The Science of Evolution set down nothing too profound — the Eastern Theater Command itself grasped only the skin of the new world, evolution still a matter of groping in the dark on every front.

But to the far more isolated Ji-Mou-Dai Mixed Oasis, this knowledge was an eye-opener, no question. It landed like a brainstorm, shaking these evolved persons out of the fog they'd wandered in and showing them their road, and the direction to bend their effort.

Evolve, without cease!

Evolution was a sprint out of the old civilization into the new — carbon-based life remade into metal life. Some ran the road fast, some slow.

"Who do you all reckon this Hu Ge is — you think he's the Hu Ge off the TV?" One evolved person, done reading The Science of Evolution, had taken a sharp interest in "Hu Ge" — humanity's strongest evolved person, Honorary Commander of the Eastern Theater Command, Standing Committee member, full general, guardian deity, the man who'd hunted down a Great Iron Bear single-handed.

In the new world, strength was the only rank that counted. A yearning toward the strong was a knot no evolved person could escape.

"No chance," another guessed. "It doesn't say so anywhere, and the Hu Ge off the TV lives in Shanghai, doesn't he? This one came out of Anhui. Doesn't add up."

"Same name, same characters — nothing strange about that. What I want to know is, this Hu Ge and Boss Huang, who'd win? What do you all think?"

"Hu Ge, obviously. Humanity's strongest — the Theater Command flat-out said so. What's there to wonder about?"

"Hu Ge hasn't got a nuclear-grade jin beast for a battle pet, though. Boss Huang's great snail — I reckon it could take Hu Ge. With the snail backing him, Boss Huang might just knock Hu Ge flat. Boss Huang's no slouch either. He's got two battle pets."

"When you put it that way, fair enough. But here's what's strange to me — if Boss Huang's got battle pets that badass, why's there nothing about them in The…