Thousand-Faced Dragon

Chapter 166 God Card? Useless Card?
If we rewind a little, when Rean was dragged into the room, he naturally tossed the Heroic Spirit Compendium aside.

Rean didn't unconsciously draw a card while confused; in fact, he didn't do anything at all.

The way the Heroic Spirits, or rather, it's hard to say "it" of the Heroic Spirits, came to us is different from other Heroic Spirits.

"Huh? My actions are actually connected to this?"

Some things, even in death, do not represent complete annihilation.

In the void, or rather at the end of the causal chain, a colossal figure, long since deemed to be unable to return, sensed its karma being pulled in the wrong direction.

So it flicked its tail.

At another coordinate in time and space, Rean's Heroic Spirit Compendium opened on its own.

It quickly flipped through the pages and opened a random hero illustration.

Then, the Heroic Soul Card was activated!
The Heroic Spirit Card appeared on the encyclopedia, its design constantly flashing.

Finally, just as the pattern on it was about to emerge into a human figure floating in mid-air, whose pupils flashed with psychic lightning, clearly indicating a super-powerful psychic.
"Since I may be summoned in the future, it is only natural that I am summoned in advance."

That's right, this heroic spirit came on its own!
At the end of time and space, in a place that should be empty, the existence of nothingness, a casual remark, once again disrupts reality.
[Heroic Soul Encyclopedia V2: Heroic Soul Artifacts Detected]

[Random summoning has stopped. The next hero has been locked. Random draw will now be replaced with designated acquisition.]

[Heroic Spirit Locks Target: %&#]

And so, %&# came about.

It was too powerful and twisted to be recorded or even behold by mortals. In fact, to prevent its return, the entire world forgot about it. Even though everyone knew that if it wanted to come back, no one could stop it!

This time, it was only because "itself" mentioned "its own name" that it wanted to come back and take a look.

It slowly crawled out of the encyclopedia, but it wasn't in the form of the little black snake that appeared later.

A gigantic, bizarrely distorted black shadow, too large to look at directly, slowly emerged from the encyclopedia.

It took over the room, the street, the whole city, and this underground world.

At this moment, even the goddesses, even the hidden divine will of this city, still did not realize that they only felt a slight oppression, as if they had been seen by something.

When everything around it was it, it smiled happily and also knew everything that had just happened.

It slowly lowered its head, transcending the limitations of space, and saw its own Heroic Soul Card.

Above is a dark shadow of a distorted, vast, and boundless universe, and below is a garbled name with "%&#".

It frowned; it was probably only natural that the Heroic Spirit Encyclopedia couldn't record its existence.

Scribbled patterns are normal, but isn't it a bit much to have garbled names too?

"Tsk, racial discrimination against us beasts again." It casually attributed its outrageous and unrecordable reality to racial discrimination.

Anyway, it wasn't my fault.

Under its watchful gaze, the encyclopedia of heroes was rewritten!
The pattern above transformed into a cute little black snake. Then, its existence was observed and described by itself, and it gradually shrank, transforming into a seemingly ordinary little snake.

Upon its return, it showed no interest in the two people on the bed, but instead took the illustrated guide and went to the hall.

During those four days, it wandered around, exploring the streets, the surface, the upper planes (Heavenly Mountain), and the abyss (the home of demons). When it didn't want anyone to see it, very few beings could actually see it.

It is dead, or rather, it had to die for the sake of the Thousand-Faced Dragon's existence and reincarnation.

But if it really wants to come back, who can stop it? After all...
"Me? I'm a snake, an ordinary snake."

As it spoke, it patted its own illustration of heroic spirits, and the little snake that had been writhing on the illustration finally stopped.

And it stepped aside slightly, revealing its name.

【snake】

Yes, that's it. "%&#" represents a snake.

It is the origin of Rean's beast transformation, the origin of all snake magical girls, the origin of the civil war between beasts and beastmen, and it is no problem to say that it is the historical origin of the modern beastman era.

“Uh, you’re not the snake I know, are you?” Rean paused for a moment, thinking that he must be a member of the Purple Rose Clan.

I never imagined our Thousand-Faced Dragon was so powerful, he could even reincarnate a horde of beasts. Rean tried his best to think in that direction!

Please, please don't let it be that "snake".

"Hiss."

The little black snake flicked its tongue happily, seemingly quite satisfied with Rean's ostrich-like pretense of not knowing. It shook its head, and a blurry figure appeared before Rean.

That was a memory, an image from ancient times.

Under a towering tree, apes frolicked and played.

A small black snake slowly fell from the tree trunk.

Its tail was wrapped around a red apple.
"Want some? This lovely forbidden fruit is incredibly delicious. Would you trade a peaceful life for emotion and wisdom?"

The tempting snake uttered a chilling declaration.

Most apes ignored it, but one pair seemed a little curious; they were
[Beastification level increased by 20%! Beastification has become unstable! High-risk source detected, please take evasive action immediately! Take evasive action!]

Rean woke up instantly and quickly closed his eyes, but it was too late!

Unbeknownst to him, his body was now covered in black scales, and black blood was flowing from his eyes.

His entire body was completely twisted, transforming from a half-human, half-dragon into a half-human, half-snake.

"Sorry, sorry, I didn't expect you to be so weak. Let's start over."

The little black snake wagged its tail again.

As a result, Rean's beastification level dropped directly! The scaly monster transformed back into flesh and blood.

Rean stared at his fleshy arm, his face filled with disbelief.

Theoretically, this is simply impossible! Beastification is absolutely irreversible!

Rean was completely dumbfounded. Could the snake in front of him really be the one that caused the current state of his race?

That scene clearly displayed Lee Eun-suk's morbid sense of humor. So, is this scene, which parodies a biblical story, the historical truth of this world?

Could it be that all of this, the current beastman civilization, is just a joke played on the existence before us?

"No, no, I'm a victim too. I'm just an ordinary member of the Thousand-Faced Dragon. I'm no different from Kuku and Suer, whom you know. I only realized I was you before I was killed."

Can this be believed? Rean gave a wry smile. If it really was this man, there seemed to be no need for him to lie to him.

"No, I might be lying to you for fun. I came here specifically to have fun." If toys were that easy to lie flat, they wouldn't be interesting.

Okay, Rean takes back his "idea". Can you heroes please respect my right to privacy?

The snake glanced at it, then shook its head and sighed.

I'm too weak. I arrived too early. If we really start playing, I might get wiped out in an instant, and then it won't be fun at all.

This time, I'll just take a look.

"Let me make this clear first, I can't teach you anything, and I will never find any successor, or even let anyone else see it." The implication is that you, my spirit, plan to slack off and do nothing for the remaining ten days.

"Uh, what can you do?" Rean was already numb. Getting a powerful character should be a good thing, but aren't you going a bit too far? Did I just draw for nothing?
"This is for your own good. If I were to do something and interfere with the currents of the world, it would be a devastating catastrophe for you and everyone around you. You're right now. Congratulations, you've drawn a useless card. Yeah, you big black hand!"

The snake said smugly, watching with amusement as Rean's face twisted in pain.

Rean took a deep breath, trying to keep his composure. Compared to Kuku when they first met, the little snake in front of him was only moderately annoying.

Its very identity alone makes it far from a useless card.

Even if it doesn't intend to do anything, it is still a channel for it to learn the truth.

"Are you the true identity of the Thousand-Faced Dragon?" This might be my chance to end everything.

Could it be that the entire transformation of the Thousand-Faced Dragon was orchestrated by the person before us? What was its purpose?
Dragons and snakes can be confused in some ways; could the thousand-faced dragon refer to a "snake"?

"No, you are the Thousand-Faced Dragon. I am merely a snake, a pitiful, forced, and manipulated beast. I am a victim, just like you."

Rean didn't believe a word of it. After thinking for a moment, he changed his story.

"Are you the first Thousand-Faced Dragon? Are you the strongest Thousand-Faced Dragon?" This was a question Rean had already thought of, just waiting to encounter a sufficiently experienced Heroic Spirit.

Upon hearing this, the little black snake laughed; it had been waiting for this question for a long time.

But it simply wagged its tail and revealed an even more unacceptable "truth".

"No, I can't even be considered one of the earliest. As for strength, I probably wouldn't even rank in the top ten."

(End of this chapter)