svetikya Page 257
Page 257
Besides Jingyuan and Tali, those present included Jiali, Jingnan, and Ranbing.
Carrie and Jingnan have been the main researchers of mana ecology.
“No!” Carrie said, “In the past, when we hunters went down to the surface to carry out missions, we had no way of bringing back the corpses of Devouring Beasts, so we naturally had no way of obtaining their genes.”
Tali nodded and said, "For ordinary people like you, dealing with the Devouring Beasts is indeed too difficult."
Jing Yuan said, "Even if we kill the Devouring Beast, it will revive. Bringing the Lighthouse is too risky. But if we want to completely kill the Devouring Beast and destroy its Spirit Seed, its corpse will turn into Breath Soil, so we can't bring it back either."
"That's true!"
Jing Yuan asked curiously, "Then how did you obtain the Devouring Beast's genes?"
"Tissue taken from a living body".
Jing Yuan was taken aback; he hadn't expected this at all.
Along the way, all the Devouring Beasts that fought against him met the same fate: death.
Sometimes, even passing Devouring Beasts get slashed twice.
“But it doesn’t matter,” Tali said. “I just want to tell you that the genes of ordinary Devourer Beasts are actually a mixture of the genes of Mana creatures and the genes of our Earth species. In other words, they are essentially just eco-chimeras.”
Tali looked at Mark and said, "Although he looks like a Devourer, there is a world of difference between a Devourer and a real Mana creature."
“Yes.” Jing Yuan stepped forward and looked at Tali, saying, “The DNA of real Mana creatures has a triple-stranded structure, while the DNA of our Earth species only has a double-stranded structure.”
"How do you know all this?" Before Jing Yuan could answer, Tali realized what was going on. She looked at the beast-like Mark in front of her and thought of the person who had performed the modification surgery on him.
If you don't even know these basics, how can you perform this level of modification surgery?
Tali asked, "You said Bai Yuekui performed this modification surgery. Where is she? I want to see her. Only by communicating with the patient can we discover the problems."
Jing Yuan paused for a moment, then said, "I didn't get a chance to tell you the whole story on the spaceship earlier, so I'll tell you from the beginning now."
Tali had no idea that there was more to the story than met the eye.
"Our companion has a special identity; he is actually a clone of a Mana creature."
However, he is a clone whose mana genes have been removed, and only human genes have been retained.
Bai Yuekui believes that only by restoring Mark's Mana genes and sending him into the Blood Vortex can the Mana ecosystem be destroyed.
In order to save the remaining humans, Mark agreed to Bai Yuekui's plan and had her undergo the modification surgery.
However, something went wrong during the modification surgery, causing Mark to fall into a deep sleep.
In Bai Yuekui's eyes, Mark was just an experimental subject.
Seeing that she could not awaken Mark, she prepared to extract Mark's life essence for another experiment.
We disagreed, so we took Mark out.
Someone told me that you Genes are also ecochimeras, so I went to find you, hoping you could offer your help!
After listening to Jingyuan's account, Tali had a general understanding of the whole process.
"If you don't know the specific information, then I can only use my own methods to conduct the test."
Jing Yuan stepped forward and said, "Because Mark is a clone of the Mana organism, his cells naturally possess an extremely strong phagocytic ability. The surgery Bai Yuekui performed was to implant a spinal worm into him."
Mark's body actively devoured the spinal worm, which turned him into this state.
"Devouring spinal cord worms?" Tali asked in surprise. "You mean, he actually perfected his genes by devouring Mana genes through his own genes?"
Jing Yuan looked puzzled. "I don't understand what you mean by 'perfect'."
"You said before that he was a clone whose Mana genes had been removed?"
"Yes."
"So, as a Mana creature, that's his original form, right?"
"Correct!"
"So the modification surgery you mentioned was actually just that he recovered on his own after being injected with the Mana gene."
"Is that so?" Jing Yuan himself wasn't sure; he didn't understand the technical details.
“That should be it!” Tali said. “We used to think that all Devouring Beasts were just products of the ecosystem, whether they were pan-evolving Devouring Beasts or king-level Devouring Beasts!”
However, as my research deepened, I discovered that the pan-evolving Devourer Beasts were nothing more than biological weapons; their genes had no merit whatsoever, and they were simply a jumbled mess.
However, the King-level Devouring Beasts are different; they are the true Mana creatures.
Their physiological functions are terrifyingly powerful.
From an ecological niche perspective, it is normal for a high-level individual to prey on low-level organisms.
Compared to our modification methods, your friend's surgery was not very difficult; anyone with basic surgical qualifications could perform it.
He autonomously devoured, fused, and completed his genes. Logically, once he started devouring new genes, he should either succeed or fail; there's no reason for him to both succeed and fail at the same time!
Tali's words were also very direct.
From a physical structure perspective, Mark's body is perfect enough.
But Mark remained in a deep sleep, like a dead man.
Tali suddenly said, "This falls under the category of neuroscience. Can't Bai Yuekui solve it himself?"
Jingyuan shook his head. "If she could solve it, she wouldn't have let Mark fall into a deep sleep."
Jingyuan knew Mark's place in Bai Yuekui's heart. What she wanted was a living Mark, a Mark who could enter the vortex of blood; she wouldn't watch Mark fall into a deep sleep and do nothing.
Both are experiments, but Mark's is already half-finished; it's better than starting all over again.
Tali looked at Mark and said, "I'll do some checks myself to see what's going on."
Jingyuan nodded and said to Carrie beside him, "Dr. Carrie, please cooperate with Dr. Tully throughout the process."
"no problem."
Although he arranged for Carrie to be there, Jingyuan didn't just leave her to her own devices; he watched the whole process from the sidelines.
Tali conducted numerous examinations on Mark and even summoned her assistant for assistance.
After working for most of the day, Tali received the genetic testing report.
Genetically speaking, Mark still has double-stranded DNA, just like humans.
However, it contains many non-human genes.
Looking at the genetic testing report, Tali said, "If you want to restore him to human form, perhaps we can do it!"
"How to do?"
Tali hesitated for a moment, then said, "Human genetic data is too massive. In my original plan, removing non-human genes was a huge undertaking. To ensure everything goes smoothly, I need a supercomputer to assist me. Otherwise, I'll just have to try different solutions over and over again."
She looked at Mark and said, “The modification models used by our people were all designed by me. There are only a few models, and we have already successfully deciphered 80% of them. But I don’t know his gene sequence. Without supercomputer simulation, I can only try again and again. In that case, he might not be able to survive.”
"So you want to use a supercomputer to simulate it and increase the success rate, right!"
“Yes!” Tali nodded.
Jingyuan turned to Jingnan and asked, "Can our computer at the lighthouse handle it?"
Jingnan hesitated for a moment, but Jiali said, "Impossible! Our computer is currently focused on maintaining the lighthouse's navigation and simply cannot spare the computing power to handle such a massive amount of computation."
Jingyuan pondered for a moment, then asked Jingnan, "Is there any information about supercomputers in the data on our supply collection points?"
Jingnan still couldn't answer.
Tali said, "Computers capable of processing genetic data and simulating schemes were rare in the past. If any have survived to this day, perhaps only the Hela Empire still possesses them."
Chapter 260 I studied evolution
The Hela Empire was the most powerful nation in the Old World, with advanced technology and formidable military strength.
The Hela Empire was also the first to develop supercomputers.
However, no matter how powerful an empire or how advanced its technology, it is no match for the Mana ecosystem and has long been buried in the dust of history.
Speaking of the Hela Empire, Jingnan stepped forward and said, "I've read in the documents that among the countries of the Old World, the Hela Empire was the most powerful, but it was also the first to collapse!"
When our lighthouse passed through the former territory of the Hela Empire, we collected fewer resources on the ground than in other areas.
Are you sure there are still supercomputers remaining within the Hela Empire?
Tali nodded and said, "The reason you've collected so few supplies is because there are still Hela survivors in that area. They've taken everything. What else can you possibly find?"
"The Hella survivors are still alive!"
“Of course they are!” Tali said. “If you Lighthouse people can survive, if the Heluo people can survive, and if we Gene people can survive, why can’t the Hela people survive?”
"Have you ever encountered any Hela survivors?" Jingyuan asked.
“I have encountered them, but that was over a decade ago,” Tali said. “However, those were just robots they controlled. I have never seen any real Hela survivors. I speculate that they are hiding very deep underground, using robots to gather resources from the outside world to survive.”
Jing Yuan quickly said, "We've also encountered their robots within the Hela Empire's territory. We stole our small spaceship from them. But these robots are strange; they attack us as soon as they see us, and self-destruct when they can't win. I haven't been able to get any information out of them."
Tali said, "When we first met, they thought we were Devourers, so their first reaction was to attack."
“But we’re not Devouring Beasts!” Jing Yuan said, puzzled.
Tali didn't understand what was going on either. When she encountered those robots back then, all she could confirm was that they were controlled by remnants of the Hela Empire; she had no other information.