The Ultimate Evolution

According to the rules of the team, MTs did have a priority in loot distribution. Of course, they could only choose something they could use themselves. When the others scanned and inspected the Lacrimal Stone, they got a very ordinary description: “a type of mineral that contained a strange power; may be deemed an unknown mysterious item.”

They naturally would not get into a conflict with Sheyan for something like this. No one raised any objection or drove the price up.

The group continued to explore the place. They soon found a cave dedicated to storing miscellaneous items. It was quite spacious and was one of the few places that were not flooded with water previously.

Technically speaking, this place should be described as a garbage dump.

There, Sheyan and the others found the cyborgs without much effort. They had simply been thrown aside and forgotten about. All three of Sheyan’s cyborgs survived, as did two of Aldaris’. In total, the contestants had eight cyborgs left. Fortunately, all they suffered were superficial injuries.

To the cyborgs, superficial injuries to their bodies were no different from clothes being torn for the humans.

When the cyborgs saw the contestants, they did not cry tears of joy or break into a wild celebration, but they were visibly happy and their morale were definitely boosted. Even the most submissive cyborg who regarded themself as a pile of crap would still have their own dream! The dreams may vary from cyborg to cyborg, but it certainly did not involve slowly rotting to death in a cave on this damn planet.

One had to make decisions based on one’s position. Now that Sheyan was the team leader, he had to consider problems from many aspects. He decided to group the cyborgs together to serve the team collectively, but only on the condition that everyone handed over the nutrient solutions they purchased for their cyborgs.

Every surviving cyborg was rewarded with two units of nutrient solutions. For them, this reward was a fortune that they could only earn after ten years of work. So when Sheyan asked the tired cyborgs to take care of the corpses of the Violent Beasts and Xenomorphs, the cyborgs still appeared very enthusiastic.

Cyborg No. 1, who originally belonged to Sheyan, told Sheyan some good news. There was actually a military robot which was not that old in this cave. It could move either on four feet or assisted by caterpillar tracks (like the tracks of a tank).

The battle robot was probably left on this planet after a spaceship had successfully landed here, but all the crew had died. Without anyone giving it orders, it must have wandered around aimlessly until it reached this area and was caught by the Violent Beasts. The Violent Beasts did not find any use for it, so they just abandoned it here.

According to Cyborg No. 1 after performing some inspection and assessment, the only problem with the robot was that water had infiltrated some of its circuits. As long as its internal energy reactor could be re-activated, it could resume operation. All the heavy duty work in the team could then be handed over to it.

Sheyan was too lazy to deal with it. He simply let Cyborg No. 1 be in charge of this matter and asked him to look for Paul if he needed any parts or accessories. Paul’s was so skillful in controlling metals that he could even make assault rifles; a few mechanical parts were definitely no problem for him.

Perhaps because Pi ores had the ability to focus the mind and increase recovery rate, they had become something that many creatures liked to collect. The strong creatures may not really care about the tiny bonus effects the Pi ores provided, but the younglings were always very fragile. With the Pi ores, the younglings had a higher chance of surviving to adulthood.

It was for this reason that the contestants found a large pile of Pi ores in the Xenomorph incubation room. Because a lot of the people in the team had died, they now had enough crushing extractors for everyone. Actually, they even had extras.

But what was even more surprising was that during the search at the bottom level of the cave, they actually found a soul equipment. It appeared to be Azsa’s highly-strengthened dark blue shield! Next to the soul equipment was a huge seed!

This seed, dark blue in colour, was the size of a carriage and had some exquisite natural patterns on its surface. A heavy seed coat protected it like a solid plate armour. More importantly, where this seed touched the ground, numerous roots had grown and embedded firmly into the soil to absorb nutrients from the earth.

However, there were clear and terrible scars on the surface of the seed, obviously the work of the Violent Beasts and Xenomorphs. But the seed turned out to be even tougher than it looked. It was also continuously healing itself. The contestants could feel the surging life force inside.

Everyone was shocked when they saw the seed. Sheyan’s eyes narrowed slightly. When he reached out to press his hand on the surface of the huge seed, a hard to describe feeling of suffocation assaulted him, like the feeling of having his throat strangled by cold, twisted vines.

The blood vessels on the back of Sheyan’s hand started to swell. For some reason, they looked a lot like the roots of a plant. When Sheyan’s fingers were about to touch the seed, a few tiny tendrils extended out of them to lightly entangle themselves around the roots on the seed. The roots immediately retreated back like routing armies, letting Sheyan press his palm flat on the seed.

Sheyan pressed lightly.

For some reason, when the others saw this, they sensed a weird feeling of conquest and submission.

The tendrils of the ‘Stairway of the Sun’ spread rapidly to every part of the seed. The seed shivered. Sheyan instantly knew everything that was happening inside the seed. His expression remain unchanged, but his emotions were in an uproar! Under desperate circumstances, humans really were willing to do anything in order to survive, no matter how cruel!

The seed was a plant-type, so the ‘Stairway of the Sun’ was almost like a natural enemy to it. It could put up no resistance at all. Suddenly, a voice – or more precisely, a thought – was transmitted at Sheyan. It was the botanist, Dardanian!

“You guys actually made your way here?! Thank God! Who are you? Are you Seaman?”

“Yeah,” replied Sheyan flatly.

“What kind of power is that inside you? How come it’s so strong, so majestic?!” Dardanian, of course, instantly detected the presence of the ‘Stairway of the Sun’. The shock he felt was overwhelming!

However, Sheyan did not answer his question. He instead said in a serious tone, “I think you must first explain what happened to you.”

“I did what anyone would do under the threat of death. When I realised that there was no way out of the situation, I planted the Seed of Tremor in my body. It’s something from the world of the Lord of the Rings. You probably know that many high-ranking Elves were hatched from the seeds of the World Tree. Well, the Seed of Tremor is a fruit of the World Tree that has been polluted by the aura of evil. With its power, I managed to survive long enough for you guys to rescue me,” Dardanian calmly answered.

“Can you explain to me what all the corpses inside the seed are for?” Sheyan asked coldly.

It turned out that in this gigantic seed, Dardanian was curled up at the core like a baby, while the spaces all around him were stuffed full of corpses! There were Violent Beast corpses and also human corpses inside. Among them, Sheyan saw the bodies of Hedi Curry, Vassily and William. The bodies of these three were covered with tentacle-like roots and had rotten almost beyond recognition. Pieces of rotten meat and rotten skin constantly dropped down to dissolve in the amniotic fluid inside the seeds. It was a horrifying sight!

Dardanian remained quiet for a moment before he answered in a low voice, “The seed requires a lot of nutrition to grow. Without these corpses, it’ll be impossible for the seed to grow quickly.”

“Should I share this image with the others and see if your explanation can convince them?” asked Sheyan flatly.

“No, no, NO!” Dardanian’s attitude finally softened. “What do you want?”

Sheyan scoffed after a momentary pause. “You think I’m trying to blackmail you? What a joke. Fine, as long as you promise to always support me in the team, I saw absolutely nothing today.”

Dardanian did not expect to get off so easily. He naturally agreed to it right away. Sheyan asked him to clean up after himself and dispose of all the corpses and everything.

After the two finished their communication, Sheyan told the team the news of Dardanian surviving. The others were glad to hear it. In this damn place, an extra companion meant that the risk would be shared by one more person.

The rest of the work here were handed to the cyborgs. After two hours of waiting, a list were presented to them.

Organs and materials obtained from the bodies of the Violent Beasts and the Xenomorphs were worth approximately 500,000 utility points in total.

Crystal of Darkness x 1

Lacrimal Stone x 1

Pi elements extracted from all the Pi ores amounted to a total of 137 grams.

Elemental creature caught: Stone Blader Raijo x 1

Sheyan had used his MT privilege to take the Lacrimal Stone which was of little use to the others, and gave everyone else 20,000 utility points in exchange. Pokan, who should have been the MVP of this operation, gave up his right to the loot for Stone Blader Raijo. The remaining loot were thus divided equally among the others.

The 500,000 utility points worth of loot were first divided equally among Sheyan, Ronnie, Paul and Aldaris. Then, the Pi elements were also divided into four equal parts and distributed among the four of them.

The Crystal of Darkness was then auctioned off. As everyone expected, a bidding war erupted between Paul and Aldaris. Sheyan thought that Aldaris would be determined to win it at all costs in order to give it to Zi as a present, but the one who won in the end turned out to be Paul…. He crushed all competition with his staggering wealth of utility points!