Zhang Yingying felt as though she had missed far too much during philosophy or theology classes—or perhaps during Ronan's earlier, painstaking lectures?
Suppressing her doubts about her own intelligence, she tried to combine Ronan's explanation with another serious, careful observation of Sand Demon No. 33's singular yet infinite pattern.
Whether it was an illusion or not, when her gaze focused once more on that pile of sand grains, stripped of moisture and nearly impossible to make out, the topmost layer—the one that still faintly retained Sand Demon No. 33's outline—seemed to twitch.
Like a piece of camouflage cloth, it trembled and shifted with the sea breeze. It was moving at least three times slower than usual, yet it possessed a subtle sense of rhythm.
Ronan nodded in appraisal. "An energy-saving mode of movement. It seems to understand its current situation quite well."
"You mean it's smart?"
"At most, it's highly sensitive." Ronan gestured for Zhang Yingying's camera to follow, giving a close-up of the area where Sand Demon No. 33 had previously rested. "Look here. These surface grains were, in fact, enhanced... but now their basic Configuration has mostly collapsed. You could say they've 'died.'"
Zhang Yingying moved to Sand Demon No. 33's rear flank, shoving the camera closer. She practically wanted to press her own eyes against it too, but she simply could not distinguish any difference between those fine white grains.
"The 'death' of these individual grains isn't meaningless. Through 'death,' they transmit certain information to the 'companions' that remain alive..."
What?
Zhang Yingying stared wide-eyed in innocent bewilderment, losing even the courage to ask a follow-up question.
Forget it. Whatever Professor Ronan says goes.
Fortunately, Ronan began condensing water vapor and used Configuration to illustrate what he meant.
That only gave me... even more reason not to