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Global Evolution

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by Steffen Schmidt




  Global Evolution

  Description

  The Cambrian Explosion, now the largest life science puzzle…

  500 million years ago,among single-celled life on Earth , there suddenly began mutations similar to evolution, a variety of gorgeous creatures were born “out of thin air”, all ancestors of today’s species appeared in that short period of time, each species were evolving at lightning speed; billion times faster than today, it was a brilliant era.

  Unfortunately, the life of brilliant things are always short, after the brief “Cambrian”, life on Earth entered another 56 million years of evolutionary era at turtle speed. And humans, were also one step faster during the turtle race, and become the leader of life on Earth.

  But now — a greater “second age” has come again.

  During the lightning speed of evolution, humanity was kicked off of the throne on the food chain in the shortest time possible, and life on Earth, welcomed the second brilliant big bang.

  The real end of the world, is no longer brainless zombies or desolate earth, but — the end of mankind, the whole earth’s paradise.

  Chapter 1: Examination Results

  Chapter 2: Oxblood Fog

  Chapter 3: The Crowbar and The Rat

  Chapter 4: Preparation

  Chapter 5: Back to School

  Chapter 6: The Food Chain

  Chapter 7: Wild Grass

  Chapter 8: Bacteria

  Chapter 9: First Night

  Chapter 10: Medication

  Chapter 11: Microbes

  Chapter 12: Strange Tree

  Chapter 13: Life and Morality

  Chapter 14: To Kill

  Chapter 15: Danger Index

  Chapter 16: Strategy

  Chapter 17: Giant Maggot

  Chapter 18: Hemmed

  Chapter 19: To Stay or To Go

  Chapter 20: Confrontation

  Chapter 21: Water Bottles

  Chapter 22: Disturbed

  Chapter 23: Narrow-minded

  Chapter 24: Hunting

  Chapter 25: Waiting

  Chapter 26: Slaughtering and Fleeing

  Chapter 27: Wound

  Chapter 28: Stench

  Chapter 29: Human desires

  Chapter 30: Preparation

  Chapter 31: The Art of Hunting

  Chapter 32: Predate

  Chapter 33: Pursuit

  Chapter 34: Pus

  Chapter 35: Fear

  Chapter 36: Roots

  Chapter 37: Meat and Weapons

  Chapter 38: Aroma

  Chapter 39: Betrayal

  Chapter 40: Deadly evolution

  Chapter 41: Encephalon

  Chapter 42: First cycle

  Chapter 43: Bullfrog

  Chapter 44: Burn

  Chapter 45: Fret

  Chapter 46: Super Life

  Chapter 47: Imagination

  Chapter 48: Carrier

  Chapter 49: Share

  Chapter 50: Ruthless

  Chapter 51: Soft and gentle

  Chapter 52: Hesitation

  Chapter 53: Confession

  Chapter 54: Decision

  Chapter 55: Leaving

  Chapter 56: The Grand World

  Chapter 57: Skinnier

  Chapter 58: Dodder

  Chapter 59: Disguise

  Chapter 60: Mantis

  Chapter 61: Flower Shrub

  Chapter 62: Bloody Flowers

  Chapter 63: Loss

  Chapter 64: He left

  Chapter 65: Food web

  Chapter 66: The most important person

  Chapter 67: Warnings from the Voles

  Chapter 68: Millipede

  Chapter 69: Under the umbrella of the odor

  Chapter 70: Things like this

  Chapter 71: Micro

  Chapter 72: Opportunities

  Chapter 73: Redemption

  Chapter 74: The ecology of Zhengzhou

  Chapter 75: Goodbye

  Chapter 76: Department of Biology and Genetic Engineering

  Chapter 77: The Creator’s Waters

  Chapter 78: Unlimited Possibilities

  Chapter 79: Radar and Food

  Chapter 80: Crystal Pea

  Chapter 81: Wisdom of ordinary people

  Chapter 82: Carefree Days in the Apocalypse

  Chapter 83: Bizarreness

  Chapter 84: The Most Desired Genes

  Chapter 85: Observation

  Chapter 86: The Handgun

  Chapter 87: Someone From The Past

  Chapter 88: Gangs

  Chapter 89: We all have intentions

  Chapter 90: Quadruple Kill

  Chapter 91: Decisive

  Chapter 92: There is No Right or Wrong

  Chapter 93: The Gene Altered Soldiers

  Chapter 94: Return to the Jungle

  Chapter 95: Trap

  Chapter 96: Battlefield

  Chapter 97: Spiders and Their Silk

  Chapter 98: Seeing in the Dark

  Chapter 99: The Face of The Devil

  Chapter 100: Barren for a Hundred Years

  Chapter 101: Zhizhi He

  Chapter 102: A Storm is Coming

  Chapter 103: Rebellion

  Chapter 104: All in all

  Chapter 105: Humans and Power

  Chapter 106: Captured

  Chapter 107: Qing Shui and Zhuo

  Chapter 108: Upset

  Chapter 109: Almighty Human

  Chapter 110: She is Alive

  Chapter 111: Four Years

  Chapter 112: Monkat

  Chapter 113: Intimidation

  Chapter 114: Socioecology

  Chapter 115: Jing After Four Years

  Chapter 116: Pangzi

  Chapter 117: Qing Shui after Four Years

  Chapter 118: Evil Moss

  Chapter 119: Three Things to Say

  Chapter 120: Chasing the Super Life

  Chapter 121: Perfection

  Chapter 122: Admiration

  Chapter 123: Amphibia's Conspiracy

  Chapter 124: Ozean

  Chapter 1: Examination Results

  It was a hot summer when the college entrance examination results were released.

  The examination results of 2014 weren’t very different from previous years. Chang Liu checked his grade online the moment it was released—519. A grade like that would only get him into an average college. In a small town in northern China, such a standing was neither good nor bad. It wasn’t worthy to show off, but it wouldn’t be made fun of either. It was ordinary, just like he was.

  Seeing the result, Chang wasn’t pleased nor saddened. He quietly clicked the cross on the upper right corner of the web browser, and then subsequently threw himself onto his bed.

  Ring ring ring ...

  The phone rang. Chang didn’t set any fancy ringtones like his peers would usually do; he was just a person as boring as his ringtone.

  He saw that the call was from his mother as he answered.

  "Hey son, I heard that the results come out today. I just saw Wang’s son from the convenience store. He got a score of…….”

  "519." Chang didn't wait for his mother to finish the sentence. He emotionlessly reported his score, interrupting his mother's lecturing. Then, he casually said a few words, and then hung up. Without a second thought, he turned off his phone.

  July and August were the hottest months of the year, and even though the room cooled down by the air conditioning, the heat seemed impossible to drive away. Tossing and turning on his bed, Chang couldn’t fall asleep, so he got up and turned on his computer to watch a movie….

  It seemed like nothing could excite him; even the movie that he used to enjoy was now a tedious task for him to watch. “My life is
monotonous and passionless,” he thought. He muted the computer and stared at the stained ceiling. For a moment, he couldn’t tell whether he was tired or just bored, and slowly, he fell asleep.

  The sky was slightly dark when Chang was awakened by someone’s footstep. During the summer, there were more hours of daylight, so the slight darkness in the sky meant it was just past 7 o’clock.

  His parent came home from work. This meant that a family meeting was about to begin.

  On the table.

  “It won’t be a problem for you to go to an average college with this grade, but what you can do in the future after graduating from there?” Apparently, Hua Wu–Chang’s mother–was very attentive toward her son’s education and knew the cutoff line for the renowned universities before anyone else in the family.

  “Your dad and I…we respect your decision. Tell us what you are thinking. Do you want to just go to an average college and be an ordinary person for the rest of your life, or do you want to repeat a year in high school to improve your grade so that you can go to a prestigious university?”

  “Any college is fine.” Chang took a bite of broccoli, and then put down his chopsticks.

  “Think about it carefully.” Hui Liu, Chang’s father, waved his hand, and with that the meeting ended in silence.

  Three days later.

  "You know, our family has always been democratic. We never thought of interfering with your decisions and we respect your choice. But knowing the pressure and competition in finding employment, if you’re a graduate from an average college, I know you can imagine the difficulty of finding a job. Your dad and I aren’t resourceful either….”

  Hua kept mumbling, “Tell me, which one you would rather do, repeat a year or go to any college that accepts you?”

  “I told you, any college is…”

  His mother interrupted him, “Think about it again.”

  ......

  Two days later.

  “The fact is, you have nothing to be afraid of when you’re young; few people are successful in their first attempt. You know that kid from our neighborhood? He’s 5 years older than you and didn’t get a good grade on his first try, so he repeated a year and ended up in a famous university. Now that he has graduated, jobs are hunting for him. What I mean is that the reality of this society is cruel, and having a diploma from a famous college will gain you access to everything. Think about it again, whether you want to repeat a year or go to a random college to…”

  “I’ll go to any college.”

  “Think about it again,” his mother sighed.

  ......

  The day after.

  "Son, you may think that I’m being annoying, but sometimes a decision you make will determine your life. Whether it’s heaven or hell is a very thin line…”

  "Mom, I want to repeat a year of high school!" Chang clenched his teeth, ending his mother's rant.

  "Well, well, well, this is what you said; we didn’t force you!" As if she didn’t understand her son’s current mood, Hua finally cracked a smile.

  "You know, our family has always been democratic. Since you chose you own path, you need to study hard this year. In order to support your choice, we have contacted a boarding school for you. There are fewer students in each grade, so it’ll be less chaotic. We figure that the time you wasted on commuting to school could’ve been used to study. Since you chose to pursue this path, every second is important. Some students who’ve repeated high school already have a head start...”

  ......

  The next day, Chang packed his luggage, grabbed some utensils and a few sets of clothes and arrived in Xing Zhi, a small boarding school. As all the students there had repeated high school, their motivation to study was erased by the summer heat. After just 3 days, old habits were restored.

  Three days were enough for the boarding students to get to know each other. After night class, Chang took a shower and laid on his bunk bed, chatting with his roommates.

  “Hey, did you guys choose to repeat a year?” Chang said as he looked at the other three.

  One man wore glasses and seemed like he never cared about his hygiene. His hair was always greasy. Most of the time, he held a thick book. Judging from his appearance, it looked like he was a hard working student, but apparently he went in the wrong direction – the book he read wasn’t a textbook. So obviously, he didn’t choose to come here.

  "I'm not sure, I didn’t even pass the examination. I wanted to go to an engineering school or something, but my dad disagreed." The man wearing glasses responded; his gaze never left his book.

  "Hey kid, what do you read every day then?" A voice came from the upper bed. Pang Zi was a chubby man and also a fan of web fiction, but he didn’t like whatever that man was reading.

  “Apocalyptic fiction."

  "Come on, let me take a look," Pang Zi took the book away swiftly. Within a few glances he said, “Zombies again? Why does all apocalyptic fiction mention zombies? It’s such a joke!”

  Pang Zi returned the glasses man’s book while ranting.

  “It’s been more than 10 years since the release of the Resident Evil series, yet everyone still thinks that zombies are a key element of apocalyptic fiction. They have no creativity at all! If viruses aren’t transmittable through the air, then zombies can’t be considered a threat to humans.”

  "Breathing heavily, walking slowly, mental retardation and those stupid ‘ah, ah’ sounds they make. For any normal human, it’s impossible to be bitten by such a creature. Think of our ancestors from ancient times. Facing all kind of predators who were way stronger and more flexible than humans, humankind still managed to thrive.”

  "I’m not bragging, but even if all the students in our school turned into zombies one day, I could still run out of here safe and sound, if you know what I mean."

  Pang Zi shook his belly while talking.

  The last person in the dorm interrupted Pang Zi’s lecture as he became arrogant.

  "In fact, the zombie theme didn’t originate from Resident Evil series, but rather from European Medieval Literature. In 1968, the American movie ‘Night of the Living Dead’ set the tone for apocalyptic novels and movies. The concept of killing zombies by shooting their heads and viruses being contagious through zombie bites…that movie basically proposed everything we know about zombies today.”

  Tao explained calmly. Within the four of them, he was the only one with a good academic standing. Tao was really close to getting into Peking University, which was one of the best universities in the country. Unsurprisingly, not only was he good at studying, but he also had extensive knowledge in different disciplines. From time to time, Tao loved to show off his mastery of all kinds of knowledge.

  “Hence, the zombie theme has been boring ever since it was popularized four or five decades ago. And Pang Zi, your opinion is correct; we don’t need to fear zombies. As long as they aren’t intelligent, their chances of being a threat to humans is infinitely close to zero.”

  "Hey, I was asking whether or not you came here voluntarily. Stop changing the topic." Chang interrupted the “good student” and brought the conversation back on track.

  "Obviously no one came here voluntarily aside from me," Tao concluded everything with a single sentence.

  "Ah, these days, we never really get to make our own choices, even though our parents insist that they respect our decisions. From my viewpoint, it’d be better for me if they just said things straightforwardly.” Chang laid on the bed and recalled what happened a few days ago.

  Right after he spoke, the door opened and a teacher wearing a pair of rimless glasses came in.

  “Stop chitchatting and go to sleep, you have classes early in the morning.” He shut the door upon leaving the command, but his last statement snuck through the door, “In the history of evolution, small and medium sized predators who made heavy footsteps became extinct, not to mention those who moved slowly. There’s no significance in discussing this issue, so go sleep!”
<
br />   ____________________________________________________________________________

  Chang Liu - Chang means fast, fluent, carefree.

  Chapter 2: Oxblood Fog

  The boarding students’ morning began with no surprises. Since morning attendance was already recorded, some students arrived to class at 6:30 AM.

  Chang’s eyes were droopy as he woke up at dawn. He woke up the snoring Pangzi and glasses-man who stayed up all night reading his novel. He slowly moved to to the bathroom with his toiletries to wash up.

  Being a good student, Tao had left before the rest of them had even woken up. After putting on his school uniform, Chang left the dorm and stood in front of the gate. The hazy sky was reflected in his eyes.

  It was usually never foggy in summer mornings, but over the past two years, the fog had become a normal occurrence. What was stranger was that the fog had a constant pink tinge.

  However, if anything strange lasted for a long time, no one would pay attention to it after a while. The weather forecast said it was a normal “cloud condensation” phenomenon. If the fog was harmless, normal people wouldn’t care about it. They were more worried about how to squish onto the crowded buses.

  Walking across the campus, Chang’s back disappeared in the fog, and his mouth and nose were overwhelmed with the sweet scent in the fog.

  He began studying when he arrived at the classroom.

  He was drowsy and groggy.

  As morning passed, Chang didn’t remember what he read, despite him reading aloud. He felt that the life he was living was tedious and repetitive. Anyone living a monotonous life like his would feel as it if were the same as living the life of the walking dead.

  Deep down in Chang’s heart, he craved for change. He looked out the window and saw the pink fog as he finished his breakfast in a daze.

  After breakfast, the first class began. It was biology class.

  Starting from last year, Biology had become a mandatory course in high school, regardless of the degree, whether it be art or science. The oddest part was that it became a primary course, because the portion that this subject covered in the entrance examination was insanely large.

  No one would’ve ever anticipated it, but the sudden policy change made Biology a particularly important subject. Fortunately, Chang enjoyed studying Biology, so he paid extra attention to the first class.

 

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