Begin from the original form of torture and become immortal

Chapter 1740 Recovery
Time lost its measure in the absolute darkness and boiling clamor. Connors' shattered consciousness, like the scattered wreckage of a sunken ship, floated, collided, and sank in the icy, bone-chilling sea.

When the scorching torrent from the abyss crust—a liquid carrying the strong smell of sulfur and death—first violently washed over the last remaining nerve endings covered in rough, mineralized tissue, a primal throbbing from the deepest recesses of his genes was ignited.

It wasn't fear, but an almost greedy craving.

An instinct stemming from Godzilla's bloodline instantly overwhelmed the chaos and weakness brought on by the fragments of human memory. His remaining tissues, like the most sensitive detectors, firmly locked onto the energy coordinates in the darkness.

The hot spring is a raging furnace of life within this eternal dark prison.

Giant, chimney-like "black chimneys" and "white chimneys" stand tall, spewing hellish broth at temperatures as high as 400 degrees Celsius from fissures in the earth's crust.

The scalding fluid, rich in hydrogen sulfide (HS), methane, and metal ions, roars and boils upon contact with the icy, frigid seawater (close to 0-2 degrees Celsius), precipitating black sulfide mineral particles that form bizarre chimney-like structures. Here, devoid of sunlight, a breathtaking oasis of life thrives.

Giant tube worms sway like an eerie white forest, relying on symbiotic bacteria within their bodies to convert highly toxic hydrogen sulfide into organic nutrients; blind shrimp densely cover the rocks at the edge of hydrothermal vents, their shells also relying on chemosynthetic bacterial farms; there are also heat-resistant mussels, worms, and strange microbial mats... This is a boiling, noisy alien world built on dead chemical substances.

Connors' remaining body fragments, guided by ocean currents and his faint sense of self, eventually sank and were half-buried in the relatively "mild" sediment at the edge of the furnace.

The scalding fluid and the icy seawater form a violent gradient here, and the huge temperature and chemical potential difference becomes his only hope for regeneration.

The initial integration was painful and clumsy.

The unique organelles in his remaining tissues, not yet completely necrotic and derived from Godzilla's genes—a highly specialized symbiotic structure similar to chemoautotrophic bacteria (far more complex than the mitochondria of ordinary organisms)—began to awaken.

They greedily capture the highly toxic hydrogen sulfide (HS) molecules that permeate the hydrothermal fluids.

This is not a simple respiration process.

Inside the newly formed primary absorption membrane of Connors, which is covered with a network of tiny blood vessels (evolved from specialized intersquamous spaces and subcutaneous tissue), a sophisticated electron transport chain reaction takes place: HS is gradually oxidized, and the released high-energy electrons leap and jump in the complex circuits formed by membrane proteins. Their energy is efficiently captured and drives the phosphorylation of ADP into ATP—the universal energy currency of organisms.

The efficiency of this direct "devouring" of geothermal chemical energy is far beyond what predation can achieve.

Each successful transformation was like throwing a burning log into the dying embers of his life.

At the same time, another, more sophisticated energy capture system, also derived from ancient bloodlines, began a difficult reconstruction.

On his partially healed body surface, especially on the side closer to the hydrothermal vent, some of the newly formed scales exhibit an unusually dark color and dense layered structure.

Inside these scales, tiny biothermoelectric material units (composed of special proteins, mineral crystals, and ion channels) are forming.

The scalding hot fluid and the icy cold seawater create a temperature difference (ΔT) of up to several hundred degrees Celsius on both sides of the scales.

According to the Seebeck effect, this huge temperature difference directly generates a continuous, weak potential difference (voltage) across the thermoelectric units inside the scales.

Countless such miniature thermoelectric generators are connected in series and parallel, forming a distributed bio-thermoelectric network. Although the conversion efficiency of a single unit is not high (far lower than that of modern engineering thermoelectric materials), the energy flow provided by the hot spring is unimaginably vast.

Like trickles of water flowing into a mighty river, a continuous, weak current begins to flow through Connors's newly formed neural cords and energy transport channels, providing crucial startup and maintenance energy for those chemosynthetic organelles that have just begun to function, and driving the most basic cell division and tissue repair.

Hot springs bring not only energy, but also valuable building materials that reshape the body.

The scalding fluid, rich in dissolved iron, zinc, copper, manganese, silicon, and even rare metal ions, is no longer a poison to the environment, but a "nutrient solution" that Connors desperately needs.

The newly formed skeleton, especially the weight-bearing spine, the limb bones (in their nascent stages), and the giant claws used for digging and future attacks, became the priority targets for strengthening.

Specialized osteoblasts begin to efficiently accumulate metal ions in hydrothermal fluids, especially iron and zinc.

Iron ions are incorporated into the collagen matrix, forming a more dense, hard, and tough composite mineral than ordinary hydroxyapatite—similar to the iron sulfide-reinforced structure in the tubes of deep-sea tube worms, but more advanced.

Zinc ions are incorporated into the enamel layer of the claws and teeth, greatly enhancing their hardness and wear resistance, making them strong enough to tear through deep-sea rocks and shells.

These reinforced structures exhibit a deep, dark gray hue with a metallic sheen.

The newly formed scales covering the body are another masterpiece.

They not only perform thermoelectric conversion, but also serve as the first line of defense against deep-sea high pressure and future battles.

The scales are based on highly mineralized chitin and collagen, but the key lies in their microstructure.

During the growth process, the newly formed scales actively adsorb silicate particles and metal sulfide nanoparticles (such as pyrite particles) from the hydrothermal fluid.

These particles are not simply filling, but are orderly embedded in the layered structure of scales under the precise control of the biomineralization process, forming a micro-nano layered structure similar to natural ceramics or composite armor.

This makes the scales not only exceptionally strong, able to withstand the terrifying pressure (over 500 atmospheres) at depths of thousands of meters, but also possess excellent shock resistance and energy dissipation capabilities.

The scales are covered with an extremely dense glaze layer of mixed metal sulfide and organic matter, which further enhances their hardness and chemical inertness, making them resistant to hydrothermal corrosion.

Between the scales, due to the adsorption of specific mineral ions (such as copper and manganese) and the enrichment of luminescent symbiotic microorganisms, they begin to shimmer with a dark, cold blue-green or dark red biophosphorescence, like the breath of death in absolute darkness.

With a near-unlimited supply of energy and materials, regeneration has entered a stable and continuous phase. But this is by no means a miracle achieved overnight.

From the initial struggle of consciousness to coalesce in the cold, dark abyss, to being drawn like a magnet by the energy fluctuations of the hot spring, and finally arriving at and initially anchoring in this area, the passage of time is beyond human perception.

(End of this chapter)