The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 204 Those who are silent will sleep forever

The signal was transmitted into Lin Yi's consciousness in a very special way, and it took him a long time to react. It seemed that there was another consciousness communicating with him in some way?

It seems that the nervous system is partially connected in some form. This signal is directly transmitted from the other party's nervous system to the spatial synapse, and then to Lin Yi's collective consciousness.

But Lin Yi did not interpret any useful information from the signal, as if it was just a bunch of meaningless signals.

Tracing the source of the signal, Lin Yi found that it seemed to come from a special area of ​​the brain - it was completely wrapped in a special lignified structure, and only a small amount of organs and tissues necessary for life were connected to the outside world, which seemed a bit strange.

The inside of this structure seems to be a complete brain structure, not a part of the main brain. The meaningless signal seems to be transmitted from it.

While thinking about it, another signal came into his consciousness, and what made Lin Yi more energetic was that this consciousness was obviously much clearer, allowing him to barely read a hint of meaning from it.

The signal seemed to contain a trace of doubt and surprise - it seemed that the other party did have complex emotions and consciousness, and was not a primitive being who acted on instinct.

This made Lin Yi firm up his guess. An individual with complex emotions, or a super-individual, would inevitably not establish a so-called symbiosis with an unintelligent fungus in such an almost humiliating way. The fungus would most likely only be a one-sided parasitizer.

Moreover, it is very likely that these parasites parasitize the brains of living creatures and produce intelligence. Perhaps it was originally an individual of a terrestrial arthropod nest, and later developed into the mastermind that parasitized this strange plant body.

And thinking about it, Lin Yi suddenly had a bold idea - or that was why he decided to help the other party get rid of those parasitic fungi - tentatively, he controlled the nervous system and directed a nerve signal of his towards the other party's nervous system. Send it to China to see if the other party will respond.

"Is it other intelligent creatures?"

It seemed to contain thoughts of surprise, mixed with a hint of joy, but it could not hide the aura of dying and a hint of loneliness.

However, almost instantly, another consciousness came back. Moreover, the complexity of the content in this signal far exceeds the previous two signals. It can already be called, in one sentence!

The fern leaves swayed and made a rustling sound, as if the entire giant tree was shaking for some reason.

It was a signal that meant he had no malicious intentions, tentatively establishing contact with the other party, and testing whether the other party was a fellow victim or an accomplice of the fungus.

The signal contains several words with specific meanings. The first one seems to refer to other existences other than oneself, the second one seems to describe intelligent beings, and the third one refers to living existences. There is an obvious difference between them. The logical structure, if translated into the language used by Lin Yi in his previous life, would probably be:

"You are not the one who put us here. Can you bring us peace?"

Before Lin Yi could respond, the second signal followed. There was a sense of relief in the signal, as if after a long night, the light of dawn was finally visible.

"Maybe, but before that, can I ask some questions?" The sun shines through the fern leaves in the forest. The green vines, purple carpet and gray-white fungi are clearly visible. The signal passes through the nerves and is transmitted to the other party's brain without reservation, and is received by the other party.

On the tree, the spreading fungus carpet is absorbing every hyphae. Under the tree, the figure of the shadow fly with yellow and black stripes stands quietly among the purple-black fungus carpet and emerald green vines, with its blade attached. With his limbs hunched in front of him, a pair of well-developed jet-black compound eyes looked at the huge fern tree in front of him, as if he was looking at it.

For several minutes of silence, the two sides just looked at each other silently - even though the other side had no eyes or similar structures, Lin Yi still felt that he was looking at the entire fern tree.

The sound of wind broke the silence, and the fern leaves swayed again to make a rustling sound, followed by a signal: "Then ask, 'similar'."

The gene sequence was analyzed just right, allowing Lin Yi to know the meaning of this signal fragment representing "same kind" - in the other party's gene sequence, a gene fragment with a spatial synaptic structure was found, proving that it is also a kind of nest-like existence. form.

In the gene sequence, Lin Yi discovered that the part about the proliferating ramets had been damaged by unknown means. At this time, it no longer had the function of proliferating ramets and perfecting spatial synapses, or individuals.

The image of the strange shrimp nest appeared in his consciousness again - the last moment before the death of the Schendhans shrimp seemed like yesterday, which made Lin Yi guess the fate of this unknown plant population that existed in the form of a nest group.

Inevitably, it was done by unknown intervenors again, just like what they did to the Anomalocaris nest group indirectly by using the original mother nest.

After a moment of silence, the Shadowfly stretched out its forelimbs, and the three finger claws between the tibia and tarsus gently touched the trunk of the fern tree, which was composed of entangled vines, as if touching the other party's surface. Then, a thought came, came from Lin Yi's consciousness.

"What happened to you?"

Once again, Fernwood fell into a long silence. Then, the signal came out again, but with a hint of a wry smile. Everything was explained in this way.

When the enemy arrives, the network of consciousness is cut off, the body is uprooted, and placed in a "transparent cage" - which seems to be some kind of equipment such as a culture tank - the wind becomes stronger, as if reflecting the atmosphere of the scene. The fern fronds quivered and rustled loudly, as if it were laughing wildly.

Everything was completely different from what Lin Yi had imagined. The other party was not the product of genetic engineering by the unknown intervenor as he imagined, but an alien life form from a planet in the distant atmosphere above the vast galaxy.

The methods of the unknown intervener were far beyond Lin Yi's imagination. Such a developed "civilization" that could be called a super-individual "civilization" was destroyed by the other party through unknown means.

But at this time, what made Lin Yi more concerned was, since it is a life form from outside the earth, why can it adapt to the environment of the earth, and why is it so similar to the plants of the earth?

Thinking that the other party seemed to say that he had been "seeding" the planet, he seemed to think of something. With such doubts, Lin Yi was silent for a moment and slowly asked the next question in his mind.

"Where was the first individual of your tribe born?"

(End of this chapter)