The Ultimate Evolution

The taste of the strong liquor stimulated the taste buds like burning charcoal, as it always did. A burning sensation spread all over the doctor’s body after he swallowed the drink.

Dr. W could not help but be reminded of the feeling of drunkenness and joy when he was still young and frivolous. He also knew that, although the sensation of the spirit washing over his taste buds may make him high and happy, the feeling when they leaked into his internal organs through his porous esophagus and stomach bag would be an unbearable torture.

But the pain he expected did not arrive!

Instead, he felt like he was being baked in a warm fire, a rather comfortable feeling akin to drinking hot chicken soup when one was sick. The pleasurable warmth even seeped into his limbs and bones.

His pain became significantly lighter, apparently because his nerves were paralysed by alcohol. The comfortable feeling was still lingering in his body. Dr. W could not help drinking two more gulps. As his intoxication deepened, the pain also became milder.

He was now in a slightly tipsy state, which made Dr. W feel more relaxed and comfortable. His entire body felt light as if he was lying down on clouds. He believed that working in this state should bring twice the result with half the effort.

(TL: I don’t think working in a drunken state will increase efficiency but what do I know.)

“It’s a shame….there isn’t any more,” Dr. W turned the bottle upside down to confirm the cruel fact with his eyes, then sighed deeply with a rather rude hiccup.

Sheyan grinned. “Wait fifteen minutes and try taking another sip.”

Sheyan then turned around and walked out. While he did that, he pressed his earpiece to get the latest news from the rest of the party. The others did not transmit any emergency signal to contact him, but according to Sheyan’s deduction, Rocky and his team should already be enjoying the feasts Party Ace had prepared for them.

As soon as the specially encrypted channel connected, Sheyan could already hear the others shouting in excitement.

“A bit to the left, left, no, right, anticipate the distance properly!”

“Excellent! That magazine of bullets must bite! Wow, Rocky’s started attacking. It’s all right. Move to the next step right away! ”

“Change to armour-piercing bombs and smoke bombs! Turn on infrared scanning! Wow, two headshots in a row!!”

“I’ll do it, I’ll do it.”

Hearing the screams of those people, you would think that they were playing Counter Strike. But in truth, they were manipulating remotely controlled weapons to rain down attacks on Rocky and his gang.

There was no doubt that such a one-sided fight where the opponents could not attack them back was shameless, despicable and vile, but it was also very morale-boosting.

Sheyan pressed on the earpiece and spoke to the other side of the communication channel, “Are they in Area F2 now? Good. Bombard the passage ahead. Let’s see if they’ll dig a way through or take a detour.

“OK, successful bombardment! They seemed to have chosen to take a detour. It’s not that easy to find someone who have earth-elemental power, bro. You can’t expect to find someone like Kulutego everywhere!”

“They took a detour? Are they going to Area F3? Great! The “Seeder” defence system there should already be in place, right? Don’t turn on automatic mode, let someone manually operate it! We’ll give them a huge surprise!” Sheyan ordered.

Now that he had obtained the highest level of authority, several confidential secretaries at the side immediately prepared to execute his orders. Sheyan would not have been able to seize the opportunity to obtain such great powers if it wasn’t for the disaster of the 2012 apocalypse.

There was a saying that if one did not use power when it was bestowed upon them, the power would just rot and expire. Sheyan naturally took this rare opportunity to put all kinds of poisonous schemes into practice one after another. He would definitely make sure every step Rocky’s group took was filled with difficulty and exhaustion! If he could cut down their numbers again with the help of machines, then all the better.

***

Steel File, who was moving at the very front, suddenly came to a halt. A floating mine was flying over in the passageway ahead. It looked like a large pineapple that was floating in water, with a circle of mysterious red dots around it.

Steel File immediately withdrew behind his shields. The mage-type contestant behind him had already sent an ‘Ice Arrow’ over.

The red dots around the floating mine abruptly disappeared, and a beeping sound was heard. Triangular metal fragments, steel beads and other shrapnel contained in the floating mine suddenly scattered with unimaginable speed in the narrow tunnel, reflecting cold, terrible light!

The shrapnel produced trails of sparks when it hit the walls nearby. One of the contestants hired by Rocky could not avoid them in time. Several cuts were made on his body, and blood immediately gushed out. A piece of shrapnel had also cut across the unfortunate Carlos’ eyelids, almost turning him blind. Even so, his vision was still greatly affected in the short term.

When the soldier who was manually controlling the “Seeder” defence system saw that a single floating mine was enough to send the enemies into a state of chaos, his spirit was instantly boosted. He pressed down on the button to fire the floating mines without letting go and at the same time, requested for non-stop reloading. If he could, he wanted to pour out all the floating mines immediately. It was not until the loading device protested with a high temperature warning that he stared hatefully at the enemies, daring them to move further inside.

At this time, the originally spacious passageway was already densely packed with the pineapple-like floating mines that had automatic tracking and would explode as soon as the enemy got close. They crowded the space and flew around like headless flies. Not only that, they were even releasing poisonous smoke which lowered visibility!

“What do we do?” Carlos looked to Rocky for help. They had no choice but to retreat, and had already hid around the corner behind them.

Rocky took out a radar the size of a mobile phone to take a look. There was a simple 2D map on it like in a video game. A red dot, point A, could be seen at the far end of the map, and that was their mission target. They were now at point B, which was denoted by a triangle. The few paths that could get them from point B to point A were clearly shown on the radar, but of course, more specific information, such as the presence of ambushes and so on, was not available.

This was something Rocky had traded for with his rank privileges. Every time a contestant promoted in rank, they would get several fixed privileges, and get to choose several privileges from a list of optional privileges. For example, after the promotion to Major General, the total privileges reached 200 points. The fixed privileges will occupy about 100 points, and the contestant could then choose from a list of privileges where each option occupied about 10 to 50 points.

Rocky’s mission radar was a rare item in the optional privileges list. It could roughly indicate the direction to the mission target, something very practical. But this rare option was also very expensive, and that was why he did not have enough points to get the option of satellite-masking. The members of Rocky’s party each had very clear responsibilities, and the one with the rank privilege to mask them from satellite detection did not enter this world. That was why they were in such a disadvantage.

“There’s no way we can move above the ground,” Rocky’s face was cold and grave, “Right now, this passageway is the shortest way to the target. Even if we choose another route, there’s no guarantee that it won’t be even harder than this one. So, I don’t recommend changing our path.”

“But…”Carlos appeared to be stunned.

“Let me try,” Steel File’s eyes shone with a sharp glimmer. That’s right, times like this were when the MT should step up and pave a path of blood for their team with their own body!

He suddenly raised both his hands high, then fiercely plunged them into the stone wall next to him. He was able to hold a heavy two-handed tower shield with one hand, but even with the support of his innate ability, it was absolutely impossible to do so without enough Strength. Therefore, this plunge had stabbed his hands into the stone wall forearm-deep.

Continuous cracking sounds were heard from the rocks. Steel File put more force into his arms, and the whole passage shook and groaned unsteadily. Then, the passage collapsed with a loud roar.

Amidst the stones that fell like rain, Steel File screamed and exposed his solid muscles. He raised a huge stone more than a meter in diameter and threw it!

A string of loud noises and explosions could be heard. Obviously, a large number of floating mines had been detonated. Steel File raised his shields, crossed his hands and rushed forward. The two towering shields, lined up next to each other, protected him tightly without a gap. After rushing more than 20 meters forward, he flung one of the giant shields with great force!

The giant shield was thrown out while Steel File was running. It was shining with the colour of blood and spinning around at high speed. It tore a huge opening about seven or eight meters along the tunnel wall, then broke through the back wall. A few flashes of light followed, and a series of explosions took place. The shield killed all the soldiers hiding in the secret room at the back to control the “Seeder” defence system!

Having suddenly burst out with such a powerful force, Steel File could not help gasping for breath, but his eyes only got fiercer.

A finger lightly touched the screen and froze this image in place.

***

“Did anyone discover his weakness?” Sheyan asked while looking at the paused image of Steel File on the screen.

Zi shook her head. “No. This guy looks like he’s proficient in both offence and defence, and is extremely rich in combat experience. He doesn’t display his skills easily, but once he does, his skills are earth-shattering. He’s like a heavy infantry of the cold weapon era, a tortoise wrapped in metal.”

Reef suddenly interjected, “This guy may have explosive skills, but generally speaking, his weakness should be his speed. If I cooperate with Kulutego, we should be able to stall him.”