Evolution Online: My 10,000× Reward System Multiplies Everything

Yelena suddenly smiled faintly.

”I must say, this is the first time I’ve ever been cornered or nervous about any situation I’ve found myself in. But all this happened because I have high expectations of you, and never saw this coming. I guess I’ve grown soft,” she said and looked at Kaelen.

”Travelling with you has been an emotional wild ride... it’ll be a shame to die now. I’m sorry if I have to be selfish, Lindsey.” She whispered the last part to herself, but Kaelen heard her clearly.

”Are those your last words?” Kaelen narrowed his eyes at her. ”Do you think you can escape faster than I can cut you down?”

”Not quite. But be rest assured, I don’t plan on doing that,” she said as her hands tightened around Kaelen’s grip. ”We’ll see this through to the end.”

Kaelen stared at her for a moment, not trusting her or falling for her act one bit. He’s been deceived one too many times.

”Alright. Let’s go,” he said and began moving forward with her in tow.

Lindsey exchanged glances with Yelena before she quickly stuck close to them, but stayed slightly behind Kaelen in case anything were to go wrong.

The buzzing sound of multiple wings flapping at once got louder with every step they took, till the outlines of abandoned trucks came into view under the moonlight, and so did fist-sized insects flapping about like bats on the path ahead.

A rock suddenly skidded forward, its sound echoing across the canyon, and Lindsey froze behind them. She had mistakenly kicked the rock, making enough sound to alert everything within a mile of their presence.

Almost immediately, the insects perched across the rock surface swarmed together and surged forward at them.

Kaelen’s eyes widened in surprise, and he immediately detached his shadow and shot it forward in a beeline towards the exit on the other far end.

Lindsey screamed behind them as the swarm surged forward, and Kaelen was prepared to switch places with his shadow, which had already made it out the other end in that instant, when the swarm swallowed him and Yelena, who were in front, but flew right past them like they didn’t exist.

Lindsey screamed out from behind them, and Kaelen turned to see the entire swarm descending down on her.

She was the only one who wasn’t holding Kaelen, and for a moment, Kaelen thought of leaving her behind, when he remembered she wasn’t exactly part of the mercenaries and was only being used as a face to cover up their mission.

Not to mention Yelena had mentioned the annoying woman was like family to her, and he didn’t plan to kill Yelena herself until she told him everything he needed to know, and there was no guarantee she’d talk without having the Lindsey in question as a hostage.

So Kaelen decided and reached out to quickly grab the woman’s hand before the man-eating bugs could rip her flesh. He managed to grab her on time and tried to pull her along, when he came to the realization that the bugs no longer cared who she was holding him, and still swarmed her in his presence.

Lindsey screamed at the top of her lungs and then yanked her hands away from Kaelen, who was just holding her in place to be eaten, and a wave of crackling lightning suddenly exploded from her body, knocking the bugs away as she fell on her butt.

But the bugs quickly recovered, but so did Lindsey, as she dragged herself up and bolted in the opposite direction, back where they came from, as the bugs chased after her in a terrifying swarm.

”Lindsey?!” Yelena screamed after her and immediately yanked her hand from Kaelen’s as she tried to run after Lindsey, but skidded to a halt and began towards the abandoned trucks.

Kaelen was about to stop before she suffered the same fate as Lindsey, when he realized the canyon was still filled with the man-eating bugs, but neither went after Yelena, who had broken free and jumped into one of the trucks, before pulling a reverse and zooming past Kaelen, towards Lindsey and a horde of man-eating bugs.

All this while, Kaelen watched as everything played before his eyes in surprise and disbelief.

Why didn’t holding Lindsey’s hand help to repel the man-eating bugs, when it was working for Yelena?

Kaelen wasn’t even certain if it was holding the blonde woman’s hand that exempted her from the feeding menu, because even after she broke away from his grip, she wasn’t attacked or chased after.

What the hell was the constellation even about?

What was the challenge here?

There had to be an explanation to what had just happened.

Kaelen didn’t stay idle and immediately set his eyes on an altar erected to the side, which held several items Kaelen could immediately tell were all Primordial Tier items.

He quickly moved towards the altar, but just before clearing the items into his inventory, a thought crossed his mind.

Hunter had mentioned the reason for the other constellations being exposed was because Kaelen had deactivated the first one.

Kaelen wasn’t denying the fact he was responsible for the ruins being exposed, but here he was about to make the same mistake.

But on second thought, it didn’t matter if Kaelen deactivated the constellation like the first one, because he was already on his way to find his mother, and none of it would matter anymore once his mother was safe with him.

On the contrary, the Commander of the mercenary team had explicitly stated that his mother had joined this lost civilization of Akkadians.

If that was true, would deactivating the last defense be the right move? Would it be what his mother would want?

Kaelen was still weighing the odds, when the truck Yelena took zoomed past him and headed for the exit on the other far end, closely followed by the horde of man-eating bugs.

It was clear Lindsey was also inside the truck, hence the relentless pursuit from the bugs.

But trying to escape from him?

”You wish...” Kaelen said as he swiped his hands over the altar, stealing the gauntlet, dagger, and strange book placed on it.

”Switch.”