Chapter 5 - Strength Increase

After a few moments, the call went through. A voice had come out, but it was filled with static. It was as though they were talking on a walkie-talkie.

"Hel... you there?"

Kairos furrowed his brows.

"I am here. Can you hear me?"

Nicole responded.

"Kind... but lots of static..."

Kairos sighed.

"Nevermind, I will try to make my way over to your house. Did you get that?"

After a few moments, he got a response.

"Yeah... door..."

Kairos blinked a few times.

"I didn't get that. Can you repeat it?"

The sound of Nicole clearing her throat came over.

"...Open."

Kairos clicked his tongue.

"Nevermind, this isn't going to work."

Then, he shut the phone off.

After shaking off the lingering sleepiness he still felt, Kairos got up and pulled the curtains just a tad, so that he could see outside. The windows here let him see into his front yard.

Though Kairos was hoping it was empty, that was not the case. In fact, the sights made him a little afraid.

The first thing that came out to him were two monsters slowly approaching each other, getting ready for a fight. However, what was more relevant to him was the amount of blood across the floor.

After paying closer attention, he found that most seemed to be from monsters, or rather people that had become monsters. It was not easy to tell because very little of what remained consisted of bones or flesh. The thing that made him believe so was the stretched clothes that littered the ground, probably from people growing to sizes that were not supported.

What he noticed about the two monsters approaching each other, was that they were both bloody, especially so for around their mouths. It was pretty clear that they had consumed something.

After getting within a few meters of each other, they suddenly lunged, plunging both of their claws deep into the other. One thing Kairos was able to notice was that they were faster than the one he encountered before.

The degree of this difference was very small, but it was still there nonetheless.

Perhaps he could just brush this off, but he was not the type of person to do such a thing. A rather frightening hypothesis formed in his mind.

That these creatures would always be getting stronger.

In other words, they were evolving.

A bold idea began forming in Kairos' mind. What if he took advantage of when those two were fighting each other and killed them?

...Then he should be able to get some points.

Normally, Kairos would never think in this type of fashion, but his realization of the monsters getting stronger put some pressure on him. He couldn't help but think back to the 'Global Announcement' from the system earlier.

All it said was evolve.

That probably meant everything was going to get stronger as time went on. So if he remained weak, that meant he was also very likely going to die.

For a few seconds, Kairos' mentality shifted from passive to proactive.

He furrowed his brows, trying to think of a realistic way he could kill them. From what he experienced before, Kairos knew that they were tough things that would chase even after they lost a leg.

However, they would die if their skull was crushed.

At first, he was contemplating bringing the knife, but that wouldn't deal with the blunt force trauma he wanted.

Kairos' eyes drifted towards a tall lamp in his room. He remembered from adjusting it before that those lamps had really heavy bases, mostly so that they didn't topple over.

...It wouldn't be the most convenient, but it was probably the best he was going to get.

Kairos unplugged the lamp and wrapped the cord around the base, tying it just so that it wouldn't get out of the way. Then, he manually removed the top part of the lamp off to make it a little easier to hold.

He tried to pull it up, but came to a realization.

The base was too heavy.

With his current strength, he could pick it up, but not swing in any reasonable capacity. Kairos furrowed his brows, then thought about his status.

[Status]

[ID: 345315364923]

[Rank: F+]

[Objective: Touch Red Sunlight]

[Proof Of Perfection Points: 5.6]

[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]

There were small plus signs next to each stat, giving the option to increase them. However, the magic related options were greyed out. He clearly hesitated as his eyes locked onto his 0.6 strength and the option to increase it. Kairos didn't trust this thing, that was for sure. However, it seemed that whether or not he trusted it, assuming that he could indeed boost his stats, this panel would be necessary.

There was little time to hesitate as the fight between the monsters would probably end soon, thus ending the opportunity to kill steal.

Kairos grit his teeth and decided to just do it.

[Strength - 0.6 -> 0.7 | Points 5.6 -> 5.5]

He felt his body get a little warm as a feeling of his muscles getting just a bit sturdier came about. There didn't appear to be any side effects.

At least not now.

Kairos still couldn't lift up the lamp comfortably and decided to put a little more into his strength.

[Strength - 0.7 -> 1.2 | Points 5.5 -> 5.0]

He immediately felt a surge of strength come to him and much more than he was expecting. His body let out discomforting amounts of heat, but it worked out in the end.

Kairos tried lifting the lamp once more. Now, while he felt the weight, he could easily twirl it around even with just one hand. From what Kairos could tell, though there was no change to his visual appearance, he now had similar strength to a professional athlete.

And would probably be stronger than the average professional athlete too.

This shocked him greatly, how easy it was to become stronger.

It made him even more determined to kill those monsters as it meant every second was part of a race to get stronger, so that one wouldn't be left behind.

After putting on his backpack, Kairos made his way to the entrance and could see the two monsters in the middle of a bloody fight, both with various gashes and bite marks across their bodies.

They were so caught up in their battle, that they didn't even seem to notice him.

Kairos slowly walked up to the entrance, then looked to the left and right, almost like he was getting ready to cross the street. Though in this case, he was just looking for more monsters, not wanting to bite off more than he could chew.

At this point, one of the monsters shoved the other down before pinning them on the ground. Soon after, it reached for its neck with its jaws. The other monster let out a desperate roar and pierced the other's chest.

Kairos immediately realized it was now or never.

He rushed out recklessly, making very clear stepping sounds as he did so. Kairos ended up going faster than he was expecting, but was able to adapt to it easily.

He raised up the lamp as he went forth, with the base high up in the air.

Before the monsters even had time to react, Kairos whipped the lamp down on the top monster's head.

A dull bang rang out along with a frightening crack.

The top monster's skull shattered completely and a notification appeared in front of him.

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

Compared to last time, it lacked both the fact it was the first ten kills and the fact it was an early kill. Before he had any time to lament on that, the monster below pushed off the corpse resting on top of it.

Kairos pulled back the lamp, but couldn't do it that fast. He saw the monster swipe and pierce through his legs with his future vision. Before that happened in reality, he stepped back, letting the claw harmlessly pass by.

Then, he slammed the base of the lamp onto that monster's head.

Another scary bang and crack rang out.

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

Kairos was slightly winded, taking a few steady deep breaths. However, he felt that he could go for much longer. After taking another survey of the surrounding area and seeing nothing, he bolted over to Nicole's house.

He gave a few light knocks, but not without surveying his surroundings. Kairos immediately heard various whispering and scampering sounds coming from behind the door.

There was a hushed cry.

"No!"

But a set of footsteps gradually made its way to the door. After a few seconds, it opened up just a crack, revealing Nicole.

"I thought you said to avoid the sunlight! What are you doing?"

Kairos sighed and pushed the door open a little more so that he could get inside. Right after, he shut the door and locked it rather rudely.

"Right now, the sunlight isn't harmful. However, that shouldn't be the last we see of it."

Nicole nodded at first, but suddenly widened her eyes.

"Woah! That's a lot of blood, are you ok?"

This was pretty fair given Kairos had blood over his clothes and on the base of his lamp

He set the lamp down and sighed.

"I'm fine. It's not my blood."

Nicole froze up.

"Did you... kill someone?"

Kairos did think that though what he killed were monsters, it still counted as killing a person. However, he didn't have a moral compass that made him feel bad about taking another's life, especially for the sake of self-defense.

However... it wasn't always the best to be honest.

"No, who do you think I am? My body is all lanky so how would I kill anything? The streets are just covered in lots of blood and guts. In order to make my way over here without being seen, I got myself dirty in the process."

Nicole's eyes widened significantly.

"...Y-You're adapting to this rather fast."

Kairos shook his head.

"We don't have a choice."

He then looked over Nicole's shoulder to see her parents, both huddled next to each other and clearly a little spooked out. However, after Kairos gave a reason as to where the blood came from, they seemed to calm down a little.

He took a deep breath.

"Alright. Is there anybody here who still thinks that this is a dream?"

Nicole's mother, Sydney, shook her head.

"No, we tested that already."

As the father, Harold, a bitter smile formed on his face.

"Well yes, but that was on me."

Sydney rolled her eyes.

"What? Was I supposed to slap myself?"

The corner of Harold's lip twitched.

"No, your highness."

Nicole couldn't help but chuckle, as did Kairos. Sydney smiled playfully, obviously meaning it as a joke.

However, while they were trying to keep the mood joyous, it was clear from how the three could hardly keep their eyes open that they were tired.

Kairos let out a soft sigh.

"Did none of you get some sleep?"

Nicole bit her lip.

"The sounds coming from outside... were too scary."

Kairos shook his head.

"But two of you could've slept while the last one kept watch, no? Perhaps even two people to keep watch."

Sydney furrowed her eyes a little.

"But... it's simply too hard to fall asleep in a setting like this."

Kairos pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Of course. However, our normal lives are already completely gone. If we want to live, we have to get used to many new things. And sleeping while trusting someone to watch will be one of the basics."

Harold held his wife a little closer and sighed.

"...I suppose you are right."

Kairos massaged his temple with the tip of his finger.

"Let's go upstairs. You three sleep and I'll keep watch. We will talk about our plan after your minds are at least a little rested."

Nicole nodded.

"Ok."