Chapter 48

The massive, dark glow swayed in the darkness. Lin’s probe, the ‘Slug,’ slowly crawled closer to this strange light source.

But as the Slug approached the target, the light suddenly disappeared.

What’s going on?

The light emitted by the Slug itself was not bright enough to illuminate a large area, making it impossible to see the surroundings clearly.

Maybe it’s a jellyfish or something?

As Lin was thinking this, the light appeared again in the distance, but this time it was a different kind of light, a bright crimson, and much brighter.

Lin felt the water temperature around it rise noticeably. It directed the Slug toward the new light. As it approached the target, it saw a peculiar scene.

A dark, viscous substance covered a large area ahead, radiating a sense of heat. Occasionally, one or two cracks could be seen in the viscous substance, from which the crimson light shone. Although the cracks were not large, their light was enough to illuminate the surrounding environment.

Is that... lava?

But it looked different from the lava Lin had seen before. The lava here seemed to be fixed in place, turned gray, and did not move, yet it still emitted extremely high temperatures.

The cracks that emitted red light might contain uncoagulated lava...

Many single-celled organisms were active on the coagulated lava, seemingly unafraid and even enjoying the high temperature.

Lin did not let the Slug step onto the lava, as it did not think the Slug could withstand such temperatures.

Lin hesitated, wanting to continue observing but also considering bypassing the lava to explore deeper into the trench.

Suddenly, Lin felt the Slug’s field of view shake, and a force pulled the Slug backward. Before it could understand what was happening, the Slug’s body was crushed by a massive pressure.

It felt like something had bitten and crushed it, an ambush from behind.

Although it was a bit regretful, the trench expedition was over... right?

Lin wouldn’t think so!

Leviathan floated to the center of the trench, directly above where the Slug had been destroyed.

Leviathan rotated its body and opened the deployment port, releasing a large number of Slugs that immediately headed deeper into the trench.

There were hundreds of these Slugs, all created by Leviathan just now.

This was one of Leviathan’s characteristics: it had multiple breeding chambers within its body, capable of instantly producing a large number of multicellular individuals, which was very convenient for both attack and other purposes.

The Slugs quickly sank into the depths of the trench. Although Lin had aimed for the center of the trench, most of them eventually landed near the rock walls.

Lin immediately directed them to gather in the same direction. When the Slugs reached the area with the lava, they also discovered what had eaten the first Slug.

The creature was bright red and flat, its entire square body spread out on the ground, like a... red carpet.

What’s a carpet?

Regardless, let’s call it a ‘Carpet Worm.’ Did this creature just eat the Slug?

Lin couldn’t see its mouth, and there were no tentacles or other appendages on its surface. It couldn’t understand how this creature hunted.

Well, let’s kill it first.

Lin directed the hundreds of Slugs to swarm the Carpet Worm. These Slugs were specially designed for combat, with sharp blade-like structures at the ends of their appendages.

The Slugs climbed onto the Carpet Worm’s body, using their appendages to cut into it, causing its cells to flow out from the wounds. The Carpet Worm writhed in pain but did not make any effective struggle. Lin then directed the Slugs to burrow into the wounds and destroy the internal structures.

Suddenly, the Carpet Worm violently twisted its body, using its flat form to swim quickly through the water, heading upward in the trench.

Lin stopped the Slugs from attacking, sensing that the Carpet Worm’s behavior was not to shake off the Slugs but for some other purpose.

The Carpet Worm continued to swim upward at a very fast speed, quickly leaving the deepest, lightless part of the trench. Lin found it hard to imagine that a creature of this shape could move so quickly.

But after leaving the lightless zone, the Carpet Worm’s speed began to slow down, and it eventually stopped moving completely.

Just as Lin was puzzled, the Carpet Worm’s body suddenly exploded, turning into countless cells and fragments.

This is... a pressure issue, right?

Lin almost instantly understood. In a high-pressure environment, the body is compressed tightly. When it swims to a low-pressure environment, the compressed body suddenly expands, causing it to burst.

But why did it do this? Why did it swim up from the high-pressure bottom of the trench?

Even if the Slugs’ bites were very painful, it shouldn’t have been a signal to go mad. Pain is usually a signal to avoid danger, not to go crazy.

Leviathan swam to where the Carpet Worm had exploded, recovering all the Slugs, and began to study the fragments of the Carpet Worm.

The Slugs’ bodies were filled with water to resist pressure, but in low-pressure areas, they could open small holes in their shells to quickly release the water and absorb air bubbles, allowing them to float and making it easier for Leviathan to recover them.

On the fragments of the Carpet Worm’s body, Lin discovered many familiar things—viruses.

Not ordinary viruses, but the same type of bright red virus that infected Lin’s ‘Infected.’

The bright red virus was widely present in the Carpet Worm’s cells and various structures and organs, which is why the Carpet Worm was red. But the virus didn’t harm the cells; it made the Carpet Worm go mad?

Lin found a particularly high concentration of viruses in the Carpet Worm’s unexploded nerve ganglia, which might be the cause of its madness...

Lin suddenly realized that ‘madness’ was a new term, referring to abnormal behavior.

But Lin’s Infected had never shown such behavior. When Lin told them to be quiet, they remained quiet.

This seems to be worth researching...

Lin could experiment with other creatures to see how they would react to the virus. This might be... quite interesting.

Is it just interesting? No, it might also be a powerful weapon to destroy opponents. Lin could directly inject the virus into creatures with nerve ganglia, rendering them completely ineffective.

And these viruses don’t damage cells, so they can be used to defeat opponents without wasting nutrients.

In any case, this is a useful study...

Lin had only explored a small area of the trench. There should be more interesting things below, but relying on the Slugs, which are small and slow, to explore would be difficult. Lin didn’t want to make the entire Leviathan pressure-resistant, as it would be too troublesome and would need to be changed back after leaving the trench.

Just as Lin was troubled, a strange vibration suddenly came from the water below. A large amount of black substance suddenly surged out of the trench, instantly enveloping Leviathan’s entire body.

These black substances contained strange components that would damage the cells if inhaled.

Lin quickly closed all of Leviathan’s openings and used its tentacles to swim away from the area covered by the black substance.

Looking back, Lin saw that most of the trench was emitting these black substances.

This is called ‘smoke.’

But smoke is usually a gas, and these substances were not gas; they were mostly small fragments and other strange things. They didn’t affect Lin’s shell but could cause fatal damage to the cells inside the siphons.

This smoke... seems to be related to lava?

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Thank you to ~Da Wo Cheng~Shu Luo Yin Kong~Xiang Lin Tang’s tea~Bing Pu~ for the donations.

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