Lin was using cells to form a new combination inside the Mothership. Initially, Lin wanted to design more, but she suddenly felt that it was not necessary, so in the end, she only designed one.
These hunting units mainly had a circular structure with a large mouth that looked like a slit. The inner wall of the mouth was filled with spikes made of cone-shaped cells. There were also some that were injected with acid. As long as it got close to its prey and opened its mouth, it could suck the prey into its mouth and crush it with its spikes mixed with dissolving fluid.
In addition, the sphere with a large mouth was equipped with an eyeball for observation and two long, flat tentacles to help it swim.
They were called Devourers, and as the name suggested, Lin's purpose in creating them was to devour!
However, the so-called Devourers did not have the ability to digest food because the inner wall of their mouth was completely covered with spikes or dissolving fluid. Their body structure was made up of a large number of muscle cells. By omitting the organs to absorb and deliver food, they could maximize their speed and strength. If they were almost out of energy, they only needed to return to the Mothership and connect to the fat tentacles in the mothership to replenish their energy.
Lin suddenly realized that 'organ' was a new term. It referred to a structure made up of many cells and had various functions.
That felt good. Let's begin the hunt!
The Devourers began to move. They swayed their tentacles and swam out of the channels on the surface of the Mothership to hunt all the nearby cells.
The Devourers were of different sizes. Lin designed them so that they could burrow into the gaps between various grains of sand. The smallest was only made up of a few hundred cells, while the largest had tens of thousands. However, their functions and appearance were exactly the same. Lin felt that there was no need to design too many types for now.
The Devourers spread out and swam to the hunting ground that was suitable for their size.
As soon as they found a cell, the Devourers would rush up, open their mouths and swallow it, then chew it into pieces.
As Lin was hunting the cells, she noticed that the movements of these cells were different from before. They were faster than before and could absorb oxygen.
It seemed that these cells were the same as her, adapting and using oxygen? However, no matter how fast they were, they could not compare to the Devourers that were made up of many cells.
Just as Lin thought, the Devourer's structure was very suitable for devouring many cells. The prey had no resistance against the Devourer, be it in terms of speed or other aspects. This gave Lin an idea. Perhaps the Devourer no longer needed any single cells other than the basic cells, it could combine them together.
After all, the combined multi-cell body was stronger than a single cell in every aspect.
Some of the smaller cells nearby were quickly devoured by the Devourers. Some of the Devourers returned to the Mothership and spat out the food they had collected. Lin then stored a portion of the nutrients into fat cells, while the rest were used to create more Devourers.
Lin's hunting range also grew larger and larger. From the cracks in the sand below to the vast expanse of water around them, one could see the Devourer's figure hunting.
Through the Devourers that burrowed into the sand, Lin noticed that there was a large amount of white paste in the depths of the sand. Most of the cells here were probably attracted by the white paste. However, Lin did not plan to eat the white paste this time. After all, it would run out sooner or later. It was better to keep it and let it attract more cells. That way, there would be an endless supply of food.
Lin kept repeating the process of hunting — returning — storing nutrients — creating more Devourers — increasing the size of the Mothership — continuing the hunt. The process was very simple and not dangerous. After a while, the word 'leisurely' appeared in Lin's mind.
Lin observed the green cells in the rearing pen and noticed that their numbers had increased a little. It seemed that they had a way to obtain food from the light. Although this place was much colder than the surface, there was still light coming in here.
Lin wondered if she should build more rearing pens to raise more of them …
Just as Lin was thinking about this problem, her Devourers suddenly had a special thought.
One of the Devourers that was hunting in the distance suddenly felt an intense pain. The pain quickly spread to every cell in its body. After that, Lin lost all sense of it.
Is it dead?
Lin still remembered this feeling. Before the Devourer died, Lin also saw something familiar in its eyeball.
The shiny object was spreading in the water. The cold air it emitted quickly solidified everything around it. All the cells were running away. They desperately burrowed into the sand in an attempt to escape this danger.
Lin did the same. She immediately ordered all the Devourers to return to the Mothership. Their speed was much faster than a single cell. With the support of oxygen, their speed had surpassed the speed of the ice spreading in the water. After losing only two Devourers that were further away, the rest returned safely.
Lin's Mothership could also move, but it did not plan to run away.
It wanted to face this threat and evolve from it!
Lin closed all the holes on the Mothership and retracted the eyeball at the top into her body. She then accelerated the hardening of her skin cells. At this time, the ice that kept spreading had reached the Mothership's body.
The cold came from her skin. Lin could clearly feel it spreading throughout the Mothership's body. However, because the Mothership's skin was gray and not transparent, Lin could not see what was going on outside.
However, the ice did not spread any further. It was blocked outside the Mothership's skin and did not extend into the Mothership's body. However, the cold continued to kill the cells on the Mothership's skin.
Lin knew what to do.
Just like before, Lin connected all the fat cells to the Mothership's skin and continuously supplied them with nutrients. The cells that were still alive kept dividing to fight against the cold.
The battle with the ice did not last long.
After Lin's continuous repair of the Mothership's skin cells continued for a while, she gradually stopped feeling the cold and no longer had any cells dying.
Perhaps because she had experienced the cold once, her cells developed resistance to the cold very quickly.
During this time, Lin paid attention to the group of green cells. Although the ice did not penetrate the outer layer of the Mothership's Rearing Pen, almost half of them had died. A small group of them were piled together. They seemed to be secreting a transparent gelatinous substance that covered the entire group.
It felt quite fun.
Now that the cold had yet to recede, Lin could feel that it was surrounded by a thick layer of ice. The Mothership could not move at all.
The ice would melt sooner or later, but she didn't know how long it would take.
Lin didn't want to wait.
She began to use some of her cells to form the giant Excavators that she had formed before. Lin planned to try digging through the ice herself.
After forming ten giant Excavators, Lin opened one of the tunnels on the Mothership. A strong chill suddenly flowed in from the outside, and Lin could see the thick layer of ice on the outside.
The giant Excavators immediately stepped forward. Since they could even dig through rocks, digging through ice was naturally not a difficult task. With the sharp teeth on their surfaces, they could easily scrape off pieces of ice crystals.
Lin formed a small eyeball to follow them out to observe their progress, then immediately closed the tunnel on the Mothership. Because it was too cold, it seemed that the cells inside were not as resistant to the cold as the Mothership's skin.
These newly formed giant Excavators had a certain degree of resistance to the cold, but not as strong as the Mothership's skin. If any of them felt cold, Lin would let them go back to the Mothership to rest for a while.
The giant Excavators' jagged surfaces were about as hard as the Mothership's skin. Lin knew that hardness alone was not enough to resist the cold. There must be a secret behind it.
A few Excavators had already dug a tunnel in the ice. Lin planned to start digging down to where there were grains of sand to see where the wild cells were hiding.
Just as she was about to dig down, the ice crystals in front of her suddenly trembled slightly. At the same time, countless cracks appeared on the ice walls.
What was this? Was the ice melting?
No, that was not how ice melted. It felt like a huge force was shaking the entire ice layer.
"Crack …"
The shaking created countless cracks again. Lin felt that she should retreat to the Mothership.