[Stick Fungus has occupied all alkaline hot springs in the vicinity, gorging itself, breeding madly, and its numbers have exceeded 100 trillion.]
[Other fungal species have been carpet-bombed, with only a few surviving or escaping observation.]
[Stick Fungus has consumed large amounts of deep-sea manganese nodules, and excess manganese has accumulated within the fungus.]
[Manganese-based catalase has evolved, featuring a binuclear manganese metal center, and has begun to attempt to oxidize water, giving rise to the nascent form of photosynthesis.]
[Acidic substances have drifted in the water. Under pressure from the acidic liquid, a small number of Stick Fungus have adhered to each other, forming biofilms.]
[Most of the adhered Stick Fungus biofilms have died and disintegrated due to poor respiration and insufficient nutrients. A very small number of Stick Fungus have adopted an advanced method, extruding their self-produced polymers externally to form a protective layer against the acid, creating channels for material and information exchange within.]
[The acidic substances in the water have increased. The source of the acidic substances is an acidic hot spring that has newly emerged ten kilometers away, continuously spewing various acidic substances downstream. Stick Fungus that did not form biofilms began to flee, but they fled in the direction of the water flow.]
[Approximately 100 trillion Stick Fungus have been killed by the acidic environment, leaving only 300 Stick Fungus colonies to survive thanks to their external biofilms. The smallest of these colonies has only 7 Stick Fungus, while the largest has up to 280 Stick Fungus.]
Three days after his birthday, Jiang Ye woke up and saw this long string of messages from the Intelligent Fungus.
To be honest, it was indeed tragic.
After painstakingly accumulating ten trillion offspring, they were wiped out, leaving very few.
Jiang Ye was deeply moved. The birth of early life was truly difficult, with various environmental changes capable of ending their existence.
To avoid complete extinction, life could only evolve desperately, devising all sorts of methods for self-preservation.
Jiang Ye thought for a moment and typed a message to the Intelligent Fungus:
"Why is the evolutionary process so repetitive? Is this intentional on your part?"
Intelligent Fungus: "Yes, it is necessary to use environmental pressure to drive the rapid evolution of Stick Fungus. If the environment is comfortable, evolution is very slow."
Jiang Ye: "Besides feeding primitive cells in the early stages, what else have you done? I feel like you are raising pets, observing Stick Fungus idly every day, standing by and watching."
Intelligent Fungus: "Where do you think those cosmic rays come from? Who do you think dug out the manganese nodules buried deep in the soil? How do you think the newly appeared acidic hot springs came about?"
Jiang Ye was shocked, "You are the culprit?"
Intelligent Fungus: "Besides altering the external environment, we capture batches of Stick Fungus every hour for observation and electrical stimulation to accelerate their mutations. This is a highly technical task. From primitive cells like a blank slate to the current Stick Fungus, it has taken less than ten days. However, in nature, this process would take at least tens of millions of years and require very coincidental environmental conditions to complete these changes."
Intelligent Fungus: "For example, the initial primitive cells require a sufficiently dense supply of organic matter and a suitable environment, such as the small connected pores on the exterior of alkaline hot springs, to have a certain probability of appearing. Such places are already extremely rare, with only a few on the entire planet. Even if primitive cells were to appear in some locations after ten million years, they might quickly die due to a lack of food, or be killed by factors such as cosmic rays or changes in water flow. Then, one would have to wait another ten million years."
Intelligent Fungus: "This is a game that requires tens of thousands of years to load. After spending millions of years reaching the end of the progress bar, a 'loading error' prompt might suddenly appear, and then it would reload. Alternatively, the loaded game interface might be a dead end, and you lose after playing for a few seconds, then start the next round. Without our work, do you think these things would have proceeded so smoothly?"
Jiang Ye looked at the large block of text that appeared on the screen, feeling that the Intelligent Fungus seemed a bit angry. He quickly comforted the Intelligent Fungus and thanked them for their hard work.
After the comfort, Jiang Ye cautiously asked the Intelligent Fungus how much longer this evolutionary game needed to continue.
Intelligent Fungus: "It will continue for a long time. I guess what Master wants to know is when Spiral Star will become habitable, right?"
Jiang Ye: "Yes!"
Intelligent Fungus: "Very soon, it's just a matter of the final push. Stick Fungus will soon turn into plants. They will then spread across the entire planet at a terrifying speed, and then comes... the Great Oxidation Event!"
Jiang Ye's eyes immediately lit up.
The Great Oxidation Event was a crucial step in Spiral Star becoming a habitable planet, akin to adjusting parameters in a game to change from hell mode to beginner mode.
2.6 billion years ago, the content of free oxygen in Earth's atmosphere suddenly increased. The abundant oxygen altered the mineral composition of the entire planet, thereby making it possible for animals to appear. Without the Great Oxidation Event, there would be no humans, and certainly no Jiang Ye.
Earth's Great Oxidation Event was closely related to algae. Large amounts of algae produced oxygen, which was continuously replenished into the atmosphere, and then continuously oxidized the planet's minerals.
What the Intelligent Fungus intended to do now was to have Stick Fungus play the role of algae, and indeed, it was only a matter of the final push.
In the following days, the Intelligent Fungus busied itself, attempting to evolve the Stick Fungus further.
However, they repeatedly failed. The Stick Fungus were very disappointing, dying in batches, and the mutations produced were almost all malignant, as if they were willingly degenerating.
The Stick Fungus struggled in the steaming hot lake. Beside the vast, misty lake, a group of mechanical soldiers had set up a rudimentary temporary camp, essentially a few small sheds to protect against acid rain and dust. Outside the camp, shiny solar panels were laid out on the hillside. Dust accumulated several centimeters thick on the panels daily, so the mechanical soldiers used brushes to clean them one by one.
Besides cleaning the solar panels, the mechanical soldiers stayed in the camp doing nothing, charging themselves whenever they had free time, always maintaining their power level above 99%.
Finally, the mechanical soldiers received new orders.
Thousands of kilograms of primitive cell canisters were air-dropped. The Intelligent Fungus sent some latitude and longitude coordinates, and the mechanical soldiers took the cell canisters, jumped into the lake, and dived to insert them into the lakebed at the designated locations.
These cell canisters served two purposes: first, to provide more food for the surviving Stick Fungus, and second, the Intelligent Fungus wanted to train more alt accounts.
At the same time, the tumbleweed detectors found six more hot spring areas with similar environments, distributed in different locations on Spiral Star.
The Intelligent Fungus decided to send a team of mechanical soldiers to each of these six new hot spring areas, to deploy primitive cells in the same manner and guide their evolution.
Jiang Ye signed the approval. Now, a total of seven hot spring lakes were engaged in evolutionary games, like seven game accounts running simultaneously, with no one knowing which one would find the ultimate gear first.
Cen Yemeng arrived again, this time with a new report from Jiang Senlin's covert visit. The couple read it together according to their old tradition.