Mini World Game Console

Huh? The game evaluation had been uploaded for so long, and only now did a leveling-up prompt appear?

However, when Ren Suo clicked on the message, he discovered it was not a notification about his Player Level increasing, but a strange system prompt.

"Congratulations, Player, for obtaining 200 Merit Points. Naiser Gaming Company kindly reminds you: Please try to accumulate Merit Points before advancing to Level 4 Player, and don't say you weren't warned."

This prompt left Ren Suo utterly confused. Had the Naiser Gaming Company, which owned the Mini-World Game Console, noticed he'd earned quite a few Merit Points? And were they specifically advising him not to spend them?

There was the prompt, and then the addition of 'don't say you weren't warned.' It was just short of saying, 'I've spelled it out for you, so don't be an idiot.'

It was practically like advising someone in 1911 not to go to the palace to become a eunuch.

But why not say anything at 100 Merit Points and wait until 200 to send the prompt?

It seems that there must be a threshold related to 200 Merit Points when advancing to a Level 4 Player... Ren Suo pondered, but guessing this information was somewhat meaningless, as he was still a long way from becoming a Level 4 Player.

Upon opening the Content Preservation Vault, two Treasure Boxes naturally caught Ren Suo's eye. One was the Level 2 Treasure Box from "Jedi Priest," and the other was the Level 3 Treasure Box from "Devouring the Spirit of the World."

However, Ren Suo didn't have a single Key. These items couldn't be bought with Merit Points; they could only be obtained in reality.

But these past few days, Ren Suo had been dining with Dong Chengling. He'd noticed that six students in the two classes she taught had Keys, and he had seen even more Key-carriers in the cafeteria.

Of course, no matter how many Keys there were, they had nothing to do with him.

It was like the many beauties in college or the vast sums of money in the bank—what did any of that have to do with Ren Suo?

Moreover, considering his previous experiences with Treasure Boxes, Ren Suo didn't feel particularly lucky. He decided to let nature take its course and wait until he got a Key in the future.

On the other hand, the exclusive reward from "Devouring the Spirit of the World" was what truly excited him—

"Super-Evolution"!

This reward didn't appear in the Equipment Interface. Like "Physical Fitness Optimization," it showed up directly in the Content Preservation Vault, indicating it was a consumable reward and would be gone after use.

Ren Suo hadn't thought much about it before. But after playing "Devouring the Spirit of the World" for over ten days, his understanding of "Super-Evolution" was incredibly profound!

The charming Nine-Tailed Fox of a Thousand Changes!

The indestructible and myth-like Handsome Monkey King!

I don't expect to reach the Demon King realm, the third Super-Evolution, but I'd be quite content if I could choose the True Human realm, the second Super-Evolution!

"Would you like to initiate 'Super-Evolution'?"

"Detected that the Player's current Evolved state is human. Please choose one from the three Super Evolution Cards—"

Huh, not bad! Three cards!

Then, the next second, Ren Suo saw the three Evolution Cards and was instantly dumbfounded—

"Beast Mimicry: Cat," "Beast Mimicry: Fox," "Beast Mimicry: Fish."

Ren Suo put down the controller and took a deep breath. He went to the restroom, removed his pants, and contemplated for the duration of a metabolic process. Afterward, he slowly rubbed his palms with hand soap and composed his emotions. Finally, he sat back on the couch and seriously read the descriptions of the three Evolution Cards.

It's strange that animal evolution is Human Mimicry while human evolution is Beast Mimicry. But, accepting this setting, it actually seems rather interesting.

And if he didn't accept it? For Ren Suo, who rigorously upheld the 'three-second rule' (food dropped on the ground could still be eaten within three seconds) and never wasted anything, not accepting wasn't an option.

"Beast Mimicry: Cat," a Colorless Card. Effect: The Player acquires abilities such as Feign Sleep, Night Vision, and Physical Agility, and also gains 'Feline Aura,' making it easy to gain the favor of feline creatures.

"Beast Mimicry: Fox," a Colorless Card. Effect: The Player acquires an enhanced sense of smell, body fragrance, and other abilities, and also gains 'Canine Aura,' making it easy to gain the favor of canine creatures.

"Beast Mimicry: Fish," a Colorless Card. Effect: The Player acquires underwater breathing, swimming, and other abilities, and also gains 'Fish Aura,' making it easy to gain the favor of most fish species.

Tsk, I knew the exclusive reward for a 3-star game would have its limits...

In the Pacific Ocean, almost 400 nautical miles from Federal Los Angeles, the 751st experiment was underway in the Underground Research Institute on Prison Island.

Prison Islands are not uncommon in the Federation; the natural barrier of the ocean is more effective than any man-made obstacle. A Prison Island situated extremely far from the mainland serves as an excellent research location, devoid of potential information leaks aside from satellite phones.

Moreover, Jibalyan Prison Island was a private prison, originally established by a multinational healthcare consortium from the Federation. Over the past six months, however, continuous investments from other consortia had transformed it into a collective property of all top-tier consortia in the Federation. Countless researchers and death-row inmates had been transported to this Prison Island.

The prison now housed only inmates sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. Once they arrived, they lost any chance to communicate with the outside world. Their feet were clad in Electromagnetic Prison Shoes. These shoes not only impeded their movement, but the entire Prison Island was also covered with a metal floor compatible with them. If they attempted to leave 'areas not designated for them,' the shoes' circuits would connect, generating a strong magnetic force that pinned them to the ground.

This was a prison that could 'plant' a person inside forever.

Two robust jailers escorted the prisoner, Keith, into the underground laboratory. Keith wore Electromagnetic Prison Shoes, his hands were shackled with lead handcuffs, and his face was covered by an elastic mask that held his mouth wide open. Only his darting eyes revealed his fear and panic.

Keith arrived just as the 751st experiment was concluding.

A middle-aged Caucasian Researcher, instructing the staff to dispose of the 'person' that had melted on the steel chair like ice cream, kept his eyes on the curves on the monitor screen. "How many are left?" he asked.

"Three, Doctor," the female Researcher beside him replied. "Subject Number 752 has arrived."

"Hmm, next is the continuous fatigue test for five people... It will start in 30 seconds."

Keith watched as a group of lab assistants cleared away the gore and entrails from the seat with whirlwind speed. A few of the stronger assistants carried away the lead handcuffs and Electromagnetic Prison Shoes.

He knelt on the ground in fear, whimpering, but the assistants came over together, hoisted him onto the seat, and secured his hands and feet. A Black assistant patted his face disdainfully. "You're all death-row scum, so don't you dare become incontinent," he sneered. "It'll be a hassle for us to clean up afterward."

AAAHHH— I'm not! I've been framed!

But no one was interested in his story. Perhaps he was once a CEO, ruined and framed by his partners. Perhaps he was a banker who, upon discovering his wife's affair late one night, had confronted them, only for a passing robber to commit a crime for which he was then framed. Or perhaps he was an undercover cop whose superior had been 'made to' jump from a building, leaving no one to vouch for his identity…

Here, he was merely Subject 752.

As he inwardly cursed his unjust fate, he never considered that if Destiny had favored him, it would have been terribly unfair to the previous 751 subjects. After all, who could say that none of them had also been wronged?

"The experiment begins."

Keith tensed his entire body, waiting for the electric current or the blade to strike.

However, none came. Instead, his seat rotated 180 degrees.

Because the steel seat was so massive, Keith hadn't been able to see what was behind it. Now, finally, he saw—a fish tank.

In the fish tank, there was a blue-green fish the size of a thumb.

None of the 751 prisoners before him had recognized the fish's origin; at most, they thought it was far too small.

But Keith was different. He had majored in biology in college and had once been obsessed with the Cambrian explosion, closely examining various ancient fossils with classmates in museums around the world.

The fish before him rapidly brought back memories from his college days—

Is this… a Haikouichthys?

The Haikouichthys, a primitive fish-like creature from the Agnatha superclass whose fossils were discovered in the Mysterious Country's Yunnan province, hailed from the Cambrian Period. It is considered the oldest fish yet unearthed and the oldest known vertebrate, pushing the emergence of chordates back to 530 million years ago.

Even the common trilobite was far more complex than the Haikouichthys. Dubbed 'the world's first fish,' the Haikouichthys was known to exist only in fossil form.

Yet, the thumb-sized fish in the tank before Keith convinced him at first glance that this was indeed a Haikouichthys!

It was an unfounded conviction—even if it looked exactly like the fossils, it wasn't impossible for a similar fish to have appeared over the eons.

However, as Keith stared at the fish, acetylcholine rapidly secreted in his body. This erased the direness of his current predicament from his mind, leaving only a happiness akin to a pilgrimage.

But the next second, the table holding the fish tank rapidly approached his body. Only then did Keith see a tube beneath the tank.

Soon, a staff member inserted the tube into his stretched-open mouth. A mechanism in the fish tank activated, and water began to flow steadily from the tank into Keith's mouth.

Keith recalled the grisly scene on the steel seat from moments before.

Could it be? Had those people turned into that state because they drank this water?

His thoughts were quickly drowned out as consciousness faded. Keith felt his blood boil, pain spread from the depths of his marrow, and Despair moan within the folds of his soul…

God, if I can just be saved… whether you are Yahweh, Satan, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, an insect, a black goat, a computer, a game console, or anything at all, I will worship you until the end of the world!

Jibalyan Archive No. 752 (Top Secret)

Subject: Keith Troy, 34, male, from Florida

Experimental Background: No. 3 (data deleted) first appeared in the stomach of a 45-year-old male corpse in New Jersey. Three individuals who came into close contact with it also died within three days; their bodies failed and burst due to excessive cellular proliferation. It has since been found that direct contact must be avoided to prevent these effects.

Experimental Status: No. 3 (data deleted) entered the subject's body through a (data deleted)-wide tube. Subsequently, the subject's Physical Condition was greatly enhanced. Anesthetic needles prepared in the experimental chair were ineffective. The subject then smashed through the metal floor with his head and burrowed into the ground, leaving a 40cm-wide circular hole. Probes indicate the hole leads off the island, presumably into the Pacific Ocean.

At night, on a Los Angeles beach, a naked man, bald on top, quietly came ashore. He went to great lengths to steal a set of clothes and some cash. He then hailed a taxi on the highway and gave the address of a safe house he had purchased under an assumed identity.

The bearded driver, wearing a Manchester United cap, glanced first at Keith's "Mediterranean" bald spot in the rearview mirror, then at his face. "You've hurt your neck," he observed. "Aren't you going to get it checked out?"

"Hmm?"

Keith touched his neck. In the rearview mirror, he saw a thumb-sized, fish-shaped wound there.

"It's all right."

Keith couldn't help but laugh, startling the driver with the sight of fish blood and remnants caught in his teeth.

"This is the Mark left by my savior."