n

n

nThey were back to only hearing those strange bristling sounds. The immediate threat of The Red Priest finding them was gone, but they still didn’t exactly have a way out. Chase was no longer really in the mood for storytelling, and nobody else really cared to listen.

nIn the end, they sat around for hours with a strange tension.

nAs for time, there was nothing that they could use to tell it. At some point, Nicole couldn’t help but speak up.

n“I don’t have to eat, but I would just like to say I feel really hungry.”

nChase took a deep breath.

n“We should still wait. Just a little bit longer.”

nSydney hesitantly spoke up.

n“How long are we going to wait for?”

nKairos massaged his temple with the tip of his finger.

n“We don’t exactly have the best measurement of time. The only thing we have is to guess.”

nSydney stammered.

n“S-So how long do we wait?”

nKairos shut his eyes.

n“How about this? We will each take turns to wait, and when that person feels it is time, is when we have a small meal.”

nChase hummed.

n“But we also have to limit how much we consume. If not, it will naturally incline people to eat as much as possible.”

nKairos furrowed his brows.

n“I suppose we will just have to trust everyone on that front. We can use the alphabet and the order of letters in our names for this order. That means Chase will be the first, and I will be second.”

nTori could not help but speak up.

n“…What if we just all evolved and tried to fight against all of the things above us?”

nKairos lowered his head and thought about it.

n“The only issue stems from how fast the red priest guy and his lackeys. I don’t doubt that we would be able to clear whatever he referred to as minions, but the same can not be said for the others.”

nTori sounded a little aggrieved.

n“It can’t be that bad, right? We are stronger now.”

nKairos sighed.

n“And they probably are too. If you remember what happened before, we all tried to fight against them, but each time they were far stronger than us. If they didn’t just let us pass, then every single one of us would’ve lost our respective battle.”

nHe narrowed his eyes.

n“Then there’s that strange ability that the red priest himself has. It seems to restrain us based on our mutations.”

nTori muttered.

n“So we just have to wait here?”

nKairos shrugged his shoulders.

n“If it really comes down to it, then we can try that tactic. But regardless, we have to wait for now. That red priest is probably nearby.”

nTori paused.

n“I guess it can’t be helped.”

nWith that, a looming silence fell down on the group. More hours passed by as the only sound was the strange bristling coming from above.

nNicole began panting.

n“I… I really want to eat something.”

nShe spoke as though she was slightly drunk. As for Kairos himself, he was also feeling a little dizzy, but his willpower stat was enough for him to push through it.

nBut then, he recalled that Nicole’s willpower was basically the same amount.

nIf she was really feeling this way, then it must actually be pretty bad.

nAfter a moment of deliberation, Chase sighed.

n“Alright, I guess we should start now.”

nHe turned on the flashlight, making everyone squint due to the sudden exposure to light. And once their vision did clear up, it revealed Tori already eating something. When Chase saw this, he couldn’t help but get incensed.

nKairos saw in his future vision that he would begin yelling, so he quickly grabbed onto his shoulder.

n“We have to be quiet.”

nChase had just taken a deep breath, but hearing that, he let it out slowly. Right afterwards, he began interrogating Tori.

n“Why did you already start eating something?”

nTori blinked a few times obliviously.

n“It was just a little snack!”

nChase clenched his fist tightly, until veins began popping out, but quickly relaxed.

n“A small snack will essentially be an entire meal for us while we are down here.”

nTori flinched.

n“What? I thought we were rationing, not starving ourselves to death.”

nKairos sighed.

n“We can just say you started eating early, just don’t do it again.”

nTori nodded.

n“Um, ok.”

nChase began opening up the bags, taking out a few packages.

n“If we want to go on a starvation diet, I believe you eat about six hundred calories a day. That way, the body is forced to slow itself down. However, since we obviously need more food than usual, that means a general estimate could be three times that, two thousand and four hundred.”

nKairos scratched the side of his head.

n“Guess we follow the labels on these things.”

nWith that, the group began to eat their fill. Everyone more or less followed the guideline set, eating just two thousand and four hundred calories. However, nobody seemed even slightly satisfied.

nKairos felt a little better, but was still a little dizzy.

n“…Felt like I just ate air.”

nChase furrowed his brows and held onto the side of his head.

n“Yeah, that’s normal.”

nSydney seemed to be holding back her drool.

n“Can we… really not eat any more?”

nChase scanned the various bags.

n“From what I can tell, unless we start eating raw rice, we are going to run out of food in three days. That is, unless we are willing to start a fire and sacrifice something to burn for the sake of cooking this rice.”

nHe narrowed his eyes.

n“And that is with how we are eating right now.”

nKairos clicked his tongue.

n“I didn’t think our situation was this bad. Our bags were almost full…”

nChase sighed.

n“It doesn’t seem like we can wait it out. We will have to decide on either tomorrow or the day after to get out.”

nKairos took a deep breath.

n“I am pretty sure I can only make a relatively small hole above us to get out. So perhaps we should discuss how to deal with that.”

nWith that, people began proposing various ideas, but nobody was into it. It seemed that the lacking meal they just had made it hard for anyone to feel enthusiasm.

nEventually, Kairos just sighed.

n“Maybe we should just try to sleep the time away.”

nIt didn’t seem like anyone was against it. Though nobody was too sure how long ago they had slept, they also didn’t care enough.

nAnother few rough hours passed.

nKairos eventually woke up, but felt like he hadn’t slept at all. It seemed that most of the others had a similar sentiment.

nNicole was breathing heavily.

n“Has it… has it been a day yet?”

nIf Kairos was to say whether or not it felt like a day, he would say it felt like two. However, he didn’t think a full day had actually passed.

n“I don’t think so.”

nSydney began biting the edge of her thumb.

n“But we have been sleeping for so long. If anything, it should be more than a day, right?”

nChase took a deep breath.

n“I don’t remember feeling this bad, even when I went on the starvation diet before. I must’ve miscalculated how much we actually needed.”

nKairos massaged his temple with the tip of his finger.

n“Then maybe we can eat a little earlier than usual.”

nIn perfect honesty, he did not want to say that. However, he could also feel his own thoughts become muddled. Kairos felt like if he didn’t eat soon, he would be teetering on the very precipice of death.

nAfter a few moments of silence, Chase turned on the flashlight.

nEveryone began eating once more, hardly able to wait. However, as they were looking at the various packages, the flashlight began flickering.

nIt stabilized a moment later, but soon died off.

nChase cursed, trying to flick the switch on and off. Though it would occasionally light up for a second, that was it. He began shaking the flashlight too, but in the end it didn’t really work.

nHe sighed with a bit of frustration.

n“Try to judge how much you should eat by yesterday’s standards.”

nThere was a moment of silence after he said that. It seemed that countless thoughts were rushing through each person’s mind. However, everything felt relatively tame at first.

nYet, just after a few moments, it became clear that everyone was eating more than they should. Even Kairos couldn’t stop himself, as he kept thinking that maybe he could just have a little more.

nChase eventually decided to try and stop this.

n“We can’t eat anymore. This is already too much.”

nThough he said that, there were still sounds of people eating.

nChase got incensed.

n“I said… we have already eaten too much.”

nSydney’s breathing was heavy.

n“But… Tori had already eaten more than me! Just after I get a little more.”

nKairos clenched his fist.

n“All of us already went overboard, that is something we can acknowledge. Let’s just stop here.”

nFor a second, there was no noise. But then, a soft sound of packaging being torn filled the air.

nChase began screaming.

n“DID YOU NOT HEAR?”

nNicole screamed as well, for the first time in a very long while.

n“I’M GOING TO DIE WITHOUT ANY MORE.”

nHer voice sounded hoarse, showing how unhinged she got. It was pretty clear that she was tearing her throat as she was saying this. Kairos normally would have stopped this, but he was simply too pissed off to do so.

nIt very quickly devolved into everyone screaming at each other.

nEveryone seemed to forget that they were supposed to remain silent, and didn’t even pick up on the sounds of bloody battle above them.

nEventually, through all of their screaming, another voice rang out.

n“Hey, Kairos? Is that you?”

nNobody noticed this voice at first, but after a good few thumps on the ground, everyone seemed to notice something was different.

n“Kairos? You should be down there, right?”

nKairos furrowed his brows, taking a few breaths with his hoarse throat.

nThe group collectively fell silent, and looked up with trepidation.

n“Hey, why aren’t you responding? You are there, right?”

nKairos felt a bit of difficulty believing what he heard.

nNicole panicked.

n“Who… who is that? We were too loud!”

nTori began biting her nails.

n“Shit! Shit!”

nSydney began trembling.

n“No… No…”

nChase held onto the side of his head.

n“I didn’t even realize.”

nKairos stood up and called out.

n“Dad?”

nA muffled laugh resounded.

n“Ah, so you are there, Kairos. Can you guys get out of there?”

nKairos lifted up his red prism, hesitating for a moment. He took off his glasses and began creating a small hole at the top, keeping close watch on what he saw in front of him.

nAnd… as is cleared, it was indeed the face of his dad, smiling confidently.

nHis face was covered in blood, but that was considered something very normal to everybody at this stage.

nSydney’s eyes widened.

n“Sam?”

nKairos’ first reaction when he saw his father wasn’t to greet him, but to question.

n“How did you know we were here?”

nHis father, Sam, shrugged his shoulders.

n“I got a pretty convenient ability that just told me.”

nSuddenly, his nose twitched.

n“Oh god, that smell.”

nHe took a closer look at the people underneath and raised an eyebrow.

n“You guys are in bad condition, aren’t you?”

nKairos sighed.

n“Yeah, pretty much.”

nHe picked up his backpack before throwing it up.

n“Catch.”

nSam caught it deftly and set it to the side. Kairos proceeded to do the same thing with the other backpacks as well as the black carapace. Everyone else also began jumping out. Though it was a little high, it was nothing difficult with their bodies enhanced by their stats.

nThen, he jumped up as well, almost feeling blinded by the dimly lit room.

nKairos greedily gasped for air, basking in its freshness.

nThey were finally free.

n