In Lin's field of vision, there were bright red particles everywhere. They mixed with the blue debris, forming a unique scenery.
This was what Lin's troops saw. Everything here had turned into floating debris. The blue cells that formed the oesophagus, tubes, and other organs of the round shield worm were invaded by the virus, and then completely destroyed from the core to the outer membrane. Because the immune cells were killed by Lin, the virus grew without limit. The only thing left in the round shield worm's body was probably a pile of cell fragments.
Lin's remaining troops slowly swam through this environment filled with floating corpses of cells and viruses. Almost every single one of them had been dyed red by the virus, and as she observed the terrible state of this place, many thoughts appeared in Lin's mind.
Fear, anxiety, doubt, but there was no joy of victory.
What was a virus?
According to Lin's current knowledge, a virus was a strange creature. It did not divide, did not eat, and only drifted with the current. If it came into contact with a cell, it would drill into the outer membrane, use the cell to divide and multiply, and then destroy the entire cell.
In this way, it would create more viruses and infect more cells …
Was their goal to kill all the cells? Viruses did not limit themselves, they would only increase their numbers endlessly and destroy everything.
When all the cells that could be killed were killed, they would also die due to lack of food. Only a small number of viruses would survive and drift further along the current to infect other cells.
These bright red viruses were the same. When they killed the round shield worm's cells, their numbers would increase exponentially, but this also caused most of the viruses to be unable to find a cell to infect. As long as they did not infect a cell for a period of time, they would die.
Killing everything that could be killed and waiting for death. Was this what a virus was? What was the purpose of their existence?
However, these bright red viruses had a special characteristic. They could ride on Lin's cells without destroying them. Lin still did not know why.
Lin suddenly realized that she did not know the purpose of her existence either. Was it constantly evolving?
This seemed to be a question worth pondering, but Lin did not feel that it was the time for her to idle.
Lin's aircraft carrier was being repaired. The cells around the wound caused by the round shield worm began to divide. At the same time, Lin gathered the cells that did not enter the round shield worm's mouth and some large Devourers and swam towards the round shield worm's corpse. Lin planned to study and eat this monster that caused her great loss.
The body of the round-shield worm was lying on the ice not far from the aircraft carrier. Fortunately, the ice had not melted yet, or its body might attract other cells.
Lin ordered the Devourers to bite off the joints on the round shield worm's limbs. She wanted to see if she could break off all the limbs.
Then, Lin had 100,000 cells form an exploration team and swim into the round shield worm's mouth. The esophagus was no longer there. All that was left were floating cell fragments.
The exploration team that had entered quickly met up with the group of troops that were almost completely dyed red. There were only a few tens of thousands of them left.
Although Lin felt that it was a waste, she still had to get rid of them to prevent the virus in these cells from doing anything strange. Lin would never let more than ten infected people live.
After all, the virus was too terrifying. It was something that harmed the enemy without benefiting herself. After they destroyed all the cells in the round shield worm's body, Lin could not find any usable food.
Perhaps she should not have used the virus to attack? But this would only drive the round shield worm away at most. It was impossible to kill it. But was it worth it or not? She would only know after exploring the whole worm.
Lin first let the troops explore the esophagus for a while. It was very spacious. Lin thought that this should be the 'round shield' of the round shield worm's head. The range of the flash explosion ball's light source was far from enough to illuminate the entire space.
There were only cell fragments and viruses around. These viruses were all dead. Although it was not obvious from the outside, even if Lin let the cells stick to them, they would not get in.
Lin's exploration team continued to move deeper. She tried to see if there was anything that was not destroyed by the virus. If the round shield worm's cells were completely destroyed by the virus, then this battle was really not worth it.
What was that?
Lin suddenly saw a thick and long tentacle floating among the countless corpses of cells and viruses.
This tentacle was obviously also made of cells. It seemed to have been broken by the virus attack. Lin could see that the center was hollow and could accommodate many cells.
That's right. This tentacle was actually a kind of tube for cells to pass through. She had seen it at the round shield worm's joint wound before.
Why wasn't the entire pipeline destroyed by the virus? Was it just broken?
Lin ordered a Devourer to swim to the broken part of the tube and look inside. She found that there were still a lot of blue cells inside, but they all seemed to be dead as they lay motionless on the wall of the tube. Only one or two of them could be seen moving occasionally.
Regardless of how they managed to survive the virus attack, this meant that Lin still had some spoils of war.
Lin let some small devourers and basic cells stay. The devourers entered the tube to devour the blue cells, while the basic cells directly formed a small circular structure, mainly used to decompose and digest food.
Then, the rest of Lin's team moved deeper into the round shield worm's body along the tube. It seemed that the deeper they went, the more things they would encounter that were not destroyed by the virus.
In the process of moving deeper, Lin found another tube. This tube was also broken, and its interior was also full of blue cells.
Lin also left some cells here and continued to go deeper. Soon, she encountered more tubes.
The third tube, the fourth tube … The deeper they went, the more tubes Lin found. These tubes were crisscrossed all over the space. They were of different thickness. Some of the tubes even had a large number of branches that extended to unknown places. The more branches there were, the thinner the tube.
Although these tubes were somewhat different, they all had one thing in common, which was that the thickest part of them all extended to the same room.
And if one of the tubes was broken, a large number of blue corpses would flow out. They seemed to be dead, but this was obviously not the work of the virus.
How strange. How did they avoid the virus attack? There were no cell fragments in the water here. Maybe the virus did not spread here at all?
Maybe the virus only destroyed the cells in the round shield worm's head. But if that was the case, why were the cells in the deeper part almost all dead?
Although half of Lin's aircraft carrier had been torn apart by the round-shield worm, the remaining half was still alive and well. However, this worm had only lost a part of its cells and it was already dead?
Lin was getting more and more confused. She swam deeper into the tube. Finally, a huge object appeared in front of Lin's team.
What is this?
This oval-shaped object was very large, about the same size as the pincers on the round shield worm's limb. It was also a combination of cells. The ends of all the surrounding tubes were connected to this object. It seemed to be a main organ structure.
What is this thing used for?
While Lin was thinking, the thing suddenly moved. It rapidly expanded, then shrank back into its original form.
What's wrong?
Lin ordered the cells to retreat, but left a devourer to keep an eye on this thing. Lin was very curious about this thing.
But after waiting for a long time, the thing did not move again.
… Forget it.
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