The Ultimate Evolution

Moan would not cave in easily. His stubbornness almost made Sheyan violate his own principle of not killing women and children – although these women and children could all skillfully kill ten people with an AK.

Fortunately, Sheyan successfully shifted the pressure onto Moan. In the eyes of Moan’s tribesmen, the death of their loved ones was his responsibility. So after Sheyan shot the seventeenth man, the man’s wife stepped forward and screamed hysterically, “You should’ve started with Moan’s family – his wives, sons, father, and brothers! Why doesn’t this bastard’s family get punished first?”

Sheyan’s eyes lit up. “That’s a great idea! But I don’t know who they are….Oh, but you do! Surely you’re very familiar with them!”

By stressing the pronouns “you” and “them”, Sheyan very shamelessly separated Moan from the rest of his tribe.

Moan’s loved ones were pointed out one by one, even the men who had fornicated with him…

Not everyone could remain indifferent while their loved ones were killed in front of them. Moan’s nerves were already surprisingly tough, but after seeing six of his family members die, he was already at his limit.

The Zandala tribe in Benghazi may be threatening, but at least it was not an imminent threat. Moan was already greatly regretting his decision to swindle the Yankee’s money. The money was now burning his hands like charcoal, no, like hot magma.

Following the death of the seventh man – Moan’s favourite brother – he finally broke down.

“Stop! Stop! I’ll tell you everything! Everything you want to know!”

“Now why didn’t you do that from the beginning? You see, I paid you three times the usual price, and yet you still made it so difficult for me. If you’d simply met me in that bar and told me what I want to know honestly, no one would’ve died. I wouldn’t need to waste so much time either,” said Sheyan with a smile.

Moan gritted his teeth. “That’s because you have no idea how cruel the Zandala tribe is! They’re a bunch of lunatics, all of them!”

“If you don’t want to do it, – or should I say, don’t dare to do it, – then why take my money?” Sheyan pointed out.

Moan was instantly at a loss for words. He didn’t dare to say it was because he thought Sheyan was a pushover. Sheyan smiled and continued, “See? It’s all your fault. You underestimated my strength, so you tried to deceive me. You just failed to consider one thing: I may be more terrible than the Zandala tribe.”

Moan was speechless. Logic told him that it was absolutely impossible for a small group of people to compete with the Zandala tribe which had 170,000 population and was said to have Apaches and missiles.

But Sheyan did not let him stay dazed for too long. “I’ll give you ten seconds to give me all the information that I paid for.”

***

Having learnt his lessons here with Moan, Sheyan no longer had any intention of achieving his goal by peaceful means.

The Zandala tribe in Benghazi had almost replaced the functions of the local government. Their notoriety could stop children from crying at night. Therefore, what Party Ace was looking for, the Nigerian Golden Mask, was openly displayed on the desk of the tribal leader, Zandala.

For ordinary people, to get past countless guards and countless highly-advanced anti-theft mechanisms to take this object was as difficult as reaching the sky, but for Party Ace, it was not as hard as it seemed.

“The only news we have so far is that our target is on the desk of the tribal leader Zandala in the Zandala Tower, a modern building covering an area of more than 60,000 square meters, with over 7,000 freaking rooms inside!” Sheyan sighed. “We don’t know anything more than that. We don’t know the layout of the traps, we don’t know where the firing points are, we don’t even know if there’s anything special about the Nigerian Golden Mask. That’s bad. Unfortunately, we’re pressed for time! I’d like to hear your opinions.”

Reef simply made a “pass” gesture.

Zi thought they should split up into four teams. They should have no problem getting a list of the core members of the Zandala tribe. The three of them would then go assassinate those core members to cause chaos, while Sheyan would go straight to the “throne room”. That should work.

Sheyan could only laugh bitterly after listening to Zi’s plan. Zi sure had a lot of faith in him. But Sheyan knew better; he knew that he was not fit for the job. Even if he could get inside, he might not be able to escape afterwards. After all, Rocky and Bind were still hidden in the dark, waiting to pounce! It’s too risky to do something like this in the current situation.

Sheyan suddenly missed Ronnie, the assassin he met on planet Uplos, dearly. If Ronnie was around, everything would be as simple as cutting a hot knife through butter.

As for whether Ronnie was willing to do such a thing, that was not within Sheyan’s consideration. If he was willing, then excellent; if he was not, Sheyan would kick him until he was willing. Ronnie was unruly and extremely stubborn, but for some reason, corporal punishment, like what was meted out by a superior to a subordinate in the army, was every effective on him.

Sanzi told them that Kulutego could use his power to dig a tunnel inside, but the main problem was that they could not accurately pinpoint the correct destination. They did not even know where the office containing the Nigerian Golden Mask was, so what’s the point of digging their way inside?

Old Charlie then came forward with a plan. His plan was devious and unorthodox, and filled with a large amount of deaths. However, it would also be very effective. Incredibly, it would force the Zandala tribe to give them the Nigerian Golden Mask of their own accord. Sheyan was silent for a while after listening to the plan. Then, he nodded.

Most people in Africa had the habit of taking an afternoon nap due to the heat. The tropical sun was very intense in the afternoon, so they would just take a rest in the shade to avoid the bite of the hot sun.

Sheyan arrived in Benghazi at 11 in the morning, a little over an hour before the large-scale nap would take place.

Then….Freddy, who had evolved thanks to the help of Professor X and Jean, traveled into their dreams while laughing sinisterly. To be precise, he had infiltrated the dreams of the people living in the Zandala Tower. Freddy by now could already enter the dreams of twenty people at the same time!

All 20 people dropped dead within seven minutes. Even the most advanced medical examination could only return the result of a “heart attack” for their causes of death.

Next, Freddy moved onto his next batch of victims.

In just half an hour, the number of people who died of a “heart attack” reached the astonishing figure of 110. Freddy stopped then. But before he did, he entered the dreams of 30 other people to induce and influence them. The dreams of these 30 people were all different, but they had a clear common point, and that was the Nigerian Golden Mask. Before their dreams ended, the mask would always try to murder them in the way they most feared….

One could imagine the terrible uproar this tragedy caused in the impregnable Zandala Tower.

A hundred and ten corpses, of different positions and different genders, completely unrelated to each other.

Thirty panic-stricken witnesses, of different positions and different genders, completely unrelated to each other.

The Nigerian Golden Mask turning into an object of the devil.

But the stubborn Old Zandala denied the people their wishes. In fact, he had done so many times before. The stubbornness of the elderly was even tougher to break than uncut granite. How could he possibly change for a mere hundred lives or so?

And so…the second wave of deaths came. Because there was no more opportunity like the mass afternoon nap, the death toll this time dropped to 40. However, the list of casualty this time included Old Zandala’s name. Eleven other people, so frightened that they were on the verge of collapse, once again testified that the Nigerian Golden Mask was trying to kill them in their dreams.

This time, the whole building fell into chaos, not just due to the deaths caused by the mask, but also because of the vacuum in power after the highest authority was no longer present!

Old Zandala’s body was healthy up to the moment he died. Although he was already 58 years old, there were no signs that showed that he could not live until he was 68 years old, or even 78 or 88. Hence, the power underneath him was evenly distributed among several of his sons.

This could only mean two things: division and internal strife.

Party Ace walked into Zandala Tower disguised as doctors. The guards at the entrance were as good as decorations. They even heard the sound of gunshots while they went in. They still had no idea where the Golden Mask was, but they believed that having experienced so much tragedy, someone would willingly take them to it.

“Hey! You’re infected!” Reef grabbed a woman nearby and said in an anxious tone, “I’m a member of the United Nations’ World Health Organization! I received news that a lethal virus has appeared in this place. Please take us to the source of the infection immediately!”

The woman’s face immediately turned pale. Due to the authority of the white coat, she heard a certain word very clearly. “….Infected?” the woman asked in a trembling voice.