Chapter 379: New Internal Testing Announcement

Xu Zhi, with his extensive experience of being overly scrutinized, had now anticipated their latest wave of over-analysis. They would likely use the mention of "Hearthstone" in the dialogue to search for the hidden deity among them, but they would never find him. His current "noob" status effectively concealed his true, dazzling brilliance from the crowd.

In fact, this was a distinct characteristic of these players: they never considered any perceived flaw a genuine loophole! "How could a game that transcended eras and human imagination have such simple flaws and weaknesses?" they reasoned. "It must possess a deeper meaning!" What they felt compelled to do was unearth the immense, hidden secrets within it.

They had fallen deep into the trap they wove for themselves, unable to extricate themselves. After much profound deliberation, Xu Zhi ultimately abandoned the idea of immediately letting in new players. He felt he was now a mature Creator God. Initially, he had been bewildered by their wild over-analyses, standing dumbfounded and wondering what was happening. Now, he had learned to engage in a battle of wits with the players, secretly stifling their exaggerated theories and their flamboyant tendency to construct baseless histories in their infancy!

“No rush to let them in. Let’s wait another day or two,” Xu Zhi mused. He then continued to plan and build the nascent supernatural sandbox. A day or two would be enough time for the Yishdar people to develop rapidly for a while longer, allowing their civilization to truly take off. The speed of technological development was a geometric leap, terrifyingly fast.

“And in these one or two days, since the new Lava World has opened, in the future, a large number of species with extraordinary potential will be needed to populate that vast world, which is a hundred times larger! I must prepare for this. During this time, I’ll take the opportunity to open another internal test, bringing in some long-prepared novice players to prepare for the future Lava World. Once Caroline truly achieves what I expect, when the time is right, it might be their turn to enter.”

After these thoughts, Xu Zhi made a decision: the sixth internal test.

Xu Zhi then looked at the Wizarding World. As the grotesque beings were born and battled each other, a group of top-tier existences gradually emerged. Some monsters even possessed the terrifying combat power of a Heavenly Emperor, and the disaster continued to escalate. The era was still brewing calamity. “There’s no perfection in the world, Cute Girl; you should have realized that long ago. It’s normal for both good and evil to exist within human hearts,” he mused.

After a few glances, Xu Zhi gradually averted his gaze. He sat on a chair in the orchard. The countryside sun was still bright and radiant, the trees lush and green. Watching the busy evolving ants before him, he used this midday period to issue an announcement. “Alright, let’s release the new version update!”

A new notification appeared in the entire Spore Evolution sandbox:

**Spore Evolution Beta v0.6 Officially Updated and Launched.**

1. Thirty new beta testing slots will be opened again, increasing the maximum online player count to 270.2. Beta slot applications will still require a biology thesis.3. The elimination system remains in effect. In this sixth test, 80 players from the previous 240 beta testers will be eliminated from the bottom.4. The Wizarding Community will expand by 500 slots, soon reaching 1500 character slots.

In an instant, the entire forum network erupted again.“Wow! It’s updated!”“Cute new recruits are coming again. I wonder what terrifying bigshots will appear this time?”“Wuwuwu, I’m done for, I’ve been eliminated!”“I’m going offline to see everyone’s reactions!”“Hahaha, I need to post quickly too! ‘Newbie Must-Reads’! Establish an elder brother image!”“Wahahaha! Each new batch is more intense than the last. I can already see the new recruits going bald!”

Xu Zhi sat in his chair, a highly popular character and the background wall of the game, looking down at the little ants in the distance, discussing amongst themselves. With each generation of game optimization, they could now receive outside information, preventing them from missing important real-world matters while playing. Only now had it truly become an immersive virtual reality "online game." Some were joyful, others cried. But the joy was merely for welcoming the new recruits; many were weeping because they had to leave.

Xu Zhi sat in his chair, munching on a red apple. “Insectoid Sub-brain, pay more attention this time, don’t make any more blunders.”

“Should spice species, and some less impactful theses, also be included?” the Insectoid Sub-brain asked.

“Anything with potential! Any special theses, show them to me! Don’t look down on spices and gourmet food,” Xu Zhi said, resting his hand. “This isn’t to satisfy my personal desires, but for the sake of the world. We need to enrich and diversify the world of food. Our Insectoids are no longer a violent race that values combat power above all else. If it has no combat power, but is unique, interesting, has potential, and is delicious—we want it all!”

“Understood, Insectoid Empress,” the Insectoid Sub-brain replied.

Xu Zhi acted swiftly and decisively. He released the update notification at noon, informing everyone that the game would undergo another internal test, and theses were due today. This was highly unconventional. Furthermore, according to the old rules, applications would be reviewed by dawn tomorrow, and new players would be immediately admitted for the first test. If it were a normal game development team, they would have been mercilessly trolled beyond recognition. But by now, everyone had grown accustomed to the development team’s unorthodox methods.

“Hahaha! We used to have a whole day to submit theses, but now we don’t even have one! But am I afraid?! Guangdong people fear nothing! Food species! We are the strongest!! We’ve been waiting for this moment, so eager! Last time, that fool Mumu successfully opened a new world for me.”“Guangdong people +1! Let them secretly witness our awesomeness! Our food province’s species theses! Even gods will eat what we create! (Picks nose)”“New recruits are trembling! We’ve met our match this time!”“Hahaha! My thesis will definitely break through! (balding screenshot.jpg)”“Damn it! That guy above, you can tell he has a solid foundation! He’s a strong competitor of ours! (I’m impressed)”

On this day, within just an hour, Xu Zhi received numerous in-site messages; thousands of theses flooded his inbox. In the following hours, the number of submitted application theses gradually decreased. Evidently, they had prepared long before this day. Under the Insectoid Sub-brain’s filtering, Xu Zhi also saw some brand new and powerful species, finding them fresh and interesting. However, the most novel and shocking to Xu Zhi was a thesis that the Insectoid Sub-brain had deemed completely useless, titled “On the Feasibility of Overclocked-Thought Beings and Time-Controlling Species.”