Chapter 31

In Lin's field of vision, there were red particles everywhere, mixed with blue fragments, forming a unique landscape.

This was the scene witnessed by Lin's remaining forces inside the body of the round shield worm. Everything here had turned into floating fragments. The blue cells that originally made up the esophagus, tubes, and other organs inside the round shield worm had been invaded by viruses and destroyed from the core to the outer membrane. Because the immune cells were blocked by Lin, the viruses grew without limit. It was estimated that the body of the round shield worm was now just a pile of cell fragments.

Lin's remaining forces slowly moved through this environment filled with floating cells and viruses. Almost all of them had been stained bright red. Looking at the tragic scene, many thoughts appeared in Lin's mind.

Fear, unease, doubt, but no joy of victory.

What exactly are viruses?

According to Lin's current knowledge, viruses are peculiar organisms. They do not divide or feed on their own; they just drift with the water. If they touch a cell, they penetrate its outer membrane, using the cell to replicate and proliferate, then destroy the entire cell.

Then, they create more viruses, infect more cells...

Is their purpose to kill all cells? Viruses do not limit themselves; they just endlessly increase in number, then destroy everything. When all the cells they can kill are dead, they will die from lack of food. Only a few viruses can survive and drift further to infect other cells.

These bright red viruses are the same. They increased in number by killing the cells of the round shield worm, but this also led to most of the viruses not finding cells to infect. If they don't infect a cell for a while, they will die.

Kill everything that can be killed, then wait to die. Is this what viruses are? What is the meaning of their existence?

However, these bright red viruses have a unique characteristic: they can attach to Lin's cells without destroying them. Lin still doesn't know why.

Lin suddenly realized that it also doesn't know the meaning of its own existence. Constant evolution?

This seems to be a profound question, but Lin doesn't feel it has the leisure to think about it now.

Lin's carrier is being repaired. The cells at the wound torn by the round shield worm are beginning to divide. Lin is also gathering the cells that remained outside and did not enter the round shield worm's mouth, along with some large phagocytes, to swim towards the corpse of the round shield worm. Lin plans to study and consume this monster that caused it such great losses.

The corpse of the round shield worm lies on the ice not far from the carrier. Fortunately, the ice hasn't melted; otherwise, its corpse might have attracted other cells.

Lin first had the phagocytes bite into the joints of the round shield worm's segments, trying to see if they could break them off.

Then, Lin sent a team of 100,000 cells to swim into the round shield worm's mouth. The esophagus that was originally there is now gone, leaving only floating cell fragments.

The exploration team quickly joined the forces inside, which were almost all stained red. Their numbers had dwindled to just a few thousand.

Although it seems wasteful, Lin still needs to deal with them to prevent any strange situations with the viruses inside these cells. Lin will not allow more than ten infected cells.

Viruses are too terrifying and are a double-edged sword. After destroying all the cells inside the round shield worm, Lin found almost no usable food.

Perhaps it shouldn't have used viruses to attack? But this would have only driven the round shield worm away, not killed it. Is this approach cost-effective or not? Only by exploring the entire worm can it be determined.

Lin first had the forces explore the area that was originally the esophagus. It is very spacious, and Lin believes it is inside the 'round shield' of the round shield worm's head. The light from the flash burst ball is not enough to illuminate the entire space.

There are only cell fragments and viruses around, and these viruses are all dead. Although they look the same, Lin's cells can touch them, but they won't penetrate.

Lin's exploration team continued to move deeper, trying to find anything that wasn't destroyed by the viruses. If all the cells inside the round shield worm were completely destroyed by the viruses, this battle would have been very unprofitable.

What is that?

Lin suddenly saw a thick, long tentacle floating among the countless cell and virus corpses.

This tentacle is clearly made of cells and seems to have been broken by the virus attack, so Lin can see that the middle is hollow, capable of holding many cells.

Right, this tentacle is actually a passage for cells, and it was also seen at the joint wounds of the round shield worm.

Why wasn't this passage destroyed by the viruses? Was it just broken?

Lin had a phagocyte swim to the broken end of the passage and look inside, finding many blue cells inside, but they all seemed dead, lying motionless on the tube walls, with only a few occasionally moving.

Regardless of how they survived the virus attack, this means Lin still has some spoils.

Lin left some small phagocytes and basic cells behind. The phagocytes entered the passage to consume the blue cells, while the basic cells formed a small circular structure to break down and digest the food.

Then, Lin's remaining team followed the passage deeper into the round shield worm's body. The deeper they went, the more things they found that weren't destroyed by the viruses.

As they moved deeper, Lin discovered another passage. These passages were also broken, and their interiors were filled with blue cells.

Lin left some cells behind and continued deeper, soon encountering more passages.

The third, the fourth... the deeper they went, the more passages Lin found. These passages crisscrossed throughout the space, varying in thickness. Some passages had many branches extending in unknown directions, and the more branches, the finer the passages.

Although these passages were different, they all had a common point: the thickest parts all extended to a chamber.

If a passage was randomly torn open, a large number of blue cell corpses would flow out, all dead, but this was clearly not the work of the viruses.

It's really strange, how did they avoid the virus attack? There are no cell fragments in the water here, so perhaps the viruses didn't spread here?

Maybe the viruses only destroyed the cells in the head of the round shield worm, but if that's the case, why are the cells deep inside also almost all dead?

Although Lin's carrier was torn in half by the round shield worm, the remaining half is still alive and well, with no impact. Did the worm die just because part of its cells died?

The more puzzled Lin became, the deeper it swam along the passages. Finally, a huge object appeared before Lin's exploration team.

What is this?

This oval object is very large, about the size of the claws on the segments of the round shield worm. It is also made of cells, and all the ends of the passages are connected to this object, suggesting it is a major organ.

What is this for?

As Lin was thinking, this object suddenly moved, rapidly expanding and then contracting.

What's happening?

Lin had the cells retreat a bit but left a phagocyte to watch the object, very curious about it.

However, Lin waited for a long time, but the object didn't move again.

... Forget it.

Eat it.

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