This villain is too popular.

Chapter 3 The Perfect Half-Star

"Hey, Heavenly Dao..."

When Dao returned to the team that day, Caroline immediately nudged him lightly with her shoulder.

She blinked her emerald eyes, lowered her voice, and asked curiously, "What you just said to Kong, was it true?"

Tiandao pushed up his sunglasses, a sly smile playing on his lips: "Guess?"

Caroline frowned, pondered for a moment, and then gave her answer.

"Although the failure rate of the Star Core Surgery is very high, everyone who has survived the Star Core Surgery and persevered to this day must have adapted to the Star Core implanted in their body."

"Although Chen Kong has not shown any abilities related to the Star Core in the past two years, he has also not shown any rejection of the Star Core. He is as normal as an ordinary person who has never undergone Star Core surgery."

"But if you look at it from another angle, the overly normal dust and void seem rather abnormal."

Thinking of this, Caroline immediately looked curiously at Chen Kong, who was standing not far away.

It's unbelievable that someone who seemed so weak could somehow fool everyone.

Could it be that Chen Kong truly possesses a unique star core, just as the Heavenly Dao has said, but lacks the right conditions to activate it?
Sensing Caroline's gaze, Chen Kong, who was not far away, immediately lowered his head somewhat awkwardly, not daring to meet Caroline's eyes.

After all, Caroline hadn't really bullied him much.

But Caroline, like Duststar, is the kind of person who is proud to the core.

The only difference is that Caroline's pride is reserved and subtle.

Dust Star's arrogance is outward and flamboyant.

Therefore, both Caroline and Chenxing looked down on the weak Chenkong from the bottom of their hearts.

However, out of respect for the Heavenly Dao, Caroline did not speak harshly to Chen Kong.

To be more specific, she hasn't spoken to Chen Kong in the past two years.

It was as if, in Caroline's eyes, only the Heavenly Dao was human, while Chen Kong was merely air.

Emotional abuse can also be considered a form of violence.

As for the Heavenly Way...

In a sense, the Heavenly Dao is more arrogant than Caroline and Dust Star.

However, his situation is a little different from the previous two.

The pride of Heaven is the pride of equality.

He looked down on everyone equally.

In the words of the Heavenly Dao itself, it is either dust or stars.

To them, there wasn't much difference.

Because people don't care which ants are big and which are small in a group of ants.

It is because of this that Chen Kong was able to clearly feel 'respect' from the Heavenly Dao.

Although it's a bit embarrassing to say it.

The Heavenly Dao, who sees him and everyone else as ants, is indeed the only one among the 36 Stars who does not reject him and never treats him as an outsider.

Seeing Caroline curiously looking at Chen Kong, Tiandao smiled, took out a mint from his pocket, and popped it into his mouth.

A distinct hint of amusement flashed in his azure eyes behind the sunglasses.

Of course he wasn't lying. After all, as a time traveler, he knew better than anyone just how special the protagonist, Chen Kong, truly was.

Ultimately, the reason why Chen Kong failed to awaken his 'Star Core' ability was because...

It wasn't because his stellar core surgery failed.

On the contrary, his stellar core surgery was very successful.

Moreover, he succeeded in becoming the only 'perfect half-star' among everyone present, with 100% compatibility, just like Tiandao and Chenxing.

However, unlike the Heavenly Dao and the Dust Star, their star core compatibility is explicit.

DustVoid's core compatibility is latent.

The reason for all of this stems from Chen Kong and Chen Xing's mother, who has a special identity.

Their mother was no ordinary person.

Rather, it is a rare 'humanoid star beast' that has lived in human society for a long time. Therefore, if Tiandao and others are said to be half-stars formed after undergoing star core surgery.

Dust and Star are the primordial half-stars.

However, due to some special reasons, Kong's bloodline is more inclined towards her father's 'human' nature, while Xing's bloodline is more inclined towards her mother's 'beast' nature.

This resulted in one of them being plain-looking and weak.

One who is outstanding in appearance and exceptional in ability.

In fact, if it weren't for the way of Heaven 'stealing the show' ahead of time...

In the original story, the strongest among the 36 Stars was not Tiandao, but Chenxing, Chenkong's older sister.

The strongest older sister and the weakest younger brother – a standard setup for anime series set in another dimension.

Therefore, Tiandao, who is familiar with the entire plot of the first season of "Stars", is very clear about it.

Don't be fooled by the fact that Chen Kong looks no different from an ordinary person now; that's just an appearance.

In reality, the so-called "human-like" ability is actually Chen Kong's innate ability.

An exaggerated ability that is so outrageous that it can nullify all star energy.

However, it was precisely because this ability was so exaggerated that it even affected Chen Kong himself.

This completely suppressed and rendered ineffective the star core implanted in his body.

However, as long as Chen Kong is aware of this.

That way, he could temporarily suppress his Star Beast bloodline and thus unleash the power of that Star Core.

From this perspective, Chen Kong and Chen Xing, this brother and sister pair, are truly outliers among the 36 Stars.

Because everyone else, including the Heavenly Dao, only has one star core.

But these two guys are essentially two of them.

One is their innate bloodline, and the other is an acquired star core implanted through a star core surgery.

That's blatant cheating.

If Heaven hadn't also activated its own cheat code early on, it would have been impossible for it to suppress Chen Xing, who was at the peak of the Innate Realm.

As for Chen Kong, the Heavenly Dao didn't seem to care much about him.

Because although this guy also has amazing potential, he hasn't gone through the final test in the storyline.

This guy simply can't grasp the 'key' to unlocking his own abilities.

This is the original plot of the first six episodes of Stellaris: Ember.

A popular storyline built around the conflict between siblings.

However, this plot is based on the premise that the Heavenly Dao has not yet appeared.

Now that the Heavenly Dao has appeared here, he naturally won't let these siblings steal all the limelight.

After all, you are the main characters among the stars.

But who says the main character is necessarily the most popular character in an anime?

He, Tiandao Siming, is determined to be number one in popularity!

While Tiandao and the others were waiting for Yunmeng to announce the content of the final assessment.

In a VIP room within the Ember Organization's Base 13, a hundred meters underground.

Many unfamiliar figures, not members of the Ember Organization, began to appear here.

These people included both men and women, and were either young or old.

But they all have one thing in common: each of them carries the air of a superior cultivated from years of holding high positions.

Regardless of their identities in the outside world, they have only one purpose for being here right now.

That is to see what exactly this groundbreaking Stellar Project, as described by Ember, really is.

If this plan is really as miraculous as Yu Jin described.

They wouldn't mind contributing some resources to join this grand plan ahead of time.

(End of this chapter)