Chapter 10

It's been a few days already, since the destruction I've wrought on that cell. Kevin and I kept exploring the deep reaches of spac… water. I completed the research on Extracellular transport system and thanks to the loot we got last time, quickly managed to craft it.

Well, long story short, I now have vesicles. If that doesn't ring a bell, it's, basically, as it was said - transportation system. Think of lipid balls, covered in protein ‘hooks’ that contain something. That something can range from simple elements to complex RNA structures. The best part of this, however, is that I can fully control them, at least, while they are inside me. Yes, Susan, I can now shift stuff around inside me. So next time I get a cell kill, I could theoretically collect more than just single biomass.

No, the other stuff didn't just disappear, Susan. My body apparently treats all excess good as building blocks. With blueprints being already built elements. After that battle, I noticed a strange increase in energy levels, jumping from 340 to 380, an increase of 2 mitochondria. Which is still less than a full cell should have, but if I'm guessing, the answer lies in biomass. Where does it come from? What is it made off? It is called biomass, so it might be a combination of all the life-building elements, concentrated into one Bio-mass.

Oh, Susan is so sweet, but I wish she knew more about biology. She does make up for it with amazing skill in crowd management.

Next on the list - experimenting with torpedoes/mines. Yes, I now have real torpedos/mines, or, at least, close to that. So I got myself thinking - “what if you load some toxin inside the vesicles and toss them outside at your enemies?” The answer is that you waste a bunch of resources. The problem still lies in me being blind as a bat, which is a totally bad comparison, cause bats have good eyesight. Why is this considered a common saying? Anyway, the blind part makes sure I don't even know if I hit anything. Not to mention that It's easier to absorb the target, while it is still in one piece. Even the cost is nothing to laugh about. As with all system crafts, I spend resources directly from my inventory (my body creates some by itself, but those are important and used in gene expression. The upside is the increased control in some parts of me.)

So why experiment in the first place?

What if somebody chases me? I can always release a swarm of them behind me. You wanna get to me? Survive the minefield first!

Enough about my obsession with lethal weapons, I should decide on my future research paths. As it is now, it's either Christmas light decorations, star power or gotta go fast meme.

After spending 2 days just to find prey, I'm more keen on getting the lighthouse upgrade. Still, I'm not sure that I can deal with the kind of beings it would attract. Spiral upgrade it is. It will be the last thing I will buy, before focusing on pure energy production. I plan on rushing small energy generators and cell division. They seem important.

Alright, back to hunting we go.

-A day later-

We caught another. Kevin suggested we allow them to parley, but I think that taking prisoners is for weak minded. You have to be strict with discipline, else the crew will forget their place. We can't have mutiny on or hands, not when we are so close to our goal.

The fight was anticlimactic. Mostly, because it almost went the same way. Something bumped into me, I bumped back. Something became a snack. Yada, yada same old, same old.

I got my biomass and tried out the new transport system collection capabilities. Managed to snatch half the resources. I'm mostly guessing here, as I can't really be expected to notice all the numeral changes into so many elements. I did notice, that there was some increase and that I only got 1 mitochondrion auto-built, bringing the energy total up to 400.

Finally, as I now had enough spare parts, I built larger sails for my ship. The upgrade was a one-time thing. It simply replaced the previous building option with the new one. It did ask me to spend some more on upgrading already existing spirals, but, thankfully, that didn't require biomass.

Even though I don't really plan on building the other upgrades, while I wait for enough resources for the power cores, I'm researching them anyway.

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/Luminosity - 10%

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Hunting had been a great source to rear in the boredom, not to mention that it's the only place I managed to get biomass from. No, gacha doesn't count. Never trust a rigged lottery. Rigged? Yes, rigged! Did you think that salt just showed up randomly as one of the prizes? I'm 70% sure that I was a part of some inside joke. If the slug people behind the wheel decides to give me worthless stuff next time, there is nothing I can do about it.

Where was I? Ah yeah, hunting is profit, but I also have a chance to speed up mitochondria production by trying out mining again. The question remains if I was lucky these few days or is the enemy spawn rate 1~2 days, and I'm okay with just hunting.

I get the nagging feeling that my mind will twist even more if I have to do something that tedious ever again. I'm half sure Susan is a figment of my imagination, but Kevin insists she is real. I trust Kevin, but I don't know if this journey hasn't made him too crazy.

An insane person giving another insane person tips. Is this what has been going on?

I can't believe in that. I need to keep my mind in top shape.

At least, one of us needs to be sane.