Multicellular

Amid a boiling liquid constantly bubbling away, a cylindrical organism drifted with the current, carried along by the flowing liquid through this region.

"Very good, everyone has held up well."

"Now for the first closure. Inner cells, prepare to divide."

At Huo Gu's command, the openings at both ends of the drifting tubular organism slowly began to close, like a multicellular creature shutting its mouth.

"Excellent."

Huo Gu watched the entire process with rapt attention. To be honest, it still felt a little nervous.

This was the first trial run, and Huo Gu could not guarantee with absolute certainty that nothing would go wrong. Many things could be unexpectedly unpredictable, just like that double-walled cell from not long ago.

"Next, release enzymes into the cavity."

With the order given, the epithelial cells lining the inner cavity produced large quantities of protein-degrading enzymes and released them into the liquid within.

The microorganisms trapped inside the cavity—whether viruses, bacteria, or fungi—were all broken down by the dispersed enzymes without exception.

Viruses were the first microorganisms to be completely broken down. Their structures were simply too basic; their shells were merely a layer of protein. Bacteria and fungi at least had cell walls.

However, the cell walls of bacteria and fungi could not hold out for long either. What they faced was a monster on the scale of an entire collective. For individual microorganisms like them to resist it was nothing more than a fool's dream.

After some more time passed, the microorganisms inside the cavity were completely broken down by the enzymes. Only amino acids remained in that pool of solution.

The inner wall of the cavity absorbed, processed, and refined these amino acids before passing them to the inner cells, which in turn delivered the nutrients to the epithelial cells that served as the primary defense.

Huo Gu watched the entire process with slight relief. Aside from having to issue the initial command to open and close the mouth, the cells had completed everything else autonomously. That counted as major progress.

Afterward, Huo Gu carried out a second and third round of "feeding." Judging from the results, they were not much different from the first. The microorganisms could be perfectly killed, broken down into amino acids, and absorbed.

"Next is the construction of a visual system."

Once it had confirmed that its life was not under immediate threat, Huo Gu put the "visual system" on the agenda.

Information was extremely important, no matter the circumstances.

Huo Gu urgently needed to determine where it was so that it could formulate a survival strategy.

To have eyes, it needed eyespots—organelles capable of responding to light.

But Huo Gu currently had no such organelles.

"Eyespots..."

"Since I don't have any myself, why not just snatch them from someone else?"

"Yes, that's what I'll do. Capture those microorganisms, analyze their genes, then splice them into the existing genes."

With that thought, Huo Gu began capturing microorganisms.

The tubular organism's "mouth" slowly opened.

As it moved and the liquid flowed, microorganisms were helplessly sucked into the tubular organism's inner cavity.

As the two open passages completely closed, a large amount of enzymes was released. Just as before, vast numbers of microorganisms were killed by the enzymes.

However, there was one difference from before. After most of the virus-like microorganisms had been killed, the enzymes were consumed almost exactly.

A mistake?

No, this was not a mistake. Everything had proceeded exactly as Huo Gu had planned.

If there were too many enzymes, only amino acids would remain in the cavity. If there were too few, the viruses could not be completely killed, and it might even lead to another crisis like the earlier bacteriophage incident.

The key was the amount of enzymes: not too much, not too little. The previous few rounds of opening and closing the mouth had not merely been to observe whether there were flaws in the multicellular organism's design. They had also been meant to determine how long viruses could survive in an environment saturated with enzymes.

Once the enzymes had been completely consumed, the liquid inside the cavity no longer had the ability to break down proteins.

Protein structures capable of binding were extended into the cavity, suspended horizontally in its liquid. The microorganisms scurrying about after being trapped inside were easily captured by these protein structures.

This allowed Huo Gu to directly observe the captured single-celled organisms from its own perspective.

"Hmm... this is..."

The tadpole-like single-celled organism had a relatively thick yet extremely loose outer cell wall. It merely cushioned collisions and could not defend against viruses like bacteriophages, or aggressive bacteria and fungi.

Then came the cell membrane. There was nothing remarkable about that; the composition and structure of cell membranes were largely similar.

Finally, there was the little tail that constantly swayed back and forth, also called a flagellum. This was what delighted Huo Gu the most.

With this sample, it could design an external organ to drive the entire single-celled collective's movement. That would greatly improve its safety.

At the very least, it would not have to worry about escaping when danger arose.

"I'll set the flagellum aside for now. The priority is finding a single-celled organism with an organelle like an eyespot."

Huo Gu shifted its attention and began examining another single-celled organism captured by a protein structure.

This one was a single-celled organism with a double membrane but no cell wall. Compared to the previous one, it appeared far more fragile.

It had no external flagellum either, but it did not disappoint Huo Gu, because within this cell was an organelle resembling a mitochondrion.

Mitochondria could be called the engines of the microscopic world. By combining nutrients and oxygen—or other combinations—they could convert one form of energy into another.

For example, light energy into kinetic energy, chemical energy into light energy, chemical energy into heat energy, and so on.

Even if this primitive mitochondrion-like organelle could not meet Huo Gu's current needs, with it as a template, Huo Gu could still design a kind of mitochondrion exclusively for the single-celled collective.

"This is indeed good, but I'll put it aside for now. Finding an eyespot organelle is the top priority. Being unable to observe the surroundings is simply too dangerous."

Long protein structures swayed through the inner cavity like fishing lines cast across the water by an expert angler.

One single-celled organism after another was hooked by these fine lines. They contained all kinds of organelles, in every bizarre variety imaginable, yet not a single bacterium with an "eyespot" organelle was found.