Super Gene

“I… have to be cruel here. I need power to kill that mangy mutt, but this thing must have the ability to soften the will of an enemy.”

Han Sen picked the creature up and it resumed trying to lick his face, as it had earlier. It was an adorable thing, truth be told, so he forcefully turned it away to keep its puppy-dog eyes from working their wizardry and softening his resolve.

“I am a man. A shining example of a man. This? This is just a creature. It’s food!” Han Sen raised his spare hand high, horn glinting in the faint light of the cavern. He was ready to bring it down on the little thing hard.

But as much as he wanted to do it, something in him resisted when the time came to bring it down. He raised his hand, but then brought it down. He raised his hand, but then brought it down. This went on for quite some time, and each time he failed to do the deed, he cursed himself harder.

Galaxy Beast, hearing Han Sen muttering sour words under his breath, squirmed in his hand to turn around. It looked directly into Han Sen’s eyes and tilted its head, wondering what was going on.

“You are a sacred-blood creature! Can’t you look the part? Show me your teeth or something,” Han Sen pleaded, knowing he couldn’t bring himself to slay such a cute creature.

Galaxy Beast then sunk its head below its shoulders. It winced and its eyes flickered, as if it was on the verge of crying.

“Stop that! Quit this cute nonsense. Act like a sacred-blood creature. Come on, try and rip my throat out. That’s what you really want to do, isn’t it? Isn’t it?” Han Sen’s pleading was about to reach frothing-at-the-mouth levels.

A second later, though, Galaxy Beast’s levee broke, and a flood of tears erupted.

“Fine. Whatever. Stop crying. You’re going to make a scene. What… what might the trees think of me, huh?” Han Sen had now silently admitted to himself he wouldn’t be able to do it. He just couldn’t, and that was who he was.

Han Sen patted the little creature’s head softly to comfort it. Almost immediately, the tears stopped. Then, with its sticky tongue, Galaxy Beast began to lick Han Sen’s hand jovially.

“Fine. You want a job? You can be a part of my guard, okay? If you can bark ferociously enough, that’ll do. Baby steps. I will expect more of you in the future, but you’ve only been alive for five minutes, so I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt for now.” Han Sen tried to give it his best father-voice.

Galaxy Beast crawled along Han Sen’s arms and then perched itself on his shoulder, as things tended to do. Then, it licked his face again.

“Hey, what did I say? Not the face. You’ll give me pimples.” As Han Sen said this, though, he noticed something. He was feeling better. He was actually healing with each sloppy lick.

Then, all of a sudden, Galaxy Beast spat out another Starsea Orb. It hovered for a while, but then dropped into a cubicle of water that enveloped Han Sen.

Shortly after, Han Sen’s body was fully healed.

“Drool or not, that’s impressive. A water and healing elemental combo? Nice!” Exchanging the orb for this little creature was now looking like a worthy swap.

Han Sen deactivated his super king spirit mode and decided to return home.

“Oh, that mutt is going to get what’s coming. That woman, too. Ugh, what a despicable hag,” Han Sen told himself. People didn’t often get the better of him, but when they did, it really stung. He had heard them speak of a place called Sacred Shelter, so Han Sen fancied asking around about it. Intel was the first thing he needed, before plotting his revenge.

He discovered that Sacred Shelter was a super shelter, unfortunately. The master of it was a super creature by the name of Sky Lord.

“It looks like that woman is rather high-tier. Typical. Picking bones with the biggun’s already. Whatever the case may be, it looks like I might need more than just mutant geno points to settle this feud.” Han Sen spent much time deliberating how he might serve his favorite cold dish.

Han Sen was bitter to his very core. Things like this didn’t happen to him. Things like this shouldn’t happen to him; him, of all people. He was going to do everything in his power to settle the score.

Leveling up was the number one task on his agenda, to begin with. And he started by maxing out his primitive geno points.

When the woman and the dog saw Han Sen, he was in super king spirit mode. The next time they met, his attackers wouldn’t recognize him as the person they assaulted in the wilds.

Moment Queen came to tell Han Sen they had collected one thousand genes and that he could visit the Geno Core Storage.

Han Sen wished to check it out first and spend some time there. He wasn’t sure if the woman and her dog were in the vicinity, and if he was out and about outside the shelter, he feared he might encounter them too soon.

The Geno Core Storage access point looked very similar to a teleportation device. However, it wasn’t mechanical or electrical, and neither were there any fancy tools or strange screens that offered technical readings that meant pretty much nothing. There were a number of neon patterns and designs adoring it, though.

In the center was a stone plate. There was a word etched on its center, but Han Sen did not know what it meant.

Han Sen stepped on it, thinking about which geno core he should use first.

You could not use the ones found in the field, as they weren’t self geno core. You had to use a core produced by your own body. Most people would only ever have one self-geno core, but Han Sen had already obtained two.

“I’ll try the Crystal Egg.” Han Sen, more than anything, just wanted to see what the place looked like.

After summoning the Crystal Egg, the strange word came to life like a hologram around him. A second later, Han Sen found himself standing before a big tablet, on which a lengthy message was scrawled.

Han Sen found himself unable to read what was written, but he felt as if he understood it, regardless.

It was a leaderboard, and it told him the names of the top one hundred bronze geno cores he could expect to find. Number three was called Heart Wheel, he noticed. There was also something else written beside it, as an addendum. It said “Sacred Shelter.”