Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

Chapter 1221 - 638: The Life of a Half-Blood Monster

The monster continued its story.

After its birth, all the alien invaders were ecstatic, believing that they had taken the first and most important step in their plan.

In its head, there was an organ that the alien invaders lacked but dreamed of having: a brain similar to that of humans.

This was completely different from the alien invaders themselves.

Normal alien invaders had organs similar to brains that controlled their entire bodies, but compared to Earth’s humans, their nervous systems were incredibly bizarre.

This was a nervous system distributed throughout their bodies; if these organs were called brains, then their entire bodies were covered in brains, equivalent to each part of the body having relatively independent consciousness.

At the same time, their nervous systems would organize these collective consciousnesses in a special way, forming a unified conscious entity.

...

”Octopus?” Xu Xin listened and became more familiar, ”Isn’t this just like an octopus?”

Such creatures do exist on Earth.

The nervous system of an octopus is very similar to the structure described by the monster earlier, which sounds absurd.

As a result, octopuses are often referred to as the most alien-like creatures on Earth.

Many monster settings in Lovecraftian lore are directly borrowed from octopuses.

”Do octopuses have such a structure as well? That’s fascinating...” Xu Ying remarked in surprise, ”No wonder their bodies are covered with eyes. I always wondered if they could see with so many eyes. It turns out that each eye is influenced by a relatively independent nerve.”

”Didn’t you know this before?” Xu Xin turned to her and asked.

”How could I have known?” Xu Ying looked at Xu Xin in disbelief, ”Do you think we could have obtained a corpse of an alien invader to study its nervous system? What a joke, we were hiding so desperately...”

That makes sense...

”Octopus, what is that?” The monster was curious about the creature Xu Xin described that had a similar body structure to the alien invaders.

”It’s a creature that lives in the ocean, or rather, the deep sea,” Xu Xin explained.

”Lives... in the water? That’s terrifying.” All the closed eyes on the monster trembled slightly.

”Then... what about your situation?” Shi Wanyun was no longer afraid of the monster before her and stared directly at it. ”You... have a human brain, don’t you?”

”Yes.” The monster pointed to its head, ”My brain is inside my head, just like you Earth humans.”

”I no longer have their kind of nervous system that spread throughout the body.”

As the monster spoke, the eyes on its body couldn’t help but want to open.

”So, I don’t have the ability to control all my eyes freely like they do.”

A trace of realization flashed in Xu Xin’s eyes: ”No wonder your eyes couldn’t help but want to open when your emotions fluctuated a little just now...”

Since it’s controlled by a single brain, just like humans, its current situation is like a normal-sighted human trying to see with one eye open and one eye closed.

Any emotional fluctuation, such as being frightened, might cause the other eye to open uncontrollably.

Moreover, it has far more eyes all over its body compared to humans. Trying to control just two eyes to open while others remain closed might be more challenging than for a human to open one eye and close the other.

The monster continued its narration.

...

Its unique body structure, which shared characteristics of Earth humans and alien beings, made the alien scientists thrilled.

However, it was too young and fragile at the time, and many experiments and tests couldn’t be conducted, as they could harm the fragile little creature and potentially lead to its death.

After all, it was the result of painstaking hybridization by the alien scientific community, and it had to grow to a certain age to observe its intelligence and various responses properly.

Thus, under the care of scientists, it gradually grew up.

Alien invaders have much longer lifespans than humans. When calculated in Earth time units, approximately two hundred orbits around the sun, or about two hundred years.

So, alien invaders reach maturity in roughly thirty to forty Earth years.

But the age of the human-alien hybrid was very similar to humans.

It took about fifteen years for it to grow into an adult.

During this process, it underwent countless experiments.

Meanwhile, it lived and grew up with the offspring of other alien invaders... no, these had become colonizers rather than invaders.

Yet, due to its unique appearance resembling humans and its faster growth rate, it faced severe ostracism during its growth.

Though favored by scientists and recognized as the leader’s offspring, it did not suffer substantial harm. Whenever possible, it avoided conflict, leading to a very lonely growth process.

As it grew up, even those scientists who had raised it began to show disgust towards it.

After all, the ugliness of childhood wasn’t as impactful, but adulthood was a different story.