Genetic Ascension

Chapter 133 Slots

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”Because I believe the City Lady trusts you almost implicitly. Itʼs because you never suspected me that she chose to show such trust in me. This opportunity is better than any I could have expected. So, thank you for that.”

Sylas looked into Morganʼs eyes. They were a deep brown and carried an inconspicuous amount of intelligence that Sylas had never noticed. He considered himself to be quite an astute person, but he had never seen this side of Morgan as well.

He realized then that there were more ways for a person to be dangerous outside of their stats. The informant never once showed their face… or maybe they did? Either way, how much trouble had they given him without raising a single finger?

Morgan wasnʼt likely a traitor, not in Sylasʼ opinion. If he was, he would have never shown Sylas this side of himself. It would have been far smarter to continue hiding it.

But now that he had…

Sylas reached out a hand and shook Morganʼs.

**

Later in the day, Sylas entered Cassaraeʼs cabin and met her in her office.

”So what do you want to do?” Cassarae asked.

Sylas didnʼt need to question what she meant. She was obviously referring to the fact she had lied to everyone on his behalf when they both knew that he definitely couldnʼt come.

Right now, he was pretty well strapped to the Browns. There was little he could do.

”I donʼt believe that theyʼll truly restrict my movements, at least not completely. They will definitely do so in part, especially after they notice that I entered the Trial after they… letʼs say gently encouraged most not to.

”If Iʼm correct, after we return, theyʼll actually have no choice but to let us out.”

”Whyʼs that?”

”Because originally, their intentions were to use the Trial to decide who was most worthy of becoming the City Lord of their Bronze Stele. But now that the Trialʼs been cut short, the two lagging behind the current leader will definitely argue for another opportunity.

”That will be my chance.”

”Your chance?” Cassaraeʼs eyes squinted. ”Youʼre going to do something fucking stupid again, arenʼt you? I can see right through you, Sylas. All of this is just because you donʼt want to follow their orders, isnʼt it? They probably havenʼt even done anything bad to you.”

Sylas cleared his throat. ”There actually is a good reason to not trust them.”

”Oh? Pray tell.” Cassarae leaned back into her chair with an amused expression.

”Things arenʼt adding up,” Sylas said. ”They say they mixed races to give us the best chance at survival, so why are there still families? Why was my grandfather ostracized for marrying the ʼwrongʼ woman? Why is this the first Iʼve heard of this Summoning in my mid-twenties and not when I was old enough to read?

”If they really cared about the world, and not maintaining power for themselves, they would have disseminated this information long ago.”

”Youʼre missing something.” Cassarae suddenly said.

Sylas waited for her to continue.

”If they didnʼt care to keep up pretenses even that much, then why force the races of the world to be homogenous in the first place?”

”Iʼve been thinking about that as well, and I believe the answer is actually right in front of us.”

Cassarae raised an eyebrow.

”Intelligence is difficult to grasp. All methods of measuring it have one weakness or another, and the markers are so multilayered and complex that theyʼre impossible to pinpoint. Thereʼs a reason so many believe in the existence of a soul. Itʼs hard to grasp that everything is related to a lump of meat in our skulls.

”However, physical gifts are different. If two tall people marry one another, their child will likely be tall. If two athletes marry one another, their child will likely be athletic.”

”… Youʼre saying that they mixed the races to benefit from the best of everyone…”

”Not just that,” Sylas said softly. ”If Iʼm correct, the ʼfusionʼ of the races is likely a key to evolving our Race grade in the future.

”They never did it for the sake of harmony; these people donʼt care about that stuff. All they care about is maximizing their chances at being the ruling class once Earth makes it to the other side.”

**

Sylas lay in the bed of his cabin. He took deep breaths, his thoughts running at inconceivable speeds.

Something Morgan said interested him.

Whether he was neurodivergent or not didnʼt matter to him. What did matter was that his mind had shifted back toward the scientific method for a moment.

Would it be possible to use his university as a foundation to help analyze the Basilisk Kingʼs genome better?

He couldnʼt analyze it all, but could a computer not? The question was whether he could make the transfer or not…

He lay there, watching as the timer slowly drifted down. Soon, there were only three seconds left and he felt himself relaxing.

[Time remaining: 00:00:00]

A blinding flash of white filled Sylasʼ eyes. He could have sworn that he would appear right back in his room, but to his surprise, he actually landed right back in the world of white he had entered before the Trial.

He looked around with hints of confusion before the world flickered and what looked like a slot machine appeared. It somehow seemed deeper and more profound than the usual slot machine, but ultimately, it couldnʼt be classified as anything else. ƒrēe

[Tickets: … Calculating…]

ʼCalculating? Ah… is it evaluating my Trial performance? The tickets, I assume, will let me use the slot machine? I havenʼt heard of this before…ʼ

[Tickets: 44]

Sylas wondered what that number was based on, but he didnʼt really want to speculate so he ignored it for now.

He looked at the slot machine, wondering what secrets it would reveal to him.

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