Published at 11th of December 2020 10:54:36 AM
Chapter 46
Chapter Forty Six The Light Threads In The Abyss
These organisms that spread blue light covered the sand on the seabed like threads . Their light was not bright but enough to illuminate this dark region of water .
What were these? Slightly like plants, but Lin had never seen plants which would shine . While one could absorb one’s own light to not waste energy, there would still be waste and the cycle could not be perfectly maintained .
Leviathan used to have this kind of system before but it had degenerated after a hundred million years .
But no matter what these were, Lin might be able to create the green carpet here using their light …
However, Lin had to first resolve the present trouble .
Leviathan followed the ammonites to quickly swim over this seabed with its luminescent threads . That enormous fish still followed them closely . Suddenly, some of the ammonites slowed down and stayed behind Leviathan .
Lin did not turn its eyeballs back to watch but it could clearly feel the unique water flows when these ammonites were crushed by the Dunkleosteus .
The Dunkleosteus’ speed did not decrease . It would not be satisfied by a few small ammonites . Right now, the ammonites appear to have slowed . Several more ammonites fell behind and were crushed by the dunkleosteus .
The dunkleosteus was not as fast as the ammonites, but the ammonites did not seem to have strong endurance . “Exhaustion” occurred because the cells could not eject waste in time, and could not provide enough nutrients and recover from the damage created by strong activity . Lin’s Leviathan had evolved perfect endurance . As long it still had nutrients in its body, it would never run out of energy .
The ammonite swarm started to slowly disintegrate due to the lack of energy . Half of the ammonites started to slow down . The enormous ammonite which was two meters in diameter suddenly turned around . It opened its operculum . Dozens of tentacles reached out and it appeared to face the chasing dunkleosteus .
The ammonite could do something like this?
The dunkleosteus did not care whether the ammonite was large or small . It charged forward and opened its powerful mouth to bite the ammonite’s shell .
The strong outer shell immediately showed large cracks . The ammonite’s numerous tentacles wrapped around the dunkleosteus’s head and it primarily attacked the gills .
The dunkleosteus’s gills closed . Of course it had ways of defending its weakness . The ammonite wanted to pull open the gills and damage the oxygen-absorbing structure inside .
This seemed to be a battle of attrition . Under the pressure of the dunkleosteus’s mouth, the cracks on the ammonite spread across its entire body . While the head of the ammonite had not appeared, and only its tentacles were attacking, its organs inside seemed to have received damage . The tentacles grasping the gills slowly lost power .
Two meters against seven meters . It had tried very hard, but it still could not win in the end?
The mouth of the dunkleosteus had evolved against extremely hard organisms like the ammonite . This could be almost described as a “natural enemy . ”
The smaller ammonites in the surroundings had disappeared . This enormous ammonite had failed but it won life for its fellows .
Leviathan had been watching these two organisms fight from afar . Because the dunkleosteus was not as fast as the leviathan, Lin did not worry much .
The dunkleosteus finally crushed the ammonite shell . Organisms usually did not eat shell, but the dunkleosteus swallowed both flesh and shell .
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Looking at the dunkleosteus feeding on the ammonite, Lin suddenly had a thought . Maybe it would attack . This was the largest organism it had ever seen . Defeating it would be interesting .
Just out of interest? Maybe there were other reasons …
Yes, Lin wanted to create the green carpet here . It had to confirm how large this area of glowing threads was .
Lin searched for some useful units within the Leviathan . Lin found the Leviathan rarely attacked organisms larger than itself . There had been no need . An organism half as large provided enough nutrients for a long time so Leviathan only had units to drive others away, and none that could attack large organisms directly .
While it had evolved well, it was too focused and not perfect .
As Lin pondered this, it created a dozen smashers to attack the outer skin of the dunkleosteus .
The dunkleosteus was like other large organisms and ignored the smashers at the start . However, when the smashers started to attack its skin, it reacted .
The dunkleosteus suddenly twisted, the water currents produced by its enormous body immediately driving several smashers away . They rolled several times before stopping, some of them colliding with the glowing threads on the seabed .
The dunkleosteus looked around, attempting to find what had attacked it . But its vision seemed unable to see things as small as the smashers in the dim light . Also, it did not connect this attack to the Leviathan so it turned back to the remains of the ammonite .
Were ordinary tactics ineffective for such a large organism? Did Lin have to use the slaughterers? For some reason, Lin did not like using things like poison . It liked to destroy enemies directly .
Lin first had the Leviathan recall the smashers .
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Lin suddenly had a strange feeling . Some smashers returned but others could not move, as though they were restrained by something .
Lin released an eyeball to look towards the smashers . It found those smashers were tangled up by the glowing threads . The threads grew on the smashers, forming a glowing ball of thread that wrapped completely around the smasher .
The smashers did not have eyeballs but Lin could feel that they seemed to be corroded by dissolving fluid . From the outer skin, the cells were gradually killed and then the entire body .
Did this kind of strange thread have such an ability?
Lin felt puzzled . Just as it wanted to have the Leviathan go look, a powerful surge of water came from nearby .
Leviathan immediately darted back . In the next moment, the jaws of the dunkleosteus closed over where the Leviathan had previously been .
It had almost been bitten in half …
The dunkleosteus turned and bit again but it had lost the advantage of surprise . Lin had the Leviathan swim a dozen meters away at a faster speed . Seeing the dunkleosteus not giving chase, it went back to observing .
The dunkleosteus had eaten half of the ammonite . The other half of the corpse had landed on the threads on the seabed and was wrapped up . The dunkleosteus seemed to know the threads were dangerous and gave up on the ammonite, attacking the Leviathan instead .
While it moved slowly, the dunkleosteus’ ambush ability to was powerful . Lin only felt the abnormality of the water flow when it was close and didn’t detect any scent at all . Lin did not know how it had eliminated the smell of the ammonite’s organs from its mouth . Maybe the smell was so thick in the water Lin did not detect it .
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Right now, the dunkleosteus seemed to know it could not catch up to the Leviathan . It had eaten a great amount so it gave up on attacking and swam away .
Lin usually would not spare organisms that attacked it . However, if it killed the dunkleosteus now, its corpse would land on the seabed . The threads would get there first and dissolve it . There would be no meaning .
Compared to killing a monster that could bite through the Leviathan in one bite, it was more interesting to study these threads .
Lin created a small cell type with a sharp pincer at the front for them to cut a small length of the threads . Then Lin used a sphere-shaped unit called a “study ball” to absorb the material . Lastly, Lin released a large number of cells and small units into this sphere to study .
This thread … had a simple structure . There was a layer of luminescent cells as the outer layer, and cells similar to muscle cells inside so they could move .
Also, they could project tiny needle threads on the surface, which could release powerful dissolving fluid . This kind of dissolving fluid was more powerful than any Lin had seen before . They most likely used these small needles to stab other organisms, and then dissolved their prey’s organs from the inside .
These threads most likely fed on all kinds of debris because food was rare here . So they would go wild and immediately surround anything that dropped down?
However … a place like this . The surface was ice, and the bottom was both cold and black . Was there enough food that the threads could cover such a large area?
If possible, Lin might copy them and create a new kind of green carpet … yes, the green carpet did not have to just feed off light . It just had to stay in one area and gather food .
Then … it would try .