Chapter 4

In the patio, the summer is scorching, and the fierce wind that blew gradually subsided.

Lin Tuo couldn’t calm down for a long time.

Because of his work, although he still maintained the habit of practicing martial arts, he was still lazy after all.

Lin Tuo thought it would take a while to pick up Kung Fu after he came back from resigning, but he never thought… He just absorbed the Ether of Yangcheng city and it felt like his whole body was not only reborn, but he also integrated 20 years of learning in one fell swoop, pushing WuZu Boxing to Early stage.

“No, with the blessing of the Ether, this is no longer mortal martial arts, it is almost magical.” Lin Tuo let out a sigh of relief.

He only felt that his body was comfortable, his mental state was abnormally refreshed, and his body was light and fluttering, but he knew that this was a special case.

If you wanted to reproduce it, it wouldn’t be that simple. It takes some time to completely digest the Ether stored in the body.

And this attempt also confirmed what the Evolving Sandbox Table said. That this mysterious gas is indeed of great benefit to life.

“How much Ether is in my body now?” Lin Tuo couldn’t help but ask when he calmed down.

[The host currently has Ether value: 98 points]

“In the entire Yangcheng, millions of people only produced less than a hundred points?” Lin Tuo asked in surprise.

Immediately, the answer of the Evolving Sandbox Table emerged in his mind.

[Collecting Ether through the sandbox will produce a lot of conversion loss…]

The explanation was very long and Lin Tuo closed his eyes and thought about it before understanding the mechanism.

To put it simply, there is not a little amount of Ether in the sky above Yangcheng, but the act of starting the Evolving Sandbox Table to collect Ether would cause a great loss of the same energy.

In other words, most of what was absorbed was wasted in the transformation process… What Lin Tuo got was only the rest.

Of course, in theory, the absorption of Ether is not limited to the sand table. After mastering the breathing method, Lin Tuo can also directly absorb Ether through breathing.

However, the efficiency of that is lower than that of the Evolving Sandbox Table… and a lot of time will be wasted, so in general, it is more time effective to use the sand table than to go out and practice for now.

“Then how can I get more Ether? Can I only wait for it to regenerate slowly?” Lin Tuo tried to ask.

Only 98 points gave him such a big improvement. Which intelligent life could refuse more?

According to the information he had received, the natural formation of Ether was very slow. This time the harvest made it empty, and it would take several days before Yangcheng’s Ether concentration could recover.

[Triggered keywords, now giving two feasible solutions.]

[Option 1: Purchase area in the mall to expand the scope of Observation Mode.]

Lin Tuo was taken aback and immediately understood the logic of this plan.

It’s very simple. If the Ether exists widely in cities and villages, then he can only absorb the scope of Yangcheng. As long as the observable scope in the Evolving Sandbox Table is expanded, he can absorb Ether from other cities.

Lin Tuo imagined that if one day, by purchasing enough area, the entire earth can be condensed in the Evolving Sandbox Table, then Lin Tuo can theoretically harvest the world’s Ether..

“But… this doesn’t work…” Lin Tuo thought for a while, his expression a bit bitter.

The price in the mall required 1,000 points for 10,000 square kilometers, but Lin Tuo only had 98 points… not enough.

But then, how long would Lin Tuo have to wait..?

The Evolving Sandbox Table probably sensed his emotions, and new information appeared in his mind again:

[Option 2: Use the “Creative Mode” to provide a new source of Ether.]

“Creative Mode?” Lin Tuo immediately shifted his gaze to the virtual panel.

This mode is located below the Observation Mode but it’s not clear what it means.

In the next second, a long explanation turned into a stream of information, flooding his mind.

Simply put: Observation Mode is to observe a certain real area on the earth.

Then, the “Creative Mode” is to use the Evolving Sandbox Table to select areas on the earth to establish an independent sandbox, or to cut out a certain part of the earth, isolating it as an independent space.

Using the function of the Creative Mode, Lin Tuo could evolve civilization from scratch and produce new intelligent life groups. Then, he could quickly harvest the Ether in the sandbox world through the difference in the time flow between reality and the sandbox.

The principle is very simple, but the impact this function had on Lin Tuo was extremely huge.

“Using a certain real area on Earth as a sandbox to evolve civilization and harvest Ether… Wouldn’t I be playing God?”

You know, this wasn’t as simple as shutting the door and tinkering with a sandbox world yourself.

The civilization made by Lin Tuo really exists on the earth!

Moreover, any life and matter he created in the sandbox existed on Earth in a 1:1 ratio.

Once Creative Mode is turned on, in this information age, it will inevitably trigger a global shock.

Just imagine, if Lin Tuo uses the entire Antarctica as a sandbox… then it may only take a few dozen minutes for the news of Antarctica’s mysterious “disappearance” to spread all over the world.

And once he lifted the isolation of the sandbox, mankind would be surprised to find that the entire barren Antarctic continent has become another thing entirely…

How big of a sensation would that cause?

With heaven and Earth as his chessboard, every move of Lin Tuo will set off global storms.

“There is not anything else? A gentler plan, maybe?” Lin Tuo swallowed and tried to ask.

…

“Well, seems like there’s nothing else I can do.” Lin Tuo sighed, rubbed his face, and started thinking seriously.

Although at first hearing this plan, he felt a little outrageous. Though, after thinking about it carefully, he felt the feasibility was actually very high. Not all areas on Earth are inhabited.

It shouldn’t be a big problem to use those barren lands as sandboxes… right?

No one knew he did it anyway.

“Maybe a practice run first?”

Once this idea appeared, it could no longer be contained. After a short hesitation, Lin Tuo returned to the old house, came to the sandbox, and clicked the Creation Mode button on the virtual panel with his mind.

The sandbox changed.

The Yangcheng in the sand table suddenly turned into countless white dots and disappeared.

It turned out to be a tiled map of the world!

A dynamic world map appeared in the entire sand table!

It’s just that, unlike the Observation Mode, this map was a bit illusory. You couldn’t see the details, and only the few continents and oceans around the world could be identified.

In the direction Lin Tuo was facing, the closest to him was the snowy Antarctica. When he moved his eyes forward, he could see a piece of land drifting in the sea.

“Australia.” Lin Tuo uttered softly. Although the global map in front of him had no text marks and no division of territories, a continent with obvious characteristics like Australia could still be recognized at a glance.

“If this is Australia, then the blue area on my right hand should be the Pacific Ocean, and on my left should be the Indian Ocean…”

Lin Tuo muttered to himself, trying to identify different areas.

He had to admit that after losing the division of national boundaries, the distinction between color blocks, and the text on countries, the world map in front of him was suddenly strange.

In contrast, only the border of China where he lives is easier to find. After all, this map had been viewed too many times since childhood.

At this time, Lin Tuo also noticed that on the map, there was a faint grid that cut the global area into one block after another.

[Creative Mode is on, please select the target area.]

[Note: The selected area must be less than 300,000 square kilometers]

Information emerged in his mind, Lin Tuo was taken aback and understood its meaning. Similar to the Observation Mode, the sandbox he wanted to create was also restricted. Currently, he could only choose 300,000 square kilometers of land.

As for whether the capacity can be expanded in the future, it was unclear.

“If the area is too small, I am afraid that no civilization can be evolved at all, and the amount of Ether provided will be very small…” Lin Tuo muttered to himself, secretly calculating, feeling that he must use the 300,000 quota as best as possible…

“Where should I choose?” Lin Tuo’s eyes swept across the seven continents.

“Well, I can’t choose a densely populated place. I can only choose a deserted land. Antarctica is big enough, but the location is too special, and it’s too far…Huh?”

Suddenly, when Lin Tuo’s gaze swept across the northwestern part of China, he suddenly stopped.

There is the largest “no man’s land” in the country- Taklimakan Desert.

“I remember reading in the book before that the total area of this desert is 330,000 square kilometers…” Thinking of this number, Lin Tuo suddenly had an idea in his heart: this is it!

It’s about the same size and barren enough.

Just in the country, close enough to yourself.

Moreover, over the years, the country has been carrying out greening projects. Countless people hope that the desert will become an oasis. If this area is chosen, it may directly change the ecological environment here.

If he closed the sandbox after harvesting Ether he might be able to benefit the local area.

As for the possible negative problems…with him guarding it, it could be avoided to the greatest extent.

“What if there are humans and buildings in the area I choose?” Lin Tuo tried to ask.

[During the construction of the sandbox, you can choose to transfer the intelligent life and characteristic creation in the area.]

“Could it be like that?” Lin Tuo was startled, the last doubt in his heart dissipated.

Immediately he leaned over and started to operate.

Every time his hand touched an illusory grid, that area became selected.

Because the entire desert is not a regular shape, this really wasted his quota, and in the process, the buildings that need to be transferred-mainly a few desert roads are selected and marked to move.

After finishing all this, he probably selected less than 290,000 square kilometers of barren land.

[The selection is complete, do you want to build a sandbox in the selected area?]

“Yes!”

[Beginning process of building a sandbox..]

Information emerged in his mind, and then the entire sand table changed and the world map disappeared, leaving only the desert area selected by Lin Tuo.

Then, around the sand table, a translucent light curtain was raised and closed at the top, like a huge transparent cover, separating the entire desert from the outside world.

…

In the endless Tuck Desert, it was a hot afternoon.

In this desert made of gravel, a few cars rushed along a pitch-black highway.

A small but well-known film crew was travelling to Taklimakan Desert.

Inside their car.

“I think we’re almost there.” A member of the crew fanned the wind and wiped his sweat, looking at the Populus trees on both sides of the road, and couldn’t help saying.

The reporter next to him glanced at his phone and said: “Hey, why is my GPS malfunctioning…Is this map application broken?”

“What’s the matter?” someone in the car asked.

“My phone’s map positioning seems to be out of order. I was still here just now. Why suddenly does my map show that we are dozens of kilometers away…”

Chang Ji was speaking out with puzzlement, when suddenly he heard the driver exclaimed, “Fuck!”

Even the whole car started to slow down.

“What’s wrong?” Everyone in the car was startled and looked around.

Then, Chang Ji saw the driver looking ghostly pale, pointing to the front windshield. His expression was frightened and his speech was slurred: “We…not…the road…it…”

“What’s the matter?”

“Woah… the road under our feet seems… shifted!”

…

At this moment, Taklimakan Desert.

The four desert highways quietly moved at the same time!