Super Gene (Web Novel)

Yuya watched the developing red storm, his frown sinking deep into the lines of his face.

Four days ago, they had managed to escape from the metal city because that horrifying Metal Beast had gone after Han Sen. The creature had followed Han Sen long enough for the rest of them to clear the city.

They continued fleeing frantically across the land, but they eventually realized that the Metal Beast had no interest in leaving the city to capture them.

They had, however, lost all contact with Han Sen. And Han Sen was their leader. The elders had instructed them to look after Han Sen and ensure no harm befell him. But now, it was game over. That monster had managed to eat King class elites for a light snack, so there was a very high probability that Han Sen was a dead man.

“Ugh… There is no point in worrying about this now. Unless we find a way to escape this place ourselves, we are all going to die here. In that case, we wouldn’t even be able to report what happened here.” Yuya ended with a sigh.

The Buddha, Dragon, and Demon had stayed together. After the fighting, those three races put together still had fewer people than the Sky Palace team. So, there was a big power gap between them. But they were all in the same boat now, and they all had to find a way to leave. The more people that could leave, the better. Yuya had no interest in bullying anyone anymore.

Kahn and the others weren’t dumb. They knew Sky Palace was in control of the situation now, and Yuya was the leader for the time being. They had no plans to stir up trouble.

But they couldn’t figure out a way to escape from the Metal World. They were well and truly trapped.

The environment of the Metal World was awful. All the creatures were made of metal, so there was no local source of food for them. Although they still had some supplies, it’d only be a matter of time before they died.

Han Sen’s Metal Eater was definitely playing hard-to-get. The white Metal Beast kept trying to please it by being as friendly as possible. Metal Eater didn’t respond much, but Han Sen could still tell that it was happy to have found a partner.

Han Sen and Bao’er were given some goodies, too. Han Sen and Bao’er could not eat the metallic fruits, but the white Metal Beast did give them something to drink. It probably did that on behalf of Metal Eater.

Han Sen drank some of that fluid, and he noticed that it seemed to resonate with a sort of power. It immediately began to improve his genes.

The white Metal Beast stayed close to Metal Eater, and it kept rubbing Metal Eater with its head. It confused Han Sen a great deal.

The creatures in the sanctuaries had the genes of the geno universe. Han Sen knew that the crystallizers had brought many of the geno universe’s creatures to the sanctuaries for research. That was how many of the creatures in the sanctuaries had been created.

But Stay Up Late also told him that the crystallizers only did all that to improve the blood of the crystallizers themselves. All the genes that they researched they intended to combine with their own race in one way or another.

The crystallizers had the same power as a high race in the geno universe, but they had to rely on their technology for that power. Eventually, they challenged another high race and were destroyed. At that point, would they have possessed enough power to take the genes of all those creatures to the sanctuaries?

Especially in their weakened state, the crystallizers shouldn’t have been able to beat the genes of creatures like the little red bird, Golden Growler, and Metal Eater. And there were many creatures with such blood in the sanctuaries.

Han Sen could not imagine how the crystallizers might have accomplished all of this.

“Stay Up Late said that the crystallizers did not build the sanctuaries. Apparently, they already existed before the crystallizers stumbled across them. Since the entrance to the sanctuaries lies with Sacred, is Sacred responsible for creating the sanctuaries?” Han Sen thought to himself.

Han Sen thought that had to be correct. From the stories he had heard, only Sacred had once possessed the sort of power necessary to collect the genes of so many powerful creatures. The crystallizers couldn’t have done it.

Plus, Sacred existed before the crystallizers, which fit with what Stay Up Late had told him. The crystallizers must have found the sanctuaries at a later date and modified them.

“So maybe the sanctuaries were built by Sacred, but why? Why were they throwing powerful genes into the sanctuaries? What creatures were born in the sanctuaries? What was sent there?”

The Nine-Life Cat was linked to Sacred somehow, and he was able to go in and out of the sanctuaries as he pleased. It looked like Nine-Life Cat himself was researching the people of the sanctuaries.

And at some point in the past, an event transpired that resulted in the ruin and dissolution of Sacred. A strong faction was suddenly reduced to dust and echoes.

Sacred became a barren system, and somehow, the crystallizers stumbled onto another way to enter the sanctuaries, claim them, and modify them. When their race was almost destroyed, the remaining crystallizers sought refuge in the sanctuaries and continued their research on genes.

What Han Sen couldn’t determine was whether the crystallizers conducted all their research by themselves, or if they carried on with the research left behind by Sacred.

But all of this was just theory devised by Han Sen. Nothing could be taken as fact.

“Only that Old Cat can answer the questions I have,” Han Sen thought with frustration. Everything hinged on Sacred and that hated cat. Han Sen lacked the power to get in and explore the barren system, so for now, he couldn’t learn the truth.

As Han Sen was lost in thought, Metal Eater approached. It warbled at Han Sen and then looked towards the hole.

The white Metal Beast stood beside the pit and seemed to be indicating that they should enter.

Metal Eater went first, and Han Sen followed with Bao’er. He wanted to see what the nest of a deified creature might look like.

The entrance to the hole was massive, but its walls sloped down like a huge funnel, becoming narrower as it went. At the bottom was another cave that was about one meter wide.

The white Metal Beast and Metal Eater entered it, with Han Sen and Bao’er following.

Han Sen thought it was a cave, but when he looked down, he froze.

“How… how can this be here?” Han Sen stared, having a difficult time believing his eyes.