Chapter Forty-One: Survival of the Fittest

Consciousness returned to the body.

Seeing the prompt that appeared in his field of vision, Li Shan was momentarily stunned.

“I didn’t expect talents to be acquired in this way.”

“I wonder if this is a privilege exclusive to herbivores, or if it’s the same for all categories.”

“But one thing’s for sure—when a special action phase ends, the chance of gaining a talent increases.” Li Shan explained to his livestream viewers, “So there was nothing wrong with my last move. Everything was under control.”

‘Didn’t he just say it was a mistake? Now it’s all under control again?’

‘Is Old Demon Li expecting us to collectively forget?’

‘Seriously, are we supposed to watch livestreams without memory? Good thing I recorded it.’

Li Shan paid no mind to the barrage of comments in the chat.

“Alright, I’ve pretty much figured out how to play on land. Now I need to think about how to increase the population.”

After he finished speaking, he asked, “What methods do you all think are best?”

‘First, find a comfortable environment. If there’s no danger, the population will naturally grow.’

‘Start farming, too. With more food, you don’t have to waste time foraging, which means more time for making babies.’

‘Live separately. Having everyone make babies together is just disturbing to imagine.’

Seeing how he’d successfully shifted the conversation, Li Shan smiled and shared his own thoughts: “When it comes to population, I think the most important thing isn’t a comfortable environment, but reproductive ability and survivability.”

“Take cockroaches, for example. Thanks to their powerful reproductive capability and their adaptability to any environment, they’ve managed to spread across the entire universe.”

“In nature, it’s always survival of the fittest. If you can’t adapt, you go extinct.”

“So, faced with this situation, my suggestion is to go straight to evolution.”

With that, Li Shan decisively invested twenty gene points and began evolving.

Back when he was an aquatic creature, gene acquisition had hit a bottleneck. Now that he was on land, he could start evolving again.

It was also the perfect opportunity to test what the viewers had mentioned earlier—whether the chances of successful evolution really increase when facing adversity.

Li Shan’s operation was flawless, but it left his viewers dumbfounded.

They thought he’d have a clever solution.

But this was it?

‘I shouldn’t have expected anything from Old Demon Li.’

‘I thought he was going to reveal some genius method, but it’s just pay-to-win again.’

‘Well, to be fair, it’s probably the optimal solution right now.’

[You have begun evolution.]

[Your species is on the verge of extinction.]

[They long for more kin.]

[In this intense yearning, you have evolved...]

[Parthenogenesis.]

[This allows your species to reproduce even if only one individual remains.]

“Why parthenogenesis? Given the circumstances, I think evolving into something like octuple births would make more sense.” Li Shan commented, “The designer’s logic still needs some work.”

With that, he clicked to evolve again.

After two failures, he finally succeeded in evolving another gene.

[Fragmented Limb Reproduction (Rare).]

[Your severed, intact limbs will become embryos for the next generation.]

‘Isn’t that a starfish ability?’

‘Old Demon Li just hit the jackpot!’

“Just a small win, nothing big,” Li Shan replied modestly, then proceeded to evolve again.

But this time, over ten attempts yielded nothing.

Seeing this, he realized the adversity bonus was gone.

“For those planning to play this game, if you don’t succeed in the first five tries, it’s not worth continuing. The gene points required for further success will skyrocket.”

After this reminder, Li Shan turned his attention back to the game.

With reproduction no longer an issue, the next task was to find a suitable place for long-term habitation.

His first choice was a low mountain with water.

But it would depend on what he encountered along the way.

Gathering his remaining twenty or so followers, Li Shan led them deeper into the forest.

The deeper they went, the more complex the terrain became—and the greater the danger.

But the resources also became richer.

This would greatly help increase the population.

A rustling sound came from nearby.

“There’s something approaching—and in large numbers.” Li Shan warned his viewers while directing his followers to prepare for battle.

Soon, the creatures responsible for the noise appeared before them.

They were large, rabbit-sized gray segmented insects with blue faces and menacing fangs.

Li Shan wasn’t afraid of one or two, but there were hundreds of them, crawling out from beneath the leaf litter.

‘I bet these things are poisonous—what do you all think?’

‘Obviously! Just look at those yellow teeth. One bite and you’re at least getting tetanus.’

‘Is Old Demon Li about to get wiped out?’

Li Shan had no time to look at the chat. He quickly scanned the surroundings and found that he and his followers were surrounded.

Even at the weakest point in the encirclement, there were at least thirty of these insects.

With so few left in his tribe, he couldn’t afford any losses. Without hesitation, he led his followers in a charge toward the thinnest part of the encirclement.

The insects, seeing the pyramids trying to escape, immediately gave chase and launched a frenzied attack.

Although the pyramids were much stronger than the insects individually, they were outnumbered.

Soon, one pyramid fell, overwhelmed and devoured by the swarm.

In the end, Li Shan managed to break free, but only two followers remained, both wounded.

It was a heavy loss.

Yet, as the saying goes, a setback can turn into a blessing.

Though nearly wiped out, during their escape, they stumbled upon an ideal territory.

It was a hill with a remarkably flat summit.

Not far below lay a pond—an excellent place to settle.

Once they had shaken off their pursuers, Li Shan decisively led his remaining two followers up the hill.

After a cautious inspection revealed only some gentle herbivores in the area, he immediately directed his two companions to build a simple temporary shelter.

Once settled, he entered the creation space to equip himself with the two newly acquired genes, and even added a few extra legs.

After all, with limb-based reproduction, the more limbs, the faster the population would grow.

Once his genes were set, Li Shan led his followers to forage and plant food.

Feeling he had done all he could in this phase, Li Shan decisively moved on to the next stage.

The scene shifted: his two surviving followers began to live as he had instructed.

They improved their shelter, cultivated crops, and nurtured offspring.

Gradually, crude buildings began to multiply on the flat hilltop.

The population count began to rise, slowly at first, from two to ten, then quickly surpassing a hundred and finally halting at one hundred and twenty-one.

And at that moment, the warrior count, which had been zero, finally jumped to one.

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