The Ultimate Evolution

When the bear-like man was talking, he spread his arms open wildly. His whole body was leaning back and his right foot was placed on his left foot, as if he was sitting on a thick, large sofa.

But in fact, he was only sitting on a wooden stub. However, the air behind him seemed to be obediently holding him up. It seemed like this man trained his ability anytime and anywhere.

The people around him seemed to be lazing about, but they all had serious and attentive looks on their faces. From this point alone, one could see the authority this man commanded. And though he appeared crude, he was in fact very attentive. He was likely to remember anyone who showed a slightly disrespectful attitude.

A man with a goatee followed up on his words. “Mr. Bill is right. It’s a very troublesome thing to face a lot of MTs on the battlefield. Every MT has the ability to save or strengthen their teammates in a critical moment. Once we let the opposing MT seize an opportunity, an originally sure-kill situation or even an exchange of lives will turn into a loss instead. I’ve seen far too many of these kinds of situations before. That’s why, in the next war, we must come up with a good plan to deal with them.”

“Just focus fire! The four heavy sniper rifles of our party alone can eliminate two MTs right from the very beginning!” A man in sunglasses yelled fiercely.

“It’s not that easy,” Goatee guy did not dare provoke the bear-like man, but he was obviously not as respectful towards the man in sunglasses.

“Have you really fought against MTs of that level before? It’s really easy for snipers to deal with storyline characters, but no matter how strong a sniper’s attack is, it must first go through the 40% rule against a contestant, then be further weakened by the MT’s high defence. I’ve seen a shield that provides as much defence as all the equipment I’m wearing put together! And that’s not all. The damage will then be further reduced by the MT’s own defensive innate ability! You want to insta-kill two MTs with four heavy sniper rifles? What a joke! If we consider the honorary dosage, you’d be lucky to kill a single MT with four heavy sniper rifles!”

Sunglasses man widened his eyes as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world. “Four heavy sniper rifles can’t defeat a single MT? Are you kidding me! Do you know how much my current maximum damage is? If an explosive strike triggers, I can hit 7000!”

“You think 7000 is high?” Goatee guy sneered. “First, your Perceptive Sense is weak, so hit rate has always been a problem for you. Second, the truly strong MTs usually have some abilities to lower your explosive strike rate, so it’s very unlikely for you to trigger an explosive strike against them. That makes your theoretical maximum damage 3500. After the 40% reduction, you’re left with 2100. The MT’s high defence will shave off at least half of the damage, so your actual damage will only be around 1000! And don’t forget, all MTs have defensive innate abilities, so you’re left with 800 points of damage at most! I haven’t even calculated the MTs other abilities and aura yet!”

“The HP of an Awakener MT is at least 3000! If the shots from four heavy sniper rifles hit the MT at the same time, the total damage will barely reach this amount! And there’s also the party skill. The MT will definitely still have the chance to take the honorary dosage! Do you still think four heavy sniper rifles can insta-kill an MT, Lafarge? It’s stupid enough to use your combat experience against storyline characters to make inferences about a fight against other contestants; it’s even more idiotic to use your combat experience against storyline characters to make inferences about a fight against a contestant party led by an MT!”

“Burtas is right. In any case, it pays to be careful,” Bear-like man concluded the dispute. “We didn’t pay enough attention to MTs in our team, and it’s too late to do anything about it now. However, our attack power is still second to none, so our M.O. should not be to siege, but to ambush!”

Bear-like man’s countenance suddenly turned fierce. With a wave of his arm, he said, “We’ll launch a surprise attack from the side! After we attract the attention of the enemy’s main force, we’ll reappear and work together to break down the barrier they’re so proud of! We shouldn’t be facing that many MTs, right, Burtas?”

Burtas smiled light-heartedly. “Mr. Bill, it doesn’t only take strength for an MT to pop up, but also luck. A party would be lucky to have one. Don’t forget, our enemies have a disadvantage in numbers.”

Bill, the bear-like man, nodded in satisfaction. He grabbed a greasy pork leg and chewed on it as he said, “That’s good! Get in touch with Team 5. Their team isn’t that strong in attack, but they’re really good at stalling the opponents. Let them attract the enemy’s attention from the front while we ambush them from behind with all our might!”

The sound of Bill’s teeth tearing at the roast pork mixed together with his vague words, giving off a feeling of crudeness and greed.

“We’ll kick their unprotected ass!”

***

Sheyan and Reef opened the door of Room 14.

A guy inside was taking a sip of wine straight from the bottle… His identity was completely out of the expectations of Sheyan and Reef! He was certainly not the first name on their list of possible senders of the invitation letter. In fact, he did not even make the reserve’s list!

“….Skull?” asked Sheyan, a little surprised.

Skull gulped down the rest of the wine in the bottle, then took a bite of the wine bottle and chewed noisily.

“That’s right. Surprised?”

“A little. But I’m more surprised in your taste for wine bottles,” said Sheyan with a wry smile.

Skull laughed. “This is a special product of the Realm, a chocolate crystal wine. Even the bottle tastes like chocolate. You think I like consuming equipment so much that I’m even nibbling on wine bottles now? Let me tell you, equipment aren’t tasty at all.”

“Really?” Sheyan could not help ordering a bottle for himself too, just to check it out. When he tried it, he found that the bottle indeed crackled like glass when it was chewed on, but its texture was like very thin ice. It had a sweet chocolatey taste, and was much more delicious than the wine it contained.

The funny misunderstanding instantly pulled the three people closer to each other. Although Skull thought very highly of himself, Sheyan and Reef were also two powerful MTs, so he did acknowledge them. Fights to the death were common in Nightmare Worlds, so there was no need to make a big deal out of past conflicts and resentment. The most important thing was the present. The best way to deal with the past was to laugh it off.

The three of them exchanged news on what happened to each other after they parted ways. It turned out that Skull’s party suffered a heavy blow after that, resulting in the death of almost all the people around him. Under Zeus’ recommendation, he was pulled into Noah Realm C. Of course, both Zeus and Skull got quite a bit of benefits out of it.

Zeus was an ambitious man. The main reason he pulled Skull into Noah Realm C was because he was envious of Party Ace’s dual-MT configuration. However, not everyone could make the dual-MT configuration work.

The understanding between Sheyan and Reef was built up bit by bit over a long period of time. Furthermore, Reef himself had already given up hope when he joined Sheyan’s party, but the same could not be said of Skull. Skull was not willing to be #2, or to be more precise, Zeus was not strong enough for him to willingly take a step back and become #2.

Therefore, there were conflicts between the two from the very start. Fortunately, in the end, they managed to keep their wits about them and parted ways peacefully. Skull had now started his own party and had even managed to get a Chosen to join, but to their dismay, they had to face a Realm War at this most crucial period in the early stage of the party’s formation! One wrong move, and the newly established party may very well break apart instantly!

Of course, if the party could survive this ordeal, they would grow significantly stronger.

And so, Skull thought of Sheyan. During their duel, the dual-MT configuration had left a deep impression on him. Skull was also a very practical person. His first priority was to ensure the survival of his party, and then only promotion and advancement.

Sheyan did not reject such a proposal for cooperation. He had confidence in his ability to scheme and plan and was not afraid of Skull playing any tricks. After a while of discussions, the two sides agreed on various details regarding the cooperation and gradually turned to other topics. Most of their discussions centred on the problem of being outnumbered.

“The problem is, we don’t know which battle it’ll be. We only know it’ll be one of the Battle of Helm’s Deep, the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, or the Battle of the Black Gate,” said Reef.

“In any case, since we have a disadvantage in numbers, we should be assigned to the side which occupies the advantageous terrain, right?” asked Skull uncertainly as he looked at Sheyan with some anticipation. “To be honest, I hope it’ll be the final battle at Mount Doom, because that’s the closest we’ll ever get to the One Ring. Even if we lose the Realm War, the trip will be worth it if we can get the ring.”

But Sheyan’s expression was grim upon hearing that. “The One Ring may be absurdly powerful, but precisely because of that, the price of using it must be ridiculously high as well. Take the weapon claimed to be the most fearsome in ancient China, the Fangtian Halberd, for example. Yes, it’s strong, but if an ordinary man wields it, he’ll just drop it on his own foot. The best equipment aren’t the most powerful ones, but the ones most suitable for you.”

Reef suddenly asked Skull some questions regarding MT auras. Reef had still yet to awaken his MT aura, and he had been greatly troubled by it. But upon hearing Reef out, Skull congratulated him instead. It turned out that awakening one’s MT aura early or late both had its own advantages.

To awaken it early naturally meant that it could provide extra help in advance, but the MT aura had to be upgraded, and the amount of achievement points needed to upgrade it was astonishing! If it awakened late, there’s a possibility of the MT aura starting from level 3 or level 4 right away, so the contestant would save a lot of achievement points.

Since Reef did not really need the MT aura urgently, there was no hurry to obtain it as it would just be a bonus to his combat prowess now instead of a crucial component. He might as well let it accumulate for a little longer.