Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 476 - 120: Missing

Chapter 476: Chapter 120: Missing

Metal-based cells, compared to native Earth biological cells, possessed stronger resistance to damage, superior radiation resistance, and naturally robust resistance against electrical shocks.

They could also survive on electrical energy alone.

The "self-limiting function" of cancer cells is broken, which allows them to proliferate uncontrollably.

And Evolu cells were essentially metal-based cancer cells.

Initially, Yawgmoth donated his own partial stem cells, induced to become cancerous, with the goal of preserving "HeLa cells of the Benchmark Man" for all research institutions.

At least in the twenty-first century, this was a purely altruistic act.

Thus, the world came to have Evolu cells.

And indeed, they were common research materials and very easy to obtain.

After all, when Yawgmoth donated these things worldwide, the wars for justice had not even started yet.

In such a situation, Evolu cells were naturally easy to acquire.

But what Xiang Shan never expected was that these things could also have potential for weaponization.

The "Evolu cell spore infection in wounds" tactics of King of Godspeed were already quite absurd. Xiang Shan found it difficult to imagine what kind of black technology would cause spores to grow inside cancer cells.

But unexpectedly, there was someone who went even further.

They directly combined these things with special metal-corroding anaerobic bacteria and fungi that could recycle metabolic waste, creating a symbiotic organism and throwing it into a nuclear power station.

In a humid air environment, this mass of symbiotic organisms could indeed grow extremely fast.

Moreover, just like yeast can have both "aerobic respiration" and "anaerobic respiration," with sexual reproduction in aerobic respiration and asexual reproduction in anaerobic respiration, the fungi inside the symbiotic organism, after modulation, would also have different modes of survival.

When there is an abundance of electrical energy, this special symbiotic organism could rely on electrical energy to corrode mechanical structures and grow rapidly.

And when the entire symbiotic organism eroded through the nuclear power station causing the generators to stop and radiation to leak, the fungi inside would automatically initiate the function to "survive by absorbing radiation with melanin," which in return would nourish the Evolu cells.

And this thing, just a little bit left inside the circuitry, was a ticking time bomb, never knowing when it might cause a short circuit.

During cleanup, if even a small piece of the symbiotic organism was missed, it would lead to the dilemma of "if you do not eliminate the roots, the grass will grow again as the spring breeze blows."

And the cost of this thing was indeed quite low.

But it was said that once, the growth of Evolu cells was particularly rampant.

Later, according to those who cleaned it up, the area under the reactor had almost turned into a mass of flesh, where massive amounts of hair, bones, teeth, nerves, and even a few organs appeared.

This soon became an "urban legend" that terrified everyone on the old continent.

Xiang Shan, however, felt something was off: "This thing... a teratoma?"

A teratoma, possibly resulting from abnormal differentiation of reproductive cells during the embryonic stage, could affect both men and women.

Specifically, it is a tumor which, due to cell differentiation, produces skin, clumps of fat, bones, teeth, hair, and even the nervous system.

Of course, a teratoma would not contain a brain or spinal cord. There has never been a case where a teratoma differentiated into the central nervous system.

But what Yawgmoth initially donated was supposed to be... cancer-induced... stem cells?

Logically, they shouldn’t be able to differentiate into a teratoma, should they?

Ah, wait a minute, that reminds me...

Could the bones and nerves inside that nuclear power station be considered as belonging to Yawgmoth himself?

Ah, or perhaps...

More sci-fi, a complete human being differentiated from within the Nest of Flesh...

After all, cancer cells can produce spores, so it wouldn’t be strange if some black technology allowed that giant deformed tumor in the nuclear power station to differentiate into a person!

"If that guy made from flesh burrowed out from the nuclear power station..." Xiang Shan laughed at his own idea.

He couldn’t help but walk over and inquire more about the details.

On the other hand, Solo Kill King was feeling uneasy.

"Something’s not right... very not right..."

After reading the information, he called up the map from his mind and compared it with the route planned with the heroes.

"This isn’t good..." he stood up, walked over to Xiang Shan, and said, "Nameless Hero, it seems there has been a complication."

"What?" Xiang Shan was worried, "Is the situation bad?"

"Four of our comrades haven’t arrived," Jader said. "The others should have grouped into several teams in different areas up north, and then reached the Coast Mountains on the Pacific Ocean one after another, using the underground network built by the Burrow Dragons to report their progress."

"Out of the five QR codes I read just now, one was from a few years ago and irrelevant to our current mission. The other four are from companions on this mission."

Xiang Shan was stunned, "Only four? That’s not normal, right?"

"Yes, according to the schedule, by this time, the Arctic Heroes should have already formed into five small teams and gathered in the local Burrow Dragons’ underground community. But there are only four teams, and they are incomplete."

"Black Hand Master ND Bright Flame, Lead Angry Hand Tang Yun, LED Tiger Jiang Daozi... none of these skilled fighters have arrived."

Xiang Shan asked, "Could it be that they stopped to help out on seeing some injustice on the way, causing a slight delay?"

Heroes indeed needed to distinguish between "primary conflicts" and "secondary conflicts." But if they encountered a massacre of Green Forest settlers, they couldn’t just walk away.

Unless they were on a mission of explicit, time-sensitive nature.

This had been repeatedly emphasized since the era of Martial Ancestor.

And Xiang Shan’s need was merely a small refrigerator — at most just slightly more powerful in its cooling function.

This small refrigerator was also something that gets launched just a few times a month.

It definitely wasn’t the type of scenario where you have "only one chance, and if you miss it, that’s it."

At this time, running into people who needed help and giving a shout of assistance was quite the ordinary thing to do.

Although Xiang Shan had never heard of those Arctic Heroes, anyone daring to meddle in these series of missions surely was a reputable figure, a Great Hero.

Since seeing people in distress and offering help was too common.

"Hard to say," Solo Kill King shook his head, "Under normal circumstances, even if Black Hand Master and the others were slow, they should have reached near the Coast Mountains. There aren’t many settlements on the eastern side of the Coast Mountains..."

Xiang Shan nodded, "That’s true, let’s pull up the map and see—do we need to retrace their route to find them?"

Solo Kill King paused, then shook his head and said, "The QR code also mentioned that several heroes have some information to pass on. We should stick to the prearranged schedule and meet up with the others first, let him go look for Black Hand Master and his group."