Chapter 6 Worm Brain

Tianxiang has never seen this thing, or even heard of it. This was just because he was ignorant, but because there was no such thing as brains in any of the bugs he had hunted before. Even if the hard lumps on the backs of all the bugs' heads were opened, all they would get would be globs of dimly colored slurry. The biggest difference between the so-called evolved species is probably precisely because of this.

Tianxiang struggled, using the last bit of clarity in his brain to direct his exhausted body to move towards the insect corpse. Although the distance was only a few meters, he walked for nearly half a minute. Then, Tianxiang, who successfully arrived in front of the insect beast's completely stiffened head, grabbed the two pieces of hard armor shattered by bullets with both hands, and suddenly stretched his head forward to get close to the two piles of fresh, still emitting In front of the warm insect brain, he swallowed hard.

"It's delicious! It's so delicious!" Tianxiang, whose mouth was filled with the white and slippery liquid, swallowed several big mouthfuls without even chewing. He never thought that the brains of insect beasts with a terrifying appearance could be so delicious. Fresh, smooth, slightly sweet and full of taste. Even if it was as tender and smooth as a jelly secreted by herbivorous insects, it couldn't match the delicious taste of the brain fluid of this insect beast. After sucking up all the white liquid in a few mouthfuls, Tianxiang felt that he had lived in vain for so long, and he didn't know that there was such a delicious thing in this world. Moreover, the brain of this insect beast was really too little. I only took a few puffs and all the contents in the insect skull were wiped out. If you think about it carefully, the brain of this insect beast is probably just a ball as big as a fist. Compared with its body that looked like a small building when it fell on the ground, it was really too small.

Perhaps this is why insects are far less intelligent than humans!

After a few mouthfuls of the steaming liquid, Tianxiang immediately felt that the lost strength returned to his body. After leaning against the insect corpse and resting for a few minutes, he had recovered some of his strength. Although the threat of thirst has not been completely eliminated, the situation just now is actually much better. However, the only regret that Tianxiang felt was that the amount of delicious insect brains was too small for him to enjoy it all at once.

Suddenly, Tianxiang felt that his body seemed to have undergone a rather strange change. The ears seem to be able to hear sounds from farther away, and the eyes can clearly see the subtle changes hidden in the gaps in the ground. The most important thing is your own thinking ability. Many things that you couldn't figure out before are now as clear as a mirror. It felt as if an invisible hand had torn off the thin veil covering the eyes. The previous hazy state was completely swept away, replaced by an unprecedented clarity and transparency.

In fact, the reason for this result was the brain of the insect beast that was shot to death by Tianxiang. Generally speaking, in the process of biological evolution, the structure and function of the brain largely determine the outcome of biological evolution. Especially for these creatures that have just evolved from lower insects to higher levels, their brain and nervous system development will also become particularly developed. Insects are born with a sensitive perception of external things, which is immediately reflected in the brain receptors at a speed that humans cannot imagine. The so-called activity level of brain cells refers to this aspect.

It should be said that Tianxiang's luck is not generally good. He unexpectedly encountered an insect beast that had fully entered adulthood, and accidentally drank all of the insect beast's brains. Based on normal calculations, the brain cells of an insect beast will generally die completely after its parent body is cut off from the oxygen supply for more than a few minutes. However, during this period of time, although most of the insect brains swallowed by Tianxiang were killed by stomach acid, some of the remaining cells gained the ability to adapt to the new environment and survived. The most important thing is that due to the previous heavy physical exertion and the sudden impact of the two major emotions of facing the threat of death and regaining life, Tianxiang's brain thinking ability also experienced a brief pause. But just these few seconds gave the insect beast's brain cells a chance to temporarily control its functions. Although this kind of control was quickly completely eliminated by the autonomous consciousness in Tianxiang's brain, the ability to imitate and generalize between cells also allowed the defender itself to possess almost all the functions of the insect brain. All these conditions, as long as any link is missing, it is impossible to bring Tianxiang such luck. Even if he could kill the same insect beast again now and swallow its brain fluid, he would never have the chance to have his brain pause for a second time. Such a subtle but reasonable encounter is probably something that even the most omnipotent Creator could not have anticipated when he arranged the evolution of all living things in advance!

Therefore, the current Tianxiang can be said to be a human being with the powerful perception and thinking abilities of insect beasts.

Tianxiang, who had no idea that his body had undergone such a big change in just a few minutes, was looking intently at the pistol in his hand that saved his life at the critical moment. Things in the learning machine that I originally found difficult to understand are now as clear as the most transparent water. And the contents of the firearms album that I had randomly discarded in the library were completely reflected in my mind after just one glance. There are also ears that can hear the sound of insects crawling on the ground in the distance, as well as the slight vibration of the wings of flying insects cutting through the air. Coupled with the strong perception of the brain and the contact with the surrounding environment, a large amount of sudden and inexplicable information is almost detected. Tianxiang's brain, which had just successfully escaped from the insect's mouth, was so clogged that it short-circuited.

The human brain is born with the most powerful learning and self-exploration potential functions. Of course, such abilities must generally be acquired through years of exercise and thinking. Just like when you lift a heavy object with your left hand, you will naturally think of using your idle right hand to help. The Tianxiang brain, which is unable to accept a large amount of information because it imitates the insect brain, once again has doubts about its own abilities. Significant improvements have been made. To put it simply, Tianxiang's brain completed a sudden and comprehensive evolution in a short period of time. The capacity of the cerebral cortex, which can store information and participate in thinking, suddenly increased several times, giving it unprecedentedly powerful thinking and perception abilities.

However, this kind of evolution that belongs entirely to brain self-awareness is quite dangerous. Not to mention that the influx of a large amount of information is very likely to turn Tianxiang into a fool with a confused head. Even the cells in his body that just suppressed the insect brain will be unable to accept both human and insect consciousness at the same time. And a lot of deaths. This leads to complete paralysis of the central nervous system under the control of the brain, causing the human body to lose all functions, and instantly transforms from a healthy and vigorous person into a "corpse" with only the brain surviving. If it weren't for Tianxiang accidentally changing his thinking direction at a critical moment and summing up all the chaotic information under a command management with an obvious thinking channel, I am afraid that he, an outlier among the survivors of the earth, would soon be When he has just gained superhuman abilities, he has to accept the terrifying reality of a complete collapse of his central nervous system.

"Go back to the library. There must be many secrets there that I haven't discovered before." This was the only thought that suddenly flashed in Tianxiang's mind at that time. He couldn't explain exactly why this idea came to him out of nowhere, but he just felt that there should be something he desperately wanted to get in that dilapidated library.

Tianxiang, who had no time to think about it and had no idea that he had just been on the verge of the most terrifying life and death, pulled out the missed steel spear from the tarnished insect eye and carefully used a rag hanging from the corner of his clothes. After wiping it clean, he weighed it gently and held it back in his hand. There were only four bullets in that pistol, and three of them had been used up in the random shooting just now. If he didn't have a handy weapon, he might not be so lucky if he encountered a powerful insect again.

After inserting the steel spear, Tianxiang took out the short and delicate dagger from his waist and cut open the hard armor on the back surface of the insect corpse. Suddenly a piece of crystal clear light red insect flesh was revealed. If it were normal times, Tianxiang would definitely not let such a big pile of "meat mountains" go easily. If this insect beast was dried in the sun, it would be enough for him and his sister to eat for at least ten solar days. However, now he can only cut off a piece as thick as an arm. After all, this is not a crypt, and taking too many things will only cause you more trouble. Just take off the portion that is enough for you to eat. As for the rest, it is best to leave it to other weak creatures.

Tianxiang, who returned the same way, did not disturb the other bugs entrenched in the library, and quietly climbed up to the second floor according to the previous route. He wanted to find out everything about "guns" here, and why this seemingly inconspicuous weapon was so powerful. Of course, he was so attentive that he did not miss any slight abnormalities when entering the library. This was not because he was wary of bugs, but because he wanted to try his luck and get another gun and more bullets. But what disappointed him was that there were many ancient skeletons scattered in the museum, but there was no such thing as the previous situation where the hand bones were holding a gun.

It was still the pile of military books. Tianxiang, who had just stepped up the stairs, saw at a glance the firearms album that he had thrown away. Immediately, as if it were the most precious treasure, I carefully picked it up from the pile of old papers and started to read through it carefully.

One, two... one pile, two piles... Tianxiang was surprised to find that his reading speed was so fast, so fast that it was almost astonishing. Unknowingly, he had finished reading several piles of thick books in front of him, including firearms atlases. A page full of tiny black characters can be completely memorized in just a few seconds of browsing. That kind of rapid flipping movement simply made him feel a little confused. This kind of thing was simply impossible before!

"Is this view useful? Can I remember what I have read?" Tianxiang began to doubt his speed of reading ten or hundreds of lines at a glance. He couldn't help but gently close the book he was reading happily and closed it. Close your eyes and carefully recall the contents of the books you just read.

"Oh my God! How is this possible?" After a brief thought, even Tianxiang himself was shocked. Not only did he recite the contents of the book word for word, but he also completely understood some of the things he had never come across before and whose sentences were awkward and difficult to understand. However, although he can understand some of the knowledge recorded in these books, he doesn't understand how to use it at all. In other words, he simply doesn't know what the use of this knowledge is.

For example, in a book called "Introduction to Infantry Tactics", the application method of a type called "army" is clearly stated. Words and knowledge such as "correct defense in battle", "offense", "tactical theory", etc., Tianxiang completely keeps them in mind. I believe that even if you give him the most difficult test paper in this area at this time, he can easily answer the correct answer. However, Tianxiang, who got 100 points for this reason, couldn't even give a reasonable explanation of what "infantry" was, what "army" was, and what the specific functions of these things were.

This situation is completely like a person holding a lot of money in his hand, but when he is very hungry, he has no idea that he can use it to buy the most delicious food to fill his stomach.

There is no doubt that reading this way makes no sense at all, and it will not be any fun at all. Except for some articles explaining pistols in the firearms atlas, Tianxiang's brain, which had just completed its evolution, could only serve as a knowledge loader for the time being. After all, although the pistol is a brand new thing to him, no matter what, he has fired a gun before and has a ready-made one. It will certainly be easy to understand.

As for other knowledge, just think of it as a reserve for later reading! After all, the books here have been eroded for too long, and any one incident may turn them into crumbs. Rather than just being ruined so casually, it would be better to remember it after reading it yourself.

Not all books look boring, there are also books that Tianxiang will find endlessly interesting. He really couldn't imagine that those ancient people actually had so much knowledge, and that they could make up so many wonderful stories. From these moldy and rotten books, Tianxiang came into contact with a world that he had never thought of before. The sky is blue, the trees are green, and the world is colorful and brilliant. Even the sun, regarded by everyone as the most precious treasure, only radiates its beautiful and dazzling light again after quietly hiding for a few hours at night.

Was the world of the ancients really that wonderful? So, what is the reason that turned their world into what it is now?

Tianxiang didn't get the answer he wanted in the book. To be honest, he wanted to live here forever and read every book here. But no. It has been too long since I came out. Although my sister who stayed alone in the crypt was not afraid of being alone, there was not much food left for her. Calculated according to normal consumption, it only takes a little more than two solar days at most, oh! No, it should take about ten days before everything in the crypt will be eaten. This is the answer Tianxiang came up with based on his own experience and the knowledge gained from the book. According to those ancient people, there are twenty-four hours in a day. And now a solar day is exactly one hundred hours, which is exactly four days more than one day.

"Three days, and three more days of reading, I have to go back." Tianxiang told himself, and the speed of flipping through the books in his hands did not slow down at all. As for hunger and thirst, the water bag and the fresh insect meat I found on the way back to the library were enough to last me a few days. Sometimes, raw meat tastes pretty good when chewed.

When you focus on something, time passes quickly. This is an experience that many people have. The same is true for Tianxiang. Before he knew it, he had rummaged through nearly half of the books on the second floor of the library. And time has passed two full days.

Like the lobby on the first floor, the second floor is also littered with the remains of many ancient people. Whenever he finds these gray-white bones covered by dust and scraps of paper, Tianxiang will always search up and down carefully. Although this took a lot of time, he still did not give up such actions. He wanted to look for it to see if he could find more "guns" and "bullets". You know, with the help of these ancient weapons, your safety will naturally increase. However, the same situation as on the first floor, Tianxiang, who was full of hope, never found what he wanted.

Such searches were not entirely fruitless, however. While searching for a skeleton that looked relatively neatly dressed, Tianxiang discovered something that interested him completely by accident.

"Key to the Curator's Room", this is a bunch of metal objects placed in the skeleton's pocket, fastened to the inner edge with a small buckle. Text engraved in the grooves on it illustrates its actual purpose.