Chapter 133 The Brains of the Firstborn

The Crystal Nucleus Research Station was a comprehensive, giant space station with a focus on scientific research and containment of hazardous materials. In addition to the large container bays used to house the Firstborn, the lower levels of the station housed several large laboratories for daily research. Samples collected from the Firstborn, as well as strange scraps gathered from other worlds, could all be scanned here—Hao Ren finally no longer had to worry about the limited capabilities of the Petrified Turtle Rock's onboard laboratory.

However, what everyone liked most about this place was its architectural style: the building's style was completely different from the technology-oriented equipment Hao Ren was used to. Its main material was crystal and a kind of warm, peculiar "metal," including the laboratories. The light, elegant crystalline clusters and curved metal were dazzling, and walking through the Crystal Nucleus Research Station was as pleasant as touring an art museum. Hao Ren usually complained that Raven 12345 was unreliable, but this time he had to thank the goddess for blowing up the original building module: this new space station was at least better than a coffin.

Two red spheres were soon brought to the laboratory, and everyone was studying what they were. Hao Ren took Vivian's advice and ordered a quick full-body scan of the living Firstborn in Container One and Container Two, and he was now waiting for the results.

"Speaking of which, what do you think this thing is?" Hao Ren asked Vivian idly while waiting, "It also created the phantom of the Demon King's City—is it an organ used by the Firstborn to cast spells?"

Vivian shook her head slightly, tossing a small bat unconsciously to relieve boredom. The two spheres were suspended not far away on the crystal analysis platform, and several beams of light were scanning them, as the detection equipment collected information about the spheres and compared it with the Firstborn's scan progress. The holographic projection in the center of the laboratory showed the progress of Container One and Container Two: holographic images of the Firstborn, becoming clearer and clearer.

After a while, the data terminal suddenly whistled, "Found it!"

Hao Ren was delighted: "There really is something?!"

The data terminal controlled the holographic projection to zoom in and locate the details of Container One. The Firstborn's tentacles and tissue tumors appeared in the center of the screen, and the most striking feature of the intricate biological tissue was the pulsating, dim red light. The data terminal pointed out a star-shaped structure between the red lights: "At this position—there's a thick connective outer skin, strong bioelectricity, and a sphere hidden underneath, exactly the same as the two red spheres we have. Moreover, there's more than one of these spheres..."

As the data terminal spoke, it zoomed out the holographic image, and seven or eight flashing red dots appeared on the entire scan. These red dots were all spherical organs, and they were not evenly distributed.

Lily craned her neck to watch for a while: "So a Firstborn can grow so many balls? Why did Elizabeth only find three?"

"Because of malnutrition, don't forget that the Firstborn in the old Wang family starved to death," Hao Ren switched the picture back, curiously looking at the star-shaped tissue emitting a dim red light. Many thin tentacles extended from it, connecting to the nearest tissue tumor, and these thin tentacles were light in color, obviously not the same species as the tentacles used as weapons. Moreover, all the star-shaped tissues were wrapped in layers of other tentacles and thick skin, which meant they were very important to the Firstborn. "What do you think this looks like?"

"Like some kind of central hub," the data terminal replied, "Also, according to recent test results, those gray-white tentacles are mostly connected to medium-sized tissue tumors, and medium-sized tissue tumors have been confirmed to be the Firstborn's nerve ganglia."

Hao Ren stroked his chin and tried to expand his imagination, suddenly a thought popped up: "Wait! Could this be the Firstborn's brain?"

Lily looked at Hao Ren in horror: "Landlord, is your imagination so big that everything above your neck is just a ring?"

"But it's very possible," Hao Ren shrugged, "This thing has grown into this grotesque shape, what's wrong with its thinking organs being a little stranger? Look, we've been looking for the Firstborn's brain, but the result is that there's none at all—but this thing clearly knows how to think, so its thinking organs should grow a little strangely. And anyway, this thing is connected to many nerve ganglia, it must be related to thinking."

"A very valuable guess," the data terminal actually affirmed Hao Ren's imagination, "This creature is too huge, a single brain may have difficulty directing the entire body, and the nutrition can't keep up... so it adopted a distributed brain structure. But first, we need to test it."

Container One quickly received the data terminal's instructions, and a thin, light-green potion was injected into the container, followed by several bright luminous bodies that attached to several of the Firstborn's tentacles. The tentacles vibrated slightly and then returned to calm.

The control module of Container One cut off the connection between one of the star-shaped tissues and the surrounding organs, and then began to input simulated signals into it.

"Maybe it really is the brain," the data terminal read the transmitted data, even it was a little amazed, "This is really a wonderful thing, the Firstborn's thought process is actually coordinated by three completely different tissues, nerve ganglia, red spheres, and those gray-white nerve fibers, these three things are all brains, and they are distributed throughout the body."

Lily glanced at Hao Ren in surprise: "You really guessed it! Landlord, is your imagination precision-guided?"

"Don't be silly, this is called being gifted, unlike you who didn't aim properly when you were reincarnated and became a simpleton," Hao Ren rubbed Lily's head and turned to look at the data terminal, "Why didn't we see it when we were studying the sphere in the Demon King's City last time?"

"We didn't think about it last time," the data terminal somersaulted in the air, "Tsk tsk, this thing is really interesting... um, I roughly understand the Firstborn's thinking process."

Hao Ren immediately pricked up his ears and listened to the data terminal's explanation.

"These spheres are the Firstborn's main thinking organs, responsible for 70% of the brain's function, and can be called brain nuclei. There are several of them, and they are distributed in various parts of the Firstborn's body; those medium-sized tissue tumors, that is, nerve ganglia, are something that enhances and accelerates signals, and may also have a caching function. They are responsible for distributing the instructions from the brain nuclei to all parts of the body. Because the Firstborn is too large, it must have this secondary cache and brainwave amplifier to control its body; those gray-white tentacles are not ordinary nerve fibers, they are actually mutated forms of nerve ganglia, and also have the ability of logical operation. Their role is to connect several different brains, so that the Firstborn's thinking process can be coordinated—to prevent schizophrenia and brainwave conflicts. The operating mode of this whole mechanism is very strange, unlike any intelligent creature known to this unit, but it can perfectly solve the various problems faced by the Firstborn due to its large size. And more importantly: they give the Firstborn a backup of its thoughts. This unit believes that a single brain nucleus can also think, but the execution efficiency will be reduced, and it will not be able to control all the tentacles, but if a part of the Firstborn's brain goes offline, it can still survive on the remaining brain structure, and even repair its offline brains... a perfect computing machine, it has formed a local area network with itself and can upload and download things between its several brains!"

Lily straightened out this logical relationship by counting her fingers, and was immediately amazed by the Firstborn: "If I had this ability, I wouldn't have to worry about not being able to separate characters when writing novels! I can even have a four-way romance with myself!"

Vivian smiled sideways: "Unfortunately, you're still single."

Lily: "Woof you in the face!!"

"Can't you be quiet for a few minutes in such a serious occasion?" Hao Ren glared at the two rivals to quiet them down, then turned to look at the data terminal, "I understand what you said... that is to say, the Firstborn has multiple brains, and these brains are combined like modules, and those red spheres are the main thinking organs—so what's the matter with the phantom of the Demon King's City?"

The data terminal was silent for a while, the blue light on its surface surging, and then made a prediction: "This unit believes that it is its babbling."

Hao Ren: "?"

"The Firstborn's mental power is strong enough to directly trigger natural phenomena, although it can't reach the point of interfering with reality, it can at least create large-scale phantoms," the data terminal flew over the two spheres, "These two brain nuclei... although severely damaged, have not died, they are sleeping, and occasionally they dream."