This must be a dream.

I tried desperately to wake up from this nightmare, but I couldn’t.

I had no choice but to accept that this was reality.

I found myself trapped in some sort of enclosed space.

It was filled with moisture, and a hard shell was preventing me from moving.

It was hard to figure out where I was just by looking, but it wasn’t difficult to guess.

**【Green Gecko LV1】**  
HP: 7/7  
MP: 3/3

The hard shell surrounding me was a gecko egg.

I had become a gecko lizard.

As unbelievable as it was, there was no other option but to accept it.

Of all the creatures in the world, why did I have to become a lizard?

If I had at least been a dinosaur, it wouldn’t have been so bad.

Dinosaurs are cooler, and at least I had some basic knowledge about them. As for lizards, my knowledge was practically nonexistent. All I had were a few YouTube videos I’d seen in passing.

As if responding to my thoughts, the blue window, which seemed to be a status screen, displayed something new.

**【Green Gecko LV1】 ▶View Details**

"View details?"

How do I use it?

"View details."

---

**【Green Gecko】**

- A lizard about 15 cm in length and weighing around 70 grams.
- It has microscopic setae on its feet, allowing it to easily cling to walls and ceilings.

---

It felt like a description that belonged on a wiki page.

I wasn’t exactly small—at least not for a gecko.

I felt cramped inside the egg. I was probably a large, healthy specimen.

Being this big meant I was ready to break free from the egg and emerge into the world.

Staying in the shell any longer wouldn’t do me any good.

Using my head and hands, I began to push against the shell.

They say an egg is like a world.

In my case, it was quite an appropriate metaphor.

As a gecko lizard, the walls of the world seemed impossibly high.

No matter how much I pushed with my small hands or bashed it with my head, the shell wouldn’t budge.

But I didn’t give up.

If a struggling child works hard enough, surely a parent will eventually come to help.

*Crack.*

Thank you, Mother.

The sudden burst of sunlight made me squint, but then I realized: reptiles don’t have eyelids. I couldn’t blink.

*Phew*, I’m finally out.

The egg had shattered, and I looked around.

It seemed I wasn’t the first to hatch—there were broken eggs scattered around.

But something felt off.

The eggs were broken, but my siblings were nowhere to be seen.

“Kkiikik?”

I heard a noise and looked up to see an enormous creature towering over me.

**【Oviraptor LV.10】**

So… my mother was an Oviraptor.

"Hello there."

I gave a small nod of greeting.

Seeing a dinosaur in the flesh stirred some strange emotions within me.

My heart was pounding.

Was this what they call excitement? Seeing a living, breathing dinosaur in front of me was exhilarating.

…But wait, did reptiles have hearts that beat this fast?

It dawned on me why my heart was racing.

I wasn’t an Oviraptor.

I was just a gecko lizard.

So then, who exactly was this dinosaur in front of me?

Oviraptor… Oviraptor… The name sounded familiar.

"View details!"

---

**【Oviraptor】**

- A dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous period, approximately 1.6 meters in length and weighing between 20-40 kg.
- It feeds on small animals but, true to its nickname as an "egg thief," its favorite food is the eggs of other animals.

---

It was a creature often featured in popular media.

An egg thief…

An egg thief?

The way the Oviraptor was looking at me seemed strange. It wasn’t the affectionate gaze of a mother looking at her child, but rather the gaze of a predator eyeing its prey.

Had it helped crack the egg just to peel away the unnecessary shell and eat the contents?

No, that couldn’t be it.

I was the proud child of a majestic Oviraptor, and this dinosaur was my mother…

“KIEEEEK!”

Shit.

I had to run.

The moment I heard that roar, I knew exactly what had happened to my siblings.

They had ended up in this thing’s stomach.

I scrambled across the ground with my small legs.

I had just been born, so I thought it would be hard to move, but maybe instinct kicked in. I managed to flee much faster than I had expected.

“KIEEEEK!”

But to the Oviraptor, my efforts probably looked like meaningless flailing.

*Thud!*

Its claw struck my tail. My small limbs were no match for its claws. I was trapped, unable to move.

**[Warning! HP is dangerously low!]**

Was this the end?

All that was left for me was to wait to be eaten.

But this… this was too unfair.

What had my protector been doing all this time while I was in danger?

Oh right, my protector would just be another lizard like me.

Was my whole gecko family going to be wiped out like this?

**[A reincarnation perk has granted you a skill. Would you like to check it?]**

A skill?

What kind of question is that?

"Check!"

**【Tail Severing LV1】**  
You can sever your tail!  
Cost: 1 MP

This is what they’re calling a skill?

The description was as lackluster as the name.

It wasn’t like I was throwing a spear or dealing any kind of damage.

But now wasn’t the time to complain.

In a situation where I could do nothing, just being able to do something was already valuable.

"Tail Severing!"

The part of my tail trapped under the Oviraptor’s claw was instantly cut off.

And the moment my tail was severed, I gained an incredible burst of speed.

I couldn’t believe a small body like mine could move so fast.

*Thud thud!*

My tiny claws scraped the ground, and for a moment, I felt like I was flying. With a powerful leap, I put some distance between myself and the Oviraptor, then scurried away at full speed.

*Tap tap tap.*

I managed to put a considerable distance between us.

Tail Severing had done its job, but surprisingly, its effects weren’t over yet.

*Twitch.*

My severed tail kept moving, twitching as if it were still alive.

*Twitch twitch.*

With that simple brain of its, the Oviraptor probably couldn’t understand what was going on.

But it was too early to relax.

My tail was too small to be more than a bite-sized snack.

It wouldn’t take long for the Oviraptor to refocus on me once it got over its confusion.

Even though I had sped up, my stride was still tiny compared to its massive steps.

Ten of my steps were barely equivalent to one of its strides.

But I still had a way out.

A path only a gecko could take.

*Tap tap tap!*

I scrambled up a tree at full speed.

Everyone knows geckos can climb trees.

Since the effect of Tail Severing was still active, I climbed to a height where the Oviraptor wouldn’t be able to spot me.

The Oviraptor searched around for a while before giving up and returning to where it had come from.

Chasing down prey as small as me wasn’t worth the effort.

Tail Severing, I had underestimated you. You turned out to be a pretty decent skill.

It was a shame it could only be used once, but since it had saved my life, I couldn’t complain.

I looked down at the stump of my tail.

I couldn’t believe my eyes.

The tail I had lost was slowly starting to grow back.

So, it wasn’t a one-time-use skill?

That was great news.

Except for the message that popped up.

**[Warning! HP is dangerously low!]**

**【Green Gecko LV1】**  
HP: 1/7  
MP: 2/3

I hadn’t used HP when casting Tail Severing.

All the damage I had taken came from the Oviraptor stepping on me.

If I had timed it right and severed my tail just before getting stepped on, I wouldn’t have taken any damage.

Even wild lizards drop their tails before they’re attacked.

I gave my regrowing tail a little shake.

It moved without any issues.

At the current rate, my tail would probably be fully grown in just a few minutes.

I glanced down at the ground from the tree.

The height was dizzying. I could climb down the trunk if I wanted, but that wouldn’t be a good idea.

Where there’s one Oviraptor, there are likely other dinosaurs.

Even if they weren’t interested in a small lizard like me, getting accidentally stepped on would be fatal. Until I found a better plan, I’d have to stay up here.

And right now, my HP was dangerously low.

I needed to focus on the present.

I was perched on a thick branch. There wasn’t much cover, but at this height, at least I didn’t have to worry about an Oviraptor attack.

There were enough leaves that if I gathered them, I could make a makeshift nest and hide well enough.

A plan was starting to form.

I didn’t know why I was here, but survival had to be my first priority.

Yes.

This was the beginning of my survival diary as a lizard in another world.

And the beginning is always the most important part.

I scur

ried along the branches, searching for a better spot.

I found a place that I was quite satisfied with. The leaves were thick enough, and the branch was wider than others. If a normal branch was like a 50-square-foot apartment, this one felt like a 70-square-foot one.

Since my body was small, I needed my home to be bigger.

Just as I was settling in, I sensed something.

I immediately looked up.

Flames danced above me. No, it wasn’t fire—it was a brilliant red light that was almost as intense.

A spider, with a bright, fiery pattern, was glaring at me with its eight crimson eyes.

Its body was about the same size as mine.

But its legs were disproportionately long. And it didn’t have just two—it had eight. The sharp fangs around its mouth looked far too dangerous.

At first glance, it resembled a tiger spider.

But it was far more terrifying than any ordinary spider.

Why was a monster like that in my cozy tree branch house?

It might look scary, but I had already survived an encounter with an Oviraptor.

A spider like this should be no problem.

I focused my eyes on it, just as I had with the Oviraptor.

And then I saw it.

**【Nephila Jurassic LV13】**

This spider’s level was higher than the dinosaur’s?!

Please… just let me live.