Reason

Huo Gu thought it over, then immediately dismissed the idea.

"No. The meaning of that sentence was asking about my identity. If my transmigration really was that thing's doing, there would be no need for it to send such a pointless question. It should have known who I was from the start."

His thoughts gradually cleared, and the intelligence that fear had dragged down finally returned. Intense curiosity made Huo Gu pour more energy into analyzing the other party's true nature.

"Then what is 'it'?"

Huo Gu murmured the question to himself, and with it came an irritable feeling that common sense had been shattered.

"Impossible! No matter how I think about it, it's impossible!"

"This planet is currently in the Hadean Eon, the stage when the planet's oceans are being born. On top of that, the main components of this planet's atmosphere are methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen. There's simply no room for giant organisms to develop. How could intelligent life capable of causing natural disasters possibly be born in this era?"

Even mutant evolution had to follow basic rules. Biological evolution went from simple to complex. The earliest single-stranded RNA was the initial starting point, then came double-stranded DNA, far more stable than RNA, allowing evolution into more complex forms. Next came the transition from single-celled to multicellular life, seeking enlargement on the macroscopic level and giving birth to macroscopic organisms. After that came brain intelligence, and from intelligence, civilization was nurtured. Anything beyond that was a question mark, because humans had never reached it, so no one knew.

The early stages of life were extremely difficult. Taking Earth as a reference, it took 3.2 billion years for single-celled organisms to evolve into multicellular ones. That was not a scale some simple mutation could achieve.

That was where the anomaly lay!

"Hmm?"

The Titanium Snail's visual system casually swept over its own titanium-alloy shell, gleaming with a silvery-gray metallic luster. In that instant, the dark clouds in Huo Gu's mind seemed to be split apart by a fierce bolt of lightning.

"Maybe... the other party is the same as me. Also a transmigrator, and it became a collective consciousness, or perhaps a single individual, a superorganism capable of independent evolution."

Huo Gu grew excited by his own analysis. He felt as though he was already close to touching the answer, but immediately afterward, that excitement sank back to rock bottom once more.

"No. It still doesn't hold up."

"If the other party were the same as me, it should have a basic concept of 'transmigration.' Asking a question like 'what are you?' is far too forced. Normally, it should have asked something like 'are you a transmigrator?' or 'are you the same as me?'"

"The fact that the other party would ask that kind of question already confirms that I and it, or they, are two completely different kinds of existence on this planet."

As Huo Gu analyzed up to this point, a chill ran through him. For the other party to be able to know this information, it had very likely carried out a full scan of him from inside to outside without him noticing at all.

A bone-deep sense of horror surged up uncontrollably.

"Calm down, Huo Gu. You have to stay calm. Right now, you just don't know the other party's true face. Once you know what it really is, there won't be anything to fear."

Forcing himself to calm down again, Huo Gu began thinking of countermeasures.

"There's no doubt the other party is a life-form, and it possesses a certain degree of intelligence."

"Hmm... to be safe, I'll understand the other party's level of intelligence as being on the level of a human brain."

Human-brain-level intelligence was the highest level in Huo Gu's understanding. He had never seen intelligence on a higher level, so there was no way to integrate it into his judgment. Before transmigrating, although humanity already had artificial intelligence technology, the technology had only just begun and was still at the stage of "artificial stupidity."

"Since it's a life-form, it should follow the logical patterns of normal organisms. For now, I can assume it's an individual."

"So, that fellow probably didn't notice my existence at first. Otherwise, the 'question' should have arrived right from the beginning, instead of waiting until now."

"From the above point, a new conclusion can be derived: when I was on the volcanic island, I accidentally fulfilled some condition, which successfully drew the other party's attention."

"Then what could that condition have been?"

Huo Gu began recalling the situation on the volcanic island at the time, then deleted everything before the gourd group landed. Mixed in with that were memories of designing the Titanium Snail, but with the example of the gourd, it could be judged that designing a cell cluster would not alarm that unknown existence, so that could be ruled out as well.

What remained were the memories of the large-scale transformation of the volcanic island.

Arranged in order, there were five types: the large-scale spread of the rhizome system, the discharge of volcanic lava flows, the lichen system's coverage of the island, the construction of the harbor, and the construction of the island visual system.

"So which one was it? Or was it all of them?"

The destruction on the volcanic island was truly shocking. Aside from the harbor, which was not a living entity, the rhizome system, the lichen system, and the island vision had all already been scrapped.

If it had not angered the other party, why would the other party destroy these things?

Huo Gu's mood was heavy. This meant that from now on, he would very likely have to live a drifting life at sea with no fixed home.

"I can't accept that! Just because I'm worried I might be harmed by something like that, I'm supposed to cower and shrink back?"

"Since it's a life-form, there should be a way to deal with it..."

The images of those torn-apart lichens and the main roots snapped by the raging wind flashed through his mind. While Huo Gu's heart ached, a trace of anger unconsciously blended into his thoughts.

"Since you like destroying things so much, I'll cover every corner of this planet with rhizomes and lichens. If you destroy one place, I'll build two. I'd like to see whether, when the time comes, you really have the ability to destroy every rhizome and lichen on the entire planet."

It was completely an angry remark born subconsciously from malice finding courage, but immediately afterward, Huo Gu reacted with delight. Wasn't this an absolutely brilliant idea?

"That's right! This is it!"

"As long as it reacts to the outside world, it can inevitably be misled. As long as I cover the entire planet, I'll no longer need to worry about having no fixed home, because the whole world will be 'home'! I can live wherever I want!"

It was a rational yet mad idea. Although Huo Gu was an archaeologist and did not want to interfere too much with the evolutionary development of this planet's ecosystem, the situation had already endangered his own survival. If he, as the weaker side, still did not respond, then he really would be meat on the chopping block.

Far away on the volcanic island, the dispersed thunderclouds gathered again, and the cluster of gigantic tornado columns formed once more.

However, unlike last time, the tornado columns truly seemed to have become pillars holding up heaven and earth. They only spun in place, not leaving their positions by even half a step.

Lightning continued to weave through the sky, as if it might fall at any moment just like last time.

In the end, no lightning fell.

After this strange weather persisted for a while, it dispersed just as inexplicably as it had appeared moments ago.