Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 845 - 90 Dolphins

Chapter 845: Chapter 90 Dolphins

The speed of that dolphin was simply too fast—or rather, Xiang Shan’s prosthetic body was indeed too slow under the water. Although the Burrow Dragon had tried to adhere as closely as possible to fluid dynamics in designing the buoyancy device, this prosthetic, primarily meant for terrestrial combat, could not achieve ultra-high speeds in the ocean.

Forcibly inhaling seawater and then heating it for propulsion wasn’t impossible, but some of the weaker parts of the prosthetic might not withstand it, and in this shallow sea, doing so would create a big commotion, easily attracting the Protector’s power.

Xiang Shan chased for several hundred meters, but the dolphin moved further and further away.

Xiang Shan halted in the ocean, his thoughts complex.

"Senior?" Yuan Wenren’s signal came through. The others sat within the vehicle, only able to share what Xiang Shan saw. Due to the bandwidth limitations of electromagnetic signals, the quality of the images they could see was limited.

They couldn’t clearly see what that big thing was.

Xiang Shan said, "Something’s not right, absolutely not right. Set other matters aside... let’s go track that dolphin..."

"Senior?" Yuan Wenren was somewhat surprised, "Why the sudden change of heart?"

"It’s impossible for dolphins to have survived purely in the wild until now," Xiang Shan said in a low voice, "Dolphins are marine mammals that breathe with lungs... natural lungs can’t directly absorb oxygen from seawater..."

"Huh?"

"Under normal circumstances, it would be very difficult for Benchmarked marine organisms to float," Xiang Shan said, "Before benchmarking, the overall body density of many marine organisms that can swim is slightly lower than seawater... these organisms also have corresponding organs to adjust this buoyancy, ensuring they can move vertically..."

"But after benchmarking, metal-based proteins cause the overall density of organisms to suddenly increase by a few percentage points, and land animals like humans can’t float. If those marine organisms’ buoyancy organs remain their original size, they simply won’t suffice. They might have to swim upwards with all their might to remain at relatively shallow depths..."

It was for this reason that even though the ocean was rich in biological resources, Yawgmoth didn’t think many animals could survive the mass extinction.

"Not being able to float" is a fatal flaw. For floating plants, this means sinking to ocean depths without sunlight. And for animals, low temperatures, high pressure, and lack of food are equally deadly.

Unless there is artificial intervention to preemptively adjust the size of cavities in those animals’ bodies, proportions of fats, and such.

Alternatively, some large populations of marine creatures might rely on a stronger post-benchmarking resistance to damage, forcing themselves to withstand the harm from deeper oceans, expending more energy each day swimming upwards to desperately feed on the artificially modified plankton in the shallow layers.

Perhaps three hundred years of virus-catalyzed mutations coupled with natural selection could preserve a small number of tiny fish and shrimp... as well as squid.

But it would be too difficult for those marine ungulates to survive. Simply breathing would already require tremendous effort from them.

In the Ichigo infection incident, those animal protection activists who struggled to save the whales also considered this aspect. Yawgmoth adjusted the whales’ genes to make benchmarked whales more likely to accumulate lipids. They also planned to provide buoyancy for whales using prosthetic swim bladders or to cover the whale’s body with artificial gill prosthetics. Considering the whales’ high intelligence, they also thought about teaching the whales "mutual help," where younger whales could be brought to the surface to breathe by larger adult whales that underwent cybernetic transformations.

But this comprehensive plan ultimately wasn’t completed. As the flames of war spread to outer space at an incredible speed, the first-generation Heroes and Usurpers of the State took their battle beyond Earth. Yawgmoth also joined that war and defected at its conclusion.

This is an unfinished business.

Xiang Shan also doubted the whales could really survive. Without human help, relying solely on the whales, even breathing would be bewildering for them.

It’s said that there are language and cultural differences akin to primitive humans among killer whale groups, but that might not be enough for them to survive humanity’s catastrophe.

Furthermore, the Scientific Knight Order’s documentation never included descriptions in this regard.

No one knew of these things’ existence.

But... what if...

Metal-based modification would further enhance the speed of neural signal transmission, improving the creatures’ cognitive abilities.

Perhaps humans are already smart enough, or maybe most untrained people still cannot control such a powerful brain...

But for those creatures already on the verge of a threshold...

An emotion drove him to investigate.

.................................

Hikashi held half a squid in her mouth, swimming swiftly. The tongue of a marine creature flexibly extended and contracted, sweeping away the internal lines of the soft-bodied creature in her mouth. The skin of the soft-bodied creature changed color in a strangely regular way, seemingly not a mere dying reaction.

But Hikashi couldn’t see clearly.

From a human perspective, all dolphins are nearsighted. Dolphins quite understand this point. Tools humans use to measure distance, like rulers, are virtually useless to them.

However, dolphins have their own senses. In water, sound waves are far more convenient than light waves.

Unfortunately, dolphins’ senses are not very aware of "color changes."

Hikashi sucked forcefully on the delicious juices in her mouth. It had been a long time since she had eaten anything. The existing fish were too small, making it very difficult for bottlenose dolphins to catch such small fish. And resources were insufficient for dolphins to fully undergo cyberization and rely entirely on electrical energy for survival.

They had only undergone the most basic modifications, using an independent battery to supplement their central nervous system with energy. This alleviated some pressure. But after all, dolphins are not humans; their flesh also requires sustenance.

In the past few decades, distant dolphins had only recently discovered this new kind of organism in the ocean—humans called them "squids" or "spear squids." For the famished dolphins, this was a rare prey. But these creatures were too scarce, and humans always urged dolphins not to eat them to extinction, so the dolphins constantly suppressed their appetites.

But Hikashi was desperately hungry.

After only eating half a squid, the torment from her stomach became even more pronounced.

Her mind became slightly clearer.

It was only then that Hikashi realized, before she lost her mind and rushed out, there seemed to be something else by the squid...

"Was it a human?" Hikashi pondered, "Judging by the shape, it’s quite different from the humans that appeared before, very unlike..."

"But what if it was a human?"

"No choice, we must avoid those outside humans..."