The Ultimate Evolution

Mungo took a sip of vodka without saying anything. That was pretty much a silent confirmation to Sheyan’s question. Sheyan pondered for a moment, but after that, he asked another question instead.

“Doesn’t that mean the Empire can make another Major General’s Blood Armour for me?”

“Of course not,” answered Mungo decisively. “Although 90% of your armour was made within the Empire, the remaining 10% consists of key technologies and core components that can only be provided by the Realm.”

“That guy has the nerve to intercept my armour? He’s not afraid of the Realm’s retaliation?” asked Sheyan in an icy tone.

Mongo smiled wryly. “It’s not exactly an interception in name. He’s just delaying the delivery time as long as he can. This kind of practice is almost an open secret within the Empire. To be specific, he’ll give various excuses to the Realm, such as saying that a department responsible for a certain process is undergoing reorganisation, or the spacecraft dispatched to transport the armour has crashed. In the end, when he can’t put it off any longer and if he really, really likes the armour, he’ll just confess to the crime and pay a heavy price as punishment. These things aren’t without precedents.”

“Precedents?! There are precedents?” exclaimed Sheyan in surprise.

“Yup,” Mungo grinned bitterly. “The Faceless Man from the Big Ben Research Institute once gritted his teeth and paid the price of almost half a galaxy to collect enough compensation for a Nightmare Realm’s fine, all for the sake of keeping a Blood Weapon he was asked to process. Six months after that, he became the shadow Dean of Big Ben Research Institute.”

“Last question,” Sheyan eyes reflected the light from the lamp, shining mysteriously, “The one who took my Major General’s Blood Armour. Is it Prince Pombaru or the Arnold family?”

Mungo’s body jolted in astonishment. “How do you know?”

Sheyan grinned. “You’re an important person in the Empire who guards a key territory, and you’re also someone that both the royal family and the separatist forces are trying to draw to their sides. Anyone who wish to make a move on you must first consider the joint reaction of these two factions. Therefore, the possibility of other forces doing something like this is slim. It’s Prince Pombaru, isn’t it?”

Sheyan continued his deduction, “He’s someone from Big Ben Research Institute, so he wouldn’t be interested in things that are too common. I know that the institute is currently focusing on the research of biological soldiers. These soldiers can theoretically also make use of the unique power in the Blood Armour!”

“No,” Mongo’s answer came as a surprise to Sheyan. “The one who took your armour is the Arnold family. Prince Pombaru’s field of study is in the power of darkness, so he’s not interested in your armour which leans towards the physical side. Your armour was sent to the core of the galaxy for quenching, and it had to pass through the Andromeda War Zone.”

“Let me guess. The Arnold family were tasked with bringing it along with them when they came here, but one look at it and they suddenly had a desire to keep it for themselves,” Sheyan grinned and said. “Am I right? I think only a few people would dare to do this. I heard that the guy named Montsson Lucio has disappeared. So the one who did this must be Moncchi Colbert?”

“Correct,” replied Mungo.

Sheyan sat there quietly with his eyes closed for quite some time. When he opened his eyes, there was a strange smile on his face. He took a swig of Mungo’s vodka and said, “You seem to have made up your mind.”

Mungo was really just blinded before this because he was too deeply involved, so he could not see clearly. Now that his thoughts were clear after having a conversation with Sheyan, he had quickly made up his mind. In truth, his choice was quite obvious. One side treated him as a servant in a master-servant relationship and enmity was quickly brewing between them due to the disappearance of a direct descendant. The other side was a talented and powerful prince of the Empire who had the backing of Big Ben Research Institute. If he had to be a dog, then a dog of the royal family was much more prestigious!

“Since it’s come to this…” Sheyan finished all the vodka in the bottle in one go. He felt as if flames were spreading from his throat and stomach towards his limbs and bones. He turned the bottle upside down and watched as the residual liquor dripped down to the glass coffee table drop by drop. His every word pierced deep into Mungo’s heart.

“…you must go all out! Strike hard without any hesitation. The biggest reserves your new faction will have of a turncoat like you is that you’ll betray them in the same way and go back to your old faction. So, burn all your bridges and hit your old faction hard to the point of no reconciliation. Your new faction will naturally be a lot less suspicion of you then.”

“You mean….” Mungo enquired, a little confused.

“You’ll probably find it inconvenient to handle this personally. It’s not like you can do anything against the power of the Arnold family anyway. But don’t worry, I’m here to help. Let me take care of it. Right now, although you’ve lost command of Alps Base 7, Prince Pombaru definitely haven’t brought along enough soldiers to control the entire city because the city is simply too big. What you need to do now is to pass down orders to your subordinates to make sure they keep their eyes closed,” answered Sheyan with a smile.

Such a simple condition. Mungo naturally promised to have it done without a second’s hesitation! Of course, in exchange, he agreed to take care of Sheyan’s problem for him.

***

Due to Lucio’s disappearance, the whole contingent of the Arnold family retreated back to the warships on which they arrived.

However, at the moment, the entire Alps Base 7 was under the control of the royal family, having been granted permission by the General Staff Headquarters of the Empire. Under this situation, the Arnold family’s warships were ordered to shut down their antimatter energy reactors for a “security inspection” and could only obtain enough power to maintain their basic functions from external power outlet connections. They did not even have enough energy to take off, let alone activate their weapons.

Seven huge warships were moored at the dock, but instead of a being ablaze with lights as they usually were, only their signal lights were shining. They looked just like seven cold corpses of huge snakes. Their grey lead surface looked especially oppressive, contributing to the restrained atmosphere on the warships. No one dared to breathe hard.

At this moment, on a steel road in the middle of the night, against the backdrop of the vast starry sky, slowly came a man whose face was not clearly visible, but whose firm gait exuded solemn dignity. His slow, steady steps were reminiscent of a Pacific-class warship that had just started moving – although the warship may be moving only a centimeter at a time, it gave off a feeling of being unstoppable due to its sheer enormity.

The whole Arnold contingent was on high alert. These were troubled times, and the power supply of their warships had been thoroughly restrained, so the powerful weapons on them had been relegated to mere decorations. There was simply no way they would allow such a strange figure to approach the ships so late at night!

Two elite soldiers went up to the man. “Get away from here, or die!” The arrogance and domineering attitude of the Arnold family was perfectly reflected in their choice of words.

And that was why the two men were sent flying the next second, as if a heavy-duty container truck, spewing black smoke and traveling at 100 mph, had run into them. They landed over 20 meters away and rolled for a dozen more meters before they came to a halt. The armours they wore shattered into pieces, scattering across the ground.

The others witnessed this scene in disbelief and anger! Various shouts travelled through the communicators. Three whole units of soldiers came to the scene like sharks that smelled blood. Alarms blared, and a psychological offence was initiated:

“According to Article 134 of the Imperial Constitution, you have committed a serious violation that is punishable by death on the spot. Put your hands on the back of your head and kneel facing the wall at once, or we may attack you with weapons….”

As if he did not hear the warning, the man continued to march forward, completely ignoring the soldiers! All three units instantly pulled the trigger, forming a horrifying and dense network of shots. The bullets that hit the steel walls bounced back, piling on to the lethality of the situation.

Even in this era, firearms were still actively used in the army. Why had they not been eliminated in this age of energy weapons? First, they could still kill any human that was shot. They did not fare worse than energy weapons in terms of range, and even had an advantage in terms of firing speed. Second, the power of energy weapons was proportional to their size. The power of individual-scale energy weapons did not really have a decisive advantage over the power of firearms. Third, and the most important reason – they were much cheaper.

All three units consisted of veterans from real battlefields. Under such intense firepower coverage, it did not matter if the man tried to dodge, crawl, roll, or even jump; avoiding the shots was almost impossible.

But the man suddenly bent down, and the screeching sound of metallic friction was heard. He had actually tore a large piece off the metallic conveyor belt road with a single hand! The steel plate that was over 5 square meters in size easily blocked the bullets. Then…the man suddenly spun around and threw the huge steel plate in his hand at the unit in front of him like he was throwing a discus!

What ensued was an extremely bloody scene. The steel plate cut two soldiers in half and sent at least five people flying. After that, the flying steel plate scraped against a steel wall, producing a long trail of sparks and a goosebump-inducing sound of metallic friction! The extreme heat produced from the friction almost evaporated the flesh and blood sticking on the steel plate!

Then, the figure actually charged into the midst of another battle unit. Just like a white ball in a game of billiards that rolled into a group of coloured balls, Sheyan stayed stationary after the collision, while the soldiers were knocked away!

What happened here had naturally attracted the attention of Prince Pombaru’s forces. They were, after all, the exclusive guards of the royal family, so they were very alert to any abnormal activities. There was no way a bloody commotion like this could escape their attention.