Chapter 45: Chapter Forty-Five: Comprehension of Combat
Chapter Forty-Five: Comprehension of Combat
"Halt!" a voice ordered, forcing Yasmin to come to a stop.
A dark-brown-skinned woman in a loose-fitting guard uniform approached, pointing her rifle at Yasmin.
The female guard questioned in a commanding voice:
"What’s within your bag?"
Yasmin raised one hand while handing the female guard her black bag with the other.
She wasn’t surprised by the check-up. Things that couldn’t be stored within an Inventory Ring were lifeforms — even dead ones made no difference. It was little wonder why she would be stopped.
As for trying to sneak explosives that could be stored, such as a cannon, into the ship? That would be suicidal.
Everyone’s Inventory Ring was connected to the Humanity System. Without the system, a person couldn’t operate the resonance device to activate the Dimensional Gemstone.
Before you could even retrieve the cannon, an alert would already have been sent to the security team while your ring entered lockdown mode.
If not seeking death, who would attempt such a risky endeavour?
At this moment, the female guard took out the bag’s only contents — which happened to be a Dark Metallic Container. Glancing inside, she was startled.
Then she shot Yasmin a look before returning the bag to her.
"Show me your pass, and you may enter."
Yasmin nodded, took back her bag, and displayed her card number.
Following which, she entered the Void Ship from the boarding platform, a cold smile appearing on her face when she thought of how she was going to deal with a certain young man who dared steal from her brother.
***
Meanwhile, Valen, who had entered the Void Ship long ago, was currently standing at the central plaza, staring at the massive orb in the middle.
While his mind continuously spun with countless hypotheses on what the mission this time could possibly be — infiltration, espionage, reserve troops, and so on — his powerful hearing picked up the conversation of some Evolvers.
"Hahaha, I never thought I’d be so lucky to get onto a Void Ship personally guarded by Zayd!" a first voice exclaimed.
"I know, right? It feels surreal. I can’t wait to see him in person once the Void Ship sets out," a second voice added.
"Erm, please excuse me. Who is Zayd?" a third voice interjected.
"Hahaha, you actually don’t know THE HERO: ZAYD?! Have you been living under a rock or something?" the first voice yelled.
"Am I supposed to know a nobody?" the third voice retorted, sounding displeased.
"So you don’t know the hero who charged into Violet Heart at Level 70, wanting to see its depths?" the first voice ridiculed with a laugh.
"...and the first person in Advanced Kleints Country to get an SSS-grade rating during the Evolution Path Assessment?" the second voice joined in the laughter.
The third voice remained silent.
...
Valen listened to their conversation, feeling curious about Zayd. Seven years ago, his achievement had been broadcast throughout the entire country. Back then, Valen was still thirteen years old. Now he had the chance to finally meet him in person.
Getting one’s achievement broadcast wasn’t actually difficult. You just had to be the first person to do something within a region.
Valen’s goal right now was to create the strongest guild, and for that, he’d need his name to be widely known.
Hence, he decided that after this mission, he’d either solo raid a Level 20 Beast Haven in a region where it hadn’t been done before, or lead a small team to conquer a Regional Beast Haven. That way, he’d add another accomplishment to his name.
He closed his eyes and began to focus on his surroundings. His goal was very simple: to achieve the second step of the Sound Path — Integration.
This was something he suspected Anas had already attained. With this step, one could listen to the flow of the wind around them, focus on specific wind signatures, and gain a faint understanding of its nature.
If he could achieve that, he would even be able to know if someone opened their mouth within a certain radius, as the wind flow would become imbalanced. All these details were things he got from the first Silver King’s memories.
But he was shocked to discover that the first Silver King’s Evolution Path had never been revealed. From simply analysing his battles, Valen couldn’t figure it out. He seemed to be skilled at everything.
This made Valen believe that he was still too inexperienced in battle. As he tried to go through the Silver King’s training and analyse more details and subtleties of combat, he realised that he mostly fought like a brute.
Combat was an art, but why was this art created?
It was made for self-defence.
When humans realised that the world around them contained dangers that threatened their lives, they were forced to adapt, defend themselves, and engage in struggles for survival.
Like beasts, humans also possessed sharp, terrifying primal instincts. But in their pursuit of understanding the world around them, and in their search for intelligence, those instincts had gradually been diluted until they were almost no more.
This was why the more battles Evolvers fought against the invading army of Day Walkers, the stronger they became and the faster those instincts returned.
Valen gradually assimilated the Silver Legion’s training, taking his understanding of his own powers to the next level.
The only sad thing was that his memory wasn’t perfect, and he had forgotten some things. It was like trying to remember every detail of a film you had watched. It was... too hard.
Suddenly, Valen felt a tremor run through his feet, and his eyes flew open.
He glanced at the massive orb in the middle of the central plaza, watching as Void Ship 69 rose higher into the clouds.
Then it shot forward in a straight line, allowing Valen to glimpse just how massive the city below was.
At this moment, he heard the sound of breathing a few dozen metres away.
Everyone around him was breathing, but this particular rhythm had appeared all of a sudden, disrupting the natural balance of the wind that Valen had been trying to comprehend.
