The Ultimate Evolution

If Sheyan was picking up chicks, he could just set the highest goal and work down from there; if they could not sleep together, then they could kiss; if they could not kiss, then they could cuddle; if they could not cuddle, then they could just hold hands…. But the Realm had made it clear that if the wish was something it could not do or if it was something which exceeded Party Ace’s merits, the wish would be wasted in vain. Sheyan could not use the same strategy here.

Sheyan contemplated over the problem very carefully, and then said, “I’m already a Colonel and my total achievement points is close to reaching the rank of Major General. May I ask a few questions first?”

This was the privilege of Sheyan’s military rank. Even the Realm could not deny that. The Realm thus replied, “You may, but I can choose not to answer questions that are beyond your level of clearance, and I may also charge you for certain questions.”

Sheyan nodded. “Are all questions about Bind forbidden?”

“Yes,” the Realm answered. “This answer is free of charge.”

Sheyan continued, “I’ve killed a guy named Fate before. May I know the name of his ability? The one that can manipulate other people’s luck and give others misfortune. I believe this question isn’t beyond my rank. It involves a rival Realm, and Fate’s military rank was lower than mine. You should be able to answer this.”

“Information check in progress…. The data is being restored. Please wait patiently. The estimated time required is 60 minutes, but if you can provide some relevant data, the time required will be greatly shortened.

“….What kind of relevant data do you need?”

“Something that can be associated with the person named Fate, such as his personal belongings.”

Sheyan’s eyes brightened. “Zi, show the Realm your ring, the ‘+7 Stark’s Energy Spare Part’ (quality product)’. That’s something Fate left behind.”

The ring on Zi’s hand glowed with a soft light. Soon, a series of notifications came.

“Search successful. Data is being retrieved…. The ability of contestant A801C71 is called ‘The Power of the Dead’, an ability unique to the ‘Final Destination’ world.”

“‘The Power of the Dead’?” muttered Sheyan under his breath. “What’s the Realm’s evaluation of this ability?”

“The precise answer to this question requires a fee of 10,000 utility points,” the Realm responded.

Sheyan did not hesitate. “Here you go. Please tell me the answer.”

“‘The Power of the Dead’ is rated as an A-rank ability. It can be acquired by gaining the trust of the coroner William Bludworth, a key storyline character in the Final Destination world (by raising relationship level to Exalted) and learning from him. Because the acquiring difficulty is low but the upgrading difficulty is high, the ability is rated as an A-rank ability.”

Sheyan felt that the 10,000 utility points were well spent. He then asked, “How difficult is it to revive a party member?”

“Extremely difficult.”

Their hearts sank when they heard the Realm’s reply. Sheyan closed his eyes and was silent for a while. After that, he pulled Sanzi over and said a few words to him. Sanzi was visibly surprised. After a short moment of hesitation, he spoke to the Realm.

“I will now make the first wish.”

“Please state your wish, respectable Chosen.” The Realm’s voice was the same synthesised electronic sound, but he now added the word “respectable”! Sheyan silently cursed the Realm out in his heart. I’m already a freaking Colonel but I still didn’t get an honorific title. Sanzi’s not even a Growth Hunter yet….

Sanzi took a look at Sheyan and summoned up the courage to say, “The first wish — I wish to acquire ‘The Power of the Dead’.”

Reef and Zi were both surprised to hear this. So Sheyan had asked so many questions because he was aiming for ‘The Power of the Dead’!

Bind’s ability was indeed bizarre, able to kill covertly without being detected. Truth be told, it was a really despicable ability. But if someone on their side had that kind of ability, how amazing would that be? They were in full support of this plan!

There were two reasons why Sheyan asked Sanzi to make this wish in his stead:

First, by his estimation, their achievements so far were not enough for the Realm to award them an A-rank ability for free. Sheyan only had about 50%-60% confidence that the Realm would agree to this request, which means that there was almost a 50% chance that the Realm would say no. Sanzi, being a Chosen, should increase the chances somewhat.

More importantly, although Sheyan certainly wished that he could take all the good equipment and all the good abilities, he knew that it was not practical. He could not win every battle by himself. Every contestant had their own opportunities which they should grasp when it presented itself.

Sheyan certainly wished to possess an ability like ‘The Power of the Dead’, but he realised that it was not suitable for him. It was a sneaky ability which could take the life of the enemy commander from thousands of miles away, which was incompatible with his build as an MT who fought at the frontline.

Sheyan’s style was akin to a general who took the lead to charge straight into the midst of the enemies, cutting a path straight towards the enemy commander. On the other hand, ‘The Power of the Dead’ was a sinister ability which was akin to smearing poison on the breast of a beautiful woman who was presented as a gift for the enemy commander in order to kill him subtly and quietly. The two styles were totally incompatible.

Sheyan also suspected that it was necessary to have a certain level of Intelligence and Spirit in order to bring out the full power of ‘The Power of the Dead’. That was the main reason why he let Sanzi ask for this ability.

***

After Sanzi had made the wish, the Realm replied in the same emotionless voice, “I can fulfil this wish, respectable Chosen, but it will cost you 20 achievement points and 50,000 utility points.”

Sheyan could not help questioning, “Didn’t you say that the ability isn’t difficult to acquire? Why does he still need to pay a fee?”

The Realm completely ignored him and only repeated the same line at Sanzi.

Party Ace lost a member for the first time in the 2012 world, but they had also gone on a killing spree! All of them had obtained quite an amount of achievement points. Sanzi naturally had no problem producing 20 achievement points for the fee.

It was worth mentioning that Sanzi had always had an official military rank. Zi and Reef had also realised the usefulness of having an official military rank after meeting Sheyan, so they had also made the effort to turn their reserve ranks into official ones. Right now, all three of them had official ranks.

Sanzi chose to pay the fee without any hesitation. He then obtained an A-rank scroll: ‘The Power of the Dead’.

The description on it was a simple one: “This scroll contains the formidable power of Death. After learning the ability on it, one will have the power to change the fate of others! Prerequisite abilities: ‘Deep Meditation’ lvl 4, ‘Astrology’ lvl 4, ‘Casting Material Identification’ lvl 4.”

‘Deep Meditation’ was the advanced version of ‘Meditation’, a must have for all spellcasters. ‘Astrology’ was an ability which a lot of summoners, including Sanzi, find necessary to divine the location of a good pet or to predict the success rate of the next capturing attempt. However, he did not have ‘Casting Material Identification’ lvl 4. He could only wait until he had returned to the Realm to purchase the ability before he could meet the learning requirements of ‘The Power of the Dead’.

The Realm had wickedly bound the scroll to Sanzi’s soul. The implication of this was obvious. The Realm had only handed out this reward because Sanzi was a Chosen. The others were not, so they were only fit to stare at the scroll….

But in any case, to be able to learn ‘The Power of the Dead’ so easily was a huge win for Party Ace.

The requirement for learning this ability did not sound too harsh, and everyone seemed to be able to learn it if they wanted to, but to gain the trust of the coroner and raise their relationship level to Exalted was in truth so hard that it was enough to drive a person crazy!

This coroner was a forever alone guy without any relatives, friends or acquaintances. He had always maintained an unfriendly attitude with everyone. The only way to improve your relationship with him was to complete the tasks he requested.

His tasks were not actually that hard. He would ask for all kinds of strange things that were not that expensive nor were they difficult to find, but everything he asked for was a local specialty of other movie worlds! He might ask for a booger candy from the Harry Potter world, or a compressed cookie from the StarCraft world, or a zombie chicken from the Resident Evil world, or a roll of toilet paper from the Titanic….

Therefore, in order to complete his task once, even if you’re lucky, you would have to wait until you return from the Final Destination world, then go to the Realm marketplace to buy the required item, then go back to the Final Destination world…. To raise the relationship level to Exalted, even if you have an unbelievable amount of Charm, you would have to repeat this process for more than a dozen times….

Someone once tried to go to the coroner after collecting a large pile of stuff that he might ask for, but the bastard could see what you had on you. He did not want anything you’re carrying because what he wanted was your sincerity in going around running errands for him. Although you could finish the task remotely, but to accept another task, you still had to go back to the coroner!

So, was the learning requirement of ‘The Power of the Dead’ high? Not really. Any contestant could try if they really wanted to. But the effort it would take and the price one had to pay was enough to break a person!

Sheyan made the second wish himself. He wished to bring Freddy, the evil demon staying inside the mind of his servant Old Charlie, out of this world.

This wish was fulfilled by the Realm, albeit not in its entirety. It allowed Freddy to leave a seed in Old Charlie’s mind. Whenever Old Charlie required Freddy’s power, Freddy could be reborn through the seed. However, this ability could only be used for a limited number of times. The seed would wither after it was used for three times, and each use must be separated by a world in between.