How to Enter the Sandbox

"Witches?"

Xu Zhi smiled.

He had silently waited for over three days—more than three hundred years in their world. At last, amid the lingering remnants of the Great Flood, signs of revival had appeared once more.

People who had fused with a second gene had actually emerged. They had chosen the Evil Eye.

As Zerg, it was still quite easy for them to fuse genetic fragments. As long as their constitution was suitable, their own genetic chains happened to contain a large blank segment capable of accommodating foreign genes.

Gilgamesh had fused with the second gene, the White Ant Gene, granting him immense strength.

Meanwhile, this group of women known as witches had fused with the second gene, the Evil Eye Gene, gaining psychic power.

If the Evil Eye species had not appeared in this sandbox as the first extraordinary species, it probably would never have become the catalyst for the path of transcendence.

"Evil Eyes, Big Eye Monsters. Good stuff! What a huge surprise."

Xu Zhi smiled happily. This small sandbox born from a sudden whim was truly excellent. The players' wild imaginations and unconventional evolutionary paths had produced surprising species for him.

He sat on the bench by the courtyard gate, munching on an apple. "Sure enough, it's too difficult to rack your brains alone. Better to gather everyone's ideas and draw on the wisdom of others."

In truth, the White Ant Gene was simply too powerful. It could carry objects more than a hundred times its own body weight, granting terrifying superhuman strength, and required an enormous blank genetic segment.

Ordinary people rarely had such large blank sections in their genes. They were all filled with miscellaneous, useless genetic material.

The Evil Eye Gene, on the other hand, was much weaker, so it required far fewer blank genetic segments. Its chances of appearing were therefore higher. Of four hundred women who died, three had emerged.

But the three of them were far inferior to Gilgamesh.

Even against ordinary Ala Giant Beasts, they needed warriors to cooperate with them from the front just to barely win. Gilgamesh, meanwhile, could sweep across the world alone. The gap between them was enormous.

After all, their use of psychic power was still crude. The three of them had also begun studying their own abilities, developing herbalism and researching witchcraft within the tribe, but their progress was still too slow.

Xu Zhi thought for a moment, then returned to his room and searched online. "In the West, there's Yoga Meditation; in the East, there are Taoist visualization methods from internal arts. Both train the mind, body, and spirit. They should be useful. What if I give them the seed of meditation and let them refine it, developing a path of cultivation for witches?"

At the beginning of any path, feeling one's way across the river by touching stones and running into walls everywhere was incredibly difficult. But once there was a direction to advance in, progress would inevitably become countless times faster. Perhaps Xu Zhi could provide them with that direction.

But how was he supposed to meet the three witches in that tribe? Should he transform into a Wisdom Giant Beast and bestow three treasures of civilization upon them? The thought had barely surfaced before Xu Zhi rejected it. That definitely wouldn't work.

Nor could he directly control or possess a miniature creature in the sandbox, making it walk and speak on his behalf. Otherwise, he would have long since gone into the sandbox to enjoy himself.

As Xu Zhi pondered what to do, a group of leading hardcore players in the sandbox had already begun climbing onto land. They discovered that there really was an incomparably vast giant sitting in the distance on a massive chair that reached the heavens, eating an apple with a thoughtful expression.

"This sandbox game is freaking interesting. Spore Evolution—so according to our setting, we really are evolving bugs in a courtyard. Are we supposed to fight back against the giant in the courtyard?"

Three or four strangely shaped players whispered among themselves. They felt that the game's freedom was terrifyingly high. There was no main storyline; everything depended on exploration and discovery. It was incredibly novel.

"That's so badass. At that size, he's basically the legendary Pangu."

"So we evolve and have a go at him?"

"Shh! Observe in secret. Brothers, we're no match for him yet. We're just ants—he can't see us."

"Don't get close to him. We risked our lives to climb ashore. If he steps on and kills our 'king,' we won't even have anywhere to cry."

The players lay in the trees along the coastline, secretly observing and clicking their tongues in amazement.

"A bunch of idiots." Xu Zhi sat in the courtyard, watching a pile of tiny ants on the distant ground whispering and huddling together. They were acting so sneaky, really treating him like some major boss and studying how to take him down.

Knock, knock, knock! Someone knocked at the door. It was Chen Xi, the girl, bringing over food.

"Forget it. I'll eat first." He stood and walked toward the gate.

"Fuck! Fuck, fuck! An earthquake! It's a goddamn earthquake! The virtual five senses are so realistic!"

"Brothers, he just stood up! He's blotting out the sky and covering the earth—it feels like the whole world is shaking! Run! Keep a low profile and develop! Don't get stepped on!"

Countless screams rang out.

A group of bizarre creatures scattered in panic, fleeing like rats.

They ran madly across the vast, boundless land like a pack of crazed wild dogs. Behind them, a Ten Thousand Zhang Giant as vast as the clouds slowly walked forward.

One step spanned a thousand miles.

He easily stepped over the heads of those ants and walked into the distance. When he returned, he carried a blue lunchbox in his hand. He went back to the chair by the courtyard gate, taking huge mouthfuls from the lunchbox as he ate his meal.

Fried eggs, carrots, and bok choy. Every bite was fragrant. Country food really was sweet and delicious. Xu Zhi felt utterly refreshed as he continued pondering how to pass information about meditation to the Three Witches of the Babylon Tribe.

Only then did the players hiding in the small forest secretly emerge again. Seeing the giant sitting in the courtyard and eating his lunch, they gathered into a circle once more and began whispering.

"Wow, this game's freedom mechanics are amazing!"

"This boss even has cutscenes! We actually triggered one, and he's eating."

"Shh, let's keep a low profile and develop first."

"This game is fucking awesome! So awesome it's insane!"

Xu Zhi sat in his chair eating lunch, watching the players in the distant grove secretly discuss how to take him down. He was speechless, but then an idea suddenly struck him. "That's right—the Evolution Sandbox game!"

Xu Zhi thought it over. "I can directly use the player route, evolve from a spore into a creature, and become a miniature organism myself. Then I can go over to the Great Sandbox and solve it!"

He was thrilled and immediately began studying the feasibility of the idea while eating his lunch. If it truly worked, it meant he could enter the miniature sandbox whenever he wanted in the future.

Sure enough, setting up that small sandbox back then had been a wise decision. It had brought him enormous surprises and many uses.

After eating, Xu Zhi planned to test it out. Since he was going to personally enter the game, he naturally needed to clear the field first.

The next second, an announcement appeared.

"This game is undergoing emergency maintenance. Log off immediately within three seconds!"