The King of Black Fog

After the morning classes were over, the trio regrouped.

The school cafeteria was so crowded that it required a battle to get food, so they headed to a small restaurant outside the school and booked a private room.

The restaurant was called "Senior Sister's Kitchen", a bit fancy for students and usually reserved for celebrations, like when someone in the dorm got a girlfriend (or boyfriend), graduated, or for a mixed-gender social event.

"Qing Lan, let me tell you, the first class my brother had this morning..."

Before the cool air had even dissipated the heat from their bodies, Li Qianxia just couldn't wait to air the family's dirty laundry.

Li Changzhou poured himself a glass of iced water to drink.

After listening to Li Qianxia, Yang Qinglan said with a smile, "I logged onto that website last night, and it scared me too."

"I almost forgot about the website with how tired I've been these past few days," Li Qianxia said, showing signs of fatigue.

Once the waiter had served all their dishes, the three of them began browsing the website while eating.

Thanks to Zheng Qing, they didn't have to worry about their identities being exposed or learning anything like hacking—if they even could.

The official website was simple, with just three sections: Recruitment, Forum, and Intelligence.

Recruitment, as the name suggests, was targeted at struggling civilians and mentioned things like compensation.

Li Changzhou had no interest in joining the official ranks. In order to prevent his impoverished self from succumbing to the corruption of money and power, he simply chose not to click.

The Intelligence section required a membership, which meant joining the officials, so he directly entered the Forum.

As soon as he logged in, a notification popped up that there were 36 new threads available for refresh.

Many posts also required a membership to view, leaving Li Changzhou only able to browse the threads that didn't require membership.

[Level Evaluation Announcement (Speculation Thread)]

[Today I encountered an anthropomorphic animal group, details on egg hatching below]

[A Complete Guide to C-level Rainforest Clearance]

[Looking for a team? Need a healer, girls preferred, pretty boys okay too, only participated in the qualification round, Instinct DM]

[Shock! I actually obtained this Instinct!]

[Newbie saying hi, hello everyone~~]

[Instinct is useless, too scared to join the game, what should I do? Will there be any consequences? Could I die?]

[Educational Post: The Special Abilities of Animals in Nature]

[Record Post: Starting Qi Gong training today, dreaming of becoming a master]

All sorts of threads were emerging endlessly, with the number of threads that could be refreshed increasing every moment.

"There are way more players than I thought," Li Qianxia said while munching on a red bean spring roll, her eyes glued to her phone.

Li Changzhou clicked on [Today I encountered an anthropomorphic animal group, details on egg hatching below].

It turned out to be clickbait worthy of live skinning!

The author merely speculated about future appearances of anthropomorphic animals, with absolutely no hatching details!

Nevertheless, he still read on for a while, as everyone was cheerfully guessing about the emergence of horse girls, spider girls, cow girls, and, most classic of all, fox spirits.

Some even suggested the future might see the introduction of marriage laws between humans and animals.

Aside from marriage laws, other various laws would get updated too, keeping pace with an increasingly magical reality.

It would be a long process, building a complete system top to bottom with all levels of skilled personnel, something that might not be achieved even with centuries of accumulation.

'Just as I thought, studying law is doomed in this era,' Li Changzhou silently expressed his condolences for his classmate.

After exiting the 'Egg Hatching Details' thread, he clicked on [Level Evaluation Announcement (Speculation Thread)].

The post said that the current rating started at 'F' and went up to 'A', but speculated that there might be S, SS, and SSS-ratings because that's typically how games are designed.

Just another meaningless thread padded with fluff.

Li Changzhou scrolled down through the responses in the thread, where many revealed their own game ratings. Those with a B-level were worshiped, bombarded with questions about which Skills they had exchanged for, alongside a bunch of requests for guidance and to form teams.

From these responses, Li Changzhou gathered that the vast majority of strugglers had only participated in the qualification rounds.

This was due to reasons like having a weak Ability or personality issues.

"It can actually swallow other people's Weapons, what an amazing animal!" exclaimed Li Qianxia.

Li Changzhou glanced over, and it was a post talking about the abilities of animals.

Li Qianxia was reading about an animal called an 'Ocean Blue Dragon', scientifically named 'Atlantic Sea God Sea Slug'.

Li Changzhou found the "Ocean Blue Dragon" increasingly familiar and realized it was almost identical to the Wind Demon Dragon from the game "Genshin Impact".

So, nature truly harbored such beautiful creatures.

One day in the future, might this tiny Ocean Blue Dragon really become the Wind Demon Dragon in the game?

So interesting!

He exited the thread "Rating Level Announcement (Speculation Posts)" and clicked into an animal science popularization post, truly broadening his horizons.

Some had plant therapy abilities, some could produce electricity, some could spray water, and some could even brainwash other animals into becoming their slaves. As for those with poisonous capabilities, that was simply child's play; in the animal kingdom, that hardly counted as a 'superpower'.

Compared to the myriad forms of animals, humans really seemed plain.

In fact, to animals capable of producing electricity, spewing water, seeing in the dark, devouring weapons, possessing incredible strength, regenerating limbs, and having a 360-degree vision without blind spots, humans were equally miraculous.

Exceptional intelligence, superior vision (many animals are practically blind), bipedalism (primarily freeing the hands), powerful cooling capabilities, enduring stamina, and the most flexible pair of hands, among other traits.

It's hard to say for other animals, but for monkeys, evolving into humans was undoubtedly one of the best choices.

"In the future, perhaps animals will disguise themselves as humans and infiltrate human society," Yang Qinglan mused.

"That's not for us to worry about," Li Changzhou replied, continuing to swipe down the screen.

He then saw a magical ability, where the broad-footed mole could go without food and water for three weeks, focusing solely on mating, even continously mating for 14 hours straight.

Impressive, very impressive.

Even he, so enamored and confident in his own body, had to admit defeat.

He would definitely claim this skill.

Wait, is it worth wasting a slot on a skill like this?

That's a question.

"An ordinary ostrich can reach speeds of 70 kilometers per hour, covering eight meters in a single stride?" Li Qianxia exclaimed.

"Eight meters in one stride? Impossible, impossible; there must be a mistake in the post!" Despite everything he'd witnessed, Li Changzhou still couldn't believe the data.

The giant python's ability to enlarge and shrink was probably instinctual, which didn't surprise him, but now there were ordinary animals taking strides of eight meters, shrinking ground to an inch?

"Baidu it," Yang Qinglan suggested.

"The doctor told me not to trust Baidu," Li Changzhou answered.

He said that, but he still believed in his heart; he had to, because he saw an even more miraculous creature.

The immortal jellyfish.

This jellyfish could obtain limitless life through repeated typical reproduction and transdifferentiation, known as the "immortal jellyfish" or more accurately, capable of "reverse aging."

What would society become once the ruling class, the wealthy, acquired such an ability?

Too, too interesting!

Looking closely, the three found most forum posts were speculative.

Based on the information, the first batch of Stragglers in the game appeared a week ago. Many things were just beginning to sprout, and information was scarce.

"Natural selection, survival of the fittest. It'll be a world where stopping means falling behind and even moving too slowly could mean falling behind," Yang Qinglan said, taking a sip of ice water.

"Are we entering the game today?" Li Qianxia asked.

"No," Yang Qinglan put down her glass. "Rest from Monday to Friday, simultaneously acquainting with skills, training our bodies, and enter the game on Saturdays and Sundays. Classes as usual, using that time for rest and reflection."

Li Changzhou agreed, "Anything too often isn't good. The true principle is to balance work and rest."

"Hurry up and cure your excessive indulgence!" Li Qianxia said.

"...Do I look like someone who indulges excessively? Fresh-faced and healthy, carrying a person in the desert for two days!"

"How should I know? I'm not the one with kidney deficiency."

Yang Qinglan laughed on the side, and Li Changzhou glared at her.

She sobered up and said seriously to the two,

"I've given it some thought, and in our last desert mission, we were too soft. In this era, if you're not ruthless, you can't survive, not to mention we have to be cautious of those animals blending in with the crowd."

Li Qianxia wanted to say something, opened her mouth, but in the end, agreed with Yang Qinglan.

She wanted to say that Zheng Qing and the little radishes were kind, but there was no guarantee that the next time someone showed mercy, they would be benevolent too.

Li Changzhou wiped his hands with a tissue, borrowing a phrase from Dickens, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."