Awakening

"I'm a bamboo plant. All I need to do is keep growing taller and stronger."

A bamboo plant thought this as it stood in the mountains. All around it were weeds and shrubs, except for another bamboo that had already died.

Spring turned to autumn. The bamboo lost many of its leaves, but during that time its roots had spread several meters in both directions.

When winter came, the bitter wind howled, blowing the bamboo this way and that. Still, it held on, hoping to settle down here for good.

"I want companions. I want companions. I don't want to be alone here."

Soon, several buds emerged from its roots. They gradually grew, and by spring, pointed shoots broke through the soil.

The bamboo noticed the shoots and thought, Grow quickly. Grow quickly.

And so it waited for the young shoots to grow into bamboo.

Year after year, the bamboo plants multiplied, gradually spreading across nearly a hundred square meters.

That year, a wild boar wandered into the Bamboo Forest and began rooting up the ground. One bamboo shoot after another was dug up and eaten.

The bamboo was heartbroken, but there was nothing it could do except watch.

The following year, the boar returned, this time with six or seven piglets trailing behind it. They began searching for bamboo shoots again.

The bamboo still couldn't do anything. It had grown used to it, and could only accept its helplessness.

Another year passed. Three or four wild boars appeared in the Bamboo Forest again, but this time they weren't so lucky.

A brown bear emerged from deeper in the woods and charged straight at them.

As it barreled through the forest, it smashed the bamboo plants around it.

The brown bear rushed up to one of the boars and slapped it hard. The remaining boars scattered.

The bear opened its cavernous jaws and bit down on the boar. Its blood flowed onto the ground, where a tiny bamboo shoot was growing beneath the surface.

The shoot absorbed some nutrients from the blood, but they were slightly different from ordinary nutrients.

They contained the R Virus, which was spreading throughout both the human and animal worlds.

The virus seeped into the shoot and traveled along the roots to the other bamboo plants.

At that moment, the bamboo began to change. Some plants withered and died, while the rest grew ever more lush and green.

After the shoot had gradually grown into a tall bamboo plant, the Bamboo Forest began to mutate.

Its leaves grew hard. When the wind blew through them, they rang out with a series of pleasant clinks.

The following winter, wild boars appeared in the Bamboo Forest again. There were more and more of them, and this time nine came at once.

The bamboo plant that had bathed in blood stood perfectly still, waiting for the boars to come beneath it.

Its leaves began to fall, landing on the boars and slicing through their coats. Blood once again dripped onto the ground.

In pain, the boars began to run wildly, but they never left the forest.

Before they bled to death, they left hoofprints throughout the woods, and blood was scattered everywhere.

The bamboo plants had already adapted to blood containing the R Virus, and the virus had also changed their traits.

Day after day, whenever an animal came beneath the bamboo plant, it gradually lost its life and became nourishment for the Bamboo Forest.

Gradually, the Bamboo Forest became a forbidden place for the animals living in the surrounding woods. Few dared to approach it.

Peace returned to the Bamboo Forest, and the bamboo gradually gave up the idea of absorbing animal blood.

With no more animals from outside interfering with the young shoots as they grew into bamboo, the Bamboo Forest began to expand once again.

Another year passed, and at last, the RR Virus arrived.

The animals began to change, growing stronger and developing distinctive traits. This prompted them to test the Bamboo Forest once more.

The animals returned to the Bamboo Forest, occasionally ramming into the bamboo or pawing at the ground.

The Bamboo Forest was indeed furious, but it had no way to attack them in those places. All it could do was wait for them to return beneath the bamboo plant that could strike back.

But after one animal was attacked, the others didn't flee. Instead, they closed in on the bamboo plant.

Under their assault, the plant snapped.

The Bamboo Forest lost its ability to attack.

After losing this vital bamboo plant, and then suffering further damage from the animals, the Bamboo Forest once again fell quiet.

But the thousands upon thousands of bamboo plants were, in truth, all one. Their roots connected them; the others had simply evolved more slowly than that one plant.

The animal that had been attacked still died in the Bamboo Forest, its blood flowing onto the ground.

This time, the bamboo didn't absorb the blood passively. The Bamboo Forest had already changed through its earlier evolution, and began actively absorbing the blood that seeped into the soil.

With the RR Virus driving it forward, the Bamboo Forest underwent a tremendous transformation. Every bamboo plant gained the abilities of the one that had come before, especially the original plant.

As a result, the Bamboo Forest's ability to kill the animals took a great leap forward. No animal could rampage through it anymore, and once again it became a forbidden place to them.

A few months later, with no more animal blood to spur it on, the Bamboo Forest's evolution and expansion began to slow.

The Bamboo Forest began to take action. Its leaves rode the wind into the surrounding woods, driving some animals into the forest, where they were killed.

The leaves drifted farther and farther away, eventually rousing the attention of the strongest beast in the area: a mutated brown bear. Yes, it was the same bear that had first appeared and killed the wild boar.

The brown bear came to the edge of the Bamboo Forest and roared. It seized a nearby tree, uprooted it, and hurled it into the forest. The Bamboo Forest was damaged once again.

The Bamboo Forest gathered all its leaves and attacked the brown bear, but to no effect.

When the Bamboo Forest stopped attacking, the bear roared at it again and struck a bamboo plant with its paw, snapping it in half. Then it swaggered off.

The Bamboo Forest understood what the bear meant: every ten days, the bear would have its underlings bring it some food, but the Bamboo Forest couldn't attack beyond the woods or continue expanding.

Faced with the brown bear's mixture of threats and rewards, the Bamboo Forest promptly complied.

And so time passed, until Lin Chenxing and his team arrived at the Bamboo Forest.

The Bamboo Forest had noticed the delicious food on the first day, but it had no need for it yet, so it didn't attack.

But the food kept appearing before it every day, and at last the Bamboo Forest held out until the bear's scheduled food delivery. To its surprise, the food appeared again.

Unable to resist any longer, the Bamboo Forest attacked.

And with that, all its memories finally merged with Lin Chenxing's own. Lin Chenxing had at last successfully fused with all the memories in this void.

At that moment, Lin Chenxing felt that he might be able to wake up. He seemed to sense the air moving outside.

After striving again and again, Lin Chenxing finally saw a wash of green light once more.