Chapter 167: The Beginning of Genesis
Ariel leaped down, walking slowly toward the depths of the underground.
*Tap... tap... tap...*
The crisp sound of footsteps echoed continuously through the silent environment, causing the surrounding temperature to drop quite a bit.
Images from her childhood surfaced in Ariel's mind—it was the truth of the world's history, and her own tragic youth.
...
An unknown number of years ago, the world was not in the state it was today. There were no skills or stat values, and humans were incredibly fragile. Because no monsters existed, there was no need to grow stronger either. Although there was no magic, technology was advanced; high-rises stood in numbers, vehicles zipped back and forth, and everything was completely different from the present.
Not only the world, but the young and aggressive Gulie back then was also a completely different person from who he was now. At that time, two words defined him: arrogant, deeply believing that humans were an inferior species. However, the entire Dragon Race shared that exact thought back then.
The Dragon Race of that era was not the Dragon Race of today; the dragons back then were true Dragons—deities that traveled across cosmic galaxies, and Gulie's true kindred. On the other hand, the monster dragons of today were all synthetic organic creatures manufactured by the old elf using the cells of the true Dragon Race. The individuals that survived among them, along with their descendants, underwent a series of evolutions, ultimately forming the various elemental Dragons.
The Ice Dragon Nia and the Wind Dragon Hyvan were the first-generation Dragons born during that time.
True Dragons were destined to step into the divine realm the moment they were born. Therefore, they had always felt that they were the most superior race, and that all other species should submit to them. The true Dragon Race was deeply convinced of this. It wasn't until later when D appeared—though of course, that is a story for another time.
After arriving on this planet, the inherently arrogant true Dragons found it highly unpleasant to watch inferior humans playing king of the hill on the globe. Yet the upper echelons of the Dragon Race could do absolutely nothing about it. Who told this planet to be shielded by a high-ranking combat angel named Goddess Sariel? Angels—that was a race specifically designated for slaughtering gods; they were entirely unprovokable.
This resulted in the Dragon Race being forced to live on only a small patch of land on the planet, which left many dragons quite dissatisfied. The Gulie of that time was merely a junior among the Dragon Race, knowing absolutely nothing of the truth, and he was one of them as well. But the Dragon Race was a species that ranked themselves strictly by seniority; whatever the old-timers said, these juniors could only obey quietly.
Later on, a certain incident occurred that caused Gulie to explode with fury right on the spot.
"Damn it, these inferior lifeforms actually dare to kidnap a Dragon hatchling?!"
The longer a true Dragon lived, the stronger their power became. They simply had no concept of a lifespan to begin with, so long-lived species had almost zero demand for producing offspring, which made a Dragon baby exceptionally precious. Daring to kidnap a Dragon baby was practically an infringement on Dragon Majesty.
Even though Gulie did not know the kidnapped baby, he was still so angry he was about to explode. The higher-ups worried that the child's family would frantically destroy human cities once they learned the truth, so they dispatched him to monitor the perpetrators.
That's right, it was to monitor, not to rescue.
The old fellows up top said, "Since it was a human who kidnapped it, it should be a human who rescues it. Otherwise, the Dragon Race will lose the grand moral justification for forgiving humanity."
Hearing these words, Gulie was truly speechless. Was there any need to forgive them? It would be better to just casually destroy a city and let this pack of inferior creatures taste the might of the Dragon Race. Unfortunately, he was just a junior; the words of the old fellows had to be obeyed. Therefore, Gulie was responsible for monitoring the Dragon baby, preventing any danger from occurring should humans try to rescue it.
The entity that kidnapped the Dragon baby was a certain criminal organization.
Although the Dragon Race's territory was small, every single one of them was a deity; the moment they discovered the baby was missing, they located where this band of criminals was. Immediately after, they notified the local government to have them recover the Dragon baby.
The human leadership was deeply aware of the Dragon Race's terror. Anyone with a shred of a brain would not commit this type of suicidal act. The person in charge of recovering the Dragon baby was practically going insane. To put it simply, the guys who kidnapped the Dragon baby were just a bunch of idiots who had been used.
It was only determined later that the mastermind behind this kidnapping farce was that damned old elf. That guy had used those fellows just to study the superman-like race that was the Dragons. Furthermore, he had gone about it in a roundabout way, sandwiching several organizations in between, making it impossible to trace back to his head at all. Knowing full well the consequences of offending the Dragon Race yet still daring to make a move against them was simply audacious in the extreme.
But no matter what, Potimas still managed to obtain a portion of the Dragon Race's somatic cells, as well as the Dragon baby's scales, blood, and so forth.
At that time, Potimas was still a human scientist, and the sole reason for his madness was simply that he was terrified of dying. He felt: why do people have to die? Once you die, it's all over; everything ends. He did not accept such a reality; he did not want to die. Similarly, Potimas found it highly incomprehensible why other people would calmly accept death. Was it merely because it was unavoidable, so they resigned themselves to fate?
How foolish.
Not working hard to change the status quo, but instead slacking off and accepting reality. Lazy—it was truly far too lazy. He did not want to die; he did not accept his fate. No matter what means he had to use, he was going to live on.
But as long as one was human, one was bound to die eventually.
Right. So if he just stopped being human, wouldn't that solve it? It was too simple. Didn't this world happen to have non-human races? If he implanted the genes of the Dragon Race into a human body...
Only through practice could one arrive at the truth. For this purpose, Potimas began his brutal, inhumane experiments.
Sometimes he used his own clones for experimentation. Sometimes he used children carrying his own genes produced through cloning technology, and sometimes he used entirely unrelated orphans—none succeeded. But he did not give up; fortunately, there was no shortage of animals required for the experiments. At the same time, he was also plotting how to acquire the genes of the Dragon Race. Thus, the case of the kidnapped Dragon hatchling occurred.
Although those foolish organizations had been used, various nations deployed all kinds of manpower to avoid being implicated, all hoping to recover the Dragon baby before any mishap befell it.
Gulie, on the contrary, hoped that something would happen to the Dragon baby, so he would have a reason to launch an offensive against humanity. Furthermore, relying on his superb spatial magic, he could absolutely transfer the Dragon baby away before any accident occurred.
Just as his mood was foul to the absolute extreme, it just so happened that a group of punks came looking for trouble. Times change, but guys like this would always exist.
He was surrounded in an instant by the oblivious punks, and Gulie's rage reached its boiling point. This wasn't a matter he had picked first; it was the humans who made the first move, and he was merely acting in self-defense.
These punks could never have imagined in their wildest dreams that while they had merely intended to extort a bit of pocket change, the person in front of them turned out to be of the Dragon Race. For a bit of money, they had thrown away their meager lives for nothing.
Raise the hand!
Swing the fist!
Just as Gulie's fist was about to fall, a figure suddenly materialized behind him, reaching out to catch his fist. He instinctively swung a fist toward the figure, but it was blocked once again.
The terrifying shockwave blew the punks flat onto the ground, and Gulie was also knocked flying at this moment. His brain suddenly went offline; for a moment, he actually failed to react.
He was of the Dragon Race, okay? He belonged to the most superior race in this world, okay? To actually be effortlessly flattened onto the ground by an unknown entity? This was impossible; it had to be a dream.
"Physical interference with native species is not permitted. Anti-native species behavior by a Dragon has been perceived. If the behavior violates directives, elimination measures will be implemented according to mission parameters."
The cold, entirely emotionless declaration rang out slowly.
Only then did Gulie clearly see the true face of the newcomer. That was his very first encounter with Goddess Sariel.
As a junior, Gulie originally should have had zero intersection with the Goddess whatsoever. Yet a string of operations from Potimas forced the two into an entanglement, and they had remained entangled all the way until the present day.
Gulie fled. Upon perceiving that the Dragon baby had been rescued by someone, he turned tail and fled in a wretched state at the first available moment.
Sariel's pool-like, unrippled eyes merely spared him a glance. After confirming that this Dragon would not pose a danger to humans, she turned around and departed.
On the other side.
Inside a hidden laboratory, a newly born young girl lay quietly upon an operating table, slowly opening her eyes.
A gleam of intelligence gradually flashed across her hollow pupils.
"Subject G-03239 awakened. Presence of consciousness unknown. Presence of intelligence unknown. Gene-splicing ratio: Spider factor accounts for 80%. Experimental value: 3 points. Continuing to collect experimental data..."
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