1: Theseus’ Ship: The Meaning and Impact of the Extraordinary Bloodline 1: Theseus’ Ship: The Meaning and Impact of the Extraordinary Bloodline Author: Plutarch
Revised in the year 169 of the Third Epoch
On the White Sand Beach of Athens, a famous ship was docked.
It was the flagship of Theseus, a hero from the First Epoch of Ancient Sirius, which had survived terrifying sea battles and was eventually placed by the people of Sirius on the beach as a historical monument.
As time passed, the wood of the ship began to rot gradually, so the people of Sirius replaced the decayed old planks with brand new ones.
After a century, almost all the wood had been replaced.
Was this “repaired” ship still the same ship of Theseus?
Let’s consider another question.
Suppose all the replaced old planks were stored in a nearby warehouse.
A century later, the ruling people of Solomon brought advanced scientific technology, enabling these decayed planks to be perfectly restored and reassembled into another ship.
Is this “reconstructed” ship still the ship of Theseus?
If so, is the ship that rests on the shore still the original ship of Theseus?
We shift our focus to Extraordinary Power.
For the past centuries, one of the ongoing debates among Purebloodists has been:
Once you become a Transcendent, can you still be considered a human?
It is well-known that in order to become a Transcendent, one must first embark on the Bloodline Path.
From lv0-lv10, each level-up requires taking a dose of Magic Potion, a total of 10 times.
When a Transcendent successfully assimilates the 10th bottle of Magic Potion, all Magic Potions within their body meld into a unique Bloodline.
According to studies at Ptolemy University, the “Bloodline Path” is actually a transformation from humans to a wholly new species.
The human genome consists of 22 pairs of autosomes, one X chromosome, and one Y chromosome, made up of over 3 billion base pairs.
These 3 billion distinct base pair genes determine that you are a human and not a dog, goat, or lion.
There are genetic differences among different races, but these differences are not significant.
Almost all oddly shaped human beings you have encountered can have their genes found within the human genome.
However, Transcendents are an exception.
According to the Medical Department at Ptolemy University, the process of consuming Magic Potion is a process of “polluting” one’s genes.
One hour after a human volunteer tried the “Strong X” Magic Potion, scientists extracted a small number of oral epithelial cells from his saliva.
The identification revealed that all 46 chromosomes had various degrees of “added weight,” with the total base pairs increasing from 3 billion to 3.6 billion.
The genes formed by these base pairs are not found in the human genome.
Referring back to our initial example, we can see this as adding a stack of planks to the Theseus’ ship of humanity.
Is it absurd to say that if a sailor brought a stack of planks onto the ship it wouldn’t be a ship anymore?
Biologically speaking, this volunteer can still be classified as human because there is no reproductive isolation between him and ordinary people, just a reduced fertility rate.
However, as this newly minted Transcendent continues to level up, here comes the problem.
Each dose of Magic Potion brings an increase in chromosome weight, adding a massive amount of alien base pairs and genes.
Even more incredibly, the Transcendent still maintains the original human physiological functions unchanged, and the new alien genes do not conflict with the existing human genes.
The “addition” process does, however, cause some functional disruptions for the Transcendent himself, similar to how your computer forcibly stops running programs during a system upgrade.
In this sense, the Magic Potion is far more formidable than any programmer-written update package, as it does not require the human body to stop functioning to accommodate its upgrade.
After a Transcendent has completed the Bloodline Path and ascended to level 10, the total base pairs have reached an astonishing 150 billion, all functioning normally together.
The base pairs that belong to human genes account for only 0.2%.
Can he still be considered a human?
Returning to the example above, if a sailor continuously, day and night, brought planks to this ship until the number of planks was tenfold, a hundredfold, a thousandfold than that of the ship.
Then he used these numerous planks to build a huge castle.
The original vessel became merely a decoration atop the central tower of the castle.
Could you then still say this is a ship?
Any person with basic sanity and judgement would conclude “this is not a ship,” “this is a castle.”
In a sense, the Bloodline Path, created from 10 bottles of Magic Potion, forced the Transcendent to evolve from a pure human into a more advanced being.
I do not know what “it” should be called, because the genes from different Bloodline Paths are not the same.
The only certainty is that “it” can no longer be considered human, although “it” still maintains the original human form, thoughts, and behaviors.
But “it” has undoubtedly stepped out of the realm of humanity, without a doubt, like a fish leaping from the sea, growing wings, and soaring into the blue sky.
For itself, it is certainly a favorable evolution.
But what about for the rest of the fish in the ocean?