Chapter 4: Evolution Fragment
When Wade got off his transport, the tension in his mind had increased greatly, he had spent the whole trip thinking about how to discover the culprit.
But at least he realized something. The killer didn't want to be found out! Otherwise, he wouldn't bother poisoning his food when it would be infinitely more efficient to murder him directly.
Knowing this, he could largely offload the suspects, for one thing, it couldn't have been any of the slaves, though the hatred for Doyle may be great, they just didn't have the resources and were constantly under surveillance to get anything done.
Thus, only the guards and once again his brother Bright were left. Because of this, Wade decided to wander around the camp and keep an eye on the guards, as at least he was sure they would not attack him in front of everyone's eyes.
As he stepped out of his transport, the breeze hit his body along with small grains of sand which, just barely, got into his eyes forcing him to rub them out. Once his eyes were clear, he took a small look around.
It was night, there was hardly any visibility and the strong winds blew in with the small grains of sand, further reducing visibility.
In front of him, a relatively small group of guards were eating and drinking while chatting around a small campfire which barely illuminated the surroundings.
In the distance, a group of slaves were huddled in a circle around another fire, each of them shivering. In contrast to the morning, when the sun was absent, the desert became cold.
In the hands of the slaves, there were small loaves of unappetizing-looking bread, as they seemed to have small dark spots on them and some were even stained green from the mold that had grown on them.
Some of them struggled to eat these loaves, as they were too hard for their fragile teeth, if they had any at all, as many of them had lost several teeth due to the continuous beatings of the guards who took their boredom out on them.
The pitiful image of the slaves brought to mind the poor tribulation-infected people living on handouts under the underground, and along with this memory, also came the image of their friend who is surely with them in a similar situation.
Although he left him food, that was useless, as theft among the infected was quite common, and although he was confident that his friend could defend himself, he doubted he would in the state he was in.
'I have to get back soon.' He thought. Although Wade was a cold person, his friend was someone who had been with him all his life, and he wasn't about to let him die in such a pitiful way.
For a moment Wade became nostalgic, but this was no time to reminisce about the past. Trying to put these memories out of his mind, he turned his gaze away from the slaves and focused on a place where the darkness became denser, and there he activated his evolution fragment.
Little by little his whole vision was changing, in a strange way the ground became even darker above them. However, the folds of the small mountains of sand were highlighted with an intense white, in the same way, the outline of the small rocks was marked with the same color.
But that was not all, for on taking a little closer look Wade could see that every little imperfection in them was also marked out in the same way.
The sight was strange and very different from what he was used to, it felt as if he was in a strange video game where only black and white existed.
Although it was a little uncomfortable, Wade liked this view, as seeing only in these two colors avoided the subtle distractions that came with color vision, and he could concentrate on what he was really looking for.
In addition, the white markings perfectly highlighted every rock, wall, and even every ripple in the sand, allowing him a perfect view of everything around him.
However, there was something that stood out amid all that black-and-white world, and it was a small yellow flame burning in the middle of several rocks, which caught his attention.
According to the description of its evolutionary fragment, the living organisms looked like a small flame burning within the same black and white outline. This means that there was a soldier or some beast there. But a beast in the middle of the camp, and without anyone knowing about it? Although it was possible, it was hard to believe, since the camp was well guarded.
That meant that in the middle of all that darkness, a person was hiding, moved by curiosity Wade crept closer among the rocks trying to get a closer look, and as he did so, some questions crossed his mind.
'Why would someone be hiding in such a dark place? Maybe it's the bastard who poisoned me!'
With this idea in mind he got close enough to see the person's face, thanks to the darkness and the rocks he managed to sneak without raising suspicion and there he noticed his face, although he couldn't see the color he could distinguish in detail its shape, and he could even see small imperfections that otherwise he wouldn't be able to notice.
He was sure that if he saw him without activating his evolutionary shard, in a lit place he would be able to clearly distinguish this person's face, it was quite a useful ability, as it would give him quite an advantage in dark environments.
As he approached Wade picked up a sharp rock he found on his way, it was clear that it would be useless in case he had to fight the guard, as he was carrying his sharp sword with him, but still arming himself with something was much better than nothing.
He was taking a very big risk by approaching the person who was probably the person who wanted to kill him, but he had to confirm this, he could not retreat, because if he did not find the killer he would probably not survive another day.
Dozens of scenarios formed in his head where Wade would escape from this situation, fortunately, no one was carrying any kind of ranged weapon like a gun or anything like that, so simply taking enough distance and alerting the other guards would be enough to get out of this situation unscathed.
Of course, I would also have to take into account that this soldier is not some kind of evolved with the ability to move fast, as there are many recorded cases where citizens of the tribulation trials had similar abilities to those of the evolved.
Steadily Wade raised his hand to be ready for any situation, until suddenly, 'A river?' The sound of water hitting the ground was heard coming from the soldier who at that moment had his back to Wade. This increased his curiosity so he slightly risked revealing himself to get a better view and....
'...'
The soldier had taken this rock-strewn, dark-covered stage as his own bathroom, and was using it to relieve his bladder.
'Of course... It wouldn't be that easy.'
Wade ducked back into hiding, somewhat embarrassed. As the soldier adjusted his trousers and whistled away, oblivious to Wade's presence.
Once the soldier was gone, Wade quickly left the place and wandered around the camp again, he was lost again, and to make matters worse, his hunger was getting worse and worse, and his stomach was growling louder and louder.
From his pockets, he pulled a small apple, and for a moment he hesitated whether to eat it, but refused, instead, he approached one of the slaves in formation with it, under the sight of the soldiers, although he preferred to avoid it, it was impossible to hide from the eyes of the guards.
"Your name." He spoke to one of the slaves.
The slave had a shaved head, and large dark circles under his eyes, and the most distinctive thing about him was that on his white tunic covered with dirt, there was a large green mark, which was produced by Wade's vomit.
Seeing Doyle address him, the slave, opened both eyes in surprise and said, "Your Majesty" then lowered his head to almost touch the ground. "My name is Sunny."
His voice came out trembling, while the tears in his eyes seemed to want to escape at any moment.
After hearing his name, Wade took the small piece of bread in his hands, it looked even worse on closer inspection.
When Wade snatched the bread from his hands, Sunny made an instinctive gesture, trying to retrieve his food, but to no avail. This was because this small piece of bread was his only food and source of energy.
The slave's life was far from easy, as they spent hours doing hard labor, under the threat of the guards, any mistake could mean the wrath of their captors, and subsequently death. Therefore, the loss of their only source of energy was unthinkable for them. However, he was facing the heir, what else could he do? To face him would be suicide!
Still with his head on the ground, Sunny let his tears fall, staining the sand below, as his hands clenched helplessly.
Suddenly he was surprised, a small, red, juicy-looking apple had fallen in front of him, and his majesty had left the place without a word, with his bread in his hands.
Without much thought, the slave threw himself upon the apple and began to devour it.
In the distance, Wade took small bites of the slave's bread, even though it was as hard as a rock, and the taste was disgusting, Wade forced himself to eat it.
'I should have taken food from a guard' He cried inwardly.
Although he thought this, he wasn't sure he would do it. He didn't trust the guards to begin with, so he chose to take the food from one of the slaves.
At the same time, he handed him the apple and asked his name, this way he could test whether the apple was poisoned or not, simply by checking that the slave was still alive the next day, something he could not do with the guards, as they would be unwilling to accept Doyle's food.
After enjoying his disgusting and insignificant dinner, Wade continued to explore for a while when he was finally about to give up and return to his place, he managed to hear a woman's piercing scream a few yards away from him.
Hearing this he hurried to follow the screams.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone