I'm a spinosaurus with a System to raise a dinosaur army
Chapter 82: Documentary (part 1)
Sobek retreated to the forest and pulled a cellphone out of his inventory. He typed 'spinosaurus' into Google and the first result he got left him speechless for a moment.
The first thing that appeared was a two-hour video titled 'The little girl and the spinosaurus'!
Sobek quickly scrambled and discovered that the video was nothing more than a documentary produced and directed by a certain Michael Crichton. Sobek had no idea who he was, but searching for information on Internet he discovered that he was a very famous international director and producer.
Suddenly everything became clear to him: the increase in fame points was due to that documentary! A lot of people must have seen it. Even if the same rule applied to the news, namely that only those who would have fixed his existence in the heart could have provided him with fame points, a documentary was very different from an article in a scientific magazine or a television news. After this would have told the story in detail, many more people would have imprinted his memory in their souls!
After all, that was what documentaries were for: people generally didn't get into nature, archeology, astronomy or other subjects spontaneously. Documentaries were therefore the best way to let people enjoy the beauties of the world.
Sobek was seized by curiosity, the typical curiosity of famous people who have to read or watch a work dedicated to them: how did they portray him?
In reality he had no expectations or anything: he wouldn't have been angry if they gave an untrue picture of events. Sobek was only interested in fame, and as long as the documentary could bring him some, that they portray him as they liked. But he was still curious.
Eventually he decided that after reaching the rank of apex superpredator he could have some fun, so he click 'play' and started watching the documentary. The screen went black, then suddenly lit up showing a bird's-eye view of the jungle, or at least a small part of it. "Wow... suggestive" Sobek thought. Whoever had done the special effects certainly knew how to do his job.
As the overview continued, a narrator began to speak: "The continent of Maakanar is one of the most biodiverse places in the world. Almost completely covered by dense jungle, it offers shelter to countless animal species, many of which may still be unknown to science". The camera went down into the trees and several creatures began to appear on the screen. "And at times, the arrival holds surprises that we humans would define as bordering on the impossible"
The panning ceased and the image of a large spinosaurus began to move across the screen. Sobek jumped, once again praising the special effects curators: even though he knew it was all a reconstruction, he felt like he had really been filmed!
"On August 12 of this year, one of the strangest and most majestic creatures appeared on the scene shocking the whole world"
The video quickly changed, showing a man sitting at a desk. It was the same man who had tried to narcotize Sobek to study him. The subtitles stated that he was a scientist and his name was Mitch Morgan. "It is undoubtedly the most intelligent animal that humanity has ever encountered" the man said.
Again images of the spinosaurus were shown, then there was a new break and another scientist named Max Morgan appeared. "When my son told me what had happened, I wasn't believing him. Then he showed me the videos and..."
More scenes with the spinosaurus, this time destroying a helicopter. New detachment and this time a familiar face finally appeared: Jocelyne. "I thought it would eat me. Instead I owe him my life"
The narrator resumed: "Today, thanks to the work of numerous scientists and the story of the protagonists of the story, we are able to understand a little the mysteries of the strangest animal that science has ever encountered!"
And finally the introduction ended and the theme song started. The title 'the spinosaurus and the girl' appeared in large letters, while behind it a spinosaurus roared fiercely.
"Well... now you have my attention" Sobek thought. The beginning hadn't been very different from many common documentaries: a narrator who introduced the whole and pieces of interviews that would probably have appeared in the video placed as an interlude. However, he had to admit that a truly impressive job had been done: even if it couldn't be called innovative, the documentary was created with such care and special effects that it immediately made everyone want to watch it.
Once the theme song was finished, the narrator began to briefly describe the jungle, citing some of the most evocative species that inhabited it. He described many scientific achievements and biological discoveries of previous years.
"However, even though we pride ourselves on having discovered a lot, the forest hides its secrets well" The scene suddenly changed: this time it was not a reconstruction, but a video that had been recorded by some soldier as he and Jocelyne were saying goodbye. "On August 12, the world is shocked by unprecedented news: a giant dinosaur has saved and protected a little girl"
The narrator then began to talk about the situation in Odaria: he described the political state of the country, its social backwardness, its internal division and the crimes of which the rulers were guilty. Several anthropologists and scholars were also interviewed to better explain the conditions of the nation.
"It seems that they didn't spare themselves to make a beautiful veiled denunciation" Sobek thought amused: denouncing the crimes of a country under the false neutrality of a documentary was also a common practice on Earth.
Then there was a very long interview with Jocelyne. While a video (clearly a reconstruction) showed the kidnapping, the little girl accurately described the story, without sparing any details.
The tones became even more raw as the girl was taken into the forest and forced to say 'yes' to the question of the political official. Even though he knew it was all fake, Sobek felt the urge to stick one of his claws into the cell phone to pierce the skulls of those bastards. To demonstrate once again how well the documentary was done.
"But unbeknownst to the kidnappers, they are not alone in that corner of the forest" said the narrator.
The scene shifted to show some masts, behind which there was a large sail. Sobek smiled. "And this is where the fun begins!"
"Thanks to the help of several experts who have worked in the field, we can reconstruct the movements of this extraordinary animal"
"What?" Sobek didn't expect that twist. In what sense could they reconstruct his movements?
The camera returned to settle on Mitch. "When we went there, the marks left by the spinosaurus were still fresh. From them we were able to reconstruct his movements and we found the place where it all began". A photo was shown of the place where Sobek had slept that night. "Studying its bed, we were able to understand that the spinosaurus had realized in advance the presence of humans, but that it had decided to move only after receiving some signals"
"Huh?" Sobek was getting more and more confused. He couldn't understand what the man wanted to say.
"We can say that the spinosaurus was sleeping, but that it raised its head three times. The first was due to the annoyance caused by the arrival of humans who had inadvertently awakened him; however, he initially gave it little weight and went back to sleep. However, immediately afterwards the traces left show that it raised its head a second time, then lowered it again while keeping its body very tense. The third time, finally, was the one in which it launched the attack". As the professor spoke, the reconstruction showed the spinosaurus intent on moving as Mitch said. "Why these movements? Initially we asked ourselves this too, but after several hypotheses we came up with a satisfactory theory. From the size of the nostrils of the spinosaurus we can say that it has a very fine sense of smell, consequently we believe that it was the smell of the blood and hormones produced by the child that alerted it. Even if we don't notice it, the human body produces different smells based on our emotions, consequently the spinosaurus had sensed that there was something wrong with the smell. The third time was probably caused by Jocelyne's scream: the spinosaurus, hearing it, probably put the pieces together and realized that someone or something was in grave danger"
"Aaaah! That was what they meant" Sobek thought, cursing Mitch for taking an hour to get to the point. He was surprised: had the scientists been able to establish how many times he had moved his head and had they even understood his thoughts? Good job, really...
The scene shifted again to the kidnappers trying to get the girl married, and Jocelyne's external voice resumed. As the little girl recounted what had happened, the reconstruction showed the spinosaurus breaking into the humans and tearing them apart one by one. The whole thing was done so well that it looked realistic, as if someone had actually filmed the scene!
When the slaughter was finally completed, the spinosaurus was shown approaching the bound child. "At that moment I thought I was dead" Jocelyne explained. "I was convinced that it would eat me at any moment, instead... it chose differently"
"Yeah, maybe less drama, thanks" Sobek grumbled in his mind.
The documentary continued showing the spinosaurus cutting the ropes that held the child imprisoned and offering her some medical plants. At that point the scene shifted to Professor Chang. "Many plants possess healing abilities ranging from soothing pain, thus providing a natural pain reliever, to curbing wound bleeding and preventing them from becoming infected, such as an ointment or disinfectant. Some very intelligent animals, such as monkeys, can recognize these plants and use them. So the fact that the spinosaurus offered them to little Jocelyne is a sign of a great IQ"
"Obviously no one imagined that in a past life I was human..." Sobek thought. Or maybe yes? Based on what he knew about humanity, some fool who thought it must be there, they just weren't stupid enough to talk about it on the Internet. Or maybe they had, and Sobek was simply too lazy or too intellectually superior to start looking on social media for them.
The narrative continued describing the various events until the following day, when it was time to put Jocelyne in a tree to go hunting. "When those jaws closed on me, I almost died of fear" the little girl explained in the interview. "I thought: 'ok, now it eats me'. I couldn't move, I was literally paralyzed with terror. I expected my teeth to pierce my flesh at any moment. When it set me down on that tree I couldn't believe I was still alive"
Another cut on professor Morgan. The old one this time. "Predators can't get to the tree, so it's the safest place for the little girl. At this stage the spinosaurus was looking after Jocelyne as if she were its baby: its priority was her safety, and the top of a tree was an easy place to hide and where few animals could arrive"
Another cut, this time on Mitch. "We know from the marks and traces left by the spinosaurus that it has never strayed too far from the tree where Jocelyne was hiding. It was basically keeping an eye on her with its nose. While it hunted, it made sure nothing came close to her"
The scene again showed the spinosaurus wandering through the forest sniffing the air. At that point the narrator resumed: "And the spinosaurus has good reasons for being so apprehensive. In that area of the forest they are not alone" and suddenly the screen was filled with fangs, gaping mouths and roars.
And then there was an commercial break.
"WHAT? Right now, on the most beautiful part!? Fuck you!" Sobek thought irritably as he ran the video to skip the commercial.