Dinner time.
Song He was hunched over the microscope, forgetting all about the time.
A hand patted him on the butt. "I had someone bring your dinner. It's by the hallway window. Go eat."
"Thanks, Professor. I'll go right now."
Professor Ma patted his butt again, then wheeled his wheelchair away.
Song He had just finished observing the first six culture bottles, but still hadn't seen any living bacteria. Ordinarily, after such a long time, there should have been some activity. Yet the field of view remained deathly still, making his scalp prickle.
The first six culture bottles were the most likely to produce results. If they showed no activity, the remaining four gamble bottles were even less likely to yield anything.
Song He's stomach was growling. He was just about to leave the microscope to eat, but stopped after thinking it over. He took samples from the last four culture bottles and observed them.
Three samples in a row showed nothing but deathly silence.
In the fourth sample, a shadow flashed across the top of the field of view!
He jolted and hurriedly adjusted the microscope, finally capturing sight of living bacteria!
A relatively large Song He Bacteria carried several tiny River Bacteria along, like an elder holding the hands of younger relatives, struggling to wriggle through the heaps of corpses.
This was the very last culture bottle—the one he had gambled on for luck—and it had actually been the first to show living bacteria?!
The Song He Bacteria Symbiote had evolved successfully!
This evolution had fused the Song He Bacteria Symbiote with the two traits "Blood Burst" and "Weight Loss and Slimming." Weight Loss and Slimming extended the bacteria's lifespan by 200%, but made them even slower at moving. The symbiote preferred not to move from its original