Chapter 136: The Creator Bugs, Pandora's Box

Yan Xia was looking at the embryo of a biological battleship, which was still very small.

"Have you ever successfully created a complete biological battleship?" he asked eagerly, wanting to see the final form of this warship.

However, Ella replied that they had been working on this project for a long time, but due to genetic issues, they had never been able to fully develop a biological battleship.

This was not surprising. Even creating a mouse-sized biological organism required extremely precise genetic programming, a task far more complex than writing a computer program.

Moreover, a computer program could still run with bugs, but a biological organism with genetic bugs would simply collapse. After all, life is not like a computer; you can't just restart it if it crashes. If life ends, how can it be rebooted?

These factors combined made the technology for biological battleships extremely challenging to overcome.

"The largest biological battleship we have now is only 812 meters long," Ella said with regret. At this stage, she, as an AI, had hit a bottleneck and couldn't simply solve problems as she had done before.

This was a limitation of both fundamental technology and energy.

A battleship 812 meters long was considered powerful in a Level 1 civilization, but in a Level 2 civilization, it was merely cute and small.

However, for Yan Xia, it was still a novel sight.

"Take me to see it," he requested.

Yan Xia walked from Area A2 directly to Area S92. The route was winding, and he walked at least 30 kilometers. All the research areas looked like they were made from the same template to Yan Xia, not only because they were all pure white, but also because they had almost identical layouts, without even any signs to guide visitors.

As he walked out of the white research building, the temperature began to rise, and Yan Xia knew he had arrived.

He passed through a pitch-black tunnel, and it was only when he felt the soft sensation under his feet that he realized he had entered the interior of the spaceship.

"This is the entrance," Ella said.

Yan Xia looked forward and saw the flesh in front of him writhing, then slowly opening to reveal a hole.

The inside of the hole was not dark but incredibly bright.

The light came from the flesh of the biological battleship, and Yan Xia suddenly understood where the glowing creatures in the Sea of Boiling came from.

However, Yan Xia would have preferred it if there were no lights.

The interior of this biological battleship was not aesthetically pleasing. Entering it was like walking through the intestines of an unknown creature, and it also emitted a foul odor.

"Biological battleships can't grow their own internal equipment, so many things need to be installed later," Ella explained.

"For example, this tunnel will be isolated with a milky white, semi-transparent glass. This will allow the light to pass through while blocking the stench and appearance of the flesh."

"The internal space of the entire biological battleship is no different in size from a mechanical battleship. The flesh only replaces the outer shell."

"The reason it's so difficult to develop is that we want the biological battleship to be harder."

Yan Xia entered the interior, which did have some equipment installed, but it was very rudimentary. It was clear that this battleship was only a semi-finished product.

He had his quark robot shut down his sense of smell so that he could enter the battleship smoothly.

They went straight to the control room, which was filled with monitoring equipment, allowing them to see the scenes outside the spaceship.

However, these cameras were not installed on the surface of the biological battleship but on the surrounding walls, used to observe the battleship's condition.

This was a lengthened version of a horseshoe crab, or a horseshoe crab with an elongated and widened tail.

The exterior was not soft, but it had an outer shell, making it look more like an exoskeleton insect rather than a mammal, bird, or fish.

"Any substance with a dense structure will have improved defense, not limited to metals," Ella explained.

"It's just that, compared to other substances, metals are more stable, so they are widely used."

"The strength of the outer shell of this biological battleship is close to that of 007179 steel, which meets the minimum requirement."

007179 steel is a relatively old type of steel. Iron is the most stable element in the universe. Even though the Civilization Federation can now create elements, no other element's stability surpasses that of iron. Therefore, iron is still widely used in the Civilization Federation, whether in architecture, spaceships, or battleships, as a cheap and reliable material.

007179 steel has a half-life of 2.6 million years, with a density of 27.26 g/cm³, a hardness of 13, a melting point of 18,000 degrees Celsius, and a strength of 6812 MPa. Its performance in various aspects is not outstanding, and it can only be considered barely adequate.

"What is the maximum speed of this battleship, and what speed could it reach if it were fully developed?" Yan Xia asked after a careful examination, noticing that there were many imperfections. He suspected that this battleship was a complete metamorphosis type.

Complete metamorphosis means that the appearance of the organism differs greatly between its juvenile and adult stages, almost as if it had transformed into a different form.

"The maximum speed of the battleship depends on the thrusters, and the strength of its flesh only affects its acceleration. However, since we have mastered gravitational technology, we can essentially ignore the issue of acceleration."

"If the research of the Light Wing scholar we met before succeeds, we will also make great progress in terms of acceleration."

"In our plan, the first generation of biological battleships was supposed to exceed 100,000 meters, but with the current theoretical technology, we can only manage around 20,000 meters. However, we have not yet cultivated an individual of that size."

Ella introduced and explained each point to Yan Xia.

This was an immature plan, but Ella believed it was not far from maturity.

"Research on biological battleships has also inspired the development of another biological technology."

"That is the biological soldier."

"The biological soldier project is not about creating life like the War Beast race, but about producing a kamikaze-like group."

"They can reproduce infinitely and have an infinite number of individuals. We can use this advantage to deplete the enemy's energy."

"Wars in the universe are not just psychological battles or arms races; they are also energy wars."

"Powerful weapons often consume more energy, and with more of these kamikaze groups, we can reduce the casualties of our regular army."

"This is a mature technology that you, Yan Xia, should also be familiar with. They are called the Zerg."

An ancient video game.

It was one of the first-generation e-sports games born when human internet technology first emerged—the biological creatures in the game Starcraft.

Yan Xia had not planned to create the Zerg before because he always felt it was like Pandora's Box, and he wasn't sure if he would become the Xel'Naga, consumed by the Zerg.

However, now that they had actually created them, he felt that this was what they needed.

The universe was too dangerous, and if they hesitated, how could they face the Olive Branch Civilization?

"Perhaps this will be the first Pandora's Box we open," Yan Xia said.

Science itself is the process of exploring the forbidden.