They're Sleeping
They're Sleeping
However, everyone was most satisfied with the architectural style of the place: the design of the building was different from the normal tech that Hao Ren had often seen. Its main building material consisted of crystal and a kind of strange "metal", which made up the laboratories too. The light and elegant crystal clusters as well as arc-shaped metal structures were works of art. Walking in CARS was like traversing through an art museum. Hao Ren used to complain that Raven 12345 had never done things according to common sense, but this time he could not help but thank the goddess for blowing up the original building module: this new space station looked so much better than a coffin.
The two red spheres had been sent to the lab quickly and everyone was eager to know what they were. As per Vivian's suggestion, Hao Ren ordered a quick body scan of Containers No. 1 and No. 2., which held the First Borns. He was now waiting for the results.
"What do you think they are?" Hao Ren became bored while he waited for the scan to finish, so he chatted with Vivian casually. "They created the illusion of Helcrown—are they the organs that the First Borns use for casting spells?"
Vivian gently shook her head. She was tossing a small bat in her hand without realizing. The two spheres were suspended on the crystal imaging platform not far away as light beams swept around them, collecting information and comparing it with the scan results of the First Borns. The holographic projection in the center of the laboratory showed the scanning progress of Container No. 1 and No. 2: the image of the First Borns became clearer.
After a while, the MDT suddenly whistled and said, "Found it!"
"Really?!" asked Hao Ren.
The MDT zoomed in on the holographic projection and presented the details of Container No.1. The image of the First Born's tentacles and tissue lumps showed up. The most striking feature of the intricately arranged biological tissues was the dim, constant pulsating red light. The MDT pointed out a star structure amid the red light and said, "In this position, there's a thick connective skin and the bioelectric current is very strong. There is a sphere underneath it, exactly like the two red spheres we have on hand. There's actually more than one..."
The MDT zoomed in on the image a little further, and seven or eight shining red dots appeared on the scanned image. The red dots were all spherical organs, and they were not evenly distributed.
Lily held her head in her hands and watched for a moment. "One First Born can grow so many balls? Then, why did Y'lisabet only find three?"
"Because of malnutrition. Don't forget that the First Born in Y'zaks' hometown starved to death." Hao Ren switched the image back, curiously looking at the star-shaped object, which emitted a dull red light. It was connected to many more smaller tentacles that were joined to the nearest tissue lumps. Those smaller whiskers were very light in color, obviously not of an offensive variety. Star-shaped tissues were wrapped in other tentacles and thick skin, which suggested that they were very crucial to the First Borns. "What does this look like?"
"Some kind of nervous center," the MDT replied. "Besides, according to the latest test results, those grey-white tentacles are mostly connected to the tumor, and the tumor has been confirmed to be the First Born's ganglion."
Hao Ren tried to use his noodle while he scratched his chin. Then suddenly, a thought came to mind. "Wait a second! Could it be the First Born's brain?"
Lily looked at Hao Ren in horror. "You've grown a brain, Mr. Landlord?"
"It's quite possible." Hao Ren shrugged. "Look, this thing is already as weird as it can get! What's wrong if it ends being a thinking organ? You see, we've been searching for the First Born's brain before, but we came up with nothing. This thing is obviously intelligent, so its thinking organs must be a little weird. That aside, this thing connects to many ganglions. It has to be related to intelligence."
"A very good conjecture," the MDT affirmed Hao Ren's thoughts. "This creature is too big, so much so that it may be difficult for a single brain to control the whole body. Nutrients wouldn't be sufficient... hence it uses a distributed brain structure. Anyway, let's first perform a test on it."
Container No. 1 soon received instructions from the MDT. The container was injected with a thin, pale green agent, and several bright masses of light were absorbed by the First Born's antennae. Those tentacles shook a little before they returned to normal.
The control module of Container No. 1 cut one of the star tissues off from its surrounding organs, and started to feed a simulated signal to it.
"Perhaps it is the brain," said the MDT. It read the feedback data and was surprised. "This thing is amazing. The First Born's thought process is actually carried out by three very different organs—the ganglia, the red spheres, and those grey nerve fibers. These three things are all brains, and they're scattered throughout the body."
Lily glanced at Hao Ren in surprise. "I called it, Mr. Landlord. You really have grown a brain!"
"Stop the crap! This is called talent. It's not something that you can simply acquire." Hao Ren patted Lily on the head and turned to look at the MDT. "Why didn't we see it the last time we studied the spheres in Helcrown?"
"We didn't think of it from this angle," said the MDT as it did a barrel roll in the air. "This sounds really interesting indeed... Well, basically I now understand how the brains of the First Borns work."
Hao Ren listened attentively to the MDT.
"These spheres are the First Born's main thinking organ. They bear 70 % of the brain's functions. They can be called brain nuclei. There are many of them, and they're distributed in various parts of the First Born's body; those lumps, which are the ganglia, are something that enhance and speed up the signal. Perhaps, they also act as a cache, responsible for relaying commands from the brain to all parts of the body. Since the First Born is too large, it must have a secondary cache and brainwave amplifier in order to control its own body; those grey and white tentacles are not ordinary nerve fibers either. They are actually mutated variations of the ganglia and they are capable of logical functions. Their role is to connect several different brains so that the First Born's thinking process can be coordinated, preventing schizophrenia and brainwave conflicts. The operation of this set of mechanisms is very strange. It's not the same as the mechanisms in various other known intelligent beings, but it can perfectly solve the problems brought about by the First Born's oversized body. And more importantly, they have a back-up copy of the eldest son's memory. I believe that a single brain is also capable of thinking, but its efficiency will be reduced and it wouldn't be able to control all the tentacles. But if part of the brains are offline, the First Born can still survive on the remaining brain structure, and even repair the offline brains... It's a perfect computing machine. It has its intranet and it can upload as well as download information between its brains!"
Lily did some calculations with her fingers, trying to figure out the logic. Feeling amazed, she suddenly said, "If only I had its ability, I wouldn't have to worry about character confusion when I'm writing my novels! I can even fall in love with my four selves!"
Vivian smirked. "Unfortunately, you're still a single dog."
Lily scoffed in reply, "Arf—"
"Can't you be quiet for a few minutes in such a serious occasion?" Hao Ren glared at the two ladies to quiet them down. He then turned to the MDT. "I've got it. That means the First Born has a compound brain, and the brain is made up of a combination of brains, while those red spheres are the main organs of thought. Then, what was that illusion of Helcrown all about?"
The MDT was silent for a while as blue light surged across its surface. Then, it said, "I thinks it was just a dream."
Hao Ren asked, "What do you mean?"
"The strength of the First Born's mind is strong enough to directly trigger natural phenomena. Although it still can't reach the point where it interferes with reality, it can at least create a large-scale illusion." The MDT flew over the two spheres. "These two brain nuclei, although severely damaged, are not dead. They are sleeping and they occasionally dream."