The Ultimate Evolution

Sheyan’s shared the notifications he received in the party communication channel, causing everyone to turn and look at the sword in his hand. Apophis did not seem like it was being decomposed, Instead, it was shining. Waves of light could be seen on it.

Zi was rather surprised at the speed at which the liquid metal life-form was breaking down the sword.

“How does it decompose Apophis that fast?”

“If the liquid metal can’t win a quick battle against a powerful weapon like this, it’s probably never gonna be able to win. It’s the same way that you’d never be able to get some women into bed if they don’t have a good first impression of you….Uhh, Seaman told me that,” answered Reef with confidence.

“Get out of here!”

Sheyan was like a lucky man who won the grand prize in a lottery. A notification would pop up every now and then, and they were all positive.

[ Due to your liquid metal life-form’s decomposition of the Evil Sword Apophis, you obtained 3 free attribute points… Please wait patiently for further details. ]

[ ……. ]

[ Due to your liquid metal life-form’s decomposition of the Evil Sword Apophis, you obtained 74,000 utility points… Please wait patiently for further details. ]

[ ……. ]

[ Due to your liquid metal life-form’s decomposition of the Evil Sword Apophis, you obtained some glass gold, a kind of rare metal… Please wait patiently for further details. ]

[ ……. ]

The decomposition of Evil Sword Apophis was finally visible to the naked eye. The process started from the hilt. It was as if there was an invisible hand patiently and resolutely rubbing back and forth on it, very seriously and very attentively. To explain it in a more visual term….it looked like someone was jacking it off.

The changes were very slow, but after a while, they could see the hilt starting to swell, becoming red, long and hard….oops sorry, made a typo. It got brighter and brighter. Then, as the temperature rose, more and more dust drifted down from the sword. Although the dust was very fine, it made the liquid metal life-form very excited when it fell down onto the life-form’s wall below. The liquid metal life-form was constantly twitching and wriggling in joy.

Victory had been decided. The liquid metal life-form nurtured by Sheyan had the comprehensive advantage. Evil Sword Apophis could put up no resistance against it, let alone fight back.

Following the passage of time, the liquid metal life-form that had received “supplements” only got more energetic. It continued rubbing with a determination that could even grind an iron rod into a needle. It’s originally silvery-white colour was beginning to turn a deep black. Its speed of decomposition was also rapidly increasing.

According to Sheyan’s rough calculations, it initially took seven minutes for the liquid metal life-from to rub away a third of the sword hilt, but after that, it only used three minutes to decompose the remaining two-thirds. This showed that it was strengthening itself with its “spoils of war” while it worked, and had had a tremendous growth in strength.

Apophis’ hilt and ornaments had all become nutrients for the liquid metal life-form. The sword was now like a suckling pig that had been shaved clean, like an orange that had been peeled clean, like a girl that had been stripped clean. It was about to meet with a terrible fate.

“Hold on a minute!” Apophis’ synthesised, metallic voice suddenly resounded inside the car, full of anxiety, “Take this monster away from me! I’ll serve you. You just need to prepare some materials to break my soul contract. Do you not long for my power?”

Others may be a little moved, but Sheyan absolutely refused to give in to the temptation of the sword. The only thing he wished for was to make sure Bind loses Apophis, either by taking Apophis far away or destroying it. As long as he could weaken the enemy while causing Bind unbearable pain, Sheyan would consider it a great success.

Was Sheyan not even slightly tempted by the sword’s power?

Of course he was, but after all, this weapon was, like its name suggested, an evil weapon. It was obvious from Apophis’ abilities that its wielder’s life meant nothing to it. As far as Sheyan was concerned, since he did not necessarily need the power of Evil Sword Apophis, why not just turn it into nutrients for the liquid metal life-form. This method was much more reliable.

The liquid metal life-form’s importance to Sheyan and its usefulness made it no inferior to Evil Sword Apophis in Sheyan’s eyes, not in the slightest. So what was there to hesitate about? Today, Apophis was doomed to suffer the tragic fate of being devoured.

***

When the city of Detroit became a backdrop in the scenery behind them, Evil Sword Apophis had become a sad thing of the past.

All its tricks were useless in front of the liquid metal life-form, the “nemesis of all equipment”. All it could do was prolong the devouring process.

Two hours had already passed since Sheyan obtained Apophis.

So far, they had succeeded in destroying all traces of themselves in the city’s information network. They had also observed for a while, through the HD feed of the city’s surveillance monitor network, the place where they previously fought.

They had moved past the furious Bind in close proximity twice, unbeknownst to both sides.

They decided to leave Detroit; it was time to fly to Africa. If they did not depart now, time would be too tight, and completing the requirements of ‘The Great Collector’ title would be very difficult.

Sheyan expected the liquid metal life-form to enter a period of hibernation after stuffing itself full, like it would always do. Sheyan was a clever person who was good at making deductions, so his guess was indeed correct, but there was one thing that was totally out of his expectations — the hibernation this time only lasted less than ten minutes!!

This phenomenon was actually easily explainable. If a person had stuffed himself full of Red Bulls, would he just lie in bed afterwards?

Of course that’s impossible. The same was true of the liquid metal life-form, which had undergone a drastic change in appearance. It was now streaked with black and red stripes.

It showed Sheyan its new properties:

[ G-type Liquid Metal Enhanced Life-Form (Matrix Point Distribution) ]

[ Life Stage: Semi-Mature (If it were human, it would be going through puberty) ]

[ Origin: Unable to be determined ]

[ Attack Power: None ]

[ Type: Support-type item ]

[ Materials: Liquid metal, Pi element, various unknown mysterious items, synthetic metal elements. ]

[ Weight: 1.2 kg ]

[ Equipping Requirement: None ]

[ Durability: Will never wear out. ]

[ Rarity: Legendary ]

[ Usage: It can be attached to all kinds of equipment to provide a powerful bonus to the equipment. The equipment will get an additional +6 strengthening (please refer to previous chapters for details). ]

[ Passive Ability: ‘Suck’ — Whenever the enemy (or their weapon) came into contact with the armour/weapon the liquid metal enhanced life-form is attached to, the liquid metal enhanced life-form will analyse the enemy and commit the result to memory. After seven times, the liquid metal enhanced life-form will be able to calculate the trajectory of the enemy’s next attack, thereby rendering it obsolete. ]

[ A new passive ability has been unlocked due to the item entering a semi-mature state! ]

[ ‘Devourment Memory’! ]

[ The liquid metal life-form has turned itself into the terrifying nemesis of all equipment in order to satisfy its own desires. During the devouring process, it can memorise and completely replicate the special ability of the equipment it devours, then attach it to the equipment it strengthens! ]

[ There is currently only one memory slot for ‘Devourment Memory’. Please select the ability you wish to memorise as soon as possible. ]

[ Explanation: Matrix Point Distribution — This is how the internal structure of the liquid metal life-from is described in scientific terms. Considering that the organism reading this explanation has a 99.99% probability of not having graduated from the Imperial University School of Molecular Materials, a more detailed explanation will not be provided. You just need to know that, like the description “rich, young and handsome” for humans, this particular description is synonymous with status and superiority. ]

[ Inscription: “G-type Liquid Metal Enhanced Life-form (Matrix Point Distribution)…. Why does my name sound so awkward? Why not just call me G-spot? That’s quite catchy.” ]

***

While Sheyan was still reading through these details, G-spot was already urging Sheyan impatiently.

“Hurry up and choose an ability for ‘Devourment Memory’!”

Sheyan immediately recovered from his extreme joy. He asked in a hurry, “Is it possible to memorise anything?”

“Only abilities on the equipment I’ve devoured before or abilities you possess, like ‘Ultimate Impact’ or ‘Apophis’ Sneer’,” explained G-spot, “But take note, some abilities may be in conflict with the equipment I’m attached to. In that case, the abilities can’t be used. For example, consecutive-shot or three-consecutive-shot abilities can’t be used when I’m attached to a melee weapon.”

Zi glared at Sheyan and asked, “Get to the point, G-spot. Can you memorise the ‘Extinction’ ability?”

G-spot answered right away, “I can, but….not 100%. ‘Extinction’ has a very high precedence. I don’t have enough authority.”

“To what extent can you replicate it?” asked Zi.

“I can replicate everything about it except for its precedence. However, the most powerful thing about ‘Extinction’ is that its power and authority are higher than the Realms’, so I don’t recommend choosing this ability. Unless….”

“Unless what?” asked Sheyan impatiently.

“Unless you also have another ability with a really high precedence. I can try to transfer the precedence of this ability to the replica of ‘Extinction’. This is really just a basic switching problem, so it’s not anything difficult. You just need to pay 50,000 utility points and 5 potential points for the material cost,” answered G-spot.

Sheyan heaved a long sigh of relief. “That’s no problem. Go ahead and memorise ‘Extinction’.”