The Second Offering

“What do you mean?”

“The Black Blood Species are anomalies, entities diametrically opposed to humanity. To live among humans in this form, you are destined to face their rejection sooner or later, even if you do nothing to provoke it.”

“Surely you can feel it now—the way others instinctively step away from you on the street, the wary glances of cashiers at the supermarket… These are merely the beginning. As days turn into weeks, people’s aversion to you will only deepen, until one day… it erupts violently.”

“I see…”

The truth spoken by Chongyun began to unravel some of Titan’s lingering doubts.

Humanity’s repulsion towards the Black Blood Species was almost entirely instinctive.

A Blood Kin like him, if they wished to continue living within the city, would either have to endure a solitary existence or… face utter abandonment by everyone they knew.

Unless…

Titan remained silent, arms crossed over his chest, his gaze fixed on the man opposite him who was clearly enjoying his suspenseful reveal.

“Our first offering, then,” Chongyun said with a smile, “is to assist you in shedding this ‘influence.’”

“You would retain your power, yet be able to effortlessly blend into crowds, avoiding conflict.”

“As long as you don’t act too conspicuously, not only will the Regulatory Bureau be none the wiser, but even those heroes themselves wouldn’t be able to discern your true identity if they met you face-to-face.”

“And if that still isn’t enough, we could even give you a complete makeover, allowing you to embark on an entirely new life. Do you find these terms agreeable?”

It was a remarkably appealing offer, particularly for those anomalies yearning to escape this quagmire.

Titan had encountered such individuals—those who, by some twist of fate, had become Blood Kin, yet yearned incessantly for their former lives.

But no matter how deeply they longed for the past, they were invariably confined to the inner circles of the Blood Kin.

This wasn’t due to any affection for the faction that had ensnared them; rather, it was because their own families no longer considered them one of their own.

Such was the fundamental logic ingrained within humanity: the longer they interacted, the more intense the rejection became.

Thus, humans and anomalies were destined to be incompatible.

Yet, Titan had no need for such an offer; he and the human race were fundamentally different, and he cared little for this so-called ‘rejection.’

He articulated his stance clearly: “I don’t need that.”

“Is that so…”

Chongyun’s smile visibly faltered for a moment, though it swiftly recomposed itself.

“In that case, I shall present my second offering.”

“Since you’ve rejected the first proposal, it suggests that what you truly desire… is pure power, am I right?”

“Oh?”

Titan chuckled, a genuine laugh bubbling up from within him. “Do you truly believe you can offer me power that surpasses the gem’s?”

It wasn’t that he underestimated Chongyun; this enigmatic man undoubtedly possessed a wealth of information.

However, only those who had truly touched that gem could comprehend the immense power it contained.

It was a terrifying energy that even a Dyson Sphere powered by the sun could not approach in the slightest.

To compare it to something known, it was perhaps like a perpetual motion machine… with infinite output.

A power capable of genuinely altering the world.

Moreover, in his hands, this artifact could unleash far greater power than what these ‘natives’ could ever hope to wield.

“Naturally, not in the short term,” Chongyun conceded.

“But that object, ultimately, is an external thing, limited by the capabilities of its wielder.”

“What we offer you, however, is… a grand avenue to reach the very clouds.”

“Tell me more?”

“We can provide you with a method to continuously increase your Black Blood concentration while retaining your human consciousness.”

‘!’

“This truly is…” he murmured to himself.

The power of the Black Blood Species stemmed from the black blood within their bodies—a universally acknowledged truth.

It polluted the earth, twisted all living things, and wherever it spread, calamity followed.

The exact genesis of the first Black Blood Species remained lost to history.

However, the Black Blood Species Leviathan, which churned the oceans and drank the waters of the four seas, was undoubtedly one of the most detested monsters ever known.

The moment it appeared, it submerged an entire continent.

That land, once a beacon nation where humanity’s cutting-edge technology and countless geniuses converged, was utterly annihilated, unable to mount even the slightest countermeasure, thus vanishing into history.

Fortunately, heroes arrived in the nick of time, engaging it in a decisive battle atop the ruins of civilization, expending their full might to cleave it into several pieces, thereby earning humanity a crucial moment of respite.

It was this very incident that led the surviving humans to uncover a startling truth.

The initial state of black blood was not tangible; it was closer to a gas, capable of spreading through the air.

The sky, the earth, the seas… unbeknownst to them, had long been covered by black blood, driving thousands upon thousands of lives to wage war against humanity.

Yet, even pitted against the entire world, human civilization miraculously endured.

This was, of course, not solely due to the sudden emergence of heroes; a more significant reason was humanity’s innate, profound resistance to black blood.

No, to be precise, ‘resistance’ was too simple a word; calling it ‘fundamentally incompatible’ would be no exaggeration.

Unlike other species, black blood in its gaseous state, upon entering the human body, simply could not take root and flourish; it was swiftly and completely eradicated by the immune system.

Outwardly, this manifested as various ailments of differing severity.

Therefore, theoretically, humans were incapable of becoming Black Blood Species.

But there were always exceptions to every rule.

As time progressed, the power of black blood grew ever stronger, to the extent that even humans dwelling within conventional reality, protected by countless safeguards, inevitably felt its influence.

The Blood Drinkers, driven mad by the scent of blood, were born under these circumstances.

They were unfortunate souls who, for various reasons, had fallen into deep infection.

What they craved was not human blood, but the very source of all evil—the black blood itself—to facilitate their metamorphosis to the next stage.

Yet, even when infected by black blood, humans could not produce liquid black blood, leaving the Blood Drinkers perpetually stuck in an agonizing limbo.

They could neither ascend to become full Black Blood Species nor descend to escape this distressing affliction.

Although consuming ‘inhibitors’ allowed them to precariously maintain a semblance of normal life, this was ultimately a temporary solution.

As time continued to advance, more and more beings akin to Blood Drinkers would emerge.

So, was there any way to alter this predicament?

The Doctor’s chosen solution was: if you can’t beat them, join them.

To this end, he utilized the gem’s power to extract second-stage, or liquefied, black blood from human blood and injected it into the Blood Drinkers.

After countless experiments, he finally created the first monster that retained human consciousness yet flowed with black blood: the ‘Vampire.’

This was the origin of the Blood Kin… and also their inherent limitation.

If the black blood within their bodies was reduced, the Blood Kin would revert to their incomplete state—the ‘Vampire.’

If the black blood within their bodies was increased, the Blood Kin would lose their self-awareness due to the excessive black blood, transforming into pure monsters.

Maintaining the balance of black blood concentration within their bodies was the price the Blood Kin had to pay with their entire lives.

Fortunately, with the gem’s power, precise manipulation of black blood became possible, allowing many blood-sucking monsters to band together as the Blood Kin.

And yet, the man before him claimed to be able to increase black blood concentration while preserving consciousness… If true, this was a technology that no existing human faction should possess.

Chongyun lowered his voice. “The higher the black blood concentration, the stronger the combat power of the Black Blood Species, Lord Titan, you must be well aware of this, correct?”