Global Evolution
The Cambrian explosion remains the greatest enigma of life in modern science—a staggering event over five hundred million years ago when Earth’s single-celled organisms underwent a mutation-like leap in evolution. An array of dazzling creatures seemed to spring forth from nothingness, and all the ancestors of present-day species emerged within that fleeting epoch. Each lineage evolved at a pace billions of times faster than today, marking a truly radiant age in the history of life. Yet brilliance, by its nature, is often ephemeral. When the brief Cambrian period ended, life on Earth lapsed into another hundreds of millions of years of sluggish, tortoise-paced evolution. Humanity, in this slow race, managed to edge ahead by a half-step, rising to become the planet’s most distinguished species. But now—the grander “Second Era” has dawned once more. In this new age of light-speed evolution, humanity is yanked from the throne of the food chain in the blink of an eye, and terrestrial life witnesses a second, resplendent explosion. The true apocalypse is no longer brainless zombies or desolate wastelands, but rather—the end of humanity, and paradise for all other life on Earth! (P.S.: If the structure of human life is ten times more complex than that of a pig, then a trilobite is more than ten thousand times as complex as a single-celled organism. Humanity has never been as clever or as powerful as it imagines itself to be.)
Global Evolution
The summer heat was oppressive as the college entrance exam results were released. In 2014, the announcement was much the same as in previous years. Liu Chang checked his results online as soon as they were available—519 points. In a small northern city, that was just enough to cross the threshold for a second-tier university, but far from enough for the elite first-tier schools. Not good, not bad, not worth boasting about, nor something to be laughed at—utterly unremarkable, just like Liu Chang himself.
Seeing his score, Liu Chang felt neither joy nor disappointment. Silently, he clicked the "X" at the top right of the website, then sprawled out on his bed.
Ring, ring, ring...
His phone rang. True to form, Liu Chang hadn't set any custom ringtone—plain, dull, and flavorless, just like himself.
He answered. It was his mother.
"Hello, son, isn't today the day you can check your results? I saw that little Wang, the boy from the shop next door, already checked his..."
"519," Liu Chang cut in, giving the score and interrupting her rambling. He exchanged a few more cursory words before hanging up. After a moment's thought, he simply turned off his phone.
July and August were the hottest months. No matter how high he turned the air conditioner, the heat inside his heart wouldn't dissipate. Tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep, Liu Chang finally got up and switched on his computer, opening Qvod with practiced ease...
He kept a steady rhythm, finishing with a release that was
