Volume 3: Dance of the Aurora Chapter 9 Only Death
After awakening, the protozoa are just like human babies, full of curiosity about everything in the world.
Driven by instinct, he looked around for the raw materials that could form his body. In fact, he didn't know why he did this, but his body felt "empty" and uncomfortable.
After obtaining enough raw materials to form a body, he felt that his body was very heavy and his limbs could not move freely. This experience is called "hunger" in the language of metal civilization.
Human babies can get food directly from their mothers after birth. This is the result of selection by the earth's natural environment, because along with the nutrition come some necessary antibodies.
This is not the case with iron-based organisms; what they need is very pure: energy.
If organisms want to find food, they need to exchange information with the environment, so they evolved senses.
Some of these senses rely on vibrations, some rely on detecting molecules in the environment, and of course the most basic is direct electromagnetic interaction, which is touch.
Human senses are more "mainstream". Like most chordates, humans mainly rely on absorbing electromagnetic waves in the environment, that is, "seeing" objects around them. These electromagnetic waves that can be seen directly are called "visible light".
In order to receive visible light, humans have evolved a complex visual structure. In order to ensure the range of vision, a convex lens and film with adjustable focal length are directly built into the head, and a large number of nerve fibers are arranged in it to ensure that it is not harmed.
But metallic life is different. Their visible light is electromagnetic waves of all bands.
The protozoa relies on instinct to retrieve photons of various wavelengths absorbed by the body. It finds that the frequency band of 800 to 900 MHz is very wonderful, showing the appearance of the entire world like a kaleidoscope.
That is the frequency band of mobile phone signals. The flying photons are connected by base stations to form a dense giant network , and the whole world can be seen at a glance.
It scanned the surface carefully, looking for places that looked worth exploring.
Why do living things have the instinct to explore? This question may sound particularly stupid. After all, curiosity is a gift from Zeus to Pandora, and it is also a biological instinct that needs no explanation.
In fact, it is not that simple, because curiosity, as a kind of "psychology", can theoretically only be produced by individuals with minds, but there are many examples of mindless species exploring the world in nature.
One of the best examples is slime mold, which explores the world much more efficiently than humans.
For the protozoa, the reason for exploring the world is much simpler. It needs to expand and it needs energy. It cannot survive by just staying in one place.
It discovered that there was a very large body of water very nearby, and on the shore was a platform that was somewhat abnormally flat, with piles of iron ore and neatly stacked steel.
In fact, it was originally just a small sandbar in the Bohai Bay, but now it is the largest steel handling port in the country. According to legend, a concubine named Cao in the Tang Dynasty died there, so it is now called Caofeidian.
The port area was brightly lit. From afar, black metal piled up like hills, surrounded by busy machines.
After the voice in his head disappeared, Fang Cheng did not continue the conversation, but slowly walked out of the house. At this time, the chaotic voices had gradually subsided, and only the loud speaker playing the air raid alarm was still howling.
He had become accustomed to this sharp sound. The moment he stepped out of the door, he felt a tingling sensation, followed by a warm breath. The experience was like having pepper water splashed on his clothes.
Normally there would be no wind in a closed yard, but now he could clearly feel the warm air flowing rapidly around his body. It was definitely not the cool breeze of an early summer night.
There was no artificial light source in the campus at this time, and everything was dark. The hot air was shaking, the bright night sky was flickering, the stars were blinking, and the moon was drawing a question mark.
"I suggest you stay indoors. The radiation intensity outside has exceeded the health threshold."
"Radiation? Is it also electromagnetic waves?"
"Not exactly... there are also some excited electrons and a very small amount of neutrons. But according to your standards, these are all ionizing radiation."
Why are there neutrons? If humans want to produce neutrons, they need to bombard tungsten alloys with extremely high-energy electrons. He remembered that when he was taking an atomic physics course, his teacher said that there is a neutron source in China, in Guangdong.
Of course, there is a simpler and more brutal way to produce neutrons, that is nuclear weapons. After the first atom is excited, the neutrons produced will bombard the atoms behind it. This process has a classic name called chain reaction.
A hydrogen bomb that allows the neutrons produced by a chain reaction to explode in the environment is called a neutron bomb. People killed by its radiation will not die immediately, but will die slowly and painfully.
"Don't be too scared. The dose is very, very low. The radiation outside is mainly electromagnetic waves generated by high temperatures."
"The question is how nuclear reactions occur..."
"Actually, this isn't that strange, is it? After all, the protozoan isn't very familiar with its own body yet, so it's normal to waste some energy. Hey, don't go out."
Fang Cheng ignored Keats' warning. He found a way through the garbage and dead branches and leaves in the yard to a more open place, hoping to see clearly what the original body mentioned by the other party was doing.
If it really is a neutron jet, a brick wall should not be able to block it, no matter where it is.
At this moment, he heard a violent explosion, which shook the earth and was still clearly audible amid the loud air raid sirens.
Following the source of the sound, I saw a group of shining fireballs streaking across the night sky, their tail flames standing out against the completely dark city backdrop.
It was a short-range ballistic missile flying overhead, whizzing towards the monster.
"I forgot to tell you that during the time you were down there, all residents within a two-kilometer radius have been evacuated. This place has been designated as a danger zone ."
"Ah, why didn't you say so earlier?"
"With the two pieces of equipment you have, the Earthlings' weapons will pose no threat to you. And the Protozoa probably have no interest in the house you're staying in, so they won't take the initiative to provoke you."
Although this is a matter of probability, maybe it will come over for a visit on a whim.
In fact, Keats had been trying to communicate with the proto-body after it was created, but he failed without exception. As a person who was very confident in his language ability, he was sure that it was the other party's problem.
"Human weapons will definitely not cause any harm to the protozoan, unless you can evaporate its brain and body all at once. Of course, this will only be effective before it spreads completely."
"Then... can a nuclear weapon with a large yield do that?"
"In theory, it's possible if you hit it very accurately before it spreads, but strong interaction weapons have too many side effects for you."
Humanity mastering weapons that can completely destroy itself is like a baby holding a gun, although it seems that this is the only way to avoid a new world war.
Keats found it funny when he thought of this. There were very few creatures in the universe that would kill each other. After all, there were too many unknown dangers in the vast sea of stars.
A civilization that has developed for billions of years may be completely destroyed by some unknown force in an instant, and weak creatures have no time to fight to the death with their own kind.
Great is the universe, except for death!
