Chapter 17

 Was this compassion?

What exactly was that? Was this compassion a good thing or a bad thing? It was as if this was a feeling that would occasionally surface whenever Lin wanted to commit a massacre.

But wasn't it strange? Lin would occasionally send the cells of her own community to their deaths or kill them for the sake of experimenting with viruses, but she didn't feel anything when she did these things to her own cells, so why would she feel this compassion towards cells that weren't her own kind?

Was it because they were 'her' that she didn't feel anything?

Lin didn't understand. The only thing Lin knew was that this compassion would prevent her community from growing stronger.

That was why Lin shouldn't follow it.

Lin gave these glowing cells a name, 'Light Germs'. Then, Lin decided to attack them.

Lin ordered the cluster of cells to spread out and attack the surrounding Light Germs. While the Light Germs didn't have any resistance, they were still quite fast, so none of Lin's cells could catch up to them.

And so, Lin began to use some sort of encirclement tactic to drive the Light Germs into a corner. After all, this was a cave, so there had to be an end.

Very quickly, Lin managed to drive over half of the Light Germs to the end of the cave. With no path behind them, the Light Germs huddled together like a giant glowing object. At the same time, their light seemed to be much brighter than before, so much so that Lin couldn't see them clearly.

But that didn't stop Lin from attacking them.

To deal with a large group of enemies, Lin summoned the cells with the strongest AOE ability — — Exploding Orbs.

These large cells were filled with lethal dissolved fluid and were ready to self-destruct at any moment. They could easily destroy a large group of enemies. While most of these slow-moving cells had been washed away by the water, there were still quite a few left, enough to kill all the Light Germs in this place.

Lin first ordered several dozen Exploding Orbs to approach the Light Germs huddled together at the end of the cave. The Exploding Orbs didn't stop even after reaching their target. They desperately twisted their bodies and squeezed into the Light Germs, then rapidly absorbed water to expand their bodies. And then — — - boom!

One of the Exploding Orbs exploded. The dissolved fluid released from its body instantly dissolved several hundred Light Germs around it into powder.

The Exploding Orbs exploded one after another. Almost every time they exploded, the Light Germs would shrink a bit, and the light they emitted as a whole would dim a bit.

Lin wasn't fond of massacres, but she wouldn't stop until every last Light Germ had been decomposed into powder.

However, something special happened during this process.

Some of the Exploding Spheres absorbed some Light Fungi as they expanded. After these Light Fungi entered the Exploding Sphere's body, they were quickly dissolved by the liquid. However, the fragments that weren't completely dissolved were still inside the Exploding Sphere's body. Moreover, these fragments were like the Light Fungi themselves, emitting a blue light.

Some of the Exploding Orbs that had swallowed more light fungi would become like light fungi, shining brightly.

A new cell, the Flash Burst Sphere, was born just like that.

It was very interesting.

Lin immediately changed her strategy. Instead of using the Exploding Orbs to kill the Light Germs, she now had the Exploding Orbs devour the Light Germs. In truth, this strategy was actually quite effective. Due to the size of the Exploding Orbs, the number of Light Germs they devoured was no less than the number of Light Germs they killed.

Regardless, Lin still didn't stop her massacre of the light fungi.

Until the last light mushroom in the corner of the cave was eaten.

The destruction of the Light Fungi didn't turn the cave back into darkness. Instead, their light was stored inside the Exploding Sphere's body, and now, these explosive cells had also gained the ability to light up the cave.

However, Lin had only killed half of the Light Fungi. The other half were still hiding at the other end of the cave. They seemed to have sensed Lin's massacre of their companions, so they became even denser and shone even brighter, giving Lin the illusion that they were one giant creature.

This caused Lin to feel a bit strange. She assumed that these Light Fungi would try to escape through the crack, or evolve some sort of ability to resist, but they actually didn't do anything. They were simply waiting for their deaths.

Lin wouldn't stop.

Due to the Exploding Orbs devouring the Light Fungi, several hundred of them had evolved into Flash Burst Spheres. Lin felt that this number was more than enough, so she decided to kill them all.

Regardless of whether they were eaten, blown up, or minced, the cell fragments would be completely recycled by Lin, so there wouldn't be any wastage.

Lin's Exploding Orbs began to swim towards the last Light Fungi hiding at the other end of the cave.

This time, Lin intended to use the Excavator and the Cone Cells to tear them apart.

The Light Fungi seemed to be able to sense the approaching danger. They became restless and agitated, and some of them even did something strange. They swam towards Lin's Exploding Orbs, then used their frail bodies to rush towards the Excavator or the Cone Cells' sawtooth, and allowed themselves to be torn apart by the sawtooth.

What are they doing?

Lin was very confused as it was the first time she saw such suicidal behavior.

Of course, the Light Fungi wouldn't self-destruct like the Exploding Orbs, nor would they release any toxic substances after death. They were simply committing suicide.

Lin noticed that about 30% of the Light Fungi had rushed forward to kill themselves, while the rest remained motionless.

Could it be that they wanted to sacrifice a small number in exchange for the survival of the group? Perhaps they thought that Lin would stop slaughtering as long as she had enough food.

A very simple and easy way to fight … a very reasonable way to fight … this was probably the only way when there was no other way to defend.

But Lin's Exploding Orbs stopped moving … why?

The sympathy in her mind appeared again. Lin was puzzled. She had done this often as well, and had analyzed that it was a very normal way to survive …

But why did the 'sympathy' still appear?

Lin glanced at the last group of Light Fungi in the corner. In the end, Lin didn't move forward.

Forget it.

Lin pushed them away, intending to let the Light Fungi leave on their own. Although it was fine to continue killing them, Lin would feel uncomfortable doing so.

Lin didn't think that was a good thing. It might have compromised now, but Lin believed that sooner or later, it would banish this thing called 'sympathy'.

Lin turned her gaze to the soft, white food that Lin named White Paste.

They were like a layer of paste that stuck to the surface of the cave, and they were everywhere. They probably occupied more than 90% of the cave.

Occupying this place meant that Lin would be able to obtain more resources than she could on the outside.

Although this made Lin excited, it also made Lin feel strange. Where did these White Pastes come from? Why were there so many of them stuck to the walls? Lin remembered that she had once encountered a very large piece of White Paste. If it wasn't for the fact that it was frozen, Lin might have been able to develop there.

Lin felt more and more strange about these White Pastes. She felt that one day, she would be able to figure out where these foods came from, and what they were made of.

But right now, she still lacked the ability to do so, so she decided to slowly become stronger first.

Lin ordered the cells to spread out and began to collect the food. She noticed that the Light Fungi were still huddled in the corner, and she didn't know when they would leave.

However, Lin didn't want to bother with them. The Light Fungi were very few in number, so they couldn't be seen when they were scattered. But now that they had gathered together, Lin estimated that they probably only occupied 10% of the cave's surface. Now that there were so few of them left, leaving them alone wouldn't affect Lin in any way.

Lin began to devour all the food here to replenish the amount that was lost to the water flow outside.

Although this cave was very comfortable, Lin didn't want to stay here forever.

Lin noticed a few problems. When facing living creatures, whether they were viruses or other cells, she had a decent chance of winning. But when facing non-living creatures like water flow or ice crystals, Lin's Light Fungi had almost no resistance at all.

Furthermore, these incidents were always abrupt, causing Lin great harm in an instant.

Lin needed to think of a way to deal with these sudden threats …