Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 199 - 199 119 The Taste of Victory

199: Chapter 119: The Taste of Victory 199: Chapter 119: The Taste of Victory What organisms have contributed most to human biology?

Is it monkeys?

Rabbits?

Pigeons?

Mice?

If biologists had to choose one, quite a few of them would likely give this answer—fruit flies.

Since the time of Morgan, fruit flies have been extensively used.

The advantages of fruit flies are too numerous to count.

As a species of the order Diptera, like most of their relatives, they have the advantages of “high reproductive ability and short life cycle.”

Moreover, like most Diptera insects, they have a high tolerance for “living” conditions.

An empty bottle with a few holes, thrown in some rotten fruit not eaten by humans, enables fruit flies to reproduce massively.

Furthermore, under a room temperature of 25 degrees Celsius, fruit flies can breed a new generation every ten days.

From egg to sexual maturity to reproduction, it only takes ten days.

Then, fruit flies have only four pairs of chromosomes, few in number and each distinctly shaped.

Dependent on their large population size,

fruit flies have many variations in traits such as eye color and wing shape.

Therefore, Morgan was able to simply use naturally obtained white-eyed fruit flies to validate the genetic laws summarized by Mendel.

It can be said that it was from this small creature that human understanding of “life” was completely changed.

This is simply the ideal experimental animal.

Unless the experiment involves the advanced nervous system, which sane geneticist would abandon this species, seemingly born for the laboratory, and instead insist on conducting inhumane experiments in the laboratory with large primates having 23 pairs of chromosomes, multiple and difficult-to-grasp traits, sexual maturity requiring at least sixteen years, and demanding dietary and environmental needs?

Even if a technique ultimately has to be applied to “the human body,” “human experiments” can only be the last step.

Before that, there are many other species with short life cycles that can help researchers explore unknown mysteries.

And this time, just like their kin once helped Morgan, these little creatures helped Yawgmoth take another firm step forward.

Yawgmoth’s agar culture contained fruit fly first-instar larvae—larvae from just after hatching up to the first molting are called “first-instar” and so on.

These larvae are less than 0.5 millimeters, barely larger than dust.

Xiang Shan could only see wriggling little spots.

But undoubtedly, these are the fruits of fruit flies’ mating.

Xiang Shan felt his heart pounded forcefully.

He opened his mouth and asked, “Wasn’t it said that there could be occasional natural mating?

Are these eggs born by chance?”

Yawgmoth shrugged, “No, just a minority of metal-based fruit flies still mate.

It’s probably because the genetic self-repair mechanism reshaped the ‘sentence’ concerning reproduction, allowing inserted foreign genetic information to enter sexual reproduction.”

“Huh?”

Yawgmoth nodded, “To put it in terms you’re more familiar with.

Every organism’s genetic information is basically a ‘data bank.’ And our genetic material along with the enzyme system make up the ‘commands’ to access this genetic information.”

“The original commands match the database.

That’s why, such genetic information can be expressed in various forms.

Therefore, two species sharing a vast amount of genetic data can show widely different forms.”

“We deciphered the enzyme system, so I could insert some foreign information.

Those were the metal-based cells you’ve seen.

But this foreign information has compatibility issues.

So, when life’s program runs and tries to access a part of the information to make it work at the right time, it bugs out.”

Xiang Shan was stunned for a moment, “So ‘forgetting to reproduce’ is just a severe bug?”

Yawgmoth nodded, “Right, a bug.”

Xiang Shan slapped a cold compress on his forehead, “Then that’s it.

There might be no more severe bug in evolutionary history.

Any more severe would be just like it—completely wiping out a species in one generation.”

“But I still quite like a line from ‘Jurassic Park,’ which goes ‘life finds a way,'” Yawgmoth pointed at the fruit flies, “A few of them actually self-repaired this bug.”

Xiang Shan held his forehead, “This thing can’t depend on luck…”

“No, it’s not about depending on luck.” Yawgmoth was very confident, “As long as it happened once, it means that under specific conditions, it can indeed happen.

And as long as we understand those ‘conditions’ and control the variables, I think we can make it repeat several times without a problem.”

Genes have a strong self-repair capability.

This is an inherent mechanism.

After all, the RNA and DNA used by Earth organisms to store genetic information are really fragile.

If accidentally hit by high-energy particles from space, it could cause minor information insertion or erasure, altering the life code.

Viruses can also do this, and even many organic toxins can damage it.

But genetic information is still relatively stable.

When the “errors” are not severe, the genetic system also has the ability to self-correct.

This process is occurring all the time.

“That means you believe there is an unknown process or effect that can compensate for this bug, at least preventing our ‘system’ from collapsing,” Xiang Shan nodded, “and it has already appeared in front of you.

What you need to do is compare the genomes of fruit flies that have completed self-repair with those that haven’t, to identify which genes were damaged by the gene modification surgery, causing this mechanism to fail?”

“Almost there.” Yawgmoth nodded, “This process can be completed very soon.”

“Oh, I think I understand why you insisted on me coming over.” Xiang Shan sighed heavily, “Tell me, what do you need?”

“The computer I originally asked you to order definitely won’t be enough.

There’s more data to run than I expected…”

“Damn!” Xiang Shan flipped a middle finger, “The order can’t be canceled anymore!

Do you think it’s a household computer that you can return without any reason before it’s delivered?

That’s specifically for research institutions…”

“Oh, we’ll still keep those devices.

I’m just asking for better computing equipment.”

Xiang Shan looked at Yawgmoth, “Brother, our research institute just put up its sign, and funds and such…

If I didn’t have to take the subway home later, I would pull out a handful of hair right now to show you, do you believe me?”

“Pull out hair?” Yawgmoth was puzzled, “Is this some strange Republic custom?”

“No, it’s to show my desperate helplessness and inner madness.” Xiang Shan walked to the door, picked up his coat from the rack, then reached into his pocket and groped around for a bit, “Of course, if there are no devices, at least I brought some wine for celebration.”

Although the temperature in the laboratory could melt a brawny man, the thermal insulation of Xiang Shan’s cotton coat was quite good, so this palm-sized bottle of Red Star Erguotou was still somewhat cool to the touch.

Yawgmoth was surprised, “I thought we’d open a bottle of champagne.”

“There was no wine originally.

I remembered just as I was leaving, so I bought it at the convenience store at the corner, even got criticized for it.” Xiang Shan shook his head, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

We Old Beiping folk like this stuff—here you go.”

Yawgmoth directly took a swig from the bottle.

Then he wanted to spit it out.

But realizing that he might spray the fruit flies with the alcohol, the man forcefully swallowed the unexpectedly spicy liquid.

“What am I drinking?

A ball of icy fire?”

“This is the taste of victory, brother.”

The two men then sat straight up against the coldest wall in the laboratory and shared the bottle of “the taste of victory.”

“I think it’s quite good,” said the Federation scientist, his accent slightly altered by the alcohol.

Xiang Shan nodded.

Sitting on the ground, he looked at the fruit flies.

He thought that the orange light emitted by the heater seemed like rings of golden light.

In the insect net, there shone a golden future.

……………………………………

“Damn.” Xiang Shan again unplugged himself from the device, exiting this session.

He now leaned against the inner wall of the vehicle, sitting on the ground, in the same posture as back then.

But opposite him was pitch darkness.

And his prosthetic eye endowed him with extraordinary vision, letting him know that opposite him were the cylinders of coolant he had stored previously.

“Am I an idiot?

What kind of vision?

What kind of rhetorical style?

‘Feels like seeing the future in the insect net’…

Hahaha, what a joke.”

“The world really damn well feels like it’s locked inside an insect net now.”

“Me at 28 was timid.

Me at 37 had a hole in the brain.”

Xiang Shan began to feel nauseated by these memories.

Despite the heartfelt emotions telling him this was indeed his own memory.

His own segmented “subjective emotional memory” still echoed in his brain, reminding him of this point.

However, Xiang Shan really couldn’t contain his rage.

He simply stored the hard drive properly, then kicked open the door and rushed outside.

Solo Kill King Jader was leaning on a rock, using homemade optical equipment to observe the south.

At this moment, the afterglow of the sun was gradually vanishing.

It was time to set off again.

Xiang Shan walked over to Solo Kill King, asking, “Little brother, any findings?”

“Hmm, nothing much.

Amilcare brought back some troops.

However, the whole city has sunk below the horizon, and I can’t see their ground forces’ movements, so I don’t know exactly how many they brought back.”

Upon saying this, Solo Kill King sighed, “I should have left hidden commands inside the antiaircraft artillery position to launch a full volley fire ten hours later.”