NOVEL NEXT Book 1: Chapter Ten “Rock”
Last Chapter Recap: Lin learns about stem cells and follows some newly-discovered purple cells somewhere.
Lin’s cell group swam together with the purple cells. The surroundings became brighter and warmer. Suddenly, a bright light came that caused Lin to want to retreat.
But Lin did not do that, but looked in the direction of the light. The light was shining down from the top to the bottom, and there wasn’t just one ray. Countless rays of light pierced the icy blue water and gave this place warmth.
Sunlight … …
Lin knew the name of the light but it was the first time it saw such a unique scene.
Feeling extremely interested, Lin tried to chase these rays of light. So it continued to swim in the direction of the light.
The closer Lin got to the lights, the brighter Lin felt. Soon, Lin wasn’t even able to see the surroundings clearly.
In the surroundings, other than light, there was nothing … …
But Lin did not stop and still swam towards the direction of the light.
Suddenly, Lin’s foremost digger seemed to feel something. That was a feeling above warmth, yes, it was called … … burning heat.
That feeling was not better to feel than warmth but caused Lin great pain instead.
The burning heat that came immediately killed this cell. Lin jumped in fight and hurriedly had the cell group retreat back. Lin retreated until it could see the surroundings clearly before it was reassured.
So, the origin of the light had a burning heat … …
Now, Lin didn’t dare to go too close to the rays of light.
However, a new phrase appeared in Lin’s thoughts … … ultraviolet light.
What had killed the cell just now was a kind of light called ultraviolet light. But Lin did not understand what ultraviolet light was.
So it would study this phenomenon later.
At this time, Lin looked around and found that large amount of purple cells gathered among these rays of light. Lin found that they were not eating or doing something, just purely waiting under the sunlight.
Should Lin eat them?
Lin had this thought. These purple cells did not seem to have any offensive abilities and seemed extremely weak.
However, Lin should first wait and see.
Lin watched for a while. It saw that these purple cells would start to move after staying in the light for a while and once again swim towards the darkness of the deeper waters.
Lin was very curious about their actions so it also took its own cell group and followed closely.
These purple cells that returned to deeper waters took Lin to a completely new place.
This was … …
The thing that appeared in front of Lin was enormous and completely took over Lin’s vision. The surface of this thing was covered in uneven bumps and holes. The object was black, but there were other colors mixed in. Most of those colors were grey, and white.
This was called … … rock?
Lin received a new term.
These purple cells swam in large numbers onto the rock. They started to split up and appeared to be searching for food. Kin found that it wasn’t just the purple cells. There were large numbers of all kinds of cells spread out on the surface. It was the first time Lin saw so many different living beings gathered in one place. There were also new cells constantly swimming here from other places.
Lin looked at them and had a thought.
Of Lin’s present cells … … there were 100 acid ejectors, 129 cone shaped cells, 30 cachers that stored fat, and the rest were all diggers. Lin’s cell group had more variety of cells than the other cell types. Even though some cells had more numbers than Lin, but they were all one kind, and not many kinds mixed together like Lin.
Lin’s cell group slowly swam near the rock. They first landed on a protruding rock pillar. There were no cells gathered here and Lin planned on working from here.
What to do? Of course, it was to eat. This rock was covered in food that Lin had seen before, that soft white stuff. Many of the cells gathered here also seemed to like eating food of this kind. However, Lin did not plan on gathering these normal food, but … …
Attack other cells! Make them food!
After experiencing a few battles, Lin’s thought started to become more offense-oriented.
Lin first had the cone-shaped cells go. They swam along the rock pillar and their goal was a small group of beings under the rock pillar.
This group seemed to be shapeshifting cells, and could change their form at will. However, they were very small and were only half the size of Lin’s cells. They could not compare to the one previously encountered.
The little shapeshifting cells were gathering some white food and completely didn’t notice the cone-shaped cells getting close. One of the shapeshifting cells that was consuming food was completely pierced through by the cone-shaped cell. Then the cone-shaped cell quickly twisted and used the denticles to tear this shapeshifiting cell into pieces.
The other little shapeshifting cells felt danger and started to flee. However, before they could swim far, they were run through by the cone-shaped cells that continued to charge.
Watching as its cells easily achieved victory, Lin couldn’t help but feel smugness.
The remaining shapeshifting cells seemed to detect danger from above and started to turn and flee downwards. They made their bodies narrow and flat so they could burrow into the small cracks on the rock.
The cone-shaped cells were too large and they had hardened tops. They were unable to enter these tiny cracks at all. The rock was also very hard and they could not dig into it.
Very smart … …
But Lin decided to keep chasing. This time, Lin had the acid ejectors move out and spray large amounts of dissolving liquid at those little cracks. The little shapeshifting cells that were hiding in the cracks had nowhere to escape to and were dissolved into powder. Then the acid ejectors waited on top to suck in the powder that floated up.
Not long after, Lin completely killed off all the shapeshifting cells.
For some unknown reason, Lin felt that this wasn’t quite right. It should not kill all of them.
Whatever.
Because Lin did not know the reason.
Also, Lin quickly turned its attention. It found that it was not the only one eating here.
The observer was floating high up and observed everything in the surroundings. Lin saw that several cells of enormous mass were doing the same thing as Lin at a valley nearby on the rock.
These few cells were about ten times as large as Lin’s cells. There were many ruffles on the surface of these cells and these cells seemed to be able to suck in. The purple cells that Lin had encountered before would be sucked and caught between the ruffles. The purple cells appeared to fight but they were unable to escape. They were sucked alive into the ruffles and then sucked into the bodies of the ruffled cells.
Lin might not be able to see what happened inside but they were certainly digested. This method of feeding was pretty unique.
The ruffled cells did not search for the next food after eating but stayed motionless where they were. However, when other cells came near them, they would capture through suction.
Kill!
LIn’s following action was very simple
The acid ejectors were the foreguard this time. Lin had them go near the ruffled cells. These ruffled cells felt the acid ejectors come close and immediately started to suck. But at this time, the acid ejectors sprayed out large amounts of dissolving liquid. The dissolving liquid was sucked into the body of these ruffled cells.
A ruffled cell that sucked in dissolving liquid painfully twisted its body. After a while, it stopped moving and then sank slowly.
It was very easy!
Lin started again and used the same method to kill the several other ruffled cells nearby. Just when it was planning to attack the last ruffled cell, a strange kind of pain suddenly came from one of the acid ejectors. Then this acid ejector seemed to lose all strength and sank.
Lin hurriedly looked around the surroundings to find the cause but it could not see any attackers nearby. It didn’t know who or what had attacked this acid ejector.
Translator Ramblings: Lin learns of the lethality of UV light. The “ruffles” are most likely produced by lamellipodia. See the cool video.