4.6 Billion Year Symphony of Evolution

Recap from last chapter: Lin encounters oxygen and its enormous base on the rock is destroyed as a result.

An unknown amount of time passed.

After that calamity, Lin used a great number of cells to block off the entrance to the cavern and never opened it.

Through the transparent cells, it could see that the gas bubbles floating outside had never decreased even though there were no more green cells.

Lin tried to have the cells evolve immunity against the gas bubbles but every cell that absorbed the gas bubbles would immediately die. There were no cells that could successfully survive, and divide into cells with immunity.

Lin could only focus on the cavern entrance, watch as day and night switched back and forth, and hope for a day that it could once again return to the water outside.

But the cells constantly appeared outside and obstructed Lin … …

However, the food that was called the white gel inside the cavern was not endless.

The white gel that came out of the cavern walls gradually started to decrease. This process was slow and long. At the start, it did not affect Lin greatly but accumulated over time, the white gel was unable to sustain Lin’s cell group. In the end, there wasn’t one bit left.

When Lin finished eating the last of the white gel, the entire cavern became a normal rock cavern.

Lin tried to dig down, but no matter how much it excavated, it could not uncover any white gel. It only found rock under rock, and there was no more white gel in the rock.

Also, in the last excavation, Lin even dug out a few gas bubbles. This caused Lin to stop digging.

At the start, Lin first ate the luminescent microbes that were still alive, and then started to use up the fat cells in its cell group. These cells allowed Lin to survive for a very long time.

However, it was useless. The gas bubbles outside did not decrease, and showed sings of increasing.

Against Lin’s will, the fat cells were used up and Lin started to use up the other non-fat cells. In other words, killing those cells and using the corpses to support the remaining cells.

It was not a good idea to eat one’s one cells to survive. Lin’s once prosperous cell group started to wither and decrease dramatically. After a period of time, Lin’s cell group dropped from the millions to only a few thousand.

That layer of cells in front of the cavern entrance had died long ago, but their bodies were still there, stopping the gas bubbles from floating inside.

Lin knew that this was a long process of dying.

Lin had never stopped trying to have some cells go outside to evolve immunity against the gas bubbles, but none of them succeeded.

Could it only wait for death?

… … It was not like that.

In the last moment, Lin gathered all of its remaining cells into a sphere, and the observer at the center.

Lin had these cells connect together, and then hardened the outer layer.

This sphere was at the center of the cavern. Lin called it a “cocoon.” After forming the “cocoon,” it proceeded to the next step that it called “hibernation.”

In the state of “hibernation,” the cells would completely stop moving. In this state, it would almost not need any food. This was a state used for a long wait. Lin thought that in this state, no matter how long it had to wait, it would not die.

But after hibernation, Lin’s consciousness would sink into darkness. This would cause it to be completely cut off from the outside. It would not be able to feel anything, not know how long had passed, not know the changes outside, and not know when it should recover its consciousness.

Lin did not overthink. It could only hope that the future would be better.

Thinking this way, Lin slowly sank into hibernation. The image from the observer slowly became blurry in its consciousness and then completely sank into darkness … …

…………

Time continued to pass. As day and night switched countless times, the surrounding world changed greatly. However, Lin did not detect this. It was still in the state of hibernation. Lin did not set a time for itself to wake up because it did not know what time would be safest.

However, other than Lin’s consciousness, its cells had the ability to judge the world around them.

This was Lin’s thought, have the cells judge for themselves when to wake up.

“…………”

After an unknown length of time passed, Lin finally received a message to wake up.

Had it succeeded? Was there no more danger in the surroundings?

The observer slowly swayed its body. When Lin’s consciousness woke up, light once again filled its thoughts.

The hard layer of the “cocoon” slowly fell off as Lin woke up. The cells hidden inside once again swam out and came into contact with the outside world.

At first glance, Lin could see the surrounding cavern. This was still the same as when it had entered hibernation. There almost weren’t any changes.

However, Lin saw something that terrified it–those gas bubbles were everywhere in the cavern!

But Lin did not think about escape. Since it woke up, there definitely had to be a reason.

Lin watched as one cell came into contact with a gas bubble. Just like before, the gas bubble was absorbed into the cell and then … …

Nothing happened.

The gas bubble did not kill the cell like before. Lin was certain that these gas bubbles were the thing called “oxygen.” This thing would destroy the nucleus and give Lin great pain, but there was no feeling now.

Had it evolved?

Yes, it was evolution. Lin had evolved immunity towards these gas bubbles while it didn’t know how much time had been spent and how many cells had died.

But as long as it could live, everything was worth it.

Then now was the time to become alive again!

Lin found that there were all kinds of little cells on the surrounding cavern walls. It was not strange for other cells to enter the cavern during Lin’s hibernation, and this was all free food to Lin.

What was “free?” Such a strange word.

Who cares that much?

Lin felt very good right now. Almost all of its surviving cells were basic cells. There were some stinger cells and other cells. Lin was very happy they were alive.

Lin immediately had the basic cells change shape. Some became diggers, some acid ejectors. After they finished changing, they quickly started to hunt the wild cells in the surroundings.

These little cells did not have any abilities to fight, and then quickly became Lin’s food to come back to life.

In the process of hunting these cells, Lin found some interesting things. The cells that absorbed the gas bubbles did not have anything happen to them.

Unlike in the past, the cells that absorbed the oxygen gas bubbles became even faster and stronger than before. They seemed to have increased in all of their abilities.

Why? Did these cells not just get the immunity to oxygen, they could use it to strengthen themselves?

This was really … … unique.

But why? Did oxygen have some wondrous power?

Lin was unable to understand it right now.

Lin’s cells that had obtained new energy quickly killed the surrounding cells and then rapidly divided. Lin decided to recover the former prosperity of its cell group.

However, Lin did not want to wait by a tree stump for a hare ¹. It decided to form something that could swim quickly to move through the water and hunt.

Wait … … what were “tree stump” and “hare”?

Why would it have these strange words? While Lin understood “wait,” what were “tree stump” and “hare?”

I don’t want any of these strange terms appear again!

Lin thought this, but it still thought that these terms would still appear.

……………

After a small detour, Lin started to assemble its cells.

Lin found that these cells grew and divided faster with the help of oxygen, and it was even quicker for them to assemble.

Lin quickly assembled something unique.

Able to help it travel … … a body.

Translator Ramblings: The hibernation part I can accept with question … … sort of … … the spontaneous adaptation to oxygen levels … … well, it’s a story.

1. “Sit by a tree trunk to wait for a hare” is a Chinese idiom. The story is that one day, a farmer working in his field saw a wild hare that hit the trunk of a tree in his field and killed itself. The farmer had a good meal and decided to keep waiting for more hares to come rather than to keep farming. ↩