Jiang Ye's office had an excellent view, with glass windows on three sides offering an unobstructed panorama of the entire glittering fleet.
Previously, the fleet had simply drifted silently in orbit, unchanging twenty-four hours a day, like colossal space debris or suspended meteorites.
Once the intelligent fungi could command a regiment, the fleet began to change.
From time to time, a warship would light up and open its hangar doors. Blue lights signified "small warships departing the mothership," while orange-red lights indicated "external small warships entering the mothership."
Every time the light from the windows changed, a prompt would pop up on Jiang Ye's screen:
"6th Ship's First Mechanical Soldier Company departs mothership for Spiral Star to collect photosynthetic fungus samples."
Or:
"6th Ship's Second Mechanical Soldier Company returns to mothership, carrying 118 kilograms of environmental samples and 10 kilograms of photosynthetic fungus samples, preparing for in-depth laboratory analysis."
Jiang Ye didn't pore over these messages; dedicated officers were responsible for monitoring each mission, and the warships themselves were equipped with powerful combat AIs to track mission data. Any issues would trigger an immediate alert for Jiang Ye.
However, these messages gave Jiang Ye a sense that the fleet deployed to Spiral Star was finally being put to use, constantly deploying and recalling units to perform tasks on the planet's surface. Before this, the entire fleet had been idle, occasionally engaging with orbital space debris and passing meteoroids, yet burning hundreds of millions in military expenditure daily.
As the intelligent fungi and the fleet's mechanical soldiers busied themselves, Jiang Ye began to receive some encouraging news after a few days.
[1664th group of photosynthetic fungi completes minor evolution, chloroplast count increases tenfold, adapting to low-light environments.]
[7133rd group of photosynthetic fungi evolves more flagella, with an increase in cells controlling flagella, showing a tendency towards muscle formation.]
[2806th group of photosynthetic fungi evolves photoreceptor cells, able to vaguely perceive external light changes, though clear vision has not yet formed.]
[5810th group of photosynthetic fungi completes a breakthrough evolution, releasing a large number of spores for reproduction. However, due to incomplete evolution, over ninety percent of spores die upon release, with only a very small fraction having the potential to germinate.]
These were the major updates Jiang Ye could see directly, appearing prosperous and promising.
Yet, the intelligent fungi were somewhat selective in their reporting, presenting the good news while downplaying the bad. If Jiang Ye clicked a few more times to open all messages, he would see a flood of devastating failures:
[0003rd group of photosynthetic fungi attempts to leave water and go ashore, resulting in 98% mortality.]
[0174th group of photosynthetic fungi absorbs excessive heavy metals from the environment, causing 70% of cells to rupture and die.]
[9910th group of photosynthetic fungi evolves a thicker outer wall, leading to complete mortality due to impaired material exchange.]
[3106th group of photosynthetic fungi attempts to evolve into a larger overall size, with multiple failed attempts.]
One by one, incident after incident.
Minor failures were just that, but severe ones resulted in complete annihilation.
Over the past week, there were over thirty-nine thousand failure reports, and these were only for large-scale failures. The records of individual photosynthetic fungi evolving themselves to death were simply uncountable. If the entire planet of Spiral Star were considered an evolutionary battlefield, then ninety-nine percent of the battlefields were losing, with only a handful of positions holding firm or achieving breakthroughs.
However, even so, from the perspective of overall evolution, the progress was extremely gratifying.
If the intelligent fungi had been left to their own devices, allowing these photosynthetic fungi to mingle entirely under natural conditions, it would likely have taken millions of years to achieve the current progress.
Tens of thousands of intelligent fungi, making choices based on their own preferences, would try their luck, tapping into different gene tree branches and gaining different evolutionary points. The environment was complex and ever-changing, and the probability of successfully tapping into the genes needed at a given moment was lower than winning the lottery jackpot.
Although most battlefronts were losing, the total number of photosynthetic fungi on the planet continued to rise.
The reason was simple: the operation of the intelligent fungi.
The intelligent fungi observed the condition of each group of photosynthetic fungi throughout the day. Once a group of photosynthetic fungi underwent a minor evolution, the intelligent fungi would immediately dispatch mechanical soldiers to land and collect a portion of the samples.
These samples would be placed in specially designed metal canisters and stored on several of the fleet's larger ships. Their genetic data would be analyzed and then cataloged.
If a particular group of photosynthetic fungi evolved into a dead end, leading to their complete demise, the intelligent fungi would dispatch mechanical soldiers to the fleet's ship warehouses, retrieve samples from that group, and place them in bacterial incubators for cultivation.
Bacterial incubators were specialized instruments for mass reproduction of fungi, used by biopharmaceutical companies, costing a mere fifty million each. Rather than calling them bacterial incubators, "bacterial explosion machines" would be a more fitting description; placing about a dozen fungi into the machine for a few hours could result in the reproduction of tens of kilograms!
With tens of kilograms of identical fungi, mechanical soldiers would then take the sample canisters and reintroduce these fungi to their original locations, allowing them to continue evolving.
This was akin to the intelligent fungi creating backups for all the fungi on Spiral Star.
The fungi could evolve with impunity; the bolder their steps, the better.
If they died, it was simply a matter of reloading a save. By continuously reloading, they were bound to find a path to survival, much like playing a game.
Of course, this process was enormously costly. Each evolutionary step required a sample canister, and the fleet's warehouses now stored over ten thousand sample canisters, each worth one hundred thousand. When factoring in the fuel costs for mechanical soldiers flying their small spacecraft around Spiral Star, the deployment expenses for the fleet's personnel, and the daily operational costs of the large fleet remaining in orbit, the final figure was a staggering amount.
Compounding this, Jiang Ye was currently facing severe financial constraints. All three planets were undergoing large-scale life-extension surgeries, and the majority of those receiving the surgeries were unable to pay, requiring the planetary treasuries to front the costs. This represented a massive expenditure, and the savings from previous years were nearly depleted.
Jiang Ye was under immense pressure. The only way out was for Spiral Star to be transformed into a habitable environment as quickly as possible to start generating revenue.
If the process dragged on for too long, they might have to resort to borrowing money to get through this period.
Once they weathered this storm, their financial situation would become very comfortable, even bordering on wealth, and they would remain prosperous for a considerable time, as the civilian economy was expected to surge after the life-extension surgeries.
Soon, another week passed.
Jiang Ye's mood began to improve.
This was because the evolution of the photosynthetic fungi had accelerated, with more significant breakthroughs emerging consecutively.
It was no longer just a glimmer of hope; they could already see the sun peeking over the horizon.
[7780th group of photosynthetic fungi successfully leaves the water and begins to grow on the shore, simultaneously producing spores in large quantities and developing miniature leaves. A new species, "Photosynthetic Moss," is born!]
[1602nd group of photosynthetic fungi combines to form larger aquatic leaves, capable of adapting to colder waters. A new species, "Cold-Water Seaweed," is born!]