The Beginning of Inheritance

After the special-grade amino acids in the water had been fully absorbed, Huo Gu released other types of amino acids and proteins into the water, then prompted the Collectors to complete two tasks: "collect organic materials" and "deliver them to the root system for absorption."

After completing these two tasks, the Collectors would receive special-grade amino acids from the root system. Tempted by food, the Collectors would quickly learn the process, even if they had yet to awaken to the concept of "I."

To put it bluntly, it was just the beast-taming technique used in circuses, not some high-end skill.

Bit by bit, under Huo Gu's guidance, the Collectors adjusted their understanding, recording it in their brains as experiential knowledge—so long as they delivered strange things to those vine-like structures, they could obtain delicious food.

After they were continuously free-ranged in the water for a while like this, the Collectors would come to understand that only the root system could provide them with food. Then an equation would appear in their minds: the root system equaled guaranteed food, while destruction of the root system meant hunger. Driven by desire, a concept would then branch off—protection.

Throughout the entire process, Huo Gu closely monitored the changes in the Collectors' brains. The memories recorded by the Collectors belonged to learned memory, which theoretically should not be heritable, so Huo Gu prepared to transform them into heritable memories. It wanted every newborn Collector to know what it should do from the moment it was born. That was also why it had gone to such great lengths.

In addition, Huo Gu tested the degree of control it had over the cells in the Collectors' bodies. The result was that a decline in control did indeed exist. The connection was still there, but it could no longer achieve the same complete domination it had over Gourd. It was as if something had weakened it.

Time passed little by little. The root clusters crawling toward the seafloor finally spread to the edge of the undersea cave and tangled with one another, sealing off the undersea cave.

A dozen or so Gourds were produced by the roots. Under Huo Gu's instructions, they used the gravel and broken stones on the seafloor to conceal the root clusters that had spread to the bottom of the sea.

After that, they attached themselves to the roots, transformed into cocoons, and gestated themselves anew.

Huo Gu directly overlaid the Collector information it had gathered during this period into the interior of the cocoons, allowing Gourd's genes to express themselves in the form of Collectors.

Before long, Collectors broke out of their shells one after another, becoming the first macroscopic multicellular organisms to appear on this planet.

They had the same appearance as Gourd, yet they were also different. They no longer possessed restrictions on movement distance, and they were no longer bound by the life field, able to move freely. They had been upgraded from tools into work servants laboring under a contractor.

The Collectors turned their eyes in confusion, observing this new world they had never seen before. The seafloor was so vast, unlike the narrow "world" in their inherited memories. The mismatch between reality and memory inevitably left them somewhat at a loss.

However, driven by hunger, they still began the collection work in the ocean.

At first, because they were unaccustomed to the abilities of their bodies and the ocean environment, the Collectors swam through the sea with great difficulty. Compared to the stable aquatic environment inside the underground cavity, the currents in the ocean could truly be called "stormy." Accidents often occurred where Collectors lost control of their speed and direction, crashing into one another.

Fortunately, however, the nutrient-rich environment of the Hadean Eon had caused microorganisms to run rampant. Even at such a sluggish pace, they still collected enough organic materials to let the Collectors barely fill their stomachs.

Of course, there were also individual Collectors that gathered very little. They were completely unable to adapt to the chaotic current environment of the seafloor, and instead crashed into undersea reefs several times, forcing Huo Gu to add quite a lot of organic materials to repair them.

Just as Huo Gu had decided at the beginning, it could not act like a cold-blooded slave owner and throw them away once they had been used. After all, they were working for it. If there was not even medical aid, that would be far too unreasonable.

Collectors that could no longer endure hunger went near the Collectors that were eating, wanting a share of the spoils. Toward this, all the Collectors had no major reaction.

Newly born, each of them was like a blank sheet of paper. They had no concept of public and private, no concept of theft, and even less any desire for possession. Therefore, no Collector expressed opposition.

But Huo Gu could not simply watch from the sidelines. The rule had been set by it—"The supplies a Collector receives are determined by the amount of organic material it can collect."

Moreover, if it allowed this to go unchecked, would "slackers" evolve among the Collectors? Ones that specialized in robbing other Collectors of food, like carnivores above herbivores.

With such concerns, Huo Gu could not possibly just watch those substandard Collectors go eat the food of other Collectors. The roots drove away the Collector that had drawn close and restricted its ability to move.

The Collector wanted to break free from the roots' restraints, but compared to it, the root system was truly thick and sturdy to an indescribable degree. It was like an infant arm wrestling a weightlifting champion; the chance of winning had never been higher than zero from the very start.

"Strange... what is this bizarre heartache?"

Looking at the Collector struggling in vain, Huo Gu felt uncomfortable for reasons it could not understand. It was as though seeing the other party hungry made it feel hungry as well.

"Shared sensation? Or some other reason?"

Huo Gu somewhat unhappily brushed away this feeling and gathered up all the Collectors that had failed to meet the standard, making them attach themselves to the roots again and form cocoons.

It was not trying to recycle resources. Rather, Huo Gu intended to copy and transfer the experiential memories of the Collector that was currently the most skilled at collection work into the brains of these Collectors that were completely unable to adapt to the ocean environment.

Although Huo Gu's authority seemed to have been weakened, the connection was still there. The Collectors had been designed by it inside and out, so copying a memory was not difficult for it.

If there were still those that failed to meet the standard, only then would it consider the option of recycling resources.

During the collection period, Huo Gu did not forget to pay attention to movements on the sea surface. If that unknown entity appeared again, it would immediately sever the root system connected to the seafloor—sever it in the physical sense.

Soon, the second collection activity began. The batch of Collectors that had previously failed to adapt to the seafloor environment did not disappoint Huo Gu. They collected far more organic materials than the other Collectors that had not formed cocoons, and they completed the material collection work earlier, allowing them to have a full meal.

Of course, there were also exceptions. There was one post-cocoon Collector that failed to meet the standard. However, Huo Gu did not plan to pursue the matter, because that fellow was simply too unlucky. While collecting materials, it had been trapped by a sudden strong current in the sea inside a ring-shaped reef and could not get out. It counted as an accident. More importantly, Huo Gu, who had inexplicably transmigrated, found a small point of resonance in that unlucky Collector.

This second round of collection fully demonstrated the advantage of Huo Gu's adjustment of experiential memories into heritable memories. Many Collectors knew what they should do from birth, and how to do it better.

This was an ability entirely different from those of Earth's organisms. Experience accumulated continuously, like a snowball, growing larger the farther it rolled. As for what lay at the end of that snowball, even a creator like Huo Gu did not know.