Though he had prepared himself mentally, at this moment he understood more clearly than ever that this was no game.
If he lost a war, his entire planet-and he himself-would become someone else's spoils.
Just like the cosmic dark forest law described in The Three-Body Problem, a book from his previous life: the universe's resources were limited. A man might have no wish to hurt a tiger, but the tiger still harbored the intent to devour him.
You might not want to attack others, but they were already thinking about killing you.
He adjusted his mindset and headed toward the other side. The crowd here was noticeably thinner, but judging by the badges on their chests, they were all planet lords.
The place with the most sources of information had to be a tavern.
After asking around, he arrived here. This was no ordinary tavern. As planet lords, they no longer needed to eat any food, yet the drinks sold here could actually affect their souls and consciousness.
A cup of Soul-Entrancing Wine cost one energy point. Curious, he bought a cup.
Having taken the form of a bull-headed man, he took a sip.
Even in his virtual state, one mouthful of Soul-Entrancing Wine sent a shudder through his soul. It felt wonderful, utterly exhilarating-a pleasure that reached into the very depths of his soul.
He listened as the planet lords around him talked about their experiences in the last war, the development of their planets, and news about the virtual platform.
Only then did Zhang Yang learn that there were very, very few things a level-one civilization could trade here. Most were slaves from defeated planets.
As for resources like energy cards and skill cards, he could forget about them. Everyone was short on those.
He listened to a planet lord who had fallen from a level-two civilization explain that only civilizations at level two or higher could officially unlock the virtual platform's functions.
The level-two cosmic platform offered far more things to trade, including divine cards. It also unlocked rankings, and anyone who successfully challenged a higher-level opponent could receive a reward from the Cosmic Elders Council.
This level-two planet lord had been successfully challenged by someone else. The strongest experts among his planetary inhabitants had been slaughtered to the last, and his planet's civilization had dropped to level one.
He made some discreet inquiries about the universe's races, even producing a portrait, but no creature had ever heard of the human race.
More than a million years had passed, and Zhang Yang felt rather lonely. After all, he had been human in his previous life. A little dejected, he thought, Could there be no humans in this universe's galaxies?
At the same time, a thread of hope remained. Since I could transmigrate here, what if someone else of my kind has come here too?
He stopped dwelling on all those tangled thoughts and returned his consciousness to his planet, gazing at the thriving life within it.
Then he thought of those wretched slaves and adjusted his mindset. Learning was like rowing upstream: if you did not advance, you fell behind.
Humans are the greatest. If this plane has no humans, I'll create them myself.
Looking at his 600 energy points, he chose to continue accelerating time.
Tens of thousands of years passed. The dinosaurs fought endlessly among themselves, while the Purussaurus that had risen in the seas claimed half the territory for themselves.
The giant ancient lizards on land even dared to attack tyrannosaurs. Titanoboas, giant deinotheres, and giant ground sloths were all overlord-like existences as well.
While accelerating time, Zhang Yang noticed that a group of primates in a distant primeval forest was growing ever more numerous.
"Huh?"
Watching the primates reproduce and evolve, Zhang Yang used energy points to envelop their population and continued accelerating their evolution. Hundreds of thousands of years passed.
As he watched his energy points burn away, he added his own will to guide them, until finally, at a certain moment-
A species of ape appeared, and Zhang Yang named them directly: Mara Ape.
This had been the most widely accepted explanation in his previous life. At the very least, they counted as one of humanity's direct ancestors.
Then a branch species, the Forest Ape, appeared. Thrilled, Zhang Yang devoted his remaining energy points to strengthening the Forest Apes alone and chose to accelerate time.
Ten thousand years, a hundred thousand years-the Forest Apes evolved to look more and more human, dodging large creatures in the jungle. Zhang Yang keenly noticed something.
Thanks to the strengthening from energy points and the high oxygen content, even the shortest apes stood two meters tall. They were also immensely strong, agile, and fast runners.
With danger lurking everywhere in the forest and creatures like pterosaurs overhead, the apes slowly began walking on their hind limbs, hiding beneath the foliage of the primeval forest and using their forelimbs to gather food.
Several thousand years later, Zhang Yang witnessed an interesting scene. Several velociraptors charged toward a group of dozens of apes. In a panic, one ape used his forelimbs to hurl a rock from the ground.
Seeing this, the surrounding apes copied him, using their forelimbs to throw rocks and branches from the ground.
The blows made the velociraptors howl in pain and scatter. One rock struck a velociraptor in the head. After struggling a few times, the creature still collapsed to the ground.
The other velociraptors hurriedly fled. Seeing this, the nearby apes approached and called out as they gathered around their food.
Several thousand years passed. The apes had less and less body hair, and more and more of them began using simple tools. Gradually, increasing numbers walked on their hind limbs.
Many apes began living in groups, for they discovered that group living not only allowed them to hunt more food, but also greatly increased their chances of survival.
And so, through hunting, the apes gradually united. Bonds within populations and families grew ever closer, and they occasionally made babbling sounds to one another.
The sun rose and set as time flowed on without cease. Of the original 600 energy points, only 310 remained.
Over those long years, the apes' bodily organs continually evolved and developed. The demands of survival led them to communicate more and more frequently, and during certain hunts, Zhang Yang could clearly sense that they were evolving without pause.
The most obvious change was that their hands and feet began to serve distinct functions. They looked more and more human!
They babbled to one another, and when agitated, they gestured with both hands and feet.
Previously, the apes had only known how to use tools found in nature-for instance, when eating walnuts.
The earliest apes struck rocks with walnuts, until one day an ape placed a walnut in a hollow in a rock and smashed it with another stone. It was as though he had discovered a new continent. Before long, all the apes began eating walnuts this way.
They also used stones to slice open animal hides, and sharpening the stones made the cutting faster!
Some clever apes began shaping wood to make wooden forks and clubs. They even sharpened one end of a wooden stick as they would a stone, whittling it to a point. The simplest, most primitive spear was born.
The apes now looked somewhat human, though their teeth still resembled canine teeth. They could already walk upright, albeit with something of a hunch.
Most importantly, through survival of the fittest and under pressure from their environment, the apes discovered that their greatest advantages were group living and teamwork. The wooden spears they made worked very well!
During one hunt, a deer-like creature proved too nimble for the ape tribe to catch. In desperation, one ape gathered his strength and hurled the wooden spear in his hand.
The surrounding apes followed his example, sending their wooden spears flying like javelins.
One wooden spear plunged hard into the deer's rump. Its tremendous momentum drove more than half its length into the creature.
The deer staggered a few steps before collapsing straight to the ground. Seeing this, the apes gathered around the first ape to throw his spear, babbling excitedly as they joined hands and began circling.
Watching from the sky, Zhang Yang felt deeply gratified. As he was now, he still could not guide the apes forward.
He could only offer whatever help lay within his power. Under the intervention of a certain force, many overlord-class creatures felt no desire to enter the territory where these apes lived.
Over the next few hundred years, some apes discovered that tying sharpened stones to wooden sticks with vines made them faster and more lethal when thrown. The others followed suit.
Some clever apes developed new uses for tools, fastening sharpened stones to one side of wooden sticks to make stone axes.
Thanks to teamwork, the apes' development grew faster and faster, and the food nearby could no longer support their expanding living space.
Some apes began leaving the forest and venturing into other regions.
Over the following several thousand years, the apes continued evolving, but they could only be active during the day. At night, they could only hide in caves to escape wild beasts.
In these final few thousand years of evolution, the apes had become incredibly close to modern humans in both outward appearance and skeletal structure.
They had also gained an awareness of fire. When lightning struck wood and caused forest fires, the apes fled.
Gradually, some bolder apes approached flames that were about to die out. Feeling their warmth, they hurriedly used branches to keep the flames alive.
At night, the presence of fire kept some beasts that normally prowled in the darkness from approaching. The apes also discovered by accident that fire-roasted food smelled better, and this method gradually spread across the continent.
After eating cooked food, the apes could no longer stomach raw meat. They could only keep praying to the heavens for lightning to descend so that they could find fire.
Zhang Yang watched the apes praying without cease-no, at this moment, they were humans.
He watched the leader of a large tribe below kneel on the ground and pray ceaselessly for the heavens to grant them fire.
With a thought, the clear sky suddenly filled with howling winds and dense black clouds.
Seeing this, the human tribe kneeling on the ground was filled with terror. They kept kneeling and pleading, not daring to raise their heads.
They babbled and cried!
Suddenly, one human pointed at the dark clouds overhead and kept saying something.
Everyone watched as the dark clouds in the sky gradually condensed into the shape of a person, though they could not make out the face at all.
In the sky, Zhang Yang formed a human figure from clouds and pointed at the tribal leader.
Using his will, he transmitted images of the movements needed to start a fire by drilling wood, along with one written word: "human."
Once the teaching was complete, the clouds suddenly thinned and the wind subsided, leaving bright sunshine overhead.
The tribal leader kneeling on the ground suddenly uttered one word, awkwardly: "Human."
"Human... human, human, human."
Then he stood up excitedly, pointed at the members of his tribe, and shouted, "Human!"
Hearing the sound their leader made, the humans in the tribe imitated him, calling out awkwardly, "Human... human!"
Their voices grew louder and louder. The surrounding tribes learned from them, and the cries gradually resounded through the clouds.
"Human... human!"
Thus, the human race was born!
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