Natural Selection

Deep in the night, Lin Zichen lay in bed, wide awake, his mind consumed by the death of the Public Security Team captain.

The report stated that he had died at the jaws of a Giant Mutant Rat.

But that big rat he had seen from the car... could it really be the same Giant Mutant Rat that killed the captain?

Yet, that so-called big rat had only looked to be the size of a cat; how could it possibly be a three-meter-long Giant Mutant Rat?

He could not fathom the answer to this, no matter how much he thought about it.

He looked up at the window.

The night was deep.

The streetlights were all extinguished, and not a single shadow could be seen.

"Come to think of it, it's been a while since I tested my physical stats. Since I can't sleep anyway, I might as well head out and test them."

With that thought, Lin Zichen put on his hat and mask, then quietly slipped out of the house.

He purposefully chose paths without surveillance cameras, taking some time to reach an abandoned highway.

After a brief warm-up, he quickly pulled out his phone, started the stopwatch, and began testing his hundred-meter sprint.

In the blink of an eye, he had finished the hundred-meter distance he had pre-measured.

The time displayed on his phone: 4.61 seconds.

Last time it was 6 seconds, and this time it was 4.61 seconds—an improvement of nearly 1.4 seconds. Not bad.

After testing his speed, he moved on to his vertical jump.

He found a few spots with varying heights, measured them individually, and checked if he could jump onto them to get a rough estimate of his leaping ability.

He tested back and forth about ten times, eventually arriving at a fairly accurate figure.

--5.51 meters.

Last time it was 4 meters, and this time it was 5.51 meters—an improvement of nearly 1.5 meters.

With speed and jumping out of the way, it was time to test his strength.

Lin Zichen avoided cameras as he walked, eyeing the cars along the roadside.

He knew every car model in this world by heart, along with their respective weights.

He intended to pick a suitable vehicle to use as a barbell and see if he could easily lift it with one hand.

"You'll do."

After checking over a dozen vehicles, Lin Zichen finally settled on one weighing about 1,500kg.

He walked up and circled the car, looking for an optimal leverage point to lift it before attempting a one-handed press.

Three minutes passed.

He failed.

The SUV was too heavy to lift at all, so he had to find something lighter to try.

Soon, Lin Zichen selected a car weighing around 1,200kg.

He got it halfway up, but it was no good; he couldn't sustain the hold.

Finally, he found a small 1,000kg compact car and was finally able to lift it, albeit with some struggle.

Last time it was 700kg, and this time it was 1,000kg—an improvement of 300kg.

All three basic stats had seen significant progress.

One could only say that during a growth spurt, the body develops rapidly, and all basic metrics rise right along with it.

Time flew by.

In the blink of an eye, it was the following Monday.

When school let out in the afternoon, Lin Zichen headed to the Gymnasium to practice martial arts.

Calling it "martial arts" was a stretch; it was really just simple fisticuffs, nothing like the powerful techniques one might find in a martial arts novel.

However, Lin Zichen didn't mind.

He had joined the Martial Arts Team solely to win prize money in competitions; he had never expected to learn anything of substance there.

"Zichen, your martial arts talent is incredible. No matter what technique I teach, you are always the fastest to master it. Your future is bright!"

Guo Xiangyuan praised him with a chuckle.

He had just taught the team's eight members an evasive maneuver, which involved constantly swaying the head to dodge an opponent's punches.

As it turned out, the moment he finished the demonstration, Lin Zichen had already mastered it.

The other seven members, however, still looked stiff; it would take them at least a few days of bobbing and weaving before they became proficient.

"It's all thanks to the coach's teaching."

With that, Lin Zichen took the clean clothes handed to him by Shen Qinghan and headed toward the changing room up ahead.

It was just a quick Southern-style rinse, not the full-body scrub typical of the North.

Consequently, it took Lin Zichen less than five minutes to emerge from the changing room.

"Xiao Chen, I've already tidied up your dirty clothes for you."

At the entrance to the changing room, Shen Qinghan said with a sweet, beaming smile.

Lin Zichen noticed her bangs were a bit messy, so he gently smoothed them out for her, his voice softening:

"Let's go, time to head home."

"Mm."

Shen Qinghan gave a soft response and walked silently by Lin Zichen's side.

They arrived at the bicycle shed.

Just as Lin Zichen pushed his bike out, Shen Qinghan pulled out her phone to show him the photos she had just taken in the Gymnasium.

"Xiao Chen, look, you look so cool when you throw a punch."

"Your bangs whipping with the momentum, a few beads of sweat flying off—it's just plain cool."

"If your little fan girls saw this, they'd probably go crazy."

Shen Qinghan held the phone up to Lin Zichen, swiping through the pictures one by one for him to admire.

Lin Zichen laughed: "It's mostly because you're good at capturing the moment."

Days passed by, one after another.

Before he knew it, Lin Zichen had been a member of the Martial Arts Team for over a month.

In the beginning, Shen Qinghan was the only girl in the Gymnasium who would watch him practice, waiting quietly for him to finish so they could go home together.

Gradually, word of him joining the Martial Arts Team spread, letting many little fan girls know that he would come to the Gymnasium to practice after school.

By today, he had barely started his training when girls began trickling in to watch him work up a sweat; half an hour later, the audience had grown to over thirty people.

"Wow, Junior Zichen, that kick you just did was so cool! If you kicked someone with that, they'd definitely cry from the pain, right?"

A third-year senior girl said with a lovesick expression after watching Lin Zichen kick the wooden dummy in front of him.

Lin Zichen felt speechless, and his interest in training instantly evaporated.

He had brought this issue up with Guo Xiangyuan.

He suggested that they stop letting girls in, as it was becoming a distraction for everyone's training.

In the end, however, he was met with unanimous opposition from the other seven team members.

Before, in the vast practice hall, there had only been a few guys training in silence, which was incredibly dull and tedious.

But now, with a sudden influx of female spectators, they felt as if they had arrived in heaven; they were full of motivation and had no desire to see this state of affairs disrupted.

Guo Xiangyuan felt the same.

Seeing that the team members had been training much more diligently since the girls started showing up, and that the Martial Arts Team was receiving more attention, he thought it was a good thing and asked Lin Zichen to make a small sacrifice.

Lin Zichen thought about it, and since everyone else seemed to enjoy it, he decided he didn't mind.

Time ticked away, second by second.

In the blink of an eye, it was nearly 6:30 in the evening.

Realizing it was about time, Lin Zichen took the clothes Shen Qinghan handed him and headed toward the changing room.

Just then, a third-year senior girl blocked his path, looking lovesick as she said: "Junior Zichen, I brought you some milk, fresh milk!"

"No need, thank you for the gesture, but I'm allergic to milk." Lin Zichen didn't want to accept gifts from the opposite sex to avoid any misunderstandings, so he made up an excuse to politely decline and walked past her.

But before he had taken two steps, an indignant shout came from behind him.

"Zichen, how could you reject a girl's kind intentions like that?"

"Even if you're allergic to milk, you could have just accepted it and given it to someone else to drink. Why did you have to go and hurt her feelings?"

"Can you show a little gentlemanly conduct?"

It was the voice of Zhang Kai, the boy who had taken second place at the school sports meet.

And the girl who had just offered the fresh milk to Lin Zichen was the very person he had a crush on.

Lin Zichen thought Zhang Kai was being ridiculous, so he didn't bother with a polite tone: "I make my own decisions regarding my affairs. You should worry about yourself."

Zhang Kai was a hot-headed middle schooler, and being spoken to like that made him unhappy. Feeling he had lost face, he immediately challenged him:

"Do you dare to spar? If I lose, I won't say another word to you from now on. If I win, you take the milk!"

As soon as those words were out, everyone's interest was piqued.

Guo Xiangyuan was no exception.

Lin Zichen had been in the Martial Arts Team for over a month, but he had always practiced silently on his own, showered, and went home, never having sparred a single time.

As time passed, the others in the team became increasingly curious about his strength.

Faced with Zhang Kai's challenge, Lin Zichen was starting to get annoyed.

In order to teach this hotheaded youth to keep his tail tucked and stop jumping around all day long, he didn't even hesitate and said, "Fine, let's have a spar."

The moment those words fell, familiar text appeared in the void.

[Achievement: In a formal competitive setting, eliminate 1,000 different opponents using the most primal biological methods]

[reward: Obtain Biological Attribute -- Natural Selection]

[Cumulative opponents eliminated: 0/1000]

Looking at the text in the void, Lin Zichen was stunned for a moment before a wave of excitement surged in his heart.

After waiting for so long, he had finally received this fourth achievement task.

He wondered what kind of effect the Natural Selection biological attribute would have; would it be even more powerful than the previous three?