New Ideas (Part 1)

Rowan fell into thought.

He stayed on this beach for three whole days without eating or drinking. Thanks to the reserves in his Tail Fat Organ, he could stay for three months without food, let alone three days.

As for the dampness at the beach and arthritis, Rowan can easily change his Walking Leg, so why would he care about something like arthritis?

In those three days, he pondered only one question. Although there were no apples on this planet, there were similar fruits. The question he was thinking about was, what would he imagine if this fruit fell from the tree to the ground?

As a result, he came up with a lot of ideas, but they were all miscellaneous. As for universal gravitation, he had heard of it, but he couldn't come up with any theoretical basis for it.

As it turns out, it's more reliable to rely on time, luck, and talent to evolve than to try and develop a rocket on his own.

Looking at his gene pool, for venturing into outer space, wings are only useful within the atmosphere; in outer space, where there is no gas, the role of wings is reduced to negligible.

Perhaps, by then, the wings won't be as effective as the high-pressure jet system.

The most plausible explanation for this is undoubtedly the anti-gravity system of the beetle's elytra. However, this system currently only reduces weight. Nevertheless, further development based on this system might lead to significant advancements.

But going to outer space isn't just about flying out and that's it.

How does he obtain energy in outer space? How does he breathe? How does he survive in extremely low temperatures? How does he move in space? Does he really rely on jet propulsion? He doesn't want to become a piece of floating space debris.

There are too many things to consider; if even one of them is not handled properly, it could threaten his life.

A few days later, Rowan suddenly had a brilliant idea: perhaps he could create some helpers.

As the saying goes, three cobblers with their wits combined can equal one Zhuge Liang.

He could manufacture more Blade; perhaps he could gather more ideas from various sources.

Months later, it turned out Rowan had been overthinking things. The Blade lacked any creativity, but after some tinkering with them, their learning and adaptability had improved considerably.

The Blade are generally closer to intelligent AI; the more they come into contact with and learn, the higher their "intelligence" becomes. And all of this can be passed down through the Swarm Network.

Therefore, over time, they will become increasingly "intelligent".

However, intelligence is not the same as wisdom, and their biggest flaw is a lack of creativity. They can act as leaders, and do so quite well, but they are incapable of being scientists.

My thinking has hit a deadlock again.

After some time, Rowan suddenly realized that since the Swarm wasn't working, he could develop other races, which didn't have this limitation.

With his new idea in mind, Rowan immediately took action and began searching for suitable groups to train.

Based on their strong adaptability, intelligence, and high fertility, after rigorous selection, two organisms finally stood out.

Rowan was very familiar with both creatures; they were old friends of the Swarm and the first races he encountered in the early stages. They were the Fat-Tail Rat and the Small Dinosaur.

The Fat-Tail Rat is highly prolific, giving birth to 5-10 litters at a time. The pups are able to forage for themselves within just over ten days of birth. Omnivorous, it eats almost anything, placing it at the bottom of the food chain. Even though ants and other insects are weaker, they contain less meat. Therefore, considering all factors, the Fat-Tail Rat, with its high meat content and low physical strength, becomes a favorite prey for hunters.

However, thanks to their unique energy storage organs, Fat-Tail Rat are highly resilient. When hunted, they can sometimes hide for more than ten days without moving, outlasting their predators. They are also relatively intelligent compared to other species.

Although the Small Dinosaur were predators, their size also made them prey. They were only slightly higher on the food chain than the Fat-Tail Rat. They could lay seven or eight eggs at a time, and although the incubation period was relatively long, the Larval Form could forage for themselves soon after hatching.

As for intelligence, judging from their cooperative combat and their ability to employ some simple tactics, they are quite intelligent.

Two groups of experimental subjects were selected, and the next step was to cultivate them.

Rowan first retrieved their genetic templates, then enlarged their brain capacity. Having watched short videos about human evolution, Rowan knew that having a big brain was essential for a future.

Next, Rowan started doing some crazy things.

He captured some wild Fat-Tail Rat and Small Dinosaur, then kept them with his experimental subjects and conducted some breeding experiments.

Although the Swarm's Fat-Tail Rat and Small Dinosaur lack intelligence, their offspring with wild counterparts should have a certain chance of inheriting their enhanced brains.

This would greatly shorten the evolutionary process of their brains, allowing them to produce more intelligent offspring more quickly.

However, things did not go smoothly. They were kept together in captivity for a long time, but no offspring were born.

Rowan was also somewhat baffled, after all, he wasn't a professional and hadn't studied this kind of thing. Could it be that the Swarm's Fat-Tail Rat and Small Dinosaur had already undergone a species change?

But aside from their brains, Rowan didn't modify any other part of their templates. Keep in mind that those who had their genes added were infertile.

Rowan refused to believe in superstition and didn't give up. Since he had nothing else to do, he figured he might as well do some research to pass the time.

As time passed, the experimental area he had fenced off had expanded several times over, and it had been divided into many compartments, housing all sorts of different combinations.

The experimental site was patrolled by Flying Bug armies, and Spider War-Bug kept watch all around. Even underground, there were Worker Ant and Creep. Moreover, half of the experimental subjects were products of the Swarm. Therefore, the laboratory was very orderly, and there had never been any incidents of experimental subjects escaping.

After rounds of continuous testing, several months later, hard work paid off, and a wild Fat-Tail Rat successfully became pregnant.

A month later, a litter of five Fat-Tail Rat was successfully born.

Having gained experience, Rowan immediately conducted several more experiments based on the data from this group of test subjects, and sure enough, they all successfully produced offspring. Thus, he found the crux of the previous problem.

It turns out he was too eager for quick results. He wanted to achieve the desired effect in one step, increasing the brain capacity of the Fat-Tail Rat too much at once. This caused reproductive isolation between them and their wild counterparts, so they never produced offspring.

Later, he increased the scale of the experiment, dividing the subjects into many groups and modifying their brain capacity to be different, which led to progress.

Based on this successful case, Rowan then made some minor adjustments to the data and gradually found out the maximum amount of data that could be modified at one time without triggering reproductive isolation.

Subsequently, the experimental process began to accelerate.

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