Titanium Snail

In the waters one nautical mile from the volcanic island, a long, slender cone lay on its side. This was the finished product Huo Gu had designed after racking his brains.

The cone had already reached eight meters in length, and its mass was not something the previous cell cluster could compare to. Even amid the surging waves, it only rocked slightly.

For an organism like this, in the Hadean Eon, when the biosphere was still at the microbial stage, it could already be considered a "divine beast." All one could do was look up at it—and keep looking up.

At the end of the cone were several tentacles formed from a combination of muscle cells and carbon nanofibers, with suckers growing on them.

The function and principle of the suckers were the same as those on the tentacles of cephalopods. By secreting mucus, they created a vacuum environment inside the sucker to achieve an adhesive effect on objects. They could be used to cling to objects, or, in reverse, to anchor the body to something. As a bonus, they could also help control direction during high-speed movement.

There were six tentacles like these in total at the tail of the cone.

There were four eyes on the cone. Three of them were on the slanted surface of the cone, each eye observing a 120-degree field of view, while the fourth eye was right in the center of the tail, ensuring that no blind spots were left in its vision.

To ensure the safety of the eyes during high-speed movement, the outside of each eye was covered with a layer of silicon crystal with a certain amount of carbon added to it—in other words, tempered glass, widely used in human civilization.

The conical outer shell was silvery white, gleaming with a silver-gray metallic luster. This was a titanium alloy shell, lighter than iron of the same volume, stronger, and less dense.

The shell's structure was divided into three layers. The innermost and outermost layers were both titanium alloy, while the two interlayers in between were grids constructed from nanocarbon fibers. This way, even if the outermost titanium alloy was damaged, the second layer of nanofibers could provide an excellent buffering and offsetting effect, and the third layer of titanium alloy could also defend against attacks capable of piercing titanium alloy protection.

There was a slight difference between the color of the cone's head and the outer shell. It was steel gray.

This part was not titanium alloy, but "chromium," with a Mohs hardness of 9. As for diamond, the hardest material in nature, its Mohs hardness was 10. Stabbing into rock with it would be as easy as stabbing into soft mud.

Huo Gu had not abandoned some of the original designs used on the Hu. Instead, he continued applying them to this newly designed individual.

The two pairs of "fins" on either side of the outer shell were used to maneuver during high-speed travel, or to stabilize its course. In addition, Huo Gu had also modified the "fin" design of both the new individual and the Hu to a certain extent, allowing them to retract back into the body, just like a turtle's.

As for the power system, inside this conical individual, there were two sets of propulsion systems. One was the original jet propulsion.

Huo Gu did not give up this method of propulsion, mainly because he valued its characteristic of being "reusable in water," so he kept it as the regular propulsion method.

Corresponding to the regular propulsion method was the other set: rocket-style propulsion with a metallic sodium column as its core. It was a consumable propulsion method.

Metallic sodium was very chemically active, especially after coming into contact with water, at which point a tremendous amount of energy would immediately be released.

Someone had once done an experiment, throwing two fist-sized chunks of metallic sodium into a river. The force it produced was not much weaker than a hand grenade, and that was not even the amount released all at once. The explosions continued several times, blasting the waves in the river seven or eight meters high, until the metallic sodium was thrown who knew where by the reaction force of the explosions. Only then did the explosions on the water's surface stop.

The interior of the cone had been divided by Huo Gu into two regions: the front and the rear. The head mainly carried sensory cells, used to expand the life field.

And the radius of the area covered by the cone's expanded life field could already reach a distance of around one nautical mile. Compared to the original Hu, it had increased by a full thirty-six times.

The rear was where the jet propulsion was installed. The design was still the same as before. On the slanted surface, there were openings that could automatically open and close. During regular propulsion, it devoured the microorganisms in the water, digested them in a small digestion chamber, then used them as the jet medium, delivering them to the water-storage chambers located at the rear, and sprayed them out.

The only difference from before was that the proportion of the body occupied by the water-storage chamber had become much smaller. It had been changed to several small water-storage chambers providing propulsion in the water.

Rocket-style propulsion was different. The sodium column was located along the central axis, running through both the front and rear sections.

This propulsion method was a means of escape when encountering a catastrophic event, allowing it to enter a very high speed in a short time.

Of course, it had drawbacks. How far it could run and how fast it could run depended entirely on how much fuel there was. And compared to other elements, the time needed to produce metallic sodium, the reaction fuel, could be described as crawling at a snail's pace.

That was why Huo Gu had arranged it as a propulsion method to be used only when escaping.

At the tail of the cone, there were six grooves corresponding to the tentacles. These had been specially designed by Huo Gu so the Hu could ride aboard the newly designed cluster individual.

Nothing could ever be perfect. While a massive body brought many benefits to the new individual, it also meant some limitations would come along with it.

By letting small individuals like the Hu ride inside the new individual and act together with it, they could form a very good complement to each other. Between them, each could help the other accomplish things the other could not do.

"The design is finished, but I still haven't thought of a name..."

"What should I call it?"

After solving one problem, Huo Gu fell into another awkward dilemma.

"The design template was an orthocone nautiloid. In terms of appearance, it's also similar to a snail... so its name should probably have the word 'snail' in it."

"The outer shell is made of titanium alloy. That's the most obvious difference between it and an orthocone nautiloid, so it should probably also have the word 'titanium' in it..."

"Summing it up, then call it... 'Titanium Snail'?"

When he said the name aloud, Huo Gu clearly felt a strange, inexplicable sense of oddness, as if he had heard the term somewhere before, yet could not remember it.

He thought for a long time, but failed to recall why he had such a sense of déjà vu about the name.

If he could not figure it out, then he simply would not think about it. Huo Gu chose to give up. He still had a great many things on his hands to keep him busy.

"Forget it. Maybe it was the name of some acquaintance. Since it's an acquaintance, borrowing it for a bit shouldn't matter."

"Mm, that makes sense."

With that said, Huo Gu shifted his attention to the volcanic island. Now that the design and production of the Titanium Snail were complete, next came the volcanic island's renovation project.

If it succeeded, then Huo Gu would possess a relatively stable base. If it failed, then at most, the volcano would erupt in the form of a side leak, and Huo Gu would not be threatened at all.

Of course, preparations to run if an accident occurred were still necessary.