Evolution

If there was anything different about today compared to usual, it was only this handheld Game Console that had suddenly appeared.

"Could it be because of you?"

The girl looked at the black-and-white handheld in her hands, thought for a moment, then decided to conduct an experiment.

The experiment was simple: tonight, she would not consume any food or medicine.

Under normal circumstances, that would be extremely dangerous. Her body was so frail that even briefly stopping her medication or failing to take in nutrients would be enough to make her collapse.

But now that things had come to this, if this momentary stability was merely an illusion and the Game Console could not bring her a chance at life, then she would only be dragging out her existence for a few more days anyway.

With that in mind, Xu Zhi did not take her medicine at its usual scheduled time. Instead, she took out the textbooks her younger brother had left behind and began reading.

It was not that she had such a thirst for knowledge. She simply did not know what else to do if she was not reading.

Two hours passed quickly. When the alarm went off, Xu Zhi finally lifted her head from the book in a daze.

".It's already time?"

Her expression was still full of disbelief. She had never been so focused before. Even when reading in the past, the discomfort from within her body would constantly interrupt her, making it impossible for her to concentrate for long.

And even now, she still did not feel hungry.

"It really changed something."

As Xu Zhi muttered to herself, the light gradually returned to her previously lifeless eyes.

No matter what, since a chance at life had suddenly appeared before her, she had to seize it. She did not care what this Game Console was or whether it might bring danger to her future. She only knew that without it, she might not even have a future.

Xu Zhi was not afraid of death, but she did not want to die.

Suppressing her excitement, she picked up the Game Console again. The two-hour cooldown had ended. Now, she needed to continue playing.

Upon entering the game, the cooldown had indeed ended, and the option to move forward appeared on the screen again.

Xu Zhi controlled the little snake as it wandered nearby. Her luck was not bad this time. In less than half an hour, she had gathered ten Evolution Points.

[Current Evolution Points: 10/10]

[Upgrade requirements met. Proceed with upgrade?]

[Warning: Upgrading from Lv1 to Lv2 requires 10 seconds. During those 10 seconds, this Familiar will lose consciousness.]

[Please choose: 1. Upgrade here, 2. Find a hidden location before upgrading]

"Ten seconds."

Xu Zhi hesitated for a moment, but still chose to find a hidden location first.

The brief safety of the game and the short span of ten seconds had not lulled her into carelessness. She had not forgotten the prompt from when she first entered the game.

The little snake quickly found a tree hollow and slithered inside. The Evolution then began, and a ten-second progress bar appeared in the center of the screen.

Ten seconds passed in the blink of an eye.

[Evolution complete]

[Snake: Lv2
Mind: 3
Body: 10
Attribute: None
Trait: Toxin Lv1]

On the screen, the evolved little snake slowly crawled out of the tree hollow after shedding a layer of skin. Xu Zhi could see that its body had visibly grown larger, becoming much longer than before. More importantly, two fangs glimmering faintly with green light protruded from its open mouth, as though displaying its new weapon to Xu Zhi.

And perhaps it was only an illusion, but Xu Zhi felt as if her own body had subtly become more relaxed as well.

Because of her heart disease, she often felt extremely exhausted. Her body felt heavy, breathing was difficult, her heartbeat was irregular, and dizziness Shadow Following her at all times. Now, after the little snake completed its Evolution, the other symptoms had not eased, but her body no longer seemed quite so heavy.

Xu Zhi's eyes flickered slightly. After her earlier experiment, she did not think this was a coincidence.

Maybe... this game really could change her body.

Thus, Xu Zhi became eager to level up. But when her gaze moved to the lower left corner and she saw the points needed for the next upgrade, she felt a little troubled.

[Current Evolution Points: 0/50]

The requirement had increased fivefold.

She had spent nearly three hours earning ten Evolution Points. How long would she have to play to collect fifty?

The game seemed to understand her distress, as a line of text gradually appeared.

[As your Familiar's level rises, it has become stronger than before. But that is only compared to its former self. In this world, it remains a tiny creature beneath notice.]

[Unnamed Fear urges it onward. Though it has not yet developed intelligence, it vaguely senses that it must quicken its pace of Evolution.]

[Please choose: 1. Continue hunting here, 2. Search for stronger prey, though this also means risk will follow.]

Xu Zhi had never played many games, so she did not really understand the concept of a "beginner village." Still, she vaguely felt that the risk-free hunting from before had been far too comfortable. It did not resemble the perilous world described in the text at all.

She could perhaps safely gather fifty Evolution Points by staying here, but as she looked at the words on the screen, an inexplicable sense of urgency rose within her. Perhaps she had to take some risks.

"Choose 2."

After she pressed the selection button, the little snake on the screen began to crawl as though it had received some kind of command. Xu Zhi also noticed that not only had its body grown, but the range of its vision had widened as well.

If its range had previously been around seven meters, it was now roughly twenty.

This time, the little snake wandered for a long while before finding a target.

[Your Familiar has made a discovery.]

[It is an injured eagle. One of its wings is broken, and one of its eyes appears to be injured as well.]

[Even so, it remains a snake's natural enemy.]

[Injured eagles are rare. This seems to be an opportunity, but it comes with tremendous risk. If successful, you will gain a large number of Evolution Points.]

[Please choose: 1. Hunt, 2. Leave]

This was the first time a risky hunt had appeared, leaving Xu Zhi torn and unsure of how to decide. Then another line appeared on the screen.

[You may wish to make your decision quickly. The injured eagle will attract more than one hunter, and its wounds are slowly healing.]

"Healing?"

Xu Zhi was somewhat surprised. Was it because she had never studied biology that she did not understand?

Could such serious injuries really heal?

However, seeing the game's prompt urging her on, Xu Zhi gritted her teeth and stopped hesitating. She chose to hunt rather than leave.

That seemed inconsistent with her earlier caution, but it was not. Most of the time, she appeared quiet, insignificant, and cautious. Yet despite living under oppression for years in this frail body, she had not become a lamb. She still possessed a strong sense of self, even thoughts more stubborn than those of ordinary people. That alone was enough to show that Xu Zhi was no coward.

Since she could pick up a suspicious Game Console from the ground, she could naturally make risky choices as well. Her hesitation came only because she had merely imagined making such choices before. She had never truly had the chance to make one herself.

She adapted in half a minute.

The girl stared intently at the little snake on the screen. After she gave the command, it began carrying it out without hesitation. Slowly and silently, it fixed the gaze of a hunter upon the eagle that had once been its natural enemy. Then, when it found the right opportunity, it shot from the grass at the eagle like lightning.

With Toxin, the little snake did not need to wrestle with the eagle. It only needed to find an opportunity to inject its venom, while protecting itself from the eagle's sharp talons and beak until the Toxin paralyzed or killed it.

But even that task was still far too difficult for a little snake.

Xu Zhi watched as the black little snake on the screen was repeatedly torn apart by the eagle's claws, its body pierced with several holes by the sharp beak. It was no longer even agile, and several times the injured eagle chased it down and tore at it. Yet until the eagle's movements gradually stiffened and it finally collapsed to the ground, the little snake did not die beneath the savage assault.

Once the eagle was completely dead, the heavily injured little snake greedily slithered toward its corpse. Its open mouth swallowed the eagle's body, which was far larger than itself, bite by bite. Its body visibly swelled.

Seeing this, Xu Zhi finally let out a breath of relief, only then realizing that she had been so tense at the end that she had held her breath.

Before she could marvel at the little snake's even stranger "devouring" ability, which was more bizarre than anything she had read about in biology books, text appeared on the screen again.

[Thanks to its strengthened body after leveling up, your Familiar barely achieved victory. However, it has also suffered serious injuries. Until it heals, it will likely be unable to hunt again.]

[But the good news is that Evolution can rapidly heal wounds.]

[Current Evolution Points: 100/50]

[Upgrade requirements met. Proceed with upgrade?]

[Warning: Upgrading from Lv2 to Lv3 requires 30 seconds. During those 30 seconds, this Familiar will lose consciousness.]

[Please choose: 1. Upgrade here, 2. Find a hidden location before upgrading]

Xu Zhi chose 2 without hesitation.

The little snake was already severely injured. If it encountered a creature drawn over by the eagle, or by the commotion from their battle, while it was evolving, it would be easily killed.

This time, finding a hidden location took a little longer. Fortunately, the Evolution time was short. Soon, Xu Zhi reaped the results of her bold choice.

[Evolution complete]

[Snake: Lv3
Mind: 5
Body: 20
Attribute: None
Trait: Toxin Lv2, Sharpness Lv1]

On the screen, the black snake grew larger once more, and its teeth seemed sharper as well. Its vision range increased to around fifty meters, but Xu Zhi cared more about the changes in her own body.

This time, she could feel much more clearly that her body was truly improving along with the little snake's level.

Her breathing became smoother. The "hand" that had always seemed to be faintly clutching her lungs, making it hard for her to breathe, had vanished.

She had never known that breathing could be such an effortless thing.

Joy uncontrollably appeared on the girl's face. If this continued, she would definitely become a healthy person.

No.

Xu Zhi's expression shifted slightly, and her gaze sharpened. It was not enough. She did not merely want a healthy body.

Perhaps the game had fed her ambition, or perhaps it was the sense of danger brought by this Dead City. What she wanted was not an ordinary person's body, but a powerful body that surpassed human limits, one that would allow her to live freely here.

Xu Zhi softly let out a breath. To achieve her goal, she needed to remain clearer-headed whenever she made a choice.

Just as Xu Zhi was preparing to continue the game, a hollow knock at the door suddenly raised goosebumps all over her body.

--Knock, knock, knock.

It was only an ordinary knock, but it was a sound that should not have existed!

The hand holding the Game Console stiffened slightly. Then the girl slowly turned to look at the door, her mind racing as she considered who would knock on her door at a time like this.

The answer she reached was: no one.

No one would do that, because all of her neighbors had left, and she did not know any friends who would come looking for her.

Then who was knocking at the door?