Bai Zhongqi sat on the ground, leaning against a fish he had snatched from the subterranean river.
Zero might have been the first Swarm Empress in history to master Star Energy, making fire was no difficulty for her.
The underground space was vast yet narrow, similar to a network of caves. Zero supplented her nutrients by capturing organisms within this space, allowing her to create more Thief Dragon Beasts.
Now, Zero classified Thief Dragon Beasts as lower-grade Enslaved Beasts. Enslaved Beasts were the na for all creatures produced by the Swarm, created through biological genetic manipulation by the Empress. The Thief Dragon Beast had remained essentially unchanged, though so Enslaved Beasts might be a composite of multiple organisms' DNA. All Enslaved Beasts were sterile and completely controlled by the Empress.
The Thief Dragon Beasts were used by Zero for hunting to obtain DNA and nutrients. However, the Thief Dragon Beasts were too small, and every ti Zero needed to reclaim the nutrients, she had to lt them back into the Insect Nest, essentially the Thief Dragon Beasts would consu their prey, then the Insect Nest would consu the Thief Dragon Beasts, creating other Thief Dragon Beasts.
"The Biologic Information Bank I inherited contains the Chlorophyll Beast, which is an Enslaved Beast similar to plants that perform highly efficient photosynthesis. It looks almost like a plant and can produce nutrients very effectively, much faster than having Thief Dragon Beasts go hunting." Zero was sowhat dissatisfied with her progress.
But Bai Zhongqi was more optimistic, "The Thief Dragon Beast is also a decent Enslaved Beast, quick to act and very small. It can serve as a scouting vanguard, not easily detected by enemies."
Zero smiled brightly, holding his arm, "As long as you like it."
Bai Zhongqi no longer resisted Zero's intimacy but felt guilty about his official girlfriend. He did not know Han Jiaxue's situation, he could only worry continuously. However, Zero was a woman willing to give her life for him; he could not bring himself to be heartless towards such a girl.
Not long after, Zero watched so Thief Dragon Beasts dragging a half-dead one back and curiously looked at Bai Zhongqi, "What exactly were you trying to achieve by having this Thief Dragon Beast ingest a large amount of tallic elents?"
Bai Zhongqi said, "I wanted to see if I could use your Insect Nest to produce a gun."
Bai Zhongqi soon shared his idea with Zero, and it was a path completely different from the previous developnt of the Swarm, highlighting a human-centric approach.
The Insect Nest could digest different elents and bestow them upon various Enslaved Beasts. The design of the Enslaved Beasts was entirely at the Empress' whim, who had the ideas for creating life and could use the Insect Nest to actualize them. Moreover, living organisms were clearly much more complex implents than ordinary chanical devices, being composed of cells rather than simply crafting materials.
At their core, the Enslaved Beasts of the Swarm were sowhat aligned with human-made machines. Humans' machines served specific purposes, as did the Swarm's Enslaved Beasts, but for these purposes, living organisms were endowed with much more.
Take the Thief Dragon Beast, for instance. To enable it to scout and hunt, it needed to run, which required motion and digestive organs.
Bai Zhongqi wondered whether it was possible to use such a highly complex thod to create simpler life forms to serve a simple purpose for the Swarm.
Although Bai Zhongqi lost the skull-brain loaded with vast amounts of information and knowledge, through years of deep-learning during hibernation, he had beco a man of profound knowledge.
He and Zero designed a new type of Enslaved Beast—the Pistol Beast.
This Enslaved Beast was so simple it lacked a brain, only slightly more complex than the plant-like Enslaved Beasts. Zero designed its DNA, and as the Pistol Beast developed from embryo to adult, the Insect Nest's provided tals transford into the parts of various firearms.
Just as bone tissue is an organ made from living cells and mineral substances like calcium and phosphorus, the organs of the Pistol Beast were a mix of living cells and tallic materials. Here, Bai Zhongqi marveled that normal biological cells couldn't tolerate large amounts of heavy tals, yet the Insect Nest could engineer such cells.
In terms of the versatility of life, the Pistol Beast was a deford waste. It couldn't walk, feed itself, or have a brain. But from Bai Zhongqi's perspective, the Pistol Beast was a gun that could shoot.
It possessed all the components of a firearm and could fire with ease. Even its circulation system reduced the need for the frequent maintenance typical of firearms. Of course, it required feeding—special food produced by the Insect Nest could be pressed into the chamber like bullets and would be quickly assimilated.
Naturally, the bullets fired by the Pistol Beast were also a form of life, the Bullet Beast. This creature was even cruder, simpler, and primarily served to provide "corpses"—copper bullets.
Zero's eyes widened in amazent as she watched Bai Zhongqi hold the Pistol Beast with one arm and shoot, "Chancellor, you are a genius. To use biology to mimic machinery, what is this? Reverse biomitics?"
At this mont, Bai Zhongqi was full of confidence, for he had discovered a path paved with golden light.
"We're all accustod to using manufactured machinery to perform simple or complex tasks, even though the simplest organism is actually more complex than most machines. Yet the organism's functions are not outstanding. However, if we simplify an organism's DNA and then highlight a particular function, giving it the capability of a machine, that seems easier. This na you've co up with, reverse biomitics, is quite apt—we are essentially doing just that."
Bai Zhongqi knew that even for sothing as simple as the Pistol Beast, he and Zero had spent much effort designing it. Designing a living creature was far more challenging than creating an actual firearm. But with the Insect Nest, as long as they designed an Enslaved Beast, they could produce them en masse, and it was, without doubt, a worthwhile investnt.
As he designed more Enslaved Beasts with Zero, he also dispatched Thief Dragon Beasts to explore the expansive underground space and searched for a way out. He now believed he was on a habitable planet, yet he had no clue where this habitable planet was, how he had arrived there, or even if it was within the Second Universe.
About a week after Bai Zhongqi and Zero had been living underground, Zero had already produced about a thousand Thief Dragon Beasts and even a few Humanoid Beasts. A group of Thief Dragon Beasts discovered an exit to the surface a hundred kiloters from the river where Bai Zhongqi was living.
Bai Zhongqi was delighted. He left the underground with Zero to greet a whole new world awaiting them.
Reviews
All reviews (0)