Unholy Player Chapter 494 Evolution Step: 4

Adyr paid no attention to the newly acquired and upgraded skills Sszhar had received, choosing instead to focus his concentration entirely on the Spark's description.

The text was composed in binary, yet it wasn't the system utilized on his current Earth; it was the one from his former world.

"After all those languages, now it's machine language?" Once more, he felt a sense of doubt regarding the link between the Beyond and his original Earth.

He proceeded to decipher the contents of the description.

Binary was not particularly difficult to read; it simply required memorizing the ASCII table, where every integer from 0 to 127 corresponds to a specific character: a letter, a digit, punctuation, or a control code. For a person like Adyr, gifted with a photographic memory, maintaining such a table in his mind was effortless. He merely had to transform each 8-bit code into its equivalent number.

For instance, "01101001" worked like this: from left to right, the bits represent values of 128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2, and 1. By totaling only the positions marked with a 1—in this case, 64 + 32 + 8 + 1—the result was 105. The entry for 105 in the table was "i."

He scanned the entire text rapidly, but as the meaning sank in, his brow furrowed in confusion.

"Information not found?" It appeared as though the System had malfunctioned, resulting in a critical error.

In the Beyond, the System was viewed as a divine gift created by the Gods for their followers. At least, that was the common belief held by the public.

It was considered absolute and holy, a construct alleged to hold every secret and piece of data in the universe. The notion that it could simply crash like a poorly coded program was something no one in that world would ever contemplate.

Yet here it was, presented in binary, looking to Adyr like any other language created by humans.

From such a perspective, it seemed almost logical that if the System ventured beyond its set boundaries or met data it wasn't programmed to process, it would trigger an error message like this.

To him, this suggested one obvious conclusion: the System possessed no knowledge of the Blood Path, and it had crashed when faced with an unknown anomaly related to it.

The System clearly recognized the treasure known as the Heart of the Blood Palace, as it provided a perfect description; however, its failure to explain the Spark it had influenced was incredibly baffling.

Realizing he required more data and time to unravel this mystery, Adyr decided to push the matter aside for the moment and shift his attention to a different issue.

He examined the five skills Sszhar now held: Dread Shackle, Blood Maw, Riftwalk, Blood Mirror, and Leech's Reach. A new frown creased his face.

Under normal circumstances, when he mastered a Spark, the skill data would naturally flood his consciousness. The essence of the skill, its application, and its effects—every detail would integrate into his mind and instincts as if he had always known them.

But now, there was only silence. He felt entirely ignorant regarding the upgraded skills, Blood Maw and Blood Mirror, as well as the newly obtained Leech's Reach.

He understood that he would have to test them to grasp their true nature, but as he prepared to do so, a realization dawned through the instinctive fragments that did reach him: the energy requirements for each skill had spiked to absurd levels. Blood Maw, which used to be Rift Maw, now demanded over 4,000 energy—more than half of Adyr’s total pool. Blood Mirror was even more taxing, costing over 5,000, while Leech's Reach seemed like a mockery, requiring more than 10,000 energy for a single activation.

"Should I still proceed with evolving through this Spark?" Adyr asked himself as he drifted down from the sky, his wings beating slowly before he touched down on Sszhar's massive head.

Even in a physical sense, the Spark gave off an alien vibe, as if it had been entirely recreated; only its name remained as a link to the past.

If he chose to follow through with his plan to evolve using this Spark, it would certainly be a blind evolution. He could no longer even speculate on what innate talent or physical trait he might inherit.

"It just became more fun, didn't it?" Adyr chuckled, treating the predicament not as a crisis but as a situation to be enjoyed.

Regardless of the outcome, it would grant him significant power, and since his options were limited, there was no use overthinking it.

He leaped from Sszhar's head to the ground and gazed at the serpent's gargantuan frame.

With his mind made up, a System notification manifested before him.

[Do you want to begin the evolution process?] - Cost: 3000 Energy

Fortunately, the standard cost for evolution hadn't inflated like the skill costs, allowing Adyr to accept without further hesitation.

"Yes."

The moment he gave his consent, he felt Sszhar's gaze upon him, brimming with devotion and a quiet melancholy. Then, the Spark's massive form began to liquefy, transforming into a thick, crimson fluid.

Large globs of blood poured from its body, hitting the earth and staining it a deep red. The expanding pool of liquid gathered together, and before it could scatter, it shifted again, refining itself into pure energy.

The mass shattered into countless red particles of light, surging toward Adyr.

Accustomed to this ritual, Adyr quickly pulled off his uniform and cast it aside.

He sat on the ground, naked and cross-legged, allowing the torrent of energy to wash over him as he waited for it to reshape his body for Evolution Step 4.

As the transformation took hold and the energy began rewriting his very flesh and soul, a quiet realization began to take root.

This Blood Path was no amateur, makeshift Path; it was a true one, possessing a genuine lineage and a deliberate, masterful design behind its birth.