Chapter 15

We’ve reached millions.

14 million to be exact.

To be even more exact, I'm just guessing at this point. We managed to divide 10 more times in the last 16 hours, and it was only thanks to my ingeniou.. alright, alright. Sheesh, talk about a touchy individual. It was only thanks to Kevin’s ingenious idea of turning Susan’s tendrils into a bomb delivery system, that we managed to get this far. As 3 minutes turned to 6 and 6 turned 12, and 12 to 24, and, well, you get the idea. We quickly realised that sector strategy ain't gonna fly no more. So in my desperation, of having to call out so many sectors, in comes Kevin, with a smug smile on his face, and tells us his plan.

Long story short, we extend the maximum range of the tendril, available to us in the daytime, and make the largest explosion we can safely do. Most of the tendril doesn't survive, but we get plenty of biomass to offset the losses. As my cell ball grows bigger, the tendrils can reach further and I can proportionally increase the area of the blast radius with it.

So, while, theoretically, we should have 16 million Bobs, I'd say that we are closer to 14.

In other news, the Sun is down and we are back to hunting. My headache is overwhelming and, at this point, I try to keep myself occupied while Susan controls the Bobs. I'm back to organising the inventory, which, after the mining expedition, has again become a clusterfuck of random stuff. Based on size the largest thing I have is NaCl, it is still at 999,9 grams, followed by the picture of a cat and H2O. There is still the bugged out part, but, thankfully, it's not spreading to other icons. I should be able to.. “Aaargh”

They divided again. Every bloody time it's like an ice pick stabbing my brain, as Susan has to try harder to control them. Kevin, I need solutions! I can't keep going like this. While you figure it out, I'm taking a vacation. Susan, make everything stop, control only the tentacles. The rest is going on standby mode, while we search for a fix.

Ah, much better. I can finally concentrate on more important matters. Like figuring out the lyrics I forgot of “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Don't you just hate it when you know you’ve missed a part, but you can't remember which part it was?

-Thus, the morning came.-

“G2 detonate!”

Aaand I'm back to sectors. I've reached a limit of possible length for a single cell line tendril. Thus, I'm starting to use multiple tendrils. Multiple tendrils lead to Susan, while Susan leads to headache.

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At least she is, although slowly, getting better at this. Controlling a million Bobs is a piece of cake for the current her.

Problem is, we’re well over a billion, right now.

Hey, at least, Kevin had a suggestion. It was along the lines of - "stand in the minefield and watch the fireworks around you," - kind of suggestion, but it was a suggestion nevertheless. Safe to say, we aren’t going to do that, well, not until we get better defence.

I think I can only handle a few more splits. After that... I don't know.

-Darkness engulfed the land and the dark lord raised the undea... yeah, no.-

I'm trying out new things. Not much else is left for me to do.

My best approximate of our current count is 10 billion. It should have been 4 billion more, but as the night fell and energy levels started to fade, I quickly realised that the outer layer of my cell ball is starting to die off. It seems I can't keep control of so many cells when the sun is not up. I managed to reabsorb most of the dead layer, but it would be pointless to divide more right now.

In the weakness of the moment, I said ‘fuck it all’ and let go of my control. The cell ball dissolved and Bobs started to cover a larger distance. Free from my influence, they started to float up, and as I didn't want to see all my hard work gone, I followed. At the surface, they started to spread out evenly and as I was about together those dumbasses back together, I noticed that my energy didn't drop anymore.

Moonlight is diluted sunlight...

Elementary school physics = mind blown!

It's not fair, I got this far on my own! Kevin, I'm not just lucky! It was all planned!

I tested out and I can still recall the Bobs. Now it just feels like they are in their natural state. Guess basic cells are not supposed to make complex structures without having specialised cells to do the heavy lifting. Have I’ve been skipping a few steps along the way of evolution? Like Icarus, I flew so high that my wings got burned.

All that remains is to wait for sunrise and see what I can do with this unit configuration then.

-With first rays of the morning Sun, the evil was vanquish… again, no.-

I can grow again!

Without spending energy on making pointless ball structures with complex tentacle appendages, I can just make Bobs descend and evenly cover the ground. My reach is so much larger than with the tendrils, letting me increase the inventory blast range.

Susan asked me if she could help, but I turned her down. Honestly, I’m grateful for the offer, but I rather not have a migraine. She is hiding it, but I know that she is sulking. I have to think of something I could do for her. Maybe I can make a body for her in the future? A thought for another day.

Grow, grow, grow! Consume and grow!

Baby, we are reaching population levels never seen before!

By my totally approximate calculations, we should be close to 300,000,000,000. Okay, Kevin, hear me out. I’ve been thinking about how much ground we can cover now. Let’s say that each cell is 10 micrometres large and we have 300 billion cells. I take the total volume of.. Okay, I already forgot all the steps I did, but I ended up with 3 to 4 square meters. That’s a lot, and based on my luminescence, I should be visible to larger lifeforms, when I surface.

Aaaand suddenly I'm starting to think that growing this much was not the best idea.

No, I can’t start to think like that! I need to evolve and get me some pair of eyes. I hate darkness! I hate not being in control of myself and, most of all, I hate being lonely!

Alright, I’m sorry Kevin, Susan, I know I still have you. It..it just gets hard sometimes. Sometimes, I feel like I’m imprisoned inside my own mind. Enough of this sulking, time to call it a day. I think the Sun is going to set soon.