บท 40: Chapter 40
Is that … a Darkness Worm?
Lin noticed that it was another Darkness Worm that was chasing after the small creature. It was smaller than the one Lin had just killed.
The segmented creature quickly ran towards Lin and lured the Dark Worm that was chasing after it to Lin.
The Mothership's hammer swung down and struck the Darkness Worm in the head, killing it in one hit.
The segmented creature escaped, but Lin was able to obtain more food.
This is really interesting.
Lin looked in the direction the creature escaped and suddenly had an idea. Perhaps I can use it to catch more Darkness Worms?
… Forget it, it's too hard to actually do that.
But … I didn't think there would be so many surprises in the dark night.
Lin ordered the Devourer to start dissecting the dark worms. These creatures were real worms, they didn't have a hard shell, so the Devourer could easily tear off a large piece of their cellular structure. The two dark worms were quickly devoured. In this way, the nutrients consumed by the water flow, the jellyfish, and making the lantern were replenished, and there was a lot more.
After eating, Lin continued forward. Finally, Lin found the Protector in a sandpit and successfully met up with it.
Now, where should I go?
Should I continue to catch Darkness Worms? Or …
Lin already had quite a bit of fat in her body, so there wasn't much point in looking for food right now. Perhaps I should look around in the dark to find something more interesting.
The easy victory over the Darkness Worms made Lin complacent, the sense of danger in her mind was replaced by curiosity and excitement. Even though the lantern only illuminated the area around the two Motherships, Lin still continued on her journey in the dark.
Lin randomly chose a direction and started moving. The lantern's light flickered in the dark, tiny creatures appeared and disappeared at the edge of the light. Some of them were single-celled, while others were multi-celled, but it was hard to see them clearly.
Lin found that she had arrived at an unfamiliar area. There were no Leaf Worms here, no familiar scenery, and even the sand under her feet slowly became so large that it could be called a 'rock'.
I've never been to this place before.
Lin had already left the beach. Here, large rocks replaced the sand, and many single-celled creatures gathered in the cracks of the rocks, as well as a small jellyfish.
The small jellyfish were about the same size as the Devourer, so Lin could easily ask the Protector to extend its limbs into the crevice to catch them.
However, Lin threw it away after giving it a glance. Jellyfish were not very cost-effective creatures. Although their bodies looked big and bulging, they only had a few layers of thin skin. Moreover, there was also the risk of being stung by the poisonous thorns. It was not a creature that was worth eating.
Lin continued to move forward. She found that the rocks here were getting bigger and bigger. There was even a row of very tall boulders ahead.
Lin swam over the boulder. Suddenly, her lantern shone on a strange object.
This object was about the size of an aircraft carrier. Its surface was as transparent as an ice crystal, and there were many diamond-shaped protrusions.
This thing wasn't ice, because it wasn't cold to the touch. Lin then knocked on it and found that it was much harder than ice. This was probably something that could be described as a 'crystal'.
Lin was sure she had seen something like this before.
A long time ago …
That's right … an observer.
The only single cell that could see. Although Lin didn't use it after she was able to synthesize eyeballs, it still remained in Lin's aircraft carrier. Within the observer's body, there was an identical crystal.
The crystal in the observer's body was relatively small, but upon closer inspection, the similarities between the two could be seen.
It was this crystal that gave the observer its vision.
But what was so special about this thing? Why did it give the observer its vision?
Lin swung her hammer again and hit the surface of the crystal. Some small fragments fell from the impact. Lin had the Devourer catch these fragments and bring them back into the aircraft carrier.
Lin ordered the Devourer to crush the debris into smaller pieces, small enough for a single cell to swallow. Lin planned to let the basic cells eat the debris, then repeat the command: "Obtain light, see everything around you." She wanted to see if they could obtain vision.
… It didn't work. The basic cells that ate the crystal didn't react at all.
Why?
Although it had been a long time, Lin still remembered the situation, and it was very clear.
She followed the original steps exactly, but why didn't it work? The only explanation was that while this crystal looked similar, it wasn't the same as the one the observer swallowed.
Lin was a little disappointed, but it wasn't a big deal. She quickly ignored it and moved around the crystal.
Lin found quite a few of these crystals around her. Most of them were standing among the rocks, and they were of different sizes. However, they didn't seem to be that different from the rocks around them, and they weren't noticed by the nearby creatures.
At this time, the darkness around her slowly receded. The light from the lantern was no longer obvious, which meant that day was coming.
The duration of night seemed to be shorter than the duration of day … Lin noted down the duration of night and day this time so that she would be prepared the next time.
As the surroundings became brighter, Lin could clearly feel the water temperature slowly warming up. She put the lantern back into the aircraft carrier and released the 'rearing circle' that nurtured the green cells. At the same time, the various creatures on the rocks around her began to hide in the crevices. It seemed that they only hunted and moved at night.
At this time, some of the smaller creatures did the opposite. They crawled out from the crevices in large numbers and swam in the brightening waters.
Lin noticed that these creatures were very small, but their appearance was very strange. They were shaped like leaf-shaped worms, but they could move their flat bodies to swim in the water.
Lin called them 'flatworms' and released the Devourers to catch a few of them to eat. The internal structure of these creatures was very similar to the dark worms, but above their esophagus, there was a hard and round structure that connected the head to the tail. Lin didn't know what it was used for.
Furthermore, there was a crack on the side of each of their bodies. The crack was filled with many soft tentacles. These tentacles were capable of intercepting and absorbing the oxygen bubbles that floated by. It seemed to be very useful, and Lin considered making a similar one for herself.
When day arrived, the surrounding crystals seemed to have absorbed the light and became quite dazzling. The flatworms that swam out from the cracks in the rocks gathered towards the crystals and stuck their flat bodies onto the crystals.
What are they doing?
Lin swam over curiously and touched the surface of the crystals with her tentacles. She noticed that the crystals had become very warm. Were the flatworms sticking to them to increase their body temperature?
That's quite interesting.
Lin had been frozen many times, so she wasn't afraid of the cold. Even in extreme cold, she could still move quickly. On the other hand, these flatworms had probably stayed in the dark for a long time, so their movements were very slow. But after being warmed by the crystals, their movements became much faster.
They attacked Lin's rearing circle, but not because they wanted to eat it. Instead, they wanted to attack the green cells inside. However, the flatworms' mouths didn't have teeth, so they couldn't bite through the transparent outer layer of the rearing circle.
Lin immediately released a large number of Devourers to hunt down the flatworms that were still stuck to the crystals and hadn't been warmed yet. She also had the Devourers protect the rearing circle from being attacked.
The flatworms were about the same size as the Devourers, but when they were warmed, they swam faster than the Devourers. Furthermore, they had eyes, so Lin had to catch them before they were warmed up.
After a while of hunting, Lin had already eaten several hundred flatworms, but there were still many more around her. Furthermore, they had all been warmed up, so catching them was becoming more and more difficult.
Lin decided to send out the injectors, but the flatworms suddenly did something strange. They all quickly swam in a certain direction as if they were running away from something, then all of them disappeared in a flash.
The flatworms were running in the same direction that Lin came from. While Lin was feeling strange, she suddenly felt a strange pain in her mind.
This pain could be felt on the surface of the mothership and the Devourers' skin. Lin could still remember this feeling, it was very similar to the feeling of cells being damaged due to excessive heat.
The protectors, on the other hand, didn't feel anything, so it must have been related to the hardening of their shells.
The pain came from above. Lin looked up and through the surface of the water, she saw the endless light that belonged to the gas domain.
So the surface of the water was so bright during the day … unlike the starry sky at night, this was a kind of pure light, so bright … that it caused Lin to feel fear.
… The surface of the water?
Since when was the surface of the water so close to the seabed?
It was only now that Lin realized that the surface of the water had somehow gotten so close to the mothership that the ultraviolet rays seemed to have penetrated the water and damaged Lin's skin. She immediately recalled all the Devourers and quickly swam back in the direction she came from.
However, in front of Lin, a large boulder suddenly appeared and blocked her path.
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