A Foreign Land

My head feels so dizzy...

What just happened?

Who was I again?

What was I getting ready to do?

Huo Gu struggled to remember...

White waves rolled one after another across the surface. The cell cluster, shaped like a long-necked porcelain bottle, tumbled and drifted in the surf.

The sea waves were not the culprit behind Huo Gu's dizziness. It knew that clearly.

It did not know how long this groggy state lasted before Huo Gu gradually recovered its normal level of thought. At the same time, it also remembered the situation above the water.

The continuous torrential rain, the orange-red sky, lightning occasionally reaching out from the dark clouds to tear through the gloom, the crimson karmic fire spewed by volcanoes locked in battle with the giant waves raised by the howling gale...

These were all scenes Huo Gu had seen on the surface.

And the most crucial point was that the concentration of carbon dioxide was simply off the charts. The completely unprepared cells were severely affected in their normal operation when the sudden influx of carbon dioxide combined with water inside the cells to form carbonic acid.

This was the fundamental reason Huo Gu had fallen into that dazed state just now.

But this adventure had not been without gain. With just that brief glance, Huo Gu had obtained a rather useful piece of information.

The information was so shocking that Huo Gu's thoughts paused for a long time before it finally came back to itself.

"Looks like I'm on an unfamiliar planet right now."

In an environment with that concentration of carbon dioxide, if humans truly existed, they would definitely suffocate to death in less than half an hour.

Huo Gu recalled the volcanoes it had seen in that fleeting glimpse.

"The volcanoes around here seem a little too active. There was a cluster of volcanoes underwater, and now, on the surface, I can also see so many active volcanoes."

"On the way up from the seabed, I also never saw any multicellular organisms. There weren't even algae with the simplest structures..."

"Combined with the off-the-charts carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere and the orange-red sky, there's a good chance this unfamiliar planet is still in a very early 'Rain Sea Era.'"

All of this was a conclusion Huo Gu had reached by assuming this planet had an environment similar to Earth's. After all, like Earth, this planet had oceans made of liquid water, and it did not have more types of planetary templates for reference.

A planet's Rain Sea Era was also the stage when a planet's oceans formed. The high temperatures inside the planet evaporated the water present within the strata. The water vapor was bound by gravity, forming dense cumulonimbus clouds, and returned to the ground in the form of rainwater, only to be evaporated again. This cycle repeated endlessly. The entire planet was like an enormous boiling boiler.

If the planet had an abundant enough supply of water, this great rain could even continue for as long as tens of millions of years.

The long-necked porcelain-bottle-shaped cell cluster glided downward for some distance, moving away from the clamorous surface.

"The Rain Sea Era... I never thought I'd actually be lucky enough to personally experience such a historic event."

After gaining a deeper understanding of its current situation, Huo Gu not only did not feel dejected at being in a foreign land, it was even faintly excited.

For an archaeologist, especially one focused on the field of extraterrestrial life, what could be more exciting than witnessing a historic event with one's own eyes?

It was precisely because of the oceans formed during the Rain Sea Era that life could be born. At least, that was how it had been on Earth.

"I've decided. I'll set a small goal first—set up a global field-of-vision network and take in every corner of this planet."

The overlapping urge for knowledge and sense of excitement drove Huo Gu to make this decision, to the point that such an ambitious idea emerged.

If it were still human, this would indeed only be wishful thinking. After all, an individual's power was ultimately limited.

But now was different. Huo Gu was a collective, not a single individual. It had tens of thousands of cells that obeyed its commands. This force might look extremely tiny, but even ants, given enough time, could move away a celestial body as massive as Earth.

Of course, the prerequisite was that there had to be such a star road that could let ants transfer the mass of a celestial body.

"But what should I do about the volcanoes?"

Huo Gu thought of those mountains spewing tongues of flame. Their appearance was due to excessive pressure within the planet, which then released the core's energy in the form of heat.

Liquid magma as hot as 1,200 degrees Celsius was enough to make any protein lose its original activity.

"...The plan for a globally covered observation network can be put aside for now. I'll wait until this planet enters its cooling stage. Mm, I can afford to wait anyway."

During the medieval period of human civilization in Europe, someone once raised a question: if the wood on a ship were gradually replaced until none of the wood was the original wood, would this ship still be the same ship as before?

This was the famous "Ship of Theseus" paradox.

Now, Huo Gu was that ship. It had obtained the ability that emperors throughout history had longed for most—"eternal life."

As long as it ensured the base number of cells did not fall below a certain threshold, it could maintain its current thoughts. As long as matter did not become scarce, or all of the cells did not die in one breath, it could live forever.

Suddenly, Huo Gu's thoughts stirred slightly.

"Where exactly does my ability come from?"

Commands would only be effective when the cells were attached to the whole collective—this was something Huo Gu had understood not long after recovering its thoughts.

In other words, Huo Gu's "commands" only existed on the microscopic level, and at the atomic or molecular level. Once that range was exceeded, delivery of the command information could not be completed, or else there would be a delay.

"Then here comes the question..."

"If they aren't kept attached, but they're still one whole, will my commands still take effect as they did before?"

Practice was the sole criterion for testing truth—this was the life creed Huo Gu had always believed in.

The moment the question appeared, Huo Gu immediately began to set about testing it.

New cells were split off. These were primitive single cells that had not undergone specialization before.

This time was somewhat different from the past. The newborn cells did not actively attach themselves to the cell cluster. All contact between them relied on three short connecting proteins.

"Transcribe connecting proteins. Extend the length of the connecting proteins."

Under Huo Gu's command, the three connecting proteins were gradually lengthened, and that experimental cell was also slowly pulled farther away from the cell cluster by the current.

After the lengthening was completed, Huo Gu issued a new command.

"Transcribe DNA. Begin splitting into a new individual."

If it began replicating itself, then that meant the command was effective.

If it did not, then it meant the medium transmitting the command information was not protein.

"Next, let me see exactly what kind of result it will be..."