Chen Qi wasn’t sure if his guess was correct, so he decided to retrieve the Dog of Death’s memories from its Awakening to make a comparison.
Unexpectedly, catching the dog was easy, but reading its memories proved to be a challenge.
Chen Qi had originally planned to use his Spirituality to hypnotize the mutt and peer into its dreams.
To his surprise, the Dog of Death’s special bloodline actually resisted his Spiritual Suppression.
After some research, Chen Qi was surprised to discover that the dog’s Spirituality had completely merged into its bloodline.
With its bloodline power shielding it, Chen Qi’s Spiritual Suppression was naturally ineffective.
And not only that, but the last time they met, the dog’s Life Magnet Field had been quite prominent.
But now, the Dog of death had similarly merged its Life Magnet Field into its bloodline.
Chen Qi even suspected that the mutt might transfer its very Consciousness into its bloodline next.
After all, its canine brain was simply too primitive, with no room left for evolution.
Its bloodline power, on the other hand, could be traced back to sapient life and held far greater potential.
This was Chen Qi’s first time witnessing the unique nature of a bloodline creature.
’Perhaps this is their unique method of Awakening.’
Considering the Red Falcon King’s current unique state, Chen Qi grew more certain that it had begun a bloodline Awakening.
······
"Woof! Woof!"
The apparatus whirred to life. Perhaps the R-type Login Device hadn’t been designed with canine users in mind, as the user experience was less than ideal.
The dog trembled all over, its eyes rolled back into its head, and it even began to foam at the mouth.
’Was its brain overstimulated?’
Fortunately, after the intense reaction, the dog finally fell unconscious.
At the same time, the apparatus began to project a series of images.
’It actually worked?’
Chen Qi stared at the R-type Login Device in shock. ’This thing is truly a piece of incredible technology.’
’It made sense, though. Compared to the brain of a sapient being, a dog’s brain was just too weak and simple.’
’Since the R-type Login Device could breach human mental defenses, there was no reason it couldn’t handle a dog’s.’
’Perhaps the key to it all is the Brain Escape technology.’
’No telling what ancient tombs the Six-dimensional Sect robbed to come up with something this potent.’
······
’These must be the dog’s most vivid memories.’
’As I thought, there’s no way to perform a targeted search.’
’But that’s fine. The bloodline Awakening would have been incredibly important to the dog, so it’s bound to be a strong memory.’
The main function of the apparatus was to project the dog’s memories from the R-type Login Device.
Of course, it also had some minor auxiliary functions, but it seemed they didn’t have a chance to kick in.
The dog in the image was a stray, only about the size of his palm. It seemed the Dog of Death was reliving its puppyhood.
Chen Qi wasn’t interested in this, but he had plenty of time, so he didn’t interfere with the playback.
Dreams are always unpredictable. In the next moment, the dog had grown up and become vicious.
It started fighting with other strays for territory. Gradually, it became a true wild dog.
The scenes continued to shift, and Chen Qi witnessed the stray’s Metamorphosis, right up until the moment it bit a human and became a menace.
After that, the vicious dog’s luck ran out. Humans broke two of its legs and threw it into the sewers.
The dog remembered this part with perfect clarity. It was obviously a dog that held a grudge.
Immobilized, the dog was essentially doomed to starve.
But fate can be a strange thing. Just as the dog was about to starve, a dying player appeared in the sewer.
After scrawling his last words on the wall, the man died.
The dog survived by devouring the player’s corpse.
But because the corpse was saturated with the remnant energies of the game, the dog became extremely aggressive.
······
’That must have been after the Bloody Coup. Due to the Empire’s actions, two forces within the game were locked in conflict.’
’This dog was really lucky.’
’If it had been before the Bloody Coup, the game’s power would have been dominated by the Azure-headed Demon Dragon. That power leans toward order. After devouring the corpse, the dog would have, at worst, been plagued by lingering resentment, which likely wouldn’t have had a major effect.’
’If it had been after the rise of Superpowers, when the power of the Heaven-Reaching Giant was ascendant in the game, an ordinary dog could never have survived devouring that energy.’
’But it happened precisely when the two powers were at war, so the mutt got incredibly lucky. The conflicting forces awakened its own bloodline.’
Chen Qi’s line of thought began to crystallize. The essence of bloodline power was a special gene, hidden within the cell’s nucleus.
It must have been the two conflicting powers from the game that opened the dog’s cell nuclei, releasing a special gene.
It was a matter of timing, luck, and fate.
Although luck was the main factor in this bloodline Awakening, if the dog hadn’t possessed that Special Gene—if it had been just an ordinary creature—it would have been torn to shreds by the conflicting game energies.
······
’Huh? It can’t be...’
’The reason the Red Falcon King is stuck in this slumber, unable to awaken... could it be because it’s just an ordinary bird, with no Special Gene in its body?’
’Xiaohong can’t be that unlucky, can it?’
The path of enhancement Chen Qi had set for the Red Falcon King, especially after having it Devour the corpses of death row inmates, was almost identical to the dog’s own Awakening.
In fact, the Red Falcon King had it even better. The dog hadn’t had any Longevity Hormone to keep it alive; it had to weather the conflicting energies with its physical body alone.
Chen Qi carefully compared the state of the dog during its Awakening in the images, and it was indeed very similar to the Red Falcon King’s.
But the dog had only been unconscious for a day before waking up, whereas the Red Falcon King had been asleep for half a month.
After ruling out every other possibility, the most likely reason for the Red Falcon King’s coma was that it lacked a Special Gene. Its Awakening had failed.
For an ordinary creature like the dog, a failed Awakening would have meant certain death.
But the Red Falcon King was different. Never mind anything else, it had been injected with dozens of doses of Longevity Hormone.
This left its cells overflowing with vitality, allowing the Red Falcon King to remain stuck in this "Awakening state" until its Consciousness finally faded and died.
······
’If the Red Falcon King can’t complete its Awakening because it’s missing the Special Gene, couldn’t I just give it one?’
’If something’s missing, you add it.’ Chen Qi thought this was perfectly logical.
He happened to have a special gene on hand, and a Silver-grade one at that.
Thanks to Xiaobai, he had successfully deciphered the B3-grade Biological Gene Module.
Of course, the insights into the Matter Field provided by the Mountain God’s cells had also been a great help.
But judging from the signs of Trudeau’s use, the B3-grade gene most likely came from some kind of special ant.
’The Red Falcon King is a bird. Would that be a bad match?’
’But considering all Special Genes originate from sapient life, species compatibility probably isn’t an issue.’
’Besides, the Red Falcon King is just waiting to die anyway. It’s worth a shot.’
Although he had made his decision, Chen Qi didn’t stop the apparatus from running.
He was very interested in the dog’s subsequent experiences, especially the origin of the Spell on its Spiral Horn.
······
The leap from an ordinary dog to an Extraordinary one was probably too great.
The dog’s Awakening was far from complete; its bloodline could even be considered crippled.
A major part of the problem was that the dog itself possessed too little life Energy.
But luckily for it, its Extraordinary Bloodline was suppressed by the power of the game the moment it started to awaken.
Otherwise, the instant its bloodline awakened, it would have Devoured all of its own life Energy, turning it into a mummified husk.
Though it survived by a fluke, the dog had to start carefully maintaining an internal balance as a consequence.
It would either Devour the corpses of players to replenish the lingering game energy, or Devour the corpses of ordinary people to convert into bloodline power.
In short, the fact that the dog had survived all these years was mostly due to luck.
Then its luck started to run out, and it encountered two players who were especially interested in it.
One was naturally Chen Qi, and the other was a female player shrouded in a black robe.
She was the one who had placed the Spell on the dog’s Spiral Horn.
These two memories were probably extremely important to the dog, so the images were exceptionally clear.
At this point, Chen Qi thought this was the end of the dog’s Dream, but the scene suddenly shifted, and an incredibly grotesque monster of flesh and blood appeared in its mind.
’What in the world is that thing?’