The Ultimate Evolution
chapter-875

Sheyan was already mentally prepared to receive such a bad evaluation, but the extra ten achievement points should be due to the realm's recognition of the dramatic changes he made in the plot. However, a notification he received afterwards made him speechless. The realm discovered that there was residue of the 'Enemy of the Forest' imprint on his body. Even though there was very little left, it was still discovered by the realm's quarantine rules, and he must cleanse it. The important thing was that he must pay for the service!

Sheyan cursed non-stop as his wallet was put to the slaughter. After all that was done, his vision gradually blurred as he return to the nightmare realm.

Sheyan didn't go to rest after he returned to the realm because he was already on a holiday in the Shire before he came back. He felt so fresh right now that he could immediately fight a battle of wits and brawns with anyone.

First, he contacted Mogensha....but there was no response. That could mean two things. Either he hadn't completed his Growth-Hunter advancement mission, or he had completed it and had gone back to the real world. If he had died, the party should have been notified.

Next, Sheyan contacted Zi. No response there either.

Sheyan suddenly found himself having nothing to do. He had already enquired before; if he wanted to take the boundary test, he must apply within 3 days the next time he entered the nightmare realm.

So Sheyan contacted his crew in the Pirates of the Caribbean world. Those scoundrels on the Dingyuan were still loyal to their captain and were very respectful to him. Sheyan reminded them to be careful of Davy Jones. What Sheyan did with Paul must have made him feel very, very offended. Sheyan couldn't rule out the possibility of Davy Jones venting his anger on Sheyan's subordinates.

Sheyan contemplated for a bit and walked to the realm's appraisal room. Something had been bugging him for quite a while now but he had no way of investigating it in the previous world. He took out an extremely ordinary nut (as in the one used with a bolt) from his personal space. Unlike how it looked, the description of the nut was not ordinary at all.

[This item marks the beginning of a magnificent mission. After using it, you will obtain a mission with an E difficulty rating, that has a Realm evaluation of a 'Golden Side Mission'! What are you waiting for?]

That's right, this was the object Drubal of Stockholm Party used to ransom for his life. The mysterious nut.

Sheyan placed the nut on a platform and asked the realm to appraise it.

It didn't take long for the appraisal result to appear. There was only 1 line.

[Please enter the Terminator world to find out the origin of this nut.]

Sheyan was dumbfounded for a moment before he proceeded to the appointment room upstairs to exchange the 5 Tear Stones of the Balrog he got from Drubal for 15 achievement points. Next, he waited a while for Reef and Franklin but they showed no signs of returning anytime soon, so he returned to the real world.

In the real world, Sheyan checked on the ability of 'Pestilence Monarch'. 'Pestilence Monarch' must obtain new diseases in the real world in order to strengthen itself, so the notifications only appeared now.

[Your Pestilence Monarch ability has evolved. Rank 3 disease slot unlocked.]

[Inputting environmental data. Commencing information sampling....]

[Information sampling completed. Data analysis was successful.]

[Hint: The host can choose one disease from the following list to undergo sampling infection, and thereby control an evolved infection form of bronchitis.]

[A. Emphysema]

[B. Common pneumonia]

[C. Tuberculosis]

[D. Asthma]

[Hint: the disease you choose to control will affect the subsequent branch in the skill tree ]

[The characteristics, infectiousness, and treatment difficulty of the disease you choose will reflect onto the effect shown by the modified A-virus. Please choose carefully!]

[There is no time limit for this choice. Please choose after careful consideration.]

Sheyan felt that enduring up to bronchitis was his limit the last time, but his HP had undergone tremendous growth now. He had the confidence to withstand the assault of a rank 3 disease.

Sheyan collected a large amount of information and felt that he understood these diseases better now. He speculated the development of these 4 branches to be as such:

Option A: The ultimate evolution for this option should be the pulmonary heart disease. It would cause suffering for the enemy's heart and lungs.

Option B: The evolved form should be atypical pneumonia.

Option C: This should be a special case. Sheyan speculated that if he chose option C, the skill tree branch would end here. However, the rank 3 ability of tuberculosis should be capable of reaching a very high level. It would present a huge early advantage but may be weaker in later stages compared to the ultimate diseases of the other branches, but not by too much.

Option D: Sheyan personally consulted a doctor about this. The doctor contemplated for a long time before telling him that prolonged asthma may cause cancer.

Sheyan chose option B. He had a pretty good impression of atypical pneumonia so he had always been working towards this target. The current Sheyan may have some need for the 'Pestilence Monarch' ability, but it's not like he couldn't survive without it. That's why Sheyan would be willing to sacrifice a bit of present strength in return for a stronger ability in the future.

Next on the agenda would be to activate the A-virus' phagocytosis, replication, and improvement.

This is a powerful move with a cooldown time of 7 days. Moreover, even after activation, the desired genetic code might not be successfully replicated.

That's because the realm gave a notification after Sheyan chose option B that only the pneumonia resulting from a pneumococcus infection of the lungs could be considered common pneumonia. Infections from other bacterias wouldn't count! Sheyan originally planned to continuously catch colds while suppressing his defence and immunity until he caught pneumonia, but from the looks of it learning a rank 3 ability wasn't that easy. The infection must be from a specific type of bacteria.

Only after checking the internet did he know there are various causes of infections for common pneumonia. The most common was of course pneumococcus, but other bacterias such as staphylococcus aureus, streptococcus A, klebsiella pneumoniae, haemophilus influenzae, pseudomonas aeruginosa, E. coli, P. aeruginosa, etc. could also cause common pneumonia.

This meant that even if Sheyan got lucky and caught pneumonia, if it wasn't caused by pneumococcus, then he would have suffered in vain!

"What the hell!" moaned Sheyan. At first, he thought that with the growth in his strength, a mere rank 3 disease would only make him feel uncomfortable. Only now did he know it's not that simple.

Fortunately, after meeting with Zi, he had gone back to Taiwan where he had some contacts. He thought for a bit before making some calls. In the end, he found an illegal clinic.

The illegal clinic had a convenient store front. The owner of the clinic was a doctor before this, but his license was revoked due to taking bribes. When the owner was short on cash, he would provide his services to the people from the underground world. The services include treating wounds that might bring troubles should they be treated at a hospital, such as knife wounds and gun wounds. He had no other bad reputation besides being a money-grubber. As long as one was willing to pay, one would generally leave satisfied.

Sheyan went to the clinic owner, then threw out a stack of cash and a large blade for him to choose. The owner could see that Sheyan was someone merciless, so of course he chose the cash. He passionately enquired Sheyan's reason for coming here. Sheyan told him that his boss wanted to punish an underling who made fun of the boss' coughing and illness. He wanted the owner to find a way to make the underling catch a severe cold too.

Thanks to the cash, the owner told Sheyan everything he wanted to know. Sheyan said that his boss was diagnosed with pneumonia from a pneumococcus infection, so he insisted that the underling must be infected with the same kind of illness....that's a quirk of his.

The owner was a bit dumbfounded. It was the first time he met someone who asked for a specific disease. But, well, money talks. He immediately came up with an idea for Sheyan. Send him to live with people diagnosed with pneumococcal pneumonia in the hospital and let him stay hungry most of the time. That should increase his chances of getting infected.

The owner's suggestion made Sheyan feel disheartened because he must go back to the hospital after all. The good thing was that his a lot stronger now so he felt that he didn't need anyone's help. He confidently walked down his path of getting infected.

With the special ability of Babu-Babusar, Sheyan reduced his immunity to zero. Following the illegal doctors advice, he first caught a cold, then let it became a pneumonia. Sheyan looked expectantly at the two fellow patients around him, hoping to share their joy. They were both being treated for pneumococcal pneumonia. Sheyan expended a lot of effort to get them into the same room.

After a while, Sheyan helplessly sneezed while he was standing next to the window. His initial excitement had subsided by now. He was not feeling much pressure because all signs indicated that things were coming along just as planned. He would first stand in the wind and catch a cold, then slowly advance it into a pneumonia. He had 7 days to do this anyway so he wouldn't rush things. He would take his sweet time to make sure he got things just right.