"A miracle!"
When Lin Tuo heard that word, his expression subtly shifted.
He instinctively lowered the volume a little…
In the video, the director first gave a brief account of their experience, then, with heightened emotion, declared:
"...Even now, I can hardly believe what I saw with my own eyes.
If I hadn't lived through it myself… This—this is beyond surreal. The entire desert shrouded, roads silently relocated.
When it happened, we didn't even notice…
This—this is the kind of thing you wouldn't dare write into a script!"
Behind him, the screenwriter standing at the corner of the shot looked as though he wanted to speak but held back in the end.
It was clear their emotions were far from steady.
The reporter then interviewed a few lead actors, and their states were similarly shaken.
The video ended quickly.
Lin Tuo quietly opened the comments section below the post and found that the number of replies was nearing one hundred thousand.
"It's actually that director! I can't believe they were there!!!"
"Wait… could this just be hype? Is Director Li's new drama pulling some insane marketing stunt?"
"...Seriously? You think the state media would lend a hand in 'marketing'? No way they'd do it like this."
"No joke, what if this really is some kind of alien technology?"
"Relax, relax… The Earth server just glitched out. Devs will patch the bug soon."
…
The top comments alone had tens of thousands of likes each.
Switching apps, Lin Tuo found the same story dominating nearly every platform.
Checking trending indices, the tag "Taklamakan Black Box" had unsurprisingly climbed to the very top.
Even foreign media was in an uproar. Screenshots from major international platforms showed that "China's Black Box" was trending worldwide.
Some questioned it. Some feared it. Some were simply curious…
"Just as I thought."
Seeing the reaction, Lin Tuo realized he was calmer than expected. Perhaps muting his phone all afternoon really had been a wise choice.
"You're following the Black Box news too, huh?" At that moment, the restaurant owner came over carrying his meal, setting it down with a casual glance at Lin Tuo's phone.
"Yeah. Not sure if it's real though." Lin Tuo feigned doubt.
The owner was a broad man with a kindly face. He shook his head, unconcerned.
"Probably real. But doesn't matter to folks like us. Didn't they already send experts out there? Let them figure it out."
"That's true." Lin Tuo chuckled. And oddly, he felt a little more at ease too.
Yes, no matter how explosive the online chatter, it was still something happening in a distant desert.
For most people, it was just another spectacle to gawk at.
Life was hard enough as it was—who had the energy to worry about humanity's fate?
Shaking his head, Lin Tuo quickly finished his meal, bought a few daily supplies, and made it back to the martial hall on Mount Li before sunset.
"Huh, the landmass has expanded again."
Returning to the old house, Lin Tuo saw that while he was gone, the retreating glacial meltwater had left behind newly exposed ground.
[Fifty million years passed. As the seas receded, former seabeds became land. Large swaths of algal vegetation withered under the sun, yet some endured, evolving, rooting themselves into the earth.]
[In similar fashion, primitive invertebrates within the oceans also began to change.]
[Another ten million years passed. Vertebrate reptiles gradually emerged.]
Summoning the virtual panel with his will, Lin Tuo watched as new lines of the Run Log appeared.
Within the sand table, an ecosystem increasingly akin to Earth's was taking shape.
The world's edges remained vast oceans.
Enclosed within lay an irregular continent.
Green spread across the land, while tiny animals—too small to make out clearly—began to stir.
"At this pace, by tomorrow morning, I should see animal populations large enough to observe," Lin Tuo estimated, silently calculating.
Considering that as the environment grew more complex the flow of time would slow, he felt confident in his prediction.
"Come to think of it, the Evolution Sand Table's world really does mirror Earth's parameters. And even the evolutionary timeline seems to drift closer to reality...
If that's true, then maybe this world will also evolve humans. I wonder, though—will dinosaurs appear along the way?"
Sorting through his thoughts, he decided: the sandbox was unlikely to produce a species entirely unlike humans.
And if it did, he would intervene—both emotionally and practically, humanlike beings were the preferable outcome.
Satisfied that the sandbox was running smoothly, Lin Tuo repaired the broken tiles on the roof before nightfall.
Then he stepped into the courtyard.
Switching on the light beneath the eaves, the empty training ground glowed bright.
The unexpected arrival of the Evolution Sand Table had delayed his plans to restore the martial hall, but after years of neglect, what were a few more months?
"Also, I need to prioritize digesting the Ether."
Focusing inward, he sensed the faint vortex in his abdomen.
He now understood: Ether had to be processed.
The pale-blue currents absorbed from the sandbox only partially fused with his cells, bones, and blood—this was the "tempering" process, strengthening his body.
The rest remained stored within, usable as energy. He could channel it into phantom weapons, as before, or feed it to the shop to expand his Observation Mode range.
But for now, he decided to prioritize tempering his body—to evolve at the level of life itself.
"As for speeding up digestion… based on my training experience, maybe traditional body-forging methods will help."
He glanced at his arm under the lamplight, lean muscle etched with clear lines.
"Basic drills won't cut it anymore. Time to push harder."
That night, Lin Tuo didn't stay up. He slept early in the adjoining room beside the sand table chamber.
Nothing disturbed the night.
At dawn, he rose, washed up quickly, and stepped back into the sand table room.
As expected, the system log confirmed his prediction:
"Large animals have appeared."
Excitement sparked in him as he leaned over the miniature world.
The land below was now vibrant: snowcapped mountains, plateaus, valleys, rivers, and thick forests spread across the continent.
Adjusting the time ratio to 1:1, he leaned down, blowing away the clouds.
A flock of birds burst into the sky, shrieking as they fled the canopy.
"Boom!"
He tapped the land lightly with a finger. The earth shook. He'd restrained his strength, so it wasn't catastrophic, but even so, the forest erupted with frightened cries as animals fled toward the plains.
Most were small, like cats or dogs.
But some were massive and stood out clearly.
"Is that… an elephant? Or something like it?"
Lin Tuo stared, astonished, at a herd of short-haired elephant-like beasts stampeding across the land, dust clouds rising behind them.
Curiosity got the better of him. Carefully, he extended a hand into the sandbox, plucking one straggler from the rear of the herd.
Northwest China, at the foot of the so-called "Great Wall" of the isolation barrier.
It was early morning, the sun barely risen.
But the makeshift camp by the highway bustled with activity.
Vehicles were parked in rows. Floodlights still burned atop them.
Throughout the night, researchers had streamed in, and a temporary field station now stood against the colossal black wall.
Strange instruments, strung with cables, had been affixed to the smooth, impenetrable surface.
Inside the main tent, computers glowed as data scrolled.
No one dared attempt brute force yet. Instead, they probed with sensors.
So far, nothing.
Then suddenly—
Several devices beeped in unison. Onscreen, jagged seismic waves spiked.
"A signal!"
"Unexpected signal detected!"
The drowsy operators jolted awake, shouting across the tent.
"What's happening?"
"What kind of signal?"
Dusty figures rushed in, led by an elderly man with graying temples—clearly just arrived.
"Academician Zhou…" one researcher gasped, startled but quick to report:
"A tremor! Just now, the Black Box registered a slight internal vibration! But… it's already gone."
Far away on Mount Li, Lin Tuo remained oblivious.
Even with his gentle tap, the tremor had been picked up outside.
But no one could ever parse its meaning.
Right now, he was focused on the tiny elephant sprawled helpless in his palm.
The moment he'd plucked it out, it had frozen in terror.
Now, beyond the barrier, under his vast gaze, it was utterly undone—eyes bulging, limbs limp, its body trembling.
It let out a faint squeal like a mosquito's cry… and promptly fainted.
Run Log:
[At year 657.48 million, the first life of the sand table came face-to-face with reality… and promptly passed out.]
(End of Chapter)