Shepherding Humanity

Xu Zhi calmly ate the Pallbearer Chickens, and continued to browse the forum to spy on the enemy's camp.

After confirming that a certain jackass hasn't posted anything else, and that he really wasn’t in any danger, he felt relieved.

He didn't have the time to constantly supervise these wacky players, and returned to his main business of evolving new species.

First, he considered the current development of the Spore Evolution sandbox.

After the Slime, these players haven’t developed any new species with potential; they were all crappy creatures.

"However, this post should have ignited their enthusiasm. They all want to start a second life in another world and will work hard to evolve species with potential. I don’t have to worry."

Xu Zhi felt certain that as long as those players kept sacrificing their hairline, new species with potential should appear in no time.

There was no need to hurry.

In addition, according to the player survey, most players in this sandbox were young people between 16 to 26 years old.

There weren't many minors.

"Spore Evolution" did not need to have age restrictions like other online games.

After all, without a certain level of education and a high IQ, it was impossible to play this game!

"It's a shame though that so many eager young people will end up with no hair…"

Xu Zhi showed an expression of pity, then coldly moved on. "Right, Hive Mind, will these overactive treants that they’ve evolved be of any use?"

Although Xu Zhi initially only wanted some food, he also wanted to diversify the Magic World’s species if possible. It would be too monotonous if all the supernatural life-forms were animals. A proper magic civilization full of danger and mystery had to have magical plants!

The Hive Mind mechanically replied:

"A small portion of them have potential, albeit very little. Their potential is as low as can be."

Only the lowest level?

Xu Zhi frowned.

After considering his options, he decided to leave them alone and wait for them to evolve plants with higher potential. Quality over quantity!

Xu Zhi then turned his attention to the application papers from the third beta test. "Time to look through those applications."

Things were much more hectic compared to the second beta test, and there were tens of thousands of professional dissertations on his computer.

"This time, they’ve come prepared; quite a few of them have started writing their paper from the moment the second beta test ended and were just waiting for this moment."

"Sure enough, Chen Xi was right. They’ve all gone nuts over the third beta test and prepared well ahead of time. With this kind of crazy competition, there’s no way she'd pass if I don’t let her in through the back door."

Xu Zhi knew his own worth well. There was no way he could push himself so hard. After all, he still had a full head of hair.

He went through the 50 papers that had been selected by the Hive Mind, and started reading the two with the greatest potential.

The first one had the following premise:

"The Rubik's Cube: A creature with solid bones that could theoretically replace metal!"

…

The paper’s main proposal was to evolve a creature with bones hard enough to replace metal since the Magic World didn't have any.

Since there were already bio-engines, bio-metals should also be possible!

The accompanying plan was over a hundred thousand words long, concisely written, with DNA diagrams and evolutionary diagrams.

Xu Zhi skimmed through it.

Similar to the Slime, this creature's body structure was extremely specialized in terms of design: It only had a mouth, and all nutrients would be supplied to its bones.

Except for the necessary digestive organs and eyes, which were relatively tiny, it did not have any body tissue, and was simply a rectangular brick—no different from a steel ingot.

The bone density of this creature was extremely high, combining a super stable diamond lattice with the molecular structure of eggshells.

These diagrams alone weren't enough, however.

After all, evolving such a creature was the most difficult part. The plan also included a step-by-step guide on how to evolve a single-celled spore to an arthropod with a sturdy exoskeleton. The guide was very comprehensive and seemed quite feasible…

"What an amazing talent!"

Xu Zhi gulped. "How did they think of this? A steel ingot that's capable of eating and growing!"

He tried to picture it

What would steelmaking in the other world look like in the future?

In an alchemical vault, steel ingots are neatly stacked like bricks against the wall. Every brick has a mouth filled with sharp fangs. As long as they’re fed, these steel-like bone ingots will slowly grow in size.

What an otherworldly and macabre scene!

"It’s an intriguing concept. This is exactly the kind of magical creature that I’m looking for! There’s no doubt that it’ll advance the Magic World’s civilization."

He did not care about the privacy of others, and immediately used the Hive Mind to find out who had written this paper. It turned out to be a woman.

This alluring 28-years-old genius was a world-famous biology professor at a certain university. She has written many papers and had even been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Biology.

Another big fish!

"This third beta test is full of amazing people! Some of the most accomplished people in reality have suddenly decided to join in on the fun." Xu Zhi was very excited.

An era of unprecedented prosperity awaited him.

Haha, I won’t have to tiptoe around that crazy bastard, Akina’s Speedster, in the future!

I now have all these amazing experts working under me! I no longer need you!

This development filled Xu Zhi with joy. He took a moment to calm himself, then looked at the other paper. This one was even more amazing!

"Conception of an Artificial God: Creating a never-before-seen Mythic Level Eight life-form."

……

Artificial God! ?

Xu Zhi was stunned.

Does this mean that you want to artificially create a Mythic Level Eight creature that's stronger than the current Emperor of Alchemy?

So daring!

Do you think it's that easy to get rich overnight?

There were no Mythic Wizards or Witches in the current Magic World.

Only hero-class organisms who have broken their genetic lock could have the power of a Mythic creature the moment they were born!

After all, the Phoenix, which was still in its long infancy period, was born an Epic Level Seven, and it was only a pseudo-hero.

It was only through pure serendipity that heroes were born.

They were extremely formidable life-forms that could adjust and modify their own genes just like Xu Zhi, and could integrate any gene they wanted.

According to records left behind by the previous Tyranis Queen, even after seeding an entire planet with spores, only a few heroes would be born from among the billions of life-forms.

"An artificial hero-class? Aren’t heroes supposed to be unique? Hive Mind, is this a scam?" Xu Zhi frowned slightly.

"It can be done!"

The Hive Mind answered mechanically. "This is a revolutionary theory, and should not be ignored… This person may have broken through previous evolutionary limits and has achieved mass production of pseudo-hero-level creatures. He may have even surpassed the previous Tyranis Queen."

Xu Zhi trembled all over.

This person may have achieved something that even the previous Tyranis Queen could not?

He looked down quickly.

There was no thesis, no biological diagram, no evolutionary route, nothing.

This paper was just an evolutionary hypothesis from the author, and needed to be verified.

The opening paragraph was very professional and serious:

"In nature, there are many species that form symbiotic relationships.

Such as the well-known rhinoceros and the oxpecker.

And then there are the lesser-known anemones and hermit crabs.

Sea anemones cannot move, so they have to use the weaker hermit crabs as "mounts". In exchange, they protect the hermit crabs from their natural enemies by secreting deadly venom which becomes a powerful weapon for hermit crabs. Their relationship is like the relationship between a knight and his mount, and they are indispensable to one another.

This is a symbiosis of two species.

But what I want to create is a symbiosis of hundreds of species working together like gears, connectors, and batteries to form a single massive synthetic life-form.

This creature will break the size limit and reach a terrifying height of one kilometer! It will be a towering colossus!"

Xu Zhi was slightly shaken.

A massive synthetic life-form?

When Xu Zhi restricted their body size, he did not expect that someone would use this method to bypass his genetic lock. One kilometer was many times larger than the great behemoth Fenba, and was already the size of a big dog in Xu Zhi’s eyes.

For ants, such a creature would be the same size as a vast mountain range.

But how could it be possible for countless creatures to naturally combine into one?

"This is my preliminary proposal: This unconventional evolutionary path will require the cooperation of nearly a hundred players.

Initially, we’ll create a wooden ship that can travel over the sea. This will act as the basic framework for further evolution.

Hundreds of player spores will attach themselves to the ship as parasitic seaweeds, parasitic shells, etc., covering the entire ship; with this, they will be able to travel long distances in search of food, like parasitic organisms on modern ships.

Over time, as the ship begins to rot, its various parts would gradually stop working.

In order to continue traveling long distances on the ship, the seaweeds and shells will evolve to replace the broken down parts, turning into gears and the like, fusing together as they become part of the ship.

In the end, they will replace everything and become a gigantic living ship.

This is the initial form of my synthetic creature.

After that, they can follow the normal evolutionary route, and gradually evolve into a giant fish. They can even move onto shore and become a giant amphibian, a giant land creature, or a giant flying creature.

This creature will have a massive body standing over a thousand meters tall, comparable to a building hundreds of stories high!

This synthesis of countless life-forms will surpass any individual living creature. "

"I need countless players to participate in this plan, which I’ll call the ‘Spore Players Guild Plan’! Countless players will combine into a single life-form! I’ll form the head, he’ll form the arms, and she’ll form the muscles, something like that… This creature will be an entire Players Guild!"

"Please give me this chance!"

You’re making an artificial god!

Of course I’ll give you this chance!

What an amazing plan!

"No matter how much time, effort, and resources this project will take, I’ll make the players in the sandbox give it their all! I’ll support this guy behind the scenes to the very end!"

Xu Zhi excitedly shot up from his seat in front of the computer. "And here is another amazing talent who’s full of unconventional ideas! It's like I’ve gotten all the big names in biology to join in on the fun this time around."

Suddenly, he was struck with a bold idea.

If this "Synthetic Living Ship Project" succeeds, then there’s hope for my sky island, the Heavenly Realm of the Gods.