Chapter 3 Nanoplant (2)
Yoshida and his friends followed Dyson to the cafeteria. Dyson stopped. A plate above the nearby door said "Nursery Room." Dyson was thinking with his hand on his chin.
"It bothers me."
Dyson opened the door and peered inside. There were many large colorful soft seats and toys lying around. Children were playing inside. There was a place where several children were gathered. In the middle, surrounded by children, was the back of a man. It was Buttocklover. Dyson approached, his footsteps creeping closer. Yoshida and the others followed. Buttocklover opened a book and read something to the children. The children listened intently.
"'Daddy, what are they doing?' asked the boy when he saw the photo. Daddy replied, 'He's doing something that feels good for the boy.' The boy said, 'Hmm, what's that stuck in this kid's butt?' Dad said, 'Well, guess what it is.' 'Penis!' the boy answered. 'That's right. He's putting his dick in the boy's ass.' said Daddy. 'Hmm, doesn't it hurt to have daddy's dick in his ass? ' asked the boy. Daddy replied, 'No, it feels so good.' The boy said, 'Hmm, but it looks like it's going to hurt a lot with such a big dick in his asshole.' 'Would you like to try it? ' 'Ya!' the boy answered. Daddy stripped the boy naked, and he also stripped naked. He laid the boy face down on the bed. Then daddy opened the boy's ass cheeks and ....."
Buttocklover suddenly felt a sense of danger and stopped talking. He turned around timidly. Dyson was looking down at him with a bat in his hand. Buttocklover swallowed hard.
Yoshida and the others have gone. The children stared at Buttocklover, who was lying face down on the seat, motionless. His trunks were pulled down to his knees, exposing his fat butt. The bat was stuck deep in his ass.
They came to the dining room. It was a little early so there was still plenty of space. They each took their trays, selected their menus, and sat down at the table.
"I'd like to ask you about what you said earlier." Newton asked Dyson while eating. "How does that bee work? What is its energy source?"
"At the back of the flower of the silicophyte, where the pistil is attached, there is a small charging socket where the nectary glands would normally be. Bees come to flowers for that purpose. Bees use it as an energy source."
"Do bees evolve too?"
"No," Dyson shook his head. "It's just that they grow to a certain extent, or their nervous tissue changes and their behavior changes. It's a simple system that looks like garbage compared to the silicon plant. However, it will degenerate."
"Oh, degenerate..."
"Systems that are somewhat autonomous and self-organizing are difficult to evolve, but easily degenerate. In the early days, Tom Ray devised a simple self-propagating system called Cheera, but it quickly degenerated and a parasitic system was born. Tom seems to have been quite proud of that, but the results were nothing but rubbish. It's easy to lose functionality. All he has to do is parasitize a normal system and have it perform its functions instead. On the contrary, the energy required for replication can be saved, which increases replication efficiency. That's why the real world is full of parasites. Viruses were once thought to be the remains of primitive life forms, but this was a mistake. It was simply a case of cellular life forms degenerating. As I will show you later, a remarkable degeneration system has emerged in both silicon plants and silicon bees. The bees have lost their wings."
"Isn't that just an ant without wings?" Crane interjected.
"That's true, and those who degenerated into the shape of ants also changed their behavior, becoming just like real ants. They have begun to carry the pieces of silicon plants that have fallen to the ground to their nests that they have built in the ground. I was talking about parasitism earlier, but it also applies to human society. Those who are just living off their parents. The same goes for women. After successfully seducing a man, she loses her brain and all abilities other than to bear and care for children. You could say they're typical parasites."
'If a woman heard this story, he would be killed.' Lee secretly thought so.
Lee noticed that Yoshida was secretly looking at a table a little further away. He looked over and saw a boy sitting alone at a table eating. He was a boy slightly smaller than Lee. He was probably around 10 years old, with black hair and clear white skin. Apparently, he noticed that Yoshida was staring at him, so he turned his attention to Yoshida. Large jet-black eyes focused on Yoshida for a moment, and he immediately looked down as if nothing had happened. Lee stretched out his foot and stepped on Yoshida's toes next to him. Yoshida quickly returned his attention to the food. Lee was curious and asked Dyson.
"Who is that kid?"
Dyson looked at the boy. "That boy is Grant, the director's 10-year-old son. He is an adopted boy. He always eats here alone at noon."
"Isn't he going to school?"
"The director teaches the boy himself."
"Can I talk to that boy?"
"As you like."
Lee stood up with a tray. Then he came over to the table where the boy was sitting and sat down next to him. The boy looked at Lee in surprise.
"I'm Lee, what's your name?"
"Grant. Do you need something?"
"Nothing. I just want to talk to you."
"I don't have anything to tell you." Grant said and started eating again.
'What an unfriendly guy,' thought Lee.
"Do you live here alone?"
"I live with my dad."
"With the director?"
"Yes, with Karl."
'Karl? It must be about Carlton.' A suspicious question arose in Lee's mind. Lee looked at Grant's profile as he ate innocently.
"Ahem. Do you love your daddy?"
"About Karl? Nothing special." Grant said unfriendly.
"Does your daddy loves you?"
Grant turned to Lee. "What do you mean?"
Lee panicked a little. "No, it doesn't have any deep meaning."
Lee decided to change the question. Lee asked, resting his chin on his hands and looking at Grant's profile. "Do you know what anal sex is?"
Grant remained silent. His cheeks turned red.
"I don't know," Grant shook his head.
Lee secretly glanced at Grant's butt. He thought that Grant wasn't a virgin anymore.
Houses covered with transparent glass were lined up on the pale sand as far as the eye could see. Each one was about 20 meters long, 3 meters high, and 5 meters deep. There were black plants inside.
"It's covered in tempered glass. It can withstand temperatures of several thousand degrees. They can't escape from inside," Dyson explained as they walked.
"Is it okay underground?" Newton asked.
"Of course, we completely cover the underground area. There is a risk that the roots will come out."
"The glass can withstand temperatures of several thousand degrees, that's amazing," Crane said, impressed.
"This is for safety, as if something were to happen, we would have to incinerate the contents."
Yoshida and the others walked slowly and looked inside the house. At first glance, there was a normal plant inside. However, both the leaves and stems were black. Only a few flowers here and there were white. Plants of various sizes grew on the sand and seemed to be moving around. When they looked closely, they saw that the plants height was growing little by little. The stems were twisting like vines, and the leaves appeared at the tips of the branches, swaying as they grew larger. It was like watching a time-lapse film. Lee walked up close to House and pressed his face against the glass. Yoshida also peered in from behind. Something small flew in front of Yoshida. It was a pitch black bee. They looked exactly like real bees in size and shape. The bee remained stationary in the air for a while in front of Yoshida. It seemed like it was searching for Yoshida and Lee, making high-pitched noises. And then it disappeared in an instant.
"It seems like they came here to investigate you guys," Dyson said.
A large pure white flower was swaying close to Yoshida and the others as if it were being blown by the wind. A bee flew into it. And then he went somewhere in no time. While they were looking at the flowers, the petals folded back and shriveled up. A small red ball remained behind. It quickly expanded to the size of a fist and fell to the ground. There were something small running around on the ground. They were running at such an incredible speed that they could hardly tell it apart. They swarmed around the red ball. They were finally able to distinguish the shape of ants. Lifted up by countless ants, the red ball was carried across the sand and disappeared somewhere.
"Those are silicon ants, which are silicon bees that have degenerated and lost their wings." Dyson said.
"What is that red ball?" Yoshida asked.
"It's a fruit of a silicon plant. It's filled with seeds and nano-batteries. The ants feed on it. They bring it into their burrows and use it as food. The seeds are tough and will germinate soon."
The silicon plants that had grown up to the ceiling dropped their leaves all at once right in front of them. And it quickly withered and withered. The ants have arrived. Then they pulled down the dead plants, chopped them into pieces, and took them all somewhere. After a while, a seed leaf appeared on the empty sand. Then, it began to grow larger, twisting its body. A mechanical sound could be heard from somewhere. When Yoshida looked up, a small magic hand came down from the ceiling. It plucked off a leaf from the newly born silicon plant. Then it threw it into the container.
"We're taking samples of that. We're also analyzing DNA and other data and putting it into the data. We also collect bees and ants from time to time."
"It's a well-made bee. It's quite intelligent." Crane was impressed.
"That was developed by the department I'm in charge of." Dyson said happily, stroking his beard. "They live in symbiosis with silicon plants. We check their quality from time to time and replace them with new ones. Otherwise, they will continue to degenerate."
They walked inside the house while looking inside. The shapes of the plants were slightly different in each house. Dyson stopped in front of a House. Yoshida looked in. He saw grass growing all over the sand. Long leaves grew directly from the sand, and there were no stems anywhere.
"It's a silicon plant that has degenerated and lost its stem. It's like a monocot plant. It's totally boring, so we'll burn it all down soon."
A little further on, there was another rather unusual plant. It had leaves shaped like a large umbrella spread out on a thick trunk. The long, thin leaves were arranged in a radial pattern, covering the air with almost no gaps. A black shadow fell on the ground, where nothing could grow because the sun couldn't reach it, leaving the sandy ground bare.
"It's a plant that monopolizes sunlight. You could say it's a dominant species. When this plant appears, other plants will be wiped out. But it's still a calm one."
"Are there any more bad ones?" asked Crane.
"I'll show you."
They came to another house. There was a group of plants, and there was only one plant standing apart from it. That one had only a jet black trunk and a large flower.
"How can it be alive with no leaves?" Crane said.
"Please look carefully at the ground."
Countless ants were running around at high speed on the sand. Countless ants were also climbing up the stems of the plants. The ants were cutting off the leaves with their jaws. Then, they descended from the stem and carried it to the base of the leafless plant at a speed that was invisible to the eye.
"This is another example of a plant that has degenerated and become parasitic. They tame bees and ants and steal the leaves of other plants for themselves. The host plant will not have all its leaves removed.
"This can also be considered a symbiotic state between plants, bees, and ants. Those who have their leaves plucked are like slaves."
A group of men came carrying large bags on their shoulders. Among them was a particularly large man. His head was shiny and he wore glasses.
"Hello Johnson, excuse me for a second."
The big man stopped and wiped the sweat from his forehead with a towel. Dyson went towards the men. They were talking about something.
"It's pretty amazing. I like it." When Yoshida and his fellows were alone, Crane spoke.
"But the question is, what good is this?" Newton said skeptically.
"I think it's pretty cool that they just made an artificial plant," Lee interjected.
"It's certainly amazing. It's evolved quite a bit. It can be used for a variety of purposes. I can't say anything right now," Yoshida said.
"What about the dangers? The fact that they're kept in such a strong cage means there's a possibility of that happening, right?" Newton said
"That's certainly possible. Let's ask." Crane said.
Dyson was back. "Sorry to keep you waiting. We're still working on building a new house. Those men are the workers."
"Mr. Dyson, what would you do if those silicon plants came out of the house? Is there any danger?" Crane asked.
"Those plants can multiply anywhere using sunlight as energy. There is no limit. But at the same time, they also need metal substances. What they need most is silicon. There is plenty of this in the soil and sand, so there is no problem. The next most needed material is iron. Other elements such as carbon, calcium, copper, and cobalt are also required, albeit in small amounts. Therefore, plants cannot grow without iron. We also put a large amount of iron into the sand inside the house. Therefore, even if they go outside, they will immediately become malnourished and cannot infest. And they need silicon bees to reproduce."
"What will happen if those silicon bees and silicon ants escape from here?" asked Crane.
"They can't survive on their own. They need nano-batteries produced by silicon plants. They'll die out soon."
"What if the silicon plants and silicon bees escaped together?" Crane asked.
"The possibility of that happening is low, but in that case, it would be necessary to annihilate them. Because silicon ants may collect metals from other sources for silicon plants."
"Are you going to burn it down?"
"No, they are resistant to high temperatures. Their entire cells are insulated from heat. Incineration requires high temperatures of several thousand degrees. So, although it is primitive, all we have to do is cut off the stems from the roots with a sickle. That's all." Dyson said and shrugged.