Chapter 1073: The Top of the Food Chain
Translator: Sean88888 Editor: Elkassar1
The Ferocious Wolverine was notorious for its keen sense of smell. It managed to detect the human brain hidden within the plastic and rubber body, and by its classification, a human brain belonged to the edible category. Therefore, Sheyan and his group found a headless corpse that was torn like a ragged doll. The rubber organs, plastic blood vessels, and some strange-looking springs inside were exposed through the wounds. It actually did not look that eerie, but it was a miserable sight.
After being given the permission to do so, Sheyan’s three cyborgs surrounded the corpse of their kind in silence and cruelly dismantled it like a bunch of hungry ghouls. They were looking for parts that could be used to repair themselves when they got damaged. Because the space inside a Wasp spacecraft was so small, there was no way to take into consideration the maintenance problem of the cyborgs. For most contestants, the cyborgs were tools that could be discarded anytime.
During the disassembling process, all the cyborgs even uses their mouths and tongues to suck on the nutrient solution on the parts that had yet to dry. The program installed in them constantly reminded them to save every penny for the owner.
“Such cruel efficiency.” Looking at the cyborgs in actions, Sheyan could not find it in himself to be angry with them. Instead, he wondered what the hell the people of status in the Empire were thinking when they formulated the code of conduct for these cyborgs. Why couldn’t they leave the cyborgs with a shred of human dignity? Is an Empire like this, a future like this, really the ideal civilization of mankind?
But Sheyan’s thoughts and emotions were soon interrupted. Cyborg No. 2, who was searching the surrounding area, had brought back a bulging backpack. The strap of the backpack was torn, which should be the reason why it fell. The initials V.C.K. were written on the backpack.
Seeing the backpack, Sheyan’s lips curled into a smile. Aldaris’ confident and prideful speech from before echoed in his ears:
“We don’t need to bring the crushing extractor. They’ll bring it for us! It’ll be their honour to lend us the crushing extractor!”
“Looks like I don’t need to borrow from them anymore,” the corners of Sheyan’s mouth turned up as he unzipped the backpack. In it indeed lay the valuable crushing extractor, which could be used to extract and process high-purity Pi ore on the spot if they found any. Sheyan estimated the price of each crushing extractor to be no less than 20 achievement points and 100,000 utility points.
Fortunately, although the size of the crushing extractor was huge, it was not very heavy. Sheyan and the three cyborgs could easily carry it.
“Good job!” Sheyan snapped his fingers, then took out a 250 ml bottle of nutrient solution and threw it to Cyborg No. 2. He gave the cyborg a thumbs-up as he said, “This is the reward for your hard work.”
A smile finally appeared on the cyborg’s face, albeit an awkward one.
“I’m just doing my job, master.”
Cyborg No. 1 inspected the broken backpack, then came to Sheyan and told him seriously, “Based on the characteristics of the backpack and the identification number on the remains of the fallen cyborg, I can now basically confirm the identity of the contestant being pursued.”
Sheyan nodded. “Who is it?”
“It’s Mr. Ronnie, master,” answered Cyborg No. 1.
“Ronnie?” Sheyan immediately recalled that the guy was a thin man with very long fingers, so he should have some talent in being a pianist or a thief. He was a staunch supporter of the MT, Hedi Curry. His position in the team was as a close-range damage dealer and a scout. He was an Agility-type Awakener. From what Sheyan had observed so far, his speed was indeed quite fast.
Now that Sheyan knew the person in trouble was Ronnie, Sheyan was in no hurry to look for him. After all, there was no friendship between them, so there was no need for him to take risks for Ronnie’s sake. Sheyan would proceed slowly, with extreme caution.
The three cyborgs were exactly as they were advertised. Although they could not help much in fights, they saved him a lot of trouble in other aspects.
At that moment, Sheyan sensed something out of the ordinary. Ramtas, too, turned vigilant and started looking around, its boar nose continuously taking in the smell in the air. Suddenly, Sheyan stepped forward with his eyes gleaming. Behind him emerged a horrifying image of a bull. He activated ‘Hornrage’ without warning!
Sheyan rushed forward at an astonishing speed, parting the grasses in his path to the sides. The soil splattered wildly with every step he took.
As Sheyan bumped into the target, he found that the target was covered in an outer shell that was as hard as rock, just like the terracotta warriors of the ancient Qin Dynasty. The sensation he felt was akin to crashing into a reinforced concrete wall. It caused Sheyan to groan in pain.
The soil below his feet extended upwards and quickly hardened to form a stone wall before him.
But Sheyan merely sank his shoulders low and burst through the obstacle.
‘+7 West’ came out of its sheath amidst the billowing dust and cut horizontally, leaving a cold trail of light in the air!
However, a huge stalagmite as tall as two men burst out from the ground to block in front of the blade. Sheyan humphed in disdain. He instantly sent a knee at the stalagmite and broke it off from the ground. The stalagmite that weighed hundreds of kilograms tumbled dully in the air before crashing into the grass more than three meters away, stirring up a large area of the ground.
The short delay was enough for a second giant stalagmite to rise from the ground in the same bizarre manner! Sheyan took a deep breath. The nightmare imprint on his chest shone brightly, forming the shape of a powerful and tightly-gripping fist. He launched another knee at the second stalagmite with seemingly no delay from the previous strike, breaking that stalagmite as well!
After breaking five stalagmites in a row, the other party seemed to be exhausted at last. He tried to escape by rolling back. Sheyan threw a curse mix to the ground, stunning him in place, then raised ‘+7 West’ and chopped down on him.
Right after the sabre connected, the figure screamed hysterically, “What kind of insane weapon is this!? Stop, it’s me!”
As soon as the figure spoke, the rock shell encasing his body quickly melted and fell away. He turned out to be Pokan, one of the mage-type contestants in the team. He had previously stated during his self-introduction that his position in the team was as a support and a long-range damage dealer. Both Hedi Curry and Azsa showed him a lot of respect.
Therefore, Pokan actually looked down on the low-key Sheyan before this, mainly because Sheyan was only a Growth Hunter. Pokan could never have imagined that Sheyan was so insanely strong. The round of attacks just now was like a storm which overwhelmed the enemy with an oppressive pressure, hardly giving the enemy any time to breathe!
Respect was earned through strength. Although the prideful Pokan still had some trump cards that could have turned the situation around, he knew full well that Sheyan must also have some aces hidden up his sleeve.
The damage power of ‘+7 West’ was nowadays often found wanting against storyline characters, but it was still very strong against Agility-type and Mage-type contestants. That chop on Pokan just now made Pokan deeply aware of how strong this fellow in front of him truly was.
“You’re too sensitive,” Pokan looked at Sheyan with a wry smile and explained, “I rushed over immediately after I saw the smoke signal, but my way was blocked by the sunflower sea. Those damn flowers will shoot their seeds like machine guns when they’re touched! That’s how one of my cyborgs broke down! I finally got here with extreme difficulty, but as soon as I did, you almost killed me!”
Sheyan knew that at least half of his words were lies, but he did not care what the man was scheming. Now that they had finished testing each other out, as long as there was no conflict of interest between them, they should pose no threat to each other. After all, none of the people who were qualified to come here were idiots. They knew full well that they were on the same boat and cooperating would be to their mutual benefits.
After the two men joined hands, they instantly felt more courageous to explore the surroundings. Pokan really admired Sheyan’s courage and sense of responsibility when he saw Sheyan taking the initiative to walk in front instead of hiding at the back. As a result, he became very cooperative. Pokan thought that Sheyan’s main attribute and secondary attribute must be Strength and Intelligence respectively, a bizarre choice (because Sheyan seemed like a pharmacist + summoner). For Sheyan to volunteer to walk in front took serious guts. Little did he know that Sheyan had just subconsciously done that because he was an MT and that was what he normally did.
By this time, the two men could pretty much confirm that after Ronnie met with the Ferocious Wolverine, he was not its match and had to beat a hasty retreat. They traced Ronnie’s track for more than four kilometers until they reached a ravine. Unlike the terrains on Earth, one would often see deep ravines on the plains here. A torrential river was running through the ravine, with rapid waves that reached over a dozen meters high. The spectacle was breathtaking.
Judging from the traces left behind from the fight, Ronnie had probably turned back here to take a stance against the Ferocious Wolverine, but he failed to come out on top. From the blood left behind, they could tell that Ronnie had suffered severe injuries, while the blood from the Ferocious Wolverine had also stained dozens of square meters of the ground.
At that point, Ronnie chose to flee again, presumably to temporarily avoid a direct confrontation with the Ferocious Wolverine in order to let it get weaker from the loss of blood first. He did not know the abnormal characteristic of the Ferocious Beasts, so he ended up being stubbornly pursued. Sheyan and Pokan followed their traces for several more kilometers. By now, they had almost reached the edge of the plain. They could already see the towering mountains not far away.
At this moment, Ramtas suddenly stood stiffly in place. Sheyan knew that it had sensed something. From the link between them, he could feel the strong palpitations of Ramtas’ heart!
Ramtas was experiencing a fear that came from the bottom of its heart! A trembling that came from deep within its cells!
Sheyan instantly knew that a creature from the top of the food chain had appeared. He immediately had the intention to retreat. Who cares about Ronnie? Let him take care of himself. But just then, the wind blew, carrying with it a strong smell of blood from somewhere nearby. Ramtas turned his head to look in that direction, then immediately lifted its staff and hit the ground. The lush plants before them lay flat on the ground, revealing to them an incredible sight in an open space over thirty meters away….