The Ultimate Evolution

Be it the severely deformed landing gear, or the shiny bottom of the Wasp that had been rubbed bare by a few centimeters, or the two deep trenches that stretched for over 70 meters, made when the spacecraft landed, or the scattered soil that was flung dozens of meters away, they all clearly pointed to one fact:

The fact that when Sheyan landed, his situation was far from ideal.

It must be known that the Wasp was not the kind of “prim and proper” spacecraft that required a long runway to take off or land. It could perform a successful vertical take-off and landing even on a slope of about 30 degrees. This meant that even if one of its landing gears inadvertently slid into a ditch while it was landing, as long as the depth of the ditch did not exceed half a meter, everything would be all right.

The difficulty during the landing caused Sheyan to break out in a cold sweat. He could not help but secretly thank the little Second Lieutenant who had helped him out. During the flight, he realised that several key parts of his Wasp had actually been reinforced and some of its programs had undergone slight adjustments.

These reinforcements and adjustments appeared useless at first, and were actually rather harmful to a spacecraft that would be used for more than five years, causing a significant reduction in its service life, but to a new spacecraft that Sheyan would only use to travel for a few million kilometers back and forth, they could greatly enhance the spacecraft’s robustness and reduce the possibility of disintegration during the flight.

At the moment, the sky above was grey, as if it would soon rain. The most eye-catching features in the sky were the two trails of light spanning across the sky like a pair of ground-coloured ribbons. They were huge, magnificent, spectacular. These were the asteroid belts, a unique spectacle on Planet Uplos, an eternal existence that would be there no matter day or night.

The grey sky was actually not a sign of rain to come. Sheyan knew from priorly obtained intel that this was actually the most common weather on Planet Uplos.

He took a few deep breaths, taking in the faint smell of sulphur and ammonia in the air. Although the smell was weird, he could just ignore it by not thinking about it. Humans had always had a strong ability to adapt. Of course, Sheyan could only do so because he had over 100 points of Physique. The air was quite harmful for those whose Physique were less than 40.

Sheyan took in his surroundings. He found that there was a sparse forest nearby. The trees looked a little similar to the trees on Earth from a distance, but upon closer inspection, the differences began to show themselves. Each tree had two or three trunks. The surface of their bark was rugged and cracked, appearing as hard as stone, and the trees seldom had a height over 6 meters. They were not very lush either; in fact, they seemed rather malnourished.

But the grass and shrubs on the ground were flourishing, reaching above Sheyan’s knees. This kind of dense, low vegetation was truly disadvantages to Sheyan, simply because this was a dangerous planet, a hunting ground. Who knew what kind of small but lethal creatures would suddenly pop out of the tall grass?

As soon as Sheyan entered the planet’s atmosphere, his communication with the outside world had been cut off. It was the same for the other contestants. If the simulation was correct, all the contestants had cut into the atmosphere along the same transversal, so there should be more than 99% chance that they would land in a certain square area that was 33 kilometers long and 33 kilometers wide.

Within this area was one very conspicuous landmark — a gigantic mushroom rock which was over 1,500 meters tall. The average altitude of the area was more than 150 meters above sea level, so as long as the weather was not too extreme, the landmark could be clearly seen. The mushroom rock was their designated rendezvous point.

(TL: In case you don’t know what a mushroom rock is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushroom_rock )

***

The advantage of making a ruckus during a forceful landing was that it scared away some of the nearby creatures. The disadvantage was that it may have attracted some creatures which had more confidence in their own strength.

Which was why Sheyan had to hurry up. First, he opened the cabin door and threw the three folded cyborgs out, then injected each of them with a high-energy protein solution.

The liquid quickly filled in the dehydrated gap between the muscles of the cyborgs. Their eyes started to open. They then extended their feeble arms to reach for the water bottles nearby and gulped down a large quantity of drinking water. Soon, the three cyborgs inflated like sponges that had absorbed water. In their previous transporting form, the water content in their body was reduced to less than 15%, and their brains were put into a hibernating state. Now that they had taken in enough water, the water content in their body was close to 70%, almost similar to that of a human body. They looked no different from a human being.

“What would you like us to do, master?” the lead cyborg, Cyborg No. 1, stepped forward and inquired respectfully.

Sheyan pointed to the cargo hold. “Take out the instruments inside and try to hide our spacecraft… Oh right, hand me the portable measuring device first.”

“Yes, master.”

When Cyborg No. 1 handed the portable measuring device to Sheyan, Sheyan’s eyes immediately lit up with excitement. That’s because the screen on the device was currently glowing with a faint green light, showing that the concentration of Pi element almost anywhere on this planet had reached the standard of barren veins, which was already worth mining.

However, when Sheyan raised the concentration index bar higher, the faint green light disappeared, indicating that there was no mid-level Pi vein within 10 kilometers around him. This was actually within Sheyan’s expectation. If a good mineral vein was so easy to find, why would the Empire still need him and the other contestants here?

The wide detection range of the device had its pros and cons. The advantage was a bigger detection radius, which naturally made the job of discovering veins easier.

The disadvantage was that the portable measuring device, due to the limitation of its size, could not precisely pinpoint the location of a detected vein. Once the light turned on, it meant that the operator would have to travel to every piece of land within 10 kilometers to locate the mineral vein….It was really hard work.

Sheyan let the three cyborgs do their job without interfering. He was very confident in their efficiency. They were loyal, strong, disciplined, and productive.

Sheyan, meanwhile, had to do something more important. He dug a pit in the ground – the soil was so wet that he was sure he could squeeze some water out of it if he wanted to – and placed four bottles of genetic-extract mix inside. This time, he used mixes that were extracted from a pair of unbelievably strong German Shepherds as well as a pair of fat, berserk wild boars that weighed more than 500 kilograms.

These two types of animals covered both Agility and Strength. What they had in common was an amazing sense of smell. That’s right, in this dense forest environment, Sheyan felt that the nose was more reliable than the eyes and the ears.

Although the ‘Carbon-Based Organism Detector, Type III’ he got from the last world would be useful at this time, this was not Earth after all. This was the playground of the Predators and a place where they kept their preys, so there may very well be silicon-based or sulfur-based organisms here. Sheyan might get ambushed if he relied too heavily on the detector.

Therefore, Sheyan must grow a capable helper to make use of its sense of smell, while using the detector at the same time, for double the insurance. That would be the best choice.

After burying the genetic-extract mixes, Sheyan gritted his teeth and poured a milky-white nutrient solution on them, even though it killed him to do so. That’s because the cost of this nutrient solution was close to 500 utility points per gram! The solution had the effect of accelerating growth. If the environment was not so dangerous, Sheyan would definitely just let the creature take its own sweet time to mature.

As the nutrient solution seeped into the soil, the surrounding plants started to wilt rapidly, forming a huge black circle of at least ten square meters around the spot. Then, the soil in the huge black circle started to turn barren and dry, looking like a dried-up riverbed that had cracked after being exposed to the sun for too long.

Next, the soil in the black circle rose slightly to form a large grave. During the formation of the grave, a large number of roots could be seen spreading in all directions. This was done to collect data on the environment during the growing process, so that the creature could be grown to be specifically suited for the environment it would be born into.

Not long after that, a monster that was over 2.5 meters tall crawled out from the soil while grunting like a pig. Maybe because a wild boar was much larger than a German Shepherd, so the features of a boar were more prominent on the creature. A huge boar nose and other facial features of a boar could be seen on its head. On the back of its head were green furs that were as hard as steel. The thick skin of its body formed a natural armour which protected its vital parts. A crystal was embedded between its eyebrows, adding a bit of mysteriousness to the feeling of wildness and madness it exuded.

As soon as the giant creature appeared, it immediately broke a tree next to it and made a crude magic staff out of the wood. The stick indeed looked like a magic staff with the slight fluctuation of elements on it, but Sheyan guessed that it would still be used as a melee weapon in the end.

This guy was exactly the type Sheyan had hoped to get: a shaman-like fella who had support skills, but was strong enough to take hits and fight in close quarters. The creature, which was as tall as a small hill, walked up to Sheyan, knelt down, kissed his shoes, and then asked, “What are your orders, Master?”

Sheyan whistled to get Cyborg No. 1’s attention and asked him, “No. 1! What time is it?”

“If you’re asking for the local time of Uplos, it should be four o’clock in the afternoon,” Cyborg No. 1 immediately replied.