“So this is land!”

After a long time, Gar finally reached the boundary between the sea and the land, with a vast, boundless forest right beyond the beach.

Behind him lay the past—the ocean where he had lived for nearly a hundred years, and where his species had evolved over billions of years.

In front of him was the future—the land where he and his species would continue to live and thrive for an even longer time.

Until the moment they reached the cosmos.

It had been a long journey.

Beginning with the limited thoughts and initial fears of a single-celled organism.

Then to the complete consciousness and adaptation to the world as a soft-bodied creature.

And now, to the fading memories of the past and the aspirations for the future.

“Perhaps, when civilization emerges, the word ‘humanity’ will completely become my past, no matter the body I lost upon arriving in this world, or the memories now beginning to blur.”

No fear.

The memories of being human were just the past.

Waning memories.

“Humanity is gradually becoming distant!”

A slight current flickered, and smelling the scent of the sea and sand, Monoceros swayed its streamlined body, looking back at the dozens of kin behind him.

They were companions who accompanied him ashore.

“Now, let's officially prepare for landing.”

Casting aside the unpleasantness and regret of the piranha encounter, Monoceros revitalized himself, refusing to dwell in the past.

“First.”

With a flick of his broad tail, leveraging the surf's power, Monoceros alone leaped onto the sunlight-reflecting beach. The sunlight hit Monoceros's shimmering scales and horn, radiating a dazzling brilliance.

Regrettably, there were no admirers—not even Monoceros himself.

“Ugh, no, this is so uncomfortable.”

Just after hitting the beach, a suffocating sensation abruptly assaulted him, along with dissatisfaction with the land's dryness.

“Indeed... can’t... endure... land... lungs,” he muttered, using all his strength to jump back into the nearby ocean, fluttering his fins.

“Cough cough... guess... I need to solve... land breathing issues first.”

After gulping down several mouthfuls of sea water, savoring its subtle fragrance, Monoceros gradually overcame the discomfort of the dryness.

“Ah... sea water is still the best...”

“And, I also need legs.”

Leading the charge, Monoceros flicked his broad tail, coordinated by his fins, darting like an arrow. Behind him, dozens of Monoceros followed, beginning to search along the vast coastline.

...

Many arthropods lined the coast, they were the first animals to set foot on land.

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“If I had chosen an exoskeleton, maybe I'd be among the first to land,” Gar thought with a hint of emotion. But he had no regrets, because compared to arthropods, he was more familiar with and preferred the current form.

In truth, it was simple fondness.

As the main consciousness, if he couldn't even simply like the creatures he evolved, how could he wholly commit to evolving them? It would certainly end in the legendary bad end, both for the main consciousness and this species.

※※※

On the serene river surface, a ripple emerged, revealing a tip of a horn that gradually showed more of itself. Even though broad leaves blocked most of the sunlight, the horn's silvery-white tip still glowed faintly. However, this didn’t catch the attention of the amphibian lounging lazily with its mouth wide open, basking in the sun by the riverbank.

“Such leisure, creatures on land.”

Behind Monoceros emerged a tiny head with vines on top and a pair of wary eyes. A bold beetle alighted on Monoceros's horn for shade, quickly flying off when Monoceros shook it.

“You cheeky bug, taking shade on my horn, do you have a death wish?”

Seeing the gleaming white horn, everyone would know who it was.

It was our Monoceros, who had journeyed from the deep sea to the shallows, from the shallows to the inland lake, and yet hadn't made landfall. (Applause...)

The journey to the inland lake hadn’t taken long, as there was a significant estuary not far from where Monoceros arrived at the shore. Aside from playing some games with shark-like creatures, adapting to freshwater took quite some time.

So the Monoceros soon reached this small river and found their first legged creature (excluding beetles, since the exoskeleton was useless for Monoceros). They also discovered, fortunately, that although a concentrated electric stone mine was elusive, the electric stone content in the mud was much higher than when they were in the sea.

“It’s decided.”

After confirming, Monoceros set his sights on the four-legged creature resembling a crocodile among the amphibians, let's call it an ancient crocodile.

“But, how do I lure it into the water? It seems quite content basking in the sun, who knows how long it'll be before it comes down.”

Monoceros initially planned to carry out breeding to replenish the population drastically reduced by the piranha encounter but had quickly found this ancient crocodile. In terms of size, an average Monoceros was about two-thirds its size.

“With ten-odd Monoceros handling one, and the rest on guard, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

The water's brushwood and aquatic plants provided excellent concealment for the Monoceros, who laid in ambush not far from the target ancient crocodile. Even when a dragon fish swam by, it couldn't spot the hidden Monoceros.

Huh? Dragon fish.

“Wait, perhaps it’s because of this dragon fish in the water that the crocodile doesn’t come down.”

Monoceros wondered why he hadn’t noticed this before, doubting his ability to command in battle. He often overlooked many details—facing large predators, dealing with piranhas, it was the same.

Looking at the massive dragon fish with frustration, Monoceros thought maybe once civilization evolved, he should focus on cultivating subordinates’ combat command skills. He couldn't lead every time. However, he shouldn’t neglect his own abilities.

A dragon fish is a fish, obviously.

Far larger than Monoceros, about five to six times its length. Perhaps this area was its territory, causing the annoying dragon fish to patrol over the Monoceros ambush zone every so often, consuming anything larger than its teeth (ignoring insects as too tiny and insignificant).

“To satisfy the huge body's consumption, this greedy giant predator hunts all available food.”

This was Monoceros's conclusion after observing the dragon fish for a while.

So, should the dragon fish be eliminated first?

“Is it feasible?” The thought rendered Monoceros speechless. Beyond the question of whether dozens of Monoceros could take it down, if they did, the noise would definitely be significant.

Under such commotion, even a sluggish ancient crocodile at the riverbank would notice something amiss and possibly avoid the area.

So, eliminating the dragon fish = prey ancient crocodile escapes = can’t hunt it; not eliminating the dragon fish = prey ancient crocodile doesn’t enter the water = still can’t hunt it.

Oh, bother.

Monoceros expressed frustration.

“What to do?” Watching that lazy crocodile basking in the sun, mouth open and oblivious to an insect exploring inside, Monoceros angrily thought about rushing out to kill it. “Crocodile legs, crocodile lungs, and all that crocodile meat. Ah, I want it.”

“Are you two a couple? Guarding each other so closely…”

Gazing at the patrolling dragon fish, then back at the sunbathing ancient crocodile, then the dragon fish again...

Ripples spread from Monoceros, disturbing beetles on nearby floating logs, returning feedback to Monoceros's persistently shaking head.

“Oops, I was careless again.” Quickly stopping his head-shaking, Monoceros sighed in relief when he noticed the dragon fish hadn’t noticed.

“Wait, it's impossible that there's only one ancient crocodile, or any amphibious creature, why am I waiting here for so long?”

“I’m speechless.”

“Despair.”

Grumbling continuously, Monoceros sank slowly into the submerged debris, communicating with the lurking Monoceros. The school cautiously exited the dragon fish's patrol zone, swimming upstream along the riverbank.

As the saying goes, “Why worry about no fresh grass at the ends of the earth, why focus on one flower.”

“By the way, this saying seems quite out of place...”