Chapter 6

Ugh, the inventory has turned into a huge clusterfuck of items with no search bar function and no sorting mechanism. I could sort it before opening my prize, but waiting for things is for suckers and I already sucked hard enough. Should rephrase that…

A red box with green ribbons? Innovation! What a time to be alive. So now they implementing cosmetic skins too? Yup, the device itself looks the same.

Kevin, this spin goes to you.

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-Useful materials received:

Biomass - 2 Salt - 1kg

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Harr harr, laugh at the salty boy. Why would I expect anything more? It's alright, seems like this biomass is useful for building the complicated parts. Not to mention that 1kg salt is a great source of sodium and chloride.

That being said, how far we are on the research?

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-primitive sensory system - 4%

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Deep breaths, deep breaths.

What can I do in the meantime? Hmm, I could travel around. Still, travelling would lead to no actual information for me. Besides, I got a good gig going on right here. Digging the bottom of his pond has been rewarding. How about more energy? I'm pretty certain that some of the rest of R&D options will require even more energy.

Oh look, It offers me to use biomass for crafting mitochondria instead. What a deal, just by paying with biomass I can skip all the boring steps of collecting resources normally… Yeah, nice try System. I know a rare resource when I see one. Let's just spend good old chemical elements for this.

2 mitochondria bought!

Come to think of, isn't biomass the great McGuffin energy source I've been looking for? So it does exist, it was just too good for the previous noob like me. Wonder if there are more “main” resource types out there. Maybe biomass isn't even a main resource, but something similar as proteins are for humans. The system doesn't define it, as I would lack the necessary knowledge to act on the information. Or maybe I'm just giving too much credit to system sensibility and it just isn't programmed to handle such information. Yeah, probably, the latter guess.

Checking on the primitive sensory system and… woah!

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-Primitive sensory system - 11%

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How come it's 11% now!? Not that I'm complaining of faster results, but now the system is inconsistent too?

Wait a minute! I think I just had an Eureka moment! Let's check in a bit.

Okay, it's now at 50% and I have enough resources to try out my plan.

Another 2 mitochondria - BUY!

100/280

Yes! Success! It's definitely going faster now. 95% hype!

100%!!!

Now I just need to buy it.

“Open crafting”

I knew it! Those bloody bastards! It cost 2 biomass (and crap-ton of other elements) to even start making the thing. I shudder to think if I had wasted them buying mitochondria.

Crap, I still need to wait a while for the other elements…

Oh, right research freed up. Hmm, what to pick? Cell division sounds important. Aaaand it needs 900 energy total to even start the research. What can I afford now?

Okay, so I can afford

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Advanced cell membrane Basic inner cellular defence Toxin production Luminosity Solar energy capabilities Extracellular transport system

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and

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Small energy generator Cell division Small movement spirals

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cost too much; respectively 550, 900 and 300.

Not even sorted by cost or alphabet, 'tsk, tsk’.

Oh boy, so many choices! Do I want to glow like an idiot and attract all the dangerous beings nearby? Or do I want to put my stuff in small packets and send them outside, so random passerby gets it? Maybe I want to take a big risk and start producing toxins, that might kill myself. Yeah, safe to say that none of these 3 choices amuses me.

Let's just go with good old defence. There is always a bigger fish(cell) out there, and I want it to choke the moment it tries to bite me.