Chapter 4: Evolve.

Kairos furrowed his brows as he looked at the blue panel displayed before him.

[Global Announcement: Evolve.]

[Ok.]

He had been sitting here for a while now, but it still didn't go away. Kairos was a naturally suspicious person, thus didn't want to click the button that said ok that easily. However, he figured that whatever was responsible could do much worse things than this.

As such, he reached out with his finger and tapped it.

With a clear ringing sound awfully reminiscent of a game, the panel disappeared before reappearing into a set of notifications.

[Killed Creature (Challenge Kill - One Rank Superior to Killer) - 0.3 points awarded]

[First Ten To Challenge Kill (Tenth - by ID: 345315364923) - 5 points awarded]

[Early Kill - First Red Sun - 0.2 points awarded]

Kairos furrowed his brows.

It appeared that this wasn't exactly a hallucination, unless he was really going through it. However, he was also pretty sure he was sane. Although seeing real life turn into game-like elements was a little surreal for him, he already had experience with a similar bizarre thing.

His ability to see one second into the future.

As such, it did not take too long for him to accept it. As he read through the notifications, he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

Although there wasn't too much to work off of, he could already glean some information from what was given.

[Killed Creature (Challenge Kill - One Rank Superior to Killer) - 0.3 points awarded]

He got points for killing a creature, with the notification explicitly stating that the creature was a rank superior to him.

Kairos came to the conclusion that one could gather points by killing things and the rank within implied that killing things at a higher 'rank' than oneself would give more points.

[First Ten Challenge Kills (Tenth - by ID: 345315364923) - 5 points awarded]

As for the second notification, stating that he had done the tenth global 'challenge kill'. He could surmise that meant killing a creature of a higher rank from the previous notification. Honestly, it surprised him a little bit that he was the tenth person to do such an act.

After all, he essentially did it only a few moments after these transformations happened. He was essentially speedrunning, but he still only just barely squeezed himself into the top ten.

Kairos rubbed his chin, wondering who those other people could be. As for the strange ID attached to it, he ignored that.

Nonetheless, he quickly moved on to the third notification.

[Early Kill - First Red Sun - 0.2 points awarded]

There seemed to be an award for killing these things earlier on, while the red sun was still up. However, what was most concerning to Kairos was the fact it said 'First'.

In other words, it implied that there was more than just one of these coming, like a recurring natural disaster. Before he could ruminate on it any further, they disappeared. Then, a new panel showed up.

[Status]

[ID: 345315364923]

[Rank: F+]

[Objective: Touch Red Sunlight]

[Proof Of Perfection Points: 5.5]

[Stats -

Strength - 0.6

Endurance - 0.4

Agility - 0.7

Willpower - 1.5

Mana Capacity - 0.0

Magic Affinity - 0.0]

[Special Abilities: N/A]

[Hide]

What immediately came out as strange to Kairos was the ID portion of the status panel. After all, what was the point of the essentially random string of numbers?

Though, he did recall that this ID was displayed earlier.

However, as there wasn't much to think about, he moved on. When he took a glance at his rank, Kairos didn't really care as he had no idea what exactly it measured and what an 'F+' even meant, thus skipped over it.

[Objective: Touch Red Sunlight]

This made him furrow his brows with concern and distrust. After all, he knew very well that this red sunlight would cause him to turn into a monster. It appeared that the system wished for him to do this.

Whatever the reason was, it definitely meant that the system wasn't exactly on his side.

As for his stats, he was quite surprised at how paltry they looked. Although he could admit his endurance wasn't the best, he didn't think it was that bad.

Then again, he had no idea what these numbers were based on.

What surprised Kairos quite a bit was the combination of two things.

The fact he did not have any magical capability or special abilities.

After all, he literally had an ability that let him see a second into the future. If that wasn't a magical or special ability, then what was?

Nonetheless, Kairos moved on.

After a bit of hesitation, he clicked on hide, making the panel disappear. There was no longer any trace of it. Upon thinking about opening the status panel, it reappeared.

"...Hm, handy I suppose."

Kairos also saw the option to add points to all of the stats except for mana capacity and magic affinity. However, while it sounded exciting to buff up his stats, he was extremely suspicious.

He did not like this system.

After all, its so called objective was essentially for him to kill himself. Thus, he decided not to press any more buttons and hid the panel.

After that, Kairos sighed, hoping that this might all just be some weird fever dream. With things coming to this point, he essentially lost all hope for that but still kept that tiny false hope within him.

He then began to think about his parents once more.

Were they okay?

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Thinking about the encounter he just had, he quickly whipped out his phone and sent a text message to both his mother and father.

'Stay silent. There are bad things outside right now.'

Then, Kairos sent it to Nicole as well.

A few moments later, he got a text back.

'Got it.'

He then laid his head against the wall, trying to rest a little. The temperature continued climbing to the point that it was very hard to bear.

Kairos would've taken his clothes off, but they were also drenched in sweat, making it a bit cooler instead.

Time continued to pass.

The heat did not climb terribly fast, but the steady pace was like torture. By checking his phone occasionally, Kairos was able to determine that a few hours passed, though it felt like days.

He began to think of the cool air of the fridge, and couldn't help but nearly be driven crazy by it. After a few more moments, he couldn't help but stand up and make his way to the door, intending on getting to the fridge.

However, as his hand wrapped around the doorknob, his ears picked up on footsteps.

From all the way up here, they were unbelievably faint, but they were very much there. Though they sounded rather chaotic as he heard them twice, Kairos was able to sift through the sounds as he had been dealing with it his whole life.

His guess was that three monsters were down on the first floor.

Kairos did not have the confidence to take on three, even if he used all his points to improve his stats. Even if he had double the points, he still wouldn't be too sure. Granted, Kairos had no experience in what the points would actually do for him, but the point still stood.

As such, he slowly let go of the doorknob before sitting back down on the ground, feeling a little aggrieved. His breathing was a little heavy, courtesy of the heat.

But suddenly, he suppressed it.

Because there was the faint sound of something coming up the stairs.

Kairos knew killing creatures now should give him extra points which would also give him an advantage. However, he didn't think it was worth the risk. Although one could not be timid if they wished to survive, they also could not be reckless.

There was only one creature here now, but the other two would rush over like hyenas right afterwards. They weren't exactly slow, either.

As such, Kairos simply did his best to stay quiet. He did not hold his breath, but took each one very slowly and very deliberately, making it as silent as possible.

An eerie guttural sound came from just behind his door.

Kairos' heartbeat sped up slightly, but it wasn't enough to disrupt his breathing. The footsteps continued to pace around, almost like it was surveying the area.

As this was all happening, the heat simply continued to climb. It had almost reached midnight, which was supposed to be the coldest time of day, but instead was only getting hotter.

Experiencing such devastating heat nearly made Kairos delirious. Not to mention the fact that he had to do so twice because of his ability.

There were still footsteps outside his door, so he had to keep his breathing calm. Unfortunately, it was getting harder not to freak out under this pressure.

However, right when he was about to give up, Kairos decided he would endure this.

He had been enduring pain for all of his life.

Staying secretive about his ability even at the cost of becoming a loser, or an outcast in highschool.

Training his pain tolerance every day and fighting the urge to just give up each and every time.

And...

Other things as well.

Kairos knew he could deal with this. If anything, it was too easy.

His breathing that had begun to act up, calmed down.

The heat continued to rise, but he just ignored it.

...Until eventually, the footsteps left, going back downstairs.

Kairos did not let out a sigh of relief. In fact, he didn't even stop breathing as quietly as possible. Almost like he wanted to prove something to himself.

In fact, Kairos even dared the heat to go even higher.

...Though, it did not listen.

The temperature peaked at exactly midnight, before slowly dropping. Eventually, he felt a strong sense of sleepiness overtake him. It was pretty late, after all.

However, it obviously wasn't the safest thing to sleep right now.

Kairos knew that, but...

His eyes slowly closed anyway.

...

[Survived First Red Sun - 0.1 points]

Startled by the notification, Kairos woke up.

By the time he woke up, he found himself drenched in a pool of sweat. The temperature was still above average, but nothing like how it was moments ago.

After silently chastising himself for falling asleep so easily, he slowly stood up and looked towards the curtain. It didn't give him that same strong sense of fear from before.

After a bit of hesitation, Kairos slowly lifted up the corner of the curtain.

And was greeted with the early rays of dawn.

Normal ones, not red ones.

Kairos sighed.

"...It appears that we at least get some reprieve."

He walked up to the door to his room and laid his ear on it. After confirming there were no sounds, he slowly opened it up.

What he immediately saw was messy footprints in a trail of blood. Kairos remembered that he brought the bloody knife up here, explaining its origin. He traveled down the stairs further and saw that all the bloody parts of the house had been trampled on.

As for the corpse of the monster he killed before, it was gone, save for some messy blood scattered around.

Like something ate it, bones and everything.

From the sight he saw, Kairos quickly came to the conclusion that these monsters were attracted to blood, then looked at the bloody knife in his hand. He cursed under his breath before setting it on the ground quietly.

After confirming that there was nothing here once more, he went into his parent's bedroom and called Nicole.

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