The Ultimate Evolution

Translator: Sean88888 Editor: Elkassar1

After drinking enough water, Sheyan's brain had pretty much woken from its stupor. He slowly opened his eyes, but quickly closed them again because of the harsh light. At this time, Zi said gently next to his ear, "We're safe now; there's no rush to get up. Just remember what you've been through and then adjust to the environment. You just had a severe concussion…"

Sheyan took a deep breath and continued to lie in bed as he was told. After about a minute, he opened his eyes and sat up.

"How long has it been since the explosion?"

Zi looked at the time and replied, "It's been seven hours."

Sheyan nodded in response.

"Normally, if we don't have a side mission, we can only stay in the same world after finishing the main mission for 12 hours at most. Well, that's not a problem. We still have more than four hours of time left."

"I've been in this world before, so I know the way to trigger a side mission. We'll look for a certain bastard and start a side mission first so that we can prolong our stay in this world. Ouch!"

Sheyan groaned because of a sharp pain in his back. A strand of reddish-gold negative energy from the core of the explosion had caught onto his back and eroded into his body. It had not dissipated even after such a long time.

This reddish-gold energy stubbornly resided in Sheyan body like bone-sucking maggots. Even the 'Stairway of the Sun' couldn't do anything against it. Every time Sheyan's wound healed a little, the negative energy would mercilessly erode and re-injure him. How could he get better this way?

Zi carefully wiped the blood off Sheyan's wound. The blood was very hot, almost boiling. Sheyan gnashed his teeth with his eyes shut tight, waiting for acute pain to pass.

He then said, "We'll go look for a guy called Vincent… There's a pretty high chance we'll get a side mission from him. If Vincent lets us down, there's bound to be a side mission with Skynet's main programmer, Miles Dyson -- of course, it's much harder to gain the trust of the latter, so he can't be our first choice. "

Mr. Vincent has not made an appearance for a long time, so it stands to reason that most of us would have forgotten who he is. That's right, he's the soon-to-be-marginalised executive of Cyberdyne Systems, the backstabbing man who had called the police immediately after making a transaction with Sheyan. He could never have imagined that the man he betrayed back then would come back for him one day - bringing a whole group of people with him!

Sheyan gritted his teeth and climbed out of bed, then stood up with some difficulty while holding onto his shoulder. He could clearly feel the torment of the reddish-gold energy in the body. He had no choice but to numb the surrounding nerves with anesthetics. He felt slightly better after that, but his combat ability was still only half of what it was in his peak condition.

The group walked out and got on a bus heading to Cyberdyne Systems' company headquarters. The bus was quite empty. Sheyan and his party sat at the back of the bus. The atmosphere was heavy and nobody spoke.

Sheyan closed his eyes and pondered for a while, then slowly breathed out.

"Amazing," he said in the party communication channel.

As if Sheyan's words had broken some sort of barrier, everyone instantly felt relieved.

"You're talking about the mastermind behind the scenes?" asked Zi.

Sheyan's expression was as calm as the surface of a lake as he nodded while he replied, "Yeah. This guy is merciless, meticulous, and decisive. Not only that, he's also very cautious. As soon as he catches a whiff of danger, he's out. He doesn't do anything he's not sure of. All this makes it really hard to get rid of him! I'm afraid we have to be very wary of him in the foreseeable future. "

"But his plan still failed," Zi showed Sheyan an encouraging look. "All the traps he laid down were foiled by you - and you were unprepared before you went through them too. That's not a fluke, that's a proof of your strength."

Sheyan said with a bitter smile, "To be honest, I'm not confident I'll survive this guy's scheme for the third time. But the good news is that it should be impossible for him to use another bomb like the one he planted before. Such a powerful bomb, as far as the strength of the current contestants are concerned, is enough to destroy the balance of the realm. Even MTs like Reef and I will be easily killed if we're caught in the heart of the explosion. Something taboo like this will either have very stringent usage requirements like MCDH's 'Let the Bullets Fly' ability, or it must be exceptionally rare.

"But why did that guy kill the contestants on the same side as him?" wondered Mogensha. 𝙛𝘳𝒆𝒆𝒘e𝗯n𝗼𝘷𝚎𝚕.𝒄૦𝓶

Sanzi remarked, "Either it will be of great benefit to him, or it will prevent us from reaping any benefits."

"Although the contestants on the opposing side did not fully complete their mission, they did kill Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese after all. Besides, the method Sheyan used to complete the mission was simply too weird. The realm must have compensated them somehow. Could they have been given extra time in this world? That is one of the most common form of compensation," added Reef.

"You mean…the mastermind doesn't want to see those people staying here?" asked Sheyan.

Looking out of the window of the bus, Zi muttered, "The opponent knows the steps involved in the "seed of divine artifact" mission. If - and this is only an assumption - there is a certain step which requires you to collect a certain amount of powerful souls within a limited time, it will explain the action taken by the mastermind."

Sanzi seemed to have integrated nicely into the team. He voiced his opinion too. "That's right, and it's not as if he doesn't get any loot for killing his allies. With his ability which appeared as if it could indirectly change someone's destiny, it's absolutely not impossible to kill all those contestants. The easiest way to go about it would be to sow discord among the crowd and let them kill each other first before stepping in and cleaning up the situation!"

Sheyan closed his eyes and pondered for a moment, then said, "Let's put ourselves in the shoes of the mastermind and trace his trail of thoughts. He first followed you guys in the previous world, struck you at the most critical moment, continued to tail you into a second world, then used his Fate-like ability to lay down a powerful trap.

"At that point, the mastermind must have felt that his plan was fool-proof. Unfortunately, his scheme was foiled by me. The key lies in they way he reacted to that failure! A person's performance after a major setback is always the most telling. When that guy realised that the contestants he had been using were becoming uncontrollable, he instantly massacred them to eliminate the problem while it was still in its infancy. Then, he laid down another ferocious trap. He felt that we could possibly threaten his life, so he immediately returned to the realm."

"This trap was actually really terrifying, because using it, the mastermind could kill three birds with one stone. First, he could kill some of our party members. Second, if I'm guessing correctly, the beginning of the mission on the "Seed of Divine Artifact" is closely related to the abandoned warehouse! Third, he could destroy the corpses and by doing so, prevent us from obtaining any information about him. If he was a gun user, there would've been bullet holes left on the corpses; if he wields a sword, there would've been slash marks."

"We are dealing with a savage, cruel, meticulous and prudent person. He will never leave any chances for his enemies!" concluded Sheyan.

Reef suddenly asked, "How can you tell that he's left the world?"

"If he's still in this world, there would've been all kinds of strange accidents when were were dealing with the explosion just now," said Sheyan seriously.

Reef nodded in acknowledgement. Zi said instead, "There's something else I couldn't figure out - the motive of the Stockholm party. The cost they've incurred so far to do all these things against us must be pretty steep. They've chased after us for 2 consecutive worlds as well as used a really precious explosive. Is it truly worth doing all this for the "Seed of Divine Artifact" which they might not even get back?"

After listening to Zi's doubt, Sheyan said slowly, "I've been thinking about this, and I think I might have some idea. It's hard for you guys to speculate about the reason behind their actions because there are some things you don't know about."

"Tell us," said Zi with a serious attitude.

Sheyan took a deep breath. Before his eyes was the bloody figure of the injured Cardinal, the eerie underground reproductive system, the Bloody Invitation Letters that were like map fragments, and the strange conflict between his own Noah Realm C and the higher ups…

"I think the pursuit of the Stockholm party has a lot to do with my experience in the Bloody World. The parties affiliated to other realms might think that it's a lot less troublesome if they can eliminate me earlier…"

Zi was shocked after she heard Sheyan's words.

She contemplated for a while and said, "If that's the case, then the next realm war might be right around the corner. Do you mean to say that the realm which the Stockholm party is affiliated to is behind their actions?"

Sheyan nodded. He spoke slowly but without any hint of hesitation, "It's very possible."