Leisurely Days in the Courtyard

"My orchard finally has modern appliances."

Xu Zhi sat in his orchard courtyard. The washing machine beside him stopped with a thump. He silently took out the clothes and hung them one by one on the nearby line, then returned to the chair by the door, took out an apple, and peeled it slice by slice.

"Sub-brain, are you saying someone has already entered the Sand Table?" Xu Zhi looked at the small pond before him, its water crystal clear.

Even if someone had entered, Xu Zhi could not see them. They were still in spore form, single-celled organisms.

Countless instances of Spore Evolution would begin simultaneously in this Sand Table. The players would become one of those spores, competing against other naturally evolved spore species in a struggle where only the fittest survived.

"What if they quit the game halfway through?" Xu Zhi asked.

The Insect Nest Sub-Brain explained, "The spore will evolve on its own, only without the influence of the player's consciousness. When they return to the game, they may no longer recognize themselves, because they evolve every second."

Xu Zhi did not mind.

It was supposed to be a casual sandbox game, after all.

If something came up and they had to leave, go AFK, or quit the game, that was only natural.

Besides, if they messed up one round, they could just start another. Wasn't it fun to control what species they evolved into?

In truth, a single round lasting two or three days was for expert players.

Ordinary players would probably go extinct within a few hours. Without solid knowledge of biological evolution, they likely could not evolve a viable species and would be eliminated by other species evolved by nature.

"Once they breed unusual species with potential, I'll steal their species results."

Xu Zhi grinned smugly, like a shady merchant pulling strings behind the scenes. "I think the Insect Apes I created will be stronger than most species. Their species shouldn't be stronger than mine."

The Insect Nest Sub-Brain said, "Artificially created genetic organisms have less potential than species that evolve naturally."

So they might be better than me? Xu Zhi froze for a moment, then let out a breath. "Then let's wait and see. I hope these players can create new species and throw them into the Great Sandbox to compete with the Insect Ape race I created."

Come on, new species! Xu Zhi was full of anticipation.

He studied it for a while and found that the player was not making any major moves, still feeling his way around. Somewhat disappointed, he could only turn his attention to the development of the Great Sandbox.

In fact, after the third great flood extinction, everything was still in ruins. It would probably take two or three hundred years to recover, and there would not be any major changes for now.

After the Sumerian Civilization perished, Utanapishtim, a benevolent leader, took up the burden of a fallen nation and led his people to multiply once more upon the land the flood had swallowed.

He rebuilt the tribe on the former site of Mesopotamia.

A day passed, and more than a hundred years had gone by. His grandson, Ishbi-Erra, became the new leader. This leader possessed a ruler's ambition and talent, and he gave his tribe a name: the Babylon Tribe.

Babylon.

This tribal name would carry tremendously far-reaching significance in later generations.

The era of the Sumerians had passed. It had been an ancient, brilliant civilization that bloomed only briefly under the epic hero Gilgamesh. The future, however, would belong to the enduring glory of the Ancient Babylon wizard kingdom.

Inside a room.

Chen Wenshan had already discovered how terrifying this game was.

He died countless times. After generations of reproduction, he finally evolved eyes, then grew a mouth and began eating plankton. Yet he soon went extinct.

The eyes he evolved were too weak. He often failed to spot enemies and was ambushed and eaten into extinction.

"Damn, this is way too hardcore!"

He opened his mouth wide, silently took off the VR Glasses, and could not help trying several more times. Every attempt ended with him dying halfway through evolution.

Yet the realistic sensory experience, the fully virtual Black Technology visuals, and the limitless possibilities of biological evolution forced him to keep playing. It was too fun, too interesting.

"Extinct again! It has to be because my eyes are too small! I refuse to believe I can't evolve a pair of beautiful huge eyeballs!"

He was furious, rage welling up inside him.

For that reason, he even went to the school library to look up biological materials. Fortunately, his English was good enough, and he opened an extremely hardcore foreign textbook on evolutionary science.

The people around the dormitory were all bewildered.

Chen Wenshan was a rich gaming addict. He had set up a high-end computer worth seventeen thousand yuan in his dorm just to play games like crazy. Why had he suddenly fallen in love with studying, and such advanced biological genetics at that?

Half a day later, after studying basic evolutionary theory and failing several more times, Chen Wenshan successfully evolved a species that could barely survive.

To better catch food, he grew countless disgusting, slimy tentacles. To fulfill his wish, he specifically evolved an enormous single eye.

He looked like a giant eye surrounded by countless slimy tentacles, with a cherry-sized mouth beneath it full of sharp fangs.

"Hahaha, I finally did it! Such a huge eyeball, hahaha!"

Filled with accomplishment, Chen Wenshan controlled his strange tentacled creature as it crawled ashore. He was instantly stunned. "This is such beautiful mountains and rivers, such vast and real land! I've finally become an amphibian! This game is over seventy gigabytes, and these visuals are truly worth it—they're gorgeous! I'm going to control my race, explore the land, and rule the world! The world belongs to me!!"

Elsewhere.

Xu Zhi sat at the courtyard entrance, eating an apple and basking in the sun in his rocking chair. When he saw the bizarre creature crawling ashore in the distance, he was immediately dumbfounded.

"What kind of freak species is that? Are you kidding me? A naturally evolved species could never evolve into something so grotesque. Its eye is terrifyingly huge, taking up two-thirds of its body. Just how much resentment does he have toward not having eyes? How badly does he want to see the world?"

According to evolutionary theory, if a species chose to spend most of its nutrients evolving a useless eyeball that occupied two-thirds of its body, it would definitely be eliminated by nature. This was a crippled species that did not conform to evolutionary theory! "I knew it wasn't reliable."

Xu Zhi laughed speechlessly and took another bite of his apple. "One huge eyeball surrounded by slimy tentacles... What a bizarre species. It's ugly as hell, practically a defective product made for fun... Wait, doesn't this look like the Evil Eye from mythological monsters?"

He suddenly found it rather interesting.

"Hey!"

At that moment, knocking sounded at the gate. It was Chen Xi. "Open up! I brought you food."

"I'm coming."

He had been so entertained watching someone else evolve a species that he finally came back to his senses. He stood up and hurried toward the gate, accidentally stepping right on the Evil Eye monster.

Splat! It turned into a lump of meat paste.

"Hesitation leads to defeat."

Words of failure appeared before Chen Wenshan's eyes again. "You have exited the game. Please try again."

???

His face instantly went blank! He had been evolving just fine, had finally become a decent species, left the Origin of Species ocean, and had just crawled ashore to conquer the world. Why was it suddenly gone? He had actually been stepped to death?

Hey!!

Dog Planner of this game, get the hell out here!

"Oh, you're here again." Xu Zhi opened the door and found that Chen Xi had brought another batch of delicious dishes and food.