The Ultimate Evolution

After Sheyan returned to the room, Aldaris immediately inquired.

“Who was that?”

Sheyan smiled as he answered, “A big guy. He asked us to assemble in the conference hall. Do you know where that is?”

Aldaris scoffed. “Was it the muscle-head called Hedi Curry? That retard who’s constantly afraid that someone is going to take his team leader position away from him? Just walk down the corridor outside ’til the end and you’ll see a sign pointing to the conference hall.”

“Aren’t you going?” asked Sheyan, surprised.

Aldarius waved him away impatiently, “Ever since Obamoo was re-elected for the fifth consecutive term, I’ve kept myself away from all corrupt election processes.”

“Hmm??!” Sheyan immediately realised what Aldaris meant. “You mean that Hedi Curry guy is giving this order himself?”

“Use your brain for a bit. If its an official assembly, we’ll be contacted directly through the communicator in the room,” Aldaris rolled his eyes. “I wouldn’t even be surprised if we were informed through the nightmare imprint.”

Sheyan pondered for a moment before he said, “I’ll go have a look anyway. It’s a great chance to check out the environment.”

Aldaris simply gestured towards the door without even bother replying to Sheyan. It was a good thing Sheyan had had some dealings with Aldaris before, or he would be fuming right now.

But right as Sheyan was about to leave, Aldaris suddenly asked quickly in a low voice.

“How’s Zi?”

Sheyan raised his head to look at Aldaris. He suddenly realised that there was a tender side hidden deep in the heart of this spiteful-looking man. Sheyan simply smiled, and kept smiling until Aldarius was about to explode with anger before he replied, “She’s doing well, and more importantly, if one of us dies in this damn place, she’ll be pretty sad. So you have to be careful not to die.”

“Even when your corpse turns mouldy, I’ll still be alive! You can f*ck off! I hate being lectured!” Aldaris immediately roared.

***

Sheyan shut the door as he stepped back outside to the quiet, tidy corridor. After a few steps, he realised that the huge green potted plants in the corridor seemed a little strange. They did not look like simple decorations. He could not help but to squat down and examine them carefully.

Sheyan had only an amateurish level of scientific botanical knowledge, but the ‘Stairway of the Sun’ in him could use its tendrils to analyse the structure and morphology of various plants. However, when he was about to do so, he heard some footsteps coming from the distance. Sheyan turned around and saw a man in his thirties who was wearing a pair of black-rimmed glasses and a white coat. He was walking over with a smile on his face.

“Great Lord, I finally found a friend with a similar interest in this dreary place! Hello, I’m Dardanian, a summoner specialising in plants!”

Sheyan, of course, would not refuse the enthusiasm of others. He stretched out his hand and replied, “I’m Seaman, a pharmacist, Growth Hunter. Nice to meet you.”

Dardanian exclaimed in realisation, “No wonder you’re interested in plants. I thought I was the only one who noticed these amazing modified plants. Did you know? This plant is one of the two most brilliant inventions in the past three thousand years, together with the photon engine!”

“It’s that amazing?!?!” Sheyan was genuinely shocked to hear that.

Dardanian immediately replied in a serious tone, “It is! This plant is called the all-purpose grass. Its main function is to convert the carbon dioxide exhaled by humans into oxygen again. At the same time, it absorbs negative cosmic energy and keeps the air fresh and fragrant! The hundreds of thousands of pots of all-purpose grass in this pyramid have perfectly replaced air conditioners and ventilation systems in supporting the respiration of hundreds of thousands of people living inside the pyramid. Besides saving materials and cost, it also saves a lot of space, which is a real precious treasure!”

“But that’s not all. Did you notice that there are no insects, moths, mosquitoes, or cockroaches in here? That’s because the all-purpose grass can consume them! In addition, human excrement makes the best fertiliser for all-purpose grass… The growth cycle of all-purpose grass is very fast, and after it matures, it will bear fruits that are rich in oil. The oil can be refined into an excellent cooking oil that’s comparable to corn oil. And the leaves! After those thick leaves are processed, they’ll taste just like roasted steak…”

While Dardanian was fully demonstrating his eloquence and vast knowledge, they had walked quite a distance and had reached the conference hall. It seemed that Hedi Curry’s leader position, which was probably fabricated, was still quite useful. There were already five people inside the conference hall. Including the two of them, that made seven.

Hedi Curry obviously welcomed the two of them with great enthusiasm. Sheyan had just learned from Dardanian that the total number of troops departing for this mission was twelve, and all but one person had arrived at the base. This meant that, disregarding Aldaris who had a strange personality, there should be a group of three others who were trying to compete with Hedi Curry for the right to command the team.

It’s obvious that Hedi Curry was only showing such enthusiasm due to the competitive situation. This was the so-called catfish effect.

In such a situation, Sheyan and Dardanian had suddenly become very important — if they joined the three in the other group, the two sides would be equally split 5:5.

Now that Sheyan and Dardanian had chosen this side, it meant that Hedi Curry had won the recognition of more than half the team. Even if that one guy who had not come was an X factor, he could not change the result.

“Since you choose to come here, you’re all my brothers!” Hedi Curry was so excited that he shook his arms like a rock singer, then smashed them down onto the solid table with a bang.

“I’m a powerful MT who will block all the dangers for you! More importantly, I’m a fair man! Time will prove that you’ve made a beneficial decision, while the corpses of those liars will rot in the soils of Uplos!”

After that, Hedi Curry took a large amount of liquor out from his personal storage and shouted, “Let’s get this party started!”

***

Two hours later, the last piece of the puzzle was completed — the 12th person finally passed the inspection and arrived at Alps Base 7. He was very unfortunate to encounter a particle storm on his way here, and even suffered some injuries as a result.

Sheyan and the rest were notified to assemble at 8:30 p.m.. The message was indeed delivered through a communicator just like Aldarius had speculated. It was only delivered once, without clarifying what would happen if they were late.

However, Sheyan, like a sensitive hound, smelled something ominous from it. He was sure that the instructors were just waiting for someone to make that mistake to make an example out of. So, he did not hesitate to urge Aldaris to start preparing at eight o’clock and leave the room at 8:20. They arrived at the conference hall one minute ahead of schedule.

The atmosphere in the conference hall was so heavy that it almost took on a solid form. After receiving the permission to enter, Sheyan went in and found that everyone had arrived. All of them were standing. There were three people on the front rostrum, the left one being The Dark General. The man in the middle had thick eyebrows, a bald head and a striking scar on his face, looking very fierce. His rigid military uniform showed that he was a Major General as well. The person on the right had long fingers and morbidly pale skin. He was wearing a different set of uniform. He stood a bit behind the other two, and was the least conspicuous of the three.

“My name is General Mungo! Your honeymoon is now officially over. We’ve confirmed that the high-frequency cosmic tide season is approaching, which will make the route to Uplos even more dangerous, so the original three-day training program has been put on hold. We will be boarding a spaceship fifteen minutes later — the Battlefield General Staff Headquarters has been kind enough to send us a special-grade pilot, Captain Ruth, to pilot the Kitty Hawk, a Grade II carrier of Alps Base 7. It can send us to the closest starfield to planet Uplos, and I believe it’ll solve all our worries.”

“According to news from the frontline, the route to planet Uplos has been severely damaged by cosmic tides, so we will spend at least three days on the journey. Therefore, the training program will be carried out on the way there.”

General Mungo carried a great force in his action. When he spoke, his hands were pressed onto the table, and with his body slightly tilted forward, he gave off the vibe of a ferocious predator that was slowly clawing its way to the prey.

“If you have any questions, bring it up now. Three, two, one. OK, move!”

***

It had been four days since they left the colossal Alps Base 7.

In these four days, Sheyan learned a lot things.

First, every member of this temporary team was an elite, and the team had a reasonable configuration. That was a huge relief.

Sheyan was surprised to find that his position in the team was as a pharmacist, and as a Strength specialist in addition to that, he also had to seek for opportunities to open a gap in the enemy’s defence once the MT had rushed up front. In the eyes of others, his was not an easy task.

To Sheyan’s relief, his identity as an MT had been kept a secret — it was probably his Nightmare Realm helping him. He knew that because, in addition to Hedi Curry, there was a person named Azsa who was also an MT!

The theory behind it was simple. For a 12-person team, a dual-MT configuration would be considered prudent. A triple-MT configuration? That’s simply wasteful. “Too far is as bad as not enough” was a truth that everyone knew well.

***********************************************************************

————————————————————————–

BONUS: Author’s Note Regarding the Content of Recent Chapters:

————————————————————————–

To tell you the truth, my palms were sweating when I started writing this arc.

This could be considered a new turning point for the novel.

The setting had suddenly changed from parallel movie worlds to the future world, and some of the secrets behind the story had begun to reveal themselves.

The layout of the story is starting to become quite broad, like a river flowing into a vast ocean.

This change may bring about the ultimate problem for any author, namely the loss of readers.

That is my biggest worry. I’m a little afraid that some would say to me, are you kidding me, how did The Ultimate Evolution become Star Trek?

Now that would be really awkward….

Fortunately, at least from the feedback I received, the readers are taking it quite well, hehe.

It doesn’t seem like this change in direction was a failure.

The arc took quite a few chapters to venture into the planet exploration part, but I assure you, I am definitely not just needlessly dragging the story on.

The reason for this is because I must write about the future human society, as it is an extremely important subject. I must let the readers understand the way of thoughts of these future humans, the structure of their society, their way of lives, their food, their clothing, their accommodation, and so on.

This way, the story will feel more real. The future society and future humans in my work must possess their own unique characteristics!

I’m personally very satisfied with the quality of the last few chapters and the support that all of you have shown. Thank you so much.