This assassin is upright

Chapter 451 The Power of Evolution

As if he had acquired a novel toy, Yu Zhun looked around with great interest.

Did he quickly gain night vision simply because he was in a dark environment?
Evolution, in Yu Zhun's understanding, should be a slow process, but at this moment it seems to be proceeding at an unimaginable speed.

Does that monster formed from the black matter also possess such terrifying evolutionary abilities?
Thinking of this, Yu Zhun couldn't help but look at the thing on the ground that looked like an unformed fetus.

He had a feeling that although the other party also had the ability to evolve rapidly, they were probably not as powerful as he was.

Otherwise, the opponent wouldn't still only have this much strength after so much time has passed; they would be far more terrifying than they are now.

Could it be because of the special gene-editing drug I used?
Just as Yu Zhun was pondering, a voice rang out.

"how do you feel?"

That was the sound of a black hawk.

As he heard the black hawk's call, more information was captured by Yu Zhun's ears.

Black Hawk's breathing was somewhat short, indicating that he was very nervous. His voice was also hoarse, possibly due to previous damage to his vocal cords.

Feeling the information that was quickly processed in his mind, Yu Zhun was stunned again.

He didn't subconsciously think about these things, but the moment he heard Black Hawk's voice, all this information naturally appeared in his mind.

Is this also evolution?

Because of hearing the sound, the brain's ability to analyze sound is naturally enhanced.

No, perhaps hearing as well.

Yu Zhun turned his head to look in a certain direction.

There, a very faint sound could be heard.

"Yu Zhun?" Black Hawk's voice rang out once again.

"I'm fine," Yu Zhun said, coming to his senses. "Better than ever before."

"In a short period of time, I have gained enhanced night vision and hearing. It seems that as long as I receive changes in the outside world, I can continue to get stronger."

At this point, Yu Zhun clenched his fist tightly.

"This feeling is wonderful."

"It really works?" the mouse exclaimed, then looked somewhat annoyed. "If I had known it was such a good thing, I would have drunk it myself."

"What a beautiful thought!"

Wolf Fang snorted lightly, "I just offered you a drink, did you dare to drink it?"

"Besides, I've carefully read the instructions." He picked up the instructions the mouse had already read. "It's very clear that taking it in conjunction with the first-generation gene drug will yield the best results; otherwise, there's a high chance of disordered mutation."

"If I'm not mistaken, the first-generation gene drug refers to the thing Yu Zhun drank." Wolf Fang shook his head as he spoke, "Every sip has its price."

"It's good that we didn't encounter any danger." Black Hawk said calmly. "Yu Zhun is a member of the team. His improvement is also a good thing for the team."

"Now that you've gained so many benefits, you'll have to share them with everyone."

“No problem.” Yu Zhun nodded without hesitation. “By the way, Captain, I think I know which way we can get out.”

"Hmm?" Black Hawk looked surprised.

“There’s a faint sound coming from over there.” Yu Zhun pointed to another direction inside the cave. “Perhaps there’s a passage leading to the outside world.”

"Just keep following the direction of the sound, and you'll be able to get out."

“Very good!” Black Hawk nodded with delight.

The mouse standing nearby sighed deeply, "My gold..."

With such a severe explosion, the hidden gold is probably gone.

"Don't even think about your words being worthless." Wolf Fang rolled his eyes in annoyance. "I still feel a bit scared when I think about it. If we had arrived a moment later, we might have had to face that hatched monster."

Given the power it displayed inside the cocoon, once it hatches, even Black Hawk probably won't be a match for it.

"Gold, it's not like there's no way to get it."

Just then, Yu Zhun suddenly spoke up. Seeing everyone's gaze, he said again, "The rat is right. We've come in through such great danger; we can't just leave empty-handed."

Having obtained such a valuable item as the mutation inducer, he should reciprocate by helping the others find something of value.

"Do you have a way to find the gold from before?" the rat couldn't help but ask.

“No,” Yu Zhun shook his head, “but I can find other things that are equally valuable.”

As he spoke, he gently sniffed.

He had been focusing on the improvements in his eyesight and hearing, which were easier to notice, and almost didn't realize that his sense of smell had also improved.

The cave, which was originally filled with the stench of fish, blood, and burnt smells, now seemed like a treasure trove of information to Yu Zhun, whose evolved sense of smell allowed him to carefully discern the source of each scent. Yu Zhun's gaze quickly locked onto one of the cave's directions.

They quickly stepped forward and began digging. Soon, a large area of ​​gold covered by black material was exposed before their eyes, and the reflected golden luster made everyone's eyes light up instantly.

"Holy crap!" the mouse gasped. "There must be over a ton of gold here! How can there be so much gold here?"

“This gold has undergone special refining and is extremely pure.” Black Hawk stepped forward and touched the large swath of gold, a look of surprise on his face.

"It doesn't look like the kind of gold you see in jewelry stores."

"Where did this come from?"

Yu Zhun did not answer, but continued digging. Soon another silver light appeared in front of everyone. Even without the illumination of searchlights, the fist-sized piece of metal still shimmered with a faint light.

"Holy crap!" If the mouse was pleasantly surprised just now, he was now completely shocked, his mouth agape, unable to close it.

"A whole block of refined plutonium?!"

"Are you sure?" Black Hawk suddenly turned to look at the mouse.

“Of course I’m sure.” The rat nodded without hesitation. “This stuff is the core material for lightweight tactical nuclear bombs. It’s sold by the gram on the black market, and a single gram can fetch an astronomical price.”

At this point, the mouse's eyes lit up completely. "This thing..."

Yu Zhun remained silent, simply digging in silence.

He extracted various precious metals from the black substance, each one causing the rats to squeal with excitement.

Once there was nothing left in the black substance, Yu Zhun shook his slightly sore wrist. "This was refined by that monster."

"The other party should have the ability to decompose organic and inorganic matter."

"That monster possessed intelligence comparable to that of humans. Perhaps it realized the considerable value of these things, so it carefully categorized and hid them, intending to use them after it hatched a human body."

"Now, it's all ours for the taking," Black Hawk grinned. With such a batch of resources, each of them could reap huge profits simply by making a trip to the black market.

However, money can be tempting, so we need to plan this carefully.

"Let's go, let's get out of the ruins."
-
"Haha, I've reached level two!"

Wolf Fang grinned and laughed, his deep-set eyes losing their usual sinister look because of the smile on his face.

Clenching his fists and feeling his renewed strength, he couldn't wait to find a powerful opponent to fight him.

"Want to have a go?" Iron Tower asked with a simple smile. In just a few days, his body seemed to have become even more muscular than before, and his explosive muscles were extremely intimidating.

Like Wolf Fang, Iron Tower has also successfully reached the second tier.

"Alright!" Wolf Fang chuckled and walked with Iron Tower to an open space. The two tacitly agreed not to use weapons, but instead engaged in a brutal fistfight.

"Two brutes." Not far away, at a makeshift workbench, the rat glanced at the two sparring, then satisfiedly screwed the last screw on his newly modified prosthetic body.

"Click——"

With a crisp click, the modified prosthetic was successfully installed on the rat's hand. Its highly technological appearance and cold metallic luster were a stark contrast to the previous, somewhat rudimentary modified prosthetic.

Clenching his fist and feeling his current strength, the mouse couldn't help but grin.

"Perfect!"

As expected of the good thing he created by spending five or six times more than the original modification budget, with the new modified prosthetic body, he can now compete with second-tier evolvers.

The tent flap behind them was lifted, and a middle-aged man with sharp eyes walked out. Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and looked over.

"Captain (Boss)."

"Hmm." Black Hawk nodded slightly, a glint of shrewdness occasionally flashing in his sharp eyes. "I'm at level three."

Everyone immediately smiled.

With a third-tier evolved being and several second-tier evolved beings, such an excavation team is extremely rare in the surrounding area.

After leaving the ruins, the Black Hawk team immediately headed to the nearest black market. After some careful trading, they sold a small portion of their valuables in exchange for an overall upgrade for the entire team.

At this moment, they still had a large portion of their possessions that they hadn't yet revealed, including the refined plutonium, each gram of which was priceless.

The person who deserves all of this is a newcomer who has only recently joined the team.

Thinking of this, everyone couldn't help but look at another tent.

"Has that kid Yu Zhun not woken up yet?" the rat couldn't help but ask.

“I don’t know either.” Black Hawk frowned and glanced at the tent where Yu Zhun was. Even with his enhanced eyesight after reaching the third level, he couldn’t see through the situation inside the tent, as if it were shrouded in a layer of mist.

"Before Yu Zhun woke up, he told us not to worry about him," Wolf Fang said slowly. "So let's not disturb him for now."

“Alright.” Black Hawk nodded slightly. “Our strength has just increased significantly, and we still need to adapt further.”

“After a while, we’ll sell the rest of the stuff,” Black Hawk paused, “except for that piece of plutonium.”

"I subtly inquired about this in the black market last time, and it seems that the black market can't handle this kind of stuff; it'll probably have to be brought into the city."

"Going into the city..." A serious look appeared in Iron Tower's eyes. "The last time we went into the city was several years ago."

"I wonder what the City of Floating Ashes looks like now."

"What else could it be like?" the rat beside him said lazily. "Old-fashioned and rigid. The people there have conditions that are countless times better than those outside the city, but they are not enterprising and just stick to the old ways."

"I hate the way people look at me, as if I have some terrible disease that I can infect them. If it weren't for making a deal, I would never have set foot in the City of Ashes."

“We’re just making a deal and leaving, no need to overthink it.” Black Hawk rubbed his temples.

"I'm just like you; I don't like dealing with city people."

After saying that, his expression suddenly shifted, and he looked at Yu Zhun's tent again.

"He's awake."

As Black Hawk finished speaking, a rustling sound came from inside the tent. Soon, the tent flap was lifted, and Yu Zhun walked out.

Compared to before, he was now full of energy, and his slightly slender body seemed to conceal a terrifying power. His skin had become even whiter than before, but it was not the unhealthy white of someone who hadn't been exposed to the sun for a long time. Instead, it had a unique texture as clear and lustrous as mutton fat jade.

"Wow!" the mouse exclaimed softly, "Quite a change!"

"Indeed, there have been significant changes." Black Hawk nodded with a smile.

"how do you feel?"

"My current strength should have reached the second level." Yu Zhun clenched his fist, feeling the power around him, his eyes shining.

The effects of the mutation inducer were even more powerful than he had anticipated. Yu Zhun had not used the next stage of gene therapy and it would be difficult for him to find a matching next stage gene therapy, but the mutation inducer gave him another opportunity for improvement.

Every day in the outside world, his body undergoes positive evolution and transformation. This evolution drives his strength to continuously increase, and in the past two days, he has reached a bottleneck-like stage.

Quantitative change leads to qualitative change. The all-round evolution ultimately promoted changes deep within Yu Zhun's genes, allowing him to naturally enter the ranks of second-order evolvers.

"Second tier?" Black Hawk's eyes lit up. He reached out a hand and placed it on Yu Zhun's shoulder, applying slight pressure, before nodding. "Indeed, it's second tier."

“I originally thought that because of the gene drug, you would only be able to stay at the first-tier evolver stage for the rest of your life,” Black Hawk said slowly. “I never expected that you would be able to achieve an alternative advancement through this method.”

"So, Yu Zhun won't need to use the stage gene drug anymore?" Wolf Fang's face immediately showed an envious expression.

The two major problems hindering the advancement of evolved beings are simply that their physical abilities cannot withstand higher levels of evolution, or that they cannot obtain the corresponding gene-enhancing drugs.

The former varies from person to person and is almost impossible to change.

The latter requires a lot of money, and even if you have the money later on, you may not be able to buy advanced gene drugs.

Many evolved beings choose to become lackeys of powerful forces in order to obtain a bottle of gene-enhancing drugs.

Yu Zhun, however, seems to have completely broken free from these restrictions.

The mutation inducer allows Yu Zhun's body to continuously evolve and improve with the environment, thus completely making up for his physical disadvantages.

Furthermore, the ability to evolve without the need for gene-editing drugs completely eliminates the need for gene-editing drugs among evolvers, achieving complete self-sufficiency in evolution.

"What's meant to be will be," Iron Tower patted Wolf Fang on the shoulder and said with a smile, "Once we exchange the rest of the stuff, the money we get should be enough to buy the Tier 3 gene drug."

"We just happen to be going into the city."

"The quality of gene therapy drugs in the city should be better than those outside."

"Go into the city?" Yu Zhun blinked.

The only place nearby that could probably be called a city is that city called Floating Ash.
(End of this chapter)