Tuesday, December 24, 2013 (Afternoon)

The sun shines brightly on the crisp hilltop lawn, the sea breeze blows in your face, and the cool fresh air in winter is refreshing. Xu Mingshan flattened a big gun, looking at the vast sea in front of him, and the blue sea was covered with microwaves like fish scales.

"The technology of the spiritual network is really amazing!"

He felt the subtle movement of the muscles and muscles in his body, and couldn't help but sigh secretly. These slight tremors converge through bone conduction to the central auditory system, like the muffled thunder rolling before rain, and are eventually uploaded to the second thinking organ in the mental network for processing, and the feedback information flows back to the central nervous system to fine-tune the body.

Half a month ago, the super civilization [Galaxy Federation] from another universe announced to Xu Mingshan, Du Mu and Lu Qingyi, and opened the corresponding permissions of the spiritual network to them. A series of services such as the construction of soul clones and accelerated learning not only allow them to face the pressure of their studies with ease, but also allow them to be unhindered on the path of martial arts practice.

Xu Mingshan had to admit that the technological gap between this mysterious and powerful exotic civilization and human beings is not at all described by the word 'generation gap', but the essential gap in the level of intelligence. The other party has figured out all the physiological activities of the carbon-based species of human beings through incomprehensible, almost miraculous super-temporal detection technology, and the cutting-edge life science and technology of human beings are as naïve as children in front of them, and their basic physics is beyond the scope of human cognition.

Just as he was refining martial arts in his body and thinking about problems in his soul clone, there was a soothing "fluctuation" in the spiritual network, and then two new spiritual connection applications appeared in his mind.

"Sora Akiyama, Tomoon Nanamiya, have they also been granted access to the spiritual network?"

Xu Mingshan did not hesitate to agree to the application for spiritual connection from a friend. The information of the virtual image was fed into his brain along the super-temporal interface of the mental network, and the images of Sora Akiyama and Tomoon Shichinomiya appeared in his field of vision. The two stood side by side on the lawn in front of them, as if they had actually come to California to meet him.

"Long time no see, Xu Mingshan. ”

As soon as Akiyama's words fell, Du Mu next to him also joined the spiritual connection.

"Long time no see, you two! Merry Christmas!"

"Hahaha, we're just here to play!" The translation service of the spirit network is quite powerful, Xu Mingshan can understand the words of Qigong Zhiyin without any obstacles, "What about Lu Qingyi, why didn't you see her?"

"It should be at home, and try calling with a mental connection?"

Lu Qingyi immediately connected after receiving the message. The few of them discussed in the spiritual network for a while, and decided to use their soul clones to take a walk around Florida's national parks, while Du Mu and Xu Mingshan's deities were still practicing boxing and spear skills here.

……

(Tuesday, December 24, 2013 afternoon; Everglades National Park, Florida)

The Florida Everglades is located in the southern part of Florida, USA, which has become a national park, and the federal government has established a comprehensive restoration plan to protect its ecosystem. The Everglades National Park has three entrances: east, west, and north, but Xu Mingshan and others are imaginary swamps in the virtual world, so they don't care about these, anyway, they can go wherever they want if they have teleportation powers.

Even in the middle of winter, temperatures in southern Florida remain around 20 degrees Celsius, and a few Mississippi river crocodiles can be seen lazily sunbathing on the roadside. It is estimated that about 2,000 American crocodiles inhabit the area, but Xu Mingshan has not encountered such large crocodiles yet.

In taxonomy, the crocodiles are divided into three families under the order Alligatoridae, which are the alligator family, the crocodile family, and the crocodile family. The Mississippi River Crocodile belongs to the alligator family, while the American crocodile is a member of the crocodile family.

This is not the first time Xu Mingshan has been to the Everglades. At first, he also led Du Mu and a few people along the swamp walking path to gradually go deeper, and then they simply used dazzling spells such as "Void Shuttle", "Space Jump", and "Five Elements Escape Technique", and rampage in the huge swamp.

The last time he went on an expedition to the Everglades wetlands, he had to use crutches to find his way all the way to avoid falling into the mud with one foot in the air, and even ran into a school of crocodiles in the swamp and dense forest - fortunately, the crocodiles were much more timid than expected, and not only did not take the initiative to attack, but were scared away by them. In comparison, this tour of the virtual world couldn't be more relaxing.

The sparkling water reflects the white clouds and blue sky, and the image in the water is fragmented with the fluctuations of the current. Xu Mingshan and his entourage swaggered into the air, heading straight to the depths of the swamp with abundant water and grass. The "light work" is performed close to the surface of the water, as many of the waterways pass through narrow tree-lined paths, and from a high vantage point, you can see islands of low trees dotted with undulating waterways.

The virtual world module can even detect and simulate the nervous system of animals to calculate the response if they behave the same in reality. However, they turned off this feature in order to get a closer look at the animals, so they were blind to the waterfowl, crocodiles and otters they encountered along the way. In terms of plant appreciation, the assistance of the spiritual network is quite useful, Xu Mingshan only needs to move his thoughts, and the information of the star anise lotus in front of him is presented in his thinking organs.

"Look, a crocodile and a python are fighting!"

Hearing the voice of Sora Akiyama not far away, he hurriedly performed the "Space Jump", and flashed to the other party's side in an instant.

"This Burmese python ...... It's a bit too much, isn't it?"

"This snake is indeed quite large, but doesn't it mean that the python can grow to be more than ten meters long and one meter in diameter?"

Xu Mingshan has been interested in snakes since elementary school, and he knows a lot about the Burmese python, and he chose to study in the United States with this in mind. Hearing Nanamiya Tomoyin's question, he sighed secretly, and then patiently explained, "This is the misdirection of the movie. Unlike most people's imagination, most Burmese pythons are more than five meters long, and they may be able to fight with the smaller alligators, but they are still patterned in front of the American crocodile. ”

The Burmese python was surprisingly large – the Burmese python's world record was 183 kilograms, 8.2 meters long, from a captive-bred snake, and although the snake was not as fat as the world record, it was measured by psychic network aids that showed a staggering 9.16 meters in length and weighed a whopping 154 kilograms.

"Movies like "Python Disaster" are fiction after all, and in reality, the earth's gravity does not allow such a huge snake to appear, and even the Titan Monty Python in ancient times is not as exaggerated as in the film. ”

The mottled Burmese python tightly wrapped around the American crocodile, which was nearly 4 meters long, and the snake's body tightened more and more, and the mouth and limbs of the American crocodile were restrained so much that it could not move. In the case of equal weights, pythons and crocodiles have similar "special moves" to each other: the former can suppress all the crocodile's attack methods by winding, while the latter can bite the python's fragile skull with just one bite. Now it was clear that the python had the upper hand, and the hapless American crocodile had been successfully ambushed by the other side, and the bloody mouth and the sharp teeth in it had no chance to play a role.

Xu Mingshan's mind moved, and his figure floated closer so that he could observe. The two animals are estimated to have been in a stalemate for a while, and even with the physical strength of the American crocodile, they could not hold on at this time, and soon lost the ability to resist and became a feast for the Burmese python. The snake first circled the carcass of the American crocodile a few times, then opened its mouth at a striking angle, its upper and lower jaws loosely separated, and the sides of its lower jaw also expanded with the process of swallowing. Its prey is not small, so it swallows slowly.

Xu Mingshan didn't plan to spend time watching this boring scene, so he discussed it with Akiyama and decided to continue visiting the rest of the Everglades, and let the spiritual network record the situation here. Just as they are about to leave, an uninvited guest appears in the virtual world. The person who came was the famous reptilologist Mark Brown. Professor R. Reed, Xu Mingshan recognized this face immediately as his fan.

"Hello, Professor Reed. You've also been given access to the Psychic Network?"

"Ah, yes. Hello, I didn't expect to meet so many like-minded people here. ”

After some exchanges, Xu Mingshan and others knew the reason why Professor Reed came here. The problem of the Florida python plague originated in the 90s of the last century, when many Americans thought it was cool to keep pythons at home, not only buying Burmese pythons from abroad, but even more dangerous large snakes such as reticulated pythons, green anacondas and African rock pythons dared to keep them at home. What they didn't expect was that when the large snakes they raised reached adulthood, they would probably lack enough space at home, and they could not afford the high cost of food. Eventually, these owners cleverly released them into the wild, which is known as a release into the wild.

To add insult to injury, Hurricane Andrew swept through Florida in 1992, causing pythons in pet stores to flee into the swamp en masse. These pythons prey on a wide variety of local animals, and their diets cover birds, small and medium-sized mammals, and even crocodiles, seriously threatening the ecological balance of the Everglades.

In February, Professor Reid and other scholars conducted a survey of the Florida Everglades to assess the impact of pythons on native species. The results of the survey showed a 46.4 per cent decrease in the visibility of crocodiles, 63.2 per cent of deer and 40 to 70 per cent of other small mammals. The remains of dozens of local animals were found in the stomachs of captured Burmese pythons,

As early as 2009, some experts speculated that several species of pythons in the Swamp might have interbred and caused mutations. Experiments in Australia in the 70s showed that python species can mate across species or even genera, and produce hybrid offspring that can reproduce. Amethyst python and carpet python, both members of the genus Anaconda, have successfully mated in laboratory environment and have been found in the wild, the hybrid colony of green anaconda and yellow anaconda of the same genus has also been found in the wild in Bolivia, and the carpet python of the genus Tree Python and the Marcolo python of the genus Rock Python have also been successfully crossed, further proving that different pythons can be hybridized. Unfortunately, free-spirited American breeders bring boas from all over the world together in this swamp, the difference is only in the number of them.

There is a term in genetics called "heterosis", which refers to the fact that a hybrid offspring may acquire a better biological trait by inheriting the different advantages of their parents, but may also inherit only the shortcomings of each parent and thus become worse. Professor Reid suspects that it is the benign mutation of the hybrids between the pythons that gives them the ability to challenge their most formidable predator, the American crocodile, which sits at the top of Florida's food chain.

"Actually, when it comes to the status of the American crocodile, the Burmese python is still a trivial matter, and catching a Nile crocodile near Miami is the most terrifying. Add to that the Gulf crocodile, African rock python, reticulated python, king cobra and green anaconda, and the battle for the strongest reptile is likely to take place here. Professor Reed shook his head, "They're both very aggressive beasts. In addition, the toad catfish, the devil's scorpion, the purple pheasant and the American iguana are often overlooked because they are less aggressive. Nine times out of 10 these animals come from the illegal trade. ”

"Can't you deal with these guys with the current level of technology?" Du Mu frowned and asked out loud.

"As vulnerable as they are to human firearms, it is difficult for us to completely eliminate these intruders without damaging the environment. I even considered applying for assistance from the Galactic Federation. Oh, and crocodiles can also be hybridized, and the star crocodiles in several zoos are hybrids. ”

Xu Mingshan knew the other party's difficulties. In this virtual world, they can easily detect the coordinates of all alien species, but the secrecy of the psychic network does not allow them to pass this information on directly. It seems like a way to go into battle in person, but with such a large number of invasive animals, even if they are all pigs, Professor Reed alone does not know how long to kill, let alone wild animals that are good at camouflage and life-saving.

"Have you ever considered encouraging hunting?" suggested Sora Akiyama, "If humans make up their minds, they can clean it up, right?"

"The government is already doing this, with snake bounties and crocodiles and scorpion on the table...... But for now, it can only stabilize the population of Burmese pythons, and these guys are very good at hiding themselves. And we can't allow hunters to flood the swamps with impunity, and even if they are restricted to catching exotic species, modern human activities can still disturb natural ecosystems. Fortunately, there are not many Gulf crocodiles, African rock pythons and the like, and they cannot become a climate for the time being. ”

"And what about biological control programs?" Nanamiya thought for a moment, "It's not impossible to establish a new balanced relationship. ”

"Yes, someone has considered using a king cobra against a python, and I don't know if any of the people who released their pet king cobras had this idea. Professor Reed said with a look of emotion, "They don't do things without thinking, can a large python be eaten by a king cobra when it reaches adulthood?

"I think the white leftists still need to learn one more to improve their knowledge. ”

Professor Reid was stunned for a moment, then nodded, "Yes, it is. A lot of laymen are just fooling around. ”

The conversation between Sora Akiyama and Professor Reed made Xu Mingshan almost burst into laughter. The former is worthy of being a real fan and has a high level of posture.

"I'm going to have to send this python back to the lab first, and then I'll have to do the dissection and genome sequencing and stuff like that. Professor Reed said, his powerful magic power unleashed, "Mage's Hand!Condensation Field!Levitation!Eye of Insight!Dispel!Purification!"

Professor Reed expertly smashed down with a series of spells, turning the python that was devouring the crocodile in front of him into a specimen. After doing this, he turned to Xu Mingshan and the others, and said with a smile: "Do you want to go to my laboratory to have a look?"

Xu Mingshan communicated with his partners for a while, and after reaching an agreement, he replied: "Then it is better to be respectful than to obey your fate." ”

"That's good!

……

(Tuesday, December 24, 2013 in the afternoon; Grant Reptile Institute, Florida)

The Grant Institute is located in the middle of nowhere, a sprawling two-story building surrounded by a power grid and high walls, with electric steel gates and walls that fit together. Entering the fence, the main entrance of the institute is a special safety glass door, and the door crack is completely invisible, and the seal is quite good.

"It's also a reptile sanctuary, and the animals are some of the most dangerous snakes and species from all over the world, so we have to be careful to seal the doors everywhere. ”

Professor Reid led them into the depths of the institute. It's Christmas Eve, the institute is empty, and the rest of the staff are on vacation. Due to the development of artificial intelligence technology, the simple work of taking care of reptiles can be completely handed over to machines, so the interior of this rather large building seems to be a little unpopular.

The facilities for scientific research and laboratory are very complete, ranging from biochemical and molecular biology instruments such as protein purification instruments, real-time PCR instruments, protein gel imagers and gene guns, as well as anatomical and physiological equipment such as scanning electron microscopes, ultramicrotomes, X-rays, ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging.

Professor Reed, who has the demeanor of a great magician, waves his hand to summon a group of arcane guards in this virtual laboratory, takes samples of the newly brought python and crocodile into the biochemistry lab, and then carries the body to the dissection room to examine the stomach contents.

"The Galactic Federation is right to choose this method instead of directly imparting knowledge to us. Sora Akiyama looked at Professor Reed who was casting spells and nodded thoughtfully, "Without the development of one step at a time, our tech tree is likely to collapse." ”

The process of dissecting the python was not as bloody as expected, and Professor Reed's magic was not lost to the chemical agents used to process the specimen. Although Xu Mingshan chose an anatomy class in the ninth grade, it was the first time to dissect a python, and others also watched it with relish. Professor Reid instructed them to dissect the Burmese python's stomach and remove a large pile of undigested bones and hair, which were then stored in transparent plastic bags for further computer analysis.

"These pieces look like raccoons, these are opospossums, and this beak looks like pintail duck ......"

Professor Reed's empirical assumptions and machine learning analysis are about the same. This result is not what Xu Mingshan expected, after all, there is already relevant literature that shows that the Burmese python hunts mammals such as raccoons, opossums, white-tailed deer, and bobtails, as well as a variety of birds and alligators.

Gene sequencing analysis and protein elucidation will take time. Xu Mingshan and Du Mu originally wanted to see the various reptiles they were preserving here, but at this moment, the sun was setting, and their bodies were going home for dinner. In the past half a month, he, Du Mu, and Lu Qingyi have worked hard to create a module that can be used to temper martial arts, but unfortunately they can't do it in the real sense of the outside for the time being, and if they forcibly use their hearts and minds, they will be embarrassed by fugue at any time.

"Well, the three of us went back first. ”

"Well, have fun! The institute's seat mark is down, and you can come here anytime you have time through the virtual world!"

Xu Mingshan said goodbye to Professor Reed and Sora Akiyama, and then exited the virtual world, returning to his body in California.

……