Chapter 1635 - 624: The Futile Struggle of Ngweiwu

Chapter 1635: Chapter 624: The Futile Struggle of Ngweiwu

Ever since discovering Em Wei Wu’s intrigue, Ren Zhong’s days in the Seventh Star Cluster suddenly became interesting.

He straightforwardly asked Sun Ai to make an external communication system for the navigation device, fashioning it into a hat worn on his head. This way, when the raiding legion needed help while out, he could receive messages anytime, no matter where he was, and then close his eyes in meditation, activating foresight and logical thinking to calculate three-dimensional universe coordinates for the fleet.

Speaking of this hat, there was a funny story.

Sun Ai didn’t understand all those specifics, only knowing that Ren Zhong liked green plants, so he simply made the hat a bright green visible from dozens of meters away.

Upon seeing the color, Ren Zhong was dumbfounded as if his life’s beliefs had been challenged.

He wanted to say something but upon careful reflection, he didn’t know where to start.

It turns out, whether on Source Star or in the Red Blade Clan, this common knowledge hadn’t been established.

Ren Zhong thought for a bit and then, citing the conspicuousness of the bright green and ease of being spotted by assassins, asked Sun Ai to change it to gray.

Although Sun Ai was puzzled as to why there would be assassins here, seeing Ren Zhong’s determined attitude, he didn’t argue and complied accordingly.

Thus, Ren Zhong would spend all day wearing this gray hat in Yang Misi’s project group laboratory, engaging with Em Wei Wu.

The Red Blade Army would remain in the Seventh Star Cluster for at least thirty years. Yang Misi’s lifespan was limited, making it impossible for him to stay awake permanently, so Ren Zhong asked him to develop a five-year plan for the relevant project, then go into cryogenic sleep, planning to wake intermittently every five years to track progress and develop new plans.

Nowadays, the Red Blade Science Academy was teeming with talent. Personnel could share the workload, so Yang Misi no longer had to exhaust himself over every detail like in the past.

But there were challenges too. Em Wei Wu, despite displaying more complex intelligence and being an anomaly among the Velvet Whisker 331 individuals, hadn’t transcended the species’ life limit: maturing at three months, a ten-year prime, and rapid wilting death after ten years.

Detailed detection showed that Em Wei Wu was already three years old when captured and only had seven years to live.

Yet, obtaining such a sample was rare. Both Ren Zhong and Yang Misi didn’t want it to perish prematurely and had to find a way to extend its lifespan.

On this matter, Yang Misi wasn’t the most expert; the task was handed off to professionals from the Red Blade Biological Institute and Academy of Medicine. Ren Zhong himself, having learned from Sun Miao and Sun Ai, counted as quite the expert, so whether Yang Misi went into hibernation or not wouldn’t affect the progress of this side project related to the main line.

On this day, after Em Wei Wu finally altered the first three monosyllables and used its mouthparts to utter an entirely new passage, Ren Zhong executed Yang Misi’s plan, bringing fifty of its kind and confining all fifty-one Velvet Whisker 331 individuals within a large cell.

Of course, the non-lethal weapons mounted on the ceiling remained on standby throughout, preventing in-fighting among the Velvet Whisker 331 individuals and ensuing casualties.

The fifty Em Wei Wu kindred brought in were survivors of the gravity and chaotic information shock but hadn’t evolved to Em Wei Wu’s level.

On the first day, Em Wei Wu seamlessly integrated into the fifty kindred, showing no noticeable signs.

Fifty-one Velvet Whisker 331 individuals clustered together according to past customs, orderly arranged in a horizontal-seven vertical-eight formation, with a singleton pair in the last column.

Em Wei Wu mingled within, positioned at the third horizontal and third vertical, utterly inconspicuous.

Though the large prison was spacious and empty, the Velvet Whisker 331 individuals’ genetic instinct drove this species to spontaneously densely arrange when appearing as a group.

Even during eating, sleeping, and excreting, the fifty-one Velvet Whisker 331 individuals’ formation remained unchanged.

As for feeding, there was a designated feed port in the cell, on the ceiling. At mealtimes, a hole would open on the ceiling and plant composite food would be delivered through it.

Additionally, mechanical arms would periodically extend from the hole for cleaning waste and gel bodies.

The living conditions of the Velvet Whisker 331 individuals were no different than on the Third Planet. Before the Red Blade Army’s arrival, large organisms similarly traversed the Velvet Whisker 331 individuals’ formations.

Ren Zhong was in no hurry, merely using equipment to quietly observe the dynamics within the cell.

Equipment detected a significant increase in pheromone concentration in the air when the Velvet Whisker 331 individuals were gathered. Although scientists remained unable to decode the specific information carried in these pheromones, it was certain these Velvet Whisker 331 individuals were communicating with each other.

Next, the positioning tolerance detector discovered Em Wei Wu’s position amid the crowd wasn’t quite standard.

Its absolute distance tolerance with the four similar members around it exceeded 1mm.

Its movements also lagged slightly behind its kindred, by approximately 0.1 seconds.

These minor differences were hard to observe with the naked eye but were unmistakable under the scrutiny of the instruments.

Furthermore, Em Wei Wu’s weight was changing, losing more of its mass than its kindred by 0.001 micrograms.

Clearly, the pheromone permeating the air largely originated from Em Wei Wu.

It began to act.

On the second day, more complex changes emerged.

The actions of fifty-one Velvet Whisker 331 individuals were no longer synchronized, and the post-meal reshaped formation wasn’t as orderly as the previous day, making Em Wei Wu’s distance tolerance seem commonplace.

During this period, Ren Zhong remained absent from outside the cell, merely observing silently to avoid stimulating Em Wei Wu.

He turned to tell the assistant beside him, "These Velvet Whisker 331 individuals have started developing self-awareness. Yesterday, Em Wei Wu used pheromones to teach its kind some new things."

The assistant nodded.

Ren Zhong continued, "Analyze yesterday’s captured pheromone specific components, Energy Level changes, observe its evolution patterns using a subtle information flow scanner, then compare with Em Wei Wu’s previously released pheromones and those normally released by its kind. The differences in these details are the concept of self-awareness among Velvet Whisker 331 individuals."

The assistant noted it again.

Ren Zhong mused, although Old Yang was not adept with biology and sociology, his research methods were indeed a system. Didn’t he find a breakthrough here?

On the third day, a sudden mutation occurred.

Besides Em Wei Wu, the other fifty Velvet Whisker 331 individuals unexpectedly began voluntarily evolving their mouthparts successively within the same day.

Though superficially unnoticeable, these Velvet Whisker 331 individuals fell into immense pain.

They clasped their mouths with arthropods, desperately rubbing, seemingly reducing the pain.

Mixed green and white bodily fluids spurted from their mouthparts.

After a whole day, only twenty Velvet Whisker 331 individuals remained in the cell, with thirty-one having died.

This mouthpart’s autonomous evolution mortality rate exceeded 60%, quite staggering.

"Demons! You’ll never receive evolution’s grace, the great Mother Empress will sooner or later turn you into fertilizer!"

Em Wei Wu and its nineteen new companions, with one voice, uttered the same syllables, resonating in the empty cell, sounding especially resonant.

Em Wei Wu was pleased.

I have no means to resist, nor do I see hope for victory.

But at least I can make my kin curse you demons along with me.

Ren Zhong excitedly stood up from his seat, running to the cell, raising his fist at Em Wei Wu, "Em Wei Wu! Well done! Keep it up!"