The Mockery of Gods

After a long period of trial and failure, Xu Zhi finally selected what he believed to be the most promising species. It resembled a beetle, but unlike its invertebrate cousins, it possessed a vertebrate skeletal structure. Its joints were sheathed in layers of obsidian-black chitin, granting it both agility and protection.

"Armored and nimble," Xu Zhi muttered, inspecting the creature with clinical fascination. "The best of both worlds—vertebrate bones, invertebrate armor. Even its head is plated... which means, no hair."

He grinned.

"You're it. Congratulations. You get to be the Homo sapiens overlord of the next few epochs."

Using a pair of tongs, he carefully placed the beetle into a transparent test tube, then carried it to a new test field—just one square meter in size—where he scattered its food source.

"Accelerate cell division. Ten thousand units."

In mere seconds, the population exploded. What had started as a single beetle had now multiplied into over a hundred thousand.

With swift efficiency, Xu Zhi arranged rows of clear test tubes across the ground.

"Line up. Three hundred per tube—don't make me do this manually."

Under the invisible influence of the Mother Hive, the creatures obeyed. In eerie silence, they filed themselves into the tubes like soldiers marching to war.

Xu Zhi labeled each container with meticulous care. Into each, he dropped diluted monkey blood. Then he gave the order.

"Pierce yourselves."

The beetles punctured their own bodies, allowing their fluids to mix with the foreign blood. Seconds later, one after another, they dropped dead—victims of acute hemolytic reactions.

Survival of the fittest.

For two straight days, Xu Zhi ran experiment after experiment. Test tube after test tube. Millions died. But eventually, success emerged.

Three batches—#1042, #2041, and #2415—survived the transfusion. It didn't mean they had perfectly assimilated the new genes. They might just be freaks of nature. But even freaks could be a step forward.

From the three, he chose the most promising survivor: the creature from #2041.

It was a tiny, ant-sized entity—yet bizarrely ape-like. Its body was swathed in chitin, but thick black hair bristled through the gaps in its armor. Xu Zhi christened it:

Bugape.

But then, a problem.

The Bugape had a full head of luxurious hair. And it was loud.

The creature beat on the test tube's glass, howling syllables in a crude, rasping voice.

"Ba… Di?"

"Bal… Di!"

"Baldy! Baldy!"

Xu Zhi blinked. "What?"

He stared in disbelief.

"I specifically picked you for your bald, armored head... and now you not only grow hair but mock me with it?!"

The veins on his forehead pulsed.

"My thinning hair is temporary! Chemotherapy, dammit! One month and I'll be back to full volume!"

He clenched his fists, trembling.

"I can't accept this. Death before disgrace! I must be the only Creator in the world mocked by his own creation as a baldy."

His eyes narrowed.

"You're a newborn, and you dare insult the god that made you? Treacherous heretic! You'll be punished."

But then he paused.

"…No. You're the only success after millions of failures. I'll suffer this indignity for now. But I'm writing your name down."

The Bugape, still bashing the glass and proudly roaring "Baldy!", had unknowingly earned the eternal wrath of its creator—a petty and vindictive one at that.

Xu Zhi sighed. "This grudge… I'll settle it later."

He released the Bugape into the test field, adjusting the parameters.

"Accelerate cell division—10,000 units."

The Bugape lived a brief but dramatic life, ending it with one last defiant shriek of "Baldy!" before collapsing. But its descendants multiplied with alarming speed, forming a massive tribe of hairy, armored creatures.

As they roamed the test field, Xu Zhi stared down from above, aghast.

All of them screamed the same word.

"Baldy! Baldy! Baldy!"

"You're all insane!"

Still fuming, Xu Zhi introduced termite DNA into the experiment. But the results were disastrous.

Over seventy test batches—all failures. The Bugapes' corrupted genetic makeup couldn't accept the new strain. Each attempt ended with mass death.

He frowned. "Too chaotic? Incompatible with the monkey genes?"

Searching the Mother Hive's memory base yielded the answer:

"The species' biological level is too low. It can't hold multiple gene integrations yet."

Frustrated but unwilling to give up, Xu Zhi allowed the Bugapes to reproduce undisturbed, hoping they'd naturally evolve into something more intelligent.

But despite the passage of generations, the Bugapes remained unchanged—loud, feral, and eternally taunting.

"Baldy! Baldy!"

Then it hit him.

"How can they create language, tools, or even think when their entire lifespan lasts seconds?"

His palm met his forehead.

"I'm so stupid. Civilization takes time. Real time."

Speeding up evolution at 10,000x had stripped the creatures of any chance to develop complex thought.

He scoured the Hive's database again—and found a solution.

If he set cell division to 100 units, then the Tyranis brain structure could support accelerated thought without devolving into instinctual madness.

"Accelerate at 100 units... their thoughts will match their bodies. Like a fast-forwarded civilization."

He adjusted the sandbox.

"Apply 100-unit acceleration to this region."

The Bugapes changed almost instantly.

Now, not only were their bodies lightning-fast, but their minds caught up. They left afterimages in their wake, darting across the field like shadows.

Hyper-evolution and hyper-cognition.

Xu Zhi stared in awe.

"So this is the true potential of the Tyranis lineage…"

He asked the Hive Mind, half-jokingly, "Can I do this to myself?"

The Hive replied in its monotone voice.

"No. This is a racial ability exclusive to the Tyranis. Only after grafting Tyranis cells can you ignite accelerated division. The result: heightened speed, thought, and rapid cell consumption."

Xu Zhi laughed. "So basically… Eight Gates, huh?"

Then he shook his head.

"But with cancer... accelerating my cells would just kill me faster. Final stage in seconds."

He exhaled deeply, watching the Bugapes tear through the test field.

"Well... at least the experiment succeeded. The first sentient species born from the Mother Hive. Let's see what they can become."

He continued observing them for days. On the far end of the sandbox—where the time rate remained at 10,000 units—an ecosystem had flourished. Towering trees pierced the clouds, and monstrous creatures stalked the valleys.

One such beast—a massive crustacean with a black disk atop its head—had reached the sandbox's maximum size limit. To the Bugapes, it was like facing a living mountain.

"I wonder how they'll survive?" he mused.

He reduced the sandbox's acceleration to 100 units, hoping the native species would slowly evolve sentience too.

This time, he would step back and let evolution run its course.

Xu Zhi grabbed a test tube filled with Bugapes—300 strong—and slipped on his blue plastic boot covers. He stepped into the miniature world, crushing tiny forests and sending lesser lifeforms fleeing.

"Let it be here."

He released them into a canyon thick with trees in the southern sector of the sandbox.

As the Bugapes tumbled into their new home, he watched them with grim satisfaction.

They were flawed, arrogant, and had insulted their god—but they were also strong.

He hoped they'd grow tools, shape civilizations, and battle monsters beyond their size. He hoped they would earn their place, despite the wrath of the Creator they had dared to mock.