The Ultimate Evolution

Sheyan smiled and did not speak. He went down into the canyon and approached the water. Only then did he show a trace of doubt.

“That’s strange. Why isn’t he here yet?”

Cyborg No. 1 issued a dry cough.

“Maybe he’s already here and you just don’t know it.”

“No way. He’s pursuing, not ambushing! You see, animals like cheetahs, lions and wolves may be patient when they’re waiting for their prey, but in the process of a pursuit, they won’t give up any chance to kill their prey. Those who dare to waste their chances….will all be mercilessly eliminated by natural selection,” said Sheyan with conviction.

“Something must have happened,” Sheyan stopped and said with a serious tone, “According to the information we’ve obtained, even an ordinary Predator has the ability to quickly heal wounds, let alone a Boss character like that guy…. Could it be Ronnie or Dardanian? Only they still have something up their sleeves! It’s most probably Ronnie! That means I have some valuable time to make arrangements!”

Cyborg No. 1 kept his silence. He thought that Sheyan probably came here to cover himself with mud and hide himself in the water to take advantage of the fact that the Predator had lost his equipment. However, even the cunning Cyborg No. 1 overlooked the fact that the direction Sheyan was heading in happened to be the same direction as the strange giant footprint that they had discovered before!

***

On the Kitty Hawk base 2.7 million kilometers away from planet Uplos.

Mungo was already in power, and he was under little pressure. He had accomplished everything he needed to accomplish, and more. Not only had he confirmed that there was indeed an abundance of Pi veins on planet Uplos, he had also established a connection with Prince Pombaru. Even the old man had to overlook the little problems he caused.

Mungo was well aware of the predicament the contestants were in, but there was nothing he could do about it. In fact, it was not something he wanted to see happen at all! That was because every contestant that died would mean at least two hundred pounds of high-purity Pi element ingots disappearing from this world.

What was worse, was that it was possible that none of them would escape. The feeling of something that was already in his grasp flying away was indeed extremely frustrating. But, he had no way of venting his frustration except slapping the butt of his female secretary hard.

“In the future, I’ll kill a few more Predators in your memory. Rest in peace,” Mungo could only think so as he leaned back on his chair with his legs crossed.

Despite the fact that the technology of the Predator was ahead of human technology, Mungo was still full of confidence in winning. The reason? To put it in a crude way – or rather, in a biological way – it was because of the differences in the structure of the reproductive organs between the two sides.

Currently, the population of the whole human empire was…more than seven trillion people, spanning across countless planets. This census figure was from 30 years ago, and it did not even take into account those…rebels in the self-governing Alliance.

And according to the human’s extensive investigation, the total number of Predators was between 500,000 and a million.

A million against seven trillion.

Although there was a certain technological gap between the two sides, they were still in the same era technology-wise.

So the outcome of the war was unquestionable. Once the war was launched, the only question left was how many battleships and population the Empire would lose.

Before this, the Empire hesitated in launching a war because they had to consider the scientists’ warning that excessive interaction with species overlapping from other planes would lead to unpredictable consequences and huge risks. But in the face of enough interests, or, more accurately, enough Pi veins, the risk level had changed from “high risk that may not be manageable” to “low risk that should be manageable”.

A green light suddenly lit up on Mungo’s desk. He was bored, so he pressed the button and said, “Come in.”

Mungo’s Lieutenant came in with a Second Lieutenant named Archer, a civilian staff member. His technical knowledge was pretty decent, or else he would never have climbed from the bottom to his present position. Archer was also the man who had been sent to guide Sheyan previously.

Archer stared at Mungo’s bald head and stammered, “Sir, I’ve learned from your speech that the mission has been successfully completed, but I’ve also heard that there are still friendly troops trapped on the planet.”

After the success of the mission, in order to boost morale, Mungo had indeed announced the news immediately. He coveted the high-purity Pi element on the contestants, so he had also mentioned their situation in the speech, hoping that someone would come up with a solution – after all, to be a good leader was to be good at sharing burdens with the subordinates. And now, someone actually did come forward.

Archer stuttered, “I noticed that the Kitty Hawk’s reactors are all over-loaded, sir. You must be using the ultra-high output to penetrate the blockade of the Predators to observe the situation on the planet through the built-in cameras in the cyborgs.”

“Get to the point!” shouted Mungo with clear dissatisfaction.

Archer visibly jumped from shock. He instantly said, “Sir, if we can convert the energy of the reactors’ overload operation and channel it to our radar jammer, we only need to aggregate the bands and we should be able to use it on the Predator’s mothership. This way, they’ll lose at least 80% of the function of their detection system.”

Mungo understood the contestants’ situation very well, so as soon as he heard Archer’s suggestion, he immediately came to a decision.

“Excellent! You’re in charge of handling this matter! If you perform well, you’ll be promoted twice. If you don’t, you’ll be sent to military court!”

***

Sheyan halted his steps.

The geography here was quite unique. On this plateau, the river ran in deep rift valleys. The cliffs of the rift valleys were mostly 90 degrees straight cliffs that were extremely tall and difficult to climb. Only in this particular area was there a stretch of 3-4 kilometers where both sides of the rift valley had a slope of about 40 degrees at most, with signs of collapse.

The width of the river had also increased significantly here, and the flow of water naturally became shallower and slower. Because of that, huge rocks the size of houses were everywhere on the shore. The ground was slippery and covered with mosses, and the terrain was very complex. It was undoubtedly unfavourable for the Arbitrator who liked to throw spears.

The place was also quite convenient for drinking, so no creature groups would build their den here. The creatures would usually come here before sunset to fill their bellies with water, so the place was pretty quiet right now.

This was the place Sheyan chose as the battlefield. Being able to find a place like this had increased his winning odds from 40% to 50%. If he could drag the enemy into the water, the odds would even reach 60%!

Suddenly, a small stone bounced and fell from the cliff on the side. The stone clattered along the rocky wall before falling into the rather calm river, giving rise to a small ripple and breaking the silence.

Sheyan instinctively looked up at where the stone came from and saw a man there.

A man covered in blood, on the verge of death.

Ronnie.

He looked terrible. Not only was his right hand broken at the shoulder, his intestines were also leaking out of the wound on his belly to sway about half a meter outside his body. He was tied up and wrapped in a hunting net, and was dangling from the cliff hundreds of meters high in the air. A blood-red spear pinned the net to the rocky wall.

“Finally here?” uttered Sheyan faintly.

At that moment, the slender but muscular figure of the Arbitrator appeared on top of the slope. He did not look much different from the time he stepped off the medical table – except a deep, horrible cross-shaped wound had been cut on his chest. The blackish green calluses seemed to have just formed. Even the white bones inside were plainly visible.

He fearless marched in the direction of Sheyan with a blood-coloured spear, pressing forward with indomitable will.

Although Bloodspear was heavily injured and had virtually no defence at all, he believed in his spears.

The belief even transcended life and death! Or, to be precise, life and death were pinned on this belief!

Sheyan shamelessly retreated. It was nothing shameful. He had to buy as much time for himself as possible to give his diseases time to take effect on the monster. That moment would be the prelude to his counter-attack!

The diseases had previously been working on the Arbitrator’s immune system for nearly 10 minutes, and now they were continuing where they left off, so Sheyan gave himself a goal: eight minutes.

He would try to drag the fight with the Arbitrator for eight minutes on this labyrinth-like rocky bank. It may be a very difficult task, but it was a task Sheyan had to accomplish.

Suddenly, a strong sense of danger rose in Sheyan’s heart. After the Arbitrator had lost his equipment which boosted his senses, Perceptive Sense was perhaps the only advantage Sheyan had over the Predator. Therefore, Sheyan leaped away decisively, but he was still pierced through by a flash of light in the air! Only afterwards could Sheyan see the Arbitrator’s signature move of calmly straightening up his body like a slow-motion playback of a spear-throwing motion!