Chapter 2

Light……

Rin saw the light, but what she saw was only light. It was merely a replacement of the previous darkness with a field of light, which was meaningless……

Rin needed more detailed information, more detailed images, so she could see everything. Just as Rin was thinking this, the cell that had ingested the hard object trembled slightly, and more tentacles for connection extended from the cell nucleus.

Rin's thoughts were no longer just a field of light or darkness. Gradually, blurry images began to appear. At first, they were just very murky colors, but as time passed, the murkiness gradually became clearer.

Blue…… The first color Rin saw was blue, and then she saw several spherical objects floating in this blue expanse.

Is that…… my cells?

As the image became clearer, Rin clearly saw the appearance of her cells: almost transparent membranes, gray nuclei, slowly floating in the water, swaying with the waves…… It felt very interesting and peculiar.

It's great to have eyes.

Rin observed the four cells around her, plus the one with the 'eyes,' making a total of five cells.

But she couldn't see what her eyes looked like, so she decided to let this cell divide first. This way, she could know what the cell that gave her vision looked like, as well as what the hard object she had previously ingested was.

So, Rin set out again to search for food.

Because she had vision, she could clearly see the surroundings, but apart from her own cells, everything else was a deep blue.

This must be the color of water.

Suddenly, Rin's eyes saw something. A white, round object appeared in front of her cells.

This white object felt soft and mushy. Its size was only one-fifth of Rin's cells, and it felt exactly like the food she had been eating all along. So, this was what she had been eating all along?

Without hesitation, Rin let the cell with eyes eat it.

After digestion, Rin continued to swim.

Because she had eyes, she quickly discovered more white, round food. Before long, the eye cell had gathered enough energy to divide.

Feeling the eye cell start to divide, Rin felt excited. This way, she could see what her eyes looked like.

Excited? Rin found a new word in her thoughts. What does this mean?

That doesn't matter now, as the division is complete.

"?"

Rin couldn't see herself. She found that the perspective in her thoughts still had only one view. The cell that had split from the eye cell was right in front of her……

But it didn't have eyes. Rin couldn't receive any images from this newly split cell.

Did the division not include the eyes?

Rin didn't understand, but she noticed that the cell split from the eye cell was different from other cells.

On the surface of this cell's membrane, there seemed to be a small area reflecting a bright white light, giving a special feeling.

Crystal?

Yes, that's the word. A small area on the surface of the newly split cell's membrane had crystallized.

But Rin didn't know what this meant. She couldn't feel anything special about this small crystal, and it wasn't an eye because it couldn't see anything.

So, she continued to act, wanting to gain more knowledge. She had to expand her cell group.

Now there were six cells in total. Rin directed them to swim forward, continuing to search for more food.

The eye cell, Rin decided to give it a special name……

Observer.

It feels good……

In Rin's thoughts, a three-character word appeared for the first time, used as a name.

The Observer used its vision to find food, which was much more convenient than needing to touch to know where the food was. It just needed to take a simple look to discover the locations of all the food around, and then the other cells would follow Rin's commands to go and consume the food.

While consuming and dividing, Rin's cell group grew larger. Rin found that as the number of cells increased, her thoughts became broader, and she knew more words.

The number of cells had reached fifteen, and the surrounding food was almost depleted.

Now, it was time to move to a new location.

Rin placed the Observer at the center of the group, with the other cells forming a circle around it. This way, they could quickly eat any food that approached.

Rin slowly swam, growing and thriving in the deep blue world. However, after some time, she realized she hadn't encountered anything new for a long time.

Water, white, round food.

Nothing else, and she hadn't encountered the hard object that gave her vision again.

Strange……

Just as Rin was thinking this, she suddenly saw something special.

That thing suddenly appeared above the Observer cell. It looked very peculiar, black, and round, about one-thirtieth the size of Rin's cells, but it was covered with sharp, spiky things.

Should I try eating it? Maybe it's food.

Rin let one of the cells approach the object, then opened its cell membrane and swallowed it.

At first, Rin didn't feel anything special. The object moved slightly inside the cell membrane but wasn't digested.

But then, Rin's cell suddenly started to tremble as if in convulsions. The originally swollen, transparent cell membrane suddenly shrank, and the peculiar black, spiky object began to move, drilling into the cell nucleus.

A feeling she had never experienced before entered Rin's thoughts.

Rin felt this feeling for the first time, but she found it uninteresting and wanted to avoid it.

Is this…… pain?

As the object drilled into the cell nucleus, Rin's thoughts were strongly impacted.

It hurts…… It hurts so much!

Then, the cell nucleus shrank like the outer cell membrane, and Rin lost the feeling of pain. At the same time, she lost contact with this cell and could no longer feel or control it.

Dead? It's dead?

Rin's cell group surrounded the dead cell, and Rin stood there, not knowing what to do or what to do.

Death, this incredibly new word echoed in Rin's thoughts.

However, it seemed that wasn't the end. The dead cell suddenly swelled up again and then exploded, releasing a large number of the black, spiky objects that had caused the cell to shrink and die.

Their number was at least thirty, more than Rin's cell group. One of the spiky objects touched one of Rin's closer cells, and it drilled into the cell membrane, causing the cell to shrink rapidly like the previous one.

Will die, will die, will die, will die, run, run, run, run, counterattack, run, run

Seeing the large number of black spiky objects approaching, countless thoughts flashed through Rin's mind.

Rin ran.

She made the cells quickly move their cell membranes to get away from these spiky objects as fast as possible.

The spiky objects seemed unable to move on their own and could only act when they touched cells, so they couldn't catch up to Rin's cells.

Rin kept running until she couldn't see any black spiky objects.

What was that just now? That spiky object…… what exactly was it……

After confirming that she was safe, Rin began to recall the situation just now.

Just like before, Rin should have gained a new word to correspond to the new situation.

But unfortunately, due to the loss of cells, Rin didn't get a new word.

But she learned a lesson. This world wasn't just about soft, mushy food and peculiar objects that gave her vision; there were also terrifying things that could destroy her.

She had to be more careful. Rin's will was generated by the entire cell group.

As long as there were cells, her consciousness would exist.

But conversely, if there were no cells left, it would be the end of the organism called 'Rin.'

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