Shepherding Humanity

A few hours later, Xu Zhi entered the zoo. He was surrounded by couples lost in their own little world, and happy families of parents blissfully enjoying each other’s company while watching their children play.

He was a miserable single adult male and stood out like a sore thumb.

After all, who went to the zoo alone these days to look at monkeys? You’d only get treated like a monkey instead!

A family of three were furtively whispering:

"Dad, look at that man… He's balding. He looks so strong!"

"Don't be like that, son. Just because he’s bald doesn’t mean that he’s the same as the super hero One-Punch Man. He looks old, probably due to illness. No matter how you look at it, he’s a pitiable man: a seriously ill patient, all alone at the zoo, with no one to accompany him…”

Though Xu Zhi was only a young man in his early twenties, the strong side effects of the chemotherapy were obvious: he looked far too old, and his hair was thinning. Even so, the parents and child gossiping behind his back really had no tact.

To say that he was pitiful…

His circumstances might have been pitiful before, but he was having a lot of fun now!

"Ha ha. Just you wait, tomorrow, this balding youth will evolve a head full of long black hair, modify my genes, cure my cancer, and recover my youth! What, you don’t believe me?"

"Fine, I don't believe it either. Evolution takes a long time, and I’m still in the Paleozoic Age." He studied the monkey exhibit for a while and picked out the healthiest looking monkey. Then, he directly sought out the manager and boldly introduced himself: He was a medical student from the nearby university who had been given a research project by his professor, and required monkey blood to write his graduate thesis.

"You say you're a professor's lab assistant, an accomplished student dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge? That would explain your thinning hair… Fine, I believe you! But no, you can’t have the blood of the precious monkey I’ve raised. I brought it up with my own hands! I love it like a son! Even if you threaten me, give me money, or bribe my superiors, I will never give in…" The older man sternly refused.

"A sample tube of blood." Xu Zhi took out three thousand yuans and placed it on the table.

The old manager's eyes shone brightly. That was one month's worth of his salary, and he couldn't help but jump for joy. "You just need one test tube's worth of blood? I could give you more."

"Bro, I only need one tube."

Xu Zhi chuckled.

He ran a hand through his thinning hair, and smiled devilishly, "Don't worry, I won't tell your boss. If possible, I’ll need your cooperation in the future. For example, I'm also interested in the peacocks and cranes of your fine establishment."

"Fine, fine." The manager rubbed his palms together excitedly.

Xu Zhi calmly left a moment later. He still had hundreds of thousands in savings from work, and he lived frugally. As long as he was careful with his spendings, he had enough money for the foreseeable future.

He had money. His balding was him getting stronger. So what if he had an attitude? Screw the Rules, I Have Money!

After considering his options, he also picked up a few termites he happened to see on the side of the road. After all, termites were really strong relative to their size, and they were free…

Late in the afternoon at around 5:00 pm, Xu Zhi had just gotten back to his front gate when he suddenly heard someone call out to him.

"Hey, are you Xu Zhi?"

Xu Zhi turned his head, and looked back at the countryside road. A beautiful girl riding an electric scooter was staring at him. With her cute round face, her eyes narrowed into crescent moons, and her bright smile, she had a really charming appearance.

But Xu Zhi wasn’t sure if he knew this girl.

"I’m Chen Xi, the one who used to come over to your house to play when I was a kid. You're really back? I recently noticed your house lighting up at night." The girl had thought he looked a little familiar and called out just to be sure. But it seemed she did not really believe it was Xu Zhi, and was shocked. "You… How did this happen? You weren’t like this before…"

Chen Xi?

Xu Zhi remembered her somewhat.

Women truly changed at the age of eighteen. The little girl with the chubby round face had become a pretty young woman with captivating eyes.

"Stomach cancer, hair loss, depression, chemotherapy." Xu Zhi explained simply. His skin was very pale, his back was slightly hunched, and his hair had become thin. He looked truly weary.

"Cancer, how could this be…" She stared at Xu Zhi, and was too shocked to speak for a moment. He had once been their idol, the pride of the entire village and their number one college student. He was very hard-working, and got into the upper management of a foreign company in just three years, with an annual salary of more than 100,000 yuans. He had worked so hard to reach the top, only to come down with a terminal illness, and has now returned home to die…

She hurriedly tried to change the subject, "I started going to college last year, the same one you went to…”

"Good luck."

Xu Zhi nodded, only now remembering that it was summer vacation. She must be back home for the holidays.

His thoughts did not linger on her for very long. Xu Zhi was anxious to return home with his equipment. After all, who knows what those absurdly adaptable Tyranis species would have evolved into after half a day left to their own devices.

Previously, he had despaired and silently waited for death.

But now his boring life has become so unpredictable and interesting.

He was so high right now!

It was like being on drugs, he felt bliss even while alone.

"You're leaving?" Chen Xi didn't stop him. She had a complicated expression on her face.

Pursing her lips, she gazed at the idol she had once yearned for. He clearly did not want to face her, and his optimistic attitude was obviously faked.

After all, he was going bald!

That sorry amount of hair… It hurts just thinking about it!

The dream she'd been chasing after had suddenly come crumbling down, but they could still be friends. She called out far too loudly, "Hey! Come over to visit sometime, will you? If you ever need anything, you could always discuss it with us."

……..

Xu Zhi's brain hurt!

Why is everyone staring at my head and making melancholic faces? I’m telling you, this is perfectly normal after chemotherapy, okay?

Even if his cancer hasn’t been cured, now that the chemo's stopped, he should gradually recover, and his hair would definitely grow back!

"It's time to evolve a powerful, naturally bald species and have them taste the power of One-Punch Man!" Xu Zhi scratched his head as he fantasized. He had returned to the courtyard and was examining the pond.

After the Tyranis species had climbed ashore, they reproduced at a truly frightening pace. The 100 square meter miniature world was full of life in almost every corner. The mountains were full of greenery, exotic plants grew on the plains, and animals swam in the rivers.

"There are now freshwater fishes as well. They’ve left the sea and adapted to freshwater rivers."

"It took them only ten days to evolve from single-celled organisms to complex multicellular lifeforms, and achieve biodiversity. It's simply terrifying."

If he hadn't used the Mother Hive’s authority to make it so that the Tyranis could not leave the sandbox, they probably would have already spread outside. The devil only knows what kind of devastation these Tyranis species would cause once they invaded Earth.

The Mother Hive had absolute control over organisms born from Tyranis spores.

In fact, these animals all shared the same distinctive trait. To some extent, they all resembled insects.

After all, their initial genes and initial race was that of an insect species. No matter what they evolved into, they could not escape the fact that they were essentially insects. Evolving a fish-like gene resulted in an insect-fish, and evolving a human-like gene resulted in an insect-man.

It was already a miniature world with a complete ecosystem.

As for Xu Zhi…

Dreadfully sorry, but it looks like I'm the Evil Scientist. I'll enjoy building my sandbox and experimenting on you all.

"Now, I’ll start by randomly picking one lucky species for my genocidal experiment. I’ll try adding monkey and termite genes; most of the species will die, but the survivors will be reborn as the ancient insect-apes of the Paleozoic era…"

Xu Zhi put on the blue plastic boots he had bought, and entered the huge testing ground. He trampled over countless ant-sized plants and animals along the way.

But he didn't care.

"It's survival of the fittest. Being trampled to death by me only means that you were unlucky and have been eliminated by natural selection." He squatted down and silently examined his future test subjects. "I’ll pick the species with the most potential to evolve into Homo sapiens."

He thought for a moment, then added:

"Oh yes, preferably a bald one."