Evolving infinitely from ground zero

"It's true that I killed it, but it's not my prey."

After saying this, Lin Zichen turned and walked over to Shen Qinghan to see how He Yu's injuries were.

The injuries have basically stabilized.

It's just that arm, severed clean through, likely gone for good, and he'll have to live with being one-armed from now on.

As for becoming a Mechanically Modified Human... the risks are too high.

The genetic structure inside a Genetic Integrator's body is incredibly complex, with strong rejection properties, so the risks involved in mechanical modification are too great and generally not worth the loss.

"Zi Chen, I really envy your strength. If I were as powerful as you, I wouldn't be afraid even if an Ordinary Level Giant Mutant Rat bit me while I stood still."

He Yu looked at Lin Zichen standing before him and said with a self-deprecating, bitter smile.

Back when he had just started high school, he would often show off in front of Lin Zichen, constantly thinking about how to subtly flaunt his own awesomeness in an unassuming way.

Unexpectedly, in just four years, the gap between them had become vast as heaven and earth.

One was the top student of Shanhai University.

The other had just reached the Ordinary Fifth Order in Biological Level.

Truly lamentable.

Lin Zichen knew He Yu was being self-deprecating and did not play along, merely expressing his concern calmly, "Rest up and heal. After this is over, the four of us in the group will get together for a meal."

Soon, He Yu, whose wounds had been treated in an emergency, was taken away by the field medic.

Lin Zichen did not linger long. He quickly left with Shen Qinghan to clear out more Giant Mutant Rats.

As the two ventured deeper in the direction of the Scarlet Giant Tree, the scenes they came across became increasingly bloodier.

They saw many bodies lying on the ground.

They were all incomplete corpses.

Among them, there were some familiar faces.

One was Gaofei, an opponent they had encountered at the middle school league contest back in their first year—Gaofei.

Gaofei had been a genius student at Shanhai No.1 Middle School, sprinting a hundred meters in just 9 seconds.

He attended Shanhai University, a junior in the Evolution College.

Now, his body was half-eaten by a Giant Mutant Rat; his life had been forever left on the battlefield.

There was also Huang Jiamin, a girl who had put nine green caps on her boyfriend and liked to bully freshmen by leveraging her status as an older student, only to be substituted by Lin Zichen in a challenge.

This senior now lay as a lone head on the ground, her body completely consumed by a Giant Mutant Rat.

Next to her head, her brother Huang Jiarui knelt weeping bitterly, while her ex-boyfriend Yan Liang, who she had cuckolded nine times, stood silently beside, his emotions complex and indescribable.

Besides these two.

There was also Lu Qizhi from the genius class of the first year, the strongest top scorer in Yuntian Province's history, who also died horribly in the jaws of a Giant Mutant Rat.

And Zhu Shishi from the Machine God Group, a female Mechanically Modified Human, who had attended military special training with Lin Zichen, as well, had fallen on this battlefield.

There was also Wu Tiancheng, an instructor from the Evolution College of Shanhai University, and the previously strongest individual in the history of Shanhai High School. He too, had perished, slaughtered by a Giant Mutant Rat over ten meters in length. When his body was extracted from the rat's stomach, it was so corroded that it was beyond recognition; his death was extremely tragic.

Seeing Wu Tiancheng's corpse, Lin Zichen was quite surprised.

This instructor Wu was a High Level Creature.

To perish inside the stomach of a Giant Mutant Rat.

It was somewhat unbelievable.

On the other hand,

Shen Qinghan saw so many people die tragically, and the expression on her fair face turned very grim.

She had anticipated substantial casualties.

But witnessing it with her own eyes, the visual impact was still too overwhelming.

Deep inside, it was hard to accept.

"Lin Zi, so many people have died..."

Shen Qinghan said softly, feeling very upset.

Lin Zichen also felt bitter inside, but he maintained a calm exterior and replied, "This is an unavoidable occurrence. You'll get used to it."

No sooner had he spoken than a familiar figure approached.

It was the former student council president—Zhou Xuehong.

At that moment, he was covered in scars, some already healing, others still bleeding profusely.

He had clearly just finished a fierce battle not long ago.

"Lin Zichen, looking around at the corpses littering the ground, do you understand now why I insisted on fostering a Survival of the Fittest environment at our school?"

Zhou Xuehong, gasping for breath, looked at Lin Zichen earnestly and said.

Without waiting for Lin Zichen's response, he continued, "It's because catastrophes are cruel, and the environment is extremely harsh."

"If you don't cultivate a strong will during these four years at university, then heading to the battlefield after graduation is almost like heading to the execution ground, practically a certain death."

Zhou Xuehong went on, "In today's rodent disaster, many people didn't need to die."

"It's because their mental fortitude was too weak. At the sight of the swarming rat horde, their legs went soft and they couldn't perform to their true ability, leading to their deaths."

"And this is just a rodent disaster on Earth—a trivial rodent disaster."

"If this were in the Origin Land, the scale of the beast tide we'd face would only be a hundred times, a thousand times, even ten thousand times more brutal than now."

"And you, who have never been to the Origin Land to withstand a beast tide, don't understand anything. You only know how to be young and arrogant, showing off in front of your peers to satisfy your own insignificant vanity."

Zhou Xuehong knew that his strength could not match Lin Zichen's.

However, he would still stand by the principles he cherished.

He wanted to use the current situation to leave Lin Zichen with no room for rebuttal, to prove that his actions were correct.