The destruction of the crystal fungi had brought Lin an endless amount of wealth.
Lin devoured their remains clean, then took over all of the food crevices that they originally occupied, splitting and multiplying at an insane rate.
At this point, Lin's cell colony had exceeded 30,000 cells, each with a considerable number of cells. There were relatively few Exploding Spheres, after all, these cells had no other uses except for combat.
Lin had occupied 50% of the entire rock, and could be said to be the most powerful species in this area. Although there were still a few large groups of cells nearby, Lin did not intend to attack them first, but rather to deal with the biggest problem at hand.
Perception.
Lin only had a single 'Observer' from the very beginning. Of course, this single cell couldn't possibly observe the entire colony, even if it swam back and forth at a high altitude, so a large part of Lin's colony was still in a state of 'perception'.
Although it was enough to eat, it would still be difficult to react to danger, especially if it was a virus.
Lin needed more perception.
But how would she obtain that perception? Lin wanted to find out from the stinging cells. The stinging cells would automatically fire whenever an enemy approached, so how would she know? The stinging cells didn't have eyes, but they could still distinguish between friend and foe.
It was still a sense of touch, but a very powerful sense of touch.
It was only after Lin's colony had reached 30,000 cells that she began to consider this problem.
As each cell moved, it would cause the surrounding water to fluctuate. In reality, this fluctuation could be transmitted very far away, but it would gradually become smaller and smaller. However, there was still a way to sense it, then analyze the minute differences between them.
Lin didn't know how to strengthen these senses, so she simply trained two of her cells. One of them stayed still while the other swayed vigorously to cause water to flow.
The stationary one had to carefully sense the water flow. After sensing it to a certain degree, the swaying one would swim a bit further away and continue to sway, while the stationary one would continue to try to sense the water flow.
It seemed like a very strange method, but Lin succeeded. These cells had successfully evolved to become much more powerful than the original sense of touch that could only be sensed through physical contact. In the end, under Lin's further experiments, their range of perception had reached almost the same as that of the stinging cells.
These cells retained their abilities even after dividing, even when they evolved into other cells. However, some of them were a bit weaker, such as the Excavator and the Cone Cells. Perhaps their hardened surface affected their senses, but it wasn't a big problem.
This way, Lin's tribe would become even stronger, and Lin would no longer have to fear entering the darkness.
Lin had come into contact with darkness a few times. That kind of feeling was the same as when she lost her vision. Everything around her was plunged into endless darkness, and Lin's vision was useless.
Under such circumstances, Lin's tribe could only remain motionless. Fortunately, this darkness would only last for a short period of time before light illuminated everything again.
At first, Lin did not understand what this phenomenon was, but now she had a word to describe this phenomenon in her mind … Night.
This seemed to be a fixed phenomenon. The light would last for a period of time, and then it would turn into night. The night would last for a period of time, and then the light would shine again.
Whenever she was in the darkness, Lin could only feel fear and helplessness, but now that Lin had gained a new ability to sense things, she no longer had to fear the arrival of the night.
Lin thought that it was about time.
The surrounding light began to dim. Just as Lin had expected, night always fell at this time.
As the light slowly faded away from the water, Lin's vision began to narrow. Finally, when Lin's vision completely disappeared, she could feel the temperature of the water becoming cold.
Lin's tribe of over 30,000 cells seemed to be wandering in the void. Lin could not see them at all, but she could still sense them in her mind. The cells could sense each other's movements, as well as the tiny streams of water flowing from the cracks, as well as the food that was spewing out from the cracks.
Lin's sense of fear was much weaker compared to when she first encountered the darkness, but she still had to be careful. Even with her new senses, she could not afford to be careless in the darkness.
Lin's mind was spread throughout every single cell, so she could clearly sense the sensations of every single cell. Lin was already familiar with which streams of water came from the activity of the cells around her, and which ones didn't.
Among the countless sensations, Lin discovered a tiny sensation that was different from the sensations of her own cells … This tiny thing was slowly approaching the outermost group of cells in Lin's mind.
Lin didn't know the exact size of this thing because she hadn't carefully tested which streams of water corresponded to which size, but this almost imperceptible tiny sensation should be quite small.
This tiny fluctuation was either from a foreign creature or a fragment of some kind. Lin chose to avoid it. She didn't want to take any risks. Lin ordered the cells that were close to it to stay away from this tiny thing.
Lin had a bad feeling about this.
Right at this moment, a stream of water just happened to pass by. Lin's sense of this tiny thing disappeared. Almost at the same time, Lin felt a sharp pain. Following that, Lin could clearly sense that the tiny thing was sticking to the cell membrane and was trying to drill into it!
This was a virus!
Lin immediately ordered all the cells around her to stay away from the cell that was being drilled and ordered the acid-injectors to hurry over. Only they could kill the virus.
The cell that was being attacked by the virus felt the same as before. First, it felt intense pain, then it slowly lost control. By the time it completely lost control, Lin would be able to confirm that the cell was dead.
I have to get there before that happens!
The acid-injectors swam at full speed and finally arrived at the location just as Lin's cell was about to lose control. They immediately sprayed a huge amount of dissolving fluid at the infected cell.
At this point, Lin's sense of the infected cell had also disappeared. It was most likely dead.
She couldn't see or feel anything. For the first time, Lin felt so uneasy. She had no idea whether or not the acid-injectors managed to kill the virus.
It was only when the acid-injectors had almost run out that Lin stopped and carefully sensed for any fluctuations of the virus within the stream of dissolving fluid.
Lin suddenly felt a strange sensation.
It wasn't the movement of the virus, but the feeling of the dead cell that was supposed to be infected had returned. Lin could once again control it.
What did this mean?
Lin no longer felt any pain from the cell, as if nothing had happened to it at all.
But Lin still couldn't see anything, so she didn't know what was going on. Could it be that the cell didn't explode just now?
If that was the case, the acid-injectors' dissolving fluid might not be able to harm it. Lin wanted to wait for the cell to explode so that the acid-injectors could dissolve it.
But Lin had never encountered such a situation before. Could it be that the cell had only fainted for a short while?
What was' fainting '? Was there another special state other than 'dead' and 'alive'?
This was the first time Lin had heard of this term, but it could understand it. It seemed that 'fainting' could also temporarily interrupt one's thoughts.
Lin didn't know what to do right now, nor did she know whether or not she should let the cell live.
Lin could only wait, wait until the night had passed and she could use her sight to confirm its condition. Right now, she could only rely on the acid-injectors to guard it.
When the light shone on it …
Time slowly passed. Lin didn't dare to neglect it. Over a hundred acid-injectors surrounded the cell until the night had completely disappeared.
Light once again descended to illuminate everything around it. Lin's sight was once again effective, and the fear of the night had completely disappeared.
Lin immediately went to observe the cell that was infected by the virus but was still fine.
But as soon as she saw it, she felt a bit doubtful.
This cell was a normal basal cell. Basal cells were mainly made up of a relatively transparent outer membrane and a grey core, but this infected cell was completely red.