Chapter 14 of 100

Chapter 14

17 min read4,208 words

The demise of the Crystal Fungi brought Lin an endless fortune.

Lin devoured their remains completely and then occupied all the food cracks they had previously inhabited, splitting and growing in a frenzy.

Now, Lin's cell colony exceeds thirty thousand, with each type present in considerable numbers. The explosive cells are relatively fewer, as these cells have no use other than for battle.

Lin occupies 50% of the entire rock, making it the most powerful colony in this area. Although there are still some large colonies of cells nearby, Lin does not plan to attack them first but rather to address the current biggest issue: perception.

Lin's observer has always been just one cell, and of course, one cell cannot observe the entire colony. Even if it moves around at a high point, a large part of the colony remains unperceived.

There is only touch, which is sufficient for eating, but it makes it difficult to react to danger, especially viruses.

Lin needs more senses.

But how to obtain them? Lin thought about the spiny cells, which automatically fire when an enemy approaches. How do they know? Spiny cells have no eyes, yet they can distinguish friend from foe.

That is still touch, but a very powerful touch.

After the colony reached thirty thousand, Lin began to think about this issue. Each cell, when moving, creates ripples in the surrounding water. These ripples can travel very far, though they become increasingly faint. However, there are ways to sense them, and then to discern the subtle differences.

Lin did not know how to enhance these perceptions, so it had two basic cells start training. One remained stationary while the other moved vigorously, creating ripples in the water. The stationary cell had to carefully feel these ripples. When it reached a certain level of sensitivity, the moving cell would swim a bit further and continue moving, while the stationary cell would still try to feel the ripples.

It seemed like a strange method, but it worked for Lin. The basic cell successfully evolved a much stronger sense of touch than the original cells, which required physical contact. After further experiments by Lin, their sensing range was almost as good as the spiny cells.

These basic cells retained their abilities even after splitting, and even when evolving into other types of cells, though some types, like the diggers and conical cells, were slightly less effective, perhaps due to their hardened surfaces. However, this was not a significant problem.

With this, Lin's colony became even stronger, and Lin no longer feared entering the darkness.

Lin had encountered the darkness several times. The feeling was like the initial lack of vision, where everything around became pitch black, and Lin's vision became useless.

In such an environment, Lin's colony could only gather together and remain motionless. Fortunately, this darkness only lasted for a while, and then the light quickly returned.

Lin did not initially understand this phenomenon, but now it had a term to describe it in its thoughts: night.

It seemed to be a fixed phenomenon: the light would last for a while, then turn to night, which would last for a while, and then the light would return.

Each time in the darkness, Lin felt fear and helplessness, but with the new sensing ability, it no longer needed to fear the arrival of night.

As Lin thought this, the time was almost here.

The surrounding light began to dim, just as Lin had expected. At this time, night always descended.

The light slowly dissipated from the water, and Lin's field of vision began to narrow. Eventually, when Lin's vision completely disappeared, it felt the water become cold.

The colony of over thirty thousand cells seemed to wander in nothingness. Lin could not see them, but this time, its thoughts still had a sense of them. The cells could feel the movements of their neighbors and the small currents in the food cracks, as well as the food that spewed out from them.

Lin's sense of fear was much less than when it first encountered the darkness, but it still had to be cautious. Even with the new senses, one cannot be careless in the dark.

Lin's thoughts spread to every cell, and it could clearly know the sensations of all the cells. Lin had become familiar with which currents were from nearby cells and which were not.

Among countless sensations, Lin detected a subtle one, different from the sensations of its own cells. This tiny thing slowly approached the outermost group of Lin's cells.

Lin did not know its exact size, as it had not yet tested which currents corresponded to which sizes, but this almost imperceptible sensation was likely very small.

This subtle ripple was either from an external organism or some debris. Lin chose to avoid it, unwilling to take any risks. Lin made the cells that were approached move away from this tiny thing.

Lin had a bad feeling.

At that moment, a current just passed by, and Lin lost the sensation of the small thing. Almost simultaneously, Lin felt a sudden pain, and then it clearly felt that the small thing was attached to the cell membrane and trying to drill inside!

It was a virus!

Lin immediately made all the surrounding cells move away from the infected cell and sent the acid injectors to the scene. Only they could kill the virus.

The infected cell felt the same as before, first experiencing intense pain, then gradually losing control. Once it completely lost control, Lin could confirm that the cell was dead.

Before that happened, they had to arrive!

The acid injectors swam at full speed and finally reached the location just as the cell was about to lose control. They immediately sprayed a large amount of dissolving fluid onto the infected cell.

At that moment, Lin's sensation of the infected cell disappeared, probably dead.

Unable to see or feel anything, Lin felt unprecedented unease. It did not know if the acid injectors had killed the virus.

The acid injectors almost ran out of fluid before Lin stopped. In the water filled with dissolving fluid, Lin carefully felt for any viral ripples.

Suddenly, Lin received a strange sensation.

It was not the movement of the virus, but the sensation of the cell that should have been infected and dead returned. Lin could control it again.

What does this mean?

Lin did not feel intense pain from this cell, as if nothing had happened.

But Lin could not see, and did not know what had happened. Had the cell not burst?

If so, the dissolving fluid from the acid injectors might not have harmed it. Lin wanted to wait for the cell to burst, and then have the acid injectors dissolve the viruses that would spew out.

But Lin had never encountered this situation before. Had the cell just fainted?

What is fainting? A special state other than 'dead' and 'alive'?

Lin learned this term for the first time but understood that 'fainting' could temporarily disconnect thoughts.

Lin did not know what to do and did not know whether to let this cell live.

Lin could only wait, waiting for the night to pass and then use its vision to confirm the cell's condition. For now, it had to use the acid injectors to guard it.

When the light returned...

Time slowly passed, and Lin did not dare to be negligent. Hundreds of acid injectors surrounded the cell until the night completely dissipated.

Light returned, illuminating everything around. Lin's vision was useful again, and the fear of the night was gone.

Lin immediately went to observe the cell that had been infected but seemed fine.

But upon seeing it, Lin felt puzzled.

The cell was a regular basic cell, primarily composed of a relatively transparent outer membrane and a gray core. However, the infected cell was entirely a bright red color.

Other than that, there was no special sensation...

---