Zodiac

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

Good heavens, the civilization era I came from had actually developed to such a level by its end?!

But how was there even extraordinary evolution?

The officer inside the tent had the same question.

"Mr. Ying, I can understand the previous few, but what is this extraordinary evolution? Didn't the extraordinary only appear after the Great Cataclysm? Were there extraordinary people during the civilization era too?"

"Extraordinary people did indeed appear only after the Great Cataclysm. The Great Cataclysm destroyed the civilization era in less than three years. During the three years of turmoil while civilization still remained, a group of extraordinary people emerged, and the people of the civilization era took that opportunity to study them.

"In such a short time, they even cracked the mystery of the extraordinary and mastered a method to let people awaken their abilities reliably!"

"Gasp!" The officer sucked in another cold breath. "You mean they accomplished in just three years what we haven't been able to do in a century?"

Even in the present era, the awakening of extraordinary people remained an unsolved mystery. Otherwise, their numbers would not be so scarce.

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

The tent fell silent for a moment.

Outside the tent, Bai Ye's eyes gleamed. The mystery of the extraordinary?!

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 extraordinary too, how much time could he save?

He was not envious of gene editing or mechanical modification. He had always felt that technology altering one's physical structure was unreliable. But extraordinary people were different—they represented evolution on the spiritual level!

And besides extraordinary evolution, there was 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 heated his heart became. His arrogant eyes were filled with desire, without the slightest distracting thought.

What he hated most were hypocrites. In his view, people were collections of all kinds 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!

The culmination of the civilization era should rightfully be inherited by a civilized man like me!

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

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

He regarded time as life itself and utterly despised wasting it, but that was only because the time invested was often disproportionate to the gains. If he could use time stop to obtain the Pangu USB Drive, how could that count as wasting time?

This was clearly a once-and-for-all opportunity!

Rather than risk going to Black Mountain alone, he might as well enter Black Mountain under the army's escort. These people intended to use the wastelanders to scout the way through Black Mountain, which meant the wastelanders would be protected by the army until they reached Black Mountain!

As he plotted, the two men in the tent began discussing another topic.

"Mr. Ying, as expected of a member of the Zodiac, you truly are knowledgeable and experienced. But there is still something I don't 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 and helping the company seize it with your peerless sniping skills? Why are you going to the Black Mountain Cliffs instead? Isn't Shelter 189 beneath Black Mountain?"

The officer voiced the doubt that had been buried in his heart. Ever since receiving this escort mission, he had been thoroughly confused. Why ignore the shelter and run to 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 your personal intervention, can there?"

Hearing such blatant flattery, even Mr. Ying's icy tone softened somewhat. Everyone loved flattery, so long as it hit the right spot.

Clearly, what Mr. Ying took the most pride in was his sniping skill.

"Hmph." Mr. Ying snorted. "That is true. There really aren't many people in the world worthy of my personal intervention. But my assassination target this time is more than qualified."

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

"What?!" The officer was instantly horrified. "You mean Tyrant Yang Jie?!"

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

In contrast to Mr. Ying's confidence, the officer was somewhat worried. "Tyrant Yang Jie is one of the Ten Kings. An extraordinary person as powerful as him has long surpassed the limits of humanity in mental strength. 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!" Mr. Ying sneered. "Not long ago, Tyrant single-handedly destroyed one of the company's satellite cities, making a name for himself. Some people even secretly ranked him first among the Ten Kings. That battle did cause the company grievous losses, but it also allowed the company to gather all kinds of data on Tyrant.

"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 more than three thousand meters away?!" 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, and those capable of sniping from beyond three thousand meters were one in ten thousand among those one in ten thousand.

One had to know that bullets were affected by gravity, wind speed, humidity, and countless other factors. A bullet traveled in a straight line at first, but as the distance increased, it began to deviate. The farther it 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.

The officer came back to his senses and hurriedly praised him. "I see. As expected of you. In my opinion, Tyrant's weakness cannot truly be considered a weakness, because even if other snipers knew of it, they simply could not accurately hit such a top-tier extraordinary person from over three thousand meters away. Only you possess such skill."

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

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

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

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

"Why?"