The Ultimate Evolution

Sheyan could see a large amount of fresh blood flowing on the ground, almost forming an ocean. When he stepped on the blood, it went up to his ankle. At this time, the blood had dried to a thick, semi-coagulated state, so there was a strong resistance when he lifted his foot.

A human certainly could not produce so much blood. To create such a large pool of blood, dozens of humans would have to bleed to death. It was even more impossible for contestants to produce so much blood due to their superior healing and hemostasis abilities, unless they were hung up to bleed.

In such a dangerous wilderness, the large pool of blood was extremely attractive. Sheyan could already see a large number of dangerous insects and small animals crawling over, greedily licking the nutritious liquid that was normally hard to come by.

Within the pool of blood, there were some big, solid, dark-red lumps piled up into a giant, disorderly heap. The foul smell they emitted assaulted Sheyan even from such a distance. It was not difficult to recognise that they were guts and other innards.

Ramtas had recovered by now. When it saw so many poisonous insects had been attracted over by the blood, it made a cheerful hum. It raised its staff and once again sent out a shockwave of nature, then bent down to feed on the snacks that were lying stunned on the ground.

Sheyan walked forward and found a black patch of furry skin floating in the pool of blood. The black fur on it was as hard as steel needles. Pieces of flesh were still sticking to the skin. He passed it to Cyborg No. 1 to be analysed. The result of the analysis showed that the owner of the patch of skin was indeed the Ferocious Wolverine.

At that moment, Pokan beckoned Sheyan over from a spot about seven meters away. Sheyan walked over and found Ronnie lying unconscious there.

The injuries he had sustained would have been fatal on an ordinary human: a broken neck, a terrible bite wound on the right chest, several ribs that were sticking out, and an excessive loss of blood.

However, a powerful Awakener could survive this degree of injuries. As long as there were no more external threats, Ronnie would still live and would slowly recover.

There were a few strange pits around the area that were several meters deep and could reach six square meters in surface area. They looked like they were made by large, heavy objects that fell from the sky, but there was nothing nearby that could have made these pits.

The situation here was truly bizarre. Ronnie was really lucky not to have died here. Theoretically, that Ferocious Wolverine could have killed him with just one more strike, but for some reason it did not, and Ronnie survived!

After a series of investigations, Sheyan’s three cyborgs had a discussion among themselves and finally came to a conclusion on what had most likely happened here.

Ronnie and the Ferocious Wolverine reached this place one after another in close pursuit, where they had another fierce fight. In the end, the Ferocious Wolverine won. But at that instant, a powerful, unstoppable third party descended and killed the Ferocious Wolverine, tearing it into pieces! This led to the formation of the pool of blood and the pile of innards they saw.

Then, the powerful third party happily left with the Ferocious Wolverine’s body, like a satisfied housewife who had bought a large amount of groceries from a supermarket…. Perhaps humans were not a part of the third party’s diet, or maybe Ronnie was just not that appetising, or maybe it did not feel like having human meat today, but whatever the reason was, Ronnie was left untouched. Ronnie, who was about to become food a moment ago, had survived, while the Ferocious Wolverine, who was about to have a good meal, had become lunch.

As for why the third party left no trace, it was probably due to its biological power.

Sheyan recalled the fear that rose from deep within Ramtas’ heart a moment ago, and that made him agree with this assessment. The truly terrifying beasts on planet Uplos should all have their own clearly-defined territory. The stupid Ferocious Wolverine had only food in mind when it pursued Ronnie and had accidentally entered the territory of one such behemoths, so it was turned into food.

With that in mind, Sheyan immediately left without a trace of hesitation. Who knows, that behemoth may take a walk after the meal, or would like some dessert. Sheyan would not take chances with his life.

When Pokan saw Sheyan running away in panic, he naturally followed suit. Even if he could not figure out the reason, it was not too late to do so while running away.

The two men ran for hundreds of meters.

Sheyan suddenly turned around and asked Pokan, “What about Ronnie?”

“I’m a mage. How do you expect me to carry him?” the gasping Pokan answered with some indignation.

“….We should probably help him.”

After some negotiation, it was decided that Pokan had to let his only surviving cyborg (TL note: One was struck down by the sunflowers, maybe the other broke down along the way) run back and carry Ronnie over, since Pokan was closer to Hedi Curry and his posse than Sheyan was. Poor cyborg. He had already been running with a full load before this, and now that he had to carry Ronnie as well, he was almost crushed by the weight. He had to take a bottle of nutrient solution every kilometer he travelled. Electric sparks would shoot out of his knees from time to time. He looked like he could break down at any moment.

Sheyan’s three cyborgs would occasionally look in his direction with strange, delighted, greedy eyes. They were no doubt anticipating the collapse of Pokan’s cyborg so that they could swarm and dissect him like they did with the previous cyborg corpse. Wait, no, the correct term should be “disassemble”….

***

Sheyan and Pokan headed back, their destination being the place where Ronnie had lit the bonfire. The thick smoke that rose from the fire could be seen from almost the entire plain, so the rest of the contestants – at least those with brains – would surely go there to have a look.

By the time they arrived back at the bonfire, two more people had arrived. They were Paul, who could control metal and modify the spacecrafts, and Vassily, one of Azsa’s supporters.

Although Paul was known as the guy who made a windfall through modifying the spacecrafts, it would be a huge mistake to underestimate his fighting ability because of that. At this time, he had used his ability to control metal to summon a powerful-looking metallic battle robot that was over three meters tall. It was wearing a bronze-coloured full-body heavy armour that had runes and magic arrays engraved on it. The weapon the robot held was a heavy battle hammer, crafted in the Babylonian style.

The battle robot was clearly far stronger than Ramtas. Sheyan thought that even the Ferocious Wolverine from before would not be its match.

Vassily was a firearm maniac. In a short period of time, he had performed a simple reconstruction of the area around the bonfire. He had laid down three circular tracks around the bonfire and mounted five automatic machine guns on them. The machine guns were able to move freely on the tracks. In addition, he had also laid five smart mines within 100 meters of the bonfire and set up a circle of high-voltage electrical grid, as well as establishing a holographic scanning system which covered both the underground and the air.

As a warfare expert, Vassily had the ability to build an amazing defensive fortification in a short period of time. With these two men here, their temporary camp was close to impregnable. However, the weaknesses of this group of two were also very obvious. They lacked mobility and lacked long-range striking capability.

If there was someone among the enemies who had high damage and extra long range of attack – like a sniper – the two could only passively endure the assault. Besides that, if they were attacked while they were marching, it would spell disaster for them.

In this environment where danger lurked in every corner, they were obviously glad to see two more contestants get here (technically, there were three of them). Although Vassily was in Azsa’s group, he was able to set aside his differences for the moment and provide a wartime life support device for Ronnie that cost 2,000 utility points. With the help of the device, Ronnie could recover in three hours.

Pokan, who had topography modelling power, effortlessly made some transformation to the camp that was a bit too low for their liking. Under his control, earth elements were rapidly solidified, melted and kneaded into a high plateau. The soil continued to extend and harden in the air, forming some solid fortifications and a habitable battle fortress.

When Pokan introduced Sheyan, he mentioned that Sheyan had taken the lead in rescuing Ronnie. Therefore, although Sheyan did nothing to help, he still garnered some respect from the rest. The act of taking an initiative to save others was naturally worthy of respect, because no one could say for certain in this damn place that there would not be a time when they needed saving too. Of course, the most important reason was that Sheyan had given a bottle of his gene-mix to each of them as a present.

To tell the truth, the other three did not really expect much when Sheyan had casually taken out the mixes and distributed them. They only took it because it was glowing faintly with three different colours and looked very pleasing aesthetically. But when they checked its properties, they were shocked out of their wits.

“Increase all attributes by 10%, or no less than 8 points!?!??”

“Shelf life one hour; effect lasts for 24 hours after consumption?”

“My God! Is your potion brewing an S-class ability?”

“F*cking hell, the best medicine our party’s pharmacist has ever made is a potion that increases explosive hit rate by 2%, but it also reduces HP by 33%, and it lasts only for 10 minutes. He really should learn from you!”

“*Sigh*, it’s a real pity that the shelf life is so short. Otherwise, I could sell this and make a fortune.”

“….”