Shepherding Humanity

The small evolutionary sandbox had a cell division speed of 10,000 units, and the spores evolved extremely rapidly.

After a few hours, they quickly adapted to the environment and became parasitic marine organisms that could usually be found attached to ships, such as seaweeds, shellfishes, corals…

They quickly spread across the entire ship, forming a dense and complex network that evoked an intense phobia of crowded spaces.

Marine parasites, once attached to a ship, would rapidly cause it to decay.

These furiously multiplying spores were naturally even worse. Very soon, some parts on the ship began to corrode and were replaced by various life-forms.

This cycle repeated itself endlessly until the entire ship was taken over.

The countless players sticking together have replaced every component of the ship, forming a gigantic ship-shaped life-form.

Learning is a Waste of Time: "We’ve succeeded in taking the first step of attaching ourselves to one another, but this structure is still very rough, and is little more than a bunch of living flesh grafted together. Still, it’s the all-important foundation! This gigantic piece of meat is already a brand-new life-form born from spores. It doesn’t have sensory organs yet, but can evolve in any direction."

I Love Learning: "Now, it’s time for the big boss, Akina's Speedster, to take the stage. He had overworked himself to the point of hair-loss to plan this newborn synthetic fish’s evolutionary path!"

Akina's Speedster: "Hahaha, it’s time for the star of the show to enter the stage! Guys, I will now tell you all how we should proceed.

Right now, we're just a bunch of useless flesh grafted together, and cannot be considered a true life-form. Let’s consider ourselves a primitive spore. Next, we’ll take advantage of external pressure and adapt our biological structure to the environment.

160 of our 173 players, together with their own species, will not evolve separately. They’ll evolve together as a whole, some forming the skeleton, others the flesh, the outer skin, the exoskeleton, and the hair…

The remaining 13 players will form the core muscle fibers that will control all of the giant’s basic actions."

After all, there were 173 players, each with their own thoughts, which made it very difficult for them to communicate or cooperate. If they all controlled the giant together, then it wouldn’t be able to move at all.

Therefore, 160 players would have to play dead, and become the skin, the bones, the cells… These biological structures were stationary, so they had to quietly stay still like a “tree”.

Living things depend on their muscles to move.

13 players would each evolve into different types of muscles: smooth muscles, cardiac muscles, skeletal muscles, etc… Leading their species, they'll turn into the muscles that are spread throughout the giant’s body; with control over their own species, which will form hundreds of thousands of “muscle fibers”, they'll be able to control the giant’s movements.

This “Council of Thirteen” round table within the giant’s body will be composed of elite bosses such as Akina’s Speedster and Learning is a Waste of Time, who will have control of the giant’s core functions…

"What a frighteningly imaginative life-form with amazing potential."

Xu Zhi was sitting some distance away, eating his fruit and sipping on his tea.

"Limiting those who’d be able to move the muscles to only 13 people should solve the problem of it being difficult to control."

At this moment, this slow-moving, constantly evolving ship was gradually becoming more organized and was no longer a haphazardly grafted-together pile of flesh, with each player now having their own responsibility to take care of.

Naturally, a noob and a nobody like Chen Xi did not have the ability to get into the “Council of Thirteen” that had control over the giant’s core functions.

Xu Zhi had no choice but to lower his expectations and have her try her best to turn into the “hair” part of the body. This was his backup plan.

"To think that all 7 of those heaven-blessed ‘protagonists of this era' have managed to sneak into the Council of Thirteen…"

Xu Zhi made a sad expression.

With research institutes backing them, they were just too capable. In fact, without them and the powerful countries behind them secretly helping out, these players wouldn’t have had such an easy time.

After all, this giant god was a terrifyingly large synthetic life form.

There was no way to create it without having an immense knowledge base!

These people have shown their worth, and together with Akina's Speedster, Learning is a Waste of Time, and others, they crafted the giant’s evolutionary template together. Their abilities were recognized and they had became core members of the Council of Thirteen.

"These sons of a bitches have all inserted themselves, and are now planning to gain control of the giant god from within. They’re starting a conspiracy in the otherworld…"

Xu Zhi was completely speechless, "But without them working for me, this idea would just be a fantasy; it's too difficult to implement."

At this moment, a few more hours have passed.

The players worked hard, and the ship of flesh had grown limbs and was gradually beginning to walk upright.

The ship’s various parasites began to completely differentiate themselves.

The corals and shellfishes gradually combined into solid bones…

Meat-rich creatures such as clams and mussels formed the flesh.

Seaweeds and water plants turned into lush hair.

Moss and kelp became delicate skin.

However, the creature still retained the appearance of the original ship more or less.

The ship’s original giant anchor was now a giant, black, anchor-shaped weapon which it gripped in its hand.

The sails have evolved into ears, and the creature looked as if it was wearing half of a giant ship.

It's just that, while the creature was originally supposed to be as tall as Xu Zhi, it ended up a little short. If Xhu Zhi was a 10,000 meters tall giant, then this creature only reached his chest, and was little more than 6,000 meters.

"But with this size, it could still be considered a super-gigantic god in the sandbox. It’s over 6,000 meters! Its body is comparable to a vast continent, and can destroy the Babylonian royal capital just by lying down."

Xu Zhi froze for a moment, then murmured: "This Sea Giant composed of countless marine creatures can be considered the God of the Sea. With this kind of shape, and the giant anchor in its hand, isn’t it the legendary giant of sea and tide, Leviathan?"

At this moment, Xu Zhi wasn’t the only one who was shocked. The players in the ocean were also super excited.

"Hahaha, we have finally evolved into an amphibian and can go ashore!"

"You can talk, but don’t move around! Only the 13 players in charge of the muscles can control our body. You’re all just the frame! Have you ever seen any creature whose bones, skin, hair, and tendons can move on their own? Such a creature does not exist, OK?! You should all obediently play dead. Just let yourself be carried!"

"No, we organs have a mind of our own!"

"We’d rather move!"

This led to an extremely ribald scene.

The immense giant half-submerged in the ocean, the giant of the tides who towered over the 30-square-meter sandbox, began to break apart as its bones, skin, and hair happily ran away.

Boom! !

The giant’s entire body peeled away layer by layer and collapsed like a house of cards.

Akina's Speedsters: "F*ck, f*ck! Stop running, you bastards! Organs like the bones and the skin cannot move! Come back right this instant! We’re falling apart!"

Cerebral Bluff: "Hahaha, I am skin with its own personality!"

The tidal giant’s skin began to peel away.

Hand Off: "I am hair that has its own dream!"

The tidal giant's hair fell off and began hopping away.

Tin Foil: "I'm different from them. I’m hair that’s content to remain on the head. I’m a proper lady!"

I Love Learning: "The scalp says: No, you’re not!"

Then, under I Love Learning’s control, the entire scalp began moving like an octopus. Taking along the lush hair, it ran with an extremely curious posture and jumped into the ocean, where it swam frantically. "It’s time for us women to rise up!"

"What a bunch of loons."

Xu Zhi ruefully looked on.

The spectators outside who were watching their livestream saw this scene and laughed til their stomachs hurt.

"Oh my god, what kind of creature is this!"

"The scalp is running away on its own! (😱)"

"My tooth also has its own ideas! (Toothache.jpg)"

"F*ck, even the bones have legs! They’ve broken out of the skin and are madly running away! They’ve declared that they’re living beings with their own rights! What a shift in genre!"

"These bones refuse to stay rooted to the spot like a proper “tree”, I’m sure that they must have been made by those loons who’ve evolved trees with legs in the sandbox before. To think that they’ve now evolved these “instruments of rebellion” (😂)"

….

Countless people had to moan and complain for quite a while before they could convince these hyperactive guys to return to their positions and reassemble the creature.

"Let’s combine! I'll form the bones."

"Let’s combine! I'll form the skin."

"Let’s combine! I'll form the hair."

They had already finished evolving into the proper shapes with the proper functions; separating wasn’t a problem.

It wasn’t a real living creature after all, and was a symbiosis of many different interdependent life-forms.

At the moment, they were casually reassembling it like a toy giant made of Lego.

After playing around for a while, they were naturally very happy.

"The big boss is amazing. We’ve succeeded! Once we bio-components assemble, we turn into a Sea Giant! This is truly a perfect evolutionary route, as giants are amphibious creatures that can survive and freely move around on both sea and land. It's a pity that it's too cumbersome and can't fly, otherwise it'd be a species with command of all three terrains of land, sea, and air. That would be super amazing!"

"Hahahaha, the next step is to enter the Magic World and assimilate genes… Even if we can't get Phoenix blood, we can at least integrate one more gene."

"We have a total of 173 people, and everyone can integrate one gene! Players in charge of organs like the bones and skin can make their species integrate the Evil Eye gene, turning themselves into magical bones and skin. They won’t even have to move; the horrifyingly chaotic and oppressive mental pressure that they emit, along with the auto-cast magic from their skin and bones would be able to end all life! That’s simply too amazing!"

"Players in charge of the muscles and tendons can integrate the Slime gene! The Slime’s “ahoge” is a powerful engine, and can be used to reinforce the muscles and tendons which are also powerful engines. Our strength will multiply, and maybe we won’t have to move around so ponderously."

"Organs like the hair and teeth can take in the Pallbearer Chicken’s gene, which is extremely poisonous and specialized to send people to the afterlife! After all, we’re not true hair and teeth; we are assembling blocks who can detach ourselves and move on our own to ambush and poison others. This giant god’s entire body will be made up of destructive weapons!"

When Xu Zhi heard this plan, he couldn't help but tremble.

That’s right!

If these players enter the Magic World, they’ll be able to take in a second gene.

When individual body parts like the skin, bones and muscles can practice magic on their own, a true horror would be born.

These loony players have created a horrifying forbidden existence that could make the entire world tremble!

It couldeasily destroy the world!

Xu Zhi's hairs stood on end.

These players really knew how to stir up trouble, creating a forbidden existence like that. It felt as if they were always trying to find away to destroy his sandbox.

"Hive Mind."

Xu Zhi silently commanded: "Bring up this giant’s genetic properties."

Its attributes were as follows:

The Evil God Cthulhu, ruler of the old world, the great destroyer, unifier of all things. (The name is still being discussed by the players, who are still undecided.)

Genetic properties: Unspeakable horror, transformation, ability to regenerate from a single drop of blood, immortality.

(Can grow without limit, potential unknown)