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In the quietest corner of the rather dark bar, the faint light from the oil lamp shed its glow on Tang Ling’s side profile. Coupled with his agitated expression and Su Yao’s subtle, calm and profound smile beside him, they looked like an oil painting with heavy colors and a deep background whereby the subjects were lively but the theme was unexplained.

When the bar owner saw the scene, his gaze was meaningful and deep. He then pulled his hat lower and dropped his head as he crossed his hands and dozed off at the bar counter.

“Sit!” Su Yao bellowed at Tang Ling.

Tang Ling inhaled deeply and sat down.

Su Yao did not ask for another glass of vodka. He studied Tang Ling with a deep gaze and said with a strange yet meaningful tone, “Since I’ve decided to tell you, I’ll be straight. The seed in you is a precious gift, so don’t be surprised about it. In fact, you should accept it brazenly and reveal your emotions. You can look at it this way: which hunter would reject the hunting hound that had grown up with him since young which has been the most loyal hound beside him?”

It was as if he was telling a story. Once upon a time, you received a gift...

Tang Ling somehow felt calm after that, and he instinctively put his hand over his chest.

The loyal hound that grew up with me? No, it should be something closer since it coexists within me!

But who gave him this gift? Tang Ling somehow thought of the owner of the Mysterious Store, Kun who did vaguely mention that the thing in his chest was interesting.

Even Kun noticed it, so it must be precious, was it not?

“Don’t ask me who gave you the gift. I’m only responsible for answering the question about what it is. I’m not responsible for satiating your curiosity.” Su Yao did not even look at Tang Ling when he said that as if he knew what Tang Ling was thinking.

“Uncle...” Tang Ling whimpered, but he continued helplessly, “Fine.” He knew Su Yao. If the man did not want to talk about it, he would not talk about it.

“Then, what about the thing you mentioned before? You said you aren’t concerned about my slow growth.” Since he already knew it was a seed, knowing more about it would be necessary because coexisting could also be translated as living together and surviving together as a symbiotic relationship.

So, how could Tang Ling know nothing about it?

“Not everyone is able to receive such a precious gift. It’s like a very precious yet deadly weapon. You can’t give it to a child because you will only kill him.” Su Yao then called the bar owner after that.

The owner stood up slowly and poured him another glass of vodka with a rather lackluster attitude. Maybe because he was aware of his poor service, the owner refilled Tang Ling’s apple juice too.

“I didn’t order this. I can’t pay for this,” Tang Ling rejected.

“On the house,” muttered the owner before he left.

“What a strange man,” Tang Ling grumbled.

Su Yao chuckled. “Eating and drinking isn’t a bad thing. In short, eating and drinking will provide you with energy that you can use to power up your body, and your body will share half of what you get with the seed, hence making it stronger. Understand?”

Pui!

Tang Ling choked on his apple juice and coughed repeatedly. He looked at Su Yao, trying to say something but the words were choking him.

“You are really slow. Didn’t you feel anything? Combine it with the eating method that I taught you. Ah, your growth is still limited. Your Precise Instinct has the ability to observe and calculate, but it is still very young and isn’t enough to observe the minor changes in your body, but you can feel it, can’t you?” Su Yao flashed a mischievous gaze.

“I can feel it. I know ‘it’ has a big appetite, but I really don’t know if it is...well, I can’t say it’s ‘snatching’ since...” Tang Ling did not know how to describe what the seed was doing.

“Having a great hunting hound by your side has a cost. You need to satisfy the conditions for it to grow. The same goes for your seed. It just so happens that what it needs is also what you need. If you weren’t a Perfect Genetic Chain holder but a normal Genetic Chain holder, the gift might spell tragedy for you,” said Su Yao.

“How so?”

“It’s simple. It is still young, so it will only keep eating. Like a human baby, it will cry for milk but it won’t know that its parents are poor. People with normal Genetic Chain Talent have a typical energy conversion rate, so it will really snatch everything and if it’s not satisfied, it might even ‘suck’ its host dry.

“The best-case scenario is when the host can’t grow for the rest of his life. The worst-case scenario is that the host is sucked dry and ‘it’ dies with the host. Isn’t that a tragedy?” Su Yao described the horrible fact so casually like it was some bedtime story.

Tang Ling was drenched in nervous sweat. He could not help but ask Su Yao, “What if I...” Tang Ling glanced at the bar owner when he spoke, but he realized the man had disappeared without making a noise, leaving Su Yao and him alone in the bar. He was stunned for a second.

Nevertheless, he also heaved a breath of relief before he continued, “What if I am not a Perfect Genetic Chain holder? What will happen? Uncle, if you are so sure that I’m a Perfect Genetic Chain holder, that means you must’ve known about the seed from the very beginning! Don’t you deny it. I’m very sure of it!”

“You little...being too smart isn’t a good thing sometimes.” Su Yao shook his head bitterly. “I’m not that omnipotent. Without the machine testing your abilities, I wouldn’t have any other way to make sure you’re a Perfect Genetic Chain holder. All I can say is that your talents aren’t weak. The only conclusion I can draw was that time when I brought you to test your growth level, but it isn’t accurate because your seed was just awakening.”

“Just awakening?” Tang Ling was trying to comprehend the meaning of the term ‘awakening’.

“Yes, awakening. After you are...vehemently agitated, it will be awoken! Before that, it will still be in an embryo stage since it’s still sleeping, so it requires less energy.

“There are two ways to wake it. First, it will be when the host is facing impending death, but its power is also very limited since it’s young. Having said that, if you keep putting yourself in a life-or-death situation, you will exhaust it to death.

“Second, it will wake up when it’s hungry. It needs energy to continue sleeping, so it will demand food from the host. Understand?” Su Yao seemed to know a great deal about the seed as the explanation was detailed and intricate.

Tang Ling understood it perfectly. He had been in a life-or-death situation once back in the settlement when he was surrounded by black-toothed rats.

He knew even better when ‘it’ got hungry. Back in the settlement where life was difficult, he would be attacked by hunger at fixed intervals and he would become a monster that devoured anything and everything.

On the flip side, compared to now, the past incidents were a little different. Now, he had to consume a certain amount of food every single day to satisfy his own needs.

So, is this* the so-called awakening?*

“Are you noticing the differences after the awakening?” Su Yao sounded like he was taking pleasure in the misfortunate.

Tang Ling did not even care about Su Yao. Instead, he urged Su Yao to answer the question, “Uncle, you still haven’t answered me.”

“Fine, the answer is that I’m also not sure about your Perfect Genetic Chain previously. I was prepared to take ‘it’ out if you didn’t have at least seven stars talent.” Su Yao was very casual when he said that as if it was a joke.

However, Tang Ling did not think that he was joking. The man would really do it if he said so, but...would he even be alive if the seed was taken out from his heart?

“The truth is, I don’t believe the machines in the sector. My original plan was that if the test result wasn’t ideal, I’d have brought you away from this place, find a reliable machine and test it again. I planned to do it after you finished the test, but when you told me about what you saw, I surprisingly found out that you are indeed a Perfect Genetic Chain holder.

“The second thing is that if I managed to get my hands on a reliable machine and your test results were still not ideal, I’d have brought you somewhere to take the seed out. I wouldn’t do it myself, that’s for sure.”

Phew! What a scare! Tang Ling heaved a breath of relief. Thankfully, Su Yao did not dissect him and the seed was still in his body.

In the next second, Tang Ling thought of something. “Uncle, where are you planning to bring me?” It was purely the curiosity of a teenager. Wo would not admire and long for the outside world?

“Why are you asking about things that didn’t happen?” Su Yao rolled his eyes at Tang Ling. He then added, “Rather than being curious about the outside world, you might as well be worried about the problem that you are going to face. You have to make sure you maintain steady growth. You can’t be too slow and you have to make sure the seed grows with you.”

“This is the test life has given you, so you must overcome it,” he said seriously. Then, perhaps because of his sick habit, he stuck his tongue out. “You are a monster, a monster that devours resources. Do you know that?”

Tang Ling reacted very sourly at Su Yao’s words because he did not have an argument to refute. He indeed was a monster, a monster that exhausted resources at an astonishing rate, and his needs were getting bigger and faster by the day.

“Though it is not entirely without good news.” Su Yao felt positive about the potential as he stroked Tang Ling’s head and said, “The cost you pay and the reward you get is equal. If the seed can grow larger, it will provide you with tremendous power. Like you, it will become stronger with growth and undergo changes. It won’t stay like that forever.”

“I knew that already,” Tang Ling purposely said to stop Su Yao from feeling so proud about himself. As a matter of fact, all he had was speculation. He hypothesized that as the seed grew stronger, its abilities would be amplified.

“Boring!” Su Yao disliked matured kids and it was difficult for him to find a sense of achievement with this kid.

However, Su Yao wanted to win this argument, so he stared at Tang Ling and said, “But do you know that the seed is only in its first form? Its form will determine your own form.”

“What?” That was fresh news for Tang Ling. It meant that he could only transform into a muscular humanoid figure for now, but as the seed grew stronger, he might be able to transform into something else!

He was very concerned about this because he was a thrifty kid. Tearing a set of his uniform with every transformation was considered wastage to him.

“Hmm. I’m just telling you it can change. You need to figure out the details yourself.” Su Yao chuckled gleefully.

Truth be told, it was still too early to tell Tang Ling about the seed’s different form.

A seed holder once told Su Yao that the seed stored the changes within itself, but whether it could grow into the desired form, that was something the host had to give his best effort in doing.

The biggest likelihood was the seed remaining in its first form forever.

As it grew stronger, the resources that it sought would multiply, and in the later stage, it would demand higher quality resources rather than quantity because a higher quantity alone could no longer satisfy and compensate its demand for quality,

Hence, it would grow a lot slower.

That was what that person said, and that person was always right. Su Yao had hated the person back then, but he missed the person more than ever now. Inevitably, he fell into a vortex of memories again. He did not even listen to the series of questions that Tang Ling asked.

“Uncle, what other form does it have?

“If it’s going to evolve, will it show any signs?

“Will it only change in form when it evolves? What about intellect? Will it grow an intellect? Then, will I always have to talk to it?

“Uncle, don’t be so stingy. Tell me how to form a connection with it. How do I communicate with it?”

Tang Ling was like a noisy parrot talking non-stop. He was excited because of the seed. From the moment he accepted its existence, he grew a deep feeling for it instantly. Maybe Su Yao’s hunting hound analogy made an impression on him since he and the seed did spend a very long time together and grew stronger simultaneously.

Su Yao looked dejected again. Tang Ling’s figure was being reflected in his depressed eyes, and he could not find a reason to curl his lips into a comforting smile.

He felt that the current Tang Ling was the real one. The depressed kid from the settlement was not his true self, and neither was the rascal in the Hope Barrier, which he heard about from people when he came back.

Tang Ling was using hatred as a motivation for everything now. He forced himself to form a plan and wear a mask. Life made him who he was.

The real Tang Ling, however, was just a typical but sharp teenager. Su Yao hoped that Tang Ling could get some rest from himself and enjoy life a bit more even for a day in the whole month.

How long would that single day last then? Even though Su Yao wanted to treat Tang Ling as a smart common teenager, Tang Ling would still be Tang Ling, or would he?

******

In the best restaurant in Safety Sector No. 17, Tang Ling was patting his full stomach. In front of him was a pile of bones. He had eaten half a Level 2 mutated beast, not a small one, but a cow mutated beast.

He turned the restaurant that was filled with nobles and upper-class patrons into his own stage with his unique performance. All the nobles around him were in awe. Even the chef from the kitchen stuck his head out to have a look at this little monster. Neither Tang Ling nor Su Yao cared.

After Tang Ling filled his stomach, he picked his tooth brazenly. Su Yao then brought him out of the restaurant exultantly after paying.

Who dared to even criticize their manners? They were the madman Su Yao and the wonder boy Tang Ling who performed outstandingly during the entrance exam.

“Uncle, I’m going back. I can’t use the eating method in public since it will be a waste, I have to seize the chance,” Tang Ling said to Su Yao when they were at a secret entrance to the Hope Barrier.

“Scram, you little bastard.”

“Will you miss me?”

“Oh, miss you? I miss the 570 credits that I spent in the restaurant!”

“Uncle, I’m going back. What did you say just now? The wind is too strong, so I didn’t hear you.” Tang Ling immediately ran and headed into the hidden entrance which was a rather worn down building.

Looking at Tang Ling’s back, Su Yao’s smile slowly faded. Furrowed brows and a solemn expression replaced his previous one. Safety Sector No. 17 was going to be a mess.

Would the storm come after this? Or was it the calm before an even bigger storm?