Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 920 - 165: Removing the Pulse

Chapter 920: Chapter 165: Removing the Pulse

Yawgmoth’s face froze. But soon, he calmed himself down.

"Unexpectedly, a similar protein naturally exists on this pla..."

"Ahem." Xiang Shan suddenly interrupted.

"...on other places on this Earth." Yawgmoth held his head: "Other places actually have it too, it’s unbelievable."

He was so excited that he couldn’t help but wave his hands a few times in the air.

Zhu Xinyu’s mouth twitched: "What’s wrong with him?"

"He starts gesturing wildly when he’s excited." Xiang Shan said in a low voice: "This guy is quite repressed."

Niyaguti stared at Yawgmoth, then nodded after a few seconds: "So it seems true? Are you helping the military? Or something else? Researching some secret project? Did you think similar things wouldn’t exist in other places on Earth?"

She hesitated for a moment: "It shouldn’t be... a weapon-related research, right? Although, given your personality, it shouldn’t be something like that..."

When words like "biologist" and "classified" and "military" are linked together, it’s easy for people to think of something not very good.

"I’m not an idiot. I wouldn’t work on something so costly to all humanity, something that might lead to mutual destruction." Yawgmoth was exceptionally excited: "The key, this is the ’key’... It exists on Earth!"

Niyaguti was puzzled: "So... is it some newly discovered strange creature? Did you previously think the sample only existed in places you could see?" She pondered for a moment: "Could it be that a microorganism has evolved the ability to survive near spent fuel?"

Only this reasoning could lead her to connect it to "military" matters.

Yawgmoth opened his mouth to speak, but Xiang Shan interrupted again.

"This is the confidential content." Yawgmoth said: "I can’t tell you the origin of that thing. But I think, things with similar structures should widely exist in the Universe... Common compounds formed by any two elements of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, plus energy, and certain conditions—the final product should be..."

At this moment, Yawgmoth was somewhat incoherent.

Xiang Shan closed his eyes, beginning to ponder.

With the arrival of Argon, robots would search for compounds of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen on the planet’s surface, perhaps using optics or some other method.

Methane of carbon and hydrogen, water of hydrogen and oxygen, carbon dioxide of carbon and oxygen, and hydrogen, oxygen, carbon-containing minerals—these are the most common substances in this Universe. Just searching for these substances in common forms within the "habitable zone," perhaps even simple machines could accomplish this.

The forcibly restarted alien instrument had produced new industrial machinery. These machines, through chemical means, output the simplest long-chain compounds. Then, these simple compounds were sent into those crystal-like special containers for more complex reactions.

However, for a long time, humans were uncertain if the way the machine worked after being restarted on their side was as originally set by the aliens.

Niyaguti was completely confused. But she knew Yawgmoth’s nature, so she directed her gaze to Xiang Shan and Zhu Xinyu: "What is he researching? A kind of synthetic material?"

"I actually admire that you could hear such a sense from this incoherent talk." Xiang Shan was impressed, then counter-asked: "Ms. Niyaguti, could you introduce the project you’re researching? This thing similar to Yawgmoth’s research content? Is it from deep-sea hydrothermal organisms?"

Niyaguti nodded: "I’ve been tracking hydrothermal organisms for a long time."

In the past, humans believed that in the depths of the ocean where sunlight could not reach, only a few oligarchic microorganisms could survive. It wasn’t until 1977, when the "Alvin" submersible first discovered active hydrothermal vents and a rich hydrothermal biota on the Galapagos seafloor in the Pacific Ocean.

This is exactly where Xiang Shan and his colleagues are now located.

This is the place where humans first encountered hydrothermal organisms—right where humans first perceived "evolution," humans encountered the magical powers of evolution once again.

The blood-red tube-dwelling worms, bivalves like clams and mussels from the phylum Mollusca, and decapods like shrimp and crabs—these are common hydrothermal organisms.

These creatures are homologous to surface worms, clams, mussels, shrimp, and crabs. They should be the result of surface creatures coincidentally symbiotically living with Chemoautotrophic bacteria.

The volcanic fountains of the seafloor bring scorching, metal- and sulfur-rich hydrothermal fluid. The hydrothermal fluid clashes with the cold seawater, and in this intense interplay of opposites, the hydrothermal fluid, with its pH vastly different from seawater, undergoes redox reactions, utilized by some sort of ancient bacteria...

The chemoautotrophic bacteria’s chemolithoautotrophic process here replaces sunlight.

And inside a certain ancient bacterium, there exists an enzyme somewhat akin to the Argon’s final product.

It’s undoubtedly a breakthrough.

The dozens of enzymes synthesized by Argon, when mixed in specific proportions and under specific environments, can form a system that can cycle and operate endlessly.

This is the "power" of "life."

How few enzymes are needed to weave numerous reaction chains into a complex network to form an eternal operating system?

It’s still unclear now. But for the simplest organisms, perhaps a dozen or so are enough.

It could even be simpler than humans imagine.

And this chemical machine formed by the set of enzymes can enable nucleic acids carrying information to self-replicate...

Just like the main structure of the Argon spaceship itself.

Now, Yawgmoth has discovered a miracle.

Some ancient Earth bacteria, with their evolutionary paths remarkably different from eukaryotic life systems, seem to contain a few enzymes with chemical properties very close to Argon’s products.

They’re not exactly identical, but the conformation diagrams of these two enzymes are so similar that even a biologist at Niyaguti’s level almost mistook them! In most instances, they can serve almost identical functions.

If this point is understood...

Perhaps it would greatly aid in unraveling the mystery of Argon!

Xiang Shan immediately said: "Ms. Niyaguti, your discovery is very significant. This accidental discovery might rewrite the history of biology. Although due to confidentiality regulations, we cannot disclose Yawgmoth’s research content to you now. However... would you be interested in joining us?"

"Join you?"

"By joining us, we can disclose our research content to you." Xiang Shan earnestly said: "I believe Yawgmoth would be thrilled."

Niyaguti thought for a moment, then shook her head: "I’m very interested in your research, but..."