4.6 Billion Year Symphony of Evolution c4

The result of trying out my new keyboard.

Chapter Four Evolve

The strange cell seemed to detect the danger and started to shake its body and spray out large amounts of green liquid. Some of the nearby cells were dissolved and started to rot.

Kill it!

Lin’s actions did not stop. More cells charged forward. when those cells started to dissolve, a figure with protrusions charged out of the remains of those cells.

That was a digger.

When the protruding teeth on the surface came into contact with the body of the strange cell that was full of holes, the digger started to shake right and left. It moved as though it was excavating food, and used the teeth to tear at the body of the strange cell.

Large pieces of the strange cell’s cell membrane were torn of. The strange cell twisted in pain. It did not use the green liquid to fight back. It could only produce a very small amount of liquid and was unable to harm the relatively hard surface of the digger.

Lin noticed that these strange cells could only produce a certain amount of fluid. It seems that this one had used all of it up.

The digger did not stop for a moment until it completely torn the strange cell’s outer layer, inner layer and the nucleus into pieces.

Joy, victory, happiness.

Lin received new feelings. They were the complete opposite of pain. Just like it had obtained food, Lin felt extremely full.

Lin had the cells eat the pieces of the strange cell. These strange cells that could produce terrifying dissolving fluid were not any different than the soft and white food. They were easily digested. Other than one of the cells that seemed to be damaged by the remaining dissolving fluid. Its body was slightly damaged.

Suddenly, this cell that was slightly damaged divided.

Division was a very unique process. It didn’t just produce a new cell, it could also repair previous damage.

But the new cell that was produced was not different in Lin’s eyes except that the color of the cell membrane was deeper.

Lin did not know how it was special so it put it aside.

Lin looked into the distance. It saw that the other strange cells were further away as though they did not notice what happened to its fellow cell. They were still having a feeding frenzy.

Their consciousness was not connected?

Lin felt it was strange but it did not care.

Right now, Lin had thirty nine cells. Just now, eleven had been dissolved by the strange cells so Lin decided to continue feeding and replenish the number it had previously before it attacked those strange cells.

Lin knew it had the ability to fight back so it was not frugal in wanting to use this ability to kill things that were dangerous to it.

As Lin thought, Lin had the cells continue to eat the white food underneath. It needed more power, numbers, cognitive power … …

………………………………………………

Lin’s cell group continued to feed on the enormous food. They had made big holes one after one on this piece of food. Lin had the diggers excavate at the front, and then cells following behind to consume the pieces they had dug out.

Lin wanted to try and see what it would encounter if it kept on digging. Maybe there would be something interesting.

Lin’s cell group had reached one hundred. Of those, more than thirty were diggers but there was only one observer. Lin was puzzled. Why did the new cells that split from the observer not have the ability of sight?

Right now, all one hundred of Lin’s cells were in side the large hole they had dug out through feeding. Lin did not go to kill the strange cells that were outside, because after calculating, Lin felt a new term.

… … Unprofitable.

Lin would have to sacrifice many cells to attack those strange cells. More than ten would die because of the dissolving fluid, but Lin would only be able to produce three new cells from eating the strange cells. So this was completely unprofitable.

As the cell group grew, Lin slowly gained the power to calculate. It believed that not far in the future, it would become smarter.

Therefore, Lin decided to continue excavating this enormous food and keep eating.

As Lin dug deeper, it found that it was not as soft as on the surface and slowly became harder. After digging even deeper, the diggers had a difficult time tearing off pieces. Normal cells were unable to even get any pieces off.

Lin wanted to continue digging but it could only give up. It looked back. Lin found that its cell group was now in a deep lace. The opening of the hole seemed very small.

Suddenly, Lin had an idea.

Didn’t the strange cells outside use dissolving fluid to dissolve their food? Lin might be able to use them to dissolve the hard portions of food.

However, how could Lin use those dissolving fluids? It was not possible to capture them. But then Lin recalled how one of the cells had been damaged after it ate the remaining dissolving fluid and then produced a cell after the cell division that was not extremely similar.

That new cell was slightly darker in color. the outsider membrane layer was not as clear and transparent as the other cells where the nucleus inside the cell was visible. The cell membrane of this new cell was slightly muddy.

Therefore, Lin decided to use this new cell to touch those strange cells.

Coming out of the hole it had dug by eating, Lin’s observer quickly found the tracks of the strange cells. Lin found that they did not burrow like it did. They feed in one area and then switched to another. This caused the flat surface of the enormous food to be covered in holes.

Speaking of this, Lin still didn’t know what this enormous food was called. From the beginning small fragments to this enormous piece that seemed to be endless, Lin could not think of a good term so it had kept on calling it food.

However, it was clear that what could be food wasn’t this thing that was soft and while. The types of food should be endless.

For example, those strange cells actually were food as well.

Lin’s cell group, including the observer and the new cell, swam above the strange cells. Lin also took along ten diggers. In total, twelve cells came out.

Lin left the others to continue eating in the hole and grow.

The strange cells did not have eyes so they did not find Lin’s group. However, Lin knew that they would know if it went close but Lin did not know what sense it used to detect this.

There were five strange cells, one more than previously. Maybe it had divided out after eating.

Lin slowly swam close to the strange cells nearest the group and then had the new cell go up first.

When the new cell came close, the strange cell reacted. The holes on its body sprayed out large amounts of dissolving fluid and the fluid easily surrounded the new cell.

Yet the new cell did not immediately turn to powder like normal cells. Some marks of corrosion appeared on the outer membrane but it did not affect the cell as a whole. Lin did not feel any pain.

… … So this was how it was. That new cell had the ability to resist the dissolving fluid.

This thought instantly popped out of Lin’s mind.

I know what is going on … …

The cells in the past divided into cells that were harder because they had been damaged by friction against the food, and grew out protruding denticles, this was the birth of the diggers.

And this new cell was divided from the cell that had been damaged by the dissolving fluid. Due to this, it had the ability to resist the dissolving fluid.

What was this process called?

Yes… … it was … …

Evolution!

Even though Lin did not understand the deeper meaning of this term, Lin knew that it could use this method to increase its cell group.

Pain interrupted Lin’s thoughts.

The outer layer of the new cell had corroded. Because of the invasion of the dissolving fluid, the entire cell appeared to be dying. It seemed that while it had the ability of tolerance, it was unable to face the strange cell on its own.

The strange cell appeared to be moving slowly because of its great release of dissolving fluid. It was possible to use exhaustion to describe this state.

This was already very good. Before, Lin had sacrificed more than ten cells in order to expend all the dissolving fluid inside a strange cell

This time, Lin only used one to do it.

Without its dissolving fluid, the strange cell was quickly torn apart by the group of diggers. Lin had the diggers eat the pieces.

What were next were the other strange cells.

But Lin found a problem. It did not have any new cells that had the ability to resist the dissolving fluid.

So Lin had the diggers that ate the pieces of the strange cells first fill up and then divide. This way, Lin could produce large numbers of cells that had the ability to resist dissolving fluid like the one before.

Yet when they filled up and divided, Lin found that the cells produced by the cell division were strange looking.

The first was the shape. These diggers were not spherical like the cells before. One side had become sharp and narrow, and was in the shape of a cone. At the same time, large numbers of denticles protruded in regular rows on the surface.

It seemed to become more able to burrow and excavate.

This was what the shapes of these cells reminded Lin about but it was still unknown if these cone-shaped cells had the ability to resist the dissolving fluid.

So Lin decided to get these new cone-shaped cells to attack the other strange cells and see the result.

There were three cone-shaped cells. Even though ten had eaten the fragments of the strange cells, there were only three cells that divided into cone-shaped cells. The other seven cells that were produced from cell division were normal diggers. Maybe it was because they had not eaten enough?

Lin had two cone-shaped cells go forward and kept one back. Lin didn’t want all of them to die like last time.

The cone-shaped cell used its tip to attack the strange cells. These strange cells didn’t even have the time to spray dissolving fluid before their bodies were forced apart by the powerful cone-structure. However, this also caused its body to split apart and large amounts of dissolving fluid came out.

One of the cone-shaped cells was covered in dissolving fluid and quickly turned to powder. Because Lin had gotten the other cell to retreat in time, the cone-shaped and hard membrane was slightly damaged.

It seemed that the cone-shaped cells were not strongly resistant. But it was much better than normal cells.

But maybe this cell that was damaged could divide into cells that had the ability to resist the dissolving fluid.

Wait … …

Lin suddenly recalled its original goal. Its goal wasn’t to make some resistant cells, but to get the strange cells’ dissolving fluid into the hole to see if it could dissolve the hard parts of the food.

Since that was the case … …

Lin’s vision locked onto the large patch of dissolving fluid that strange cell had released on its death.

Maybe it could eat the fluid?

Lin felt its thoughts were becoming richer.

Translator Ramblings: I never realized how much I relied on gendered p.r.o.nouns to distinguish people from each other and to objects in a sentence. It’s a lot more awkward when I can only use Lin or “it” which is a problem when I want to use it to refer to other things.