The Ultimate Evolution

The tritium was being transported in a humble van.

This type of vans was widely used by courier companies and factories in New York City. But if you could see inside this van, you would immediately notice that the van was similar to other vans only in appearance. Its interior was just like an armoured vehicle – strong, durable and armed to the teeth!

A pair of eyes were staring closely at the image of the moving van on the screen. The eyes belonged to KD, the man with a slight frame. He was currently in a room with dim lighting. His three teammates stood behind him. KD’s “glasses” had expanded quite a bit; it was now covering his whole face, like a mask.

Even more bizarre was the fact that the glasses strap which was originally wrapped around KD’s head was now buried under the skin like blood vessels. It was actually trying to connect to the main blood vessels in KD’s head! The material on the surface of the mask was originally rubber, but it had now begun to slowly change into the texture of human skin!

“According to my estimation, there’s a 57% chance of our target coming here to rob this batch of tritium. I don’t know if the other parties are in place, but you should have all seen the information our Lord, His Excellency, just sent.”

The others nodded. Pale blue smoke was curling and dispersing behind them. The way that “Lord” of theirs sent them information was actually exactly the same as the way the Realm delivered the main mission when they first entered the world.

A minute ago, one of KD’s companions, Lamb, was smoking when the Lord’s will suddenly descended. Lahm was stunned. The light blue smoke he spat out started to form smoke rings in the air, and finally became letters.

“Our target is a powerful MT and has a very important position in his party, so our goal of this stage is – to break his limbs and pull out his fangs!”

“Besides another MT in the target’s party, all other party members are your targets.”

“Reward: For each person you kill, you will be rewarded with a dark gold weapon. You can also convert the reward into points, unknown mysterious items, and other things!”

The smoke then dispersed, but the information left behind by the man hiding in the dark, the one they called their “Lord”, was etched into their hearts like a knife carving.

The short fatty, Lamb, clenched his fists. He sneered.

“We can’t be too greedy, KD. The lesson from the last time is painful enough. It’s better to cut off one finger than hurt all ten. We should concentrate our firepower this time instead of thinking about getting them all. This time, we must make sure someone dies!”

The surface of KD’s glasses suddenly flashed and various data streams of 0’s and 1’s appeared on it. He seemed to be making some kind of communication. Soon after, he gave the others a stack of information.

“The woman is called Zi. Although she’s a mage, she may be wearing a dark green set equipment which greatly strengthens her defence, so she’s very hard to deal with. She also has a high-level magic barrier. Her survivability is exceptionally high.”

“The teenager is a summoner and is a new member of the party. He’s still a normal contestant, but he may be a Chosen.”

“The long range damage dealer is Mogensha, the Golden AK. Well, it seems like we have a lot of information about him.”

The tall man called Przybilla gave his opinion, “Zi should already be an Awakener, right? She’s very well equipped, highly skilled, and I should add, she should have a transformation ability too, so she’s not suitable as our first target. The teenage summoner is a Chosen. Those people are born with the Realm’s blessing. What’s more annoying is that summoners often have a life link with their summoned beasts, so many of them have survivability on par with MTs. Since we’re aiming to kill in one strike….”

The whole room was silent at this point. All eyes were on the information KD provided.

A huge, blood-red cross had been made on Mogensha’s name!

***

The screeching sound of brakes resounded through the air. An ordinary-looking car had suddenly charged in from the side to crash into the van transporting the tritium!

But strangely, the car that initiated the collision was bounced away, while the van carrying the tritium continued moving forward with only a slight deflection to its path. The car which initiated contact plunged into a shop nearby and exploded like it had been hit by a missile.

This collision was not deliberate; it was only one of the ordinary car accidents happening in New York City everyday. However, it immediately caused a chain reaction.

A Harley motorcycle dashed towards the van from a distance, carrying on it a huge man in a helmet and a leather suit. Gunshots went off and showered the man with bullets, but instead of falling down as expected, the man let out a loud laughter. His helmet was destroyed by the bullets, revealing a flaming skull inside.

Ghost Rider had entered the stage!

Ghost Rider’s wicked laughter violently shook the soul of every person in the van, making them fall unconscious. No matter how durable the van was, it could not protect them at the spiritual level! When Ghost Rider came out of the van with the tritium briefcase, a shining arrow penetrated his skull and exploded!

The arrow could not cause fatal damage to Ghost Rider, but after that, three consecutive arrows broke his wrist and flung the tritium briefcase high.

Spider-Man swung across the sky holding onto a long spider silk and grabbed the briefcase.

The one who made the shots was another legendary figure – the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Hawkeye. He laughed wildly. His cooperation with Spider-man was seamless, and they would surely return successfully this time.

But Spider-Man, who was about to flee, was suddenly hit by a car door thrown at high-speed.

Dr. Octopus strode out of a store nearby and shouted, irritation clear in his voice, “You’ll never run away from me, little spidey!”

But a fierce bolt of lightning immediately sent Dr. Octopus flying. A lightning of such horrifying power could only mean that another behemoth was here — Thor!!

***

Twenty minutes later.

Sheyan and his crew drove away in frantic retreat. They were all covered in smoke and flames. Even Zi, who was normally most mindful of her image, currently had messy hair and her face covered in dust. Reef was not doing any better. His hair stood straight up and he looked to be in a really sorry state.

“Holy sh*t! Isn’t the scale of this battle a little too big? Magneto, Dr. Octopus, Dracula, Thor, Black Bolt, the Hulk, Batman, Spider-Man, Blade, Iron Man…. All these people fighting in the center of New York City. Do you want New York to be destroyed before the apocalypse arrives?”

Sanzi still seemed to have some lingering fear. Zi sighed and said, “It’s better not to meddle in a fight of this level.”

“I agree. We were only caught in the crossfire and look how we turned out,” Sheyan concurred.

“But we should have played a decisive role. I saw it. Mogensha’s continuous shots had pushed the briefcase containing the tritium in Dracula’s direction,” said Sanzi, beaming with joy.

“Did Dracula get it? I didn’t see it clearly,” asked Mogensha while dressing his wounds.

“He did,” Reef answered while trying unsuccessfully to flatten his hair that was jolted upright by electricity, “I saw it with my own eyes.”

The party was talking excitedly when Sheyan suddenly spoke to the driving Old Charlie, “Hey, you should’ve turned right.”

The car they were riding in was passing through an intersection. Old Charlie drove straight ahead without any reaction — but it was a red light, and cars from the sides were still moving rapidly across the road.

Sheyan saw trails of blood flowing down both of Old Charlie’s ears. A strong sense of crisis instantly rose in his heart. But at that instant, a flash of intense light blinded them.

The next thing they knew, they were already enveloped in a horrible heat and intense smokes. A feeling of fear from deep down in his heart made Sheyan curl his body, trying to minimise the chance of taking injuries to his vitals.

Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion to his eyes at the moment, but he had no power to act. He could only take the damage and be a silent witness. The hood cover and walls of the car curled and cracked like they were cardboard. Dazzling sparks shot out from the car engine. Flame filled the inside of the car, and the car split into numerous pieces!

Zi instantly activated her magic barrier. Several rays of light also flashed around her body, among which Sheyan could only recognise the decaying green of the Ndipaya Swamp and the sinister black of the Siths. Most of the attacks were bounced away by invisible force fields.

The occasional attacks made it past the force fields, but they were then stopped by Zi’s magic barrier. Her magic barrier had a glass-like texture on the outside and a steel frame structure inside. The barrier was oval in shape overall, but upon a closer look, one could see that it was actually composed of multiple little blue squares. The attacks were halted and absorbed by the ‘Titanium Mesh Magic Barrier’, unable to hurt Zi in the slightest!

Reef was curled up behind his shield, a dark golden light faithfully protecting his body from harm. The sorriest ones were Sanzi and Mogensha. They were injured in the explosion and were now covered in wounds and blood. The temperature was so high that the blood dried into scabs as soon as it gushed out.

They were also filled with a sense of fear that the sky, the earth, the ocean, and even the whole world would collapse and shatter! This feeling was making waves in their hearts and was trying to take over their body!