Chapter 154 Stockholm

Both Kairos and Tiana looked over the edge of the roof to see what Chase was talking about. Tiana narrowed her eyes when she saw this.

"...You were right."

Kairos blinked a few times.

"I guess so."

The ground began to glow red ever so slightly. As for the person that remained down on the ground, he began spasming strangely, while his skin reddened significantly. It was hard to tell exactly what was happening since he was quite far away, but it was fairly easy to assume that he was turning into a monster.

Chase let out a soft hum.

"It seems the one that stayed behind served as a good example. I doubt many will disobey now that they have seen what happened to someone that didn't."

Kairos rubbed his chin.

"That does help."

Tiana sucked in a cold breath.

"...Thankfully you saw this coming. If not for you, all of the farmers would've become monsters."

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"I just had a strange feeling. I wasn't one hundred percent sure it was happening now, but I felt that something bad was going to happen soon."

Chase raised an eyebrow.

"That's... quite convenient."

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"Yeah."

After the person had fully become a monster, it looked around for a moment, before laying down on the ground, almost like it was trying to sleep. Though, it didn't seem to be the most comfortable position as it was face down on the hard ground.

Chase raised an eyebrow.

"Is it normal for monsters to do that?"

"It's probably trying to absorb more of that red light."

Quinn, who had gotten on the roof just a moment ago, spoke up. He wiped the sweat off of his brow before continuing.

"It appears that once someone turns into a monster, their first instinct is to get more of whatever the red light is. My guess is that it forcibly makes them stronger, but it appears that either the red light or sudden increase in strength has side effects."

Kairos slowly nodded.

"That does make sense. I remember when I fought against the traditional kinds of monsters, they all seemed extremely unintelligent."

Chase shrugged his shoulders.

"Well that much is obvious. They clearly do everything by instinct."

Kairos shook his head.

"No, but it's not only that. Other than a few exceptions that don't count as normal monsters, I've never seen one of them do any sort of deception."

Tiana raised an eyebrow.

"They've devolved to the point that they became an animal. Isn't that just natural?"

Kairos furrowed his brow intensely.

"No, even animals are smarter than that. Sometimes they do feints, or even try to circle behind their target to attack at a different angle. These monsters seem to be incapable of that, just attacking whatever they see in front of them. A better comparison would be a rabid animal."

Quinn slowly nodded.

"Yes. I'm actually quite surprised you know that."

Kairos stared back at him strangely.

"Really? It seems like all knowledge to you is elementary."

Quinn sighed.

"Elementary knowledge are things people should be able to naturally come to understand in their life. Understanding how predators act is different because most people haven't even seen a single one. Even those that have, rarely see them often, meaning they can't extrapolate much."

Kairos spoke after a brief pause.

"...Yeah, alright."

Chase turned to look at Quinn.

"Are you always like that?"

Quinn stared back blankly.

"Like what?"

Chase didn't know what to say for a moment.

"...Nevermind."

Quinn didn't mind and just continued.

"Anyway, I don't think that intelligence is the only thing that these monsters give up when they become like that."

Kairos blinked a few times.

"What makes you say that?"

Quinn closed his eyes.

"I remembered how it felt when I evolved and increased my physical parameters. I can tell that it's not only increasing the strength of our body, but also slowly changing our brains at a fundamental level."

He raised a finger.

"In normal circumstances, we are prevented from using the full capabilities of our muscles for our own sake, because if we do, then we will cripple ourselves. This is made most clear when you hear about parents lifting up cars to save their children. It's an impressive feat, though most don't hear about how those same parents are now unable to move their arms."

Quinn took a deep breath.

"I could tell that as my points increased and as I evolved, that prevention measure was shaved away ever so slightly."

Tiana sighed.

"And what does that have to do with the monsters?"

Quinn rubbed his chin.

"It's because I believe the same thing is happening to the monsters, just on a far larger scale. Their hearts and pumping blood to the very limits, they don't seem to be able to feel pain, meaning it's very likely they are filled with adrenaline. While evolution points appear to be giving us strength, the red light appears to forcefully change your body for that strength."

He paused for a moment.

"I believe that's why all the monsters emit so much heat. It's not that they've become a different species entirely, but rather they are essentially overheating just like how a machine would."

Kairos spoke softly.

"That... would explain those monsters."

Tiana turned to him.

"What are you talking about?"

Chase smirked.

"The giant monsters that attacked the city not too long ago."

He lowered his head a little.

"From what I recall, the very surface of their skin was boiling, causing bubbles to burst every few seconds. They somehow got an extremely large amount of the red light, forcibly transforming their bodies. If not for their strong regeneration, they would've imploded on themselves just by existing."

Quinn raised an eyebrow.

"...I never thought it would go that far."

Tiana scratched the side of her head.

"So basically, that red stuff is bad."

Kairos slowly nodded.

"However, we also need a little bit of it if we want to evolve."

Quinn narrowed his eyes.

"...That's what I was suspecting too."

A moment of silence lingered between them. Chase looked down at the ground which was still glowing red with a bit of impatience.

"How long will we have to stay up here?"

Kairos sighed.

"I have no idea, but it doesn't like it's going to die down anytime soon."

Chase clicked his tongue.

"Guess we're just going to stay here for a while?"

Tiana pressed her lips together.

"It's probably way better than being down there and transforming into a monster."

Quinn laid down on the ground without any qualms.

"Might as well get some rest then."

Tiana looked at him strangely.

"That doesn't look very comfortable."

Quinn rolled his eyes.

"It isn't as bad as you think."

Tiana blinked a few times.

"I think I'll just stay up here until it dies down."

Kairos thought about sleeping, but he also wanted to retrieve the red prism as soon as he could. He didn't want to even be slightly delayed.

"...I will too."

Chase glanced at Quinn.

"I would join your slumber party, but I also took a nap not too long ago, so I'm probably not going to fall asleep any time soon."

Quinn laughed.

"I doubt I'll fall asleep anytime soon either, so for now I'm going to be awake."

Kairos kept his gaze outside, but talked to Quinn as well.

"Do you know any techniques to fall asleep?"

Quinn sighed.

"Unfortunately, the ones I do know aren't the most applicable here."

Kairos placed one hand on the ground behind him.

"Come on, I'm sure you've got something. How about you explain why you never became a scientist?"

Quinn did not speak for a moment. Though he sighed soon after.

"I suppose venting could help."

Chase raised an eyebrow.

"I don't imagine venting would help me fall asleep."

Quinn shrugged his shoulders.

"That's not anything absurd. We are different people."

He took a deep breath.

"After all, as similar as people are... they are also fundamentally different."

A small smile formed on his face.

"And in the end, it seems like I was a little too different for the scientific community to welcome me."

Kairos responded casually.

"What do you mean?"

Quinn spoke flatly.

"While I was still working towards getting a PhD, I was also going out of my way to conduct many other experiments. Generally speaking, most of my reports were accepted, though not many cared about them."

The corner of his lip raised.

"That is, until I did one experiment."

Chase tapped his chin.

"You screwed some people up from the experiment?

Quinn shook his head.

Tiana spoke up soon after.

"You found some ground-breaking discovery and someone wanted to steal it from you?"

Quinn shook his head again.

"That's happened quite a bit to other people, but nobody really wanted a part of my discoveries. Rather, it's what the results of my experiment suggested."

He was in no hurry to speak, leaving the others silently waiting.

"...It was about parental love."

Chase spoke disappointedly.

"That sounds rather boring."

Quinn laughed.

"Honestly, that's what I thought too. But the idea came to me when I noticed that parental love is seen as something sacred. This isn't something just in our culture, but more or less worldwide. There is this strange worship of familial love that made me feel like it was essentially fanatical."

He closed his eyes.

"I decided to look at it objectively and came up with an experiment. Are you all familiar with the term Stockholm Syndrome?"

Chase gave a small nod.

"I can't imagine one of us doesn't know about it. How is that related?"

Quinn responded calmly.

"To be specific, Stockholm syndrome is when someone that is taken hostage or kidnapped develops trust or affection towards their kidnapper. It can get to the point where they defend them with their own life. When you look at it logically, doing such a thing makes no sense."

He chuckled.

"For quite a while, I wondered about what could've caused this, until I eventually saw some parallels between parenting and kidnapping."

Tiana's eyelid twitched.

"I never thought I'd hear something like that."

Quinn continued without the slightest worry.

"Well, in both instances, one authoritative figure provides food to another. And obviously, food is quite important to our survival. When I look at it from an evolutionary perspective, it makes sense for people to develop affection for those that provide that food, as that is the person you are depending on to survive. That's just how our ancestors lived."

He paused.

"And that instinct is so strong within people, that it can cause them to develop affection for those that are realistically endangering your life. But kidnapping is not my focus here, but rather family. If even adults can suddenly become attached to those endangering their lives, then what about children?"

Quinn blinked a few times.

"The conclusion I came to was that even if a child was subject to an extreme amount of abuse, they would still think fondly of their parents, simply due to instinct. That's what I wanted to test."

He smiled.

"But of course, abusing children obviously wouldn't fly. Instead, I had some children occasionally talk with someone more or less agreeable and some others with someone rude and aggressive. Then, I further divided the group into those that received meals and those that didn't. Finally, after several months, I had the children rate the person they were talking with."

Quinn shrugged his shoulders.

"There was almost no difference between the children that were provided meals, both near a 9.4 out of ten rating. For those that were agreeable, they were given a 6.1 on average, and those that were rude were given an average of 2.7."

He closed his eyes.

"When I tried to publish this discovery, they refused to accept the results. Instead, they claimed that I purposely abused the children to skew the results."

Kairos glanced at him.

"...So what if a child doesn't like their parents?"