The Ultimate Evolution

Sanzi was shocked to hear Old Charlie’s explanation.

“You mean in the Realm’s evaluation, the ‘Planetary-Grade High-Energy Mechanical Power Glove’ have actually weakened to the level of a healthy disabled person?”

“Probably so.” answered Old Charlie earnestly. “I’m guessing that even the weapon soul of a legendary weapon could barely meet the requirements to control a high-level ability like ‘Extinction’. There might even be great restrictions, such as a limit in the number of times it can be used in one world. When the ‘Planetary-Grade High-Energy Mechanical Power Glove’, being only dark green in grade, forcibly bore the burden of the power, it must have been punished by the law of time entropy and received heavy damage.”

“In your opinion, to what extent has the weapon soul of my glove been damaged?” Sheyan inquired tentatively.

Old Charlie took a moment to inspect the gloves again before he replied, “If the soul of the other glove is considered a teenager, then the soul of the glove with the ‘Extinction’ ability has become an old man of at least 60 years old.”

Sheyan’s eyebrows were furrowed tight. He was extremely concerned. If he used the ‘Extinction’ ability again, one of the ‘Planetary-Grade High-Energy Mechanical Power Gloves’ might be completely scrapped. The gloves may very well turn from a set into an individual piece!

But Party Ace were still in a dangerous situation; they were far from being able to relax yet. Their biggest threats were undoubtedly Rocky and Bind. Although those two had just had a serious confrontation, they would definitely recover from their injuries and return again!

And don’t forget about the other contestants who had ambushed Party Ace in New York. Half of them were still in this world! Sheyan dared not guarantee that he would not be forced to use ‘Extinction’ again in the remainder of their stay in this world.

“Maybe you can continue using ‘+13 West’?” Sanzi suggested a possible solution.

But Sheyan could only produce a wry smile. “West is powerful only because of its strong properties. In essence, it’s still only a dark blue weapon! Sherlock….er, I mean, Old Charlie, what do you think will happen if I attach ‘Extinction’ to a dark blue weapon?”

“One slash,” answered Old Charlie seriously.

“What?”

“If you perform one slash with ‘Extinction’, before ‘Extinction’ can even take effect, the weapon will have already been reduced to dust,” replied Old Charlie flatly, “The soul of this weapon is still in its infancy. There’s no way it can support the enormous consumption of ‘Extinction’.”

It was now clear that Sheyan could not afford to use the power of ‘Extinction’ if he had no legendary equipment, because the price was simply too heavy. It required him to sacrifice the soul inside his equipment! Once an equipment lost its soul, even if it was not destroyed, it would surely go down a few grades….

***

Over the next few days, as they investigated the whereabouts of the Asian cultural works of art, they also went around the country according to the directions given by their Nightmare Imprints to stop the other contestants from wrecking the other special-model long-distance ships.

They had fought close to ten battles during this period and had even encountered a collaborative attack from two parties in one of those battles. That particular fight was truly intense. In the end, they had only won after the MT duo of Sheyan and Reef managed to take down the two opposing MTs and collapsed their formation. However, Party Ace was already exhausted by then and had no more strength to pursue them, so they missed the opportunity to wipe them out.

They returned to the hotel they were temporarily staying in to take a rest. Before long, they heard someone knocking on the door. They could hear from the strength in the knocks that it was not the humble knock of a hotel staff.

Although there was only one person knocking on the door, they could sense that there was a group of people behind him. Sheyan stood up, looked around at the others, and then opened the door.

Sheyan was somewhat surprised to see the man standing behind the door, because he had seen that face on TV and newspapers more than once. He was a rising star in the country’s military known for his opportunistic and unyielding attitude. In Sheyan’s world, he had made a name for himself by solving some territorial disputes at the border.

Sheyan decided to act stupid despite knowing who the guy was. He asked after a slight hesitation, “May I know who you’re looking for?”

The man, Mr. G, smiled and replied, “I’m looking for you.”

Sheyan let him into the room. Only six of the people behind Mr. G followed him in, but even so, the rather spacious room still became quite packed. Mr. G frowned and told the people behind him, “Kang, you stay. The rest will wait outside! If these four want to hurt me, even 60 of you won’t be enough to stop them.”

Mr. G liked to be approachable and to make people feel comfortable when they spoke to him. Sheyan had no idea what this famous person wanted from himself, so he asked, “I’m just an ordinary guy, Mr. G. What business does a busy person like you have with me?”

Mr. G laughed out loud. “You’re no ordinary guy. Kang! Read the General Staff Headquarters’ intelligence report on Mr. Seaman.”

The guy named Kang immediately stood up and read a series of information from the paper he was holding.

“Name/Codename: Seaman.”

“Information Source: FBI.”

“Behavioural Patterns: Has appeared with his companions in the vicinity of various Project S sites after entering the country. A fierce fight will always occur after their appearance. Their opponents are all people with supernatural powers like them. Only one special-model long-distance ship has been destroyed in sites where Seaman and his companions were present. Their success rate in stopping the destruction of Project S by people with supernatural powers is as high as 89%.”

“Living Habits: No different from normal people. Holds a friendly attitude towards civilians.”

“…”

***

Sheyan was not surprised that they had intel on him. After all, he had not been deliberately hiding his identity.

Mr. G stood up and said very seriously, “On the brink of the apocalypse, our country has noticed the appearances of many people with supernatural powers, but because we have to devote all our resources to the construction of special-model long-distance ships, we had no time to deal with them. They had truly put us on our back foot as a result. Whatever your purpose is, Mr. Seaman, your actions have saved at least hundreds of thousands of lives. Therefore, on behalf of my country, I thank you from the bottom of my heart!”

Sheyan just smiled. “There’s no need for thanks. I’m Chinese too, and since I have to come here on a mission, I don’t mind helping out a little. But forgive me, I can’t disclose any more information than that.”

Mr. G exclaimed with an “oh”, but then said that it was understandable. He soon caught on to something in Sheyan’s words.

“You’re on a mission? Can you tell us something about it?”

Sheyan had been helping them out without hiding his name all for this very moment! He immediately took out a list he had prepared.

“My mission is to collect these precious treasures and protect them from being damaged in the apocalypse. Once the apocalypse is over, I’ll definitely return them safe and sound.”

Mr. G frowned when he looked through the list. He then made several phone calls. After that, he said decisively, “Mr. Seaman, the three national treasures of “Along the River During the Qingming Festival”, “Ghost Valley Downhill” and “Heirloom Seal of the Realm” on this list are currently in the hands of the Chinese government. I can’t guarantee that I’ll definitely get them for you, but it shouldn’t be a big problem. However, the authentic “Preface to the Poems Collected from the Orchid Pavilion” is in the hands of the Taiwanese government, so the most we can do is provide you with its specific location. The “Ramayana Engraving” is India’s national treasure and I haven’t received any reply yet, but I believe providing you with its specific location shouldn’t be a problem.”

Mr. G had watched videos of Party Ace’s fights. He knew that if they decided to take those treasures by force, the country would certainly have to pay a heavy price. Besides, Party Ace had shown their goodwill as soon as they came. He would rather bet on Sheyan’s promise to return the artifacts after all this was over.

But truthfully, anyone who could make a rational analysis could tell why he made that decision.

At this critical moment of the brink of the apocalypse, artworks were worth nothing, merely non-essential objects.

To put it bluntly, most people who would wish to lay their hands on these national treasures were doing so for the sake of money. But what use was money in the apocalypse? Moreover, Party Ace had supernatural powers. If they really wanted to earn money, they had thousands of ways more convenient than swindling national treasures. Why would they choose such a difficult method?

So in essence, Mr. G’s lack of hesitation was not without reason.

Everyone in Party Ace were naturally happy that their title mission was showing great progress. When Mr. G saw that, he tentatively put forth another request.

“Mr. Seaman, our government is actually still troubled by one big problem. If this problem is solved, it would help more people than protecting a hundred replica arks.”

“The Americans aren’t actually the first to accurately detect the arrival of the 2012 apocalypse. We’ve already received news of it during the Y2K phenomenon in 1999. Several of the major national projects after that were all designed to pave the way for the 2012 apocalypse, such as one of the so-called “Four Great Projects of China in the New Century”….the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.”

(TL 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qinghai–Tibet_railway )

(TL 2: Remember, the arks in 2012 are being built in Tibet. )