How are Zerg made?

Chapter 5: Surgery · Chapter 5: Surgery · First, the unwinding—decompressing that tangled mess of a nucleus. · Soon, the DNA strand of The Organism was laid bare before Professor Hogu. · Next came the "extraction": excising the specific gene segment responsible for phage expression. This was a delicate operation, especially for Professor Hogu, who currently lacked even hands or feet. · Carefully controlling the output of the Restriction Endonuclease, Professor Hogu ensured no damage occurred to the rest of the genetic chain. Simultaneously, he remotely commanded The Organism, utilizing the flow of cytoplasm to restrict the enzymes precisely to the gene segment slated for removal. · Such an action was akin to writing with saliva, and on the surface of water, no less. · "Damn it!" · As Professor Hogu’s frustration flared, the misdirected Restriction Endonuclease sliced through indiscriminately, cutting into other segments as well. In an instant, the nucleus of this single cell shrank by nearly half its volume before the enzymes finally exhausted themselves. · Subsequently, the broken fragments joined together through the Ligase instinctively secreted by the cell, reforming into an intact—though drastically altered—genetic chain. · Professor Hogu knew, however, that this mutated chain could never again replicate the original cell. · Professor Hogu selected a new cell from within the cluster to serve as the subject for "surgery." · The previous failure did not significantly dent his confidence. He never considered himself a genius; he even felt slightly less capable than the average person, merely one who had read more books than most. · The surgery began anew. · This time, having learned from his mistakes, Professor Hogu utilized the Restriction Endonuclease within the cell with greater caution, drastically reducing the dosage and focusing most of his attention on the movement of the cytoplasm. · He let the cytoplasmic flow guide the enzymes, ensuring the designated gene segment was excised just as the enzymes ran dry. · Failure... · Failure... · Failure... · Failure... · Success! · "Excellent." · Just as Professor Hogu had firmly believed, he succeeded. After losing nearly a hundred cells, that specific phage gene segment had been successfully excised. · The next step was ligation, which was relatively simple. Professor Hogu remotely guided the cell, utilizing cytoplasmic flow to constrain that phage-expressing gene segment to a specific area. · Then, relying on the Ligase, he allowed the two fragments resulting from the surgery to reunite into a single, brand-new genetic chain. · "Initiate Cell Division." · Following Professor Hogu’s command, The Replicant that had undergone the successful surgery began to gradually split into new individuals. · Soon, new individuals emerged from the cell cluster, yet this new generation exhibited a condition Professor Hogu had not anticipated. · The appearance of a "cell wall." · The exterior of The Replicant was wrapped in a shell. Compared to a cell membrane, this shell appeared more robust and possessed a certain degree of elasticity, providing the cell with ample room to grow while offering protection. · "This..." · "Why?" · Professor Hogu pondered, feeling uncertain. "Could this be the result of the expression of those incomplete phage genes?" · The surgery had not completely removed the phage genes; Professor Hogu had only excised the previously identified segment responsible for toxic phage expression. · In any case, the expression of incomplete genes would also be incomplete—it was impossible for it to transcribe a functional phage. · Risk the possibility of creating another toxic phage just for the sake of a perfect excision? Professor Hogu had thought it over and decided against it. He was no perfectionist, and there was no need to court death in such a manner. · He simply hadn't expected this outcome... · A cell wall was necessary, as its primary function was to protect the cell. · To put it simply, it was like a commoner in cloth armor suddenly donning steel plate; its defensive capability was leagues beyond what it had been before. · Originally, Professor Hogu had intended to begin manufacturing cell walls only after resolving the phage issue, but now... · Professor Hogu was caught in a dilemma. · It wasn't that he disliked such a surprise, but since it was an "accidental" cell wall, it was hard to say whether it would meet his requirements. · "Decision made: observe for a while." · Having made up his mind, Professor Hogu shifted his attention to the other single cells and began the surgery. · With the first successful case, a second and third followed. After some time, Professor Hogu grew adept, stabilizing his success rate for gene segment excision at over eighty percent. · During this period, Professor Hogu conceived a method to break the protein structural connections: relying on Cell Division to create new Replicants between two connected single cells, effectively squeezing out the old ones. · It was similar to the principle of the Ship of Theseus—gradually replacing those old single cells without affecting normal cognitive functions. · With this in mind, that is exactly what Professor Hogu did. · As the last infected single cell was replaced, the sense of crisis vanished, replaced by a profound sense of security. After all, the things that could threaten him were, for the time being, gone. · Clearing his mind, Professor Hogu did not forget that his current cognitive vessel was merely an insignificant cluster of single cells—a life form even lower than the plants at the very bottom of the food chain. · Professor Hogu recalled his time as a human; he had known at least a hundred million ways to wipe out a single-cell cluster like this one. As his thoughts drifted there, he shuddered. · "Too fragile. I must continue to optimize these single cells." · With his goal set, Professor Hogu began analyzing the "unexpected surprise." If the effects of these cell walls were not ideal, he would have to perform surgery again to thoroughly remove the remaining phage gene segments and then manually construct a cell wall that met his requirements. · The first requirement was appropriate permeability: if it were too permeable, the protection would be minimal; if it were too impermeable, the intake of external nutrients would decrease, leading the cell to decay. · The second requirement was appropriate flexibility: the cell wall could be neither too rigid nor too soft, and it had to possess a certain degree of ductility. Too rigid, and it would restrict the cell's own growth; too soft, and it wouldn't provide a cushioning effect; without ductility, its plasticity would be poor, which was disadvantageous for clustering together in the current environment. · The third requirement, which was also the most urgent for Professor Hogu, was the ability to defend against attacks from phages, predatory bacteria, and fungi lurking in the darkness. · The first and second requirements were easy to test; one simply had to place a single cell on the outermost perimeter. The rest was just observation—watching to see if the subject cell changed, and to what extent. · The true difficulty lay in the third. · [END]