109: past

Lu Jianchuan carried the Rabbit King and left the base with Wang Yu, joining the flow of people in the city during the day. The sun was bright, and the streets were bustling with traffic; for the Rabbit King, who had lived in the wild for a long time, the scene was both novel and a bit too noisy.

They arrived at an open public park. The grass was lush green, and children were running and playing in the open space. Sure enough, the Rabbit King's figure—larger than an ordinary rabbit and with snow-white, flawless fur—immediately caught the attention of several children.

"Mom, look! Such a big rabbit! It's so cute!" a little girl pointed at the Rabbit King in Lu Jianchuan's arms and shouted excitedly, and other children gathered around curiously as well.

The Rabbit King's ears immediately perked up in tension, and a thought filled with obvious discomfort and urgency was transmitted directly into Lu Jianchuan's mind: "Keep these cubs away from me! Hurry, leave this place!"

Lu Jianchuan could feel the body in his arms, which had been relaxed, instantly stiffen. He immediately gave the children an apologetic smile, turned sideways to block their inquisitive gazes, and at the same time gave Wang Yu a look. The three of them quickly walked toward a less crowded tree-lined path.

Only when the surroundings became quiet did the Rabbit King seem to breathe a sigh of relief.

"They just think you... have a unique appearance," Lu Jianchuan tried to explain.

The Rabbit King's thought carried a hint of disdain: "Excessive curiosity is fatal in the wild."

To break the slightly gloomy atmosphere, Wang Yu took the initiative to start a conversation. He looked at the Rabbit King curiously: "Speaking of which, Mr. Rabbit King, how did you... become so smart? Did you also encounter some kind of danger?"

The Rabbit King fell silent for a moment, seemingly organizing its words, and then a thought carrying a touch of reminiscence came through: "No. It was not a crisis."

I was originally the leader of my clan, occupying the most fertile grasslands, with no need to struggle for food. One day, while patrolling my territory, I was startled by a young member of my kind who suddenly darted out of a burrow.

At that moment, I felt an unprecedented irritability and... a weariness of Chaos and disorder."

"Perhaps because a long period of favorable living allowed my body to accumulate enough energy, it was then that evolution occurred. It didn't strengthen my claws or teeth, nor did it increase my speed, but rather here,"

It shook its head slightly, "it became clearer than ever before. I understood more, and I saw the limitations of the clan. So, I left."

Both Lu Jianchuan and Wang Yu were somewhat surprised. Not all evolutions stemmed from a life-or-death crisis; the Rabbit King's experience revealed a new possibility—that after basic survival was met, a natural evolution toward intelligence could be guided by strong needs at the spiritual level.

"Wow, that sounds... quite wonderful," Wang Yu remarked, then pointed to himself, his smile becoming somewhat complex. "My situation was more... troublesome. Mr. Rabbit King, do you know what 'cancer' is?"

"I know. It is an extremely terrifying disease in your human society that usually takes lives."

"That's right," Wang Yu nodded, his tone casual as if he were talking about someone else's business. "I was in the late stages of cancer before. When I was about to die, the evo factor in my body was activated. Its evolution... direction was to help me overcome the illness."

He paused and scratched his head. "But this first evolution wasn't perfect. Perhaps because it was too deeply entangled with the cancer cells, it gave me a very powerful regenerative ability, but... this regeneration was a bit 'out of control'."

He gestured, trying to make the description more vivid. "Sometimes, it would uncontrollably grow some... extra limbs or strange organizational structures. So now I have to wear this," he shook the metal suppressor on his wrist, "to prevent it from acting up while I'm sleeping or not paying attention."

Lu Jianchuan listened to Wang Yu's narrative and keenly caught the key point, asking further: "You just said you are a secondary Evolver. According to what you've said, after that, you went through a second evolution to reach your current state, right?"

"That's right." Wang Yu nodded, his tone still light, but a hard-to-catch gloom seemed to flicker deep in his eyes. "After the second evolution, the situation became much more stable. I can basically control the regenerative ability with my thoughts now, and I won't grow strange things randomly anymore. Also, I gained that splitting effect similar to a Clone," he looked at Lu Jianchuan and gestured, "like what you saw before, Senior silver skeleton, I can split off a 'self'—it's basically a Clone ability."

Lu Jianchuan recalled the scene where that mass of flesh grew into another Wang Yu and then dissipated, and he nodded: "It is indeed a unique and powerful ability. So, how was your second evolution... triggered?"

Hearing this question, the smile on Wang Yu's face faded. He was silent for a few seconds before speaking in a deliberately slowed, calm tone, as if stating someone else's story:

"It must have been... a rather painful thing."

He raised his left hand, his gaze falling on the cold metal suppressor on his wrist, as if he could see through it to the old scars beneath the skin.

"I remember back then, after my first evolution, those extra limbs that grew uncontrollably... even when they grew out, they were often malformed in structure and had disordered nerves. When my main body moved normally, pulling those useless, deformed parts would cause... an indescribable, constant severe pain and extreme physiological discomfort. It wasn't the pain of an injury, but... a pain of existence itself being twisted."

His voice remained steady, but Lu Jianchuan, who was holding the Rabbit King, could feel the boy's body beside him suddenly tense up.

"Then," Wang Yu took a light breath and said that heavy word, "I committed suicide."

Lu Jianchuan's pupils constricted, and he blurted out almost instinctively: "What? You...?"

"I said, I committed suicide." Wang Yu looked up at Lu Jianchuan again, trying hard to force a reassuring smile, but that smile carried an unmistakable sense of brokenness. "However, it was also after that suicide that the near-death state reactivated the evo factor in my body, leading to the second evolution. It... corrected the previous mistakes and turned me into the relatively 'perfect' form you see now."

Lu Jianchuan looked at the boy before him, who had a bright smile and seemed forever full of energy, and for a moment, he didn't know what to say. He couldn't imagine that beneath that optimistic and cheerful exterior lay such a resolute and painful past.

Wang Yu seemed to see his shock and silence, and patted his arm hard, his voice becoming light again: "Oh, don't worry about it so much! Look at me now, I'm completely fine, aren't I? I used to be quite an optimistic person, and now I've even more come to terms with it! Besides, I've joined GUPA and got a stable job; I have interesting missions every day, you don't know how happy I am! So, let those old things stay in the past!"

The stroll in the park ended on a slightly heavy note. Wang Yu rubbed his stomach, taking the lead to break the silence: "Oh, I'm so hungry from all that walking! Where should we go to grab a bite?" He suddenly remembered something and looked curiously at the Rabbit King in Lu Jianchuan's arms, "By the way, Mr. Rabbit King, what do you eat? Can you eat meat? Or should I get you some lettuce or something?"

The Rabbit King's thought came through, with a hint of matter-of-factness: "After evolving, my digestive System has long since adapted to an omnivorous diet. Both meat and vegetables are edible."

"That's great! Since Mr. Rabbit King isn't a picky eater, let's order takeout!" Wang Yu suggested excitedly, then looked at Lu Jianchuan again, "Senior, where should we go to eat?"

Lu Jianchuan thought for a moment. Although his rental room was simple, it was indeed the most convenient place right now and wouldn't attract extra attention. "Let's go to my place," he said, "it's not far from here."

Before long, the two humans and the rabbit arrived at Lu Jianchuan's slightly cramped but fairly tidy rental room. Lu Jianchuan quickly ordered some takeout on his phone, and soon, several simple meals were delivered.

The three of them—or rather, the two humans and the rabbit—sat around the small coffee table. The Rabbit King ate elegantly from a small plate of mixed vegetable salad ordered specifically for it. Lu Jianchuan also ate his portion quietly.

Wang Yu's style, however, was completely different. While eating the same takeout as everyone else, he also pulled several military high-energy compressed biscuits, two special protein bars, and even a bag of dark sugar cubes that looked extremely energy-dense out of his seemingly large-capacity backpack, devouring them along with the takeout.

Lu Jianchuan looked at his staggering appetite, especially those obviously specially-supplied high-calorie foods, and couldn't help but ask: "Do you... have to eat this much at once?"

Wang Yu's mouth was stuffed full, and he answered indistinctly: "Yeah! (Swallows) After evolving, my basal metabolism and energy consumption are very high, and my digestive ability is super strong. (Takes another bite of the compressed biscuit) Mainly, you know, I need an astronomical amount of energy to split off a complete 'self'! Not to mention the basic consumption to maintain this super-fast regeneration. If I don't eat more, I'll be drained in minutes!"