Chapter 1581 Dog-shaped Energy a.s.sessment Machine
Ignoring the fawning, Luke simply asked, “Then be honest. Rank all the energies you’ve ever eaten on a scale from most to least tasty.” The dog head didn’t prevaricate at all. “Selina is first, Grandpa is second, and Luke the fiend and Claire are both third.”
Ignoring the dog head who called him a fiend behind his back, Luke walked leisurely down the street. “Is my energy half as tasty as Selina’s? Or a little less tasty? Or a lot less?”
The dog thought for a few seconds, as if weighing the difference in taste, before it finally said, “A little more than a little less tasty?” Luke long understood how this guy used words. He nodded thoughtfully. “Then it’s a lot less, but still very tasty?” The dog head said, “That’s right. Grandpa Pennyworth, you’re too smart.”
Luke wasn’t moved by the flattery at all. He continued asking, “Then are Luke and Claire’s energies half as tasty as Selina’s?”
“Theirs is indeed a lot worse, but still more than half,” the dog head replied quickly this time, clearly already having a measure in place.
Luke nodded.
To use a score out of 100, the energy in Selina’s body was worth more than 90, the energy from the credit points he had just fed Gold Nugget was around 80, and his Elementary Self-Healing and the special energy in Claire’s body were worth over 60.
Previously, he had found an opportunity to combine with Gold Nugget and quietly evaluate the other members of the team.
Alice’s Intermediate Self-Healing and her daughter’s mental energy were also over 80.
Angel’s was over 50, and the little turtles and their master were over 70.
The Kunlun Chi Refining Technique hovered between 60 and 70-plus; each person’s cultivation progress affected the taste for Gold Nugget.
Elena was more unique. Gold Nugget said that the taste of her energy was indescribable. It tasted delicious, but was hard to eat.
In the end, Gold Nugget described the taste of Elena’s energy like a combination of an In-N-Out cheeseburger, fried stinky tofu and spicy garlic paste.
The gist of it was: Good food + good food + good food. When mixed together, it turned into a strange-tasting combo that was tasty but hard to eat.
Wade’s energy naturally tasted weird. Gold Nugget had described it very precisely early on as a combo of chocolate + sh*t, which completely matched Luke’s impression of the lunatic — although he was useful, he was intolerable.
Luke had slowly figured out how Gold Nugget’s “taste test” ability worked.
His own strength had been average in the beginning, when he had only just started studying the system’s rules and functions. His research and use of superpowers had also been at a very low level.
At that time, he had been very wary of Gold Nugget’s symbiosis, and naturally didn’t want to take the risk.
If this dog head learned the shocking secrets in his head, who knew what would happen.
But in recent months, as various research achievements came out one after another, he finally focused on Gold Nugget.
This dog head was too useful and knew too many secrets. He had to thoroughly study it.
But because it had been brainwashed at the beginning, the dog head was now very sensitive to being “studied.” Even Luke’s “forbidding might” couldn’t overcome its resistance.
Gold Nugget was an important teammate.
It was probably because it wasn’t human that it couldn’t pa.s.s the system’s teammate a.s.sessment.
However, it was a smart creature who knew the most about Luke’s secrets in this world, apart from Selina.
After two years of education, Gold Nugget was already a mature dog head. Not only was it easy to take care of, it didn’t cause trouble and was very obedient. It could also be Selina’s bodyguard, pet, and confidante, and run errands and scold people online on her behalf.
The one thing it was bad at was math, but it wasn’t any worse than many people, so this couldn’t be considered a shortcoming.
Luke’s att.i.tude toward the dog head slowly changed from stern and intimidating to stern but benevolent.
Gold Nugget didn’t notice anything as it ate and played every day. However, it indeed wasn’t as fearful of Luke as it used to be.
It thought it had mastered Selina’s unique skill
— find the right time to act cheeky, and it would be fine.
Actually, Luke wasn’t a stern person to begin with. It was fine as long as Gold Nugget did things properly and didn’t mess around
In any case, there had been a saying in his previous life: “A dog is a son, a cat is a master.” How many sons weren’t naughty?
Thus, Luke used the excuse of “researching taste” and “studying mental resistance” to trick it into partic.i.p.ating in various tests. Gold Nugget couldn’t resist “sampling energy.”
Selina’s energy was top-notch, but Luke was afraid that it would affect Selina’s body, so he only gave Gold Nugget a 1% quota.
Besides, after eating Selina’s energy for so long, it did need a change.
After multiple experiments, Luke concluded that Gold Nugget couldn’t access all the information in its host’s brain through the symbiosis.
So, Gold Nugget combined with the clone as a test.
Combine with Luke’s real body? That was impossible.
The clone, as a “system code,” was the most reliable test subject.
Sure enough, after the symbiosis, the system sent a notification: “Mental energy link from symbiote detected. Accept?” Luke chose no.
The symbiosis could still happen, but when Gold Nugget was asked, it said that it could only sense the clone’s more intense thoughts.
It could sense fleeting thoughts during the symbiosis process, but according to Gold Nugget, the clone’s brain was “empty.”
Although it was an annoying reply, Luke knew that it wasn’t like the dog head was actually scolding him.
To its senses, the clone had a blank consciousness and didn’t have any thoughts.
When Selina and Gold Nugget combined, it got a whole bunch of information from her. Gold Nugget could easily sense surface thoughts, like body movements.
Under that were random thoughts that popped up, like wanting to eat char siu, sweet and sour pork, tomato squirrel fish and so on.
At an even deeper level, Gold Nugget would have to carefully discern the thoughts in order to understand them, like what Luke was doing now, how many people he was beating up tonight, and so on.
These three levels of the host’s consciousness were what this symbiote was most familiar with.
It took a great deal of effort to communicate with the consciousness at an even deeper lever, and was generally unnecessary.
Luke speculated that what Gold Nugget was connected to during the symbiosis was part of the host’s self-awareness.
This was mostly focused on the self, like eating, drinking and having fun, which were typical biological instincts.
Gold Nugget automatically steered clear of the part that dealt with the host’s ego and conflict. That way, it wouldn’t go crazy. At the same time, it was influenced by Dollar’s instincts, and recognized Selina as its master.
When it came to the clone, Gold Nugget could only sense and communicate with the first layer of consciousness.
This “hollow sh.e.l.l” was what the dog remembered.
As Luke pondered, Gold Nugget suddenly exclaimed, “Ah, something big’s happened. Grandpa, send me back.”