Chapter 402: Final Heat Death, Restart the Universe

of déjà vu.

But at the same time, with so many launch-day players, only a handful like those beside Truth could reach the summit; the rest all became paving bones.

Stepping back ten thousand paces, even if players possessed boundless might, they still could not escape the Arena's shackles, facing the risk of sudden death at any moment.

The Divine Abomination infected could absorb the genes of other creatures to strengthen themselves, evolving infinitely, practically immortal — indeed no need to become a Chosen One who lives by the blade and whose average lifespan doesn't even reach that of a Medicine Maiden.

"You aren't a Chosen One, which means you normally live inside the Arena's physical body."

Li Cheng asked, "Are there still others like you in the Arena?"

The infection effect of the Worm Lord Divine Abomination was like a plague; native creatures of the Arena were often infected, then captured by guilds like Prometheus.

However, the vast majority of infected had a low degree of evolution; ones possessing high intelligence and formidable strength like the Crimson Beetle were rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns.

"Yes."

The Divine Abomination infected, controlling He Sai's head, said, "We set traps, wait patiently, lure, locate, and track each other over long periods, find the other, then devour."

"To strengthen yourselves?"

Li Cheng raised an eyebrow; he was still in human appearance, having not used the Two-Form Blade to cut his skin and switch to insect form.

Even so, he could feel every cell in his body screaming at him to kill the infected before him, devour its flesh, drink its blood, plunder and swallow the evolution fragments it had accumulated over time.

This was a primitive instinct rooted in genes, just as a monkey could not resist the temptation of a peach.

"Not just to strengthen ourselves."

The Divine Abomination infected corrected, "There can only be one Worm Lord, and there must be one Worm Lord."

"What do you mean?"

Li Cheng instantly realized the other was speaking of secrets even those great guilds had never grasped, and pressed, "The original Worm Lord died?"

"Disappeared — at least within the known range of the Arena, vanished without a trace. Time span: five years."

He Sai's head rasped, "Its disappearance granted us complete free will. And the chance to ascend to Worm Lord — devour our own kind, evolve infinitely, until becoming the only one."

The information density of these words was a bit heavy,

Li Cheng activated his multi-thread cerebral domain technique, thoughts racing, and fired off questions like a chain cannon: "The Worm Lord's disappearance granted you free will? Meaning as long as the Worm Lord exists, all infected are under its control?

Until becoming the only one — meaning the position of Worm Lord is exclusive. Only one Worm Lord can exist in the Arena at the same time?"

"First question, correct."

He Sai's head opened and closed its mouth unconsciously, adding, "Second question — not just that only one Worm Lord can exist in the Arena; across all planes, all worlds, only one Worm Lord can exist at the same time."

"."

Li Cheng pressed his lips tight, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose with his index finger.

At any given time there must be, and can only be, one Worm Lord. Rather like "there must be a Lich King" — sounded quite reasonable.

Just as in the movie *Alien*, a population of xenomorphs stranded on a remote planet would autonomously evolve an Alien Queen,

nature also had plenty of cases — for instance, in a clownfish group, the dominant female occupied the leading position, guiding the group to forage and evade predators.

If the dominant female disappeared, to fill the vacancy the group would have a male fish change sex, transforming into the dominant female. The entire endocrine system and reproductive organs would change together.

(So in the animated film *Finding Nemo*, the protagonist clownfish Nemo's dad should also be his mom)

According to this theory, once the Worm Lord disappeared, all infected would begin a great battle royale, devouring each other, until a victor emerged, evolving to become the sole new Worm Lord,

instantly possessing crushing superiority over all other infected — even control at the genetic level.

Li Cheng paused. "Before me, how many 'siblings' have you eaten?"

He Sai's head countered, "Do you count how many loaves of bread you've eaten?"

"He doesn't really eat bread,"

Grey Rain, in the corner piecing her body back together, raised her hand and said, "Our family eats cake, steamed buns, mantou, corn buns, egg tarts, mousse, macarons, tiramisu…"

"That's quite filling,"

He Sai's head, and the Divine Abomination infected, nodded simultaneously, "David stat is maxed out."

Li Cheng's eye twitched; he nearly lost composure. The infected across from him, when extracting and accessing He Sai's memories, could even understand those abstract concepts. Absurd enough.

"Lower infected without intelligence — I have devoured countless."

He Sai's head continued, "As for higher infected possessing self-will and intelligence, the number devoured is seventeen."

"."

Li Cheng stayed silent; every infected would hunt creatures to expand its gene library. The longer it lived, the richer the gene library.

Yet he, to preserve his human form, actually didn't make much use of this ability in daily life.

Compared to other infected who diligently hunted every day, he was practically a lazy dog.

Yet the one before him had eaten seventeen higher infected alone — no wonder its life aura was stronger than the Frog God from the 【Homecoming】 mission.

A mere Frog God was just a cosmic creature that had lived a few thousand years; how could it compare with us Divine Abomination infected who eat elephants one month after birth and blue whales at three months

Li Cheng asked, "Last question — why are you willing to reveal so much information? Logically speaking, all of our kind are competitors on the path of evolution."

"It's been a long time since I've met a special kindred like you who also holds the identity of Chosen One, so I'm willing to chat a bit more."

The Crimson Beetle slowly bent its body, extending numerous chimney-like exhaust pipes from its spine, erupting with scalding steam. "Devour me, or be devoured by me."

(End of chapter)