Special Bloodlines

"Tailor-made? Exclusively for me?"

Ye Lin raised an eyebrow, his curiosity instantly piqued.

He could tell An Ke wasn't lying. Of course, she had no reason to.

After all, the right to redeem was in his hands.

"That's right."

An Ke nodded and got straight to the point:

"One is the Tyrant Gene, and the other is the Observer."

"The former can dramatically enhance your physical attributes. Judging purely by the magnitude of the boost, it's comparable to a Grade B bloodline."

"Its berserk and regeneration abilities also put it among the most offensive Grade C bloodlines. It has tremendous growth potential, too, with several advancement paths."

"As for the Observer..."

"Tyrant? Isn't that a Grade B bloodline?"

Ye Lin frowned.

He had seen the Tyrant Gene before. If he remembered correctly, it was related to zombies and was a type of mutant. Though it had no special abilities, its physical strength was truly monstrous.

In the system's evaluation, its offensive capabilities had earned almost full marks. Even more unusually, it had three subsequent advancement paths, each incredibly powerful.

Corpse Emperor, Virus King, and Aberrant?

"Yes, but it also has a Grade C experimental version. Although it's a little weaker, it's still far stronger than others of the same grade. And it only costs 45 points to redeem, without affecting future advancement."

"What's the price?"

Remembering the side effects An Ke had mentioned earlier, Ye Lin asked directly.

"The price is..."

An Ke hesitated slightly:

"There's only one drawback: it's extremely easy to lose control. Once you go berserk, you can't distinguish friend from foe, and you won't regain your sanity until you've killed every target."

"But aside from that, it's no different from the original!"

"So you need the second bloodline, the Observer, to suppress it?"

Ye Lin asked, recalling the combination An Ke had mentioned.

"Exactly. Although the Observer bloodline is Grade C, it's extremely unusual. It's one of the rare bloodlines that doesn't enhance physical strength at all."

"To compensate, it improves your perception and forces you into a third-person perspective to control yourself. That ability is almost Grade A! It grants immunity to most external interference!"

Ye Lin nodded, understanding An Ke's idea.

Since the Grade C Tyrant bloodline had a flaw, he could redeem a complementary bloodline. That would effectively give him the original Tyrant for only two-thirds of the points, plus an extra ability.

It might even be stronger. After all, the original also carried a risk of losing control.

But.

"Wouldn't it be better to redeem the complete Tyrant version and pair it with some other Grade C bloodline?"

"That would give me even greater combat strength."

Faced with Ye Lin's doubts, An Ke hurried to explain:

"That won't work, Ye Lin."

"Once you redeem a Grade B bloodline, the bloodline you combine it with also has to be Grade B. Besides, if you redeem Grade C, the system will rate you as Grade C, too, making it easier to earn bonus points! Taking both sides into account, you'll have a much greater advantage over everyone else."

Hearing this, Ye Lin was struck by a thought. He immediately remembered how He Zheng had always envied the number of bonus points he earned.

That was right. The system seemed to give greater rewards to "weaklings" who performed well-or rather, to potential...

After a brief pause, An Ke continued:

"Although the Observer offers no combat power, once it advances to Grade B, it can acquire the most unusual mental attacks. At Grade A, the situation completely reverses, and it gains a whole range of offensive abilities."

"Of course, the most important thing is that redeeming this bloodline gives you a major advantage when facing paranormal incidents!"

"You might not know this, but in paranormal exams, many people aren't actually killed by ghosts. They break down from terror and are literally scared to death!"

"If you can't stay sane, you'll die in there no matter how strong you are!"

As her words fell, a trace of indelible fear flashed in An Ke's eyes.

An advantage? Ghosts?

Ye Lin frowned slightly as he listened, quickly weighing his options.

He had never seen a ghost, so he couldn't understand An Ke's fear. Still, this combination really did seem like the optimal choice for the early stages. Whatever exam he encountered, he would have a chance of surviving.

Later, it would effectively give him two top-tier sources of combat power. No wonder An Ke thought it was too much of a coincidence.

The points he saved could also be spent on weapons and equipment.

"Are ghosts really that frightening? I remember the system having quite a few items that counter them."

"They're useless."

Noticing Ye Lin's interest in ghosts, An Ke shook her head with a bitter smile.

"Never mind how expensive those things are. All their so-called countering does is delay a ghost's movements for a few seconds."

"In paranormal incidents, ghosts can't be countered or killed. The only way to survive is to find its..."

Halfway through, An Ke bit her lip hard:

"Sorry, I can't explain it clearly either."

"I don't know how to survive either. Otherwise, we wouldn't have been wiped out in the seventh exam."

"We didn't even... have the slightest ability to fight back."

An Ke lowered her head, her body trembling slightly on instinct. Even though that experience was over, it still affected her deeply.

At the sight, an unusual look flashed in Ye Lin's eyes.

He had assumed An Ke had used what that person left behind to withdraw from the exam directly.

But An Ke said they had been wiped out?

"How did you die back then? And what kind of ghost did you encounter?"

An Ke remained silent for a long time before finally raising her head:

"How did I die?"

"My memories are a little hazy... Maybe it's a side effect of being forcibly withdrawn."

"We encountered the Mirror Ghost in that exam. In less than half an hour, six people died, leaving only me and one other companion alive."

"To avoid mirrors, she and I climbed into a wardrobe. That was when we found this letter."

An Ke spoke as she tried to remember, but she could no longer recall the final moments clearly.

"Then... I think I died. When I woke up again, I was out of the exam."

Perhaps that scene had been too horrifying, or perhaps it was an instinctive act of self-preservation. Her memories were growing increasingly hazy.

"You just died?"

Ye Lin's gaze sharpened as he looked at the letter in An Ke's hand.

"You mean you died after getting the letter? Did the Mirror Ghost find you the instant you picked it up?"

"Or... was there a mirror inside the wardrobe?"

"Neither."

An Ke's expression was complicated. Seeing Ye Lin's puzzled gaze, she said with a bitter smile:

"There wasn't a mirror in the wardrobe."

"But our eyes... are mirrors, too..."

An Ke shuddered after saying that, as though she had returned to that wardrobe.

It had been a dark, cramped wardrobe. The faint light seeping through the gaps barely allowed her to make out the other person.

The instant their eyes met, she saw her own headless body.

Thump, thump.

Her head rolled down, face up, looking at her.