Chapter 954 Brains

Two red spheres floated on the crystal platform. Beneath their rough, skin-like surfaces, a dark red light pulsed, making them resemble bizarre lava lamps. Luminous crystal clusters hovered around the platform, their light scanning the electrical signals flowing within the spheres, performing harmless, simple stimulations.

Izhaks watched the incredible, peculiar brains—or rather, brain parts—with great interest. "Why did the eldest leave behind its brain instead of seeds after withering?"

"Because its brain is the seed!" The data terminal seemed to have made a sudden discovery, activating a series of holographic projections while exclaiming. The projections showed the eldest samples from containers one and two, the remains of the eldest brought back from Izhaks' home, a portion of the tentacle structure scanned on the surface of Tanagrus, and numerous bizarre tentacles and biological organs in various stages of development—entirely derived from deduction and simulation. "This unit has compiled the currently discovered eldest, roughly sorting out their physiological structures to simulate the changes during their development. We can regard the eldest on the wreckage of the giant ship as juveniles, those on Holletta as youths, and those on Tanagrus as adults. By comparing these three stages, this unit now has an amazing discovery: perhaps the eldest only possesses a 'brain core' at birth, and as it grows, it nurtures other brains within its body. These brains are connected by neural networks, forming a unified consciousness, which is the stage scanned in containers one and two. But after developing to a certain stage, the eldest should split. The brain core will separate from the main body, taking a portion of the body with it, and grow into a new individual… or perhaps only the brain core leaves, because these red spheres contain many structures unrelated to neural activity, which may develop into embryos. In short, the eldest's brain is the seed. Its method of reproduction is extremely interesting. It is an extremely advanced life form, but it reproduces in a manner similar to fission. Each offspring is a complete copy of it, identical in body and mind. They only develop individually after the neural connections are severed. The sample on Holletta should be in the middle of this stage, with the old body completing its split and the new body gestating multiple brains. And the eldest that withered and died two hundred thousand years ago died prematurely as a juvenile, so there was only one eldest on the ship, and the brain core had only three…"

Hao Ren listened with increasing astonishment, unable to resist interrupting, "So there are three eldest on Holletta? They split off?"

The number of eldest on Holletta had always been a concern. After encountering the eldest from Izhaks' home, Hao Ren discovered that a First Seed would only nurture one individual. And the First Seed created by the Goddess of Creation, as an extremely sophisticated "detection machine," could not possibly lack the ability to identify each other. In other words, theoretically, multiple First Seeds would not land on the same planet (that would be a great waste). So why were there three eldest on Holletta?

Hao Ren had always assumed there was a problem with the initial sowing, but it seemed that was not the case. The eldest had split itself!

"Then why didn't the eldest on Tanagrus split?" Lily bounced forward. "It's so big! It covers the entire planet!"

"That's currently unclear," the data terminal admitted. "This unit can only judge its physiological form based on concrete data, but it cannot determine its decision-making mechanism when taking various actions. Perhaps Tanagrus is a special testing ground, so the eldest here chose to keep growing. Or perhaps Holletta is special, which caused the eldest there to split into three. We have too few samples, lacking comparison, and cannot draw a conclusion."

"The eldest's reproduction problem can be put aside for now," Vivian said suddenly, waving her hand. "Let's talk about these two spheres. They can create projections of the Demon King's City through dreaming?"

"'Dreaming' is just a figurative way of speaking," the data terminal said, swaying its body. "Perhaps it's some kind of similar neural activity. These two brain cores are damaged, so they may be severely affected by external stimuli. One of the brain cores had a large amount of energy extracted when it served as a power source for the Demon King's City, but in the process, its 'senses' also spread throughout the city with the city's energy network. Moreover, due to the existence of the city shield, its scanning of the city can be said to be extremely detailed. Then, under some circumstance, it began to dream, dreaming of its 'new body.' The projection of the Demon King's City appeared. Do you still remember what you saw at the top of the atmosphere back then? That phantom was the Demon King's City before it was sent to Aerym, before the continental bridge was next to the city. So it is a residual memory."

Lily opened her mouth wide and let out a long "Oh," her ears drooping. "As a novelist, my imagination was actually defeated by a brick… I didn't even think of so much!"

"This is not imagination, this is strict data collection and rational deduction!" The data terminal immediately put on airs. "This unit deduced it after collecting the electrical signal patterns of the red spheres and comparing the neural structures of samples one and two!"

Hao Ren stroked his chin, thinking. He suddenly spoke, "If this is the brain core of the eldest… then do we have a chance to communicate with a sane eldest?!"

"This unit is trying," the data terminal said, pointing the light beam at the crystal clusters near the two spheres. "But so far, all communication methods have failed. The brain core's response to external signals is very weak, and there is almost no logic. Forced reading is even worse: after the signal stimulation reaches a certain level, the stability of the brain core begins to decline. Perhaps that's how Elizabeth exploded the first energy furnace back then."

Hao Ren looked at Elizabeth with a strange expression, thinking that this little girl was really bold back then. Now that he thought about it, she actually used the brain of the eldest to generate electricity for the entire Demon King's City to fly for more than half a year! It was enough to make one's hair stand on end just thinking about it.

Even the shiny bald head of Izhaks was covered in fine sweat. He pressed his daughter's head hard. "It's good nothing happened back then."

Elizabeth didn't have much of a concept of the eldest's terror, only knowing to giggle foolishly while holding Doudou, so the fish baby in her arms also giggled foolishly.

Vivian shook her head helplessly. "These two really deserve to have the same name. Look at their ability to court death, it's the same level."

Lily looked at the two troublemakers and then at the red spheres, finally sighing with regret. "So these two brain cores are too badly damaged, there's no way to communicate… can we treat them?"

"Previous attempts to cultivate First Seeds and primitive organs have failed. The Goddess of Creation's first creations are not ordinary life. If we cannot decipher the divinity data of that goddess, there is no way to artificially cultivate or repair these primitive life forms," the data terminal also said with regret. "Currently, we can only hope that they will slowly repair themselves. We can provide them with sufficient external nutrients—such as soaking them in the Source Blood, but other than that, there's no way."

"So we can only let it sleep like this?" Vivian crossed her arms. "Or see if it will dream again? Perhaps its dreams can reveal something."

At this moment, Lily didn't know what she was thinking. She suddenly leaned over and carefully patted the surface of one of the red spheres. "Stop sleeping, get up and party!"

Everyone: "…"

"It doesn't work," Lily ran back to Hao Ren's side with small steps. "Why don't you go up and pat it twice?"

Vivian moved to the side, keeping her distance from this idiot. "Are you forcing a connection like this?"

"I said let the landlord see if he can read the mind of this brain core. Doesn't he occasionally connect to the consciousness of these strange creatures? That's how the giant brain was connected back then," Lily rolled her eyes. "You can't be prejudiced against all my actions just because I'm a husky…"

This girl could now calmly admit her husky identity without even blinking.

And Hao Ren felt that Lily's suggestion seemed to make some sense, so he took a step forward. "Then… let's give it a try."