Toxic Bacteriophage

Ever since regaining his ability to think, Huo Gu had been at a disadvantage. The unicellular colony had no "vision," leaving him in an extremely passive position.

Only when those foreign cells came into contact with the unicellular colony could Huo Gu become aware of their existence.

If he still had his former human body, then even without sight, he could have used the neural network in his skin to sense the direction of fluid flow and determine what objects were around him.

But the problem was that the unicellular colony Huo Gu currently inhabited was far too rudimentary, making even that impossible.

To resist those external threats, Huo Gu could only settle for passive defense, and the key to that defense lay in the cell wall.

"The main method of attack used by bacteriophages is infection. Then they seize the nest, massively replicating their progeny within the host cell. Once they reach a certain number, they destroy the cell membrane and cell wall from within by various means..."

"So... the key to defending against this kind of enemy lies in the initial infection stage. As long as I disrupt that step, those things won't be able to do anything to me for the time being."

Thus, a question lay before Huo Gu—what method should it use to disrupt the bacteriophage's infection stage?

The key to defending against bacteriophages was the cell wall, but that was only Huo Gu's rough idea. It had yet to work out the specifics.

"That temperate bacteriophage back then bypassed the defensive cell membrane by injecting its genes into the unicellular organism..."

"If the cell wall is thick enough and its gaps small enough to allow only small molecular substances to pass through... hmm, that should provide excellent defense."

With a general direction in mind, filling in the details became much quicker. Huo Gu did not expend much effort before finalizing the design of the cell wall.

Then, Huo Gu suddenly thought of something.

"Wait! What if it's like certain influenza viruses, deliberately shedding its protein shell and directly delivering genetic fragments through the cell wall's tiny molecular gaps..."

"Only specialization can maximize effectiveness. If the cell wall also has to handle screening, then its protective effect will..."

Huo Gu's attention gradually shifted to the cell membrane.

"I'll leave the screening function to the cell membrane and let the cell wall handle defense."

"If the cell wall can be breached, then the cell membrane's defense won't be very useful either. After all, a jack-of-all-trades can never be as effective as a specialist."

For a better comparison, Huo Gu unwound and copied the genes for the bacteriophage's protein shell from the genetic chain.

Before long, the bacteriophage's protein shell appeared before Huo Gu.

"This..."

When it saw the bacteriophage's protein shell, Huo Gu was troubled.

With a physical object for comparison, it finally realized just how small bacteriophages were. If the unicellular organism serving as its host was a skyscraper, then the bacteriophage was the size of a human or a pet dog.

This was indeed vastly different from what it had imagined.

"So the openings in the cell wall need to be designed to allow only individual small molecules through in order to block bacteriophages?"

At that moment, another unexpected visitor encountered the unicellular colony.

Just as Huo Gu feared, it was a killer of the microbial world—a bacteriophage. This time, heaven had no intention of continuing to favor Huo Gu and this unicellular colony.

After its genetic fragments invaded the outermost unicellular organism, the bacteriophage immediately declared sovereignty over its host cell, frantically transcribing its genes and producing vast quantities of bacteriophage genes and protein shells.

Clearly, this was a virulent bacteriophage.

"Damn it!"

Huo Gu nearly cursed aloud. The infected unicellular organism was connected to others through protein structures, which meant it could not immediately separate from the entire cellular colony like last time.

Not daring to hesitate any longer, Huo Gu immediately directed the cells to divide and isolate the infected unicellular organism.

The cells dividing were not those directly connected to the infected cell, but the cells along the outer edge of the entire region centered around that host cell.

This was a precaution. The speed at which individuals separated from the unicellular colony was the speed at which unicellular organisms replicated. If the cells could not replicate faster than the bacteriophages could rupture the host cell, then having the connected cells divide to isolate it would be meaningless.

If the separation failed, a large area—or even the entire unicellular colony—would become infected.

Huo Gu could not take that risk.

Events unfolded just as Huo Gu had feared, or perhaps even worse. The virulent bacteriophages had already ruptured the host cell's membrane and begun infecting other cells at an unimaginably fast rate.

At that point, the unwinding and division of the unicellular organisms was only halfway complete.

Huo Gu's heart leapt into his throat as it focused all its attention on the cells undergoing division.

The unicellular organisms whose division speed had once seemed acceptable now appeared to move at a tortoise's pace.

"Faster... faster... faster..."

Its attention moved repeatedly between the cells and the bacteriophages. Without realizing it, Huo Gu had begun muttering frantically, urging the dividing unicellular organisms onward.

Time passed second by second.

Whether its nagging really had some effect or it was merely a timely coincidence, the dividing unicellular organisms completed their division first, severing and abandoning that entire cellular region in the boundless darkness, preventing a second large-scale infection by the virulent bacteriophages.

"I can't let this happen again. I have to finish refining the cell wall as soon as possible."

After experiencing the virulent bacteriophage crisis, Huo Gu was still shaken, but it also became more desperate to complete a cell wall capable of resisting bacteriophages.

After replenishing the missing cells in the unicellular colony, Huo Gu began working on the cell wall.

The thickness of the cell wall was not a problem. By repeatedly producing cell walls, it could create a layered effect and increase the wall's thickness.

What troubled Huo Gu now was the cell wall's permeability. The channels through which this unexpectedly acquired cell wall exchanged substances were large enough for several bacteriophages to pass through at once.

Clearly, those channels were too large. Against bacteriophages, this unexpectedly acquired cell wall provided no resistance at all.

A single bacteriophage would be manageable. As long as it did not enter a channel, the wall could block it. But against a swarm of bacteriophages, some entering those channels was practically inevitable.

"I need to find a way to make these channels smaller."