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Chapter 15: Homo Evolutis!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In Yao Yuan's mind's eye, he could see clearly that he wasn't drastically faster than usual.
Granted, his speed was greater than your everyday man’s, but that didn't explain the ease with
which he could avoid Chou's bullets. It also wasn't due to a sudden improvement of his reflexes
or acquiring a new ability where he could predict the bullets' trajectory. Of course, all these were
given a minor boost in an adrenaline-filled gunfight, but it wasn't boosted to a superhuman
level.
What did help though was a newly acquired ability which allowed him to psychically envision
malice projections. Whenever a bullet was fired, he could sense a coagulation of malice forming
at its target location. It was in this way that he could tell beforehand where the bullets would
land, and thanks to that millisecond of foresight, he could evade incoming danger accordingly.
This new instinct of his was so strong that he could even tell where his opponent intended to
move before he actually moved. And so he aimed at where he felt Chou was going to move next
instead of where Chou actually was. He had never experienced anything like this before, but it
was incredibly instinctual. It surprised even himself that he could dodge every bullet and stop
the enemy short in his step.
This didn't mean that he had the natural upper hand though because it appeared that Ning Bo
Tao, or Chou, had mastered the same skill. As Yao Yuan weaved through the volley of bullets, so
did Chou.
After a few minutes of this back-and-forth dance, both men had emptied their cartridges
without a single slug ending up in the opponent's body. Without pulling their triggers again,
they both somehow knew that their guns had emptied, so they flung them off for hand-tohand
combat. The sounds of bones on bones and muscles on muscles were so loud that Zhang
Heng had to cover his ears.
Before long, the fight was fast approaching its premature conclusion. A projected simulation
inaccessible to Zhang Heng had occurred between the two brawling men, and it showed that
after a few more clashes, Yao Yuan's greater skill at close-quarters combat would prevail. The
visage was so authentic that both men had to give it validity.
Perhaps dampened by the vision or maybe he had truly reached the end of his limits, Chou's
attempts at evasion became attempts at blocking. Weirdly enough, at one point, as he got
further cornered, he started laughing and said, "Your Killer's Arms has gotten better since the
last time I tasted it! But unfortunately…" He let his guard down and allowed one of Yao Yuan's
punches to land. Reigning in the punch's blowback, he somersaulted onto the floor. At that
instant, the room’s door was kicked out and Chou's men rushed in. They immediately lifted
their assault rifles and were ready to unload them all across the room. However, Yao Yuan was
somehow faster; even before the door had landed on the ground, he had rushed towards the
opening.
Before any of the triggers were pulled, Yao Yuan had already sidled up to the foremost man.
Without giving him any chance to react, Yao Yuan unleashed a punch on his stomach. As the

force sent him folding upon himself, Yao Yuan elbowed his back and the man crumbled as his
vertebrae snapped.
The whole process happened so fast that when the rest of Chou's men registered the sound of
bones cracking, their fingers were still on the triggers.
Within the next second, Yao Yuan kicked the fallen man into the air. As shells were being
unloaded, Yao Yuan grabbed hold of the man's body and used it as a human shield. The
unexpected rabid convulsion of their mate's body made Chou's men hesitate momentarily.
As they dropped their weapons, Yao Yuan could no longer feel any projected malice, and that
bade him into action. Dropping the bullet-riddled body, he rushed into the group of stunned
men.
The result was to be expected. Yao Yuan's combat style was neither military boxing, which was
common to trained men, nor special ops' grappling techniques, nor Chinese Wushu; it was a
unique fighting style tailored to his height, ease of movement, and appendages’ length. Yao
Yuan spent eight years honing this art of killing which he dubbed the Killer's Arms. It was
somewhat similar to Jeet Kune Do2; both styles using the smallest effort and shortest time to
achieve lethality.
With lightning speed, he collapsed the trachea of one man before letting loose a flying
roundhouse kick that caved in another's temple and one other's neck. And with that, all of
Chou's reinforcements had been vanquished.
It has to be said that Yao Yuan's airborne roundhouse kick wasn't for show. He was in the
middle of dropping his heel on the last man, but right then, he sensed projected malice in the
form of flying knives sailing towards him. Out of options, he added lifting propulsion to his kick
in the hopes of avoiding the knives by using the momentum of air twirls.
However, no matter how fast his instincts were, his body couldn't catch up with the speed of the
darting knives. As he landed, two knives were jammed into his left torso, but because he was hit
in a mid-air spin, the angle of entry was slanted, so they missed his vital organs by a bit.
The knife on his right bicep though, that was unfortunately possibly fatal.
This was how it was between highly-skilled experts; one small distraction could prove fatal.

Chou started laughing maniacally as he leaped towards Yao Yuan, hoping to land the final blow.
Seeing this, fear clogged Zhang Heng's heart. He knew fully well that after Chou kills Yao Yuan,
he will have outlived his use. He had serious doubts that Chou would be as kind to him as Yao
Yuan once was.
Even if he were to miraculously survive this, he would be a sitting duck. The control code to
initiate warp was in the hands of the Black Star Unit, who had found Noah Two. If Yao Yuan
were to die, the rest of the Black Stars would be blown into smithereens, and the remaining ten
million people would be left on death panel…
In an unexpected twist, Zhang Heng saw Yao Yuan step onto the hand of the body beside him
and the rut-tut-tut of an assault rifle rang out. The man Yao Yuan stepped on still had his
fingers entwined over his weapon's trigger, so as Yao Yuan applied pressure, the pistol shot out
a series of bullets aimed at Chou!
Chou could sense the projected malice, but since it didn’t come directly from Yao Yuan, he
misjudged the trajectory the bullets would take. He tried swerving out of the way, but as he

landed by the wall, the lower part of his body was already riddled with holes.
As Chou slumped in his pooling blood, his facial expression was not one of fear or sorrow as one
would expect, but rather he looked relieved. Between gasps of air, he croaked, "Yao Yuan, did
you purposely let yourself be hit to lure me to charge towards you?"
Yao Yuan shook his head as he walked solemnly towards Chou, "No, that was indeed
unavoidable. But somehow, as I landed, I felt like this plan would be able to spell your death."
After hearing that, Chou started laughing even harder. "Looks like even fate wants me dead.
When I was still in the Black Star Unit, you were always just a little bit better than me, be it
bravery, resourcefulness, combat skills, or leadership… When we were on the space station, you
told me how small you felt when you looked at the immense nothingness around us. I didn't tell
you at the time, but I totally agree with you; I felt swept by a sensation of anxiety, emptiness,
and loneliness when we were in space… It was unsettling, but it also gave me this ability which
had me overjoyed because I'll finally had something that could help me overtake you… Alas, it's
a trick of fate after all, huh? In the end, I'll never outrun your shadow…
But seeing you with this power did help me confirm the hypothesis that this power comes with
man's extended habituation in space. Perhaps it evolved out of man's need to feel empowered
against the nothingness of space… And so, as your spaceship continues on in space, you'll
probably have more people like us on your hands… But that concerns me no more… Lan… How
I've missed you, but don't worry… I'm coming…"
Chou's breath gradually slowed until his spirit returned to nothingness.
Yao Yuan looked somberly at his former squad member and a few moments later, he retrieved
Chou's dog-tag from his body and slipped it into his uniform. Then he stood up and addressed
Zhang Heng. "Can you still move?"
This gathered Zhang Heng's scattered senses. He sprang up and replied, "Yes, sir. I have no
problems moving, but quick, inform Captain Wong that the building they're in is full of
explosives!"
This information startled Yao Yuan, but when he spotted the shattered remote at the corner of
the room, he breathed a sigh of relief. "That's alright, now. Without the remote, the bombs won't
go off so easily. Ning Bo Tao was a top secret agent; he wouldn't set the bombs at places where
they would be accidentally hit by stray bullets… So let's get moving. We're leaving earth by six.
And have you found your father?"
The question brought tears to Zhang Heng's eyes. Shaking his head, he answered, "He's been
found dead…"
Yao Yuan moved forth to corner Zhang Heng into a hug. "My condolences… But now you have to
carry on on his behalf. He would want you to do that. Now, let's meet up with Ol' Wong' and then
we'll depart for the spaceship."
Just before Zhang Heng was made to follow, he caught himself and yelped, "Yao Yuan, wait a
minute. I have a request to ask of you… There are some womenfolk in this station that were
gathered by Chou's troops. They are truly helpless. Can't we bring them along? There are only a
hundred of them, that isn't really a huge number. They're nice people; in the three days I was
captured, three of the girls came over to nurse me to health. They gave me water and changed
my bandages. One of them is called Bai Ning Xue, another Luo Mao Miao and the last one,

whose surname I didn't catch, was called Bo Li. Please, I beg of you to bring them along! I'm
willing to trade my rank for their places on board."
Yao Yuan stared intently at Zhang Heng for quite some time. As he turned to leave, he said,
"This is the last time I will hear of such a request again! You're a military man now; your rank
represents your honor, your life! Do not treat it so lightly! I will not hear of something like this
again! So do not let me down…
But I'll remind you that the hovercraft will leave in another ten minutes. Until then, anyone that
fits our screening criteria is allowed onboard…"
______________________________________________________________________________
Footnotes:
1. A term used to describe the next stage of human evolution after homo sapiens by futurist
Juan Enriquez.
2. Martial art philosophy favored by Bruce Lee. Unlike other martial arts, Jeet Kune Do or JKD
values usefulness in everyday life.





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