The Ultimate Evolution

Paul confronted Sheyan coldly, “Sure, like you said, if we take this ship, there’s a great chance that everyone will survive, but you forgot to mention the other thing, and that is there’s a great chance that we’ll all die together too! Now that we’ve taken control of this ship, the probability of any one of us being caught if we follow my plan is reduced to one-sixth! What’s wrong with sacrificing a person to let the other five escape alive?”

Sheyan stared at Paul and retorted flatly, “You’re certainly not opposing my idea so vehemently for no apparent reason. There must be sufficient reasons and interests driving your actions. There’s no way you would choose to fall out with the MT otherwise.”

The sneer on Paul’s face turned stiff. Sheyan continued in a calm voice.

“I didn’t want to say this before, but since it’s gotten to this, I’ll tell you guys what I’ve been keeping to myself. An interest which caused you to so strongly argue for the idea of escaping by ourselves…. it must be because you’re bound to be able to escape alive, right? I suddenly thought of another thing: before we departed, didn’t most of the people here ask you to modify their spacecrafts? I’m afraid you’re the only one who knows what you did during the modification.”

As soon as Sheyan said this, the expressions of all the people present changed, including Paul himself! Sheyan’s retort pierced straight into others’ fatal points like sharp needles! Even if they did not believe Sheyan’s accusation on the surface, they would inevitably have doubts deep in their hearts.

Paul stared daggers at Sheyan, while Sheyan stared back at him nonchalantly and thought with a smirk, ‘What now? What can you do now? You think only you can destroy my plans, while I can’t reveal your secret? I’m sorry, I’m not such an obedient person!’

Paul’s face was frosty.

“You might be that kind of person, but I’m not. Everyone watched me when I modified the spacecrafts, so what could I have done with all those eyes on me? Rumours stop with the wise. Your words can do nothing but hurt me temporarily.”

Sheyan grinned. “I’m done talking to you. Get out of my sight if you insist on leaving in a Wasp. I’m definitely taking this spaceship.”

Sheyan’s declaration instantly struck Paul’s weakness. It must be known that if Sheyan was taking the Predator sub-ship, Aldaris and Ronnie would definitely follow him. Everyone here could do the math. Paul could only try to get Dardanian and Pokan to go with him, so the probability of being caught was as high as 33%! Furthermore, Sheyan’s previous words suggested that Paul may have a way of guaranteeing his escape, in which case the chances of Dardanian and Pokan getting caught was as high as 50%!

Although Paul had given them a lot of benefits to win them over, could benefits compare to life?

A 50% mortality rate was a statistic that was unacceptable for anyone unless there was really no other choice! They might as well stay with Sheyan and the others! At least they would all be on the same ship, so they would not sabotage one another.

Dardanian and Pokan both still had some respect for Sheyan deep in their hearts. In their opinion, Sheyan’s plan of escaping in this alien spaceship probably had a mortality rate of about 30%. Therefore, they were already secretly feeling more inclined to go with Sheyan’s method.

The clock was ticking. Sheyan did not give the others any time to consider their decision. He proclaimed coldly, “Cyborg No. 1 has almost mastered the way of piloting this ship. He will now go for a test run. In five minutes, anyone who doesn’t wish to leave with me, please get out of my sight!”

After that, Sheyan strode into the spaceship.

The interior of the Predator ship was most probably arranged in accordance with the Predators’ usual living habits so that it was as comfortable to them as possible. But a comfortable environment for the Predators may not necessarily be a comfortable environment for the humans.

The first impression Sheyan got right after stepping inside was that it was really hot!

And the heat was a sauna-like humid heat, with steam everywhere and a strong smell of sulphur.

A variety of strange vines hung from the surrounding walls, on which there were many drooping fruits that looked like densely-growing peppers. There were obvious signs that they had been picked, so it seemed that not only were they a decoration, they could also be eaten when necessary. Thanks to Sheyan’s formidable Physique, he was not afraid of poison, so he picked one to have a taste. It tasted bitter and sour.

Along the way, Sheyan found that the Predators seemed to prefer a primitive, vast and ancient style. He touched the inner wall of the spaceship and found that it was a kind of tissue with orderly concave and convex patterns similar to the human spine, but the spot he touched felt relatively soft. The inner walls of the spaceship felt like it was constructed from bones; it was not hard like a steel structure.

The dim environment filled with water vapour did not affect the vision of the Predators, but Sheyan’s visibility took a great hit.

After moving out of other people’s sight, Sheyan’s lips suddenly curled into a strange smile.

“I’ve just revealed Paul’s intentions, but no matter how humiliated he felt, there’s no way he would dare to fly away alone because it’s obvious that the first person to fly into the sky will probably become the early worm eaten by the birds. So, if I’m not mistaken, Paul’s only chance to turn the situation around…is to sabotage this ship! He wouldn’t dare do it brazenly in front of everyone else, so his only choice is to perform the sabotage operation stealthily while I’m currently in the spaceship!”

In order to give Paul a better chance, Sheyan actually continued deeper into the spaceship. The spaceship did not look very big from the outside, but the interior was surprisingly spacious. The corridors inside twisted and branched like a labyrinth.

This construction choice was actually related to a habit of the Predators. They fought together when they battled, but outside of it, they had a high demand for privacy, preferring to have their own recreation room, exercise room, and exhibition room. Therefore, the interior of the spaceship had to be heavily partitioned in order to fulfill their need for private space.

When Sheyan finally arrived in the cockpit, he noticed a line of strange red letters flashing on the screen in front of him.

The letters used by the Predators were actually really simple, comprising of mostly simple strokes and dots. When Cyborg No. 1, who followed Sheyan inside, saw the line of words, his face turned grave. He immediately told Sheyan, “This is bad! The Predators have warned the mothership!”

Sheyan’s face turned solemn too. This was another huge variable that he had not taken into account beforehand! As far as they knew, the mothership should not have any more sub-ships which its passengers could use to land on Uplos, so even if it received a warning, it should be futile.

However, Sheyan knew very well that one could never predict the Predators’ actions with conventional ways of thinking, or at least, not with the human’s conventional ways of thinking. After all, they were a different species, and more importantly, the technology of the Predators was still at least 20 years ahead of the humans’.

The cockpit of the Predator spaceship did not contain too many complicated things. One could control the ship with brain waves after placing both hands on the two spheres in front. The most difficult part was the process of activating the control system.

Cyborg No. 1 made a quick check and told Sheyan, “Master, the ship has been damaged. There’s a problem with the engine, but it’s not too big of a problem.”

“After Paul made the quick, impromptu decision to sabotage the ship, of course he couldn’t make too much of a commotion and cause large-scale damage. He had no way to prove that his proposal is better than mine, so he can only take such a drastic measure in order to make sure my plan fails. Little did he know that I’ve been waiting for him to do this. What an idiot,” said Sheyan lightly.

Cyborg No. 1 hesitated slightly before he asked, “I only need about an hour to repair the spaceship, master. If I can pilot this spaceship back to the Kitty Hawk base, you’ll get substantial bonus rewards. Are you really sure you want to give it up?”

Sheyan remained silent, and before he could answer, the screen in front of him suddenly flickered a few times, and out jumped lines of Predator scripts. Next, a clear image appeared on the screen. A bomb-like cylindrical object descended from the mothership in the sky, aiming straight at Uplos. A countdown of sixty seconds began.

“Damn it, is this a sign of a nuclear attack?” Sheyan could not help being shocked.

“That’s almost impossible, master. The Predators have worked so hard for so long to build Uplos up to what it is today, and even went so far as to wage a small scale war with humans for it. There’s no way they’ll destroy the planet to get rid of an annoyance like us. You must know that the planet is rich in Pi element, so it’s exceptionally vibrant, and the survival rate of animals and plants that were moved here is very high. The Predators won’t bear to give this planet up,” said Cyborg No. 1.

“Then what’s that thing they’re dropping down? It must be something that can solve the current predicament of the Predators. They seem very sure that this thing can break them out of the pinch!”