period, the bacteria capable of decomposing wood had not yet evolved.

Lignin, a substance in the cell walls of plants, was especially tough during this era. The microorganisms of the time couldn’t break it down at all. So, dead trees didn’t disappear but sank into the wetlands, piling up into thick, dark layers of organic matter.

These deposits were later buried underground as the ages passed, and after hundreds of millions of years of pressure and temperature changes, they became the coal we use today.

Perry Yates hurried on her way, dodging the giant insects that appeared around her.