Book 10: Chapter 58: Finale

“Leader, we…” Bobby and Sawa had returned and stood before Robin with reluctant expressions. Under the same conditions, their other companions had successfully escaped, but they had been captured, which made them feel terrible in comparison.

“Don’t worry about it. Luck is important sometimes!” Robin smiled and comforted them.

“Leader, is our fight with Chaos over?” Dean widened his sparkling eyes and asked joyfully.

“Yeah, they don’t plan to continue. However, our mission isn’t finished yet!” Robin gradually lowered his voice and looked toward the Hismael. “Qin Lun reached a verbal agreement with their leader…”

…

The three groups came together again, but the situation was very different compared to when they were in the ruins.

Back in the ruins, the Patroller Team was the common target for the other two groups. Although Qin Lun and the others had completed the main quest, Gan Luo didn’t consider himself defeated yet, so naturally they had to fight first. The Hismere Guardians, for the sake of the Final Gospel, couldn’t let Qin Lun and the others go either.

Now, although there were still about two hours left, Gan Luo had lost his combat ability, and Wolfe couldn’t speak for Chaos. They lost the advantage of their top fighters. Besides, Qin Lun and the others would still use the biological nests to chase and escape. Continuing to fight might not be useful anyway.

Once the battle between the two Apostle groups had an outcome, they were no longer competing. The Chaos Team even became potential allies for Qin Lun and the others. Unfortunately, the Hismael on the other side couldn’t grasp this yet.

Of course, this was also related to Qin Mei letting things go. If there had still been an Apostle on the Hismere Guardian side at this time, they should have noticed the increasingly strange atmosphere at the scene early on.

After the Apostles exchanged brief greetings and small talk, both groups quietly moved closer to the Hismere Guardians. On the surface, the two Apostle teams still seemed tense, but all the Apostles knew clearly that the close-combat specialists in the teams were actually facing toward the Hismere side.

Qin Lun’s earlier suggestion to Gan Luo was to join forces against the Hismael. The conflict between Chaos and the Patrollers had come to an end, but the main quests of the two major teams in this world were not yet finished.

Although the Patroller Team had obtained the Final Gospel, their main quest completion rate was only 65%. The remaining 35% completion belonged to technological inheritance, which the Hismael had obtained earlier.

The Final Gospel that Qin Lun and the others possessed was a form of law power; it could only drop when they were killed. In other words, the Chaos Team no longer had any hope for that part of the main quest completion. However, the technological inheritance that the Hismael had was different. That thing likely had physical properties, such as items like disks, projection discs, and so on.

Additionally, there were only about two hours left before the Apostles returned to the Star Void. After they left, the remaining sapient races on Paranto would not be balanced in terms of strength.

The Insectoid suffered the greatest losses. All the insects Gan Luo brought from the base had died out. Even though the Insectoid had strong reproductive abilities, they would need a transition period. The Gith side wasn’t much better off either. Out of more than twenty Gith Flight Officers, only Alex and six others remained. Even if their Bingren Mecha performance had improved, their numbers were too small, and their self-defense capability was limited.

Only the Hismael retained the most combat power. Although they had lost half their people in the pyramid ruins, they still had over thirty Guardians now, and the leading Saintess possessed nearly High-Rank combat ability.

Once all the Apostles were gone, the situations the other two sapient races would face were easy to imagine.

Although Apostles often saw natives of other worlds as tools to be used, they still had professional ethics when it didn’t harm their own interests.

This was an unwritten rule formed by Apostles during long-term world quests. The natives of other worlds were also sapient races; they wouldn’t help Apostles for no reason. Therefore, during missions, Apostles also needed to pay attention to building mutual trust. Moreover, in some quest worlds, Apostles needed to enter multiple times in succession.

If they tricked the natives this time, next time they would be seen as enemies. On the contrary, if they left a good impression this time, or even obtained tokens or credentials to re-enter that world, then next time it would be easy to gain help from the local factions.

For example, when Qin Lun entered the World War II World twice, if he hadn’t become a combat hero of Nazi Germany the first time, then during the second major battle between the Star Void and the Superstring Space, he and Grant wouldn’t have gained so much.

Additionally, how Apostles treated natives could also affect how their companions viewed them. For instance, the relationship between the Patroller Team and the Gith. In the ruins, the Gith Flight Officers who resolutely covered their retreat, including Dr. Norton and others who entered the wormhole first, although they sacrificed for their people in principle, they also helped the Apostles.

If Qin Lun completely ignored their sacrifice and didn’t help the Gith when he had the ability, what would the others in the team think? Apostles were driven by benefits, but they couldn’t become purely profit-driven creatures.

Only with giving could there be receiving. Even a cold-blooded creature like Qin Lun, who had no principles in his heart, couldn’t ignore this rule either.

…

“Let’s go!” As the members of the Chaos and Patroller Teams gradually closed in, the Hismere Saintess Ruxin finally sensed something. She glanced warily at the two groups and secretly waved to her companions.

“You finally caught up. Don’t you want to have a party?” Seeing that the Hismael intended to retreat, the Apostles finally stopped hiding their intentions. The two groups spread out into a circle, surrounding the more than thirty Hismere Guardians.

“You chased us for so long. Now it’s time for us to give some payback!” Loben sneered as he faced the Guardian who had been pursuing them earlier.

“What do you want?” Staring at Wolf who blocked her way, Saintess Ruxin shouted in shock and anger.

Wolf was startled by her for a moment, then chuckled silently. He had dealt with natives across dozens of worlds, encountering countless intelligent and cunning sapient beings. But someone like this in front of him—with strength but no brains—was quite rare.

Wolf couldn’t be bothered to waste words on the Hismere Saintess before him. He curled his right thumb and index finger together, and his body quietly vanished from the spot. When he reappeared, he was face to face with Ruxin.

…

“It’s over!” Robin looked up at the sky. The Hismael leader, Saintess Ruxin, was falling from the air. The beautiful Guardian’s body was now only a half-corpse; her head was gone, and her limbs were largely missing.

Wolf had an elegant, scholarly demeanor and spoke politely, but his use of spatial abilities was even more brutal and domineering than Gan Luo’s martial arts skills.

Seeing their Saintess meet a tragic end, the remaining dozen or so Hismere Guardians finally broke down, screaming and scattering in all directions. The Hismael had migrated from the Gith Star System to the Scorpius Galaxy just over a thousand years ago, but it seemed they were no longer the powerful race that could stand toe-to-toe with the fierce Insectoid.

“Only twenty-some minutes… The Guardians, who are the main combat force of the Hismael, turned out to be so weak. They’re not even as good as the Goblins I encountered in some quest world!” Gan Luo leaned against a towering tree and sneered as he gazed at the sky.

The Chaos deputy leader’s side effects from overusing the “Death Duel Shackles” became more obvious. The scales on his body lost their original luster, curling up like old tree bark, and his limbs had even begun to melt.

At times, Qin Lun could detect Gan Luo’s body trembling slightly, probably a conditioned reflex caused by genetic collapse. But the expression on this High-Rank Martial Artist’s face showed no change at all, almost ignoring the intense pain that would make an ordinary person faint in seconds.

“If all Hismael are like that idiot, after we all leave, they’ll probably be the first sapient race to fall in this four-race war.” Qin Lun sat leisurely beside Gan Luo, chewing on a blade of grass. The bitter taste helped him stay focused despite the pain.

Leaving aside the cosmic creature Jannamer and the later rising Gith, let’s just talk about the two inherited races left by the Angel Race. Compared to the Insectoid, whom the Angel Race only treated as soul containers, seriously speaking, the Hismael were the ones the Angel Race favored most as successors.

If the Angel Race hadn’t left them a great deal of technological inheritance, they would have been wiped out long ago by the highly reproductive Insectoid. Unfortunately, the Hismael, like their original creators, developed a habit of complacency. After being away from war for just a thousand years, they actually forgot how to fight.

“You want me to persuade the Insect Mother to cooperate with the Gith, right?” Gan Luo smiled meaningfully.

“Heh, you saw Wolfe’s Jannamer offspring. That powerful simulation ability—with the current technology of the other three races individually—would be difficult to deal with. They need partners!” Qin Lun said lightly. “Actually, I originally wanted them to cooperate with the Hismael, but now it seems they’re too disappointing and don’t even have the qualification to cooperate. With the Hismael ruled out, that only leaves the Insectoid.”

“Before returning, I’ll contact the Insect Mother through the Insectoid base.” Gan Luo thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement.

…

“How was the harvest?” Qin Lun grinned as he watched Robin walk toward him.

“Just these!” Robin smiled and tossed over a few fingernail-sized items. “Those weak Guardians didn’t have many chips. Most were concentrated on that Saintess Ruxin, and Wolfe took them.”

Qin Lun caught the chips. His Apostle Soul Mark notified him that his main quest completion rate had increased by 7%, reaching a total of 72%. He estimated that the remaining 28% had been obtained by the Chaos members. However, there was no helping it. Huobiao and Bowei hadn’t been released yet. Among the Apostles here, he had lost his combat ability, and there were four First-Rank Apostles. Their strength was far inferior to the Chaos members. It was already good that they managed to grab some.