Chapter 1049: Solution
After thinking for a while, Anthony spoke, "How about I offer a solution to your problems?" A smile bloomed across his face, subtle yet confident, as though he already knew the weight of what he was about to present.
"A solution?" Bryan asked, confused. What solution could he possibly offer? But the moment he had that thought, he deleted it from his mind; the Anthony he knew was a man who didn’t speak words he didn’t mean. Besides, he had seen Anthony resurrect millions of people, bringing them all back to life, an act that alone defied all conventional understanding.
What if Anthony could help? Although he didn’t know how Anthony was going to achieve that, he had to ask, he needed to know how Anthony was going to help, because the possibility alone was too significant to ignore.
Anthony, seeing Bryan’s confusion and hint of curiosity, simply acted. He raised his right hand, and on his palm, a small brown pill appeared in his hand. It was a talent pill he had just bought from the system shop with a certain "effect" attached to the talent pill, an effect tailored precisely for this situation.
"Well, since your condition is practically because your elder brother, Heinz, is less talented than you, this will solve the issue," Anthony spoke with a calm tone and a smile, "this is a talent pill, it would increase Heinz’s talent to the Planetary level the moment he swallows it," Anthony stated as he met Bryan’s gaze steadily.
Bryan immediately frowned, his eyes narrowing to slits, sharp and focused. He and Anthony had just talked about talent pills and elixirs, and he had just dismissed them as non-existent, and now, Anthony was presenting the very same thing to him as though it were nothing extraordinary.
The shock he was feeling was immense. His eyes stared at the pill sitting on Anthony’s palm without breaking focus, his mind spinning as he tried to comprehend how Anthony had come to acquire it. But then, another thought entered his mind, if Anthony had it, why hadn’t he used it for himself? Was the pill poisonous, or did it come with outrageous side effects that made it unusable?
As his mind spun, he immediately discarded the thought of Anthony using it on himself. Anthony had become one of the strongest beings in the world at the age of twenty; what use could a pill like this be to him when he had already surpassed the limits others could only dream of reaching?
Still...
"If you are worried about side effects, I give you my word, it has zero side effects and perfectly does what it’s supposed to do and nothing more," Anthony’s voice echoed from the side, his tone calm and assured, snapping Bryan out of his spiraling thoughts.
Bryan finally stopped looking at the pill, his eyes shifting towards Anthony’s sky-blue eyes. Silence passed between the two of them for a moment, heavy and contemplative, filled with unspoken thoughts and cautious consideration.
Although Bryan knew how ridiculous it sounded, he didn’t ask if Anthony was pulling a prank on him. This was a serious moment; he couldn’t joke around at a time like this, not when the implications were this profound.
"Why are you helping me?" he asked, immediately believing Anthony, taking his words for it. If this were the Dragon Emperor, he would have looked at Bryan as though he was a fool. Any normal person would at least try to run a few tests on the so-called talent pill before even considering trusting it.
"You can call it nostalgia," Anthony replied, his smile ever present, and composed, "there isn’t really a particular reason for helping you, I’m only helping because I want to and I can. There is nothing more to it. You can accept or you can reject it, your choice," he stated without a change in expression, as though the matter held no weight for him at all.
Anthony wasn’t one who particularly went around helping people; he only helped when he wanted to and whenever he wanted to, bound by neither obligation nor expectation.
Bryan’s eyes stayed on the pill for a moment, Iserios Von Deathwrath’s words echoing in his mind. Since he became the Crowned Prince, his father had always told him that nothing in this world was free; people always did things for a reason. One might not be able to see or know the reason immediately, but they would come to understand that there was always a price to pay for everything.
But now, right before him, Anthony was saying he was helping just because he wanted to and he could, a statement that directly contradicted everything he had been taught.
Bryan’s mind couldn’t help but run through a series of calculations of what Anthony might be planning. But the more he thought about it, the more he saw nothing, no hidden scheme, no underlying motive that could justify suspicion. Anthony had no reason to scheme against him or his elder brother, no benefit to gain from such a convoluted act.
He closed his eyes for a moment. Although he didn’t know if Anthony might be scheming or not, Bryan was tempted to accept. He couldn’t spend a thousand years or so within the Dragon Domain, only leaving on official duties that required his presence, living a life dictated entirely by expectation.
But then, another thought echoed in his mind. Say Anthony’s words were true, say nothing was wrong with the pill, say Anthony’s intention was genuine, there was still something that whispered at the back of Bryan’s mind... his own talent.
If Heinz took this talent pill, would Heinz become more talented than him? Yes, they would both possess talents to reach the Planetary level, but even amongst beings of that level, differences still existed. After all, a Planetary-level Dragon possessed a ninety percent chance of winning against a Planetary-level Human.
At this moment, he couldn’t help but think about his own talent. He, who was ahead of Heinz, might suddenly become... "the talentless Prince," overshadowed by the very brother he once surpassed.
This was how a person who was presented with something of this level would react. They would guess, they would think, they would calculate and reason about various traps and schemes. Not everyone was Lucian, who would just accept a talent pill from Anthony and feed it like candy to Veronica without a second thought.
As all these thoughts ran through Bryan’s mind, Anthony spoke as though reading Bryan’s thoughts, "If you are worried about your brother surpassing you, don’t worry, this pill will only boost his talent to a certain extent; although his cultivation speed would become faster, he will always remain a step behind you," Anthony assured Bryan, his tone calm.
This was the "effect" Anthony had input into the OP system when he was listing the "effect" he wanted the pill to have, a deliberate adjustment made with foresight and understanding of Bryan’s inevitable concerns.
He had already guessed that Bryan would have this thought, and no, Bryan wasn’t being selfish. This was just the way the Universe worked; no mysterious deity or laws rewarded the saintly and pure-hearted. There was nothing like karma taking revenge on someone; those were things the weak simply believed to console themselves for their weaknesses and limitations.
Bryan was simply protecting his own interests, nothing more, nothing less. It wasn’t a move against Heinz, nor was it born from malice, it was simply the natural instinct of someone who understood the value of what they possessed and feared losing it.