dark moon

Chapter 239 Anatomy
"Indeed, there is a saying that for these gregarious bugs, individuals should be counted in groups. A certain one cannot actually be regarded as a separate individual. They are just part of the swarm." Shuer tapped his thigh lightly. , said thoughtfully, "I have heard of this theory, but..."

"You've heard of a ghost." Meridi finally found the opportunity. Not only did she interrupt Shuer rudely, but she also secretly made a rude gesture that only two people could see, "The theory you mentioned This can be applied to all insect swarms, but that's not what I'm talking about. The insect swarms here have a true sense of unity. They are not like a whole, they are a whole in themselves. Do you understand, in this world? All the bugs add up to form a complete individual. The enemy we have to face is not a certain bug or a group of bugs, but the entire swarm."

"Each of Parvatiga's insect swarms has a strict division of labor. Those responsible for fighting, those responsible for construction, those responsible for reproduction, and those responsible for taking care of it. It does look like they together form an individual called the insect swarm. But if you look deeper, each of them is actually independent, with an independent life system, an independent brain, and even an independent soul. But the insect swarm we are facing now is completely different and has none of these things. Do you understand? They are completely dependent on the individual insect swarm for survival, and they cannot survive long without the insect swarm.”

"But..." Xiuer frowned, obviously he didn't understand very well, not only him, but everyone looked puzzled and couldn't figure out the difference between the two, "Pavatiga's social insects seem to be unable to leave ethnic group..."

"Don't mention Parvatiga. Each of the insects in the swarm of Parvatiga can survive alone. Whether they have survival skills or not is one thing, but at least in theory it is possible. Just Like that group of mutated cave-dwelling spiders, if you isolate a small spider alone, can you say that it cannot survive? Another example is bees, if you capture the soldiers and even the queen bee, as long as they are given enough food and space, they You can still live well. But the insect swarm here is different. They don't have an independent life-support system at all. Do you understand? As long as you leave the insect swarm, no matter how much food you put in front of them, they will starve to death. "

"Forget it, I can't explain it to you. Come to the research room with me and show you my anatomy results today. You will understand what I mean when you see it."

"No, just go to the control room." Xiuer shook his head and said, "Wei should have a record of your research process this afternoon. By reading the record, you can not only know the result, but also the process."

"It would be best if there were records. I don't want to do all those tests again. It's too troublesome."

"Wei, you should be able to retrieve the image records from the research room this afternoon." There were obviously only mercenaries around, but as Xiure asked, Wei's mechanical answer came from nowhere.

"The image recording is ready, please go to the control room to check."

Nodding to each other, the eight people ran to the control room with their thoughts in mind. Although they still don't understand what Mility said, if what she said is true, the swarm is really an inseparable whole, and the difficulty of confrontation will occur. There has been a qualitative change. After all, the difficulty of fighting four people and fighting four people divided into four limbs from one person are completely different concepts.

As soon as you enter the control room, you can see that in the corner on one side, the recording image of the research room has been prepared. In the image, Merit's little phantom is standing on the platform, facing an insect corpse with a serious look. The expression looks very comic.

Poking, poking, poking with a light green nail on the face of Mility's phantom, there is no doubt that only a creature with an unusual mind like Lin Jing can do such a thing: "Hey, it's really fun. There's obviously nothing."

"You tree, have you never seen illusion magic? Go away and don't poke me in the face." She slapped Moria's hand away, and Meredith nodded to Soul, "You can start now."

"#@￥@#￥." Xiure whispered and communicated with Wei who was standing on the central platform for a while, then suddenly raised his head and asked, "You dissected a total of seven insects this afternoon, which section do you want to read?"

"Let's look at the first one first." Miridi thought for a while, "The first, fifth and sixth ones are all more representative, just read these three paragraphs."

The illusion was slightly enlarged. In the image, little Meredith slowly walked to the test table with gloves on and began to turn over the insect's body.

"Look at this bug. It has obvious fighting organs, sharp claws, and spikes on the top of its head. And here, these are their mouthparts. Look at their teeth. They don't look like bug teeth but look like those of a carnivorous beast. The teeth, you can feel the intimidation just by looking at them. If you look at them from the perspective of Parvatiga's swarm, they are undoubtedly fighting members similar to soldier bees and ants, right?"

The seven people nodded. Needless to say, Meredith, everyone had already regarded them as soldiers and bees.

"Do you think it's nothing special? Do you think it's just a slight difference in image? Oh, once you dissect it, you won't think so."

In the video, Meridi has begun to dissect the first bug. The bugs look familiar. They are the ones everyone sees the most when they come to this projection world.

"Their exoskeleton is filled with solid muscles. Can you zoom in a little bit? Great, thank you. Here, the muscles fill the exoskeleton completely. Look, the muscles are compact and elastic. This is undoubtedly a very strong insect. The nerve clusters wrapped in the muscles are also very obvious. Yes, it is the thing I just picked up." In the three-dimensional image display, Militi started from the legs and slowly cut open the insect's body bit by bit. It was indeed a The necromancer who works with corpses every day is very skilled in dissecting even creatures he has never seen before. The insect's hard exoskeleton cannot stop the necromancer's magic-strengthened scalpel. Soon, the inside of the corpse appears completely. In front of everyone.

"A perfect corpse, isn't it?" Even though she saw the picture in the video, Militi was still a little intoxicated by the corpse and said with blurred eyes, "Look, the strong muscles give them great strength, rich Nerves allow them to move more quickly, thick blood vessels allow their blood to circulate faster, and their endurance is far beyond that of normal creatures. Coupled with the exoskeleton, these creatures are simply creatures born for fighting."

"Exhibitionist who desecrates corpses." Mia sarcastically said, "Do you just want us to see how perverted you are?"

"Idiots with flat chests, stupid mountain elves, stereotyped green-skinned people with long ears, the shame of intelligent creatures whose cognition is stuck in the barbaric era, stubborn species whose brains can be used to build walls, and imbecile mages whose brains are too full to hold new knowledge. ." A long series of scoldings, without even having to take a breath. It was as if they had to be repeated a hundred times every day. The rest of the people suppressed their laughter and forced their eyes to look away. Well, we didn't hear anything. Hearing, "Are you blind, or has your brain really been used to build a house? Take a look for yourself, don't you think this bug is missing something?"

Huh?After all, I'm not a professional, so I didn't notice it even if I didn't prompt it. It was only after Militi prompted everyone that they noticed that this bug lacked too many things.

It does have mouthparts, but the end of the mouthparts has been filled with muscles. There is no passage for food to pass through. Downward, there are no organs that are even related to digesting food. Of course, the excretory system does not exist either. In addition to muscles and mucous membranes, there are only the heart and blood circulation system that supply blood. There are also some tubes with unknown functions, similar to nerve clusters, that are connected from the body surface to the heart.

Could this thing be a living thing?What a joke.

"Don't they all need to eat?" Duck leaned closer and stared at the corpse of the bug, and asked in surprise, "It's fine if the bug doesn't have a respiratory system, but it doesn't have any organs for digestion, absorption and excretion, how can it still be alive?"

"I remember that there is a kind of small flying insects. After breaking out of the cocoon, they don't have digestive organs. They can only live for half a day, and after half a day, they will die when the accumulated energy is exhausted." Xiu Er also squatted beside Dak, the two The enemies stared at the three-dimensional image together, "Is this thing similar?"

"Well, it's very possible. And is it male or female?" Dak's biggest concern is slightly different from that of normal people. "Why can't I tell its gender?"

"Yes, there is no reproductive system either." Shuer nodded, "It can't be asexual reproduction."

"Oh, man, this is what a man is." Militty showed a contemptuous smile like a queen, and suddenly slammed the table, "Can your pathetic minds only hold food and sex? Apart from these two things , can’t you think of other things? The most important thing for soul creatures is not as important as food and sex?”

"I can't agree to this." Duck retorted seriously, "What could be more important than eating and sex... Ouch."

"Brain." Shuer retracted the foot that kicked Dak over. "It doesn't have a brain at all, but... insects don't necessarily all have brains."

"Humph, both." Mility sneered, recognizing Shuer's discovery, "It's just not as obvious as other creatures. Their brains are actually formed by a bunch of nerves stacked together. But, this insect , He doesn’t even have such a pitiful brain.”

In the video, Militi was rummaging through the insect's corpse for organs that seemed to be the brain. However, except for a few slightly protruding ganglia necessary for controlling the body, nothing was found.

"Do you know what this means? It means that theoretically, this kind of bug, which cannot have an appetite and has no reproductive organs, will not do anything except lie in place all day long or run around in a small area to consume energy. To take the initiative to do anything." Miridi sighed and said seriously, "Fight? Kill? Dismember? It doesn't exist, it has no such concept at all."

　Thanks to the book friend for the reward of 1 starting coins for the level 100 soldier with remaining health.

　　Thank you Master Shuyou for doubling the fare and following the car in front for a reward of 500 starting coins.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)