Chapter 3: I'm Awesome, (__)!_2

After entering the game, the first thing that came into view was a clean and refreshing UI interface.

The background was a vast cosmic map of stars and seas, with emptiness all around, except for a line of small characters that gradually emerged in the middle.

"From one life comes two, from two comes three, from three all things are born."

Soon, a fingerprint-like pattern appeared, accompanied by a highlighted prompt for [Exploration], signaling that the player could click on it.

After Ke Jin clicked it, a prompt box popped up.

[Congratulations on discovering the basic element—Particle!]

Automatic production speed: 1/s

Description: The most basic element that constitutes everything, your world begins here!

...

Immediately following, a second prompt from the beginners' guide popped up at the bottom of the interface, continuing to guide the player.

This time, another substance was unlocked: [Lightning]

Production speed: 1/s

Description: An ancient and mysterious energy that can create unexpected things when combined with particles.

...

With these two things, the game truly began.

According to the beginners' guide, the combination of lightning and particles would produce a brand-new element.

Therefore, to unlock the third element, particles and lightning were naturally required.

Ke Jin deliberately slowed down the pace during the demonstration phase, so that players could see more clearly.

He clicked on the "?" unknown element symbol that appeared above the Particle element.

The unlocking condition was: 10 particles and 1 lightning needed.

After waiting a few seconds for enough particles to accumulate, he immediately chose to unlock.

Then, the third element emerged from its shell.

[Atomic Nucleus]

Particle production speed: 1/s

Description: The core part of the atom, capable of producing particles

...

By then, the core gameplay of the game had already been fully demonstrated.

Simply put, low-level products accumulate over time and, once a certain amount is reached, they can be combined into higher-level products.

A very simple gameplay mechanism, not difficult at all, even a three-year-old child could understand and operate it after watching.

Initially, Ke Jin was a little worried that the players on Blue Star might have different aesthetic preferences from those on Earth and therefore might not be interested in this kind of game.

But he quickly saw a barrage message float by.

"What are you spacing out for, bro? Keep going!"

"I'm still waiting to see what the fourth element is, hurry up and show it!"

Encouraged by the barrage, Ke Jin was reassured and continued with the demonstration.

Every atomic nucleus could increase the production efficiency of particles.

In the dozen or so seconds of waiting, the particles had accumulated to dozens.

Ke Jin quickly made several atomic nuclei in one go.

By then, the particle production rate had reached 5/s

Compared to having to wait 10 seconds at the start to make one atomic nucleus, now it took only two seconds.

The improvement was significant.

This barely noticeable sensation of leveling up had, in fact, caught the attention of every player in the live stream room.

From the nine viewers indicated by the backstage monitor originally, not only did nobody leave the live room, but five or six more viewers trickled in.

Thanks to the accessible gameplay of Origin of Species, they only needed to stay in the live stream room for half a minute to understand how the game was played, without needing Ke Jin to provide any commentary at all.

Ke Jin was pleased with the respite and continued to operate the game.

Every time he accumulated enough particles to form an atomic nucleus, he would quickly combine them.

In just one minute, the number of particles stored at the bottom of the interface expanded rapidly, just like mitosis.

From the initial few per jump to dozens per jump now.

The numbers grew faster and faster, and the count of atomic nuclei reached an impressive 100!

Every second, 100 particles could be produced!

At this point, a higher-tier element finally made its belated appearance.

Unlocking conditions: 10,000 particles, 100 atomic nuclei, 1 lightning

Now Ke Jin was a particle magnate, certainly not lacking in that amount.

He unlocked it without hesitation!

[Atom]

Production: 2 atomic nuclei/s

Description: The basic particle, indivisible under chemical reactions

...

"Oh my gosh, atoms!"

"This thing can directly produce 2 atomic nuclei? That's fierce?" someone in the barrage couldn't help but type.

The audience had been watching all along; just a moment ago, the only way to produce atomic nuclei was to combine 10 particles for 1.

Now at the atom level, it could produce 2 atomic nuclei per second on its own, which was indeed a significant upgrade!

Even though it was just numbers, the audience in the live stream room actually experienced a distinctly pleasant sensation.

This pleasure was subtle.

Even though no pay-to-win features had appeared yet, the game was letting the players experience the thrill?

It was like getting the joy of freebies, akin to a buddhist nun coming to your door to teach you for free—it was just too delightful.

Meanwhile, Ke Jin's game continued.

Although crafting an atom required consuming 10,000 particles + 500 atomic nuclei + 1 lightning.

But once the number of atoms increased, the growth of lower-level elements would explode.

When Ke Jin had 10 atoms, he could produce 20 atomic nuclei per second.

These 20 atomic nuclei would, in turn, feed back to the lower level, producing 40 particles per second.

But remember, these 20 atomic nuclei wouldn't disappear; in the next second, they would again mitotically split into 20 atomic nuclei.

Meaning, the growth rate of underlying particles, 40 per second, would continuously increase!

As in, 40 particles per second in the first second, then 80 in the second, 120 in the third, and so on.

This was extremely exaggerated!

Two minutes later, Ke Jin's store of atoms had already soared to a whopping 600!