Name: Mike
Age: 36/100
Bloodline Purity: 100%
Demonic Bloodline Mix: 11%
Combat Power Estimate: B+
Path to 12%: 51/100
Roll the Dice: Y/N
Mike looked at his panel and nodded. Like almost all transmigrators, he eventually got his system. It awakened only after he killed his first demon.
When it first appeared, he was surprised and excited, but after checking the details, he could only sigh with disappointment. Unlike those protagonists, his system was not OP; it was very helpful but not game-changing.
It's called the "Bloodline Collection System."
With it, he has a chance to eventually turn into a real demon king.
Some demonic bloodlines are whole, while most others are split between many demons. The reason for this phenomenon is not entirely known, but it has a lot to do with when the first demon split into many pieces; the bloodlines that remained whole at that time are the ones that are whole today; all demonic bloodlines were split from the first demon after thousands of nukes hit it.
Mike's system collects the Lone Wolf bloodline from demons that die near him and increases Mike's share. However, it doesn't collect any other bloodlines; it can only collect his Lone Wold bloodline.
As it turned out, the Lone Wolf bloodline is extremely fragmented. There may be hundreds of demons who have a share of it. To completely gather all the pieces, Mike may have to kill hundreds of demons all over the world. Even worse, a big chunk of it is missing and may not reappear in the world for hundreds of years.
Overall, even though he can theoretically transform himself into a demon king, he would be lucky if he could gather 20% of it before his passing.
And even if he somehow collects all 100% of the Lone Wolf bloodline, then what? There are many demon kings in the world today, yet even they die after they reach the age of 100. Not to mention that the Human civilization would never allow him to continue living inside the walls if he really became a demon king; he may become as strong as a demon king, but he would lose the ability to use the human civilization's resources and knowledge.
The system's arrival was welcome, but it didn't change the fundamentals at all.
The only way to truly change the game is by rolling the dice.
Rolling the dice is the ultimate power of the system. If the dice lands on 6, the system would forcibly gather all Lone Wolf bloodlines in the world and directly transform him into a demon king. However, if it lands on 1, the system would expel the entire demonic bloodline out of him, making him an ordinary person.
The great thing about Rolling the Dice is that after directly becoming a demon king, he would have the power to disguise himself as a human. He studied his Lone Wolf bloodline and knows for a fact that it has a great bloodline spell that can completely hide his demonic nature. He can remain in human civilization and use their facility without anyone knowing about his secret.
However, Mike didn't dare to roll the dice. He believes his luck is not too bad, but the risk is still just too high. He only has two chances to roll the dice in his life. If he does it and fails, he will be unable to use any spell for many years, not to mention the other glaring problem: once he rolls the dice, he must get 6; if he gets any other number, even 5, he would at most get 85% of the bloodline, and wouldn't be able to use cast the ultimate disguise spell that can keep his identity hidden; the chances of actually rolling 6 is 1/6; he wouldn't risk it with such lo chance; he is no gambler; unless its a life or death situation, he completely forgot about the roll the dice ability of the system.
Mike made the decision to kill demons to collect Lone Wold's bloodline; he is safe from being noticed until he reaches the 20% line. He saw off a bit of his horn to make the appearance change less noticeable; he is not going to get any other appearance change until he reaches 20%. This is what he gathered after years of research.
...
The past two decades have been hard on human civilization.
After Mooddemon took over the entire flesh business, human civilization retreated and stopped any efforts to save captured humans. The civilian higher-ups and the military supported the decision, but it was not popular with the people.
After a few years, millions of people saved from human farms were integrated into human civilization. They married locals, formed families, and told their stories. With the government's support, those stories spread like wildfire. Most people in human civilization found out the truth behind what demons do in human farms and that human civilization had been planning to save them. The government helped spread this information to increase popular support, but in reality, even without the government's help, the news would have spread quickly, and the people would have been outraged; the government fanning the flames was overkill.
Later, the government announced they would terminate their plans to save people from the farms; the public anger over human farms was very high, so it is not difficult to imagine how the people reacted. It outraged everyone, men and women. Even though very few people had protested previously over government actions, on this issue, millions took to the streets.
The government, with a weak moral standing, mostly allowed the protests to continue, intervening only if they turned violent.
The right to protest is protected by human civilization's constitution, with a few exceptions, such as when a protest turns violent or when the government declares an emergency. But in reality, whenever the people protest something the government doesn't like, they just send a few troublemakers among the protesters to cause violence. Using this as an excuse, the government then shuts it down.
However, with these protests, the government didn't use its usual tactic; it would most likely fail against such a large crowd on such a divisive topic.
The leaders of the protest eventually formed a new political party to compete in the next congressional and presidential elections.
Human civilization, with all its flaws, calls itself a democracy
But what is a democracy?
The definition of democracy is not as simple as one may expect. One definition is a country that chooses its leader according to the wishes of the majority of its voting population. However, this definition would exclude many parliamentary systems of government from the 'democratic' category. For example, in a parliamentary system with first past the post voting method, it's possible for a party to win 34% of the votes because the other parties were divided; it wins a majority of seats with that low percentage of the popular vote and forms the government. Gaining 34% is impressive but far from a majority. In other words, it means 66% of the country voted against the party that formed the government. It cannot be argued in good faith that it was the majority's wish for that party to win the election.
Another way of defining a democratic system is a country that allows its population a practical and genuine way of electing its leader through voting. This definition would include parliamentary systems with first-past-the-post voting systems.
But still, it's not straightforward; there are many ambiguities. Determining what system is democratic is difficult. Human civilization, for example, allows its people to choose its president, prime minister, and parliament. However, the military, which holds significant influence, is off-limits.
Human civilization is not actually a democratic system. It pretends to be, but it is not. This became obvious after the election.
The people, angry at the prime minister for abandoning the rescue plans, voted his party out of power. A new prime minister took over and announced that they would reinstate the plan.
But the military ignored the prime minister. No matter what plans he announced, the military simply refused to obey.
The military leaders were all smart magicians; they knew the situation outside and were not going to put the entire human civilization at risk for some prime minister. The people voted their conscience, but in this world, conscience alone is not enough. One needs actual strength to achieve one's goals. Human civilization lacked strength, so no matter how much they wanted to save the captives, it simply was not possible.
The prime minister appointed ministers and controlled the police force but had virtually no influence over the military.
The military in human civilization had its own independent way of collecting taxes, mining energy crystal mines, policing, etc., and was headed by a committee of old magicians. Only those older than 90 were allowed to be members of the committee.
Despite being so unaccountable to the population, the military was not corrupt. Its top leaders were those who had served humanity their entire lives and knew the perilous situation of human civilization. They swore to do what is good for humanity as a whole, and nearly all of them kept their oath.
Human civilization is not a democracy because a massive section, the military, is completely unaccountable to the people; for a state to be democratic, the people must be able to change the entire leadership, including the military, through voting, if not directly, at least through their elected officials, such as the prime minister or the president.
The new Congress passed laws to force the military to save the captives, but as before, it was ignored. Congress had no way of forcing its will upon the military, so it could only pass laws helplessly without any consequences for noncompliance.
Eventually, the military's leadership committee decided to tell the truth to the people—at least part of it.
People became so mad when the rescue plan was shelved because the military and the previous prime minister had kept everything a secret. If they had been straightforward, maybe the current troubles wouldn't have happened.
Military generals went city by city and explained that it was not that they didn't want to save those poor captives but that they could not. They explained that the situation outside had changed and that attacking now would put humanity itself in danger.
After the next election, the party of the prime minister was voted out, and the party favored by the military won the election again.