The Ultimate Evolution

Sheyan was also at a loss when he saw the unusual phenomenon happening to ‘Repentance’ and ‘Ambition’. He waited for a long time, but they showed no further reaction. Even the well-informed and knowledgeable miner did not have any good suggestion. Sheyan probably had no other choice but to wait patiently for a certain period of time, so he kept the weapons back in his storage. Since he already had both weapons in his possession, he was not too worried.

The pair of energy batteries appeared in the sale of the unsold miscellaneous items as he had expected. The seller reaped what he sowed. If he had let Sheyan win the auction, he would have earned at least 10,000 more utility points, but he just had to try and raise the price. It was already considered fortunate that he was still able to sell the batteries now.

Sheyan should have returned to his own nightmare realm after the end of the auction, and then went straight home to rest. The psychological battle he had gone through in the auction had taken a huge toll on his mind, and he was now even more tired than he was before. His eyelids felt unbelievably heavy. However, he fought hard to keep himself alert and kept persevering.

That’s because he found that there were actually quite a lot of confidential information in the miner’s information database. Going by the conditions for acquiring ‘Ambition’ that the miner had told him just now, it seemed that although this information may contain some discrepancies compared to reality, it was still extremely useful.

Sheyan had accepted the bonus promotion mission in conjunction with the anniversary of the Empire. This was one of those unconventional missions which were hugely popular because the flow of time during the mission would be different from that in the world his party members were in, so it would not interfere with the next time he had to venture into a nightmare world.

Sheyan had come up with a bold idea. He wanted to see if he could kill two birds with one stone by carrying out the “Silver Mission Series Hidden Branch, Chapter 2: Injection” simultaneously with this promotion mission. This would prevent Sheyan from being forced to separate from his party when he ventured into the next world, as per the instruction.

The miner queried his database after he heard Sheyan’s question. After a while, he answered with some hesitation. “Your first mission is related to military ranks, so the level of confidentiality has been raised to a yellow level, and the second mission may involve a divine equipment, so the level is as high as red. I’ll need to do some hacking to obtain these information….”

Sheyan immediately understood what he meant. He told the miner, “Don’t worry, if there’s a fee involved, I’ll gladly pay it.”

“Information of Red Confidentiality Level and Yellow Confidentiality Level….You need at least a military rank of Major General to check them, so it won’t be cheap,” the miner told him with a shrug.

Sheyan smiled. “There’s a saying in my hometown: you get what you pay for. As long as the information is accurate, it’s fine even if it’s expensive.”

Hearing that, the miner replied, “You can rest easy in regards to the reliability of the information. The cost is….120,000. A hundred thousand for the hacking, and twenty thousand for the risk I take.”

Sheyan immediately transferred 120,000 utility points over without the slightest bit of hesitation. The miner soon provided him with the information he needed.

“Bonus promotional missions are often offered to those who have made outstanding contributions, such as ranking first in honour points in high-end battlefields, killing a certain key figure on the red-level wanted list, etc. You’re lucky enough to chance across the anniversary celebration of the Empire and be able to seize this opportunity. According to analysis, the most likely type of mission would be to assassinate the rebelling native inhabitants. The second most likely mission type is to investigate an unexplored area — you’ll have to draw a map and collect information and such. It could also be a rescue-type mission.”

“The injection of energy into the liquid metal enhanced life-form involves traveling to specific regions in some specific worlds to let it swallow some special minerals with relatively low metal content. These minerals are known as spotted crystals. But why must the metal content in the spotted crystals be relatively low?”

“That’s because the liquid metal enhanced life-form is immature and very weak at the beginning, so it needs to be cultivated slowly. Feeding it minerals with high metal content from the beginning would be like feeding a baby fatty meat, it’ll do more harm than good. The non-metallic components of spotted crystals are also very helpful for the division and the increase in cell count of liquid metal cells.”

“Theoretically speaking, it’s possible to perform both missions simultaneously like you wanted. Just remember, when you choose the mission, you must do your best to choose one that’s to be carried out on a planet that’s as primitive as possible.”

“The reason is because spotted crystals are essentially a kind of metallic life-form, and they’re extremely sensitive to pollution. The more developed the area, the less likely you’ll find spotted crystals there. This will give you an idea — the exhaust gas emitted by a spacecraft when it lands is enough to destroy all the spotted crystals nearly a thousand square kilometers around it.”

Sheyan was carefully recording all this information. When he heard the last sentence, he was somewhat surprised.

“You mean I won’t go there through a portal?”

The miner gave Sheyan a deep gaze. Only after a while did he say,

“You’re already an official Lieutenant Colonel, so you’re entitled to some high-level secrets now.”

(TL’s note: Here, the author referred the readers to a post titled “Background” in the Appendix, which he had published together with this chapter. The post explains the whole history behind the nightmare realm. Being the awesome translator that I am, of course I translated the post too. I hope you don’t mind that I made it the bonus chapter #6 for December. It’s about as long as a full chapter and, honestly, it’s really difficult to translate. It took me quite a while. Here’s the link: patreon.com/posts/23492368 )

Sheyan thought himself a pretty smart person, but even he was dumbstruck after he had finished listening to the miner’s explanation.

He only recovered after a while. “So, the bonus promotion mission I’m getting now, is that part of the Interstellar Colonisation Project? What I’m going to do is no longer to go to one of the parallel worlds that had emerged due to the disorder in space-time, but to a real planet in the universe in the future?”

“Correct,” said the miner with a firm nod.

Sheyan stiffened for a moment. He could not help saying, “That’s way beyond my expectation.”

The miner laughed in reply. “You don’t have to be so nervous. Before sending you out on the mission, they’ll definitely make you go through a series of training courses so that you can adapt to the environment as soon as possible. They’re not sending you there to die. Every contestant who has managed to develop into a Major is a valuable asset, let alone a Lieutenant Colonel like you.”

“I see,” Sheyan nodded.

The auction was over by now. The virtual environment fluctuated and was becoming blurry as the energy supporting it gradually lessened.

Sheyan looked at the miner and asked one last time, “You have any other useful information for me?”

The miner pondered for a moment and suddenly smiled. He told Sheyan, “Unlike you guys, most of our workplaces are on alien planets. We have few opportunities to travel to the parallel worlds. I just want to let you know that perhaps in the chaotic adventure worlds that are the parallel worlds, you may find it beneficial to sidetrack from your main task to look for additional opportunities. But on those real planets that are not fully developed, it’s best to concentrate on your own business to ensure your survival. Getting distracted is akin to making trouble for yourself.”

After that, the miner disappeared from right in front of Sheyan. Sheyan also returned to his nightmare realm. He half rested on the couch, pressing his index finger on his temple, feeling the painful throbbing there. His brain was in a mess; he could not think of anything at all.

He walked out of the nightmare realm and returned to the real world in a blur.

When Sheyan stepped out from the staircase, he found that although it was only a little after 9 in the morning, the subtropical sun was already scorching hot, pouring intense heat onto his skin. Perhaps such intense ultraviolet rays were a little too strong for those who came here for vacation or for work, but for Sheyan who needed to loosen up, he enjoyed the warmth a great deal.

He walked into a coconut grove with a dizzy mind, rented a hammock which were very common in the area, ordered a fresh coconut, and then lay down comfortably.

An immense sense of comfort immediately washed over him.

The sparse branches and leaves of the coconut trees shaded a portion of the sun from his body. The sunlight that fell onto him was just right; it was warm and pleasurable. Sheyan took a sip of sweet coconut juice. The straw was still in his mouth when a faint snoring sound could be heard coming from him. He had already fallen asleep.

***

Sheyan was roused by the old lady who rented out the hammocks.

He rubbed his sleepy eyes as he sat up on the hammock. His body was still screaming for more sleep, but he could see that red clouds had already filled the sky in the distance. The sun had fallen below the horizon; it was already later than seven o’clock in the evening. To continue sleeping on the hammock would be very bad for his body.

Sheyan rubbed his head. All the thoughts that had been hovering in his mind rushed towards him at once. His back felt itchy, so he stretched his hand to scratch it. He then felt all the deep marks left by the rope of the hammock on his back.

When Sheyan turned his head to one side, he sucked in a sharp breath. Because he was simply too tired just now, his muscles had completely relaxed during his sleep. He had sat up a bit too quickly, and his neck was now spasming with a sharp pain like it was cramping up.

Truthfully, what had happened to Sheyan was not too bad considering his situation. Occasionally, in hospitals, one could find patients who died of cervical spine rupture after getting drunk. That was caused by the complete relaxation of the muscles around the neck after the victim had passed out from alcohol. When the victim’s friend moved the drunken person, the victim’s head may be flung from one side to another. Without the protection of the neck muscles, the cervical spine directly ruptured….

Sheyan held his neck and kept massaging it while sucking in deep breaths of air. After he felt a little better, he walked over to the wharf. Sleep was no longer the top priority for him right now, because his hungry stomach had raised a serious protest. He found a roadside food stall and took a seat.

The stall owner and Sheyan were familiar with each other. First, the owner brought Sheyan two deep-sea oysters which had just come ashore. Sheyan used a knife to pry them open and suck the flesh into his mouth with no other flavouring. Although the taste was a little fishy, but if one was used to it, then it was quite a unique taste.

Sheyan’s hungry stomach naturally had to be filled with more than that. He ordered a table full of small dishes such as fried oysters, Guangdong porridge, fried twigs and stinky tofu to go with some rice. He also ordered the signature golden prawn dish here that was quite authentic.

When Sheyan was about to go home to continue his sleep, his nightmare imprint suddenly heated up, informing him that there was an abnormal situation inside his personal storage space. He thought that the abnormal situation meant the reunion of ‘Ambition’ and ‘Repentance’ had finally concluded, but after Sheyan checked his personal storage with some excitement, his expression suddenly turned grim.