Chapter 39: Recording Events by Tying Knots

Chapter 39: Chapter 39: Recording Events by Tying Knots

’Looks like this is as far as I can go.’

Chen Qi transcribed the 138 [Character Roots] into his private notebook.

Although there were only 138 [Character Roots], an hour had passed by the time Chen Qi finished writing them all down.

Beads of sweat had even formed on his forehead, and the light in his eyes had dimmed, revealing his exhaustion.

Writing ancient script was mentally draining to begin with, and the difficulty of writing [Character Roots] was a full ten times greater.

Even someone as powerful as Chen Qi nearly failed.

"WHIMPER!"

The dog, which had been unconscious, woke up again and looked at Chen Qi with a fawning expression.

"Relax, relax. I keep my word. I’ll let you go now."

Chen Qi waved his hand impatiently, and the dog immediately began to tremble in fear.

It was quite strange. Although the dog couldn’t read human writing, it could somehow understand human speech.

If it could also start speaking, it would truly be a dog spirit.

Chen Qi had originally planned to perform a craniotomy on it to study why the dog had become so intelligent.

Who would have thought this mutt was "connected" to an [Awakened]? He had no choice but to give up on the idea.

Now that he had finished studying the [Curse], the big black dog held no more value for him.

Even if the dog wanted to stay, Chen Qi wouldn’t allow it.

"Remember to stay far away from me from now on. Otherwise, I’ll smash your head in next time we meet!"

After giving the big black dog this "reminder," Chen Qi released its restraints.

The big black dog, as if granted amnesty, let out a BARK and bolted out of the laboratory.

He didn’t know if it was his imagination, but Chen Qi had a feeling the mutt had cursed at him.

’That’s not possible, is it?’

’After all, I was magnanimous enough to spare its life. It couldn’t be that ungrateful, could it?’

As for whether the big black dog would bring people back for revenge, he was overthinking things.

Although Chen Qi didn’t fully understand the effects of the [Curse], he had managed to guess a few things.

This big black dog was nothing more than a free-range [test subject].

The research Chen Qi had done on it had surely been done by others before.

Chen Qi even suspected that as long as he didn’t claim the "Spiral Horn" for himself, there probably wouldn’t be any major problems even if he killed the dog.

But this suspicion was clearly not enough to make him take the risk. This was likely the reason the dog hadn’t been killed by anyone else yet.

It wasn’t worth offending an [Awakened] player over a dog.

...

After the experiment ended, Chen Qi resumed his uneventful life of study.

However, pleasant surprises always seemed to arrive when least expected.

"My learning speed has increased!"

’Could it be that my research into the Character Roots has had some kind of effect on my brain?’

Before Chen Qi’s eyes, the [Rope Text], which had been a tangled mess of knots, suddenly became clear and unraveled on its own.

This had been completely impossible before!

[Rope Text] was a very unique form of writing. Although he didn’t know which ancient civilization created it, it likely originated from the practice of knot-tying for record-keeping.

A balled-up piece of [Rope Text] existed in a black box state, making it completely impossible to know its contents.

Only by untying the knots could one gradually discern its meaning in the process.

Chen Qi’s previous learning process had been slow and full of setbacks; it often took him more than half an hour to decipher a single byte.

But now, Chen Qi felt his learning speed had instantly increased tenfold.

’In just three days, I’ll be able to completely master the Rope Text. When I move on to the [Doumu’s Spiral] after that, my efforts will be doubly effective.’

Every time he learned a new ancient script, Chen Qi’s [Spirituality] would increase significantly, which was extremely helpful for his future studies.

This was a process of accumulating [Spirituality] that all [Magic] apprentices had to go through. Basically, as long as one spent enough time, anyone with a bit of talent for learning ancient scripts could master the other 12 types, aside from [Rope Text], [Divination Text], and [Doumu’s Spiral].

Although, "enough time" could mean several decades.

...

Things progressed exactly as Chen Qi had predicted.

Three days later, he had truly mastered all of the [Rope Text].

He felt as if he had just eaten a peerless delicacy; every cell in his body was glowing with excitement.

Well, that wasn’t an exaggeration—it was the literal truth.

In Chen Qi’s laboratory, there was now a [Biological Radar].

The image of him displayed on the radar’s screen was that of a constantly glowing human figure.

Chen Qi had purchased this [Biological Radar] on the same day he brought the dog back.

Over the past few days, Chen Qi had used the [Biological Radar] to record all of his changes.

Compared to before he learned the [Rope Text], he had indeed "brightened" a great deal.

"Boss, the Prime Minister has finally made a public appearance!"

"But he looks completely normal, with no signs of weakness whatsoever!"

Just as he was about to begin studying [Doumu’s Spiral], Chen Qi suddenly received a call from Taruno.

Curious, Chen Qi turned on the projector in his lab and saw [Cloze Jic] giving a televised address.

Although the [Prime Minister] was already 73 years old, he still spoke with great vigor and showed no signs of senility.

’Tsk tsk, now that’s a master actor.’

The [Prime Minister] on the television was exactly the same as before, delivering a state of the nation address without the slightest hint that he had recently survived an assassination attempt.

Chen Qi watched for a while but couldn’t spot anything unusual, so he turned off the television.

"Contact our previous channels and procure a few more [Biological Radars]!"

"If there are better models available, that would be even better."

Chen Qi gave Taruno a new task. Although Taruno was completely baffled, he still promised to get it done.

[Biological Radars] were not civilian products. To buy one, he had to go through the [Dark Web World].

Unfortunately, the [Lanyu Kingdom] was too weak, so the models circulating in the [Dark Web World] were all obsolete and ridiculously expensive.

But Chen Qi believed in the miraculous power of money and hoped it would bring him a pleasant surprise.

For the current Chen Qi, making money really wasn’t a difficult matter.

Just the day before yesterday, Chen Qi had once again attended auctions held in several surrounding cities.

Although nothing caught his eye, he did establish a closer relationship with [Westin Kuta].

This guy had offended a lot of people by hogging all the profits and monopolizing the import-export business with the [Dark Star Empire].

After the auction, an assassin fired four shots at him, and one of the bullets went straight through his heart.

Just as [Westin] was experiencing his Return of the Light and struggling to deliver his last words, Chen Qi mercifully saved him, mending his shattered heart.

In truth, Chen Qi had spotted the assassin long before. He could have even caught the bullets with his bare hands.

But what could he do? This approach yielded the best results.

"Reborn," [Westin] practically worshiped Chen Qi, declaring he would offer half of his family’s fortune.

Keep in mind, after monopolizing the [Dark Star Empire]’s trade, this guy had earned a hundred million in just three months.

But Chen Qi hadn’t saved him for the money. After reluctantly accepting a huge pile of gifts from the [Dark Star Empire], the two became true good friends and business partners.

The connection to [Westin], or rather, the [Dark Star Empire], was Chen Qi’s only point of contact with a major power.

Even if he could only obtain a few insignificant things, it would be enough to add several layers of security to his survival.

For example, the [special model] of the [Biological Radar] that Chen Qi wanted—items banned from sale by middle-tier powers—was something only [Westin] had the channels to acquire.

And the reason Chen Qi had his eye on the [Life Radar] was because he had finalized the concept for his [String Strangulation] skill upgrade.

But before that, Chen Qi needed to completely master [Doumu’s Spiral] and push his own condition to its absolute peak.

The [Erosion] that occurred during a skill upgrade was not something to be careless about!