The Ultimate Evolution
chapter-968

The truth is, even the most harmonious team contains dissenting opinions, and even the most loving couple sometimes quarrels. This is very normal; it would be weird if there was absolutely no conflict among a group of people. It was not a big deal if the conflicts were resolved in time before they could intensify.

Sheyan had always attached great importance to these kind of issues, so he was very cautious in the selection of party members. He also paid great attention to the relationship between the members, so as to maintain a harmonious atmosphere in the team.

"The strongest fortresses often crumble from within." Sheyan had heard this saying many times and he deeply agreed with it.

It must be noted that Reef was the only person who did not get any benefit from the distribution of spoils this time. However, Sheyan was not that worried. He hadn't retrieved his rewards for completing the Bloody World main mission and the Golden Side Mission yet because he had recuperated in the return realm for too long. There should be something that was suitable for Reef in those rewards. If not, he could always give Reef the 'Unknown mysterious item: Rare precious metal' x6 worth 13 achievement points.

All these analyses were purely from an objective standpoint.

In actual fact, Reef and Sheyan were comrade-in-arms that could leave their lives in each other's hands. Reef also felt heavily indebted to Sheyan and was full of admiration for Sheyan's ability. Besides, the item Reef used when he awakened was provided by Sheyan. More importantly, there was a 'Life-Link' between the two! This kind of ultimate skill was the most reliable symbol of friendship. Sheyan could be more casual with Reef without caring too much for how he felt.

Sanzi's jaw dropped to the floor when he saw the equipment. Although they were currently in the real world so he could only see the hologram transmitted through the nightmare imprint, it was enough to shock him speechless.

So far, apart from the 'Heart of the Ocean', the only equipment Sanzi had ever seen was a black equipment, and the blood of at least five people had been spilled for it! That incident gave Sanzi a clear idea of how valuable equipments were.

Now, not only were there black equipments in front of him, there was also a dark gold equipment, something which he had never even heard of. And it was a + 7 dark gold equipment to boot. The equipments dazzled his eyes and made him wonder if he was dreaming.

'Are all these....mine?'

The distribution of spoils left everyone in a good mood. Unfortunately, they had to immediately face a very harsh reality.

They were short on utility points.

They were critically short on utility points!

Zi of course was eager to increase the level of her 'Titanium Mesh Magic Barrier' because she knew that Reef's primary target of protection would no doubt be Sanzi from now on - not because Sanzi was Sheyan's brother, but because summoners were high-priority protection targets in a party by default.

Therefore, Zi felt a certain sense of crisis. Her 'Magic Barrier' was currently lvl 5, so she would need tens of thousands of utility points to enhance it to lvl 7.

Meanwhile, Brother Black feared that his status within the party was threatened after he heard about Sheyan's partnership with Aziz. He also felt that his instantaneous damage was too low, and it was a weakness that he had to address.

So he was obviously very excited when Sheyan presented him with the 'Alien pulse gun component blueprint'. He was so excited that he kissed the blueprint passionately more than 10 times.

Even in the face of the most beautiful girl in the world, Brother Black had never shown so much passion!

One could imagine how keen Brother Black was to turn the blueprint into a real object. Looking at his sad, pleading eyes, Sheyan did not have the heart to tell him to put it off for the moment.

So, Mogensha need at least 100,000 utility points.

Next, Reef told it to them straight, "My servant is awake. I need to pay about 60,000 utility points to repair his body."

Reef's servant was brought out from the Resident Evil hidden world. He was originally a formidable warrior second only to Mbenga, but was bitten by the ferocious mutant spider crab. Fortunately, he managed to survive and had spun a cocoon in the nightmare realm. He should be very powerful after he recovered, but the investment on him was a bottomless pit. He constantly required utility points....

Sheyan smiled helplessly. He turned towards Sanzi and said, "If you have any demand, just say it now."

Sanzi did not ask for anything. He simply traded over 600 utility points to Sheyan, then showed them his balance of a bit more than 50 utility points. He seemed embarrassed as he told them, "This is all I have left...."

Sheyan didn't know whether to laugh or cry. But on second thought, when he was as new as Sanzi, he probably had even less. Without any other choice, he could only grit his teeth and sell some things that they didn't need. After going over their inventory, the things that they could sell were as follows:

Valuable item: High energy crystal x1

Rotten Eyeball (Condition: Bad) x1

Soul Crystals x2

Aberration Horcrux (Rare)

Pandora's Egg

As for the 'Unknown mysterious item: Rare precious metal' x6 worth 13 achievement points, he could only wait and see. He desperately hoped that the mission rewards he had yet to retrieve would give him something good. If not, he could only reluctantly sell the rare precious metals. After all, Reef's matter could not be delayed, or they would risk his servant dying.

Among these goods, the Aberration Horcrux (Rare) should be the most popular. Sheyan estimated that the it would net them at least 100,000 utility points. If worse come to worst, he could only ask Brother Black to delay his plan. After all, the blueprint required a lot of materials and was the most costly.

After the discussion, Zi and Reef exchanged glances. Reef could not help smiling as he said, "Boss, I have to say you've given us a lot of surprises. But rest assured, not everything's bad news on our end either."

"Oh? What good news do you have for me?" asked Sheyan as his eyes lit up.

Zi's slender fingers toyed with a lighter on the coffee table. The skin on the back of her hand was as smooth and delicate as porcelain. When she spoke, there was a slight fragrance and warmth in the air which gave Sheyan the urge to indulge in them.

Her eyes, however, contained a sharp glint. They were like the thorns on a rose, warning others to keep their distance.

"When we were attacked, we naturally didn't just take it lying down. After several successive attempts to fight back, we finally managed to catch a living captive. From him, we found out why the Stockholm Party were so adamant at eliminating us.

Sheyan also felt quite strange about this. Although the enmity between him and the Stockholm Party was not shallow by any means, but he had let Drubal go. Why would they want a fight to the death between the two parties like this? There must be something he had overlooked.

Brother Black took out a cigar and took a big puff, then revealed a cruel smile as he said, "That guy made up several lies at first, but I saw through them all. You'd never guess why they attacked us, boss."

"Could it be....the metal nut? " asked Sheyan.

Reef nodded and said, "Correct, it's because of the nut! Do you know the nickname of that nut?"

"I don't," answered Sheyan with a hint of surprise.

Brother Black snuffed out the cigar and said in a solemn tone, "They called it the seed of a divine artifact! This means that if we can achieve maximum completion rate in the mission triggered with the nut, the ultimate reward is a divine artifact! Of course, the chances of that happening aren't very high, but the probability exists."

"So they attacked us for the purpose of retrieving the nut that had fallen into my hands?" asked Sheyan.

Reef came up with this humorous reply. "The margin of error of your answer is probably less than 0.3%."

Sheyan finally smiled.

"That's good news indeed."

Zi sneered and said, "Well aren't you easy to please. The next piece of information will surprise you even more."

"Zi, that's a really bad habit. Can you please tell me everything in one go? Next time, I'll tell my story halfway too."

Zi smiled. "We launched another ambush according to the information he gave us, and caught another guy. From this guy, we managed to find out the way to use the nut."

"Really? How do we use it?" asked Sheyan.

"The alternate way of using the nut in your hand requires at least a Reserve-duty General rank. When you're ready to enter the next world, bring the nut with you and apply to go to the Terminator world - of course, the service isn't free. And it's definitely not cheap," said Zi.

"Damn it! More utility points! Why am I so unlucky? All kinds of trouble find their way to me!" Sheyan gripped his hair with anguish. He added, "Now, I can only hope that the rewards for the Bloody World and for the Golden Side Mission can help."

Mogensha's eyes suddenly lit up. "Boss, if it doesn't work, you can always sell your mixes! People will trip over themselves to buy your mixes even if you price them at 10,000 utility points a bottle!"

"A limit has been imposed by the realm on my mixes. I can no longer profit off them and can only trade them away for free. The ability has probably gotten so strong that if I use them for profit, I'll break the balance of the realm...." Sheyan smiled bitterly.