Evolution

Zhang Fan quietly watched the worm crawl slowly toward him. Observing its every move was his only amusement now.

"Who are you? Where did you come from?"

The worm wriggled without answering Zhang Fan. It could not have answered him anyway.

Worm: a common name for multicellular invertebrates, primarily flatworms, annelids, ribbon worms, thorny-headed worms, and aschelminths.

This information suddenly appeared in Zhang Fan's consciousness, but it did not apply at all to the little monster before him, encased in hard armor and covered with crystalline spikes.

Zhang Fan discovered something else that was even stranger and harder to understand: he seemed able to perceive the outside world through that worm.

The sky was as crimson as blood, with pale yellow sulfide clouds hanging low overhead, creating an overwhelming sense of oppression.

Mountains stood in the distance, black as ink, smooth and glossy. The ground nearby resembled cooled lava, deep black threaded with faint red veins.

The Iris was decayed and broken, like a rotting corpse, and that worm was its decomposer.

There was not just one decomposer, but tens of thousands. They were gathering nearby, and the one before him was merely a scout.

As a general, Zhang Fan immediately understood the gravity of the situation. They fed on metal. The ruined Iris did not matter, but the human embryos stored inside were absolutely off-limits.

But what could he do? He had no hands, no body. He could only float motionless in the nutrient solution.

What was the point of living like this? Zhang Fan cursed Selena and Yan Hao. He could hardly blame them for leaving, but they should at least have told him what purpose this served.

Fear... helplessness... Zhang Fan watched the worm army draw closer. He had to stop them.

Tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of worms crawled onto the bow of the Iris.

They had occupied the Iris's defensive armor and were gnawing through its twenty-centimeter-thick reinforced plating.

Armor that could withstand the Qiya Star People's pulse cannons was disappearing beneath their mouths at a rate visible to the naked eye.

The swarm covered the entire surface of the Iris. Helpless, Zhang Fan began to writhe, forcing his purple, crystal-like body to move.

Better to fight than wait for death. Even with a body like this, even if he had to crush them or roll over them, he could not let them get anywhere near the human embryo storage chamber.

High-strength bulletproof glass formed a barrier between Zhang Fan and the swarm... Ram it!

Smash through it with my body. In Zhang Fan's mind, nothing was impossible. There was only whether one chose to act.

I'm humanity's only hope of survival now. If these embryos are destroyed, what meaning will my existence have?

Under his repeated blows, cracks finally appeared in the high-strength bulletproof glass. Hope was within reach.

Crash! With a sharp crack, the nutrient solution flushed the purple, crystal-like Zhang Fan out of the Culture Dish.

He slammed onto the steel floor. There was no time to feel the pain, because a dense swarm of worms had already surrounded him.

The worms seemed to study the strange creature that had fallen from above with conscious intent. Instead of attacking, they chose to observe quietly.

Three worms crawled out of formation and approached Zhang Fan. They probed him with their spikes. He instinctively backed away, only to trigger their urge to attack.

The swarm began tightening its encirclement. One worm actually clamped its blender-like mouthparts onto a crystal protrusion on Zhang Fan's body.

A tearing pain surged through him. Zhang Fan realized he had to fight back. His only weapon was his body, which could shatter even high-strength bulletproof glass.

With a single impact, Zhang Fan smashed one worm into pulp, sending pale yellow fluid splashing everywhere.

He had fought even when he had no means to fight, let alone now. One ram killed one worm; one roll crushed a whole swath.

The one-sided battle made Zhang Fan laugh. He had never imagined he would fight in such a ridiculous way.

He rammed them with his head and crushed them with his body. There was no technique involved, only his body's toughness.

After a frenzy of crushing, the worms gradually began to retreat. The biological laboratory's floor was already coated in a layer of pale yellow worm blood.

Zhang Fan suddenly felt his consciousness blur. Exhaustion swept over him, and moments later he fell asleep.

When he awoke again, he was still in the same place, but the biological laboratory's floor looked as though someone had cleaned it. It was smooth and even slightly reflective.

"Could Selena and the others be back?"

That was the only explanation Zhang Fan could think of. He wanted to find them, so he began to wriggle across the smooth floor!

"What is this..."

Zhang Fan suddenly realized his body had changed. He could secrete a lubricating fluid that reduced friction, allowing him to move like a snail.

His body was also more than twice its former size, and a layer of short, hard spikes now covered its purple, crystal-like surface.

The worms had not completely retreated. They still lingered nearby, steadily eating away at the entire Iris.

Zhang Fan stood guard before the human embryo storage unit, not daring to launch an attack. The worms, meanwhile, did not venture into the biological laboratory.

Zhang Fan watched the worms devour the Iris, while they watched his every move as they ate.

The two sides entered a standoff.

Zhang Fan wanted to find Selena and ask for help, but even after searching the entire Ilis with his consciousness, he found no trace of her or Yan Hao.

While searching for Selena with his consciousness, Zhang Fan suddenly sensed another mental presence: an immense current of consciousness.

Millions of consciousnesses converged into a current that enveloped the entire Iris.

Had he not been searching for Selena, he would never have noticed it, because he himself was submerged in that powerful current.

Unless a fish leaped out of the sea, it would never know it lived in water.

Immersed in that ocean of consciousness, Zhang Fan realized something else: he too was part of this current.

Unfettered imagination was the source of creation. A sudden idea struck Zhang Fan: could he control these consciousnesses?

The answer was... yes. He could merge these tiny consciousnesses into his own.

And this vast consciousness came from those millions of worms...

"How did they reproduce so quickly?"

Amitosis, a method of reproduction used by single-celled organisms.

"But aren't worms supposed to be multicellular organisms?"

Primitive single-celled silicon-based organisms, similar to amoebas among carbon-based life.

With 4.6 billion years of biological knowledge, Zhang Fan asked and answered his own questions as though consulting a computer.

"So they're actually one being, split into different individuals?"

That was one way to understand it. Their gene chains and hereditary factors were completely identical. By human standards, they could be considered separate individuals of the same entity.

"If only I could reproduce through amitosis too!"

At Zhang Fan's thought, his body began changing rapidly. It rolled and writhed nonstop, gradually splitting from bottom to top, breaking apart, separating...

Two identical purple crystal bodies covered in spikes appeared on the biological laboratory's floor.

A life-form combining carbon and silicon... could actually undergo amitosis too? Zhang Fan's excitement was indescribable. He began dividing himself like mad.

Two became four, four became eight...

In moments, Zhang Fan covered the entire biological laboratory. An army of Carbon-Silicon Worms was born.

Revenge began...

Countless Zhang Fans surged toward the primitive silicon-based worms. Slaughter... merciless slaughter. After a purge, the Carbon-Silicon Worms had exterminated every last primitive silicon-based worm.

His bodies began absorbing the primitive silicon-based worms' pale yellow fluid, and the individuals that absorbed it grew larger.

Individual differentiation in action!

What if... a powerful individual absorbed other individuals, then divided?

Zhang Fan was a man of action. Half the primitive carbon-silicon organisms began killing one another. The survivors absorbed the dead ones' bodily fluids and grew larger. The cycle repeated... until a Carbon-Silicon Primitive Worm the size of a puppy was born.

Divide...

But after it split into two, it could divide no further. Hunger...

Every division required energy, and the amount depended on the individual's size.

The two puppy-sized Carbon-Silicon Primitive Worms now needed energy, but he had already wiped out all the silicon-based worms nearby.

Zhang Fan turned his attention to the Iris.

Eat... eat until there's enough to divide. After dividing, eat again, divide again, eat again...

Zhang Fan's Carbon-Silicon Worms devoured the million-ton space exploration vessel until only the biological laboratory remained.

When the worms approached the biological laboratory, Zhang Fan realized he had exhausted his reserves.

Find new food sources...

An army of tens of millions of Carbon-Silicon Primitive Worms began spreading outward from the biological laboratory.

Death Star: the name Zhang Fan gave this hellish planet.

After the Death Star's sun had risen and set six hundred times, Zhang Fan's worms had replaced all the planet's primitive life.

They began evolving into entirely different individuals, and quite a few varieties even developed intelligence!

The {Rabid Hound}, dog-sized, with six legs, two claws, and sharp fangs.

The {Broodmother}, which retained a worm's form but possessed toxins and extraordinary reproductive ability.

The {Sword Mantis}, which stood and walked on four legs, with sword-like hands and incredible speed.

The {War Elephant}, elephant-shaped, with six legs, large ears, a long trunk, massive tusks, and clumsy movements.

The {Night Ape}, small and intelligent, walking upright on two legs, with four arms and black, hard armor covering its entire body.

The {Demon Ape}, which evolved from the {Night Ape}, sacrificing intelligence for a stronger body, greater speed, and increased ferocity.

Zhang Fan had effectively evolved an entirely new carbon-silicon ecosystem on the Death Star, perfectly adapted to the planet.

These carbon-silicon organisms were all independent individuals, each with its own ways of evolving and behaving, but Zhang Fan's consciousness existed within all their genes.

Obedience, absolute obedience. A planet completely obedient to Zhang Fan quietly awaited the appearance of prey.

He had already made his preparations and transmitted a distress signal into space. For the Death Star to evolve organisms capable of building spacecraft would take at least a million years.

Zhang Fan could wait, but the human embryos, which could only be stored for a thousand years, could not. He needed to leave the Death Star and find a way back to Earth.

Since Earth's signals had attracted the Qiya Star People, perhaps the Death Star's signals could attract them too. He would let the Qiya Star People take the primitive worms back to their homeworld, and then...

"Revenge!"