Shepherding Humanity

Though Xu Zhi had gained beauty comparable to that of a god’s, he did not feel too happy. Instead, he felt an oncoming headache…

That girl, Chen Xi will go crazy when she sees this sudden change, right?

"It's over. I'm going to get arrested and treated like a lab rat at this rate…. Can I modify my genes?" Xu Zhi asked the Mother Hive "I want to modify the genes that give me this overly handsome appearance."

He felt that his current appearance was simply too striking. It was the kind of appearance that would attract screaming fans just walking down the street. With his perfect physique and his divinely handsome face, he looked like a mythical character straight out of fiction and fantasy.

He wanted to go back to his former appearance.

He was already quite happy with his previous good looks. While he had been very attractive, he still looked like his old self. Even then, it had been difficult to explain himself to Chen Xi and his neighbors. They had only reluctantly believed him when he said that he had simply grown more handsome.

But now that his looks have changed again, they were bound to get suspicious.

I don't want to be captured and turned into a research subject!

"Do you want to assimilate Tyranis cells?" The Mother Hive asked, "As the Tyranis Lord and Creator, you’d naturally be a Tyranis Hero and will be able to open your genetic locks and freely manipulate your own genes.”

I'm already a Tyranis Hero?

I already am what countless Tyranis aspire to become one day?

Previously, Xu Zhi’s body had been too weak to accept the transformation, but now that his condition has improved, he was ready to become an honorable member of the Tyranis race.

He didn’t hesitate for long over ceasing to be human. He did not want to accept his death, and quietly wait for cancer to claim his life. What was so good about being a plain, ordinary human anyway? The Tyranis had so much more fun! He could live on as a Tyranis!

So, he silently called out: Integrate Tyranis cells!

"The fusion begins!"

The Hive Mind’s mechanical voice assented.

Instantly, soul-searing pain consumed him. Goosebumps appeared all over his body as he broke out into cold sweat. Moaning in pain, he collapsed on the bed and fainted.

When Xu Zhi regained consciousness, three hours had passed. He silently crawled out of bed and found his body covered in black and grey muck, as if he had been rolling around in mud. He hurriedly took a bath, changed his clothes, and then started checking himself.

He felt that his body had changed somewhat.

It brimmed with limitless potential.

"I have become a proper Tyranis! I can now accelerate my cell division and commit suicide by old age at anytime! Yes!" He silently squeezed his fist. He felt like he could now freely tweak his genes.

He calmly closed his eyes.

Within a black space, he could see the twisted double helix of DNA.

A person's genes were made up of large chunks of complex, disordered and meaningless data, some of which even carried information for latent diseases.

Xu Zhi looked at his own genes. It had been greatly optimized after his transformation and no longer had “junk” data. A great part of his genetic sequence was now blank and ready to accept new genes. However, Xu Zhi did not plan to do so at the moment.

He currently only had the genes of two species in his genetic database.

The termite gene and the gorilla gene.

Gilgamesh was the result of them combining.

But, he felt that those genes did not suit him and did not want to assimilate them. After all, he was just a farmer. His life was peaceful and he was in no rush to get stronger.

His first priority was curing himself of cancer. He needed to either get rid of his cancer genes or at least change them enough to no longer endanger his life. Growing stronger can be left for later.

He silently focused his senses.

"My stomach cancer is in its final stages?" Xu Zhi's face turned white, "How can this be? My diagnosis from just a few days ago said that I was only in the middle stages!"

The Mother Hive replied: "Cancer cells are the body's rebellious cells, the stronger a person is, the stronger the cancer cells become."

Xu Zhi: "…….."

You mean to say that my cancer cells have grown stronger along with me and are now wreaking havoc within my body?

So, had I absorbed just a little more energy during the last extinction event, I’d already be dead?

He was quite shocked.

"I can’t accept the energy feedback from another extinction event any time soon." Xu Zhi took a deep breath. Thankfully, it was still a long way off. If the ecosystem hadn't been thrown out of balance, he wouldn't have chosen to reshuffle the deck in the first place. A thriving sandbox was what he wanted to see.

But he was still wary.

"In other words, for a short time, even if the Bugapes choose to run wild, there’s nothing I can do about it?" Xu Zhi felt a headache, but now that his cancer was in its final stages, his hands were tied.

Xu Zhi didn’t think it would happen this fast.

He remembered Gilgamesh’s final desperate struggle from last night. He too now felt the fear and apprehension all living things must feel when faced with the end. Xu Zhi sighed with mixed feelings: "Will I really be able to get through this?"

He could keenly feel his approaching death.

"I do not have much time left… In the next era, I must hurry and direct the civilization within the sandbox to develop supernatural abilities. I’ll place my hope in the supernatural and develop a power that would get rid of my cancer!”

Xu Zhi looked at the sandbox. The scenery was lifeless and full death.

A night had passed, which was forty or fifty years in the sandbox, but the Bugapes had yet to completely recover.

They could only save a single pair of each of the world’s species, and repopulating the land after an extinction event took time. They lacked food. This made it very difficult for them to increase their numbers.

Furthermore, they have begun to heed the words of "God", who said that all life was created equal. Besides what they needed for food, they limited the killing of other species, and even helped some species to breed and expand their populations.

At the same time, new species of all shapes and varieties have begun to appear after the great extinction.

Xu Zhi watched as he sat in the sunny courtyard. He started eating the farmer’s breakfast that Chen Xi had brought him.

"Things have stabilized and civilization has started to develop again, but it's taking too long. I won't last much longer…"

Xu Zhi sighed.

"Should I open up another sandbox and start a second Genesis?" Xu Zhi thought.

He wanted to open up a new sandbox, evolve new life, develop civilization, and create a vast world of fantasy. But it wouldn’t be practical for him to do so. Building a new sandbox would take him too much time.

After all, super powers have started to appear in his existing sandbox. He should be patient and place his hope on its future possibilities.

He set aside the idea of building a new sandbox for the moment, and pondered how he could cause supernatural species to appear.

"They won’t appear just because I wish it." He sat in front of the yard as he pondered, and suddenly recalled an earlier thought: "Intelligence is unpredictable, and consequently, will give rise to many cases that do not conform to evolutionary theory."

"Since intelligence is unpredictable, then perhaps I should borrow the intellect of others. After all, there’s a limit to what I can do all by myself… I might as well conscript some people to help me out." A daring idea appeared within Xu Zhi's mind.

He decided to take a huge risk!

If it took him too long working all by himself, then he simply had to get outside help!

He remembered “Spore”, a sandbox game he had played once before. In the game, the player starts out as a spore and evolves to become a variety of oddly shaped creatures…

Xu Zhi asked the Hive Mind: "If I make another miniature sandbox world, can it be turned into an online game that people could project their souls into and help me evolve new species?"