Upon exiting the residential complex, Du Xin first went to withdraw a hundred thousand yuan in cash—keeping ten thousand on his person and stowing the remaining ninety thousand in his system space. He then hailed a taxi and headed straight for the eastern side of the city. Sitting in the cab, Du Xin pondered continuously: which creatures reproduce rapidly and possess exceptional vitality?
"Hey, driver—what kind of animals or insects do you think have the strongest will to live?"
"Speaking of that... rats! Rats have been absolutely rampant lately. You see signs of them everywhere; the sewers are teeming with them. The government has been scattering poison all over the place, but it's useless. The city has grown so massive now, and the underground drainage system is so extensive that the rats just spread out everywhere. You know, regarding these 'Four Pests'—how is it that they just..."
As he listened, Du Xin's thoughts began to drift away.
"Thanks, brother! I get it now!"
Upon reaching the outskirts of eastern city, Du Xin hopped out of the taxi in a flash, handed the driver two hundred yuan, and walked away without a single glance back.
"What exactly did you 'get'? I hadn't even finished speaking, and you already 'get it'? *I* don't even get it myself!"
Gazing at the two hundred-yuan bills in his hand, the taxi driver grinned broadly.
"Well, look at that—chatting really is the most profitable part of this job! From now on, I definitely need to talk to my passengers more often. After all, conversation is the bridge that connects people!"
Watching Du Xin's retreating figure, the driver murmured to himself—and from that day on, a legend began to circulate throughout the city: the legend of the "Philosopher Cab Driver."
Out in the suburbs, Du Xin ran until he found an open patch of land overgrown with weeds. Small insects buzzed amidst the foliage; every now and then, a flying insect would dart out, while ants scurried about, hunting for any stragglers.
"This looks like the spot."
As he spoke, Du Xin scanned his surroundings. Once he confirmed that no one was in sight—and that there were no security cameras capable of capturing his image—he addressed the system. "System, take that four-square-meter patch of turf in front of me—down to a depth of half a meter—and absorb it all into the Pocket World."
"Host, please confirm. This operation will consume a significant amount of energy."
"Confirmed. Hurry up."
In an instant, the soil and stones directly in front of Du Xin vanished without a trace, leaving behind a pit four square meters wide and half a meter deep. The walls of the pit were incredibly smooth—even the exposed soil seemed to gleam—and a stone that had been bisected by the cut looked as if it had been polished to a mirror finish, reflecting the sunlight.
Du Xin was taken aback; after all, this was his first time using the Pocket World to absorb objects.
"System, why did it turn out like this? It's way too conspicuous!"
"Reporting, Host: the absorption of objects into the Pocket World is a form of spatial slicing—specifically, the instantaneous interception of matter using a two-dimensional plane. Naturally, this results in a mirror-like finish."
"Alright, alright—I get it. You know way more about this stuff than I do."
Grumbling at the System, Du Xin hurriedly used his feet to kick loose soil from the surroundings into the pit. He tried to disguise the site, making it look as though someone had simply come along and shoveled out a chunk of earth.
Half an hour later, standing by the roadside, Du Xin began to regret leaving the city center just to find some turf. He had done so for the sake of safety, but it turned out that in the suburbs, he couldn't hail a taxi to save his life.
"Oh well. I'll just walk the rest of the way slowly. I might as well keep an eye out and see if I can spot any cockroaches while I'm at it."
Walking along the road, Du Xin absentmindedly kicked at a pebble while glancing around at the local residences. To his surprise—considering this was a third-tier city—the suburbs were almost entirely devoid of houses; instead, there were nothing but open fields, with the occasional scattered house appearing only at great distances from one another.
Du Xin resigned himself to making the journey on foot.
Suddenly, the blast of a car horn rang out right beside him, startling Du Xin.
"Hey there, Mr. Du! Need a ride?"
Du Xin stared at the woman and the car before him, momentarily at a loss for words.
"An Audi A8? That car of yours must cost at least seven or eight hundred thousand! And here you were just yesterday, getting all excited over a measly few thousand bucks? By the way... what was your name again?"
Du Xin looked at the real estate agent, speaking with a sense of utter speechlessness.
There she sat—the real estate agent—behind the wheel of an Audi, watching him from behind a pair of sunglasses. "I've just graduated from college and came out to gain some real-world experience. Oh, and my name is Tan Xiaoxiao. Since you were my very first client yesterday, naturally I was quite happy. When you asked for my WeChat yesterday, I actually thought you already knew me and were deliberately trying to get close to me. Mr. Du, are you... out for a spring stroll?"
"...A stroll, my ass. No car, no taxis—I just decided to walk all the way back."
"Hop in. I'll give you a ride."
Du Xin opened the door, got into the car, and couldn't help but let out a couple of impressed clicks of his tongue.
"Rich people really know how to live it up."
Tan Xiaoxiao shot a sidelong glance at Du Xin.
"Listen to you—acting as if *you're* poor. Didn't you just say you'd made enough money to upgrade to a bigger place? That's bound to be way more expensive than this car of mine."
"Oh, come on. I've just got that one apartment; I'm still basically a poor guy."
"But I don't see any envy in your eyes—only indifference. Suddenly, I'm a little curious about you."
"Whoa, hold on. I'm just an ordinary guy. They say that once a woman starts getting curious about a man, she's not far from falling in love with him. You'd better not get curious about me—just let me off right up ahead."
Before they knew it, Du Xin and Tan Xiaoxiao had already reached the city center and were currently passing by the apartment he used to rent.
"Aren't you going home?"
"Nah. Thanks for the ride today. I'll treat you to a meal sometime soon."
"Alright then. See ya."
With that, Tan Xiaoxiao drove off.
Returning to his rented room alone, Du Xin first packed all his clothes into his System Space, then began frantically searching the room for cockroaches.
"That's odd. There used to be tons of them around here—why can't I find a single one now?"
Finally, after moving the sofa, Du Xin discovered a nest of baby cockroaches underneath it.
Having collected the cockroaches into his "Small World," Du Xin wrote a note on the table—basically a thank-you to his landlord. Although the guy was always hounding him for rent, Du Xin admitted that he wasn't a bad landlord overall; after all, he hadn't kicked Du Xin out back when he was broke. He then pulled ten thousand yuan from his System Space, placed it on top of the note to hold it down, and walked out the door. An hour later, Du Xin arrived home. After locking the door, he felt a surge of excitement; although only an hour had passed in the outside world, nearly five hundred years had elapsed within the "Small World." It was said that a single cockroach could produce ten thousand offspring in a year—after five hundred years, the place must be absolutely crawling with them.
"System, enter the Small World."
With a flash of white light, Du Xin stepped into the Small World.
The very first thing Du Xin did upon entering was to soar into the sky.
His scalp prickled with unease; Du Xin took a deep, steadying breath as he gazed down at the ground—it was absolutely swarming with insects.
"Did I just create... an Insect Kingdom?"
Cockroaches carpeted the ground everywhere he looked. The algae population had dwindled to a mere tenth of its former size, while wild grasses had taken over the majority of the open fields. Cockroaches had spread across the entire world, and other insect species were breeding just as furiously. Columns of soldier ants were ceaselessly hunting down the cockroaches, while praying mantises—like stealthy assassins—lay hidden amidst the blades of grass, claiming the lives of one cockroach after another. This constant cycle of predation maintained the world in a delicate state of equilibrium. Moreover, the energy generated within the Small World was far greater than what had been produced the previous day.
"So it really is true: you need to establish a food chain—or even a complete biosphere—to generate more energy. But these cockroaches... they are just too disgusting!"
*Just wait until I've stockpiled enough energy; then I'll wipe you all out. It's a pity the ants aren't quite strong enough yet,* Du Xin thought to himself.
"Wait a minute. The energy from the outside world can evolve the *world* itself—why shouldn't it be able to evolve the *creatures* within it? System, can energy be used to evolve living organisms?"
"Affirmative, Host. It can."
"In that case, inject the energy into the ants—specifically into the body of the Queen Ant—and into the praying mantises as well."
"Host, the Small World is currently too small; it lacks the capacity to sustain organisms of such immense power."
It seemed he would have to stick to evolving the world itself for now. Du Xin shook his head with a hint of regret; casting one last glance at the teeming masses of cockroaches—a sight that sent shivers down his spine—he exited the Small World.