[Race: Half Knull, Half—Unknown]
This was the clearest signal to Ryuk that the system just couldn't be functioning well.
How could he, who was clearly a human, be a Knull halfling?
But the next few words from the system had Ryuk's eyes furrowing.
[The Host may have doubts, but the system has been able to scan the blood flowing through the Host's veins, around the heart area, and can easily determine with an accuracy of 99.99% that the Host is a Knull!]
[A half-Knull might perhaps be the exact term to describe it, as flowing through the Host's veins is another bloodline, which the system has never come into contact with, and therefore is unable to truly determine—hence the designation: unknown.]
"But that's impossible. Are you blind?"
"I am a human. Look at my arms and legs!" Ryuk barked back.
[The system does not focus on the Host's external body as a determining factor of what race the Host is.]
[The system targets the DNA strands, and according to that, Host is nothing like a human.]
[Not even the slightest trace of human genome can be found in the Host at all, and the possibility of the unknown bloodline being human is nil.]
[Host is a hybrid of a Knull and an unknown other race with unknown origins.]
[As for the Host possessing arms and legs—according to the system's calculations, Host's arms and legs are not actual flesh but appear to be a product of incredibly advanced bio-nanotechnology from a seemingly higher race.]
[Apart from crucial organs like the heart and the brain, Host's entire body seems to have been made of this advanced nanotechnology.]
[Fascinating is the fact that this bio-nanotechnology that makes up the Host seems to be capable of separation and rapid mending, just like how cells divide and rapidly replicate themselves.]
[This feature allows the Host's body to replicate itself, making it capable of regeneration.]
[This feature is most likely what allowed the Host to recover from their severed hand.]
[A potential scanning of the Host's body to understand more is being conducted.]
[Scanning is being prevented by a mysterious force, and the system does not possess enough knowledge to decode the limiting force.]
[All I can deduce from this is that Host's body seems to be capable of improving its durability and power.]
A wall of text suddenly appeared on the interface, as the system went on and on about his mysterious body.
Yet Ryuk's eyes never left the panel, taking in every single bit of information, as ridiculous and absurd as it sounded.
"So you're saying... apart from my important organs, I am actually a living robot made of nothing but bio-tatotechnology?"
[No, Host. It is bio-nanotechnology.]
[And also no, Host is not a robot, as the Host possesses their own brain and heart instead of a power core or programming chip.]
[Only the Host's physical parts are made of this bio-nanotechnology.]
[It's as if the Host's true organs had been torn away and replaced with this technology—or maybe the Host never possessed a body at all, hence the fusion with the bio-nanotechnology.]
BA-DUMP! BA-DUMP! BA-DUMP!
The sound of the heart beating wildly resonated through the room as Ryuk stared blankly at the screen, jaw dropping.
His entire understanding of his life was being ruthlessly torn apart.
Ever since birth, Ryuk had always felt different when it came to his body.
It was stronger, more agile, and faster than normal.
He had been fortunate to test it against a few hunters, and one thing Ryuk had always noticed was that his bones seemed stronger than normal.
He had always believed he had a normal arm—until his fight with the sewer rat, when he discovered he was a robot.
At first, Ryuk thought it was only his left arm.
But the information he was currently being given by the system was tearing apart everything he knew.
Immediately, Ryuk's eyes darted around the room, and he soon spotted a knife at the side.
With shaky legs, he walked toward it, grabbed the knife, and then—
The sound of the blade tearing through flesh resonated, but closely following was the sound of metal clashing against metal as Ryuk dug the knife straight into his right leg.
Tearing the knife out, a wave of pain assaulted his head, but he bit down hard as blood began flowing out of his leg.
"You see now? I'm human. Look at the blood flowing," Ryuk said aloud to the system, though it seemed more like he was consoling himself.
But his thoughts were interrupted by a new set of notifications.
[Host should remain in that position for the next five minutes and watch...]
The system's voice suddenly broke through.
Ryuk raised an eyebrow, but it hadn't even been a few seconds when his eyes widened in shock.
Slowly, the blood on the knife that Ryuk had stabbed into his leg, as well as the blood on his leg, began rising into the air like drops of water merging together.
The blood started moving into itself, and Ryuk watched in disbelief as it flowed back into the wound on his legs.
His flesh, which had been torn, suddenly developed a strange metallic goo that flowed over the tear in his leg.
It began hardening and repairing itself.
In less than four minutes, all the blood Ryuk had spilled from stabbing his leg had returned to his body.
A metallic sheen covered the wound briefly before strange white flesh began growing over it in the shape of weird scales.
The injury was quickly concealed, and once more, Ryuk's leg was smooth and indistinguishable from the rest of his body.
"Holy mother of sweet monkey milk!" Ryuk cursed in shock, backing away from his own leg.
[The reason for the blood returning to the Host might be due to the Host's blood not being finite, unlike the bio-nanotechnology.]
[Hopefully, this proves to the Host that their body is not flesh, but an almost perfect mimicry of it.]
"So you were right," Ryuk muttered to himself.
He had thought the system was scary, but it seemed he was the one being fooled all this time.
"So wait... if my legs and arms are not human but mimicry of the human body, does that mean the blood flowing through me is not human either?"
"Could it actually be... that of a Knull?"
"But how? How can I be a Knull?"
"How can I be one of those detestable evil creatures?"
"How can I be part of a race that just killed my uncle!?"
Ryuk asked repeatedly, feeling his mind breaking down when suddenly, an idea entered his head, and he paused.
"Uncle Bob was killed by a Knull."
"But instead of being burned to nothing, I found him still surviving in the underground basement."
"The fact that he disintegrated into ash in the end means he must have exchanged moves with the Knull."
"But he survived and lived."
"The Knull is as strong as an A-grade mutant beast."
"How could Uncle Bob not have died immediately?"
"And also... could it be that..."
"Uncle Bob was never... was never human either!?"