In truth, Xu Zhi had never expected things to develop like this.
He had known from the start that it was hardcore, incredibly difficult to get into.
Only those who had studied relevant professional knowledge stood a chance of evolving a species that could barely survive.
It was definitely hardcore. Otherwise, Xu Zhi himself would not have found it such a headache and so difficult to handle that he had only now thought of borrowing other people's help to evolve new species.
And this was not some monster-killing, level-grinding game. It was merely a casual evolutionary sandbox game, and its difficulty was terrifyingly high. It should have been very niche.
Yet he had never expected that someone would actually study such obscure, profound knowledge of species evolution just to play a game.
Perhaps there was a group of hardcore players in this world who simply enjoyed "being tortured."
And sandbox-style casual building games had always had a fairly large audience. Some people simply did not like killing monsters, grinding levels, and showing off. Games like Stardew Valley and Minecraft had always attracted huge player bases.
Beneath that lengthy and detailed review, the comments had gone wild. In a short time, over a thousand replies had piled up, causing a complete sensation.
Jump Sing Play Basketball: "Doubtful! Was it really that exaggerated? But it was described in such detail that it seemed real."
Crazy African: "So hardcore. You started with a spore, and evolution depended entirely on biology knowledge?"
Little Fists Are Beautiful: "Wow! As a terrible student, I suddenly really wanted to play. Infinite possibilities!"
Super Tech Otaku: "I guessed this first player had not uncovered the game's true content yet. For example, that giant in the background he mentioned—I found that very interesting. After all, the incomplete species he evolved did not last long before going extinct."
Little Brain Tiger Goes Down the Mountain: "I've already started reading Origin of Species! I already have evolutionary theory knowledge comparable to a university biology professor's. All I lack is a spore to practice with and test my evolution theory. I need a closed beta slot. Waiting online. Pretty urgent!"
Some were looking forward to it, some were desperately demanding slots, and some eagerly showed how badly they wanted to play. It sounded fun, didn't it? Of course, even more people claimed it was a colossal scam spanning the century, that those hundred people were acting, and laughed as they waited to see how long the original poster could keep pretending.
But they were soon slapped in the face at light speed.
Because Mount Akina Speed had already started a livestream on the platform, linking the footage to his VR Glasses.
Before their eyes stretched an expanse of azure seawater. The realistic visuals were like watching a magnificent, epic ocean film.
"Guys, I've just evolved eyes. I'm already familiar with this step. Next, I'll start hunting algae-like organisms and shift toward carnivory, following the evolutionary route of arthropods based on the Cambrian species evolution experience on Earth."
At that moment, a ferocious armored beetle approached from nearby.
"Holy shit, what was that? It looked like a trilobite from the Paleozoic Era. Hurry up and eat it!"
"Eat my ass! Streamer, run! It's going to eat you—it sees you as food! Run! Develop cautiously and evolve. Once you get stronger and evolve into a carnivore, come back and put it on the menu!"
For a time, everything completely exploded.
Xu Zhi watched for a while and felt that this enthusiasm was rather nice. He let things continue to ferment and ignored them.
As for the people who had already submitted a petition signed in blood by ten thousand people, demanding more closed beta slots—Think there are too few slots? What did that have to do with me? I made this game without earning your money or taking any benefits from you. Make all the suggestions you want; I'll lose if I accept any.
Xu Zhi laughed. He could not be bothered to set up more slots for them. They could fend for themselves.
He had not intended to spend much attention on this place anyway. It was only a small design, yet it had unexpectedly stirred up such a huge wave in gaming circles.
They could make a fuss all the way to heaven, and it would be useless. Xu Zhi simply did not want to expand it.
What did he need so many people for?
It was not as if he were truly serving them or giving them a game to play.
Unless some unexpected surprise appeared, he planned to keep it permanently at this "closed beta" stage and turn it into a completely niche game. Only one hundred people would be allowed into the sandbox, where they could slowly evolve promising species.
At that moment, the online game Spore Evolution was spreading like wildfire, while Xu Zhi merely glanced at that small sandbox before focusing all his attention on the other Great Sandbox.
This was his real work.
In the previous era, the Sumerians had, strictly speaking, produced only three extraordinary beings, including Gilgamesh. For the next civilization, Xu Zhi wanted it to develop a mature extraordinary cultivation system.
Ideally, it would evolve into a wizard civilization. Gilgamesh had once invited court Black Wizards to research Longevity Potions and extend his life.
That had been the embryonic form of wizards.
Xu Zhi also hoped for a complete wizard civilization to emerge, along with a great wizard skilled in alchemy, capable of researching witchcraft and potions and creating a medicine that could cure his terminal cancer.
Therefore, to establish this complete extraordinary civilization system, the sandbox naturally needed all kinds of mysterious and dangerous extraordinary species for the wizards to study and learn from.
After all, following the death of the previous generation's Queen Zerg, the Technology Side's information had been wiped clean. Without Zerg technology's advanced medical equipment, if he wanted to cure his illness, he could only find a way to rerun the sandbox himself and create a life-saving method belonging to the Extraordinary Side.
Xu Zhi looked toward the swampy mud in the Great Sandbox.
"A day has passed. The Big Eye Monsters and Evil Eyes have begun reproducing in large numbers, and now they have even evolved special individuals?" He was slightly delighted. As expected, this bizarre evolution had great potential.
More than a hundred years had passed. With no natural enemies in the newly opened environment, those weak species had reproduced madly and spread everywhere.
But soon, excessive reproduction increased internal competitive pressure, and food became scarce. With no external predators, their predators became their own kind.
For food, they competed among themselves, slaughtering one another in the swampy mud, fighting over food, and even eating each other. It was incomparably cruel.
Gradually, those Evil Eyes became increasingly violent.
A unique Evil Eye appeared.
It possessed a strange spiritual power. Any creature it stared at would be bewitched and obediently approach it, becoming its food.
This first-generation extraordinary Evil Eye species swiftly rose to the top and became the apex overlord of the swamp ecosystem. With no natural enemies, it began reproducing wildly and hunting other Evil Eyes.
Survival of the fittest. The strong prevailed, and the adaptable survived.
The ordinary Big Eye Monsters were soon slaughtered in great numbers. The entire land became filled with descendants of that Evil Eye possessing bewitching abilities, expanding relentlessly—from one, to a hundred, to a thousand.
The ordinary Evil Eyes began heading completely toward extinction, becoming relics of history.
"The extraordinary species has finally appeared. Chaotic spiritual power?"
Xu Zhi was slightly shaken. "It truly has great potential. Though it lacks intelligence, it can already act like Flycatcher Grass in the animal kingdom, luring other creatures into becoming its food."
Only after the fourth era did the first extraordinary species finally come into being.
Xu Zhi's thoughts stirred slightly. He suddenly looked toward the Great Sandbox, where another intense development had unexpectedly occurred: a group of Insect Apes had already entered that swampy mudland.
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