"System?"
Shao Zifeng called out softly.
...
Alright, nothing happened, and the atmosphere was quite awkward for a moment.
The corner of Shao Zifeng's mouth twitched. If it weren't for the blue light flashing in his peripheral vision, he would have thought it was all a hallucination.
After confirming his mother was okay, Shao Zifeng felt a bit excited about this new timeline. After all, in the other timeline, he was just a poorly educated, futureless, and confused university student.
In this timeline, perhaps with the system's aid, he might have a better future...
Right?
He opened the Black-browed Snake's drawer and fed it some baby mice. Then, Shao Zifeng turned his attention to the other snake boxes.
Staring...
A faint blue screen slowly unfolded, with dark blue circles rotating on it.
He couldn't help but feel the system's response time seemed a bit slow.
Could it be some garbage that others returned?
After a while, text finally appeared on the screen.
[Name]: Albino Corn Snake
[Growth]: Juvenile
[Status]: Healthy, Genetic Defects, Hungry
[Strength]: None
...
[Attributes]: None
[Potential]: None
[Talents]: None
[Skills]: None
[Description]: An albino specimen artificially bred; raised by humans from birth, it doesn't even know how to hunt. Its only value might be its appearance, which some people find appealing.
Seeing the genetic defect displayed on the screen, Shao Zifeng felt momentarily dazed.
A related memory emerged in his mind.
It turned out that the timeline in this universe was the same as the one in his original world. The turning point was the mutation event twenty years ago, which the authorities dubbed the "Unknown Recovery Event" due to the unknown cause of the animal mutations.
After the "Unknown Recovery Event," many plants and animals mutated, gaining extraordinary powers.
As more and more mutant creatures were contracted as pets, the previously loved, human-bred purebred cats and dogs became less favored.
Later research reports stated that pets like Ragdoll cats, Scottish Fold cats, and Teacup dogs, owing to genetic defects caused by human intervention, didn't grow stronger after the "Unknown Recovery Event" and could only survive as ordinary pets reliant on humans.
At least in sampling studies, scholars didn't find any genetically enhanced individuals among them.
In nearly twenty years of research on mutant creatures, three evolutionary directions for post-recovery mutated creatures were identified:
Reversion evolution, collective evolution, and individual mutation evolution.
Take the giant pandas in the Wolong Nature Reserve as an example: one of Daxia's twelve pillar beasts, the Iron-eating Giant Panda, was the only one in the giant panda population in the reserve that underwent reversion evolution. Hence, individuals undergoing reversion evolution are defined as the only evolutionary path for the species.
Apart from the Iron-eating Giant Panda, the evolutionary path of the giant pandas in the Wolong Nature Reserve was generally the same, with each panda having the same initial abilities. Unlike the Iron-eating Giant Panda's control over the metal element, common pandas mainly focused on strengthening their physical bodies.
Such collective evolution was universal: a species' evolutionary direction was the same everywhere in the world, somewhat similar to the Pokémon he saw in that other timeline.
In contrast to reversion evolution's uniqueness, individual mutation evolution was highly irregular. In the physically adept population of pandas, individuals mastering other abilities might emerge, though such cases were rare and not well-suited for direct combat.
After internalizing knowledge about mutant creature evolution, Shao Zifeng quickly checked the other artificially bred albino specimens. Sure enough, they were just as lacking in potential as the Albino Corn Snake.
Lacking any skills, they probably couldn't even be considered true mutant creatures.
The few potential-lacking baby snakes in the crates curled cautiously in the corners, causing Shao Zifeng's headache. He figured they were just worthless money pits dumped on him.
He helplessly shook his head and continued checking the other animals.
[Name]: Albino Ball Python
[Growth]: Juvenile
[Status]: Healthy, Genetic Defects, Hungry
[Strength]: None
[Phylum]: Chordata
[Class]: Reptilia
[Order]: Squamata
[Family]: Boidae
[Attributes]: None
[Potential]: None
[Talents]: None
[Skills]: None
[Description]: Other than eating a lot and being gentle, there's nothing remarkable about it.
...
[Name]: Milk Snake
...
[Description]: Wasting time on such valueless creatures is an insult to time.
You're quite the critic...
Shao Zifeng thought to himself, wondering why it never optimizes itself.
Old interface, high delay, single functionality, and rather sarcastic.
Of course, it could also just be a pre-programmed script. If it had any intelligence, it wouldn't be this simplistic.
After a while, Shao Zifeng had pretty much seen all the baby snakes in the cabinet. Besides slight name and description differences, nothing surprising happened.
The reason he persisted was probably due to a gambler's mindset when opening loot boxes.
At first, he was hopeful, trying to hit the jackpot. As he opened one box after another, his expectations flattened, knowing the likely results. What kept him going was just a sliver of obsession.
Hesitating for a moment, he subconsciously touched his waist before approaching the last snake box.
Behind the acrylic plate, the round spot viper coiled in the middle of the crate, its cold snake eyes fixedly staring at him.
At that moment, Shao Zifeng felt a sharp pain in his waist.
Should he get some goji berries tomorrow to boost his health?
This thing was pretty terrifying.
He wondered whether crossing into a parallel world counted as a soul transfer or...
Considering another possibility, Shao Zifeng shivered and decided to definitely buy goji berries tomorrow.
Regardless, drinking more goji tea couldn't hurt.
While Shao Zifeng's mind was wandering, new information refreshed on the faint blue screen.
[Name]: Round Spot Viper
[Growth]: Juvenile
[Status]: Healthy, Hungry, Listless
[Strength]: Level 1
...
[Attribute]: Poison
[Potential]: ★☆☆
[Talent]: Highly Toxic: Attacks have a chance to poison the target (includes but not limited to venom injection)
[Skills]: Strangulation, Tail Needle, Poison Liquid Spray
[Description]: This Round Spot Viper has some talent. Though it becomes listless after heavy venom usage, the pleasure of injecting quickly captivates it...
"Boom"
The description felt like a bolt of lightning striking Shao Zifeng's head.
Staring at the listless status in the stats column,
Shao Zifeng suddenly felt disheartened. Even three-star potential failed to make him happy.
Was he really that useless?
Lost in grief, Shao Zifeng didn't notice the ellipsis on the screen updating with new text.
"When its poison sacs are full, the Round Spot Viper will find ways to release them, even if it burdens its body."