Chapter 11 Screw Loose
Kairos was able to see the monster turn around early thanks to his future vision. The very moment he saw that happen, he gave up on stealth and shot forth.
Kairos' steps were not that loud, but his body shot forth like a bullet. His hair and clothes flapped around as though they were being blown around by the winds in a storm.
By the time the monster had fully turned around, Kairos was only a meter or so away. The monster's first instinct was to let out a roar, opening its repulsive mouth up.
However, before it could scream, Kairos thrust forth with the metal pole. A faint whistling sound seeped out.
Then, a frightening crack rang out.
The metal pole went in through the mouth and burst through the top of the monster's skull. It gagged for a second before falling limp.
[Killed Creature (Challenge Kill - One Rank Superior to Killer) - 0.3 points awarded]
Kairos frowned a little and pushed against the monster's chest with his foot so that it would slide off.
He turned around to see that Nicole, Harold, and Sydney were all peeking out from behind the corner. Kairos smiled and gave them a wave before walking over to them.
Once he got there, he whispered.
"Alright, now let's go get that fire axe."
Harold nodded.
"I think it should be that way."
Under his lead, the group eventually got up to the freezer section without much trouble.
Harold pointed at a door up ahead.
"That should be it."
Kairos nodded.
"Alright. Since we are already here, I'll go get the fire axe and you guys can scavenge for any food that is still intact. We can have a little snack break later. Oh, try not to split up as well."
Nicole gave a thumbs up.
"Alright!"
With that, the other three left to search the aisles in the form of their own group. Kairos then did a casual scan of the area before walking over to the door. He pushed on the handle, slowly opening the heavy door.
Kairos took one step into the freezer section then felt his blood run cold.
And it wasn't because the temperature of the freezer section was low.
What made him fearful... was that there were countless monsters sleeping inside. The monsters were sitting on the ground and didn't seem to be waking up any time soon. However, they also covered nearly every single section of the floor.
Kairos could see the fire axe from here. It was on the side of the wall, but closer to the far end. In other words, he would have to find a way to get there then back if he wanted to retrieve the fire axe.
Kairos furrowed his brows.
Stepping through so many monsters undetected wasn't going to be easy, even if he had his ability to see in the future to help him.
Kairos slowly closed the door, prioritizing silence. Then, he let out a soft sigh. For a moment, he considered either bailing out entirely or regrouping with the others to discuss.
But after a bit of deliberation, Kairos decided not to.
He took off his backpack and set it down securely on one of the cleaner sections of the floor.
The most logical decision was to bail. A single fire axe definitely wasn't worth such a high risk. And Kairos knew that.
He knew that very well.
However, there was a part of him that was a little insane. You could say that he had a screw loose. After all, Kairos was the kind of person to willingly endure painful sessions where he stabbed himself every day.
For whatever reason, the life-saving potential of seeing in the future by itself wasn't enough for Kairos. He wanted to improve it further, so that even if he experienced large amounts of pain, he could continue moving on.
And while Kairos didn't show it, he did actually enjoy the thrill of fighting.
So he decided to fight the monsters in the freezer.
Like an idiot.
Kairos opened up his status panel.
[Status]
[ID: 345315364923]
[Rank: F+]
[Objective: Touch Red Sunlight]
[Proof Of Perfection Points: 4.6]
[Stats -
Strength - 1.2
Endurance - 1.0
Agility - 2.0
Willpower - 1.5
Mana Capacity - 0.0
Magic Affinity - 0.0]
[Special Abilities: N/A]
[Hide]
He let out a soft sigh.
"I'm really doing this, huh?"
[Strength: 1.2 -> 2.0 | Points: 4.6 -> 3.8]
[Endurance: 1.0 -> 2.0 | Points: 3.8 -> 2.8]
[Agility: 2.0 -> 4.0 | Points: 2.8 -> 0.8]
[Willpower: 1.5 -> 2.3 | Points: 0.8 -> 0.0]
After recklessly spending all of his points in one go, he found that his body had heated up tremendously. Sweat began pouring down from his head, soaking him like he had just got out of a heavy rainstorm.
Kairos grabbed onto the side of an aisle and took several deep breaths.
He could feel the muscles in his body tightening up, the bones in his body hardening, and the ligaments reconnecting. Everything was being optimized.
And although it was slight, he could feel his mind becoming a little clearer as well.
Kairos spent about a minute calming down, getting used to the new changes. As he had placed value on agility, that was what he increased the most. However, Kairos also knew that having high agility but only being able to use that agility for a little while made it rather pointless.
And so, he increased his strength and endurance.
As for the willpower, he figured that even if he didn't suffer any injuries in fighting these monsters, there were at least going to be several times where he experienced severe pain from his future vision ability.
Being able to withstand it better may save his life.
Kairos immediately felt quite hungry, thus opened up his bag and started to eat some of the bread still inside. Before he knew it, he had stuffed down an entire bag of bread, leaving him with only bag one left.
Kairos quickly realized that evolving itself took quite a bit of energy. In other words, it was best to hold off if food supplies are low. However, considering they were in a grocery store, Kairos didn't care too much.
One thing that did perplex him quite a bit was how his body didn't even change slightly. He was still the thin scrawny person like before, but the power within his body was now immense.
However, Kairos decided to think about that later.
He slowly raised a hand up to the side of his face. Two fingers wrapped around the handle of his glasses before slowly pulling them off.
Kairos set them down on top of the backpack. Then, he turned around and walked towards the freezer door.
Kairos twirled the metal pole in his hand. Although it was quite heavy, to him right now, it was nothing more than a feather.
There was still quite a large amount of residual heat emitting from Kairos' body from the evolution earlier. But thankfully, there was a freezer he could go to cool down.
Kairos grabbed onto the door handle and smirked.
"I'm really stupid, aren't I?"
With that, he opened up the freezer door with the metal pole resting on his shoulder.
Immediately, Kairos' entire view was filled with monsters. Without a single bit of hesitation, he walked inside and let the door close behind him.
Kairos slowly lowered the metal pole until it was right next to one of the monster's heads.
"Now... let's get started, shall we?"
Suddenly, the metal pole shot forth, immediately shattering through the monster's skull.
[Killed Creature (Challenge Kill - One Rank Superior to Killer) - 0.3 points awarded]
In less than a second, Kairos was able to pull it back, before thrusting it towards another monster.
[Killed Creature (Challenge Kill - One Rank Superior to Killer) - 0.3 points awarded]
The commotion immediately the majority of the monsters. However, they still needed time to get up. There were still two monsters close by that were in the middle of getting up. However, Kairos' metal pole shot out like a bullet and pierced like a needle. Their skulls stood no chance.
Two cracks rang out one after another.
[Killed Creature (Challenge Kill - One Rank Superior to Killer) - 0.3 points awarded]
[Killed Creature (Challenge Kill - One Rank Superior to Killer) - 0.3 points awarded]
Though Kairos knew he was going to be quite fast with four points in agility, he was still surprised. There was something else he quickly noticed.
Agility did more than just make him faster. It improved his hand-eye coordination and overall control over his body.
Kairos twirled the metal pole before grasping it with both hands. Without mercy, he lunged forth and pierced straight through the skull of a monster that stood up.
[Killed Creature (Challenge Kill - One Rank Superior to Killer) - 0.3 points awarded]
By now, one of the monsters let out a loud roar, immediately rousing all of the others to attention.
Everything had been going smoothly for Kairos up until now. But that would not be the case now.
The monsters immediately bolted forth. It was a life-threatening situation, yet Kairos smiled.
And perhaps even crazier, was the fact he similarly shot forwards.
Two of the closer monsters pounced towards Kairos. Instead of dodging to the side like a normal person, Kairos turned to the side, slipped right past their claws, and got right in between them.
His metal pole went through seamlessly, but Kairos abruptly spun it with both hands. The pole rotated, one end shooting towards the face of one monster and the other at the back of the head for the other.
Two high-pitched metallic bangs resonated with each other.
Both skulls shattered, while the metal pole bent awkwardly.
[Killed Creature (Challenge Kill - One Rank Superior to Killer) - 0.3 points awarded]
[Killed Creature (Challenge Kill - One Rank Superior to Killer) - 0.3 points awarded]
Almost immediately afterwards, three other monsters appeared right in front of Kairos. They roared loudly, grating harshly on his ears.
One swiped towards his abdomen, which Kairos dodged by taking a step backward. Another swung at his left shoulder, prompting him to tilt his body to the side and lean backwards.
As for the last monster, its claw reached out directly for Kairos' neck. However, that was when he shifted to the right and lunged forth. The monster's hand passed right by his neck. And at the same time, a silver gleam flashed.
Another skull exploded.
[Killed Creature (Challenge Kill - One Rank Superior to Killer) - 0.3 points awarded]
The other two creatures had recovered, swiped at Kairos. Initially, he was planning to swing his metal pole towards one of them, but saw that he would be unable to dodge the other monster's claw.
As such, he leaned back very far, like he was trying to become a plank. Both attacks only struck the air. At the same time, Kairos' leg swept underneath, slamming hard on the two monsters' ankles. 𝒃𝙚𝙙𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝒍.𝒏𝒆𝒕
It was surprisingly hard to trip the two, but with his two points in strength, he was able to manage.
Kairos wanted to take advantage of the two monsters that were now on the ground, but suddenly felt a strong pain coming from his back. He ignored the monsters on the ground and spun his head around to see a monster attempting to bite off his shoulder.
Kairos twirled the metal pole before thrusting one end towards the monster's skull.
With a disturbing crack, it went through the monster's mouth and came out the other end. Though the metal pole was bent, Kairos was still able to pierce through things because of his raw strength.
[Killed Creature (Challenge Kill - One Rank Superior to Killer) - 0.3 points awarded]
He bashed the corpse on the chest with his elbow, forcefully removing the metal pole.
The two monsters on the floor were quickly getting up. However, Kairos couldn't do much about that.
After all...
He was now surrounded.