n

n

nKairos hesitated on the sentiment of using points. However, he already trusted these other people to a certain extent. He at least dared to sleep in a completely dark room with them. Though that was more because of the circumstance rather than actual trust, since nobody tried to take advantage of another’s vulnerability, Kairos thought it was ok.

n“…I guess we can share each other’s stats.”

nThough Kairos couldn’t see anything in the darkness, he could still feel that Chase was surprised just from the silence.

nTori didn’t seem to realize this, and opened up her status panel straight away.

n“This is mine.”

nStatus

nID: 133543657645

nRank: F

nObjective: Survive

nProof Of Perfection Points: 27.2

nStrength – 2.7

nAgility – 4.9

nEndurance – 1.5

nWillpower – 4.9

nMana Capacity – 0.0

nMagic Affinity – 0.0

nSpecial Abilities: N

/A

nHide

nThough there was still no light, that panel glowed enough to be visible, but just didn’t light anything else up.

nKairos was a little surprised at how readily she shared the status panel, but decided to just look at all the stats first. Something that really stood out to him was her staggeringly low endurance, despite her other stats being high.

nHe pointed this out.

n“Um, why did you max agility and willpower when you hardly had anything in endurance?”

nTori raised an eyebrow.

n“Why would I do that? If I put it all into one, then the values go super high! If it’s all spread out, then they are all so low.”

nKairos couldn’t help but furrow his brows.

n“Specializing in something is normal, but you can’t lag behind in other aspects too much or they will become crucial weaknesses.”

nTori shrugged her shoulders.

n“Alright, alright. It’s not like I didn’t add anything at all to it, I gave a bit. Plus, I was going to do it, but then you told me not to because of food or something!”

nKairos blinked a few times. It didn’t occur to him before, but he couldn’t help but think that Tori was a little weird. As he thought back on the past experiences he had with her, this feeling of weirdness became stranger.

nPerhaps that should’ve been clear when she took a hostage to become allies with the group that opposed her.

nIt just really… didn’t make sense.

nThough the more jarring thing to Kairos was how easily Tori trusted them. Even Chase woke up with a nightmare just sleeping next to them, and wouldn’t go to sleep easily himself on the first day.

nHowever, Tori didn’t even slightly care, sleeping as though there wasn’t even an apocalypse. If they wanted to kill her, it would’ve been incredibly easy. And there was a perfectly good reason to, her katana.

nSydney let out a soft hum.

n“The maximum points is just a little away from five?”

nKairos cleared his throat.

n“Yes, until you evolve it seems.”

nChase let out a soft hum.

n“It looks like you have enough to max them all out to have over twenty left over.”

nKairos nodded.

n“Evolving will take twenty points, so that works out nicely.”

nHe took off his glasses for a moment, trying to see if there would be anything different.

nThere were two changes.

nRank: 46

/100 Evolution Energy – 50 required for Rankup

nInborn Abilities: N

/A

nThe first thing Kairos noted was that she seemed to have a lower total evolution energy compared to him. He wasn’t sure if that just varied from person to person, or if one of them was an exception. Though after seeing the others, it would probably reveal the answer to his question.

nThe lack of inborn abilities immediately made Kairos come to the conclusion that her ability to disappear into mist should come from the katana.

nAt least, that was what made the most sense.

nTori seemed to feel pretty good about her points.

n“Heh, I’ve basically already caught up to you, Kairos!”

nKairos shrugged his shoulders.

n“I guess.”

nTori let out a soft hum.

n“So after I max out all my stats, I can evolve, then I can increase my agility even further.”

nKairos blinked a few times.

n“There’s something else you need to evolve.”

nTori seemed surprised.

n“Eh? What is it?”

nKairos paused for a moment.

n“I’m not sure, but it seems related to all that red stuff that always shows up.”

nTori seemed a little upset.

n“…Oh.”

nKairos rolled his eyes.

n“You will probably get the option sooner or later.”

nChase let out a soft hum.

n“Hey, why does your objective say survive?”

nTori seemed confused.

n“Um, I don’t know.”

nChase waited a few seconds before opening his own status panel.

nStatus

nID: 734513523564

nRank: F

nObjective: Survive

nProof Of Perfection Points: 15.2

nStrength – 3.8

nAgility – 4.2

nEndurance – 3.5

nWillpower – 4.0

nMana Capacity – 4.9

nMagic Affinity – 4.9

nSpecial Abilities: N

/A

nHide

nChase seemed a little surprised.

n“It appears that my objective has also changed to be the same.”

nTori gasped.

n“You have so many points in mana and magic.”

nKairos couldn’t help but look at the maxed out mana capacity and magic affinity.

n“You were able to add points into your magic stats?”

nChase sounded confused.

n“What? Are you not able to?”

nKairos furrowed his brows.

n“…I was only able to after evolving, because it gave me a tenth of a point in each. Without it, I wouldn’t have been able to cast anything.”

nHe then thought of the inborn abilities, thinking that it could be because of that.

nRank: 45

/100 Evolution Energy – 50 required for Rankup

nInborn Abilities: Hero (Null)

nHowever, the moment he saw the ability name, it just didn’t seem to be the cause. Considering that it was grayed out and the strange ‘Null’, it made Kairos feel that whatever it was, that the effect shouldn’t be active.

nChase took a deep breath.

n“Huh. Now that I think about it, I believe I know the cause.”

nTori sounded excited.

n“Oh, I would like to have magic in advance too.”

nChase stammered.

n“Uh, I don’t think it will work like that.”

nTori sounded upset.

n“Huh? You’re not going to share how you did it?”

nChase responded calmly.

n“I will share, it simply isn’t easily replicable. When the red sun first came, a bit of sunlight shone from the window and onto my chest. It was extremely painful for my heart, and seemed to change it on a fundamental level.”

nHe sighed.

n“I always thought it was useless, but I suppose I shouldn’t complain since it gave me early access to magic.”

nSydney seemed a little lost.

n“…The red sun?”

nShe ended up opening her own status panel.

nStatus

nID: 423632551433

nRank: F

nObjective: Evolve

nProof Of Perfection Points: 10.2

nStrength – 4.3

nAgility – 3.7

nEndurance – 4.9

nWillpower – 4.1

nMana Capacity – 0.0

nMagic Affinity – 0.0

nSpecial Abilities: Gnawing Hunger (F-)

nEvolve

nHide

nTori spoke out first.

n“Why are your excess points so low? You killed so many things. Were you adding them while we weren’t looking?”

nSydney sounded confused.

n“What?… No, I haven’t been. These are much higher than the ones I remember.”

nNicole let out a soft mutter.

n“Gnawing hunger?”

nSydney gasped.

n“What? When did that get there?”

nKairos furrowed his brows.

n“It seems like you somehow created an ability for yourself. Though it really does seem like you should have more extra points on you.”

nSydney was a little exasperated.

n“But… I really don’t remember adding those points. Seriously!”

nKairos took off his glasses.

nRank: 97

/100 Evolution Energy – 50 required for Rankup

nInborn Abilities: N

/A

n“I do believe you, but somehow or another, you seem to be using up your points.”

nHe came to the conclusion that she either genuinely forgot that she did add them, or they were somehow used up automatically.

nKairos felt that the second option was more likely, especially because of the gnawing hunger ability.

nThough one thing that made him more concerned was the extremely high evolution energy that Sydney had. Even when Kairos stood next to the red rain for extended periods of time, his total amount didn’t reach close to Sydney’s.

nHe didn’t think that there was anything that should’ve increased it so dangerously other than her exposure to the red sun. Unless… the incident where Sydney rushed out to all the bunnies was to be considered.

nNicole let out a soft gasp

n“The objective is to evolve, and there is even a button…”

nKairos frowned slightly.

n“You have the option to evolve, so you should save your points and evolve once you can.”

nChase disagreed.

n“But wouldn’t it be better to increase the other stats for immediate gain? Then she can also gain more points when killing other things. Or does evolving present some other boon, other than costing so many points?”

nKairos narrowed his eyes.

n“I just… have a feeling.”

nHe didn’t know how else to explain the anxiety that the 97

/100 gave him. Kairos thought about the people transforming into monsters and how Sydney herself mentioned she almost tried to eat someone.

nThere seemed to be some correlation to transforming and a high amount of evolution energy.

nMaybe if someone exceeded their cap, then that would start the process that turns them into a monster.

nSydney seemed rather casual about her situation.

n“I think it will be fine. My stats are already close to the limit, so increasing them won’t matter too much.”

nNicole coughed.

n“Um… should I show mine?”

nIt was a question meant for Kairos, but Tori spoke up first.

n“Why not?”

nAnd so, under that pressure, Nicole shared hers.

nStatus

nID: 934783245676

nRank: F

nObjective: Survive

nProof Of Perfection Points: 20.5

nStrength – 4.8

nAgility – 4.9

nEndurance – 4.5

nWillpower – 4.8

nMana Capacity – 0.0

nMagic Affinity – 0.0

nSpecial Abilities: N

/A

nTori spoke up and seemed confused.

n“You already added all your points? When did you do that?”

nNicole seemed flustered.

n“Eh? I added a little…”

nKairos’ eyes widened considerably when he saw the panel. All of the stats were almost at max. It immediately made him think of the red watch.

nAs dots connected in his mind, he quickly realized that the watch seemed to increase points somewhat based on the amount of things killed. That was what let Nicole get so many points naturally.

nHe couldn’t help but wonder if the red watch should be rotated around so that they all could get this benefit.

n…Maybe in the future, but now was too soon.

nKairos looked at her status panel without the glasses.

nRank: 37

/100 Evolution Energy – 50 required for Rankup

nInborn Abilities: Lost (Null)

nThe rank was normal, but Nicole also seemed to have some strange ability, but it was grayed out like Chase’s.

nChase spoke up.

n“It seems that our group is going to have a few E ranks soon.”

nThen he let out a soft sigh.

n“Anyways, there’s only one person left we haven’t seen.”

nKairos blinked a few times.

n“…Here is mine.”

nStatus

nID: 345315364923

nRank: E-

nObjective: Survive

nProof Of Perfection Points: 7.4

nStats –

nStrength – 4.9

nEndurance – 4.9

nAgility – 4.9

nWillpower – 4.9

nMana Capacity – 5.0

nMagic Affinity – 3.0

nSpecial Abilities: Fire Spell (F), Pulse Spell (F)

nHide

nKairos’ immediate thought was that his available points were pitifully low for how many things he had killed. Everyone else had points in the double digits, and some far into that amount.

nThen Chase spoke up.

n“…So I was right.”

nKairos clicked his tongue.

n“Yeah, yeah.”

nNicole furrowed her brows.

n“Eh? Right about what?”

nKairos pressed his lips together.

n“It doesn’t really matter.”

nAs for what Chase was looking at, it was Kairos’ ID. He recognized it because he had seen it before. After all, when Kairos first encountered him, Chase was repeating his ID.

nChase laughed.

n“You really… stand out, huh? I wonder what-”

n“Quiet.”

nKairos furrowed his brows.

nChase clicked his tongue.

n“Hey I-”

n“Seriously.”

nKairos narrowed his eyes.

n“…Don’t make a sound.”

n