The Starry Sky of the Countercurrent

That day, the sky turned into a huge screen, and the cold countdown reached zero. There are no zombies, no meteorites, only an announcement: [The Earth has joined the cosmic evolution game. Rules are loading...] The old world collapsed overnight. Human beings have gained the coveted evolutionary ability - at the cost of emotions, memory, and time, which are the core elements that constitute "human beings". Lu Yan, an ordinary biology graduate student, discovered that he was different in the chaos. He can hear the "original echo" of all things before they evolved, and can temporarily return creatures to their original state. This uniqueness made him coveted by all forces, and also allowed him to see clearly the cruel truth behind this "gift". Memory merchants build castles, emotional cultists offer sacrifices fervently, and time thieves roam the shadows. In the newly emerging city-states, Lu Yan formed his own team: a genius girl who could see loopholes in the system, a rebel who refused to pay the price, and a former government agent who pursued the truth. They gradually discovered that the so-called evolutionary game was actually a carefully designed civilization harvest. Emotions are energy, memories are data, and time is the hardest currency—and the earth is just one of countless testing grounds for observation. When the memories of his companions disappear before his eyes, and when the cherished emotions are clearly marked with a price, Lu Yan faces a choice: should he follow the rules and become a strong man, or should he go against the grain and find another way out for mankind? This is a huge gamble using "human nature" as a bargaining chip. When the end of evolution is losing the qualification to be a human being, this journey against nature will redefine what it means to be a human being.