Chapter 9

In fact, Lin had thought about this issue more than once.

Each of its cell types had a certain number, and if they all died, how could they be obtained again?

Would it have to go through the same process as before? For example, would the cells have to ingest the dissolution liquid again to evolve into acid injectors?

However, Lin still didn't understand why the conical cells had evolved.

But the key point wasn't here; the key point was whether such a troublesome process was necessary to obtain them again.

Lin didn't think so.

Lin would find a way.

Thinking about this, Lin's excavators had already eaten half of an amoeba, and the number of excavator cells had surged to 699.

Lin began to implement its idea, starting with energy and food storage. Lin tried to make an excavator that was already very full, almost ready to divide, continue eating and prevent it from dividing.

How to prevent division? Lin wasn't sure, as division occurred spontaneously. So Lin just kept controlling it in its thoughts, prohibiting it from doing anything contrary to Lin's ideas.

It seemed to work; the excavator didn't divide but continued to feast on the amoeba's remains.

Next, Lin tried to make it stop digesting food and instead store it in its body.

It worked; the food in the excavator's body wasn't digested but was piled up in one place.

Lin felt a bit happy, not expecting it to be so simple.

Next, Lin made this cell keep eating, only digesting the part needed for its own activities, and the excess was not used for division but stored in its body. This led to the cell's size increasing significantly. After eating for a while, it was almost twice the size of other cells.

However, storing this food also made the cell very inflexible, slow in movement, and even the sawing action became difficult to perform.

This would make it difficult for it to eat, but this problem was simple for Lin. Other cells could help it, using ordinary excavators to collect food for this storage cell, which only needed to eat.

Gradually, this cell underwent interesting changes.

As it continued to eat without working, the saw teeth on its outer membrane began to slowly disappear. Lin knew this phenomenon was called degeneration.

At the same time, its body became very large, almost three times the size of other excavator cells. The fragments of the amoeba stored in its body were broken down, but not digested. Instead, they were converted into a liquid similar to water but more viscous.

Lin knew this liquid was called oil.

This cell converted the food it ate into oil and stored it in its body. The oil was easy to carry, seemed to contain more energy, and took up less space, making it better than storing food directly.

Lin didn't know how it formed; this wasn't something Lin controlled, but something the cell did on its own.

Lin wasn't 100% in control of the cells. Actions like division were performed by the cells themselves, and the production of oil was also a decision made by the cells. It seemed there were still some deeper mysteries in the cells that Lin didn't know about.

With increasing intelligence, Lin could fully grasp everything.

Lin named this type of cell "storage cell."

Lin could also make storage cells divide, but the new cells produced by division didn't have oil and needed to eat food to convert it into oil.

It felt good; with more of these, there would be no fear of hunger. However, these cells couldn't be too numerous, as they couldn't fight and moved very slowly.

Feeding continued... After a short while, the amoeba's remains were down to about 10%, and Lin's cell colony had almost returned to its original number. There were thirty storage cells, and the large amount of oil in their bodies allowed Lin's colony to swim a considerable distance without eating.

However, what Lin wanted most was to regain the acid injectors and conical cells.

Lin first tried to make the excavators evolve into one of these two types, using the old method of continuously imagining the cell becoming that type in its thoughts.

But it didn't work; the excavator cells still divided into excavator cells.

But Lin didn't give up and continued experimenting, such as making the excavators perform actions similar to conical cells or even trying to squeeze a cell into a conical shape with other cells.

Of course, all of these attempts failed, and eventually, Lin felt its methods were foolish...

But Lin never stopped trying to make them evolve in its thoughts. Finally, one cell responded.

It was a basic cell, the initial type of cell with no specific function.

This type of cell could only be produced by the only cell with vision: the observer.

The observer had never participated in any activities, so it retained all its basic features except for vision, and the cells it produced didn't have vision.

Lin called these cells basic cells. They usually evolved into excavators quickly when working with excavators, but this time, before the cell could become an excavator, it received Lin's signal.

Miraculously, after digesting the food it had just eaten, the cell's body began to slowly elongate, and it grew a conical beak with spiral saw teeth, just like the original conical cells.

Next, Lin tried to make the basic cell evolve into an acid injector, and it was also very simple to achieve.

So, it seemed that although the basic cells had no specific function, they could evolve.

But could they evolve into other types?

Lin thought about this and tried to make the basic cells evolve into amoebas or strange cells.

...No response.

It seemed that only the cells belonging to Lin's colony could be produced by the basic cells. They didn't have any evolutionary ability but recorded the information for such evolution.

But how did they record it? Was it related to the observer always watching from the side?

Lin didn't know, but the main issue was now resolved, and Lin felt very happy.

Next, it was time to venture into the vast, boundless world and explore all the unknowns!

The amoeba was completely eaten, and with 1233 cells, Lin swam into the endless deep blue...

Lin had no specific goal; it couldn't see any goal in this deep blue, but something attracted Lin.

It was warmth.

Swimming in this direction, Lin felt it was gradually getting rid of the previous cold, and the water became warmer and more comfortable.

This direction seemed to be upward.

The closer it got, the brighter and warmer the water became. Lin swam faster, and the warmth seemed to give its cell colony energy, which was the opposite of the cold, making it feel very comfortable.

At this moment, the observer, which was swimming at the front, discovered new food.

Above Lin's colony, countless purple organisms appeared.

They were oval-shaped, with dense cilia around their bodies, about half the size of Lin's cells, but their numbers were extremely large.

So many that they filled the observer's field of vision.

A preliminary estimate put their number at over ten thousand.

This was another type of cell, and since Lin didn't know what they were called, it simply named them "purple cells."

These purple cells were indifferent to the appearance of Lin's colony. Even when Lin's cells approached them, they didn't attack or react but hurriedly swam in the same direction.

The same direction as where Lin originally wanted to go.

Since that was the case, Lin decided to follow them and see what was there.