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[00:00:02]
[00:00:01]
[Main Mission: Survive for 7 days. 7/7]
Yeoman exhaled. Somehow, he had done it; he survived for seven days. Ella made it too, but Cody…, Cody died. “We made it,” Yeoman said, taking his gaze off his wrist. Ella was nowhere to be found. In fact, his environment had changed completely. He was in an empty black space. There was no ground underneath him, but he was still standing just fine. His body was completely healed and spotless; he was also naked. Was he in the alien spaceship? What happened to everyone else? What was he supposed to do now?
As if sensing his thoughts, a massive display appeared in front of Yeoman.
[Main Mission: Survive for 7 days. 7/7]
[Reward: 500 Points]
[Bonus Mission: Kill ten infected. 10/10]
[Reward: 1,000 Points]
[Bonus Mission: Kill the smart infected. 1/1]
[Reward: 2,000 Points]
[Proof of Murder: 4]
[Murder Ranking: 1st Place]
[Reward: 500 Points]
[Total Reward: 4,000 Points]
“First place in the murder ranking?” Yeoman’s face turned red. “I didn’t kill those people on purpose. Are you really telling me I’ve killed the most people?”
The display flashed, leaving only two lines of text behind.
[Proof of Murder: 4]
[Murder Ranking: 1st Place]
Yeoman frowned. “That doesn’t answer my question. No one murdered anyone else?”
The display went blank. A few seconds later, two lines of blue text appeared.
[Proof of Murder: 4]
[Murder Ranking: 1st Place]
A sigh escaped from Yeoman’s lips. The aliens had a sense of humor, it seemed. Seeing as the display was somewhat responsive, Yeoman wondered if he could finally get some answers. “What can I do with these reward points?”
[Evolution] [Shop]
Yeoman’s brow furrowed at the two new options. “Evolution? Are you telling me I can evolve? As an advanced alien species, you should know individuals in a species don’t evolve.”
The display went blank. A moment later, two words appeared.
[Evolution] [Shop]
Yeoman shrugged. “Let’s see what evolution is all about then.”
The words disappeared, and the whole space lit up with pictures and lines. It reminded Yeoman of drawn constellations with lines connecting stars into depictions of animals, but instead of animals, the depiction was something he found oddly familiar. Upon closer inspection, he realized the stars weren’t stars either; they were animals. In front of Yeoman, there was an image of a human. A white line was connected to it, and Yeoman followed that line. It forked into multiple paths: one leading to a gorilla, another leading to a chimpanzee, another one led to what looked like a smaller chimpanzee, and the last line branching off into the distance with more branches and forks. The images of the animals were dim and in black and white.
“This, isn’t this a phylogenetic tree?” Yeoman frowned. It had been years since he had taken biology, but he could still recall the basic information about phylogenetic trees. They showed how different species were connectedly genetically. The glowing red human probably represented him. He pointed at it, and the display zoomed in until a life-sized, 3D hologram was standing in front of him. It looked exactly like him. “What can I do with this?”
Like quotation bubbles from old newspaper cartoons, various bits of text popped out of the hologram, pointing to a specific body part. Yeoman’s brow furrowed, and he checked the one closest to himself, a bubble of text beside the hologram’s arm.
[Add or remove a pair of arms.]
[Cost: 1,000 Points]
An extra pair of arms? Yeoman blinked. What the hell was he supposed to do with an extra pair of arms? He browsed through the various text bubbles.
[Add or remove a head.]
[Cost: 1,000 Points]
[Add or remove a pair of legs.]
[Cost: 1,000 Points]
[Add or remove a penis.]
[Cost: 1,000 Points]
[Improve or worsen eyesight.]
[Cost: 100 Points]
[Improve or worsen hearing.]
[Cost: 100 Points]
[Increase or decrease height.]
[Cost: 100 Points]
[Strengthen or weaken muscle strength.]
[Cost: 100 Points]
[Increase or decrease body fat percentage.]
[Cost: 100 Points]
[Strengthen or weaken immune system.]
[Cost: 100 Points]
[Change eye color.]
[Cost: 10 Points]
[Change skin color.]
[Cost: 10 Points]
[Change gender.]
[Cost: 100 Points]
There were a lot of options. Yeoman couldn’t believe his eyes. If these things could really be bought with points, he could remodel himself completely. However, the option that caught his eye appeared when he took a step back. The whole hologram was captured in a sphere, and on top of that sphere, there were two lines of text.
[Optimize the body to achieve the peak survivability of genus Homo for the assigned gender.]
[Cost: 1,000 Points]
The peak survivability of genus Homo, Yeoman didn’t know how the aliens determined the survivability of humans, but it certainly sounded impressive. He reckoned if he were to pick individual options to modify his muscles, his immune system, his five senses, and his organs, it’d cost him a thousand points to pay for it all. “Can I see a preview of what’ll happen if I optimize my body?”
On the display, the hologram of Yeoman’s body floated into the air as if it were pinned to a cross. The hologram’s shoulders were broadened, its waist narrowed. His legs, specifically his calves, became thicker. His body, which admittedly looked more like dough than concrete, hardened, his fat sinking away, turning into muscle. His facial features didn’t change much, but his nose, which was crooked thanks to a fall he had taken in the fourth grade, was straightened. Yeoman swallowed. He wasn’t a narcissist, and he wasn’t gay, but if someone were to ask him whether or not he’d bang that hologram of himself in the air, his answer would’ve been a hell yes. He looked amazing. If his body could look like that for the cost of a thousand points, then living through those seven days of hell were worth it. “I’ll purchase the optimization.”
After the words came out of Yeoman’s mouth, a sense of fear crept up his back. Exactly how were these aliens going to change him into that? It wasn’t going to painful, was it? If it required surgery, anesthetics would probably be involved, right? He didn’t get to voice his concerns because a blinding pain came over him. It lasted for about a second, but it was enough to drop him to the ground and force him to curl up into the fetal position. It felt like something was crushing his chest, and he couldn’t even scream. When the pain subsided, Yeoman gasped for breath and sat up on the invisible floor. He was still in the weird little dimension, but there was a new line of text in front of him.
[Optimization of the genus Homo body complete.]
[Balance Remaining: 3,000 Points]
Yeoman looked down and patted his abdomen. Goddamn, he had no ideas muscles could feel so solid; they were like rocks underneath his skin. Yeoman froze. He hadn’t even finished inspecting the whole system. How could he spend his points so freely? He jumped up and cleared his throat, feeling a little embarrassed from patting his own body down in front of the aliens. “Zoom out of the genus Homo screen. Let me see the rest.”
The display changed back to its initial evolution screen. Yeoman pointed at the gorilla. The display zoomed in on it, and a 3D hologram of a gorilla appeared. It was dim.
[Unlock genus Gorilla?]
[Cost: 200 Points]
[Unlocking genus Gorilla will automatically unlock genus Pan.]
[Yes] [No]
Yeoman pressed [No]. “What’s genus Pan?”
The display zoomed out of the gorilla. It shifted over to the chimpanzee, which was closer to the glowing red human, and zoomed in.
[Unlock genus Pan?]
[Cost: 100 Points]
[Yes] [No]
“What happens if I unlock it?” Yeoman asked. He wouldn’t turn into a chimpanzee, right?
A second hologram, the one of Yeoman’s new body, appeared next to the chimpanzee while text bubbles appeared around the body parts of the animal.
[Replace current arms with, add, or remove a pair of genus Pan arms.]
[Cost: 1,000 Points]
[Replace current penis with, add, or remove a genus Pan penis.]
[Cost: 1,000 Points]
[Add or remove genus Pan fur.]
[Cost: 1,000 Points]
[Replace current immune system with, add, or remove genus Pan immune system.]
[Cost: 1,000 Points]
[Replace current muscles with, add, or remove genus Pan muscles.]
[Cost: 1,000 Points]
There were a lot of options. Yeoman frowned. A long time ago, he had been interested in why chimpanzees were stronger than humans. It turns out they had a higher ratio of fast-twitch muscle fibers compared to slow-twitch muscle fibers which increased the chimpanzee’s strength but decreased their endurance and dexterity. If he replaced his muscles, he’d get stronger, but he’d also get tired more easily. However, what did the adding option mean? Would he suffer the drawbacks of having a higher ratio of fast-twitch muscle fibers? “What does it mean to add on genus Pan muscles?”
The red hologram of Yeoman flashed. A pen appeared in its hand, and it wrote out the alphabet in the air, leaving behind glowing letters. While Yeoman was still confused as to what it was doing, the pen dropped to the ground and turned into a metal bar with weights on both ends. According to the text on the middle of the bar, the whole thing weighed four hundred fifty pounds. The hologram grabbed the bar, jerked it up to its clavicles, and raised it over its head. When it was done, the hologram reset to a neutral position. A moment later, the hologram’s skin turned transparent, revealing the flesh underneath. The muscles contracted and condensed, shrinking to half their original size. A second layer of muscles appeared on top of the first one, and the skin reappeared. Another pen appeared in the hologram’s hand. It scrawled out the alphabet underneath the letters already present in the air. There wasn’t much of a difference between them. Then, the pen dropped to the ground once more. This time, it turned into a nine-hundred-pound bar. The hologram easily lifted the bar and jerked it over its head.
Yeoman sucked in a deep breath. Wasn’t this just doubling his strength with no side effects? There were some things he had to make clear though. “If I add on chimpanzee muscles, can I still add on gorilla muscles?”
The hologram of Yeoman appeared once more. The skin vanished, and the muscles shrank. A layer of genus Pan muscles were added, filling in the empty space left by the contracting muscles. Once again, the muscles constricted, and a third layer of genus Gorilla muscles were added. The hologram easily wrote out the alphabet and lifted a one-thousand-three-hundred-fifty-pound bar. For some reason, that number seemed small to Yeoman. “Why is the increase so little? I always thought gorillas were super strong.”
A few lines of text appeared in front of Yeoman’s face.
[Replace current tendons and skeleton with genus Gorilla tendons and skeleton.]
[Cost: 1,000 Points]
[Increase muscle density and muscle mass to peak genus Gorilla.]
[Cost: 1,000 Points]
“I guess that makes sense,” Yeoman said. If he wanted to be as strong as a gorilla, he’d have to weigh as much as one first; however, he had no intention of transforming himself into a gorilla. The muscle addition was enough to satisfy him. If he paid twenty-two hundred points, he’d increase his strength by three times. “Alright. Unlock genus Gorilla and genus Pan and add genus Pan and genus Gorilla muscles.”
An intense wave of pain racked Yeoman’s body. It felt like someone was cutting him open, crushing him, and stabbing him all at the same time. He was sweating by the time it was done, not knowing how much time had passed. It felt like centuries, but for all he knew, it could’ve been a few seconds.
[Unlocked genus Pan.]
[Remaining Balance: 2,900 Points]
[Adding genus Pan muscles complete.]
[Remaining Balance: 1,900 Points]
[Unlocked genus Gorilla.]
[Remaining Balance: 1,800 Points]
[Adding genus Gorilla muscles complete.]
[Remaining Balance: 800 Points]
Yeoman rubbed his chin. It seemed like the further away from humans he got on the phylogenetic tree, the more expensive it would be unless he unlocked the species step by step. He could unlock the genus Pongo, orangutans, for another hundred points, but genus Hylobates, gibbons, would’ve cost him two hundred. Yeoman’s forehead wrinkled. If he had unlocked a fish, would he be able to breathe underwater? Or if he unlocked a bird, perhaps he could fly? A sigh escaped from his lips, and he shook his head. Just judging by how vast the phylogenetic tree of life in front of him was, there was no way he’d unlock flight with just four thousand points. Perhaps he could’ve barely unlocked gliding from a lemur. Those were pretty close to humans.
Since any characteristics he could buy would cost a thousand points and he only had eight hundred, it made no sense for him to unlock anymore genera. That being the case, the only thing he could spend his points on would be the shop. Yeoman groaned and rubbed his eyes before dragging his hands down his face. He should’ve checked the items in the shop before spending his points on this evolution. “Let me see the shop.”
The phylogenetic tree of life disappeared, and a simple menu came into view. There were two buttons.
[Buy Items] [Sell Items]
Yeoman pressed on [Buy Items]. There weren’t many items for sale. Surprisingly, most of them were things he had seen before. Water flasks, metal bats, hunting knives, bows, arrows, wooden spears. There were also a few items he hadn’t seen: jerky, walkie-talkies, backpacks. Were these all sold by participants who had survived? Surprisingly, the most expensive item on the list were nightshade berries listed at ten berries for a hundred points. Yeoman didn’t see any [Dread Callers] or [Human Zombie Fungus Genes] for sale. If someone was able to obtain them, then they probably weren’t going to sell them. Yeoman didn’t think he had anything worth selling, but he pressed on the [Sell Items] button anyway.
As expected, the aliens weren’t buying items. He had to put his own items up for a listed price and hope someone else would purchase them. He wasn’t going to sell the [Dread Callers], but he had no interest in the [HZF Gene]. He didn’t want to turn into a zombie. However, it unlocked a node on the phylogenetic tree of life that was extremely far away from humans. If he was going to sell it, he’d sell it for at least half the cost it took to unlock it, but no one would be able to afford it. For now, he’d hold onto it. Maybe he could trade it off in the future.
Yeoman closed the shop and sighed. It felt like a waste to leave eight hundred points unused, but there was nothing to spend them on. Well, he could increase the size of Yeoman Junior in his pants…. No. Yeoman shook his head. In the first place, he didn’t even have a girlfriend. In the second place, unlocking a genus was much more important than increasing the size of his penis. …Probably. Wouldn’t it suck if after the next stage he just needed a hundred more points to unlock something but couldn’t because he spent it down there?
Yeoman sighed. “Alright. I’m done. Am I starting the second stage now? What’s going to happen?”
[Would you like to exit?]
[Yes] [No]
Yeoman stared at the screen displayed in front of him. The aliens really didn’t like answering his questions in detail. With a heavy heart, Yeoman tapped on the button [Yes].