Chapter 44

The journey on land was not without meaning, even though there was almost nothing on land worth Lin's remembering. However, she still gained some useful knowledge.

For example, air.

Lin had long noticed that air in water would float upwards. Lin had never paid much attention to this until now, when she suddenly wondered, why did they go up instead of down? Could they defy gravity?

Not exactly, it was just that air was lighter than water, so it would be pushed out by the water, which is why the air on the higher ground was everywhere.

Now, because of the armor covering, the carrier's speed had slowed, and its movement was not as flexible as before.

But... what if air was added?

Lin created an oval-shaped structure inside the carrier, called an air sac, filled with oxygen. This structure would make the carrier much lighter, so even with a full armor covering, there should be no problem.

The air sac had two thin tubes, one connected to the blood vessels to supply oxygen, and the other extended through a small hole in the armor. This tube was usually closed, but when Lin surfaced, it could control the expansion of the air sac to take in air.

Lin also created a small cell structure called a gas holder. It looked like a small air sac floating outside the body. The gas holder moved with small tentacles around the body and used hollow tentacles to absorb small air bubbles from the water.

The gas holder also had a hard shell and could ingest sand particles to balance its weight.

With the carrier fully armored, oxygen intake became more difficult. When the gas holder was full of oxygen, it could return to the carrier to release the oxygen. Additionally, it could directly inflate the air sac when Lin did not want to surface.

However, the current situation was that although Lin had added the air sac, she had not yet added the full armor because the shell material reserves were not enough.

At the same time, Lin added an air sac to the guardian's shell, but even with this, it could not float; it only achieved a 'suspended' state.

Additionally, Lin covered the hollow tail of the guardian with a large number of explosive balls and acid injectors. This originally empty space was now used to dissolve and combine various shells.

The shell material produced would then be carried out by a new type of soldier called a 'painter' to be delivered to the carrier. The painter could also directly apply the shell material to various places to form armor.

The guardian now resembled a factory for producing armor.

Lin was also considering using gas for attacks, but she had no good ideas yet.

The carrier slowly swam with the guardian, and Lin observed the surroundings. At this depth, the sandy bottom was teeming with single-celled organisms, whether in the sand or elsewhere. Life here was so vibrant, in stark contrast to the barren land.

The number of single-celled organisms seemed to have increased significantly. In the past, there were not so many in the water, which is why many organisms would remain motionless, waiting for cells to drift by for food.

As she thought this, Lin noticed some multicellular organisms in front of her. They looked like several tubes stuck in the sand, with tentacle-like bodies extending from the tubes to capture the drifting single-celled organisms.

These must be 'tube worms.'

Sensing Lin's approach, the soft tentacles of the tube worm quickly retracted into the tube. Lin tapped the tube where the tube worm was hiding and found it to be hard, definitely made of shell material.

The shell material Lin extracted from food was quite minimal. Some organisms without shells contained less than 1% or even no shell material at all. If she wanted to quickly create a set of armor, Lin would have to obtain raw materials from the sand or attack organisms with shells, and the tube worm was an ideal target.

In the next moment, Lin's hammer struck the tube worm's shell hard.

The tube worm was thin and not very hard. The shell cracked with just one hit.

Lin did not care whether the shell was hard or not, as she could dissolve and recombine shell material, adjusting the hardness of the armor to her ideal level.

Crack...

The tube worm's shell shattered under Lin's hammer, exposing the soft organs inside.

Next, it was the job of the devourers. They brought back the shell fragments to Lin, tearing the tube worm's soft body apart and recovering both nutrients and shell material.

The internal structure of the tube worm was quite simple, and Lin had no interest in studying it.

The small shell fragments were directly sent to the guardian's body to be dissolved and recombined, while Lin's carrier turned to attack nearby tube worms.

It would take about ten tube worms to make enough shell material to cover the entire carrier.

Lin did not plan to cover the carrier's tentacles, as that would affect its flexibility.

When Lin attacked the next tube worm, it did not retract but instead twisted its body and sprayed a large amount of blue liquid.

The liquid was composed of countless tiny particles, which were clearly visible under Lin's special eyes.

...Viruses?

The liquid contained a massive number of linear viruses, along with a few of the tube worm's original cells.

Did the tube worm release viruses to attack? No, it was probably infected by viruses.

In the current environment, viruses were not common. Although they could destroy cells, cells could also kill viruses. In environments with a large number of cells, viruses were actually suppressed.

Only in individual multicellular organisms like this tube worm would viruses cause a large-scale outbreak, as they would eat whatever drifted by, including viruses.

Lin's carrier never directly obtained nutrients; everything was delivered by other soldiers, so the carrier had almost no chance of being infected by viruses. Moreover, Lin had already thought of a good way to deal with viruses.

Lin would have the gas holders take turns to obtain oxygen. Some viruses would enter the carrier through the gas holders' inhalation tentacles, penetrating the cells inside the tentacles.

When the viruses entered the cells, Lin could immediately sense it. She would quickly cover the cell with a rapidly hardening shell material, sealing the virus inside before it could replicate.

Finally, the hardened cell would be expelled, solving the problem easily.

Additionally, immediately killing the cell was also a good method, as viruses seemed to only replicate in living cells.

Lin expanded the blood vessel structure and had gland cells move inside, allowing them to deliver shell material to any part of the body at any time. This would enable any cell to quickly absorb and harden the shell material, effectively isolating viruses or other small organisms.

Lin ignored the virus attack and easily destroyed the tube worm, recovering everything without waste.

Next...

Lin was about to attack other tube worms when a sudden emergency signal entered her mind. The guardian, which was attached to the back of the carrier, was being attacked.

Lin felt the guardian being dragged by a force far exceeding its own. When the carrier turned around, all she saw was a sand pit.

Was it pulled into the sand by some organism?

Lin regretted not giving the guardian eyes. She could only sense that the guardian was being tightly pressed by the force, unable to escape no matter how it struggled.

It must be a multicellular organism as powerful as or even more powerful than a round shield worm; otherwise, it would not have been able to pull the guardian down so easily.

Should she try to dig it out?

The guardian was not being dragged deeper, so it must still be in a shallow position.

Lin hesitated, prioritizing the carrier's safety above all else.

However... losing the guardian would be a pity.

In the end, Lin approached the sand pit and used the carrier's tentacles to dig at the center. After moving some sand, she could see the guardian's body.

The guardian's rear half was clamped between two large, disc-shaped hard shells. Under the immense pressure, Lin could feel the guardian's body almost breaking.

Lin remembered this type of organism. There were many in the areas where leaf-shaped worms were common, and their shells were very hard. But she had never seen them move. Could they be powerful predators?

...

Thank you to ~Ceramic Glass~ for the support.

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