I See One Second Into The Future: Loner In The Apocalypse

Kairos 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.

"...I guess we can share each other's stats."

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

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

"This is mine."

[Status]

[ID: 133543657645]

[Rank: F+]

[Objective: Survive]

[Proof Of Perfection Points: 27.2]

[Strength - 2.7

Agility - 4.9

Endurance - 1.5

Willpower - 4.9

Mana Capacity - 0.0

Magic Affinity - 0.0]

[Special Abilities: N/A]

[Hide]

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

Kairos 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.

He pointed this out.

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

Tori raised an eyebrow.

"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."

Kairos couldn't help but furrow his brows.

"Specializing in something is normal, but you can't lag behind in other aspects too much or they will become crucial weaknesses."

Tori shrugged her shoulders.

"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!"

Kairos 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.

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

It just really... didn't make sense.

Though 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.

However, 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.

Sydney let out a soft hum.

"The maximum points is just a little away from five?"

Kairos cleared his throat.

"Yes, until you evolve it seems."

Chase let out a soft hum.

"It looks like you have enough to max them all out to have over twenty left over."

Kairos nodded.

"Evolving will take twenty points, so that works out nicely."

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

There were two changes.

[Rank: 46/100 Evolution Energy - 50 required for Rankup]

[Inborn Abilities: N/A]

The 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.

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

At least, that was what made the most sense.

Tori seemed to feel pretty good about her points.

"Heh, I've basically already caught up to you, Kairos!"

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"I guess."

Tori let out a soft hum.

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

Kairos blinked a few times.

"There's something else you need to evolve."

Tori seemed surprised.

"Eh? What is it?"

Kairos paused for a moment.

"I'm not sure, but it seems related to all that red stuff that always shows up."

Tori seemed a little upset.

"...Oh."

Kairos rolled his eyes.

"You will probably get the option sooner or later."

Chase let out a soft hum.

"Hey, why does your objective say survive?"

Tori seemed confused.

"Um, I don't know."

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

[Status]

[ID: 734513523564]

[Rank: F+]

[Objective: Survive]

[Proof Of Perfection Points: 15.2]

[Strength - 3.8

Agility - 4.2

Endurance - 3.5

Willpower - 4.0

Mana Capacity - 4.9

Magic Affinity - 4.9]

[Special Abilities: N/A]

[Hide]

Chase seemed a little surprised.

"It appears that my objective has also changed to be the same."

Tori gasped.

"You have so many points in mana and magic."

Kairos couldn't help but look at the maxed out mana capacity and magic affinity.

"You were able to add points into your magic stats?"

Chase sounded confused.

"What? Are you not able to?"

Kairos furrowed his brows.

"...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."

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

[Rank: 45/100 Evolution Energy - 50 required for Rankup]

[Inborn Abilities: Hero (Null)]

However, 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.

Chase took a deep breath.

"Huh. Now that I think about it, I believe I know the cause."

Tori sounded excited.

"Oh, I would like to have magic in advance too."

Chase stammered.

"Uh, I don't think it will work like that."

Tori sounded upset.

"Huh? You're not going to share how you did it?"

Chase responded calmly.

"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."

He sighed.

"I always thought it was useless, but I suppose I shouldn't complain since it gave me early access to magic."

Sydney seemed a little lost.

"...The red sun?"

She ended up opening her own status panel.

[Status]

[ID: 423632551433]

[Rank: F+]

[Objective: Evolve]

[Proof Of Perfection Points: 10.2]

[Strength - 4.3

Agility - 3.7

Endurance - 4.9

Willpower - 4.1

Mana Capacity - 0.0

Magic Affinity - 0.0]

[Special Abilities: Gnawing Hunger (F-)]

[Evolve]

[Hide]

Tori spoke out first.

"Why are your excess points so low? You killed so many things. Were you adding them while we weren't looking?"

Sydney sounded confused.

"What?... No, I haven't been. These are much higher than the ones I remember."

Nicole let out a soft mutter.

"Gnawing hunger?"

Sydney gasped.

"What? When did that get there?"

Kairos furrowed his brows.

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

Sydney was a little exasperated.

"But... I really don't remember adding those points. Seriously!"

Kairos took off his glasses.

[Rank: 97/100 Evolution Energy - 50 required for Rankup]

[Inborn Abilities: N/A]

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

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

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

Though 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.

He 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.

Nicole let out a soft gasp

"The objective is to evolve, and there is even a button..."

Kairos frowned slightly.

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

Chase disagreed.

"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?"

Kairos narrowed his eyes.

"I just... have a feeling."

He 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.

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

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

Sydney seemed rather casual about her situation.

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

Nicole coughed.

"Um... should I show mine?"

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

"Why not?"

And so, under that pressure, Nicole shared hers.

[Status]

[ID: 934783245676]

[Rank: F+]

[Objective: Survive]

[Proof Of Perfection Points: 20.5]

[Strength - 4.8

Agility - 4.9

Endurance - 4.5

Willpower - 4.8

Mana Capacity - 0.0

Magic Affinity - 0.0]

[Special Abilities: N/A]

Tori spoke up and seemed confused.

"You already added all your points? When did you do that?"

Nicole seemed flustered.

"Eh? I added a little..."

Kairos' 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.

As 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.

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

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

Kairos looked at her status panel without the glasses.

[Rank: 37/100 Evolution Energy - 50 required for Rankup]

[Inborn Abilities: Lost (Null)]

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

Chase spoke up.

"It seems that our group is going to have a few E ranks soon."

Then he let out a soft sigh.

"Anyways, there's only one person left we haven't seen."

Kairos blinked a few times.

"...Here is mine."

[Status]

[ID: 345315364923]

[Rank: E-]

[Objective: Survive]

[Proof Of Perfection Points: 7.4]

[Stats -

Strength - 4.9

Endurance - 4.9

Agility - 4.9

Willpower - 4.9

Mana Capacity - 5.0

Magic Affinity - 3.0]

[Special Abilities: Fire Spell (F), Pulse Spell (F)]

[Hide]

Kairos' 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.

Then Chase spoke up.

"...So I was right."

Kairos clicked his tongue.

"Yeah, yeah."

Nicole furrowed her brows.

"Eh? Right about what?"

Kairos pressed his lips together.

"It doesn't really matter."

As 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.

Chase laughed.

"You really... stand out, huh? I wonder what-"

"Quiet."

Kairos furrowed his brows.

Chase clicked his tongue.

"Hey I-"

"Seriously."

Kairos narrowed his eyes.

"....Don't make a sound."