4.6 Billion Year Symphony of Evolution

Last chapter recap: Lin creates infectors with a virus payload to drive enemies mad and kill them.

The Leviathan never stopped travelling.

As day and night passed, Lin saw different environments and organisms. Its knowledge of all kinds of things continued to increase. The bases had finished growing and were now operating normally.

But how far had the Leviathan swam?

Lin didn’t know. It did not have any accurate terms to describe “distance” and “length.” It did not try to remember. It just continued to swim to places it had never been before.

Lin continued to study how to control color. While the cells could make green, they could not absorb light as nutrients. The green cells definitely had some other secrets, one not as simple as just making the green color.

Lin carefully observed those green cells. After eating hundreds of millions of green cells, Lin slowly learned what was occurring inside. The green color was actually a side-effect, light that could not be absorbed and was emitted back out.

The green cells could combine different substances together. These substances could absorb different colored lights such as red and blue. Then they would mix the absorbed light with other things to create edible crystals.

This process would also create oxygen as a side effect. The green cells did not seem to absorb oxygen so they expelled oxygen.

But the green cells would absorb oxygen when these was no light, just like other organisms.

They would not absorb green light and would reflect it back, causing them to appear green.

While the process appeared simple, it was complex. Lin did not know anything about manipulating the various substances involved. This was much harder than creating chitin.

Right now, Lin only had the ability to make cells that reflected green light. In truth, this had no relation to consuming light as food. Lin didn’t even have the basics to start the process.

How did the green cells do this? When Lin ate them, they didn’t even try to dodge. While some types of these cells produced toxins, those were weak. Lin easily evolved specific immunity against them.

How could organisms of such a low intelligence level complete such a complex matter?

Lin did not know. As Lin’s intelligence increased, it became even more confused on what “intelligence” really was.

Since this was the case, Lin would leave it to the cells. Lin could have a cell engulf a green cell and then give it the thought of “make light-absorbing substances.”

After completing the first step, it would tell the second step, “absorb light and other inedible substances to make food.”

Lin knew about the “inedible substances.” The green cells appeared to use small gas bubbles, that were not oxygen, as well as water.

When gas, light, and water combined, that kind of crystal-like substance would form. But Lin didn’t understand the actual process so it left that to the cells.

Leaving the cells working automatically on their own was extremely effective. But no matter what, relying on this method would take a long time. Lin continued on its journey.

Right now, Leviathan was near the water surface. The water surface in this region was shaking, and spinning. Lin knew this was caused by the air. The currents in the air stirred up the water surface. Countless little pillars of water fell from the air region and formed ripples when they smashed onto the water surface.

Because this was daytime, Lin could see it clearly.

Above the water surface, the sky which should have been illuminated by daytime was obscured by a layer of grey. The ultraviolet light was also much weaker. Due to this, Leviathan could approach near the water surface to observe.

Lin also saw a previously encountered phenomenon. Extremely bright light flashed across the sky. This kind of light was brief, but in the moment it appeared, it could illuminate an entire region and caused both air and water to tremble.

Was this “lightning”? And “sky”. That was also a new word.

Lin wasn’t able to comprehend these words. It only felt that this phenomenon was interesting. However, this was not the only reason it attracted Lin.

A short distance away, a large group of flat worms were swimming close to the water surfaces. Because the ultraviolet light had weakened, they were able to get close to this place.

Right, Lin couldn’t call them “worms” any longer. Lin found a new term that was specifically for describing these organisms with spines.

“Fish.”

Yes, Lin will now call them. While Lin did not think that this was very different from “flat worm,” it liked using new terms.

Up until, Lin had seen two kinds of flat fish. One had teeth and a round mouth which would attack Lin. The other kind were the ones present here. They did not attack at all, and only fed on unicellular organisms.

Lin didn’t know why the flat fish had gathered together under the swaying water surface. Lin had the Leviathan stay at a distance to avoid frightening them.

Lin liked to observe the lives of other organisms. Occasionally, Lin would learn some interesting or useful things. Lin would not ignore even the tiniest organism.

The flat fish first swam for a while, and then pair off to stick together. They shot out large volumes of white fluid from small holes below their tail.

Were those cells?

Lin released a small eyeball to swim closer. It found that the fluid was made from small cells. One kind was oval-shaped with several tentacles, and the other was in a sphere form. The kind with tentacles would try to burrow into the spherical cells. Then the sphere cells would harden and stop other tentacle cells from entering.

The leaf worm had also done these actions. Lin still didn’t understand what this was for.

The flat fish were even more unique than the leaf worms. After they released these cells, they slowly became motionless and floated in the water.

They seemed to be dead.

The Leviathan swam near this group of flat fish, and reached out a tentacle to grab one. It tore open the fish and had the eyeball enter its body to look.

… … It was really dead?

No, actually, it had not died. However, most of the cells had lowered their activity, including the brain cells. It seemed to be in a “sleeping state.” Also, it had used up almost all of its stored nutrients. This felt similar to death.

They hadn’t been attacked by things like viruses, their cells hadn’t been damaged. The only reason could be … … they were killing themselves.

They were bad.

But nothing was wrong with their brains. Lin was puzzled by this the most.

Many organisms would do things Lin couldn’t understand but it was the first time Lin saw something this crazy.

Therefore, Lin released the gatherers and grabbed some of the combined cells the flat fish had sprayed out to take back into the Leviathan.

Lin then created a hardened and transparent little ball to place them inside. Lin planned to observe their long-term changes. What unique powers did this thing have? That could make the flat fish use their lives to create.

While Lin found it extremely illogical, Lin knew that they had their reasons. “Intelligence” was extremely complicated … …

As to the “sleeping” flat fish in the surroundings, Lin turned all of them into its reserves.

Leviathan was 50% bigger in this journey than in the past, and the amount of food it could store had grown by over threefold. However, Lin did not continue to increase the size, but stored more food.

Lin had a compression method of squeezing large numbers of fat cells without providing them with any oxygen. This way, it would lessen the space used, and the cells didn’t move anyways.

Then Lin continued on its trip.

Lin left behind the restless water surface with its lightning and swam deeper … …

The enormous beach appeared in Leviathan’s eyes at the bottom of the ocean. This environment was frequently seen but Lin felt surprised this time.

This sand beach was covered in many enormous round openings. Lin saw ten of them in its vision. Many other organisms were active in the surroundings such as the trilobites and the flat fish.

These openings were slightly bigger than Leviathan. It could enter one to explore.

Of course, Lin wouldn’t have the Leviathan go in directly. It would create a new cell type to explore a dangerous environment.

Translator Ramblings: Two out of three release for the day.