What was evolution?
When a fish could no longer endure the competition in the sea and decided to live on land, where the competition was weaker, it evolved lungs that allowed it to breathe in the air.
That was evolution.
A change determined by genes for the continuation of a species—that was evolution.
Simple and direct.
Everyone hoped to stand at the forefront of their species' evolution, but the Chief Scientist's words left Lin Qi feeling somewhat disappointed.
He had almost never lost, but when it came to evolution, he seemed to have already fallen behind.
The Chief Scientist was in fairly high spirits. Perhaps research in various areas had made some progress, or perhaps these monsters had pointed humanity toward the direction of evolution.
He asked his assistant for a cup of coffee, then began chatting with Lin Qi.
"Did you know?"
"After life on Earth originated, it rapidly entered a period of evolution. You could say that every living thing was evolving every day, every second."
"But in modern times, the evolution of species suddenly seemed as if someone had pressed the slow-motion button—or even the pause button."
As he spoke, he thanked his assistant, took the coffee, and sipped it.
"More than a hundred years ago, biologists liked to use a common little flying insect for genetic experiments because its life cycle was very short. After about three or four generations, obvious genetic changes could be observed."
"Experiments on inherited drug resistance, experiments on inherited environmental resistance—everyone liked using this little thing because it was cheap."
"All you needed to do was find a rotten piece of fruit in an orchard, and you could collect a whole swarm of these little flying insects."
"But sometime between a hundred and eighty or ninety years ago, changes in its