Nurturing Humanity

Chapter 38

You Players Are Really Gonna Take Me Down?

Xu Zhi was really looking forward to it.

It had been quite a surprise for him to see the Evil Eyes popping up before. Other surprises had then happened because of them. As such, he hoped to see more supernatural beings emerging in the sandbox. After all, there were quite a lot of capable people on the net.

It was utterly impossible for him to bring about countless species all on his own and create an entirely new world. The requirement in terms of intelligence made it too difficult for him to do so alone, so he went on to borrow the brains of other people to help him complete the sandbox world.

The second testing had already begun.

Just when Xu Zhi was having his breakfast and sending off the three witches, there were already 50 testers selected who were allowed to enter the sandbox, beginning on their pitch-black life of evolution.

Other veteran testers were already inside the sandbox as well.

“Damn, the contents of the second testing are getting more diverse, I see. There’s even an intro now.”

“Yep, the place is getting far more abundant now, and we’re even getting the Symphony of Fate from Beethoven as a party intro of sorts. Is this to say that we’ve begun our arduous lives evolving as spores?”

The veterans talked among themselves. They heard of the sendoff for the three witches in the sandbox, which was accompanied by music.

The newcomers were getting a crash course. They entered the game at 5am when the server was opened. Four hours had passed and they had now grown eyes and were feeling very, very excited about the wonderful ocean world around them as they peered about.

“This is true VR! I’m feeling everything throughout my body. This is truly a new world!”

“Hahahaha! Boy, I’m smelling the kerching all over me! Every line I speak, every evolution I go through, every environment I get myself into, all are worth of 600 thousand bucks worth of computational resources, and all of that just to render a whole new world for me in real-time!”

Bunch of ignorant punks!

There’s no cost involved. This is my compound, dum**ss.

You guys really think this is some VR game eh?

Xu Zhi sat in his compound, eating an apple while crossing his legs as he looked at the sandbox in the distance. He looked like a feudal lord overseeing the construction of his estate. “Get to work and craft me some creatures already.”

A bunch of ant-like beings noticed their foreman, who was none other than Xu Zhi himself. They murmured between them as they kept watch.

“Holy sh**! We finally see the legendary giant, and man, he is huge!”

“Eating an apple again?. Is this some sort of hidden story or something else such? I’m going up to have a closer look. I’d probably be able to gain access to some hidden spore evolution job.”

“No way. The old ones went up to him before and were pretty much stomped to death. By the way, this game is way freer than expected. There are still a lot of mysteries to dig into.”

…

The second testing began. The first group of testers were feeling the clinch as well.

Getting a place in the game cost a lot. They all learned about it all according to what the veterans told them. A player was worth 600 thousand bucks, which was something comparable to the cost of running most MMORPGs out there. The sandbox game they were in was seen as literally burning huge sums of money to run every second.

Chen Wenshan was the one taking the lead. As one of the most experienced hardcore players, a star player known through the forums who went by the name ‘Racer of Mount Haruna’, he was definitely not taking it easy.

He was feverishly looking into topics like ‘Cellular Evolution’, ‘Origin of Beings’, ‘Biomolecular Structures’, ‘Logical Structures of Biomechanics of Bones’, ‘Evolutionary History of Neural Toxins’ and so on.

There were over a dozen thick academic books, from both in and out of the country, piling up in his dormitory.

As someone who was able to enroll into a renowned university, he was a book-smart genius who scored 656 points in the National College Entrance Examination. The only thing that was different about him at the moment was that he was addicted to playing games, yet he nonetheless brought all that fervor he put into the examination back in high school.

“This time around, I’d be taking the route of arthropods, eating planktons, and having bones evolve out of me.”

“Then, I’ll take the vegetarian route, evolve an abdominal cavity, and then let the exoskeleton regress, kicking out that transitory equipment and evolving into a vertebrate. I’ll then get onto land and enter the swamps, taking the route of neural toxins… Then, I’d probably start hunting and eating swamp frogs or their like, so as to have toxin sacs evolved…”

He planned every step of the way. He lost quite a lot of hair throughout the time he immersed himself in the game and now looked like how Xu Zhi had once years ago. He drew images, packed tightly over a dozen pages on his book.

All of them depicted differing environments and different types of food, the resulting structure of biological organs from such variables, and then the differing evolutionary routes from then on out. All of that looked like a huge tree of evolution, and the details were packed tightly like stars in the night sky.

That was something that could be said to be the most profound field of research one could get into in this world, as one could look into throughout their lifetime and yet get nowhere near the end of things.

Chen Wenshan finally laid down his plan, which was currently in the form of evolutionary processes illustrated over a dozen pages. “It’s time to finally put my ‘Final Chicken Plan’ into action. I’m gonna kill the boss using poisons!”

He did indeed go on to do something that rocked the entire sandbox game on the very first day of the second testing.

The GM brought about a new achievement system, intending to have supernatural beings of unparalleled potential emerge in the game.

No one knew what was the parameters of such ‘unparalleled potential’.

No one had any idea at all.

However, he deemed that if his creature was able to kill the boss using poison, then he would definitely be the first to make his way into the achievement system. He deemed that it was the best course of action to take.

He was also not going to be joking around like he last did, evolving his creature into some good-for-nothing that was not looking appetizing at all. In the present round, he intended to make his species look delicious, and something packing potent poisons.

He intended to become the first player of ‘Spore Evolution’ to get an achievement.

The huge mysterious reward mentioned in the achievement was deemed to be something out of their world, judging from how every single place for players required 600-thousand-yuan worth of computational resources to run.

He entered the game.

Please evolve your eyes.

He began to start anew at the very first stage. It was a new spore and all of that was for that very moment.

The second testing was opened at 5am. He began playing as the newcomers were still getting to know how the game works. 10 hours had passed since then, and it was already 3pm.

“I’ve finally succeeded. Although, I still have some kinks to work on…”

Chen Wenshan was very anxious. As a player who was practically burning his health for the sake of the game, he had already been at it for 10 hours, staying every second throughout the way.

His creature at the moment looked like a very, very delicious, fiery-red rooster. He was making his rooster king, commanding a group of lesser roosters.

“It’s about time to show the noobs of the second testing what we veterans of the first testing are truly made of! I’m about to show them how to kill the giant boss of the compound!” A sheepish, irritating smile was seen on Chen Wenshan’s face.

He had been planning for a long time to bring about a scheme to reality, a scheme that would rock the entire game.

He then went on to post in the forum and streamed the undertaking live.

‘First day of ‘Spore Evolution’, the Racer of Mount Haruna will be showing the newbies something never before seen—taking down the giant boss eating an apple in the compound!’

The thread caused quite a commotion throughout the forum as soon as it emerged.

Everyone knew that the fastest among the players of the first testing simply went on to make some unsightly creatures that were quickly eliminated by nature itself.

Top-up more, I’ll chop off your hands wrote, “Good sir, are you masterful with evolution already? Are you getting ready to take the Nobel Prize, given that you’ve now evolved something that terrifying and powerful to take on the boss?”

Brainy Tiger down the Mountain wrote, “A newbie who is just beginning to get their eyes evolved and busy reading the ‘Origin of Species’ recommended by the veterans in the forum, and I’m now shaking all over.”

No one could believe what was happening.

They all knew just how huge that giant was from the videos of the game.

None of the current players were all that adept with evolution, and all of their creatures looked unsightly. The largest of creatures to emerge from the bunch was about the size of a beetle, which meant that they were unable to even match the size of the giant’s feet. All the others were also basically just ants. Taking on the boss was just deemed impossible.

However, some players in the beta testing realized what was going to happen.

I am Hunyuan Thunderbolt Hand, and I want to evolve into Kun, the legendary fish wrote, “Dude, are you really taking the joke before seriously? Are you really going to sh*t in that giant boss’ lunch and poisoning him using your sh*t?”

Cute girl who will evolve into a dragon and become the face of a web game wrote, “Oh sh*t, oh sh*t! My god! Are you really gonna poison him like that? You’ve already made something packing neural toxins then? And you call that thing ‘Final Chicken’?”

What plan?

Sh**ting in his lunch? Packing poison in the sh*t?

Gosh, this sounds horrifying!

A bunch of netizens who caught on the rumor in the forum raised their thumbs, complementing the ‘ingenious move’, being impressed at just how great the degree of freedom was afforded by the game, so much so that it truly mimicked reality. It really allowed someone to evolve into a creature packing neural toxins, and someone was actually planning to kill the boss with poison.

Racer of Mount Haruna wrote, “I’d like to ask for your cooperation. Is there a martyr who is willing to volunteer their pack as guinea pigs to test my poison out? Of course, it would be best for the ‘king’ of the said pack to take such poison personally, cranking up sensations to 100 percent and illustrate what it feels like being poisoned to death.”

Countless simply smirked at the request.

No one was willing to use the kings of their packs to test the poison. Furthermore, cranking sensations to 100 percent also meant dying a very painful death. Nonetheless, there were still some that commanded their own packs for experiment purposes. The poison was indeed unnervingly potent, and a huge number of them died within mere moments.

Then, said packs were quickly doomed due to their numbers falling too low, falling prey to natural selection.

The player was utterly devastated.

The Racer of Mount Haruna then wrote, “Hahaha, well brother. You’ve died a glorious death. My toxin is indeed very potent! Alright, here’s the next step then. It’s 4pm now. According to my observations, the boss’s usual patterns mean that he is about to take his next meal at about 5pm. My good brothers, help me move that huge chair in the compound. I’m gonna sneak into his meal, killing myself and taking him with me!”

The spectators cheered and were practically worshipping him like some god at that moment.

“We’re helping you out!”

“The first day of the second testing. Let’s witness our boss poison the giant boss to death!”

A group of players formed a ‘migrating troupe’ in glee, charging at the chair nearest to the edge, getting ready to kick up some ruckus on the first day of second testing, getting themselves involved in killing the boss who eats apples.

Xu Zhi thought, “WTF???”

He was without a doubt involved in the forums as well and was looking into feedback from the players on the first day of the second testing. He surprisingly found some dum**ss up to no good.

At the moment, he was sitting on a chair in his compound, eating an apple as he looked at the bunch of weirdly-shaped ant-like beings sneaking behind the miniature forest and bunching together, lurking and watching him, as they streamed their actions live in glee, looking into how to take down that super huge boss that was him.

He was utterly baffled.

“I’m just sitting at the side minding my business, watching you guys evolve in the sandbox. Just what did I do to deserve this?”

Xu Zhi was stunned.

“That dum**ss player named Racer of Mount Haruna is still very eager. It hasn’t been long since I opened up more spots for you players in the second testing out of generosity, and this is how you people repay me? You’re really gonna jump into my dinner and poison me to death!?”