Juggernaut: Rise of the Zerg

Chapter 154 Algal Infestation
Sass re-established his home in that sea area, where he found more mollusk creatures for research, and at the same time closely observed their every move in daily life through the nearby Zerg units.

A little bit of time passed, and it was a little regrettable that Sass did not find anything special about the algae they lived in, but this is actually not bad news, because it at least ruled out one wrong option for the Zerg.

Since the algae is not the problem, it is obvious that the secret is in the creature itself, and in its life!

It's a pity that after observing for so long, this thing is like a log, always lying on the branches of this algae, motionless.

Because they are self-sufficient, Sass can't even observe any feeding movements!

However, for scientific research, Sass is indeed very patient. Although there is no movement, it continues to pay attention to all the nearby molluscs called sea snails by Zero through the field of vision provided by the Zerg unit.

Such persistence is indeed the attitude that scientific research workers should have. If it hadn't vaguely felt its determination from the Zerg field, Zero would even think that it was taking this opportunity to fish for fish.

But the hard work paid off. During the long wait, Sass finally waited for their biological activities when the sun was rising.

An important significance of the existence of lower life is to reproduce the offspring so that the race can survive, even if they themselves do not know this, driven by instinct, they will still do it.

During this period of research, Sass has thoroughly studied their structures other than the source of chloroplasts, and naturally can distinguish their hermaphrodite structures.

I saw them form a string one after another on the seaweed they lived on, and then...they became motionless again.

Sass easily understood their actions, breeding behavior without incident.

Sass still waited patiently, as determined and focused as ever, which made Zero feel very relieved.

This process lasted for a total of three days, and finally they separated again and resumed their previous distribution, still motionless.

It seems that in their lives, apart from being motionless, only reproduction is left.

Zero couldn't bear to watch it any longer, and he decided to stare at this place himself, and let Sass carry out research on other projects, and if there was any movement here, he would naturally notify it.

It would be a waste of time to go on like this, even if this project is indeed of great significance to the Zerg.

But Sass still has more things to do, its time is equally precious, the rise of the Zerg is all tied to its one body, it really can't afford to waste it.

Although the theories and technologies obtained from the lizardmen have been sorted out by it, it still needs to be processed for its Zerg application and even deeper research.

Including the exploration and observation of more subtle places, as well as the cognition and research of various substances, there are too many things on its schedule.

Vaguely, Zero seemed to feel a flash of disappointment, and the next moment Sass was already busy again.

And Zero replaced it to direct the swarm to keep an eye on these creatures that might cause changes in energy for the zerg.

The sea snails had no sense of being observed, and the Zerg did not show any threat to them. Even in order not to disturb them and allow them to carry out their activities normally, the Zerg always kept a sufficient distance from their activity area.

Day by day, Seth never had time to observe these dark green molluscs.

About half a month later, Zero observed that they had obvious spawning behavior, and he also notified Sass at the same time.

I saw this hermaphroditic mollusk directly discharge the fertilized eggs into the water, and then once again recklessly lay back on the algae trunk.

There are many strange creatures in nature. They only act on instinct. It is difficult for the thinking of intelligent life to understand this behavior pattern that seems to be hidden deep in the genes. They just like to lie still, even if they are zero, there is no way.

Fortunately, they finally produced the next generation, allowing Zero and Sass to observe their entire life process.

He has a faint intuition that the secret is hidden in the process of their growth!No guesswork, although I have never seen them eat, but their speciality must be inseparable from the surrounding plants!

Most likely, they ingested chloroplasts from this algae for their own use!
Although it is unbelievable, after ruling out many possibilities, only this possibility exists.

Sass had already guessed this point before, but the problem didn't lie here, because the creatures that Sass transformed almost like a replica had never tried to eat this kind of algae, but they didn't produce any changes.

This shows that either eating is not the key to the matter, or something happened during the process that Zero and SARS don't know about.

That's the crux of the matter.

While waiting quietly, a new mollusk hatched, and Zero immediately confirmed the correctness of his guess through its appearance, which was completely different from the parent body but very similar to the creature imitated and transformed by the Zerg.

Then, I saw them trying to move towards the algae closest to them.

Sass became extremely focused at this moment. In order to obtain enough samples, it even let the small insect species that had been waiting by the side come forward to capture them at every stage of the process, and immediately and on the spot to detect the changes in its body. Do your research.

As expected, nothing.

Zero was not disappointed, but continued to wait for the moment when they would actually climb onto these plants.

If anything, it should be most likely at this moment.

Sure enough, at the beginning of their eating, Zero and Sass clearly saw that they secreted a liquid from their mouths through the closely observed Zerg units, which slowly dissolved part of the torso of the green algae and inhaled them into the body , and then continue this action.

During this process, their translucent bodies slowly turned green at an extremely imperceptible speed, until a few days later, when they had grown into mature bodies, they finally turned completely dark green like their mothers!
During this process, Sass continued to capture the feeding sea snail larvae, focusing on the strange liquid secreted by it before eating.

In the end, there was no conclusion about the composition of this liquid, and the basic technological research of the Zerg did not reach this level.

But the role of this liquid was finally figured out by it.

No doubt, this is why sea snails contain chlorophyll!
This liquid dissolves the cells of the plant, but only bypasses the chloroplasts, and protects them tightly after entering the digestive juice, so that they will not be destroyed by the digestive juice after entering the sea snail.

Afterwards, these preserved chloroplasts slowly entered its cells and became a part of its body!

Since they had never seen this creature eating, neither Zero nor Sass could have imagined that the most important thing was the special liquid secreted when it was eating.

This kind of liquid is almost completely copied by the Zerg modified species of their body structure. Of course, it can also be secreted, but I have never seen sea snails eating before, so I don't know what its specific function is.

Now that the process by which they obtained chlorophyll was clear, Sass quickly had these hatched Zerg test subjects carry out the experiment again, that is, to eat algae in the form of sea snails.

The results are quite gratifying, and their bodies are gradually turning green, which proves that it is feasible to do so!

Although it hasn't really been applied to the Zerg, it's just a batch of insignificant experimental subjects who have successfully verified it, but the Zerg has passed the most difficult hurdle, opening a gap in the door to the energy revolution!
The next step is how to incorporate it into the "gene pool" of the Zerg and actually apply it to the Zerg.

Even if the difficulty of realization is not yet known, the basic foundation is already in place!
Sass will no longer face the dilemma that a smart woman can't live without rice. No matter how bad it is, it should be feasible to follow the cat and draw the tiger.

Now that he had an idea, Zero felt relieved and handed it over to Sass, after all, he was the real researcher.

………………

The expansion of the swarm will not be stagnated by anything, and their bodies are active everywhere from the sea to the land.

Even if it is zero and there is no full-scale reproduction number, in such a vast area, their base number is huge, and the number of Zerg that grows naturally due to the needs of exploration every day is counted in tens of thousands.

Of course, the process of exploration can never be smooth sailing. This planet is as geologically active as Zero had expected on the original island.

Earthquakes and tsunamis happen from time to time, and hurricanes and floods are common occurrences in the world.

As the area occupied by the Zerg becomes wider and wider, various natural phenomena observed are also increasing. This kind of disaster that could threaten the survival of the Zerg on the initial island can only be said to cause damage to them now. superficial.

Tens of thousands or even tens of millions of quantitative losses, zero or even not at all.

Because as the Zerg is fully spread in the vast explored area, these seemingly terrifying disasters cannot threaten the survival of the Zerg at all.

The so-called loss is nothing more than a loss of some resources, at most it is just a slight injury.

As long as it is not a world-class disaster that is enough to cause global extinction, with the background of today's Zerg, they can survive smoothly.

Compared to these, Zero is more worried about attacks from the biological level.

Of course not such creatures as lizardmen or giant sea beasts. Although they have developed civilizations and have huge populations or are huge in size, the damage they have caused to the Zerg so far has been within a controllable range.

In other words, to deal with them, there is a way to deal with them anyway.

The real threat is always those unpredictable attacks, such as the parasites last time.

If the Zerg hadn't achieved something at the micro level, they wouldn't even be able to spot their stature, let alone deal with it.

In this case, although they may not be able to pose a real crisis of extinction to the Zerg, they will always exist as higher-level predators than the Zerg.

The swarm cannot attack them and can only let them kill.

This kind of passivity is what Zero Determined doesn't want to see.

Although the problem of parasites has been solved now, it is only at this level.

The so-called "immune system" can only be regarded as a framework now, and the filling at a more subtle level is still under research, and Zero is quietly waiting for the results.

Of course, its priority is now a little lower.

The Zerg transformation test using sea snails as samples has already started. Obtaining chlorophyll from plants to help them obtain energy from the outside world is an amazing idea and a miracle of nature.

With the help of this, Sass conducted a large number of experiments and tests. During this process, many strange-looking creatures were hatched, and then abandoned and rebuilt.

After testing, the use of this characteristic is not smooth on large and medium-sized insect species. The reason is very simple. Their energy consumption is too huge, and their activities are frequent. This kind of slow energy intake cannot make ends meet.

Zero also finally understands why the sea snail is obsessed with lying motionless on the green algae, probably a large part of the reason is due to the instinct to save energy.

Therefore, the results of Sass' research are mainly reflected in small insect species, or in other words, a kind of insect species that is close to plant.

They float on the surface of the water like a leaf the size of a petal, with almost no mobility, and basically no intelligence, and they will not be displayed in the Zerg field. Because of their special appearance, they are called zero It is algae.

Rather than saying that they are a species of insect transformed by the Zerg, it is better to say that they are "created" as a creature between animals and plants.

However, among the many designs of Sass, they are relatively successful, and basically have the function of providing energy for the Zerg, even if they are still relatively primitive.

It will mainly survive on the ocean, and at the same time, it can synthesize the substances needed for its own survival through photosynthesis.

Of course, this is only the most basic function. The reason why it is relatively successful is that the growth of their number no longer depends on the hatching in the hatchery. Just like the tiny bugs that exist as the immune system in the body, they can Self-reproduction!

In other words, after this kind of creature appears, it will no longer consume any resources of the Zerg. They will absorb materials from the outside through photosynthesis to develop themselves, and exist as "producers" inside the Zerg. The Zerg feed back.

In a sense, there is no difference between them and the crops planted by the Zerg, they are just another creature "planted" by the Zerg.

But the difference lies in their ability to reproduce. As long as they get enough energy from the outside world, they can reproduce like self-replication, and their output speed is far from comparable to that of crops grown on land.

As long as it is placed above the water, perhaps soon, those insect swarms that grow crops on land can be laid off.

In addition, the reason why they are even completely plant-like and basically do not have any characteristics of Zerg in the general sense, but they are still called "algal insects" by Zero is because where they exist, even if there is no one nearby Other Zerg units can also expand Zero's field of vision.

This means that they are still included in the Zerg system and are still a member of the Zerg.

(End of this chapter)