Life Origin

Survival of the Fittest: Your Life Origin stands above all things; you may devour the Life Origin of other living beings to facilitate your own evolution.

The moment this text appeared, the first thought that surfaced in Lin Zichen's mind was: Life is divided into the superior and the inferior.

It felt like a return to the raw state of nature.

Natural selection, survival of the fittest.

However, he did not dwell on this, quickly shifting his focus to the four words "Life Origin."

Life Origin?

What could this refer to?

Lin Zichen suddenly recalled the beast tooth that the white-haired girl had given to him and Shen Qinghan. He remembered that when he had studied the tooth before, he discovered it contained a vibrant vitality.

Thus, he looked at Shen Qinghan, who was humming a tune while walking beside him, and asked:

"Hanhan, could you take off your beast tooth and let me see it?"

"Why do you suddenly want to see the beast tooth?"

Shen Qinghan obediently took it off and handed it to him, asking with some confusion.

Lin Zichen made up a random excuse: "I feel like the material of this tooth is quite good, and I wanted to see if I could have it crafted into jewelry for you."

"Huh?" Shen Qinghan was startled by his words, then looked troubled: "Xiao Chen, this is a gift from Bai Xue. Wouldn't it be bad to just have it altered into something else without permission?"

"You're right, let's not alter it then."

Lin Zichen said nonchalantly, his attention entirely on the beast tooth in his hand, trying to sense the vibrant vitality contained within.

The moment he felt that vitality, his palm holding the tooth suddenly grew hot. The next instant, the vitality from the tooth surged into his palm.

At the same time, several lines of text appeared in the void.

You have devoured a trace of the "Abyssal Giant Butterfly" Life Origin

Abyssal Giant Butterfly Atlas: 1%

When the atlas progress bar reaches 100%, you can evolve partial attributes or skills of the corresponding Exotic Beast

Could this really be a butterfly's tooth?

After reading the text, Lin Zichen looked down at the beast tooth, which was as thick as a little finger. He felt his horizons broadened; it was truly incredible.

He could only conclude that the Exotic Beasts on this Mutated Earth were all bizarre creatures, impossible to view through the lens of his past life's knowledge.

Soon, Lin Zichen's thoughts returned to [Survival of the Fittest].

To put it plainly, this attribute granted him the ability to become stronger by devouring other living beings.

This sparked many ideas in his mind.

Could he devour the Life Origin of common creatures like ants, mosquitoes, flies, or cockroaches to gain their attributes or skills?

For example... the indomitable tenacity of a cockroach?

Once he got home, he would have to find some small animals to test this [Survival of the Fittest] attribute.

"Xiao Chen, don't you see this tooth every single day? Why are you so engrossed in studying it right now?"

Seeing Lin Zichen standing still, his eyes fixed on the tooth in his hand without moving for a long time, Shen Qinghan felt very puzzled.

Hearing her voice, Lin Zichen withdrew his consciousness from the void. Without offering an explanation, he gave a perfunctory reply, returned the tooth to Shen Qinghan, and walked back to the classroom with her.

Although the vitality of that beast tooth had been completely drained, it was not like flesh and blood; it would not rot and could still be preserved for a long time.

Before long, the two returned to the classroom.

As soon as he entered, Lin Zichen was shocked by the state of his desk drawer.

The drawer, which had been relatively empty, was now stuffed with love letters, packed so tightly that not a single gap could be seen.

He didn't even need to think about it; it must have been some girl with a crush on him who was too shy to give him the letter in person, so she had taken advantage of his absence to dump a large pile of accumulated letters into his drawer all at once.

After all, this wasn't the first time he had encountered such a situation.

"So many love letters, how am I supposed to handle this?"

Looking at the letters in his drawer, Lin Zichen felt quite distressed for a moment.

Just then, Shen Qinghan beside him handed him another letter, saying with a hint of schadenfreude: "The study committee member from the next class asked me to pass this to you earlier on the playground; she was too shy to find you herself."

Another one... Lin Zichen took the letter from Shen Qinghan, feeling even more distressed.

He sighed inwardly and cleared all the letters out of his drawer.

During the process, he glanced at the handwriting on the envelopes and was surprised to find that they weren't just from one person, but a mix of over a dozen different people.

"These girls have good character; they didn't throw away their rivals' letters."

Lin Zichen smiled bitterly, trying to find humor in the situation.

Afterward, he stacked all the letters in his hand, intending to find a secluded place to discard them.

Seeing this, Shen Qinghan immediately stopped him: "Don't, Xiao Chen! If you throw these away and the girls find out, how heartbroken would they be? If you don't want them, I can keep them for you. Whenever you feel like reading them, you can come to me and get them."

After saying this, she took all the love letters from Lin Zichen's hands and stuffed them into her small backpack.

Lin Zichen was more than happy to let her, as it saved him the trouble.

Just then, he suddenly remembered the beast tooth the white-haired girl had given him was still in his bag, so he took it out and consumed it.

[You have consumed a trace of the "Abyssal Giant Butterfly" Life Origin]

[Abyssal Giant Butterfly Atlas: 2%]

Now that he knew the name of this Exotic Beast, he wondered if he could find any information about it online.

Hmm, let's search and see.

With that thought, Lin Zichen immediately pulled out his phone and typed "Abyssal Giant Butterfly" into the search bar.

Back in elementary school, he had once taken a photo of an Abyssal Giant Butterfly tooth and uploaded it to a big data recognition site, but he had come up empty-handed.

Now that he knew the specific name, there should be a high chance of finding relevant information.

However, the results that followed left Lin Zichen disappointed.

There was absolutely no information about the "Abyssal Giant Butterfly" online, confirming that it was an unknown Exotic Beast that had yet to be discovered or recorded by humanity.

Well, that meant the Abyssal Giant Butterfly Atlas could be considered a dead end; without even a shred of information, there was no way to fill up its progress bar.

Unless he could meet the white-haired girl's mother and obtain information about the Abyssal Giant Butterfly from her.

After leaving the classroom.

Lin Zichen and Shen Qinghan went together to the school's bike shed and pushed out a brand-new bicycle.

They had bought this bike half a year ago, but it still looked as good as new.

That was mainly because Shen Qinghan cherished it, wiping it down every day or two.

Soon, the two of them were pushing the bike toward the school gate.

While passing by the school's small shop, Shen Qinghan suddenly said she wanted a lollipop, so Lin Zichen went to buy her one.

"Eat up. You're such a big girl now, yet you still need someone to feed you."

Lin Zichen tore open the lollipop wrapper and held it to Shen Qinghan's lips.

Shen Qinghan was already accustomed to such intimacy; she opened her mouth and took the lollipop, and upon tasting the sweetness, her beautiful eyes curved into a smile as she said:

"I can't help it, I just feel like it tastes sweeter when you feed me."

"That's just a psychological effect."

As he spoke, Lin Zichen saw Shen Qinghan's cheeks bulging with the lollipop and couldn't help but reach out to poke them.

Shen Qinghan pulled out the lollipop and pouted her rosy lips in dissatisfaction. "Don't poke my face."

"Who told you to have such soft cheeks? They feel great to poke," Lin Zichen laughed.

"If they feel good, you can pinch them, or rub them, just don't poke. Poking feels uncomfortable."

"Fine, then I'll pinch them from now on."

"No, rubbing is better, rubbing feels comfortable."

"..."

The two of them bantered for a bit before continuing to push the bike toward the school gate.

As they passed along the path by the sports field.

Lin Zichen saw the members of the school Martial Arts Team working out on the field, and among them, he spotted a familiar face.

It was none other than that unlucky guy who had followed in his footsteps, tearfully taking home three silver medals.

At this moment, the unlucky guy was sprinting across the grass of the field with a strap tied around his waist connected to a rope, the other end of which was tied to a tire lying flat on the ground to increase friction.

This was one of the common training methods used to develop explosive leg muscle power.

"Xiao Chen, that boy on the grass is training so hard. Do you think he was triggered by you at the school sports meet?" Shen Qinghan whispered, the lollipop still in her mouth.

Lin Zichen: "Maybe."

No sooner had he finished speaking than the Martial Arts Team coach, who was busy whipping his members into shape on the field, turned his head and looked in their direction.

Then, he turned and walked straight toward them.

Shen Qinghan panicked, looking nervous as she said: "Oh no, Xiao Chen, did we speak too loudly? Did he hear us?"

"It's fine, we weren't insulting anyone anyway," Lin Zichen said, comforting the timid Shen Qinghan.

PS: Setting out my bowl, asking for monthly tickets and recommendation votes!