Zodiac

Outside the tent, Bai Ye hurriedly covered his mouth, nearly gasping in shock as well.

Good heavens, the Civilized Era I came from had actually developed to such an extent by the end?!

But why was there Transcendence evolution too?

The officer inside the tent had the same question.

"Ying, I can understand the previous few, but what exactly is Transcendence evolution? Didn't Transcendents only appear after the Great Cataclysm? Could the Civilized Era have had Transcendents too?"

"Transcendents did indeed only emerge after the Great Cataclysm. The Great Cataclysm destroyed the Civilized Era in less than three years. During the three years of turmoil while civilization still endured, a group of Transcendents emerged, and the people of the Civilized Era took that opportunity to study them.

"In such a short time, they even unraveled the mystery of Transcendence and mastered a method for allowing people to awaken steadily!"

"Hiss!" The officer gasped again. "You mean they accomplished in just three years what we haven't managed in a hundred?"

Even in the current age, the awakening of Transcendents remained an unsolved mystery. Otherwise, Transcendents would not be so rare.

Ying shook his head. "Not three years. Two and a half."

As soon as he said that, the tent fell silent for a moment.

Outside the tent, Bai Ye's eyes lit up. The mystery of Transcendence!?

He had coveted Li You's Magic Hand for a long time. Who wouldn't envy a superpower that consumed no time and only mental energy to activate?

If he became a Transcendent too, how much time could he save?

He did not envy gene editing or mechanical modification. He had always felt that technology which altered one's own physical structure was unreliable. But Transcendents were different—they represented evolution on a spiritual level!

And besides Transcendence evolution, there was also Life Engineering! That was technology capable of extending human lifespan. A longer lifespan meant more time, didn't it?

The more Bai Ye thought about it, the more fervent he became. His defiant eyes were filled with desire, without the slightest trace of distraction.

What he hated most were hypocrites. In his view, people were collections of desires. They should face those desires head-on and clearly understand what they wanted. There was nothing shameful about that.

Now... he wanted the Pangu USB Drive!

A crystallization of the Civilized Era ought to be inherited by a civilized man like me!

With that thought, Bai Ye changed his plan. He no longer intended to kill these people. He wanted to go to Black Mountain!

As the saying went, wealth was sought amid danger, and achievement was built in peril. If he could obtain the Pangu USB Drive, he would have no worries for the rest of his life.

Although he regarded time as life itself and despised wasting it, that was only because the time invested and the gains received were often disproportionate. If he could use Time Stop to obtain the Pangu USB Drive, how could that count as waste?

That was clearly a once-and-for-all solution!

Rather than risk going to Black Mountain himself, he might as well enter Black Mountain under the army's escort. Their purpose was to have the Wastelanders scout Black Mountain, which meant that before reaching Black Mountain, the Wastelanders would be protected by the military!

As he was making his calculations, the two men inside the tent turned to another topic.

"Ying, as expected of a Zodiac member, you are truly knowledgeable. But there is still one thing I do not understand. News of Black Mountain has already leaked, and more and more major factions are heading there. Everyone wants a share of the spoils.

"Since the Pangu USB Drive is so important, why aren't you joining the main force to help the company seize it with your unparalleled sniping skills? Why go instead to the Black Mountain Cliffs? Isn't Shelter 189 beneath Black Mountain?"

The officer voiced the doubt he had kept buried in his heart. Ever since receiving this escort mission, he had been utterly confused. Why ignore the shelter and head for the Black Mountain Cliffs instead?

"The company has its own arrangements for the shelter. I am not responsible for seizing the Pangu USB Drive. I am only responsible for killing."

The officer was startled. "There can't be more than a few people in the world worthy of being personally sniped by you, can there?"

Hearing such blatant flattery, even Ying's icy tone softened somewhat. Everyone enjoyed flattery, as long as it struck the right place.

Clearly, what Ying took the greatest pride in was his sniping ability.

"Hmph." Ying snorted. "That is true. There are indeed very few people in the world worthy of my personal action. But my assassination target this time is absolutely qualified."

He paused, then coldly uttered a name. "Yang Jie."

"What!?" The officer was instantly horrified. "Do you mean the Tyrant, Yang Jie!?"

"Of course it is him. Only he is worthy of making me use the Black Flood Dragon M300." Ying stroked the metal case, a trace of fervor in his eyes.

In contrast to Ying's confidence, the officer was somewhat worried. "Tyrant Yang Jie is one of the Ten Kings. A Transcendent as powerful as him has mental energy that long surpassed human limits. Any assassination attempt would trigger a psychic warning. I'm afraid..."

"Indeed. If Tyrant Yang Jie, one of the Ten Kings, were so easy to kill, other snipers would have killed him long ago."

"Then you..."

"Hmph!" Ying sneered. "Not long ago, the Tyrant single-handedly destroyed one of the company's Satellite Cities, making his name resound everywhere. Some people even privately ranked him first among the Ten Kings. That battle did cause the company tremendous losses, but it also allowed the company to obtain all kinds of data on the Tyrant.

"The Tyrant's psychic warning range is three thousand meters. If someone snipes him within that range, he will notice the instant the shot is fired. But if the shot comes from beyond three thousand meters, he naturally cannot detect the danger in advance."

"Firing from beyond three thousand meters!?" The officer's face was full of shock. Having dealt with firearms for so long, he naturally understood what it meant for a sniper to accurately hit an enemy from over three thousand meters away.

Snipers were already one-in-ten-thousand talents, while those capable of sniping from over three thousand meters were one-in-ten-thousand among one-in-ten-thousand.

Bullets were affected by gravity, wind speed, humidity, and countless other factors. At the beginning of their flight, they traveled in a straight line, but as the distance increased, they drifted off course. The farther they traveled, the greater the deviation. A sniper had to account for every factor before calculating the bullet's final point of impact.

The difficulty was self-evident.

Coming back to his senses, the officer hurriedly praised him. "So that's how it is. As expected of you. In my opinion, the Tyrant's weakness cannot really be called a weakness, because even if other snipers knew of it, they simply could not accurately hit such a peak Transcendent from beyond three thousand meters. Only you possess such skill."

The flattery was so effective that even Ying, who had never been fond of smiling, laughed.

"Of course. Once I deal with the Tyrant, the company obtaining the Pangu USB Drive will no longer be a problem."

"Oh? Killing the Tyrant can help the company obtain the Pangu USB Drive?"

"News of the Pangu USB Drive leaked long ago. Do you know why no one has managed to get their hands on it yet?"

"Why?"