Nurturing Humanity

The Weird Mechanical Player

The atmosphere seemed dead right away.

Everyone thought the Final Chicken race to be a reward like no other at the start, but all of them were shocked to the core when they saw what happened.

“Well, well, that’s tragic! I didn’t expect that the boss actually survived being poisoned after you sneaked into his lunchbox. Worse still, the boss remembered just how delicious you were…”

“Congratz, brother! You’ve acquired your new race—Chicken on the Menu. You’ve changed your job to that of a dish. Tastes like chicken, supple and crunchy, and packs eight times more protein than beef!”

“You took ten whole minutes back there to sculpt your face to perfection, but all that beauty ends up in someone’s mouth. You’ve even managed to make his dinner look even more pretty.”

“Truth to be told, I was having supper and boy, I burst out laughing seeing that. While I do indeed pity the guy, I just can’t help laughing out loud like a pig!”

Oh brother, I guess you can say that your first species, the Final Chicken, is a goner…

…

Chen Wenshan was rendered completely baffled as he read all the laughter and jeers on the forum. Boundless regret welled all of a sudden in his mind, as he saw how most of his Final Chicken pack was taken away. Well, look at me now. Why did I think about having the boss eat me in the first place? Now he remembers what I taste like, and he sure will be picking on my race every day from here on out...

This species of mine really is probably done for…

His elation quickly turned into tragedy.

The boss, on the other hand, behaved as if he was in the real world, and he actually remembered what happened. That fact caused a huge commotion like no other among the players. Everyone was getting very hyped over the discovery, raving away about how the first evolved species acquiring an achievement before them was actually reduced to becoming a dish on the boss’ menu.

It was a clear lesson to everyone.

…

Xu Zhi, on the other hand, was having a sweet time.

He returned to the house from his compound with tens of Final Chickens the size of quail eggs in his hand and walked to the kitchen to put them into a basket. He then washed them clean and quickly plucked all of their feathers. “About time I get hungry. They will do nicely for tonight’s supper.”

He had to admit that those beings indeed packed intensely potent poisons, but at the same time, they were also unbelievably tasty. He had to give it to the guy, that was truly a delicious masterpiece from someone who read up professional knowledge about evolution before getting to work.

He thought his course of action to be quite normal.

Farmers plucked the things they had in their fields when they get hungry. That was how they prepared their meals.

He saw those Final Chickens as simply vegetables in his farm.

He saw himself as amply generous in leaving behind the king and only going for the pack of said king.

He boiled those creatures up and added two eggs into it, grinning without saying a word as he cooked away in the kitchen. “I knew the guy would definitely pick option one, and I had been waiting for this to happen.”

Dude, your stuff would become one of the things added to my menu from here on out.

He boiled the creatures up over a small fire for half an hour and sprinkled some chopped onions on them, then popped each one into his mouth in a single gulp. They tasted unexpectedly delicious, and he was having the time of his life.

“Seems like I’d better encourage them to evolve some tasty creatures from here on out,” he mumbled to himself. The way he saw it, he would only be doing his stomach a favor by eating good food, given how his cancer was at stage four at the moment.

He had just finished his sorcery training not too long ago. A nice supper after a nice shower was indeed a splendid way of spending his time at the countryside.

His brow twitched all of a sudden. “Oh, right. How about getting them to make some kind of a plant that will grow delicious vegetables or fruit on it?”

Truth to be told, he liked sitting in his compound overlooking his greater sandbox while eating apples, pears or some other kinds of fruit. He liked this leisurely, rich way of life very much. He thought just splendid it would be, if those players were able to evolve some kind of delicious fruit…

“Not quite impossible after all.”

He thought about it for a bit. Most players would not elect to evolve themselves into plants. Not being able to move at all limited the experience of the game.

There was also another key problem. There was another wrong idea that the players had gotten too used to—they opted to create eyes and then limbs at the very start so as to facilitate movement, never giving any thoughts about taking to route of unmoving plants...

“Maybe I should really remind them for a bit... These people are more hardworking and resistant to stress than I anticipated them to be. Taking the route of plants, being unable to move, relying on photosynthesis would be quite a way to test one’s patience…” He gave it some thought and then logged into that game account—’I know how to hold a grudge’—that he created for logging into game and posted a thread.

The content read as follows.

“I’ve been watching you guys play and wondered why has no one thought about evolving into plants. There are animals and there are plants in the world, no? Why didn’t anyone take the route of evolving into plants then?”

What he wrote proved to be quite a shock to everyone, and that became the talk among the players right away.

“Holy sh**! Why didn’t I think of it!? Plants! Plants, god**amn it!”

“Yeah, that’s new and uncharted territory indeed. Well, I died killing the boss and have to restart as spore anyway. I’d say this is worth a shot, opening up possibilities never before seen. Alright, that’s it. I’d be looking into evolutionary structure of plants tonight for the whole night. Chlorophyll, photosynthesis, plasmolysis… I shall create the perfect plant!”

“If I were to live my next life tomorrow, I shall become a tree. Standing tall eternally, devoid of joy and grief, with half of me deep in slumber underground, and the other half swaying with the wind. Half of me shall be in the shades, while the other half basking in the sun. Very silent, yet very proud.”.

…

Xu Zhi was pleased to read all of that. There were already people who were eager to try taking on the path of plants, and he left the chat without saying another word.

He learned just how important it was to surf the forum time and again, to learn what his supposed enemies were up to, and to steer the direction of discussion to somewhere he found favorable.

He had them all falling in love with the idea of working for him for free, to do scientific researches and look into evolution in a frenzy, becoming the likes of Thomas Edison as they devoured knowledge voraciously, rendering their heads bald with 99 percent of their sweat, putting every ounce of energy they had into evolving creatures for his sake.

Delicious fruits would definitely be just around the corner once plants become a thing.

I won’t have to wait too long!

…

‘My farming plan’

He chuckled as he continued eating the Final Chickens as he surfed the forum, learning about the current status of evolution of those creatures. He found yet another new player other than the one called ‘Racer of Mount Haruna’ being worthy of his attention.

It was someone who went by ‘I am Hunyuan Thunderbolt Hand, and I want to evolve into Kun, the legendary fish’. That one was yet another renowned candidate, yet he was not doing anything useful at the moment. He was not having any intentions of evolving into Kun, and he was hardly evolving anything at all.

He was a veteran player of ‘Minecraft’, a true player of leisurely games. He was getting very into farming and construction.

The reason why he evolved into something with five tentacles before was so to become a better ‘inventor’ and ‘smith’.

Two out of that five tentacles of his had serrated blades that were structured like the scything arms of praying mantis, which were useful for chopping down trees. One tentacle was shaped like a shovel to facilitate digging, and the remaining two were meant for all kinds of supporting work.

That whole creature was made to be like a robot for crafting tools.

That guy crafted a chair.

Shoop, shoop, shoop!!

Felling trees, putting them into order, grouping and assembling the whole thing took him only mere minutes. All five tentacles were utilized at the same time, with each doing their own tasks. Their movements were in a flurry as the construct was being finished in mere moments. Xu Zhi’s jaw almost dropped to the floor when he saw that creature at work.

Just what kind of creature is this?

Gosh, is this some kind of living, breathing lathe or production line? They are moving about just like robot arms in factories.

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