4.6 Billion Year Symphony of Evolution Chapter 24

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Chapter Twenty-Four The First Great Ma.s.s Extinction

Lin’s observer swam towards those green cells and wanted to examine them.

These cells were oval-shaped, of ordinary appearance, and was about the same size as Lin’s cells. Lin remembered seeing similar green cells in the past. These were not special.

They did not seem to be vicious hunters. They did not have any terrifying weapons growing out of their bodies and didn’t react to Lin coming closer.

It seemed that the large-scale deaths of the cells were not related to them? But why were they alright?

These green cells were mostly slowly swimming. They would occasionally move their bodies, but they did not seem to be in a hurry to move anywhere. Even though there were such a great ma.s.s of corpses below them, they did not appear as they were going to feed.

What did this green group eat in order to grow so large?

Curiosity drove Lin to go even closer. It found that when these green cells rocked their bodies, their cell membranes would occasionally produce some transparent spheres.

What was that?

Gas? Bubbles?

These were new terms. Gas seemed to be referring to something without form or bulk.

When Lin received new terms, sometimes, it would also receive explanations for these terms. However, these explanations would confuse Lin even more.

These transparent b.a.l.l.s that were called gas clearly had shape and they would not change shape.

Just as Lin was thinking this, it saw two little gas bubbles collide. Then it formed a bigger ball. The merging was even faster than Lin’s cells fusing together. The connection was also perfect, and it was not possible to see that there had originally been two.

T-this was really unique!

Lin was immediately attracted to this scene. Those green cells rocked again, and more gas bubbles came out of their bodies. A few gas bubbles floated in front of Lin’s eyes.

Lin was curious, but it would put the observer in danger. It had the observer move back and had a fat cell come into contact with this gas bubble.

The moment the gas bubble touched the fat cell, it smoothly merged into the cell membrane.

So painful!

What followed immediately was the great pain coming from this cell. The gas bubble moved constantly through the fat cell and tore apart the nucleus and everything inside.

The fat cell quickly died.

This scene gave Lin a fright. Was the gas bubble a kind of virus?

But through the transparent cell membrane, Lin could see that the gas bubble inside the fat cell’s corpse had not increased or acted in any manner. It was completely different from what a virus did.

Then what was the gas bubble?

Why could it destroy the entire cell?

Lin now knew how such great swathes of cells had died.

But Lin did not have time to think. The large group of green cells above Lin was releasing more and more gas bubbles. Lin did not want to lose its observer, so it immediately had its observer and the remaining fat cells swim deeper as the air bubbles did not seem to be able to move downwards.

After Lin’s cells swam to a certain depth, they started to swim back to Lin. At this time, Lin was reinforcing the ectoderm of its base and had the tentacles on the ectoderm all shrink back within the layer.

Other than the enormous tentacle, all the smaller tentacles on Lin’s ectoderm could shrink back into the ectoderm. Due to this, Lin modified them. Now, these tentacles did not grow on the ectoderm, but in the middle layer of cells. They could reach out through the open holes of the ectoderm and then shrink back in times of danger.

It had been a long time since Lin had encountered danger. But the danger this time made Lin feel terror.

Each green cell could release hundreds of gas bubbles. When billions of cells were releasing at once, the area covered by the gas bubbles would be terrifying.

Lin only hoped now that those green cells would not pa.s.s near its base. It didn’t know if the structure of the ectoderm could block the gas bubbles.

Base?

Lin found that this term was a new one. It had unconsciously used it. However, there was no time to pay attention to this.

Whoosh —

The water started to become restless. Lin’s observer that was hurrying back was swept away.

It was the water current! Why did it have to be at this time?

Lin looked back and saw that group of green cells were also being swept in this direction by the water current. What also came along were countless gas bubbles … …

The gas bubbles would only move upwards in still waters, but under this strong water current, they were swept away in all directions and filled the entire area of water!

Lin’s observer and the fat cells were unable to avoid these gas bubbles. They were immediately surrounded by large numbers of gas bubbles. Some of the slower fat cells were permeated by the gas bubbles.

Only the observer successfully dodged the gas bubbles. However, Lin did not have the attention to spare for it.

Because this flow of water was heading towards Lin’s base!

Lin had already had the tentacles shrink back. Now it could only wait. It only hoped the gas bubbles could not pa.s.s through the ectoderm.

The water current was never anything good to Lin. It continued to rampage and carried that enormous group of green cells to Lin’s base. When large amounts of green appeared in Lin’s field of view, Lin knew it would not be able to escape the danger this time.

Finally, Lin had the eyeball antenna also shrink back into the ectoderm. At this time, the green cells that had came with the water current covered the light from the top and caused the entire region of water to become dark.

Lin’s ectoderm was transparent, and the eyeball antenna could see the situation outside even from within. It saw that the green cells were in chaos after being swept by the water current and the gas bubbles they released were spread everywhere.

Lin suddenly found that the observer’s field of view was still here and could see this scene. It should have been carried back by the water current. Lin hadn’t thought it would still be alive.

Lin opened a small hole in the ectoderm and had the observer swim in.

At this time, some gas bubbles came close to Lin’s ectoderm … …

Lin immediately closed the hole and had the eyeball antenna lock onto these gas bubbles. Lin saw them glue onto the ectoderm.

Glue?

These gas bubbles seemed to be stuck to the ectoderm, but they did not permeate into the cells that made up the ectoderm.

Would this hold? Lin did not understand what was happening. In the next moment, the gas bubbles that were stuck to the surface suddenly entered the ectoderm and Lin felt a great pain at the same time … …

It did not hold? The outer layer had been able to stop viruses, the dissolving fluid produced by other cells, and could not be washed away by the strong current, yet it could not stop the gas bubbles?

Why?

Lin did not have the time to think.

More air bubbles touched the ectoderm and then they permeated in to kill the cells that made up the ectoderm.

Once the cells of the ectoderm were killed, they would become fragile. While their corpses were still connected to the outside and stopped the entry of the gas bubbles, the water current would destroy these fragile parts and cause more gas bubbles to flood in.

Just as Lin thought this, the next water current came. The fragile parts of the ectoderm, the dead cells, were blasted apart, and large numbers of air bubbles followed in.

It could not be stopped … …

Since it could not be defended again, then Lin would attack! Yes, everything would be fine once it killed those green cells. That way, there would not be any gas bubbles!

Lin’s thoughts formed instantaneously. It immediately opened all the holes in the ectoderm, numerous tentacles searching out. They waved, using the stinger cells on the surface to kill the green cells that had filled the entire area of water due to the water current.

But the tentacles were also made from cells and would be permeated by the gas bubbles. In this moment, Lin killed large amounts of green cells, but more than half of the tentacles were destroyed.

And the cell group of the green cells were even larger than Lin’s entire base. Also, because of Lin’s attack, they started to swarm over. The enormous gas bubbles they created immediately drowned Lin’s base.

Go die go die go die go die go die go die calm go die go die kill all go die retreat retreat retreat retreat

Lin’s thoughts immediately flashed through numerous times. It ordered all of the exploding b.a.l.l.s and acid ejectors to charge out and furiously spray dissolving liquid into the later. There was so much dissolving liquid that it filled the entire region of water but while the dissolving fluid could destroy the green cells, they were not effective against the gas bubbles.

Lin knew that the count-attack was ineffective. Then it had the remaining cells swim deeper into the cavern through the enormous tentacle and then used large numbers of diggers and cone-shaped cells at the mouth of the cavern to form a secure defense of many layers.

When the enormous tentacle died due to the gas bubbles, Lin was unable to receive an information from the outside at ll.

The enormous base that Lin had constructed and everything else outside were destroyed due to these small gas bubbles. Fortunately, these gas bubbles would not burrow into the cavern … …

What Lin didn’t know was that it was not the only one that received a destructive attack.

Because of the activity of the lava and underground volcanoes which caused the water temperature to rise, these green cells increased greatly in population. The gas that they released was a fata toxin to all of the being on this planet. This toxic gas spread through the entire plant as the green cells increased in density. Almost 90% of all living beings went extinct in this ocean … …

Lin’s thoughts actually had a term that represented this gas.

“Oxygen.”

Author notes: Aah … … since this is the end of the first volume, then I will chat for a bit here.

It’s not that I don’t want to update more, it’s that I cannot write faster. Some places are very difficult to write. When I’m writing, I always have to go look at microscopes, doc.u.mentaries and all kinds of information. It takes a long time to write one chapter. Cells are truly complex … …

But what’s next is the era of multicellularity. The updates will be faster and I also like to study multicellular organisms. So updates will increase.

Translator Rambling: And we are at this planet’s equivalent of the Great Oxygenation Event. The evil green cyan.o.bacteria with their toxic oxygen byproducts … …

While the t.i.tle is 4.6 billion years, the novel’s timeline isn’t of Earth. So even though the Great Oxygenation Even was approximately 2.45 billion years ago on Earth, this novel still has a long way to go … …

Cyan.o.bacteria. From Wikipedia.