Humanity: Evolve

Zhang Long sat in the truck, at the closest to the rear door as usual. Although he was slightly traumatised from the previous time he sat there, he decided to trust the pick up team escorting them.

He gently fingered the belt buckle, double checking whether it was clipped in properly or not.

'Luckily the escort team is covering us on all sides. Anything that approaches will probably be chased away by them.'

The escort consisted of four bulky jeeps, two of which pulled open top trailers with large crossbows, which had a close resemblance to a ballista but smaller and more compact.

Each jeep was manned by five men and women. They each carried bows and crossbows on their backs, along with a quiver of iron tipped arrows.

Zhang Long guessed that they must have been artefacts as well. Alan had told him that the only cold weapons which could deal any significant damage to spirit beasts were artefacts.

Although these were quite surprising, what shocked Zhang Long the most was the fact that every single member of the escort was grade 2, their green soul stones flashing eerily in the darkness.

Even just one of these escorts could probably deal significant damage to us, if not slaughter us all single handedly.

Unfortunately, Zhang Long didn't manage to get a look at any of the escort's spirit beasts. He could only fantasise about grade 2 spirit beasts on par if not stronger than the terror bird which had attacked them.

He leaned back and closed his eyes. There were a few quiet whispers here and there but the majority of people in the truck had fallen asleep.

Zhang Long couldn't blame them, he too felt exhausted. It was probably worse for them because they had first been harassed by wolves and then a terror bird.

As he closed his eyes, he seemed to enter a silent and dark world. He saw himself standing in the centre of the world, a light blue glow shining from his forehead.

In one of the corners of the dark world lay a large wolf. It's fur was as white as snow, with a cascading avalanche of hair flowing down it's back.

Each of it's paws were the size of a human torso and the large muscles behind them rippled as the wolf slept.

A spot in it's head had turned transparent, a large blue sphere let out regular pulses of blue spirit energy like a beating heart.

Zhang Long noticed that although Winter had sustained extremely severe injuries, to a point where it almost died, they had all completely healed.

'The healing isn't as quick as my talent, but at least it doesn't use spirit energy to heal. Winter even gets to have a rest.' He thought.

Zhang Long's mind wandered freely.

'As a doctor, what's the point of killing more people than I save? However, I'm not sure about my stance on spirit beasts... They are a completely different organism compared to old Earth animals after all.'

His mind flashed to the several years of anti-poaching and Eco-life protests which he grew up surrounded by during his time on old Earth.

Old Earth's current state was dismal. Even the most common pigeon had vanished without a trace, now being cared after, just like how people had cared for endangered species of other animals hundreds of years before.

The "common" pigeon was endangered.

Looking at the rapid destruction of the planet's ecosystem made one question what humans were really doing.

In this new world, Zhang Long knew that without a doubt, the same thing would happen all over again. Although there was currently a grace period, soon they would devour Pangaea's resources like a colony of army ants.

They would mechanically and methodically driven by profit and greed to take the world's natural riches and squander them away for personal gain.

'Even if I try and protect nature now, nobody would listen to me. I am just another irrelevant character among the masses. In this primal and savage world, only with outstanding strength can I garner respect and the right to decide the direction of humanity's development in Pangaea.'

Zhang Long rubbed his hands together as he thought, his face remaining expressionless.

'In order to get to the place I want as quick as possible, I need to create a plan. For this, I'll have to put away my ideals and hunt several spirit beasts, so that I can take their cores to promote my own.'

'First, I'll need to get a promotion within the pioneer association. That scanner which Alan used is extremely useful.

Then I'll need to obtain a roster of spirit beasts which work well together and cover multiple aspects such as defence, attack, scouting and so on.

I will also have to work on building up several connections and relationsh.i.p.s. This will allow me to procure important resources at a faster, cheaper and more reliable rate.

Finally, I won't kill more than I need to. As long as I calculate the number of cores each of my spirit beast's need to promote grades, I'll be happy.'

He turned his mind to Winter.

'Winter is currently the same grade as myself, that is- grade 1. I'm not sure about what sub grade he is, I'll have to ask Alan to let me borrow his scanner. I already have the terror bird's core. This means that once Winter attains the 3rd sub grade, I can directly promote it to 2nd grade.

For now, I'll aim for 3rd grade, yellow. Promoting a spirit beast's grade requires a core on par with it or better. That means I could save the grade 2 terror bird core and instead use one of the dead wolf's grade 1 core to promote Winter with.

This way, I won't have to hunt for anymore spirit beasts until Winter reaches grade 2/3 (grade 2/sub grade 3). I could potentially promote it to grade 3 and kill only one more spirit beast.'

Zhang Long nodded to himself, feeling prepared to tackle whatever challenges and obstacles the heavens decided to throw at him.

He smiled slightly to himself.

'As long as I do these things, nobody will be able to push me around and force me to do things against my will. Not even a government run organisation.'

The truck stopped, jolting the sleeping passengers awake.

Jack Roberts yawned audibly, stretching his arms and accidentally hitting the people sitting next to him.

'Are we there yet?' He asked, slurring his word slightly.

Just as he asked, Alan poked his head out of the drivers compartment and eyed the half awake-half asleep people.

'Get up. We've arrived.'

Zhang Long was the first to get off, stretching his shoulders. The nine other rookies g.r.o.a.n.e.d and reluctantly followed him off, stretching their stiff limbs.

The girl who had lost large quantities of blood and subsequently fainted had recovered. After the battle with the terror bird, Zhang Long had regained some spiritual energy, just enough to heal her and bring her back from the brink of death.

He looked around curiously, before gently tugging on Winter's consciousness within his mind. He coaxed the sleepy wolf out of his soul stone, it's body appearing with a flash of light.

Winter sniffed at the unfamiliar scent of new territory, before playfully headbutting Zhang Long's leg.

'Hey buddy.' The latter greeted, rubbing the wolf behind it's ears.

It let out a noise of p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e, before standing up and taking in the new sight.

They had arrived in Bastion, the pioneering headquarters. Rather, just inside it's outer walls.

The place looked like a huge fortress from outside, even more so from within. It's towering walls blocking out the sky.

The walls were made from a mix of concrete and iron scaffolding, patches of moss and vine a testament to how long modern civilisation had been in Pangaea.

On the inside of the walls, there were sturdy stairways which led all the way to the top, through many floors.

Zhang Long could make out arrow slits dotting the wall, where one could shoot an intruder from.

There were two more inner walls, each one shorter but sturdier than the last. A vast array of ballistics covered in faint mysterious runes were scattered in a rough pattern across the top of each wall, one could imagine the damage a large boulder or metre long arrow could do to a spirit beast. Especially if it had been enhanced by spiritual energy.

Zhang Long had no doubt that even a grade 2 spirit beast would be turned into a puddle of gore upon being shot by such fierce weaponry.

Their guide, a bronze skinned lady with her hair cut short, noticed his gaze and grinned.

'Every single one of 'em is an artefact, crafted by the best engineers and artificers in the association.' She bragged.

Her body was the incarnation of athleticism, with toned muscles all over. Zhang Long couldn't tell whether she was deliberately flaunting it as she pointed at the walls or not.

He just nodded, turning his attention to the gate they had just come through. It's mechanism stood out from what seemed to be an ancient castle's walls.

It was, quite noticeably, fitted with modern technology- all powered by spiritual energy, like an artefact. Zhang Long saw a bright yellow "Danger!" sign next to it, with a small symbol of lightning striking a man.

His mouth twitched slightly.

'Electrified gates, floor spikes, ceiling spikes, no doubt even more hidden traps as well... These fellows sure are cautious, aren't they.'

He noticed similar gates on each of the inner walls as well, each one with more traps than the last. Zhang Long almost failed to hold his poker face.

Their guide pointed to the gates.

'We get spirit beast waves on a weekly basis. It seems over the top, but you honestly don't know how much damage a grade 4 forest hound can do. On their own, they aren't the strongest bunch, among grade fours that is, but in their packs of fifty...'

She shuddered slightly, causing nine of ten rookies to involuntarily feel insecure. Zhang Long, on the other hand was concerned about something else.

'Is fighting against the wave of spirit beasts compulsory?' He asked with a frown.

The guide stared for a moment, before beginning to laugh, as if she'd heard a funny joke. The other rookies shot him strange glances too.

'I'm a doctor. I don't fight.' He clarified.

The lady wiped tears from her eyes, grinning widely. She walked over and placed her hand on Zhang Long's shoulder, causing the latter's frown to increase.

'Mate. Nobody gets to decide if they want to fight or not.'

Then, her smile disappeared, only the sharpness of a warrior remained.

'Every week, we fight a deadly battle of life and death to protect what our ancestors painstakingly built. The moment we lose, it's game over. Thousands of years of progress gone, just like that.

You tell me, doctor, whether fighting the beast waves is compulsory or not.'

Zhang Long caught a glimpse of a couple of derisive looks from around him, veterans and rookies alike. It didn't affect him though.

'Don't beg us to save you when you're surrounded by spirit beasts.'

'Yeah, you only got that wolf through luck, nothing more.'

He heard a few insults being hurled at him, but he stood steady like a cliff against the ocean. The waves kept crashing down on him, but he stood firm. They came one after the other, but he remained unaffected, indifferent to the salty water.

Suddenly, a feeling of rage overwhelmed him, his blood boiling.

Zhang Long slapped the guide's hand off of his shoulder, before turning to look at one of the insult-hurlers. Much to his surprise, it was the boy who he had saved, the one with organ damage.

He felt the bottled up anger increase tenfold.

Zhang Long couldn't remember the boy's name, in fact, it didn't matter if he did. He stared into the boy's eyes, his abyss-like eyes causing the latter to take a step back.

'Don't beg me to save you, when your limbs have been torn to shreds and your entrails are falling out from your lower half. When blood pours out of your severed torso. When spirit beasts eat you alive.' He retorted, his icy cold gaze and emotionless voice intimidating the boy.

Winter snarled and clawed at the ground, like a hunting hound struggling to remove it's leash.

The hushed whispers stopped as he grinned condescendingly and walked away, Winter following just behind. Their eyes weren't on Zhang Long, rather, every person stared at the deep gashes that Winter had created in the sturdy concrete floor.

Although he was indifferent, a part of him blazed in anger. Mainly indignant due to the boy's ungrateful behaviour.

'I'll help out during the beast waves, healing people and their spirit beasts, but I'll turn a blind eye to a few people in particular.'

Suddenly, Zhang Long blinked, clearing the thought from his head.

'What was I thinking? That... That wasn't like me at all.' He frowned, looking down at Winter.

The wolf was still emanating killing intent, it was as sharp as a knife, causing one's hair to stand on end.

It was then that he realised Winter's angry emotions flooding through their spiritual link and into his own mind, the emotions had affected his judgement in that single moment.

A feeling of slight exasperation caused him to sigh, before gently rubbing Winter's head.

'I know you care buddy, but their insults and opinions don't mean anything to me.'

Zhang Long felt touched because of his spirit beast's care. Winter nuzzled his hand and let out a pitying w.h.i.n.e.

'Well, now that I've lost my guide, what should we do now?'

He vaguely remembered Alan telling him to go to headquarters and meet him after the tour.

'No harm in arriving early.' He muttered, putting his hands into his pockets and sauntering in a carefree manner towards the second gate.