Aside from researching ways to seal the demonic bloodlines from circulation, Mike has also been investigating the big demon, including its location and the extent of its recovery. Unfortunately, his efforts have yielded nothing. Over the years, the big demon has remained quiet, contrary to what he expected.
From an outsider's perspective, it might seem like Mike has been winning, but he is far from satisfied. He now controls both humans and demons, effectively ruling the entire world, yet his longevity is still capped at 100 years. If things continue as they are, he could only live for another half-century.
...
Name: Mike
Age: 50/100
Bloodline Purity: 100%
Demonic Bloodline Mix: 120%
Combat Power Estimate: Error
Path to 121%: Error
Roll the Dice: 1 - 89%
"I am already 50 years old!" he thought, sighing. The last decade has been extremely rewarding for him; he now controls both demons and humans and is essentially the absolute ruler of the world. Despite the opportunity, he didn't kill the demons to increase the number of rollable dice because he didn't entirely trust the system. There is a slight possibility that the demonic bloodline his system collects might be going to the big demon.
"But if things continue like this, I will die anyway!" he thought. In this world, reincarnation exists, but it might as well not; very few humans remember their past lives after reincarnation. From Mike's point of view, losing his precious memories is actually worse than true death.
"Maybe I should let the system absorb those bloodline batteries?" he considered. Mike had already tested it; the system can absorb bloodlines from the batteries. However, he still doesn't trust the system and has no control over it.
"I still have half a century; let's first try other means!" he resolved. He would seriously consider it once he was 95 years old.
...
The most pressing issue Mike encountered was the severe shortage of energy crystals. The sealing and the compression formations were extremely energy-intensive, consuming all the magic crystal output of human civilization.
If it had only been the sealing formation, Mike might have been able to afford it, but there was more. He had developed a few other powerful formations to trap demonic bloodlines from the air and seal them. The cost for all this was an enormous 200 million energy stones per day! Even though human civilization and demons were working hard to mine and generate energy crystals, producing this many became an unsustainable burden.
Fortunately for Mike, demon researchers made a breakthrough, significantly reducing the sealing formation's consumption. Along with other cost-cutting measures and taking advantage of the high demonic bloodline concentration in the warehouse to produce artificial energy crystals, Mike managed to reduce the total cost to about 115 million crystals per day.
Yet, even that was unaffordable, so Mike had no choice but to shut down the open-air circulation bloodline capture system. Without great breakthroughs in research to reduce the cost, Mike wouldn't order them to run the formation again.
...
Name: Mike
Age: 95/100
Bloodline Purity: 100%
Demonic Bloodline Mix: 120%
Combat Power Estimate: Error
Path to 121%: Error
Roll the Dice: 2 - 11%
Mike sighed; the day of his 95th birthday had arrived.
Over the last four and a half decades, he ruled as the uncontested dictator of the world, using all available resources to research and find a way to increase his lifespan, but he failed.
Even though the big demon hadn't appeared even once, he still didn't dare to start killing demons and swallowing batteries to unlock more dice. He decided decades ago to rely on the system only as a last resort.
"There's no way; I have no choice but to start absorbing bloodline batteries," Mike thought, closing his eyes and bracing himself for the possibility of death.
He had no idea what would happen when he absorbed the bloodline batteries. For all he knew, the system might transfer them directly to the big demon. He had asked the demoness Moondemon before her death, but despite all her efforts, she failed to glean any clues from the fate and luck of the world.
"Let's do it!" he thought and took a bloodline battery, swallowing it whole.
He had tested his system many times and knew that it could absorb bloodlines not only from killing demons but also from killing other magicians and even from swallowing these bloodline batteries.
Not only that, but the bloodline batteries, which are very tiny and can store 99.9% demonic bloodline, once eaten, increase the progress of unlocking the next dice much faster than killing demons.
Over the last four decades, he has created over 200,000 bloodline batteries. As long as he wished, he could quickly increase the number of dice he had.
Roll the Dice: 2 – 55%
Mike took another bundle and swallowed them.
Roll the Dice: 3 - 19%.
After swallowing so many, he felt full, so he transformed into his massive wolf body and started swallowing hundreds of batteries with each bite.
Roll the Dice: 4 – 50%.
Roll the Dice: 10 - 80%.
Roll the Dice: 30 – 9%.
After ten minutes, all the stored batteries were swallowed by his wolf body. Mike transformed back into human form and smiled, the lines of age etched deeply on his face.
"Now, I can roll 30 dice; there has been no movement from the big demon, which is a good sign!" he thought.
"System, roll all the dice together!" he ordered. Years ago, he confirmed that rolling more than one die at once was possible.
"Rolling the 30 dice in progress."
"4"
"6"
"3"
"2"
"6"
"5"
"5"
"5"
"3"
"3"
"1"
"4"
"4"
"6"
"6" "3"
"6"
"3"
"6"
"4"
"3"
"4"
"4"
"5"
"1"
"4"
"1"
"6"
"2" "2"
Total Value: 115
"Not bad!" Mike smiled and waited. If it goes as it did last time, he should soon feel unimaginable pain.
After a few minutes, Mike looked at the system strangely, not knowing why the expected pain hadn't arrived.
"Error!" the system prompted. The next moment, Mike felt pain all over, as if he were exploding.
Feeling unprecedented danger, he immediately transformed into his wolf form to increase his chances of survival.
But even after becoming a huge wolf over 30 meters long, the pain not only didn't decrease but intensified.
"Is this the end?" he thought in despair and unwillingness.
Suddenly, the massive wolf exploded!
...
As the big wolf exploded, all demons and magicians around the world also disintegrated and were sucked into a black hole that suddenly appeared in the sky.
The only intelligent beings who survived were pure humans—those with no demonic blood.
...
Name: Error
Age: Error/Error
Bloodline Purity: Error
Demonic Bloodline Mix: Error
Combat Power Estimate: Error
Path to 121%: Error
Roll the Dice: Error
"'The system looks… broken?' Mike thought, puzzled. He was accustomed to dealing with system issues; the entity who created it was probably a rookie."
He looked around and saw only darkness; there was no light in any direction.
"Have I gone blind?" he thought, fear creeping in; everyone fears becoming blind, and even Mike was no exception.
He tried to move but didn't feel his body. He wanted to touch himself but failed; he had no limbs at all.
"Something went wrong!" He wanted to sigh but failed; it's impossible without lungs or a mouth.
"This situation is ridiculous—living like this, with no entertainment or things to do; it's torture. Well, at least I survived. Oh wait, maybe I turned into a ghost?" he thought.
...
Time passed; Mike's sense of it became utterly warped. He had no idea whether a year had passed or a trillion years.
After an indeterminate amount of time, the darkness slowly faded and was replaced with an unfamiliar scene.
"A forest? Why is everything so tiny?" Mike carefully touched a miniature tree; everything looked incredibly lifelike but was minuscule.
"That looks like a miniature city? There are roads and modern buildings! Did I transmigrate to a modern world? Are they tiny, or am I enormous?" he thought, uncertain.
He looked at his fingers and fell into deep thought; they were like his own fingers, completely humanoid without any anomaly.
Suddenly, a sense of crisis emerged from nowhere; it was an oppressive and unquestionable force trying to rip his body apart.
"What's going on?" His body stiffened as a few fighter jets appeared and began circling him.
"A modern world with modern warfare is nothing against me with my current physique, even if I've lost my ability to cast spells, but this strange force is too strong; I really cannot move!"
Just as he was thinking this, one of the fighter jets shot a missile, immediately causing Mike to feel a severe sense of danger.
"That missile is not simple! Maybe even nuclear or worse! Wait; this scenario—it was said that the big demon was struck by a nuclear missile; this cannot be a coincidence!" his mind quickly analyzed.
"I must avoid that missile, or I might end up like the big demon!" he thought.