Chapter 3: When the Resource Decides to Rebel
Thanks to this dream, I think I have an idea about the world I live in.
It is a cruel world… and I know it well, very well.
In short, this is a ruthless world where even a common cold can kill an ordinary person.
A world where survival belongs to the strongest, a world where humans are not at the top of the food chain.
A world where the roars of predatory beasts echo everywhere, and the danger of being hunted lurks in every corner.
A world where the elements of nature are beautiful and deadly at the same time — raging storms, and intense heat waves — capable of wiping out entire communities.
A world where the weak cannot live in peace.
Every day is a battle for survival.
A silent battle… but a cruel one.
Where individuals and groups struggle fiercely to secure food, shelter, and water.
Broken breaths… tired hands… and eyes that do not sleep.
The weak and the marginalized are often left behind… no one pays attention to them.
They are simply left to a fate decided by the harsh laws of the jungle.
A world without mercy…
A world where no one stands in your way, as long as you possess power and authority.
Whether you are a dragon… or a human…
As long as you have power…
Do whatever you want.
In this cruel and painful world, where your race or your profession does not matter…
There are only two things that matter.
A strong bloodline… and the ability to sense and absorb the energy that exists in this world.
In this world… there are two forces that govern everything.
Spirit energy.
And mana energy.
The moment you sense the presence of either of these two energies…
And the moment you absorb it into your body…
You will begin to crawl slowly…
Among the strong.
And if you want to be among those who stand on their feet among the strong and do whatever they please, you need talent and resources.
Because hard work without talent or resources means that you are merely an ant without legs crawling across a desert beneath the scorching sun.
An endless desert…
And a sun that burns the skin…
And a slow crawl that leads nowhere.
If you do not have talent, you will not be able to do anything.
You will remain standing at the edge…
Only watching.
Without that, all you can do is bully those who cannot sense energy or absorb it.
They are powerless people.
Pale faces…
Empty eyes…
And bodies that live… but possess no power.
And their helplessness…
Is what gives you the opportunity to bully them.
In this cruel world, as long as you possess power and authority, you can be whatever you want; whether you become a king or a beggar, no one will dare to ask you what you are doing.
Power…
Is the only law here.
And whatever you desire, with merely a signal from you, the weak will come to you as you wish, submissive and obedient.
They bow…
They lower their heads…
And they do not even dare to raise their eyes toward you.
It does not matter who they are — whether a king or an emperor or whatever their race may be — what matters is that you are stronger than them…
Then…
They will become your servants.
This is this world.
Bloodline… is talent.
If you do not possess a strong bloodline…
You are useless.
And you will remain beneath the feet of the strong…
No matter what your race is.
After I came to understand this world, I began to think about the egg.
I kept staring at it for a long moment…
Silent… motionless… as if it were hiding a secret that does not wish to be revealed yet.
Well, it seems that my brother or sister will hatch at a strange time.
A time… unexpected.
Timing… as if it came out of a bad joke.
Anyway, I will use this time to become more familiar with my body.
I moved my limbs slowly…
As though I were testing a new machine that I had just bought.
Every movement felt a little strange…
But interesting at the same time.
But there is something else that worries me… the memories of the bloodline.
It is not that simple; they affect my thoughts and my feelings.
Sometimes I feel as if thoughts that are not mine…
Quietly float inside my head.
Old thoughts…
Cold…
And a little strange.
These memories that I now retain are nothing more than a small part of the memories stored in the bloodline.
Only a small part.
And this… in itself is a little frightening.
And it makes me wonder how much energy I will need to adapt to this knowledge and these memories.
And what kind of change will happen inside me…
Will I remain myself… myself?
Or will I wake up one day…
And discover that someone else lives inside my head?
Will that be for the better?
Or for the worse?
In truth… I am looking forward to it anyway.
I do not know why…
But curiosity…
Is a little stronger than fear.
This knowledge and these memories will be the cornerstone that will allow me to change my perspective toward this world and adapt to its cruel nature.
From the information I obtained from the memories of the "bloodline".
It seems that this world resembles one of the novels I was reading two weeks ago, before I found myself in this body.
A novel I found by chance…
Among hundreds of novels that appear on reading websites.
That novel was not famous; I found it by chance while searching for novels on the web.
I remember that the first chapter was not special; the writer began with the death of the protagonist at the hands of his wife and his close friends.
Honestly…
It was a very bleak beginning.
The kind of beginning that makes you stare at the screen and say:
"Really? This is how the story begins?
The important thing is that I wanted to give the book a chance, so I started reading the rest of the chapters, and I was enjoying it.
Chapter after chapter…
I found myself continuing to read.
At the present moment, what made me believe that this world is the same world as that novel is the similarity between the classifications of power stages and the classifications of bloodlines.
The similarity… was too great to be ignored.
Then there was a chapter in the novel called "Red Dragon Forest".
I remember this name very well.
In this part of the story, the protagonist kills a red dragon, then accidentally drinks its blood and obtains the bloodline of the red dragon.
It was a very dramatic scene in the novel.
The rank of the bloodline he obtained from that dragon was at the level of "Fifth-Class Catastrophe", and it was considered extremely rare.
Something of the kind that makes readers say:
"This protagonist is very lucky."
But…
The most surprising thing…
Is that my name matches the name of that dragon.
The dragon who was the protagonist's opponent in the middle stage of the novel.
My thoughts stopped for a moment.
Then…
I could not help but laugh lightly.
It is truly a strange thing.
A somewhat funny idea.
A red dragon…
That hates heat.
But… who knows?
Clearly, I am merely a minor character.
Just a small name…
In the corner of a larger story.
In short, I am a resource designed to serve the protagonist.
My thoughts paused for a moment…
Hah… a resource?
A faint smile appeared within me.
In the end, we will see…
Who will be the starting point for whom.
Anyway, according to what I read in the novel, the crimson dragon was not the only beast in the forest that possessed a rare bloodline.
In the novel, the protagonist formed an alliance with two of the strongest beasts in the forest, and both of them possessed rare bloodlines of the fifth rank.
Three rare powers…
Gathered in one place.
It seems that this forest was something like a club for rare bloodlines…
Or perhaps a hospital for special monsters!
These two beasts were present in the forest before the appearance of the red dragon.
They were here…
Waiting.
And they allied with the protagonist to fight the dragon and plunder its resources.
It was not merely an alliance…
It was more like a "fight club against the red dragon".
Three against one.
The outcome of the battle…
Was clear from the beginning.
When the number was three against one, it was a decisive battle.
The red dragon was defeated and died.
He fell…
And the story ended for him.
And the protagonist gained a new power, which was the bloodline of the red dragon.
With this new power, the protagonist began to feel changes in his body.
The energy flowing in his veins was completely different from anything he had experienced before.
New power…
New blood…
And a feeling of growth within every cell.
The fall of the dragon was the protagonist's opportunity to rise and surpass the limits of this world.
The power he gained was not merely an increase in his physical abilities, but it was a key to opening new horizons, granting him the opportunity to transcend the constraints of this world.
But…
Anyway, I did not like the personality of the protagonist in this novel at all.
If this world is the same as the novel itself…
And if I am the resource that was designed to be the starting point for the protagonist…
Then the story has already begun to deviate from its path.
The idea of being merely a step on someone else's path…
Merely a corpse left behind for him to climb over…
Is an idea I cannot accept.
Not after I woke up here.
And not after I came to understand the nature of this world.
This world does not respect the weak.
And it does not acknowledge roles written in advance.
Here…
Power is what writes the story.
If my role in that novel was to be the resource…
Then that role ended the moment I woke up.
I will not be the resource.
I will not be the step someone climbs over.
If this world is the same as the novel itself…
And if I am the starting point for the protagonist…
Then I will be the catastrophe that devours the protagonist himself.
I will not be the first step on his path.
Rather, he will be…
My starting point.