The Ultimate Evolution

As soon as Sheyan took the milky-white light sphere out of his personal storage and put it on the table, the white light completely faded away. The contents in it fell onto the table with a clatter. Among them was a weapon that was shining brilliantly.

The first thing which caught Sheyan’s attention was not the weapon, but the various parts that were scattered around the table.

Sheyan had always been blessed with a good memory, so of course he could see that these parts were all originally from ‘Ambition’ and ‘Repentance’. The way the parts fell onto the table somehow felt quite bloody and tragic, as if they were the hands, feet, ears and noses that were violently torn off opposing gladiators fighting in the Colosseum!

Those parts showed signs of heavy decay, as if they had been exposed to the air for hundreds of years. The spirit and vitality in them seemed to have been exhausted.

Also making its appearance in front of Sheyan was a brand new weapon.

It was actually a silver-coloured double-barreled shotgun!!!

The two parallel barrels were undoubtedly composed of the barrels from ‘Ambition’ and ‘Repentance’. A sense of ruthlessness permeated through the hard, cold metal.

The body under the barrel was likely made of carefully-processed rosewood. The faint reddish-brown texture of the wood gave off a heavy sense of passing times. The silver metal bridge and trigger exuded a faint taste and aura of holiness.

Sheyan reached out to touch the shotgun. A delicate, cold and hard sensation could be felt at the tip of his fingers. With the gun in his grasp, he could not help but feel as if he was a superior being who could pass down judgement upon others with but a wave of his hands — not like a crude, dirty and barbaric executioner, but like a fanatical inquisitor who, amidst a pious and melodious hymn, passed down a death sentence on everyone in front of him!

Obviously, for some unknown reasons, most of ‘Ambition’ and ‘Repentance’ had disassembled and then reassembled into a new weapon. The new weapon was no longer a matchlock musket, but a more advanced breech loader gun instead.

However, although ‘Ambition’ and ‘Repentance’ were of the same model, they had a slight difference in colour. After all, ‘Repentance’ had been carefully preserved, while ‘Ambition’ was not. ‘Ambition’ was first kept by Paul, then it followed Sheyan everywhere in his travel. So, of course it looked more weathered.

Therefore, the splicing marks on the new weapon were quite obvious. Sheyan could clearly tell which parts were previously from ‘Ambition’ and which parts were from ‘Repentance’.

Under Sheyan’s observation, a series of data emerged:

[ Verdict (Double-barreled trigger-type breechloader) ]

[ Origin: Navarra “Firecracker” Armament Factory ]

[ Rarity: Dark Gold (Special) ]

[ Attack Power: 201-301 ]

[ Damage Type: Holy (Holy attribute attacks cause 150% damage to targets with dark affinity and only 50% damage to targets with holy affinity. In addition, the defence of a target attacked by holy attribute attack will be reduced by 50% by default, unless the target has a specific resistance to holy attribute attacks). ]

[ Material: Pine (a cross worshipped for centuries), iron (holy water used during production) and silver (melted from a silver basin which held holy water in it for a hundred and seventy-five years) ]

[ Possible Addons: Stock/Strap ]

[ Attached Addon (1): West VII Tactical Stock. Shot precision +15. ]

[ Attached Addon (2): Lexington Rifle Strap. +10% chance of hitting a fatal spot. ]

[ Optimum Range (Able to display its maximum damage of 301): 10 meters. ]

[ Effective Range (Able to deal some damage to enemies): 30 meters. ]

[ Weight: 4.2 kg. ]

[ Full Length: 350 mm ]

[ Magazine Capacity: 1 round, plus 1 more round from additional slot modification ]

[ Reloading Interval: 1 minute (additional slot modification) ]

[ Equipment Operating Requirement: 50 Strength and 60 Physique ]

[ Unlimited Ammunition ]

[ Can also be manually loaded with silver bullets, increasing damage to evil undead creatures by an additional 50%. ]

[ Perceptive Sense +7 ]

[ Agility +7 ]

[ Strength +7 ]

[ Special Passive Ability: ‘Evolvable’ (inherited from Ambition). This is a weapon that can evolve. It will constantly try to absorb various kinds of energy via the destruction of the enemies in battle to improve its own strength. Although it is a long process, as long as the weapon is given enough time and opportunity, it could possibly move towards a higher grade. ]

[ Special Passive Ability: ‘Murder Weapon II’ (evolved due to Ambition). This weapon had taken the life of an important figure a long time ago. It is good at capturing the enemy’s weakness. The more powerful the enemy is, the higher the additional damage this weapon will deal. The range of the additional damage is 10% to 40%, 10% being the additional damage for the most mediocre of elite enemies). ]

[ Active Ability: ‘The Mourning of the Heretics’ (this is a new ability gained after the fusion of the two weapons). Wash away your sins with your blood and life, Amen. ]

[ Judge all the enemies in the weapon’s shooting range as heretics, temporarily changing their types to evil undead. ]

[ While the enemy is judged as a heretic, 50% of all damage you inflict upon the enemy (not just the damage caused by ‘Verdict’) will be converted into holy light, healing your injuries. When the healing amount reaches 40% of your total HP, the heretic identity of the enemy will disappear. ]

[ At the same time that the enemy is judged as a heretic, a powerful holy light will transform the bullets in the gun barrel into shotgun shells, turning your next shot into an area of effect attack. It will surely hit the enemy and stun the enemy for five seconds. ]

[ ‘The Mourning of the Heretics’ cooldown time: 8 minutes. ]

[ Musket category passive effect: ‘Ready II’. During a non-combat state, the damage for the next attack of the musket will gradually increase over time, up to a maximum additional damage of 100%. ]

[ Hint: After firing, the accumulated additional damage will disappear, and the counter will reset to zero. ]

[ Handgun category additional effect: Shot precision +10%, shooting distance -10% ]

[ All attacks and abilities of this weapon have Domain precedence! ]

(TL: Ability effect precedence: No precedence < Slight precedence < Authoritative < Domain precedence < Domain authority)

[ Description: This is a powerful weapon which embodies the rule of the jungle, where “survival of the fittest” is the law. Unfortunately, ‘Repentance’ lost. ]

[ Mini engravings on the gun handle: Ha-ha-ha! ‘Repentance’, that bastard, has finally lost to me. I, ‘Ambition’, am the strongest! ]

***

After Sheyan had read the properties of ‘Verdict’, three black lines appeared on his forehead. Even with his rich imagination, he was still completely deceived by the engravings on both guns, which he had thought were full of tender feelings.

Let us take a look at those tender lines.

‘Repentance’: “This gun has always thirsted for a reunion with its brother.”

‘Ambition’: “This gun has always thirsted for a reunion with its brother after becoming stronger.”

Such lovely dialogues between the lost brothers. Sheyan had an inspirational feeling when he first read ‘Ambition”s wish to reunite with its brother “after becoming stronger” — to stand in front of it’s brother after becoming stronger, how proud its brother must feel of it!

Sheyan had correctly guessed the beginning, but not the end.

It seemed that these two guns were the classic examples of brothers who turned against each other! It turned out that when one read the engravings on them, one must read between the lines. This gun had always thirsted for a reunion with its brother…so that it could pay back the blood debt it owed!

But what Sheyan was curious about was: how did ambition win the fight between the two guns?

Logically speaking, a fight between a dark gold grade equipment and a black grade equipment should be completely one-sided without any suspense.

The ‘Evolvable’ ability had probably helped. This ability should be the hidden ability of ‘Ambition’, it just could not be displayed before this because the weapon’s grade was too low.

In any case, Sheyan felt a lot more confident in this mission after he got the new weapon. His mood instantly turned better.

Zi and the rest still showed no signs of returning to the realm, while Jinkuang was still sleeping. With no other choice, Sheyan could only leave behind a video recording in which he explained in detail his various experiences after leaving the Terminator world. Next, he went straight to the Hall of Honour to report for duty.

After arriving at the Hall of Honour, Sheyan entered his personal office, sat down and took out the conscription order. Not long afterwards, the chair he was sitting on slid down rapidly and in the end, he arrived at a wide passage.

Sheyan walked along the passage for about a hundred meters. A Second Lieutenant in a stiff military uniform came forward to receive him. The Second Lieutenant originally had an impatient expression, but after he saw Sheyan’s official Lieutenant Colonel rank, his face suddenly turned serious. He stood to attention and told Sheyan, “I was ordered to take you to the assembly spaceship, sir. Please follow me.”

Sheyan noticed that the Second Lieutenant was rather thin and pale. He was instantly reminded of the explanations given by the miner. He could not help asking, “Are you a contestant, Second Lieutenant?”

“I was born on Planet Birmingham on the sixth outer spiral arm of the Milky Way, Lieutenant Colonel. I’m not a dimensional-traveling contestant, sir,” answered the Second Lieutenant in a serious tone.

Sheyan was really excited. This was his very first contact with one of the new humans from the future. However, it seems that they were not very different from the humans in his era, except that their physiques were indeed a bit weak. Sheyan noticed that there were some sort of mechanical bands on the Second Lieutenant’s joints on his arms, knees and ankles. Those must be some kind of muscle strengthening support devices.

After following behind the Second Lieutenant for nearly a hundred meters, the passage ahead started to turn transparent. The vast and magnificent starry sky above could be seen. Only now did Sheyan notice that the passage was actually something like a pipeline. There was an advanced spaceship the shape of a water droplet hovering at the end of the pipeline, docking on it.

When Sheyan was about to enter the spaceship, he could not help turning back to take a look. The sight he took in was of the nightmare realm he came from, or, more precisely, Noah Ream C!!

(TL: This is bonus chapter #6 for January)