"Hey, Tiandao…"
As soon as Tiandao returned to the group, Caroline gently bumped him with her shoulder.
She blinked her emerald eyes, lowered her voice, and asked curiously, "Are those things you just said aloud true?"
Tiandao pushed up his sunglasses, a cunning smirk playing on his lips: "Guess?"
Caroline frowned, and after a moment of deep thought, gave her answer.
"Although the failure rate of Star Core surgery is very high, everyone who has managed to walk off the Star Core operating table alive and persevere until now must have already adapted to the Star Core implanted within them."
"Although Chenkong hasn't displayed any Star Core abilities in the past two years, he also hasn't shown any rejection symptoms towards the Star Core, acting as normally as an ordinary person who hasn't undergone Star Core surgery."
"But if you think about it from another perspective, Chenkong, being too normal, seems a bit too abnormal."
Thinking this, Caroline immediately looked curiously at Chenkong, who was standing not far away.
It was hard to imagine that a guy who looked like a weakling no matter how you saw him, had apparently deceived everyone.
Could it be that Chenkong really has a unique Star Core, just as Tiandao said, but simply lacks the right activation conditions?
Sensing Caroline's gaze, Chenkong, who was not far away, immediately lowered his head a little awkwardly, not quite daring to meet her eyes.
After all, although Caroline hadn't really bullied him.
Caroline, like Chenxing, was the kind of person who was arrogant to the core.
The difference was that Caroline's arrogance was reserved and subtle.
Chenxing's arrogance, on the other hand, was overt and flamboyant.
Therefore, both Caroline and Chenxing looked down on the weak Chenkong from the bottom of their hearts.
It was just out of respect for Tiandao that Caroline had never spoken harshly to Chenkong.
More specifically, she hadn't spoken to Chenkong in these past two years.
It was as if, in Caroline's eyes, only Tiandao was a person; Chenkong was just air.
Cold violence is also a form of violence.
As for Tiandao…
In a sense, Tiandao was even more arrogant than Caroline and Chenxing.
It was just that his situation was a bit different from the other two.
Tiandao's arrogance was an equal arrogance.
He equally looked down on everyone.
If using Tiandao's own words, it was that whether it was Chenkong or Chenxing.
They made no significant difference to him.
Because people don't care which ant in a group of ants is big and which is small.
It was precisely because of this that Chenkong could clearly feel 'respect' from Tiandao.
Although it was a bit embarrassing to say.
But Tiandao, who saw him and everyone else as ants, was indeed the only one among the 36 Stars who didn't ostracize him and never treated him as an outcast.
Seeing Caroline curiously sizing up Chenkong, Tiandao smiled, pulled a mint candy from his pocket, and popped it into his mouth.
Under his sunglasses, his pale blue eyes flickered with a clear hint of amusement.
Of course, he wasn't lying. After all, as a transmigrator, he knew better than anyone how special Chenkong, the protagonist, truly was.
Ultimately, the reason Chenkong hadn't been able to awaken his 'Star Core' abilities.
Wasn't because his Star Core surgery had failed.
Quite the opposite, his Star Core surgery was very successful.
And it was so successful that he was the only one among everyone present, like Tiandao and Chenxing, to possess 100% compatibility, making him a 'Perfect Half-Star'.
But unlike Tiandao and Chenxing, their Star Core compatibility was dominant.
Whereas Chenkong's Star Core compatibility was recessive.
The reason for all of this stemmed from Chenkong and Chenxing's mother, who had a special identity.
Their mother wasn't an ordinary person.
But rather a rare 'Humanoid Star Beast' who had lived in human society for a long time.
Therefore, if Tiandao and the others were Half-Stars formed later through Star Core surgery.
Then Chenkong and Chenxing were innate Half-Stars.
It was just that due to some special reasons, Kong's bloodline leaned more towards his father's 'human' side, while Xing's bloodline leaned more towards his mother's 'beast' side.
This led to the two of them: one with an ordinary appearance and weak strength.
And the other with an outstanding appearance and exceptional strength.
In fact, if it weren't for Tiandao's preemptive 'scene-stealing'.
Then in the original plot, the true strongest among the 36 Stars wouldn't have been Tiandao, but Chenxing, Chenkong's older sister.
The strongest sister and the weakest brother, a standard anime trope.
Thus, Tiandao, who was familiar with the entire plot of the first season of "The Stars", knew very well.
Don't be fooled by how Chenkong currently appears no different from an ordinary person; that's only on the surface.
The reality was that his so-called 'human-like' appearance was actually Chenkong's innate ability.
An outrageous ability, so overpowered that it could nullify all Star Energy.
But precisely because this ability was too exaggerated, it even affected Chenkong himself.
Causing the Star Core implanted in his body to be completely suppressed and thoroughly nullified.
However, as long as Chenkong could realize this point.
Then he would be able to temporarily suppress his Star Beast bloodline, and in turn, activate the abilities of that Star Core.
From this perspective, Chenkong and Chenxing, this brother and sister pair, were truly anomalies among the 36 Stars.
Because everyone else, including Tiandao, only had one Star Core.
But these two guys effectively had two.
One was their innate bloodline, and the other was the acquired Star Core implanted through Star Core surgery.
This was akin to openly cheating.
If Tiandao hadn't also activated his own cheat early on, there would have been no way for him to suppress Chenxing, who was innately max level.
As for Chenkong, Tiandao didn't pay him much mind.
Because although this guy also had astonishing potential, before experiencing the plot of the final assessment.
He simply couldn't grasp the 'key' to unlock his own abilities.
This was the original plot of the first six episodes of "The Stars Prequel: Embers".
A common plot built around sibling conflict.
But this plot was based on Tiandao not appearing.
Now that Tiandao had appeared here, he naturally wouldn't let this brother-sister duo steal all the limelight.
After all, although you are the protagonists of The Stars.
Who said the protagonist must be the most popular character in an anime series?
He, Tiandao, was determined to claim the top spot in popularity!
And just as Tiandao and the others were waiting for Yunmeng to announce the contents of the final assessment.
In a VIP room within Embers Organization's Base 13, located a hundred meters underground from them.
Many unfamiliar figures, not members of the Embers Organization, gradually appeared there.
These people, though male and female, young and old.
All shared one commonality: each carried the aura of a high-ranking individual, cultivated from years of being in positions of power.
Regardless of their identities in the outside world, their sole purpose for appearing here now was one thing.
And that was to see what this epoch-making Stars Project, as described by Embers, was truly about.
If this project was truly as miraculous as Embers claimed.
Then they wouldn't mind allocating some resources to join this grand project in advance.
(End of Chapter)
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