The Ultimate Evolution

Gullis fell into a momentary trance before he felt an itch on his head. He couldn’t help but scratch it. He felt that something was amiss.

The thing that was amiss was the sensation on his other hand! The soft, delicate, elastic feeling was the sensation of pressing down on the coarse, dry sand of a desert!

Gullis lifted his head abruptly and saw that the sun had already set in the distant horizon, but the clouds were still burning red. A rare gentle desert wind blew upon his face. There was nothing but uneven sand dunes as far as his eyes could see, their soft contours extending to the horizon.

“What the hell? Wasn’t I hiding in a river to ambush a convoy a moment ago?” Such a thought startled Gullis, and the distant sand dunes seemed to turn blurry, blown by a strong wind, at his moment of shock.

But suddenly, he heard a gentle but tired voice.

“Why aren’t you taking a rest? It’s rare that we get to take a breather from the pursuit of the Glory Party. You should take the chance to recuperate.”

Gullis turned around with great excitement. He exclaimed incredulously, “Bean Curd!! You…You’re still alive???”

Bean Curd was a fellow who looked like Jake Gyllenhaal, the leading actor of Brokeback Mountain. His eyes were deep, with a trace of melancholy in them. In comparison, Gulis, with his thick stubble, looked much more manly.

Bean Curd smiled following Gullis’ question. “We haven’t lost all hope yet. Don’t worry, I’ll definitely make good on my promise.”

When Gullis heard this, his eyes instantly turned wet. He remembered vividly that when their party was destroyed, his beloved Bean Curd had fulfilled his promise to protect Gullis with his own life. He died blocking an attack for Gullis, turning into ashes before Gullis’ eyes.

When Gullis recalled that, he could not help getting emotional. He held Bean Curd’s hands and could instantly feel how real they were.

“You’re really here! You’re alive!”

“Did you fall for the Glory Party’ illusion? Why are you acting so weird?” asked Bean Curd, frowning.

Gullis willingly believed that all this was real on a subconscious level. He wanted it to be real. His greatest motivation to keep on living was to bring Bean Curd back to life.

He shook his head and smiled bitterly. “Maybe I was under too much pressure. I had a dream; I dreamed that our party was wiped out. Those of us who remained struggled bitterly afterwards. We decided to bet everything on this one mission, hoping to rebuild the team. I also performed a failed ambush. Damn. That dream felt so real.”

What those two experienced next were exactly the same as in Gullis’ “dream”. They were constantly being attacked and pursued. However, because Gullis had seen all of it happen before, he could predict what was going to happen and make corresponding adjustments like he had read the walkthrough. Therefore, despite their struggle, they still managed to reach the place where Bean Curd had died in Gullis’ “dream”.

This time, Gullis did not make a mistake. He lurked in the sands, and by utilising his ability which allowed him to come and go like a ghost, he managed to put on an extraordinary performance, killing in succession the three people he hated the most in the Glory Party!

Seeing the three people he hated the most lying dead on the ground with their head shattered, Gullis’s delight rose to its highest point.

He could not stop himself from breaking into a wild laughter. In his previous “dream”, these three people had tortured Gullis like cats toying with a mouse, They would force him into one hopeless situation after another before letting him barely escape alive. Now that those three were dead, even the desert wind felt fresh to Gullis.

But at that very moment, Gullis suddenly felt a sharp pain in his right foot that was buried in the sand, as if it had suddenly been gripped by a metallic hook! A strong force pulled him down into the sand!

The edge of the metallic hook was hard and sharp, easily cutting into Gullis’ flesh and grating against his bones! He could even feel his bone marrow gushing out of the wound together with his blood!

Gullis screamed in pain and immediately triggered a magic trap to teleport himself away. However, the man who was attacking him had actually teleported after him. Now that Gullis looked more carefully, he realised that the man was the ferocious assassin who had just joined the Glory Party, Illidan!

Not only was his name the same as a certain person’s, his weapon was amazingly similar too! The edge of the blade was as sharp as a dagger, and the arching design enabled it to hook onto the weapons and even the limbs of others! For example, Gullis’ right foot!

( TL: https://wowwiki.fandom.com/wiki/Illidan_Stormrage )

Illidan mercilessly pulled at the blade hard, and the bottom part of Gullis’ right foot went flying. Illidan disappeared from Gullis’ view after that. Before Gullis could even react, he was already hit hard on the back of his head by something which felt like a hammer. His vision turned unsteady and his ears buzzed. The unspeakable pain paralysed him.

Then, a long trail of slashing light flashed past. The front part of Gullis’ body was completely cut open. His innards spilled out. Gullis screamed as he fell to the ground. But while he was falling, he saw Illidan’s body stiffen from the corner of his eyes. Bean Curd, covered in blood, was standing breathlessly in the distance. His magic staff had traced the runes for the ‘Mega Blast’ spell in the air. The spell was ready to be launched, but he was hesitating because the spell’s destructive power would hurt Gullis too.

The opportunity allowed Illidan to place his blade on Gullis’ neck. He yelled while half kneeling beside Gullis, “Finish the spell if you dare! This spell will hurt your allies too! I’m prepared to die with your friend!”

Bean Curd’s face turned red from anger. The spell was about to be completed. If he kept delaying it, it would soon reach the limit and rebound back on him, making him suffer a terrible backlash! If that were to happen, not only would he fail to kill Illidan, Illidan could easily kill the both of them!!

At that moment, all Gullis could think of was the pain of losing Bean Curd in his previous “dream”. He recalled vividly how Bean Curd had sacrificed himself to safe him without the slightest bit of hesitation. Gullis immediately hugged Illidan tight and screamed, “Cast it!”

Tears streaked down Bean Curd’s face. He shook his head and said in a voice as sweet as Ed Sheeran’s, “No! I can’t!”

Gullis was so emotional his eyes were almost popping out. Something was surging madly in his heart. “Quick, I can’t hold on much longer! Don’t let me die in vain!”

In truth, if Gullis could keep a clear head at that moment, he would have realised that a mage like him without any Strength-boosting abilities could never have locked an Agility-type contestant like Illidan down. Unfortunately, his heart was currently filled with the sacred feeling of overbearing righteousness and sacrifice, so he failed to notice these details. He kept shouting at the top of his voice.

“CAST IT!”

In the end, Bean Curd had no choice but to release his ‘Mega Blast’ spell. A burst of light as bright as the sun itself completely engulfed Gullis and Illidan. Gullis’ mouth curled into a relieved smile….and his heart stopped beating.

Many have probably heard the story of the blindfolded prisoner who was told that he would be bled to death, but was instead frightened to death by the sound of dripping water.

(TL: https://www.deseretnews.com/article/575041154/Loud-drips-can-scare-you-to-death.html )

There are also records of some devout believers developing wounds on their palms after reading about the crucifixion of Jesus, known as “stigmata”.

What is interesting is that some of them, who read that Jesus was pierced in the wrists rather than the palms, had developed stigmata on their wrists instead.

That is the power of mental suggestion.

Gullis truly thought that he was dead, therefore, he truly died.

Contestants may possess extraordinary tenacity and strength, but their heart and willpower were not necessarily that much stronger than those of ordinary people. At the instant when Gullis believed that he was dying in the hands of his beloved Bean Curd, Freddy had raised his steel claws and pierced them into Gullis’ heart with a strange laugh. Although at that moment, Gullis could scream, or struggle, or resist, or take medication, he did none of those because he truly believed that he was dead!

Old Charlie opened his eyes. Inside his pupils were the illusionary figures of Freddy, who was laughing and chewing at a bleeding heart. But the illusionary figures soon subsided.

Old Charlie turned to Sheyan and reported, “The opponents received a piece of information after their party was destroyed. The information made them decide to enter the world of 2012 to make a final gamble. There are only three people left in this party. The one who destroyed their party was Zeus’ Glory Party.”

Zi’s countenance changed upon hearing Glory Party’s name. Old Charlie closed his eyes for a while to gather his focus, then said, “Master, Freddy’s increase in power has already garnered the attention of the Realms, so we didn’t get achievement points from killing this guy named Gullis, only a randomly selected item.”

Sheyan nodded. Old Charlie took out a bag. When they opened the bag, they surprisingly found a total of 13 unknown mysterious items inside. All of them were a kind of unknown mysterious items with a shocking origin called the ‘Smelly Toruk Particles’.

It turned out that Gullis’ party had a member who was a botanist like Dardanian. When their party entered the world of Avatar, the botanist had planted his own genetically modified plant on the ground during a fight.

The plant escaped the fate of being destroyed in the fight. Not only that, it even mutated after adapting to the changes in the environment of planet Avatar. It began to blossom and bear fruits. The fruits of this plant actually attracted the tier 9 Great Leonopteryxes, and they became addicted to it. The fruits of the plant were similar to oranges in that they had rich flesh and hard seeds. Hence, their seeds were often not digested and would be excreted from the digestive system of the Great Leonopteryxes inside the dung.

The ‘Smelly Toruk Particles’ were the seeds found in the Great Leonopteryxes’ dung. Gullis’ sniper shots were so powerful precisely because he was using these unknown mysterious items as bullets.

Because these unknown mysterious items were not difficult to obtain, they were the cheapest kind of unknown mysterious items and could only be traded in for achievement points at a 1:1 ratio.