The Hungry Astronaut

After creating Fire Cassia, Chen Zhao did not immediately launch it to Mars. Instead, he continued researching organisms.

The third organism he planned to deploy on Mars was an insect.

An ecosystem needed a certain degree of circulation.

There were no bacteria on Mars. Whether it was Gun or Fire Cassia, once they died on Mars, they would be unable to decay. They would keep piling up until they buried the ground.

In the end, the entire planet of Mars would be piled full of Gun and Fire Cassia corpses.

That was absolutely unacceptable.

Saprophytic bacteria, however, had structures that were too simple. They could easily mutate in Mars's abnormal surface environment. Once they mutated, they could easily spiral out of control and produce strange new strains of bacteria. That would pose a threat to future humans landing on Mars.

Therefore, Chen Zhao decided that saprophytic bacteria could not be used to deal with dead plants on Mars.

Animals, on the other hand, were too difficult to create.

In the end, Chen Zhao decided to make insects.

There was one difficulty with making insects: Chen Zhao had entomophobia.

Whenever he saw a large bug, Chen Zhao's hair stood on end in fright.

Even beautiful insects like dragonflies and butterflies terrified Chen Zhao. He always found them disgusting and frightening.

So, while creating insects for Mars, Chen Zhao swore that they had to be adorable!

They could not be disgusting in the slightest!

He shut himself in the laboratory for over three months.

The first Martian insect was finally created.

Its final form was a small white worm resembling a tangyuan—round, plump, crystal-clear, and with tiny little black feet.

It was ultimately named the "Lantern Bug."

Chen Zhao synthesized several of them and conducted experiments in the laboratory.

He placed six