So the girl in the chapter is called Sha Lin in Chinese, but it almost seems to be a transliteration of Shalom or Catherine. But the cell is Lin.

Chapter Two The Initial Eye

Light … ..

Lin saw light but all it saw was light. This had just switched darkness for light and was meaningless … …

Lin needed more detailed information, more detailed images. That way, it could see everything.

Just as Lin was thinking this, that cell which had engulfed the hard objected shuddered slightly. More tendrils came out of the cell nucleus.

Lin’s thoughts were not completely light or dark anymore. Slowly, a blurry image appeared. At the beginning, it was a very dull color but as time moved on, this muddiness started to become clear.

Blue … … what Lin saw first was blue. And then it saw the several spheres floating in the blue.

Were these … … my cells?

As the image cleared, Lin had a clear image of its own cells. The almost transparent membrane, the grey nucleus, they floated in the water and moved around … … it felt very interesting and wondrous.

It was so good to have an eye.

Lin observed the four cells around it. Adding on this cell that possessed an “eye,” it had five cells.

But it was unable to see what its eye looked like so it decided to divide this cell. This way, it could know what the cell that had brought it vision looked like, and what the hard object it had engulfed before was.

Therefore, Lin started to go out again to search for food.

Because it now had the ability to see, it could clearly see the scenery around it. But other than its few cells, everything it could see in the surroundings were blue.

It was probably the color of water.

Suddenly, Lin’s eye saw something. A white sphere-shaped object appeared in front of its cells.

This white object was soft to touch. It was only one fifth the size of Lin’s cell. It felt just like the food. So was this what it had been eating all this time?

Without hesitating, Lin had the cell that had the eye eat the object.

After completing digestion, Lin continued to swim.

Because it had an eye, it quickly found more white sphere-shaped food. A short while later, Lin’s eye cell gathered enough energy to divide.

Feeling the eye cell start to divide in two, Lin felt slightly excited. This way, it would be able to see what its eye looked like.

Excited? Lin found another term appear in its thoughts. What did this mean?

That wasn’t important. The division had finished.

“?”

Lin was not able to see itself. It found that it only had one point of view. The cell that split apart from the eye cell was in front of its eye … …

But it did not have an eye. lin was unable to receive any images from this newly divided cell.

Did the division not include the eye?

Lin did not understand but it found that the cell that split from the eye cell was slightly different compared to the other cells.

There seemed to be a small piece on the surface of this cell that reflected white light. It seemed to feel special.

Crystal?

Yes, this was the word. There was a small part that was crystallized on the surface of this newly divided cell.

But Lin did not know what the purpose of this was. It could not feel anything special about this small little piece of crystal. That was not an eye because it could not see anything.

Therefore, Lin started to move again. In order to receive more knowledge, it had to increase its own mass.

Right now, there were six cells. Lin directed them to swim forward to continue searching for more food.

Lin decided to give a special name to the cell with the eye … …

The observer.

It felt pretty good.

This new and more complex word that appeared in Lin’s thoughts was used by Lin to name something.

The observer used its vision to search for food and it was much more convenient than having to come into contact to know where the food was. It only needed to look to find where the food was. Then Lin could direct the other cells to engulf the food.

As it engulfed, it continued to divide. Lin started to increase the size of its group. As long as the number of cells increased, its thinking became more broad and it knew more terms.

The number of cells reached fifty and it had consumed all the food in the surroundings.

Right now, it should go to a new place.

Lin put the observer as the center of the group. The other cells circled around it. This way, it could immediately eat the food that came near.

Lin slowly swam, growing and thriving in the water. Yet after continuing this course of action for a while, it found that it had been very long since it encountered any new food.

Water and the white spherical food

Other than that, there was nothing else. Lin did not encounter more of the hard object that it had eaten before and obtained the ability of sight from.

So strange … …

Just as Lin thought, it suddenly saw something special.

That object suddenly appeared above the observer. It looked unique, black, spherical shaped, and was only about one thirtieth the size of Lin’s cell. However, it was covered in sharp spikes that looked like thorns.

Should it eat? Maybe it was food.

Lin had a cell go near the object, then open the membrane to prepare to engulf it.

At the beginning, Lin did not feel anything special. This object slowly wobbled inside the cell membrane but it was not digested.

But immediately after, that cell suddenly convulsed. The clear and swelling membrane suddenly withered and that strange and thorny object started to move and burrowed into the cell nucleus.

A feeling that Lin had never felt before rose.

It was the first time Lin felt this. Lin didn’t feel it was interesting and wanted to retreat.

Was this … … pain?

As that object burrowed into the cell nucleus, Lin’s thoughts were impacted.

So painful … … so painful!

Immediately following, the cell nucleus also crumbled like the cell membrane. Then Lin lost the feeling of pain. At the same time, it also lost its connection to this cell. It was unable to feel the cell, nor able to control it.

Dead? It had died?

Lin’s cell group surrounded this dead cell. Lin was still. It didn’t know what to do, nor what it had to do.

Death, this fresh new term echoed in Lin’s thoughts.

Yet this did not finish. That dead cell suddenly swelled up again and then exploded. Large amounts of the black thorny balls that had caused the cell to wither and die charged out.

There were at least thirty of them, even more than the number of Lin’s cells. One of the thorny balls touched a nearby cell of Lin’s and the ball burrowed into the cell membrane. Afterwards, the cell quickly withered like the cell before it.

Willdiewilldiewilldiewilldierunrunrunretaliaterunrun

Looking at the large numbers of black thorny balls coming over, many thoughts flashed in Lin’s mind.

Lin ran.

It had the cells shift their cell membranes and fled the thorny balls at the fastest speed possible.

The thorny balls seemed unable to move on its own. It could only move when it was in contact with a cell so it could not catch up to Lin’s cells.

Lin continued to run until it reached a place it could not see any black thorny balls.

What was that just now? That thorny ball … … what was it … …

After making sure it was safe, Lin started to think back.

Just like before, Lin should obtain a new term to deal with the new situation.

But it was a pity. Lin did not get any new terms, maybe because it had lost cells.

But it had learned a lesson. This world wasn’t just soft food and objects that could allow it to obtain the power of sight. There was also terrifying things that could destroy it.

It had to be more careful. Lin’s consciousness was produced by the entire cell group.

As long as there were cells present, its consciousness would also exist.

But on the other hand, if none of the cells remained, then it was the end of the organism called “Lin.”

Translator Ramblings: This is not any normal consciousness. Lin is not a normal cell, repeat, Lin is not a normal cell. Think magic and wildly inaccurate science though this story pretends (very well) sometimes that it is scientific.

 

Chapter 1 | Table of Contents | Chapter 3