The Ultimate Evolution

In the wee hours of the morning, Sheyan and the other contestants suddenly awoke from their sleep at the same time.

A hard-to-describe feeling washed over them.

That feeling was full of authority, pressing down on them like the vast, boundless night sky with the irresistible will of the supreme!

Under the scanning accompanied by this feeling, the special mark on their arms began to resonate strongly. No matter how hard they tried to suppress it, they could not stop it. It told every one of them a cruel fact!

The mother ship of the Predators had arrived on Uplos and had started scanning the creatures on the planet!

The Predators had yet to know that Sheyan and the contestants had branded themselves of their own accord, but they only needed to join up with the advanced troops to guess what had happened. According to the information disclosed by the Predator they caught, it may be difficult to screen out the “spies” from the among the branded creatures, but the delay would only last for three days at most…

Sheyan had never pinned his life on slim chances, so in his plan, the team would only have at most one and a half days from now on. This included the time needed to return to the mushroom rock and dig out the Wasp spacecrafts they hid!

Their hearts were heavy thinking of this. They could not help going outside to look at the sky. Countless stars scattered across the night sky, twinkling brilliantly, and between the two bright stripes of yellowish asteroid belts emerged a black spot the size of a thumb. That should be the Predator spaceship.

Normally, such spaceships meant for ultra-long-distance interstellar travel would not land on a planet’s surface unless in cases of emergencies. The passengers would usually land in subships instead. Sheyan suddenly thought of something that sent chills down his spine. He asked the others, “Have you guys considered one thing?”

Aldaris turned to look at Sheyan and said, “You mean the problem with our retreat?”

Sheyan nodded. “The human technology in this era is said to be comparable to the technological level of the Predators, but in truth, there’s still a certain gap, quite similar to the technological gap between the Chinese army and the U.S. army in the period of the Korean war. Can our Wasps really escape the pursuit of the Predators when we fly back?”

The team went silent. The atmosphere instantly turned very heavy.

Sheyan’s eyes suddenly glowed with a ruthless glint.

“We all know the answer to that question; we’re just unwilling to admit it. Let me say it out loud. The answer’s most probably no. But, that doesn’t mean we have no chance of surviving!”

Sheyan’s next words boosted everyone’s spirit.

“Think about it. Why did the Predators send out troops in advance? The reason is simple – because the advance troops can get here faster… Do you see where I’m going with this? What I’m trying to say is, this shows that the Predator’s sub-ships are faster than their mothership as long as it’s not long-distance space travel! So, our path to survival lies in seizing their ships!”

“If we try to forcefully break out in our Wasps, the Predators will only need one round of plasma beams to kill us all! On the ground, considering the pride of the Predator race, they’ll surely send soldiers to hunt us down. Well, would you prefer to face an unstoppable round of plasma beams, or high-ranking Predator warriors who we can still put up a fight against?”

Sheyan’s words made them think. Initially, the biggest problem in this plan lay in how to drive the spacecrafts of the Predators, but this problem was quickly solved. Ronnie possessed an all-purpose driving ability, which he had learned by chance. He could master the driving method of any vehicle in a short time.

Not only did this include the Predator spacecraft, he could even pilot Gundams. According to Ronnie, in the Transformers world, he actually piloted Starscream after it fell into a coma from a severe head injury! Truly, the people who could participate in this mission all had their own unique experiences!

What Sheyan did not say was that even if Ronnie did not have that ability, there was actually a set of simple spacecraft operating manual stored in the Predator mask. That was to say, Cyborg No. 1 could also pilot a Predator spacecraft if there was no other choice.

To seize the sub-ships of the Predator, time was the key element. They could not move too early nor too late. If the other party was aware of their intention ahead of time, their operation would become really difficult, but if they moved too late, the Predators might already have counter-measures in place. In short, the operation must be steady, precise, and ruthless!

Even after deciding to hijack the Predator’s sub-ships, there were still two options left to them.

The first option was to seize the sub-ship of the advance troop that had landed.

The second option was to wait until they were found. The mothership overhead would surely send down a sub-ship with a full crew of Predators to “clean up the garbage” then.

If they chose the first option, it meant that they would only have half a day to deal with the Buffalo Criminals, because they would need a day to plan the hijacking. This meant that there would be no time to extract the Pi elements.

The second option was simply to let things develop as they may and wait for the “cleaning-up team” of Predators to come directly to them. It would be convenient and fast, but it also meant they would have to fight a battle to the death in which defeat was not an option!

The two options were debated endlessly. Finally, Sheyan suggested to finish their business with the Buffalo Criminals first. If they encountered a large obstacle here, then they would immediately execute Plan A. Even if they returned without much Pi elements to show, the fact that they had lasted so long on this planet and had even brought back a Predator spacecraft were pretty significant achievements too.

After the discussion ended, none of them had any more urge to sleep, so they quietly set out while the sky was still dark to head towards the place of residence of the Black Fungi Clan with the help of the map and the testimony of the two captives.

***

Perhaps the Black Fungi Clan had reigned supreme in this place for a long time and no one had dared to attack them for quite a while, as the security of this tribe appeared rather lax.

Buffalo Criminals usually lived in valleys. The valleys must be humid and could not be dry. Otherwise, it would not be conducive to the growth of black liver mushrooms. The contestants took care of several snoring Buffalo Criminal sentries along the way and came to a ridge beside the valley, where the stench was really strong.

The scene that appeared before them was horrifying. A large number of dismembered corpses were piled under the huge fungi caps of the black liver mushrooms. Stink permeated through the air. In addition to a large amount of black liver mushrooms, there were also some shack-like buildings in the valley. When the wind blew, white objects that looked like spider webs would fly out of the shacks. It was a scene straight out of horror films.

Buffalo Criminals could excrete a kind of white filament which they used to reinforce the interior surfaces of the simple and huge hexagonal shacks built from wood and straw. These shacks were common Buffalo Criminal dwellings. Every now and then, a sharp hissing sound would come from the inside, which was the snoring of the Buffalo Criminals.

It must be remembered that although they were bona fide herbivores, these guys were no less vicious than any carnivorous species.

Sheyan made a gesture at Ronnie, and then, according to their plan, passed him two things – two arms, to be precise!

The left arms of the Predators that had been chopped off!

Sheyan had already told Ronnie how to operate them. Of course, the main thing was to teach him how to activate the self-exploding program embedded in the arms. According to Sheyan’s research, the two major weaknesses of the Buffalo Criminal race lay first in those evil black liver mushrooms, and secondly, in the Kurut minerals they stored.

Kurut minerals were indispensable to every Buffalo Criminal.

This was especially true for the stronger Buffalo Criminals, who had an even greater demand for them! There was no way they would just eat however much their clansmates dug up every day. If the harvest was bad that day, wouldn’t that mean they have to go hungry?

Therefore, there must be a place where Kurut minerals were stored.

Sheyan’s plan was to let Ronnie sneak in first to place the two Predator arms/time bombs in the key areas. The power of the bombs was beyond doubt. According to statistics, the scope of the explosion spanned several blocks, and the destructive power in the core explosion area was not inferior to a nuclear explosion.

When the two main weaknesses of the Buffalo Criminals exploded at the same time, chaos would surely ensue. At this time, the contestant team would dispatch a few people to set fire in the camp and create more chaos, while the rest would rush towards the deepest part of the valley to launch a surprise attack on the Buffalo Criminal Boss, then retreat quickly. This should be the plan with the highest chances of success.

According to their analysis, Pokan and Aldaris were the best candidates to stay and create chaos. Pokan could create unfavorable terrain at will to cause confusion in the crowd, while Aldaris’ ‘Spiritual Storm’ was a killer move when the enemy was in mass chaos and could not organise an effective counter!

Admittedly, there was indeed a high chance of success if the plan was executed successfully. However, there were always unexpected occurrences during execution! Sheyan never expected that Ronnie would meet with great trouble in the very first step of planting bombs in the valley.