In a small village in Zhongyuan Province, Great Dragon Country.
Amidst the sparse fields, several long breeding sheds, topped with old bricks and blue tin roofs, constantly echoed with intense “thwack, thwack” sounds, inviting curiosity.
Upon closer inspection, it was a handsome young man, drenched in sweat, fiercely striking the buzzing mosquitoes around him.
Inside the cramped pigsty, only the exhaust fan perpetually creaked and groaned.
“Phew, I’m dying of heat.” Zhou Qi stopped his mosquito-swatting hands and quickly walked to a faucet, rapidly rinsing his bloodied hands.
Zhou Qi, who had just graduated from college this year, predictably found himself unemployed immediately after graduation. He had sent out countless resumes, but they all vanished like stones sinking into the sea, with no news whatsoever.
Now, he had no choice but to return to his rural hometown and inherit the family’s breeding farm, which housed nearly a thousand pigs.
“This weather is really killing me, and there are too many mosquitoes.” Zhou Qi, after washing his hands, sat on a chair and let out a long sigh. He had just finished feeding the pigs, and although it was nearing noon, Zhou Qi had no desire to eat.
This was solely due to the overpowering smell in the farm building.
A “ding” sound suddenly rang out, and Zhou Qi immediately stood up from the stool, as this sound had surprisingly come from within his mind.
“Ding, Evolution Space has absorbed residual life energy and is scanning the host’s body.
Race: Human Race
Gene: Primate Gene
Life Essence: Carbon-based Life Form
Life Strength: 3 (Universe-wide unified calculation of life form strength)
Evolution Points: 1.3
Talent: Human Race Brain (Extremely small chance of gaining innovative ability).”
A light screen, similar to a character panel from a shady game advertisement, appeared on Zhou Qi’s retina, accompanied by a continuous series of sounds.
Zhou Qi stood frozen, utterly shocked and incredulous at the sight.
The plot from novels was actually happening to him.
“No way, I clearly remember we’re Advanced primates. Why does it show this? And what is this ‘Life Strength’? It’s too low,” Zhou Qi grumbled, looking at the light screen.
It must be said that Zhou Qi had a big heart. If such a thing happened to someone else, they would surely panic. But Zhou Qi was already complaining about the panel displaying ‘Human Race’ and ‘Primate Gene’.
As Zhou Qi’s consciousness began to focus on the content of the panel.
Streams of thoughts surged into Zhou Qi’s mind, filling it to the brim.
It turned out that this light screen was called Evolution Space, and the light screen was merely the external display of the Evolution Space.
Currently, it was a Rank 1 Evolution Space, capable of continuously adding points to strengthen the Bloodline genes and life essence of insects.
A Rank 1 Evolution Space could acquire Evolution Points by killing insects within a one-kilometer radius, and these Evolution Points could then be used to strengthen various living insects.
Furthermore, accumulating a certain amount of Evolution Points would allow for upgrading the Evolution Space, unlocking new functions.
Zhou Qi looked thoughtfully at the 1.3 Evolution Points on the light screen: “These should be from the mosquitoes I just killed. It’s better to verify it, and I can also accumulate more Evolution Points.”
Without hesitation, Zhou Qi quickly moved, heading into the breeding farm building. Fortunately, summer was the season with the most insects, and the breeding farm had no shortage of mosquitoes.
“Thwack, thwack, thwack…” The sounds rose and fell.
“Ding, Host has killed a mosquito, gaining 0.1 Evolution Points.”
“Ding, Host has killed a mosquito, gaining 0.1 Evolution Points.”
“Ding, Host has killed a strong mosquito, gaining 0.2 Evolution Points.”
“This is like dropping an elite monster,” Zhou Qi thought, looking at the bloodstain on his palm, which was several times larger than elsewhere.
“Damn it, how much of my Blood did this suck?” He completely disregarded that he wasn’t the only one in the breeding farm being bitten by mosquitoes; many more were in the pens.
Zhou Qi’s hands became like an eight-trigram continuous palm, a continuous wave of “thwack, thwack” sounds, each pleasing to the ear. If heard by a resentful woman in her 30s or 40s, she would surely complain even more about her husband.
“Ding”
“Ding”
“Ding” …
After continuously swatting for over ten minutes, Zhou Qi finally stopped his reddened hands.
He had lost count of how many mosquitoes he had killed, but the light screen now showed 10.8 Evolution Points.
Zhou Qi quickly washed his hands and then squatted down on the ground outside the breeding farm.
This breeding farm was on Zhou Qi’s family land, totaling about 5 mu in area, with several greenhouse-like breeding houses, as well as cultivation rooms and feed storage rooms, etc.
In the Zhongyuan region, the village farmlands were all connected. The ground outside the breeding houses was just dirt, which was convenient for Zhou Qi to catch ants.
On the ground, a dozen or so dark brown Digging Ants were gnawing on a few scattered residues that had fallen during feed transportation.
These were common Digging Ants found in farmlands and forests, ranging from 4.5 mm to 7.5 mm in length.
Fortunately, as a college student, Zhou Qi had always been interested in aliens, sea monsters, Bigfoot, and the animal world since he was young, and he spent a lot of time watching these videos on his phone during classes.
Now, it finally came in handy, forming a wonderful closed loop.
Zhou Qi wondered how to strengthen them, while reaching out his hand towards a Digging Ant worker that seemed a bit out of place next to the residue.
“Ding, do you wish to strengthen it?” Just then, an alert sounded in his mind.
Zhou Qi silently thought “strengthen.”
A subtle, almost invisible red stream of light connected from his fingertip to the ant.
Instantly,
“Ding, 0.1 Evolution Points consumed. The ant has been strengthened into a One-Tier Ant. Strengthening complete. Congratulations, Host, you have gained Elementary intimacy with the One-Tier Ant.” The Evolution Space’s prompt sounded.
Zhou Qi quickly looked at the One-Tier Ant. Its body was slightly larger than before, and compared to the dozen or so other ants nearby, it could already be considered a burly fellow.
“Is this Elementary intimacy like in online games?” Zhou Qi wondered, then extended his hand towards the One-Tier Ant.
The One-Tier Ant climbed onto Zhou Qi’s hand, and a sense of telepathy registered in Zhou Qi’s mind.
“Let’s keep strengthening it, Evolution Space, let me see your limits!” Zhou Qi muttered to himself.
“Ding, 0.2 Evolution Points consumed. The One-Tier Ant has been strengthened into a Two-Tier Ant. Strengthening complete. Congratulations, Host, you have gained Advanced intimacy with the Two-Tier Ant.” The Evolution Space’s prompt sounded.
“Ding, 0.4 Evolution Points consumed… Congratulations, Host, you have gained Elementary loyalty with the Three-Tier Ant.”
“Ding, 0.8 Evolution Points consumed… Congratulations, Host, you have gained Advanced loyalty with the Four-Tier Ant.”
“Ding, 1.6 Evolution Points consumed… Congratulations, Host, you have gained undying fealty with the Five-Tier Ants.”
“Ding, congratulations, Host, you have successfully strengthened a Five-Tier insect, elevating to a Rank 1 Apostle, gaining the talents: Ant Strength, Ant King Summon.”
Continuous sounds rang out. Zhou Qi looked at the Five-Tier Ants on the ground, which had undergone a great transformation. They were now as large as a big peanut, with thick mandibles and a metallic sheen emanating from the cuticles on their backs.
Zhou Qi shifted his awareness to the newest notification.
It turned out that reaching Rank Five would automatically promote one to a Rank 1 Apostle. One could be promoted once every five Ranks.
“Ant Strength: Strength increased tenfold based on the original foundation.”
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