Read I See One Second Into The Future: Loner In The Apocalypse Chapter 11 online for free - AllNovelFull

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.

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.

Kairos did a preliminary scan and noticed that there were four monsters coming at him from different angles from where he could see. All things considered, there were probably two more coming from behind.

He decided to take a step forward, whipping his metal pole towards one of the monsters in front of him.

Their skull exploded.

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

Suddenly, Kairos an unbearably strong pain coming from his back, all the while three monsters from the front were closing in. He bent his knees slightly before shooting backwards.

Kairos slammed into the chest of a monster whose head was now right next to him by the shoulder. He was not concerned about that monster as of right now, however. Instead, he twirled the metal pole to push on the back of a nearby monster, sending it towards the three charging at the front.

With his two points in strength, he was able to force that monster forward, causing it to stumble in the way. At that point, Kairos felt an extremely bad pain coming from his neck.

With his increased willpower, he was able to respond almost immediately, sending the end of the pole towards the skull on his shoulder.

A loud bang resounded right next to Kairos' face.

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

The monster's head exploded into a mass of warm blood that splashed across his face. Coupled with the small smile Kairos had right now, he looked like a bonafide serial killer.

As for the monster he had thrown ahead before, it tanked a few hits for him. One of the claws even directly pierced through, appearing on the other side.

By now, the metal pole had bent severely. Yet, Kairos recklessly slammed it against the monster in front of him, not wanting to lose the points.

A fleshy tear rang out.

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

The monster's head was torn off completely, but the body continued to obstruct the monsters, albeit only for a moment.

Kairos had no time to deal with them as two more monsters had approached from behind, getting uncomfortably close. He bent down on one knee and sent the end of the metal pole flying towards one.

However, Kairos soon found a fresh pain coming from his arm as he saw the monster randomly lunge forth and bite down with his future vision.

In that split second, Kairos twirled the metal pole around, smashing the biting monster's teeth. Unfortunately, it was not dead. As for the other one he ignored, it attempted to swipe at him with a claw, which Kairos dodged by stepping to the side.

Right after, he elbowed the monster's chest. Kairos felt some bone in him snap concerningly, but the creature was also forced back, with something that snapped in its own body.

The monster that was toothless attempted to slash him with its claws, but Kairos twirled to pole around easily, slamming it against the side of its head.

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

The skull was smashed, however part of the metal pole ended up breaking off entirely, unable to withstand the continued force exerted on it.

Suddenly, Kairos' eyes rolled up into the back of his head.

An overwhelmingly strong signal of pain filled up his brain. Specifically, it came from the back of his neck. He had neglected the monster behind him for too long and that came to bite him.

Literally.

Kairos nearly blacked out from the agony, but was just barely able to swing his metal pole behind him. As for aiming, it was no longer something he could do right now.

A loud bang resounded.

Suddenly, the pain from his neck disappeared. His metal pole smashed into the chest of one of the monsters, getting it off him. There were tears streaming down Kairos' face that quickly mixed in with the blood.

His breathing was heavy as well.

However, this was not time for him to take a break.

Kairos still felt lingering fear from his near-death experience and decided he needed to try even harder. His fists clenched a little harder around the base of the metal pole and flung it around.

With a crash, one of the monster's heads exploded.

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

Right after, he rebounded off that impact, sending the metal pole back around towards another monster, exploding its skull as well.

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

As for the monster that was hit in the chest earlier, it seemed to struggle in terms of breathing. However, it still reached out to Kairos.

Unfortunately for it, Kairos was easily able to dodge its sluggish movement before sending an uppercut with one end of the metal pole towards its head.

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

The monster's head shot up and hit the ceiling before coming back down.

Despite being in the freezer section, sweat began pouring down from Kairos' head. His body emitted strong waves of heat as he continued exerting his body.

By now, Kairos' fingers felt a little sore as he really had to put strength into his swings if he wanted to guarantee that the monster's skull was smashed.

Unfortunately, there were still many more monsters left in the freezer. On top of that, because Kairos recklessly charged in, he was getting surrounded once more.

Kairos narrowed his eyes, then came up with an idea.

What if he just kept moving forwards?

That way, he wouldn't be attacked in the back. With his agility paired with his natural ability, it shouldn't be too hard to navigate his way forward.

And so, that's what Kairos did.

He bolted forwards, prompting two monsters in front of him to reach out with their claws. Kairos stepped to the side and thrust one end of the metal pole straight through one monster, then slammed into it with his shoulder, getting himself out of the encirclement.

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

Kairos turned around to see the group of monsters running towards him. He was running away, but was quickly running out of space given that this was still a relatively small room.

And so, Kairos decided to charge straight towards the group once more.

The metal pole in his hand danced like a venomous snake, slipping through their attacks before landing on their vital points. As for Kairos himself, he shifted from the left and right almost like a leaf being blown along in the wind.

Kairos got through the tiniest gaps, almost like the monsters weren't obstructing him in the first place.

Skulls were being smashed one by one.

[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]

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

Kairos' body was drenched from head to toe in blood, but he didn't seem to mind. Naturally with how reckless he was, sometimes he would mess up and see his body get ripped apart in his future vision.

However, while it was only one second, his fast agility let him react to the scenario in time, bashing more skulls.

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

The other end of his metal pole broke, leaving him with what was essentially a really long shank. Nonetheless, he continued to fight with it, bending it further with each strike.

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

Before he knew it, there were only three monsters left in the room.

Kairos was panting heavily, with one eye closed. Though he wasn't injured, the blood covering his face forced him to close one.

It was at this point that the monsters seemed to be afraid. They weren't willing to recklessly charge towards him anymore.

Kairos smiled.

"Haha… too afraid?"

However, while the monsters were afraid, his own condition wasn't too good. Although two points of endurance had carried his body to move for a long amount of time, he simply did far too many strenuous movements in a short period of time. His mind was also pretty stressed from processing so many images.

As such, Kairos was really tired.

On top of that, his weapon was now heavily damaged.

Though he could rush over to the fire axe on the wall, it was encased within a container that had a latch that was required to be removed before it could be opened. In other words, the monsters would probably rush towards him while he did that.

And so, Kairos had to work with the now short metal scrap he was holding onto.

Though the monsters didn't want to engage right away, Kairos saw no reason to wait any longer. The adrenaline was still coursing through his body in waves and he fully intended on taking advantage of that.

And so, he dashed forwards, causing the three monsters to panic. However, they still responded with their own attacks.

The monster on the left swiped with its claw, but Kairos simply ducked to the side, dodging it. Right after, he let out a heave and thrust the metal scrap into the monster's skull.

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

Kairos tried to pull it out, but couldn't do so easily. He put a lot of strength behind it, but forcibly tugged the head along with it.

This was because the metal scrap had severely bent ends from all the abuse earlier. Now, this bent end got caught on one of the bones.

Suddenly, Kairos felt fresh pain coming from his arm, prompting him to abandon his weapon and step back. Right as he did, a claw swiped towards where his arm was.

The two monsters weren't just going to wait by and give him all day.

Kairos began panicking slightly.

After all, the biggest advantage he had over these monsters wasn't any kind of ability, but the capability of using weapons. If Kairos was forced into a hand-to-hand combat situation, he wasn't even confident of winning against a single monster.

Even if he could, it would be a long and drawn out battle.

And so, Kairos bolted towards the fire axe, unable to think of another solution. The two monsters weren't as fast, but they chased after him without hesitation.

It only took Kairos a few seconds to reach the container. He fumbled with the latch and looked over his shoulder. The monsters were right behind him.

Kairos immediately realized something.

There was no time.

He spun around and charged forth with grit teeth.

Might as well try, right?

The monster on the left slashed at Kairos, but he easily saw that coming and dodged. As for the other monster, it pounced forth, attempting to bite down on him.

Kairos' pupils constricted as he decided to truly let loose with his insanity.

Instead of dodging, Kairos used his future vision to predict the monster's trajectory. Then, he lunged forth as well, straight towards the monster.

A long bang resounded.

Kairos headbutt the creature, causing the both of them to recoil backward. His mind went black for a split second from it, but it seemed that the monster was also as disoriented, if not more.

But that didn't mean the other creature was just going to stand by.

It lunged forth, attempting to slash him once more.

However, Kairos quickly recovered from his dazed state and sidestepped. He suddenly recalled the monster that had breathing problems earlier, then got an idea.

Kairos straightened his hand out before plunging it towards the monster's chest. He immediately felt the fingernail on his middle finger break.

But his hand went inside.

Straight towards the monster's heart

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The feeling of sticking one's hand through a monster's flesh was very uncomfortable. That was something Kairos could definitely stand by.

After all, his hand was going through one right now.

Kairos grit his teeth and reached out for the heart, then clenched with everything he had upon doing so. His fingers pushed against the walls of the heart, causing it to burst. The monster was in the middle of attempting to slash Kairos, but roared in pain right after.

It was originally aiming at Kairos' neck, but instead slashed into his arm.

The nails tore into his flesh, peeling it back and leaving a long scar across it. Kairos saw it coming, but there really was nothing he could do about it other than grit his teeth.

Nonetheless, the monster no longer had its heart and wouldn't survive for much longer.

Kairos attempted to pull his hand back out, but his wrist got caught in between the gap of the monster's rib cage. It was almost like shoving your hand into someone's chest wasn't a real fighting tactic or something.

With its last breath, the monster attempted to bite down on his neck. However, Kairos saw it coming and pushed against its forehead with the base of his palm. The monster kept lunging forth, trying to overpower him, but it just barely wasn't enough.

Then, its struggle weakened before it stopped moving.

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

By now, Kairos' eyes were completely bloodshot and the adrenaline nearly made his mind snap.

However, it was still not over.

Suddenly, another monster appeared from behind the corpse he was holding onto. It lunged forth, attempting to bite down on Kairos. However, using his future vision, he was able to react in time.

The base of his palm slammed against the monster's forehead, holding it back.

This was the very last one. Then he would've killed them all.

However, he wasn't in a very good situation.

Currently, one of his hands was caught inside of a corpse and the other was holding off this monster's attempt at biting it. He was nearing his limit, unable to push the creature's head away for much longer.

And if that wasn't bad enough, Kairos saw a claw coming straight for his face.

For just a split second, he felt hopeless.

He regretted his choice of ever coming here in the first place.

However, as quick as those thoughts came, they were banished.

Kairos still hadn't gotten what he wanted out of life yet. He refused to die here.

Kairos stopped thinking and opened his mouth wide.

Then bit down on the monster's neck.

It was as though he had become the monster, using such tactics. I mean, these monsters were biting all the time themselves, it was only fair that he got to use it as well.

Though, that didn't mean it was exactly easy to.

Kairos' teeth dug into the monster's flesh, but it was incredibly hard to move it further. However, instead of doubting his decision to do so, he put his all into it.

By now, his mind hurt too much to think clearly.

Kairos could no longer tell the difference between his future vision and reality. The only thing he felt was a burning feeling from his soul, forcing him to move forward.

One that would never be satisfied.

Blood poured down Kairos' throat, nearly choking him. It was uncomfortably warm and had a sharp metallic taste.

Normally, he would find it disgusting. But instead, he pushed even harder because of what it represented.

Until eventually, a large chunk of flesh had been torn off the monster's neck.

Kairos had a wild look in his eyes along with the piece of flesh in his mouth.

As for the monster, it stood still.

Suddenly, a powerful stream of blood shot out of its neck as the monster collapsed.

The flesh was disgusting, but Kairos was still biting down on it.

Like it wasn't enough.

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

[Multi-kill (Type – Challenge) – 3.0 points awarded]

[First Ten To Multi-kill – Challenge Type (Ninth – by ID: 345315364923) – 10 points awarded]

As those notifications flashed by his eyes, Kairos finally began to calm down. The wild look in his eyes quickly turned into a tired one.

And at that moment, the freezer door burst open, with Nicole at the front.

"Kairos! Are you ok?"

Then she froze.

Behind her were both Harold and Sydney, they appeared with concerned expressions, but once they looked inside, they also couldn't help but freeze.

As for Kairos, he blinked a few times.

He spat out the flesh in his mouth and pulled out his hand from the monster corpse with a little bit of struggle.

Kairos coughed up some of the blood in his mouth.

"I uh… got the fire axe."

He proceeded to open up the case for the fire axe before taking it off the rack that it was on.

The other three were still flabbergasted.

Nicole slowly raised a trembling finger.

"You… you…"

Kairos tried to speak, but some of the blood got caught in his throat, making him cough it up.

Nicole's eyes widened.

"Kairos!"

She began running towards him, over all the corpses.

Harold and Sydney also had frowns on their faces.

Kairos waved his uninjured hand dismissively while still coughing a bit.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. That wasn't my blood I coughed up."

Nicole seemed to calm down a little, but then she saw several large gash wounds on his arm, where the monster clawed him earlier. A concerning amount of blood was seeping out of it.

"What! You're not fine! Gosh, we need to bandage that!"

Nicole set down her backpack and hurriedly took out the medical kit. With trembling hands, she fumbled around with the latch before getting it open. Then, she spotted the bandages and hurriedly took them out, unfurling them with clear panic.

Kairos' eyebrow twitched.

"Calm down, calm down. I'm not dying any time soon. Though it does hurt quite a bit."

Nicole's voice was shaking.

"O-Ok."

However, she really didn't calm down much. After unfurling the roll of bandages, she dropped it back into the medical kit. At the very least it wasn't on the ground which was covered in blood.

Sydney walked over.

"Wait, the wound has to be cleaned first!"

She reached into her bag and brought out a bottle of water with a bit of blood on it. Kairos held out his arm while Sydney unscrewed the cap before pouring the water down.

Kairos' face twitched, but it wasn't too bad for him with all the adrenaline still pumping. The blood washed out along with a tiny bit of dirt.

This wasn't actually what you were supposed to do. In reality, it would be best for Kairos to get something to lift his arm in the air and cover the wound with something until the wound stopped bleeding.

In fact, not doing so could've made him suffer severe side effects if it wasn't for his two points in endurance.

Nonetheless, this was how they did it.

After the bottle was out, Nicole then hurriedly began wrapping the bandages around Kairos' arm.

Almost immediately, his eyebrow twitched.

"That's… that's really tight!"

Nicole gasped.

"Ah! Sorry!"

She unfurled them before doing it more gently this time. After a while, the entire wound was bandaged. Sydney took out the scissors from the medical kit and cut the bandage before tying it up.

"Dear god… what did you do?"

Kairos coughed.

"Well, I saw a lot of monsters inside the freezer, but they were all sleeping. So uh, I figured I could kill them while they were asleep. But… near the end, they woke up anyway and I had to fight off a few of them at once."

Harold furrowed his brows.

"That… wasn't the risk way too big for something like that?"

Nicole frowned.

"You could've at least got us to help!"

Kairos cleared his throat as his mind rapidly thought of a lie.

"By the time I opened the freezer, you guys were already gone. I didn't want to call out as that would awaken them. At the same time, I didn't want to wait too long and give up this opportunity as they might have woken up."

Nicole furrowed her brows.

"But that was still way too dangerous! You can't do something like that again!"

Kairos nodded.

"Alright."

Though he agreed, Kairos already knew that he was probably going to do something similar at some point.

Harold pressed his lips together.

"I… I don't think this was worth just a fire axe."

Kairos raised the axe in his hand.

"Well, we got one now. Though I did ruin my weapon in the process, so our overall weapon count stayed the same. Who do you think should get it?"

A bitter smile formed on Harold's face.

"Since you worked so hard for it, I imagine it's only natural you get it."

Kairos chuckled.

"I guess so."

Nicole seemed to be on the verge of crying and shook him.

"You really can't do that again!"

Kairos raised his hands.

"Ok, ok!"

Sydney furrowed her brows.

"…But why were there so many in this place?"

Kairos sighed.

"I think it's because they prefer a cold environment to sleep in. I guess that means that hot places are better to stay at. And that also explains why there weren't too many monsters out on the streets too."

Sydney nodded.

"Ah… that makes sense."

Kairos sighed.

"Anyway… I need to take a rest. But not with all these dead bodies."

He narrowed his eyes to lower how much he saw as the stress was really getting to him. Kairos hurriedly left the freezer, put his glasses back on, and slung his backpack onto his shoulders.

Sydney's brows furrowed.

"You are… really bloody right now."

Kairos blinked a few times.

"Ah, good point. Is there a clothes section here?"

Harold shook his head.

"Not here, but there is a clothing store nearby."

Kairos nodded.

"Perfect. Let's go there."

He grabbed a few extra water bottles that were still in the grocery store, as much as his backpack fit. Then, he used the extra one to wash away some of the blood on him before it dried.

The group quickly left the grocery store before heading into the clothing shop.

Kairos changed into new clothes and cleaned up most of the blood on his body. There was still a strong stench of it emitting from his body, but there wasn't much to do about that.

The group went to the back of the shop and found a pretty large changing room that could fit all of them.

Kairos yawned.

"Alright. Can someone keep watch?"

The others were also having trouble keeping their eyes open. After all, they didn't sleep last night and only had a few hours afterward. Sydney raised her hand.

"I will. I'm used to staying up."

Kairos nodded.

"Just wake someone else up after a few hours to take over. Preferably not me."

And with that, he laid down and shut his eyes.

After several hours, Kairos woke up. His eyes slowly opened to see another pair of eyes, startling him.

He snapped awake to realize that Nicole was looking at him.

"You… you are supposed to be watching the entrance."

Nicole shook visibly, breaking out of a trance.

"Ah, sorry, sorry!"

Kairos stretched and yawned.

"Just keep your eyes on the entrance"

Nicole nodded, then did as told.

After confirming Nicole was looking away, Kairos snuck open his status panel.

However, his eyes widened once he saw something he didn't expect.

[Private Announcement]

It didn't seem like anything too special at first, but Kairos quickly realized the implications behind the announcement.

[First Ten To Multi-kill – Challenge Type (Tenth – by ID: 510923457834)]

The first thing Kairos did was memorize this line of numbers.

'Five, one, zero, nine. Two thousand, three hundred and forty-five. Seventy-eight. Thirty-four.'

He repeated that in his mind several times until he was confident that it was in his memory.

Nicole turned around then looked at him strangely.

"Are you ok? You're just… staring into nothing."

Kairos nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

He recalled that he had gotten the same achievement as the one shown in the announcement. In other words, once somebody had gotten a 'Top Ten' achievement, anybody that had already gotten it would be notified.

And they would see their ID.

What that also meant, was nine people had seen his ID after he got the tenth challenge kill. After that, eight people had seen his ID after he got the ninth multi kill.

Though there was probably some overlap from those nine and eight people, at the bare minimum, nine people were shown his ID. This could be seen as both a good thing or a bad thing.

If Kairos wanted to stay low, he had to make sure not to show his status panel to others, especially if they wanted to look at IDs. However, among these few people, having this ID was also proof of power in a certain sense.

Depending on the mentality of the other people that saw his ID, it could be the basis of cooperation.

However, Kairos wasn't willing to trust random strangers. In fact, he wasn't even willing to fully trust Nicole and her parents.

As such, this private announcement feature gave him a headache.

Kairos gave a quick glance at Nicole. After confirming she was looking towards the entrance, he closed the announcement and opened up his status panel.

[Status]

[ID: 345315364923]

[Rank: F]

[Objective: Touch Red Sunlight]

[Proof Of Perfection Points: 20.5]

[Stats –

Strength – 2.0

Endurance – 2.0

Agility – 4.0

Willpower – 2.3

Mana Capacity – 0.0

Magic Affinity – 0.0]

[Special Abilities: N/A]

[Hide]

The first thing that caught his attention was the staggering amount of points.

Twenty and a half.

That was more than all of his current points combined and by a long shot too. It was then that Kairos thought that he could've added points while he was fighting. However, he soon came to the realization that it wasn't that simple.

First off, the sudden loss of energy from adding points couldn't be good. On top of that, he would have to manually tap onto the status panel with his finger to add points, meaning that it would waste time.

…However, there still might be a situation where adding points mid-fight could be useful.

Suddenly, Nicole spoke, prompting Kairos to hastily close the status panel.

"Hey."

Kairos coughed.

"Um, hi."

Nicole took some time to respond.

"It… really is real, isn't it?"

Kairos blinked a few times.

"Well, of course."

Nicole was still looking at the entrance, but shifted her gaze down ever so slightly.

"I thought maybe if I went to bed, that all of this would turn out to be fake. That I would wake up in my warm bed once again."

Kairos sighed.

"Sometimes reality is more surprising than any lie."

Nicole brought her legs up to her torso and hugged them.

"Normally at this time, I would be in school. Probably complaining about some math concept that makes no sense."

She shivered slightly.

"But now…"

Kairos narrowed his eyes.

If Nicole's mentality remained this way, she would probably become more of a liability than anything else. Not wanting that to happen, Kairos quickly tried to think of something and said the first idea that came to mind.

"It doesn't mean that it will be like this forever."

Nicole turned to look at him.

"What do you mean?"

A small smile formed on Kairos' face.

"We can work towards a future where everything goes back to the way it is. Then you can complain about doing math again."

Nicole blinked a few times.

"Make everything back to the way it was…"

A bitter smile formed on her face.

"Maybe not exactly the way it was. We should get rid of math from school."

Kairos rolled his eyes.

"Then how am I supposed to make you do things for me in exchange for the test answers?"

Nicole stuck her tongue out.

"You'll just have to be more creative!"

Kairos scoffed.

"That's too much work."

Nicole laughed and turned away.

There was a brief moment of silence.

Nicole's voice was a little dreamy.

"Do you really think everything can go back to the way it was?"

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"Not anytime soon, that's for sure."

The corner of his lip turned up.

"But one day. That's for sure."

Nicole shut her eyes.

"I hope so…"

After a minute or so, Kairos shifted his gaze towards his injured arm and lightly rubbed it. The wound was still a little sore still. However, for how long it had been, it had already healed considerably.

Kairos shook his head.

"Anyways. It's probably time for us to get going. We shouldn't sleep more than needed."

Nicole nodded.

"Ok."

The two of them woke up the others. Then, they agreed to begin moving towards their original destination, the wilderness.

The sun was getting close to setting. However, it was still quite high in the air. There were still a few hours of sunlight left.

They went back into the residential area, moving on through the alleyways. Though they traveled for nearly an hour, they only came across a single monster, which Harold took care of by charging forth.

He was probably feeling like he hadn't been doing his part.

By now, they had reached an elementary school that just so happened to be along the way. It was made in a way where the first floor consisted of a fairly large square, while the second floor was a smaller square on top. Almost like a pyramid.

Kairos was leading the way and looked up to the sun.

"I doubt it will be easy to navigate during the night. I imagine the school wouldn't be a bad place to stay, so let's go there."

The others were in agreement, thus they walked towards the school, constantly looking around. Once they reached the wall, Kairos led the way around the wall, searching for an openable door.

As they approached a corner, there was a faint sound of mumbling.

This made Kairos furrow his brows.

Was there some drunk or heavily traumatized person here?

He tightened the grip on his fire axe and continued forward. The sound of the mumbling got a little louder.

"Three, six, forty-nine, twenty-three."

For a split second, Kairos couldn't understand why that person was saying those numbers, but suddenly remembered that was the exact thing he did earlier.

It wasn't common sense, but there were a fairly large number of people that knew a certain strategy about memorizing a long string of numbers.

Saying each number one by one would make one easily mix them up. However, if they mixed it up slightly, treating them as two-digit numbers or higher. The only real reason there was to be memorizing numbers was if they had also seen the private announcement.

This made Kairos immediately realize the person up ahead was not only someone that completed some sort of first ten achievement, but ranked at least ninth.

He froze and turned around hurriedly, putting up a finger on his lips. There was a very serious glare on his face, prompting the others to also be as quiet as they could.

Kairos gestured for them to go backwards. And so, they started to do exactly that.

But that was when a voice came from above them.

"Why are you so afraid of me?"

Though Kairos heard it beforehand, it was already too late. He looked upwards to see a man with blonde hair that reached his shoulders looking down at them with a confident smile. His clothes didn't look like anything special, but they were free from blood. Though that was probably more of a bad sign in this case.

Nicole and her parents froze up in fear, unable to speak.

Kairos internally cursed, but he kept a shocked expression on his face.

"Woah!… Should we be afraid of you?"

The man rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger.

"Well, if you are strong enough to warrant being allies, then there won't be anything to be afraid of."

Kairos' eyebrow twitched.

"And how strong exactly do you need us to be?"

The man chuckled.

"Why don't you show me your status panels? That will make it pretty clear"

Kairos narrowed his eyes.

"That is way too personal, we can't do that."

Nicole tensed up and whispered into his ear.

"What? Why are you-"

Kairos raised a finger right next to her mouth, shushing her.

The man with blonde hair raised an eyebrow.

"Is it really such a big deal to show me your status panels?"

Kairos clicked his tongue.

"Yes, it is. Our status panels essentially show a breakdown of our strengths and weaknesses. That is simply giving too much information to someone we can't trust."

The man with blonde hair narrowed his eyes.

"So you don't want to be allies?"

Kairos looked back up.

"Do you really want to be allies with someone that shows off that information willy nilly?"

The man with blonde hair chuckled. He reached to his back and pulled off a fairly large recurve bow. There were a few things about this bow that made it stand out and less normal.

The most notable feature was its blood red color. Like the red sun, or even Nicole's watch. It was also quite long. The man wasn't short, but the bow seemed to span nearly two-thirds of his height. As for the part the man was holding, it seemed to be meticulously decorated with various wind-like patterns.

However, there was no bowstring.

Nonetheless, the man smirked confidently when he pulled it out.

"If you aren't going to show me your status panels, there aren't many other ways to prove your strength."

Kairos smiled.

"It seems you have something in mind?"

The man nodded.

"If you can dodge my attack, then I will consider you strong enough to be my ally."

Kairos tilted his head to the side.

"So if I can dodge your attack, we all team up."

The man raised an eyebrow.

"I will team up with you, yes."

Kairos shook his head.

"Either all of us or none."

The man seemed slightly displeased. He fell silent, making the atmosphere feel a little dangerous. However, Kairos fearlessly looked at him the entire time.

And eventually, the man nodded.

"Alright. If you can dodge my attack, then we can all be friends."

Nicole seemed rather nervous, but eventually stuck up her hand.

"I-I should be the one to do it instead!"

The man raised an eyebrow with interest.

"Oh, now you want to try?"

Kairos nudged Nicole.

"Come on, don't you trust me?"

Nicole pressed her lips together.

"But… I can move really fast, especially with that-"

"It will be fine."

Kairos quickly cut her off.

The man rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger.

"Haha, so you aren't even the fastest in the group, but want to be the one tested anyway?"

Kairos smirked and shrugged his shoulders.

"Pretty much."

The man smiled.

"I like you already, kid."

A gleam flashed by his eyes.

"But that doesn't mean I'm going to take it easy on you."

Kairos waved his hand dismissively.

"Alright, alright. Are you going to start now?"

The man laughed.

"Since you are so eager, of course."

He reached out towards one end as though there was a string to be pulled for the bow. Harold and Sydney could not help but think that this man had no idea what he was doing.

However, that was when a blue stream of translucent blue light appeared in the form of a string, starting from his fingers. From the hand that was holding the bow, an arrowhead formed which grew to become a fully fledged out arrow.

The man closed one eye.

"Get ready."

Nicole and her parents collectively gasped when they saw mana appear out of nowhere. As for Kairos, his lip twitched.

He couldn't help but wonder how someone was able to use mana already.

Nonetheless, there was no time to think about that now. There was an arrow to dodge.

And so, he took off his glasses.

Kairos did slightly regret not putting more points into agility earlier, but there wasn't really a way of him knowing, so he dropped that thought.

He imagined that having four points in agility and being able to see the future should be enough to dodge, thus confidently stared at the arrow.

While the man was still drawing his bow, Kairos suddenly felt an extremely strong pain in his head. Perhaps if he didn't increase his willpower, he would've directly blacked out. However, Kairos instinctively realized that the man had released his arrow, and that he didn't catch it.

And so, he tilted his head to the side right when that pain came. The future vision of that disappeared along with the pain.

However, right afterwards, it reappeared at the center of his chest.

Like last time, he instinctively spun to the side.

Then, the arrow shot forth.

It moved far faster than a bullet. To the human eye, there was basically no difference between its speed and the speed of light.

With a faint whipping sound, it shot towards where Kairos' head was, but suddenly curved downwards to his chest, then passed right by him.

A thunderous bang rang out.

The arrow slammed against the ground, severely cracking the pavement and even scattering a few fragments into the air.

Right after, the arrow disappeared, with only the aftermath as proof of its existence.

Cold sweat appeared on Kairos' back. Honestly, he really wasn't expecting it to be that fast. Even if his agility was several times higher, he wouldn't have been able to dodge it. The only reason he could was because of his future vision.

The man raised an eyebrow with clear interest.

"Huh. You actually dodged it."

Kairos took a deep breath as he put his glasses back on.

"And you really weren't joking when you said you weren't going to hold back."

The man chuckled.

"Of course not. I must say, you have damn good instincts."

Kairos smirked.

"And you shoot that thing too damn fast."

The man laughed and hopped off the building, landing next to Kairos.

"Not fast enough, apparently."

He reached out with his hand.

"My name is Chase. What about you lot?"

Kairos cleared his throat.

"I don't believe in shaking hands as it can transmit diseases, which we should be especially careful of in an apocalypse."

He then adjusted his glasses.

"Oh yeah, and my name is Kairos."

Chase rolled his eyes and lowered his hand.

"Alright. What about the rest of you?"

Nicole and the others were still astounded by the power output of Chase's arrow. However, they broke out of it after being called out.

Nicole sheepishly raised her hand.

"Um, my name is Nicole."

Sydney gave a slight bow.

"I am Sydney."

As for Harold, he tried to wave his hand casually, but the nervousness still seeped through.

"My name is Harold."

Chase nodded.

"Alright. Where are you guys off to?"

Nicole averted her gaze.

"Um, we were going to-"

"A nearby grocery store after taking a rest in this school."

Kairos cut her off. Chase gave him a strange look, but decided not to probe.

"Alright. I've already fortified one of the classrooms on the second floor, so we can use that."

Kairos nodded.

"Alright. But since we obviously can't fully trust each other, we should be at a distance. Also, I'm not comfortable with you taking watch by yourself."

Chase clicked his tongue.

"Alright, but how do you think I feel? I have to sleep while trusting you people."

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"There's not much you can do about that, now can you?"

Chase chuckled.

"I suppose not. Let me lead the way then."

With that, he led them inside the school.

This place was rather peaceful. Other than the dirt and blood the group tracked in from walking inside, it was more or less clean. The empty halls with lockers lined on the sides almost made the whole apocalypse seem like an illusion.

Kairos snuck a glance at Nicole, who ended up looking back in curiosity.

After that, he faced forwards once again.

Kairos began thinking about why this man wanted allies. Obviously, he wasn't weak. Even if Kairos didn't know he wasn't one of the top ten, the arrow was enough to show that. The immediate conclusion that came to Kairos was cannon fodder.

Perhaps there was something special he wanted, but there were too many monsters hanging around that place and he needed some sacrifices. However, that wouldn't make too much sense.

After all, instead of proposing a place to go himself, the man asked where they were going and pretty much accepted it.

Kairos was still thinking about it, all the way until they reached the second floor and entered the room Chase was talking about.

As promised, it was fortified, in a certain sense.

There were bookshelves placed where the windows were, blocking them. As for the doors, they were blocked by several layers of overturned desks.

After awkwardly climbing over them, they got to the center of the place which was relatively clean.

Nicole frowned.

"I don't want to sleep on the cold hard ground again."

Chase shrugged his shoulders.

"It's the apocalypse young lady. We don't have such luxuries."

Nicole looked down and didn't speak up once more.

Kairos stretched.

"I suppose it is time for us to have a proper rest. Since I slept the longest, I will keep watch first and for a little more time."

Chase rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger.

"I will keep watch with you."

Kairos blinked a few times.

"Suit yourself."

Nicole and the others seemed to be a little hesitant, but they eventually laid down on the ground, trying to fall asleep. As for Kairos he just remained sitting up next to them. A couple meters away was Chase, who was looking at him.

For a while, they were just silently staring at each other.

Eventually, several snoring sounds filled the room.

Noticing this, Kairos spoke up, but suppressed his voice so that it wouldn't wake up the others.

"You can just go to sleep. There isn't much of a point in staying up."

Chase simply smiled.

"Haha, I'm not that sleepy right now anyway, so I will hold off."

Kairos slowly nodded.

"Alright."

This entire time, he had been brainstorming why Chase wanted to have allies. Obviously, Chase didn't trust others, so concluding that he just wanted someone to watch over while he slept didn't feel right to Kairos.

If he was in Chase's place, Kairos would rather just set up some warning trap so that if anybody opened the door, the sound could wake him up.

Traps were far more trustworthy than people after all.

Kairos took a deep breath.

Maybe… it was because of the food?

He soon discarded that possibility after thinking about it. After all, there was no need to become allies for the supplies. Just killing was obviously the better option.

Not only would the supplies be acquired, but you wouldn't have to worry about people using them either.

Eventually, Chase spoke up.

"Hey, what happened to your arm there?"

Kairos snapped to focus.

"Ah, I was negligent and let a monster scratch me."

Chase raised an eyebrow.

"You were able to dodge my arrow but couldn't even dodge a swipe from a monster?"

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, the monster didn't give me a warning it would attack."

Chase scoffed.

"With the speed of my arrow, there basically wasn't a warning. Plus, the monsters almost always scream their lungs out before attacking."

Kairos sighed.

"I don't know what to tell you. At the end of the day, I got scratched by a monster."

Chase narrowed his eyes.

"Hah. I don't believe that."

Kairos looked at him, stupefied.

"Then what else could it be?"

Chase smirked.

"I think you have some power that you keep sealed in your arm. Am I wrong?"

Kairos' eyebrow twitched.

For some reason, the word, 'chuunibyou', flashed by in his thoughts.

"…I can unfurl the bandages to show you my injury."

Chase laughed.

"Oh, really? Then please do."

Kairos sighed and untied the bandage before taking it off. The wound revealed had already healed considerably, though the gashes were still very apparent. It would probably still take a little longer for the wound to scar over.

Seeing this, Chase seemed a little surprised.

"Huh. Is that just how your arm naturally is?"

Kairos pressed his lips together.

"Why would this be how my arm naturally is? I got slashed."

He stretched it out.

"Though I must say, taking off the bandage makes me feel like I've been released from prison. It was getting way too warm."

Chase clasped his hands together.

"So you're not going to put the bandage back on?"

Kairos shrugged.

"As long as I keep it clean, it should heal faster this way. The cuts are pretty shallow now."

Chase blinked a few times.

"So you really don't have any power sealed in your arm."

Kairos raised the fire axe.

"Just a normal guy with an axe. I feel like I should be the one asking you questions as you obviously have gotten some kind of power with the bow and magic."

The corner of Chase's lip twitched.

"I'm just a normal guy with a bow."

Kairos rolled his eyes.

"Come on. Not even you sound like you believe that."

Chase laughed.

"Hey, the definition of normal has changed quite a bit, don't you think?"

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"Sure, but that doesn't make you normal."

Chase smirked.

"What makes you say that?"

Kairos raised an eyebrow.

"I don't think I need to say anything. A simple look is enough."

Chase rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger.

"But… I feel that there is another reason."

Kairos intuitively understood what he meant, but decided to pretend to be oblivious.

"And what could that be? Your hairstyle?"

Chase chuckled.

"Just a suspicion."

With that, he rested his head against the wall.

Even during their conversation, Kairos was still thinking of how Chase could want allies. He felt like the answer was right at his fingertips, but he just couldn't connect it all together.

Kairos decided to ask some questions.

"So how did you find out a way to use mana anyway? I can't add anything into my magic stats."

Chase raised an eyebrow.

"You couldn't?"

Kairos shook his head.

"No. You were able to from the very start?"

Chase smiled.

"Yeah."

Kairos clicked his tongue.

"That's unfair. You can just use magic while we have to use our own weapons."

Chase shrugged his shoulders.

"It's not as though my mana capacity is infinite. It takes quite a while to recharge."

Kairos blinked a few times.

"You're still better off than us. You can always resort to using your melee weapon even without mana."

The corner of Chase's lip twitched. After a few moments, he sighed.

"Actually… I can't use any other weapons."

Kairos blinked a few times.

"Eh? Your arms don't look that flimsy."

Chase clicked his tongue.

"I shouldn't, but I'll just tell you. If I try to use something else, this damn bow gets offended."

Kairos slowly nodded.

"Ah. I suppose you can deal with a few monsters very easily, but once there are too many, you can't do much because of that."

Chase shrugged his shoulders.

"I guess, but there haven't been any big groups so far."

Kairos narrowed his eyes, feeling like Chase's tone was slightly off.

"But they likely will in the future, no?"

Chase sighed.

"Maybe. I don't know."

At this point, Kairos relaxed his muscles that he didn't realize he was tensing. He had more or less understood why Chase wanted to team up.

Report chapter

After roughly a third of the night had passed by, Kairos decided to wake someone else for them to watch. At that point, Chase decided to rest as well. While keeping watch with Kairos, he definitely had trouble keeping his eyes open, so it seemed that Chase really needed to get some rest.

The night passed by rather uneventfully.

By the time Kairos woke up, Nicole and her parents were awake. However, Chase was still tossing and turning around.

Harold whispered.

"What if we leave him here and leave quietly? I don't feel safe next to him."

Nicole pouted.

"He tried to kill one of us so easily! There's no way we can trust him."

Kairos waved his hand dismissively.

"His personality is a little bad, but I think it's fine to take him with us, at least for now. He won't betray us any time soon because he really needs someone to ally with."

Sydney furrowed her brows.

"But still, why should we take someone that might turn on us at any moment?"

Kairos sighed.

"Because he is powerful."

Harold frowned.

"Doesn't that mean he can easily backstab us?"

Kairos raised a finger.

"But, that man also has a weakness."

Nicole blinked a few times.

"He does?"

Kairos nodded.

"He can only use so many arrows. After that, he will be… relatively weak."

Sydney raised an eyebrow.

"How do you know that?"

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"I found out by talking to him."

Harold furrowed his brows.

"But what if he was lying?"

Kairos shook his head.

"I have a good sense for when people lie. I'm ninety percent confident he was telling the truth."

Nicole frowned slightly.

"But that means there's a ten percent chance…"

Kairos rolled his eyes.

"If there really aren't limitations in how he can shoot his arrows, then he would've just killed us straight away. He has no reason to team up with a bunch of random people like us."

Sydney narrowed her eyes.

"That… does seem to make sense."

Kairos waved his hand dismissively.

"Frankly, having him on our side is far better than provoking him now. He can easily assassinate people using his arrows."

Nicole muttered.

"O-Ok…"

Kairos sighed.

"Anyways, we should eat a bit. Once we are done, let's wake him up and set off."

He pulled out his bag of bread, giving each person a slice. The other three also brought out a few things they brought from the grocery store. One thing Kairos gradually realized was that even after eating quite a bit, he still didn't feel that full.

Sydney noticeably ate the most, with Nicole right after. Harold was the one that ate the least, and he also made a surprised comment about the other's appetites.

It seemed like spending too many points could easily lead one to need more food as well. Kairos realized that they would probably need to restock more often, which wouldn't be too hard.

However, he couldn't help but worry about the future. Hopefully, he would find a solution before then.

After roughly thirty minutes, they finished up.

As for Chase, he was still sleeping. However, he had his brows furrowed, like there was some sort of bad dream.

Kairos coughed.

"Hey, wake up."

Chase did not wake up.

Kairos sighed and nudged his arm with the tip of his shoe.

"Wake up."

Suddenly, Chase sat up with his eyes wide open. He had already raised his bow and conjured a mana arrow onto it.

While Nicole and the others were afraid, Kairos simply clicked his tongue.

"We allied up, remember? An enemy would silently slit your throat, not wake you up."

Chase blinked a few times before lowering his bow.

"Ah, right. Good morning."

Kairos nodded.

"Good morning."

Chase looked down at the mana conjured arrow he created.

"Hold on, I have to get rid of this thing."

He then walked over to the windows blocked by bookshelves and easily pushed one aside with his shoulder. With an elbow, Chase smashed the window before aiming outside.

After a few seconds, he released it.

Kairos rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger.

"Did you hit something?"

Chase nodded.

"One of the monsters right in the skull."

Kairos blinked a few times.

"You can hit things from that far away, huh?"

Chase laughed.

"I've always been using a bow. My archery is probably one of the best."

Kairos nodded.

"Plus you can curve the arrows."

Chase smirked.

"Heh. So you saw it. I suppose dodging that arrow wasn't all a fluke."

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"Anyway, let's get to a grocery store."

He turned to look at others and saw Nicole in particular was pouting silently.

"Do any of you know a closeby grocery store?"

Sydney hummed to herself.

"I do remember one along the way, yes."

After a few moments, Chase turned his head.

"What do you mean by along the way?"

Kairos shrugged.

"It just means the way we were traveling. There is a nearby grocery store, but we've already been there, so there's no point in going back."

Chase raised an eyebrow.

"…Alright."

Sydney seemed a little confused, but just nodded.

"Alright, I can lead the way."

The group got out of the school and immediately noticed that there were several bloodstains around the normally clean pavement.

Harold sucked in a cold breath.

"They were just outside the school it seems like."

Chase nodded.

"They are far more active during the night."

Kairos let out a soft hum.

"I suppose it won't be too bad for us during the day."

With that, Sydney led the way, passing by several houses. Along the way, Chase ate a few energy bars.

At some point, they encountered two monsters hiding in between the alleyways of the houses. However, Sydney was able to react in time, taking care of one while Harold dealt with the other. As for Chase, he didn't even try to kill the monsters, seemingly uninterested in the points they offered.

They ended up seeing a few monsters through the windows of houses that were just sleeping. However, other than the slight scare, there were no issues.

Eventually, they arrived at another grocery store, lined up against several other shops. However, they weren't the only people there.

A set of cars had been lined up in a semi-circle around the grocery store entrance with quite a small group of bandits watching the perimeter. There was also a small group from the outside. The two sides seemed to be arguing with each other.

Harold looked towards the others.

"Maybe… we should avoid this grocery store."

Chase laughed.

"Oh come on. Don't be so scared."

Sydney furrowed her brows.

"It's called being smart!"

Kairos frowned.

"I… I think we should still try."

Nicole looked at him with widened eyes.

"But why?"

Kairos shook his head.

"Remember when I killed those monsters in the freezer while they were sleeping? They gave me a decent amount of points which I used to strengthen my body. It was my mistake doing so, as I didn't realize it would increase my appetite by so much."

Chase raised an eyebrow.

"Monsters in the freezer? May you elaborate further?"

Kairos clicked his tongue.

"I just killed monsters while they were sleeping. That's all."

Harold tapped onto his chin.

"But I don't remember you eating that much."

Kairos smiled bitterly.

"That was because I decided not to eat too much. In reality, I'm actually really hungry."

Nicole gasped.

"Then why didn't you eat more?"

Kairos adjusted his glasses.

"I was planning on catching up at the grocery store."

Sydney frowned.

"Then let's just go to the next grocery store."

Chase smiled.

"And what if that one is defended by even more people?"

Harold clenched his fist.

"We don't know that!"

Kairos spoke softly.

"But with every second, more people are taking the limited supplies from these stores. Since these people are willing to defend it, that must mean there is enough inside worth defending."

Chase smirked.

"Exactly."

Nicole grit her teeth.

"I guess we have to. If we want to… survive."

And so, the group walked towards the grocery store. Chase took the lead naturally as he did not bother slowing down.

As they got closer, they heard the conversation.

"For the last goddamn time, you're not getting in here!"

"Please, I just need a little! Surely some of the food is about to spoil, right?"

One of the bandits was pointing what seemed to be a black pistol at a woman with two kids behind her.

A few other bandits looked over, but didn't act.

The one pointing the gun frowned.

"I told you already, I don't want to waste a bullet, but I will if I have to!"

As for the woman, she seemed rather desperate.

"And I told you that I have no other option! My children and I don't have anything to eat! T-There was supposed to be a sale today, so I wanted to wait a little for our groceries!"

The bandit furrowed his brows.

"That's none of our business, alright!"

As they walked closer, Harold cursed.

"They have guns! How do they even have those? Guns are illegal!"

Sydney furrowed her brows.

"The police station! They must've raided that place."

Nicole clenched her fist.

"We can't fight people with guns! We have to turn away!"

Though Kairos didn't say anything, he essentially had the same opinion. He really didn't expect people to just have guns. However, before he could call out that decision, Chase walked up nonchalantly, waving his hand.

"Hey, we are here to take your food!"

Several bandits already had their eyes on us, but now, they pointed their guns too.

"Get out of here!"

"We won't hesitate to fire!"

"We've already killed people before! Don't test us!"

Kairos furrowed his brows, wondering what Chase's plan could possibly be. Even assuming he had enough mana to kill all of them, the time it took to shoot the arrows would be more than enough for them to shoot multiple times.

Nonetheless, Kairos didn't believe Chase was that stupid. And so, he simply watched.

Chase didn't even pull the bow off his back. Instead, he spread his arms out wide, as though trying to welcome them.

"Look, I'm just telling you what's going to happen in advance because I'm nice, alright?"

The bandits seemed a little confused, but still kept their guns pointed at him.

"Stay back!"

"You want to get pumped full of lead?"

"With how many of us there are, we are bound to hit you!"

Chase narrowed his eyes as a mocking smile formed on his face.

"Oh, really?"

The bandits began glancing at each other, but quickly regained their confidence.

"Yeah!"

"Scram already!"

Chase lowered his head ever so slightly.

"Well, before that, how about I tell you a story?"

Frowns formed across the bandits' faces. One of them cursed, tightening his grip around the pistol.

"No, why should we care about your story?"

Chase continued on as though the bandits were actually an audience that couldn't wait for his performance.

"Haha, don't get too excited! I will tell you the story now."

The bandits looked at each other with clear confusion, now listening to a retelling.

Chase pointed towards the bow on his back.

"I've always used the bow for most of my life, getting pretty good at it. In fact, there were several times where I went out hunting with it."

He sighed as though recalling good memories.

"I always had this one friend with me that was insistent on getting me to use guns instead of my bow. He was like me, but instead of liking bows, he was a gun nut."

One of the bandits cursed.

"We don't care about your damn story!"

Chase held his hand up.

"Don't be so impatient! A proper story must also have proper pacing."

He cleared his throat.

"Anyway, we would always compete in hunting, to see who could get the most game. It was always pretty close, but I would win most of the time. In the end, my friend would blame the gun, constantly switching back and forth between various kinds."

Chase chuckled.

"And every time he brought a new gun, he would drone on about the various mechanisms and parts within it, showing me each feature. He ended up showing me nearly every gun in existence."

He nodded to himself.

"It was boring as all hell, but those were still some good times."

One of the bandits held their gun out a little farther.

"Alright, you told your story. Now leave!"

Chase tilted his head to the side.

"It seems you didn't realize why I told you that story…"

A sinister smile formed on his face.


Read I See One Second Into The Future: Loner In The Apocalypse Chapter 17 online for free - AllNovelFull

The bandits began losing their composure. Their hands became a little sweaty as nervousness flitted within their eyes.

"We don't care about your story!"

"Back off right now, don't think we will hold back!"

"We will kill you where you stand!"

They said that, however, the enthusiasm behind it was far less than before, replaced with fear.

Chase let out a mocking laugh.

"Oh, and how exactly will you kill me?"

One of the bandits clenched their teeth.

"By shooting you!"

Chase slowly took the bow off of his back, prompting the bandits to anxiously threaten him.

"Stop right now!"

"We will shoot you!"

However, Chase didn't listen. Instead, he slowly reached towards his bow.

"You see, that's a little hard for me to believe…"

Mana began forming at Chases' fingertips, forming an arrow and string.

"…After all, those are just toy guns painted black, no?"

The expressions of the bandits became pale.

"Dammit!"

"Wh-What the hell is that blue arrow?!"

"Shit, just get our weapons. He's only one person, we can overwhelm him!"

With that, the bandits dropped their guns and pulled out various weapons like baseball bats and pipes. At this time, Kairos decided to walk up. There was one bandit that decided to run into the grocery store. Though it didn't seem to be a person fleeing out of fear.

But a person calling for reinforcements.

Chase narrowed his eyes, shifting his aim away from the closest bandit to the one that was running. Then, he let the mana arrow loose.

The arrow whipped through the air at incredibly high speeds, shooting straight past several tiny gaps before causing the runner's head to explode. Chase was still quite far away from the cars, so the bandits would have trouble closing the gap right away. Not to mention, they had to vault over their own cars.

Now that one of them had died gruesomely, most of them froze.

However, one of the bandits kept his composure and yelled out.

"It's only one person! We can get him easily!"

Kairos walked up next to chase with his fire axe resting against his shoulder.

"Actually, it's two people."

Chase turned to him with a smirk.

"These small fry won't be a problem for you, right?"

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"I can't see how they would be."

The bandit who spoke up earlier frowned.

"It makes no difference! We have the number advantage!"

This seemed to wake up most of them out of their stupor, prompting them to charge with fierce expressions, raising their weapons high.

Kairos narrowed his eyes.

"Let me give you guys a fair warning. If you get too close, I will kill you."

He said it very clearly, but none of the bandits were intimidated. Perhaps the lanky figure was part of it. However, Kairos didn't really care if they did back off or not. He just said that so Nicole and the others would be less shocked by him killing people.

Though Nicole did kill two people earlier, she was also in an unstable state, so it wasn't too hard to accept. That wasn't the case for Kairos.

Once the bandits got within five meters, Kairos pulled the fire axe off his shoulder and began walking forwards.

The bandits were not afraid. In fact, some of them even had confident smirks on their faces.

"Get out of the way kid! This is your last warning!"

Kairos raised an eyebrow.

"I think you misunderstood."

At that moment, three of the bandits swung the weapons at various angles towards him. However, like a leaf being blown in the wind, he slipped past all of them before appearing behind the bandits.

"You see, I am the one warning you."

The bandits began turning around. However, before one of them could do anything, a gleam flashed by.

With a clear thwack, the man's head flew up into the air.

[Killed Creature – 0.1 points awarded]

It almost felt like cutting a thin tree, but with more blood. Kairos had truly killed a person for the first time in his life. However, he didn't feel anything special. Though he always expected it to be this way for a while.

The bandits cursed before swinging their weapons at him again. However, Kairos easily dodged out of the way once more. In reality, he didn't even need his future vision to pull off these feats. His four points in agility were already enough to completely overwhelm them.

One of the bandits yelled.

"Surround him!"

Though a little disorganized, the bandits were able to quickly surround him, making a circle of fifteen people. Then, then slowly got closer to him.

"Drop your weapon right now!"

Kairos rolled his eyes.

"Did you guys really think you could get around me if I didn't let you?"

A few of the bandits opened their mouths to speak, but before they could, Kairos' figure moved, nearly becoming a blur.

He dashed towards an arbitrary side of the circle before swinging his fire axe.

[Killed Creature – 0.1 points awarded]

[Killed Creature – 0.1 points awarded]

In just a moment, two heads shot out into the air, spraying blood all around. Their respective bodies were pushed aside by Kairos, letting him break out of the encirclement.

The bandits were now clearly afraid.

"How is he so fast?"

"We can't touch him!"

"Quickly, get the other as a hostage!"

One of the bandits pointed towards Chase, wanting to capture him. The man in question simply put the bow onto his back before raising his fists.

"Hey, hey. Just because I'm not using my bow, doesn't mean I'm a damsel in distress."

The eyes of the bandits became a little bloodshot as the nearby ones charged towards Chase. They seemed to be panicking greatly over the death of their teammates and were getting desperate.

Two of them raised their bats before swinging them at Chase's kneecap and stomach. Yet, the person in question simply took a couple steps backwards, dodging it.

While the two were still recovering from their swing, he suddenly charged in, getting up right next to the both of them.

Chase had pulled his arm back before giving one of the bandits a brutal uppercut.

The bandit had no time to react before he suddenly found himself in the air with his head thrown back. He let go of his weapon, letting it land against the floor, while the bandit himself landed on the ground headfirst with a frightening crack.

And died.

The other bandit next to Chase attempted to swing at him with his bat, but before he could do so, Chase used one hand to grab onto the man's head and the other onto his chin.

Then, Chase twisted it, causing a series of snapping sounds to ring out. As he did this, a mocking smile was plastered across his face.

"I've killed wild deer with my bare hands before and they put up a far better fight than you."

The bandits that were charging towards Chase suddenly stopped in their tracks, too afraid to go any further. However, that wasn't their only concern.

It seemed like they had forgotten about the other person they were afraid of earlier.

Suddenly, a bandit's head flew up into the air.

[Killed Creature – 0.1 points awarded]

Kairos was a little stupefied that all of the bandits turned their backs on him before dashing towards Chase. He ended up just staring at their turned backs for a moment, questioning their intelligence.

But at the end of the day, Kairos gave a warning, and they didn't heed it.

As such, he was going to act.

And so, another two heads flew up into the air, spraying blood everywhere.

[Killed Creature – 0.1 points awarded]

[Killed Creature – 0.1 points awarded]

The bandits looked behind them to see Kairos giving them a dead stare while covered in blood. They then turned the other way to see Chase with a mocking smile, still holding onto a body with the head turned the wrong way.

The bandits seemed to break down.

"We have to take care of the kid now!"

"No! We need to get the guy without a weapon and use him as a hostage!"

"I… I'm running away!"

They were completely disorganized.

Two of them ran towards Kairos, obviously with no clear plan in mind. Five of them ran towards Chase. Earlier, someone declared to take him as a hostage, but these five fully intended on killing him if they could. Their minds were simply too frazzled.

Kairos simply sighed. He dodged the flimsy strikes of the bandits before beheading one.

[Killed Creature – 0.1 points awarded]

As for the last bandit, he had completely lost the will to fight. He collapsed onto the ground, shivering.

"D-Don't kill me!"

Kairos tilted his head to the side.

"I warned you, didn't I?"

Before the bandit could say another word, a cold gleam flashed by.

Then, his head came off. Large amounts of blood spewed out from his neck.

On Chase's side, he bent his knees slightly and narrowed his eyes. A metal pipe was swung horizontally towards his head, but he ducked, avoiding it.

Two baseball bats shot towards him at different angles, one on his shoulder and the other at his waist.

Chase clicked his tongue and used his arms to block, letting them slam against his forearms with a thump. Immediately afterwards, Chase let loose with his fists, slamming it against one of their faces, smashing their face in, and sending them back.

Right afterward, however, two more weapons swung towards him, forcing him to step back. He clicked his tongue and looked at Kairos.

"Hey, can you help me out with this?"

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"But you aren't a damsel in distress, remember?"

Chase's eyebrow twitched. He dodged another attack before sending his fist out once more, knocking out another bandit.

"So you only help damsels in distress? What kind of person are you?"

Kairos tilted his head to the side.

"An honorable person that lets capable people fight their own battles."

Chase dodged another few weapon swings before punching someone else. He let out a sigh as he did so.

"Fine, I'll do it myself then."

The last two bandits were clearly afraid, but they still swung their weapons nonetheless. However, Chase simply stepped backward and smiled.

"You shouldn't attack at the same time…"

He then lunged forward, grabbing onto both of the bandits' heads before slamming them together.

"Because it gives me a window."

The two of them collapsed to the ground powerlessly. Chase immediately chased after the one that ran away afterwards. By now, the bandit that ran away had almost reached the blockade made by the cars.

However, Chase was simply too fast.

The bandit heard heavy steps coming for him, approaching at a speed he couldn't possibly outrun. Then, he turned his head around to see a hand coming right for his face.

Chase had leaped up into the air before grabbing on the last bandit's face before slamming it down on the pavement.

Kairos cleared his throat, trying to hide his surprise.

"See? You didn't need any help in the end."

Chase rolled his eyes.

"Well now my hands are messy and you are to blame.

Before Kairos could respond, another voice rang out.

"Who dares mess around in my turf?"

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Chase looked up from the bandit he had just slammed onto the floor. Then smiled.

"And what is a pretty lady like yourself doing here?"

"What am I doing here? This is my place!"

There was a young woman standing at the entrance of the grocery store with a deep frown on her face. She had dark red hair, which could've been dyed, or maybe some byproduct of the red sun.

There was an ugly scar that stretched across her eye. The wound still looked like it was in the process of healing, so was probably recent. Covering the eye that had been slashed through was a black eyepatch. She had a relatively slim figure, but nothing too different from average.

However, the most notable thing about her was the blood-red katana she held in her hand.

She looked around, seeing all of the corpses and decapitated heads.

"It seems you all have made yourself at home."

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"It seems you are a wannabe pirate trying to sail the seven seas."

The corner of the lady's mouth twitched.

"You all have some nerve…"

She began walking up. From behind, another ten bandits began walking out of the grocery store right behind her. Most of them froze once they saw all the bodies outside, but kept walking forwards once they noticed the lady in front did.

As for Chase, he smirked as he pulled the bow off of his back.

"Now don't be unreasonable, little flower. It's just business, as one of my friends would say."

The lady tilted her head to the side and began smiling as she looked at Chase.

"You're the type that pisses me off the most."

She continued walking up. On the other hand, Chase began backing up as a mana arrow formed on his bow.

"You're not the first or last person that's going to say that."

The lady looked around.

"…There seem to be eight of you."

She narrowed her eyes.

"And you have been able to kill so many of my men."

Chase continued to back up, while Kairos got next to Chase.

The lady then smirked.

"But only two of you are actually capable of fighting, and you seem to be tired from your previous fight."

The woman and her two kids from earlier were currently cowering in fear, with the kids hiding behind the trembling mother. As for Nicole and her parents, they froze in place like a deer in headlights. It seemed that they still weren't used to gore. At least not when there were several heads rolling across the ground with their eyes wide open.

Chase laughed.

"You need so much just to convince yourself that you have a chance?"

Kairos smiled.

"Seems like someone's scared."

Despite their taunts, the lady was still smiling. She began to walk a little faster.

"Hah. You must be talking about yourself."

Kairos whispered to Chase.

"Hey, I don't think I can hold all of them off."

Chase kept the smile on his face as he whispered back.

"We just need to kill the leader, then the rest will be unable to pose a threat."

Kairos sighed.

"Alright…"

He then took off his backpack and set down his glasses. As though that was a signal, the lady dashed forth, pulling back her katana. Chase slowly backed off as the mana arrow in his bow formed.

Kairos kept his position and stared at the lady with wide eyes, not daring to blink.

Once they were only a meter apart, the katana shot through the air with a strange trajectory.

Kairos almost missed it, but was able to twist the axe to block the blade with the handle. However, with his future vision, he saw that the katana would cut straight through it.

Knowing that would essentially mean death, he strained his muscles to spin the axe blade.

A loud metallic bang rang out.

Their blades collided against each other loudly, both going undamaged.

The lady immediately disengaged, getting out of range. As for Kairos, he similarly backed off. However, there was also cold sweat on his back. This person was very much so different from the others.

It was probably how she gathered all of those people to work underneath her.

The fifteen bandits were getting closer, but before they approached, the lady lunged forth once more. Her katana weaved through the air smoothly, but erratically. It was as though the katana had become some strange combination of a snake and a fish swimming through the water.

Kairos was able to just barely block with his four points in agility as his future vision.

Another blaring metallic crash ran out.

Their weapons collided once more, but the lady decided to continue with her assault, attempting to overwhelm Kairos. Her blade twisted through the air once again.

Kairos furrowed his brows, but just barely blocked it again.

That was when the katana suddenly shot towards his abdomen like a spear. Kairos' eyes got a little bloodshot as he twisted the fire axe so that the flat metallic part would defend him.

With a loud metallic bang, the katana landed against the axe head which slammed against his stomach.

The lady then backed off, as did Kairos.

And now, the rest of the bandits had gotten closer. Kairos could only barely defend against the lady. The only chance he had for attacking was if he gave up defense entirely and swung his axe. However, Kairos would definitely take a really bad hit for that, while he wouldn't know if his attack would land.

As for Chase, he had one eye closed, watching the entire time. But there was no good opportunity to shoot. As such, he kept holding onto the arrow.

Realistically, the best opportunity was when the lady charged in on her own. However, Kairos wasn't able to take advantage of it.

A bitter smile formed on his face as the bandits began encircling him.

However, right as he was about to go for a desperate move, a set of footsteps approached from behind. Kairos turned to the sound with a bit of confusion, as he could tell they weren't coming from Chase's direction.

And he saw Nicole who had the red watch on her wrist along with a metal bat and a wooden bat in her hand. Her eyes were clearly bloodshot while her breathing was heavy. However, it seemed like she had control over her emotions for now.

Chase raised an eyebrow and muttered to himself when he saw this.

"Hm… it appears she is more than just a ball of cotton."

Kairos blinked a few times.

"You ok?"

Nicole nodded.

"I think so."

At that moment, the lady shot forth, trying to swing at Kairos once more, but it was blocked. The rest of the bandits closed in as well, but Nicole smashed one of their heads into pieces with her wooden bat.

The lady saw this as an opportunity and shifted targets to try and stab Nicole. However, Nicole was able to block it with her metal bat. Though her agility was relatively low, the red watch and also the fact she could use any part of the bat to block it let her do so.

However, the katana did lodge itself halfway through the bat.

Kairos wasn't just going to stand by. Despite the fact a few of the bandits were in the process of attacking him, he swung his fire axe at the lady horizontally.

Unfortunately, he underestimated how agile that woman really was, as she withdrew her katana and bent backwards, dodging it entirely. It was too late to stop committing to his attack.

A bat slammed against Kairos' side while a metal pipe hit his shoulder.

He cursed internally as he whipped his fire axe towards one of the bandits' heads, decapitating them.

[Killed Creature – 0.1 points awarded]

As for Nicole, she dodged several of the bandits' attacks before slamming her wooden bat against their heads, exploding it once more. The crack on the wooden bat expanded a little further, but was still fine.

Using her other bat, she promptly gave an uppercut with it, making their skull pop off of their spine. The metal bat bent pretty badly but was still more or less in one piece.

At the same time, the lady decided to try and attack Kairos once more, lunging forth with her katana. A bandit attacked alongside her, swinging their metal pipe towards his head.

Kairos grit his teeth as he moved his head out of the way and moved his fire axe to block the katana. Unfortunately, the bat still ended up hitting his shoulder, bruising him further.

Kairos cursed internally as he swept out with his foot.

The lady easily backed off and dodged it, but the bandit next to her tripped and fell, landing onto the pavement with his head.

[Killed Creature – 0.1 points awarded]

The lady continued trying to land attacks on Kairos, using tricky strikes one after another. However, with Kairos' future vision, he could tell when each of them were coming and accurately block them with the head of his fire axe. By now, several scrapes had formed on it, but it was still holding on strong.

The lady wasn't necessarily strong. However, she was extremely agile.

Nonetheless, Kairos was also fairly agile, thus they were essentially stuck in a stalemate.

During that time, Nicole let out a frenzied yell as she charged straight through the bandits, swinging her weapons recklessly towards them. She ended up taking a few hits, bruising her body. However, she was essentially unstoppable anyway, smashing skulls one after another.

The wooden bat continued to crack further, until it split vertically. Nonetheless, Nicole kept using it. However, the top broke off soon after.

As for the metal bat, she swung with it despite its deformity, causing it to bend one way, then bend back over and over. When she finally came across the last bandit, she slammed with all her might, exploding their skull, but also breaking the metal bat entirely.

Nicole then shifted her gaze towards the lady, who she was currently behind.

After picking up one of the metal pipes that the bandits left on the floor, she ran towards her recklessly, with no intention of slowing down.

It looked rather promising.

All the bandits were now dead. As for Kairos, while he was bruised, it didn't affect his combat ability, thus keeping himself alive against the lady's assault. There was even Chase, who still had the bow pulled back.

However, things didn't always work out perfectly.

Nicole lifted the metal pipe high into the air, running as fast as she could. Yet, right when she was about to swing it down, the lady suddenly twirled around, whipping out her leg in a full circle.

Kairos was able to dodge, but Nicole was hit straight in the knee.

She ended up cringing before falling down to her knees. Then, another foot swiftly whipped towards her head, slamming against her and knocking her out entirely.

Kairos dashed forth and did an overhead strike with his fire axe.

However, right as it was about to hit, the lady and her katana disappeared into a mass of red mist.

Since Kairos saw this with his future vision, he pulled back his attack early. He also saw with his future vision that the lady would reform, however, she would do so mid-swing towards his neck.

Kairos' eyes widened, not expecting that the lady had this sort of ability. He knew that there was no time to pull back his axe to defend.

An air of despair came over him as the threat of death rapidly approached.

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Kairos felt an immense pain fill his head from his future vision. However, strangely enough, it didn't feel like the sensation of having one's neck cut through as he would've expected.

After all, there was currently a katana moments away from reaching his neck.

Rather, it was a fairly familiar sensation, like his skull was going to burst. Though it was still extremely painful.

Kairos instinctively tilted his head to the side.

And right when he did, a blue arrow shot right past.

The lady's eyes widened tremendously. However, right after Kairos tilted his head, she did as well. The blue arrow grazed against her cheek, ripping open a long line of blood.

However, she was still alive.

Kairos grit his teeth, awaiting the sensation of pain. However, it never came.

Chase had let go of the arrow. However, even when the arrow shot right past its target, he still kept eye all the way open, staring calmly. A deep frown was on his face as blue veins began bulging out from his skin.

The blue arrow that had shot past suddenly reversed its direction, shooting straight towards the lady's head.

There should've been no way for her to know.

But she stopped her attack and brought the katana behind her head.

An ear-piercing bang rang out.

The mana arrow crashed against the katana hard. That much was clear from the blood now seeping from the lady's hand. However, she was still standing.

Kairos was shocked by the turn of events. However, he already saw it happen a second in the future, so he was only stunned for a short moment. Kairos' eyes had become bloodshot as he desperately tried to take advantage of this opportunity, mercilessly swinging his fire axe towards her skull.

Another clash rang out.

The lady was able to defend against it, but she quickly backed up with a fearful expression.

"I give up! I give up, so stop attacking! You can have whatever you want from the damn grocery store."

Chase immediately spoke up.

"Haha, it is only natural to spare such a pretty little flower."

Kairos turned back to look at Chase with a little bit of incredulity. He opened his mouth to chastise him, but suddenly stopped.

Chase was holding onto the bow with a confident smile. However, there was something slightly off about him. Though it was extremely hard to tell, the hands holding onto the bow were trembling slightly.

The only reason Kairos could even tell was because of the contrast between the images of his future vision and the current one. From what he could tell, Chase couldn't shoot any more arrows.

Given that Nicole had been knocked out as well, he was on his own.

Kairos slowly turned around back to look at the lady.

She definitely seemed afraid. However, her hand was still tightly wrapped around the hilt of the katana.

Although he could be fairly confident in taking down this woman now, he was also fairly confident that his body would be heavily injured from her death throes.

And so, he took a deep breath and accepted that this was the best case scenario.

"If you surrender, drop your katana."

The lady furrowed her brows.

"Ok."

However, instead of dropping it she continued to walk backwards. Kairos furrowed his brows.

"What are you doing?"

The lady kept her eyes trained forwards.

"Getting another weapon."

Kairos raised an eyebrow.

"Is this how you surrender?"

The lady clicked her tongue.

"You have to at least give me a weapon to defend myself in the case you attack me anyway!"

The corner of Kairos' lip twitched.

"…Alright."

With that, the lady eventually picked up a metal pipe from the floor and dropped her katana.

Kairos stared right at her.

"Kick the katana over."

After a second of hesitation, the lady kicked the katana over as instructed. It slid across the ground with a scraping sound, eventually slowing down right next to his feet. Kairos promptly picked it up and stowed it away as the burning sensation came from his hands.

Chase lowered the bow he was holding with a calm smile.

"Now go on, pretty flower. We will take care of your store well!"

The lady slowly walked backwards. However, she suddenly lunged towards Nicole's unconscious body, hoisting her up with one hand and raising the metal pipe with the other.

Harold took a step forward.

"Hey! Stop it!"

Kairos narrowed his eyes.

"What are you doing?"

The lady's breathing was unsteady.

"Look, the deal stands, but I need insurance. You can have her back after I leave."

Kairos furrowed his brows.

"You can't just… leave now?"

The lady grit her teeth.

"And then get shot in the back with one of those arrows?"

The corner of Kairos' lip twitched.

"So when are you going to let her go?"

The lady blinked a few times.

"…When I feel safe."

Kairos sighed.

"If my friend here puts down his bow, would you feel safe?"

The lady opened her mouth, but quickly closed it right after, thinking to herself.

"No!"

Kairos' eyebrow twitched. He took a deep breath.

"Then what is required for you to feel at home, princess?"

The lady took several deep breaths.

"I… I don't know. I've never been in this kind of position."

Chase rubbed his chin.

"What if we trade hostages? We give you someone else and you release the girl?"

Kairos furrowed his brows and turned to look at him.

"…What exactly are you trying to do?"

Chase raised up his hands as though trying to show he was innocent.

"Just offering a suggestion!"

Kairos felt like Chase was trying to get rid of either Harold or Sydney, and it was relatively understandable. After all, they hadn't contributed to the fight. However, Kairos was also unsure if that was truly his objective.

In the end, he just dropped the subject.

Kairos looked at the lady with a little bit of frustration.

"Look, we aren't going to get anywhere if you just continue holding onto her, alright?"

She grit her teeth and began sweating. It seemed like she was getting quite desperate for whatever reason. Suddenly, her eyes lit up, almost like she had been enlightened.

"Wh-What if we become allies?"

Kairos blinked a few times.

"Huh?"

The lady cleared her throat.

"There is no true enmity with us, right? We both just wanted the food from the grocery store, that's all! We can just… share it. It's not like any of us are weak and will hold the other down."

Kairos looked at the bandit corpses littered across the ground.

"You really don't care about all of the people on your side we just killed?"

The lady shrugged her shoulders.

"Not really. I hardly even knew them for a day. They only listened to me because I easily killed their previous leader and forced them to work under me."

Kairos lowered his head down slightly and thought about it.

"…And how are we supposed to believe you aren't going to backstab us?"

Chase nodded.

"Exactly. So we can't take you."

Kairos looked over at Chase with a bit of confusion.

"Isn't that how we teamed up?"

The corner of Chase's lip twitched.

"This is different!"

Kairos couldn't understand at first, but eventually realized. Chase wanted to team up with people because he couldn't handle everything on his own with his limited arrow supply. However, he also didn't want to team up with anybody too strong, so that he didn't have to be that concerned about someone attempting to kill him.

The lady frowned, taking this the wrong way.

"What? Because you think of me as some pretty flower? What about those other people you are with? I can hold my own weight unlike them!"

Chase frowned.

"This is an issue of trust, little flower."

The lady screamed out.

"My name is Tori!"

Chase sighed.

"Well, alright Tori. This is an issue of trust. Like how you can't trust us, we can't trust you."

Tori proceeded to frown.

"…Then that can be developed over time, right?"

Kairos blinked a few times.

"Perhaps, but we aren't willing to give you that time."

Tori looked between the two of us.

"Then… Then I will just hold this girl until you decide to trust me!"

Harold frowned.

"No way!"

Tori clicked her tongue.

"Well this is how I'm doing it!"

Kairos frowned. He really couldn't understand why this woman was being so stubborn as to follow them. Nonetheless, there really was no time to waste.

"So you don't mind us going into the grocery store and you waiting out here?"

Tori blinked a few times.

"…No, of course not."

Kairos sighed.

"Alright. Then we will be doing that."

There were a few whimpering sounds being made. He looked over to them and noticed a mother that was now sitting on her rear along with two children behind her back.

Kairos waved.

"Ah, do you want to-"

The woman cringed in fear while the two children also began to shiver.

Kairos wondered why, then remembered he was soaked in blood. It probably wasn't the prettiest of sights. He sighed, then turned to Harold and Sydney.

"We should take the supplies in the grocery store first."

Harold frowned.

"But that woman is still holding onto Nicole!"

Kairos shook his head.

"She isn't going to let go of her any time soon. We can't waste so much time right now. Let's just loot the place before trying to talk to her again."

Sydney looked a little distraught.

"But what if she takes Nicole away?"

Kairos frowned.

"She has no reason to do such a thing, alright?"

The two seemed displeased, but eventually caved in. Chase waved to the mother and her two kids on the floor.

"You can have whatever you find still in the place after we are done. Does that sound good?"

The mother was still obviously afraid of Chase, but was still able to work up the courage to talk.

"R-Really?"

Chase shrugged his shoulders.

"We won't be using them."

The mother bowed.

"Th-Thank you!"

With that, the group of four entered the store.

Surprisingly the place was really tidy. There was still quite a bit of food left all over the place and it wasn't damaged or covered in blood. It seemed that the group beforehand did a good job of defending this place.

Kairos even opened up the freezer of this place and found that it was devoid of a single monster. Like the last one, there was a fire axe. He decided to take it.

While in the freezer, there was nobody else around.

Despite that, he still took a look around the place, almost like he suspected the others had some sort of ability that let them phase through walls.

After double checking, Kairos opened his status panel once more.

[Status]

[ID: 345315364923]

[Rank: F]

[Objective: Touch Red Sunlight]

[Proof Of Perfection Points: 21.1]

[Stats –

Strength – 2.0

Endurance – 2.0

Agility – 4.0

Willpower – 2.3

Mana Capacity – 0.0

Magic Affinity – 0.0]

[Special Abilities: N/A]

[Hide]

Though he did gain a few points from that fight, it was really nothing compared to the points provided by killing monsters.

Kairos sighed.

One thing he realized in the last fight, was that he couldn't really be holding onto his points this much in case of some emergency situation. However, he also couldn't be spending too much, as he might starve to death.

Considering the amount of food in here, it was a good opportunity to increase his stats and have the food ready to not suffer consequences from his decision.

[Strength 2.0 – 4.0 Points 21.1 – 19.1]

[Endurance 2.0 – 4.0 Points 19.1 – 17.1]

[Agility 4.0 – 4.9 Points 17.1 – 16.2]

Kairos valued agility, especially because of that last fight. As such, he intended on increasing this stat the most. However, once he wanted to push it past five, the option to increase it suddenly grayed out.

[Insufficient Evolution Rank]

Kairos' eyebrow twitched.

Currently, his body was letting out strong waves of heat. However, it was a little comforting because of the coldness in the freezer.

Kairos massaged his temple with the tip of his finger.

"…Rank limitations, huh?"

He originally thought that spending all these points wouldn't be a big issue. That he could just increase his strength whenever he felt like it. However, it turns out that his rank wasn't enough.

Increasing his rank would mean that he would longer get extra points from challenge kills. However, it would obviously increase his strength.

Though the only problem was that Kairos did not know how to increase his rank.

…Well, actually he was pretty sure it was related to the red sun. After all, the monsters that had been exposed to the red sun were considered a rank higher than him. However, Kairos really didn't want anything to do with that.

There had to be some other way, right?

Kairos shook his head, then figured he might as well increase his willpower while he was here.

[Willpower 2.3 – 4.0 Points 16.2 – 14.5]

He felt a strong heat emanate from his mind before gradually disappearing. Once the place was beginning to feel a little cold, Kairos left. Pretty much immediately, he began tearing open the various packages within the store and began eating whatever.

So long as it didn't require any preparation to be edible, Kairos would just eat it.

After a while, packaging littered the floor below him, but there was no longer the feeling of gnawing hunger. Kairos looked over to his old wound, the gash he received from the monster before.

It had essentially healed completely, only leaving a thin red line where it once was. He remembered it was still relatively bad before this. Kairos thought about it and realized that increasing his endurance could be a pseudo way of healing.

It definitely wasn't the best option, but it could come in handy during emergency situations.

Eventually, Chase walked over, then looked at all the wrappings scattered across the floor.

"You really uh, let yourself go."

Kairos sighed.

"A little bit, I guess."

Chase narrowed his eyes slightly.

"It seems you evolved and got a little hungry. Almost like you've kept a lot of points on you before."

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"I just haven't eaten for a long time. That was part of the reason I insisted on going here. Because I was just really hungry."

Chase did not speak for a moment.

"Alright."

He turned around.

"Anyways, I have also eaten a little bit and it seems the others have packed up a bit. It seems you all have no plans of staying here."

Kairos sighed.

"You saw what happened to the last person that tried to hold down the grocery store."

Chase laughed.

"Yeah, we were the ones that did it after all."

He sighed.

"I suppose that's part of why you ate so much. It's a pity to leave so much behind."

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"Let's go then. We still have to deal with the crazy woman."

Chase laughed.

"Perhaps she has cooled down by now."

The two regrouped with Harold and Sydney before making it outside once more. There was quite a commotion outside.

"Hey, stop moving so much!"

"You let go of me!"

Tori was still holding onto Nicole with a metal pipe in one hand. However, it definitely wasn't easy to do so because of Nicole's intense struggle.

The two of them were stumbling back and forth, almost like they were doing some strange kind of dance. Some might call it abstract.

Kairos blinked a few times.

"Um, are you guys ok?"

Nicole reached out towards the group.

"Help me! This crazy lady is holding onto me!"

Tori was sweating slightly as she tried to hold on to Nicole.

"Stop moving around so much! It's called being a hostage, alright? If you don't comply I will hit you with this pipe!"

Nicole did not even try to be more passive after she heard that. In fact, she began struggling even harder.

"I don't want to be a hostage!"

She looked towards the others.

"Don't worry about me! Just take care of this crazy lady!"

Tori seemed to be on the verge of crying.

"We can do this peacefully, alright? Peacefully!"

Nicole screamed.

"I refuse!"

Kairos turned to Chase.

"So…"

Chase turned back.

"I guess we just have to try and negotiate?"

Harold and Sydney both had frowns on their faces, not liking how their daughter was being treated. However, they also didn't say anything because they were afraid that Tori might do something.

Though to Kairos and Chase, they doubted she would do anything because she seemed to be banking it all on Nicole as a hostage.

Chase let out a soft sigh.

"Pretty flower, you must realize you can't hold onto her forever."

Tori grit her teeth.

"I… I can join your team!"

Nicole seemed flabbergasted.

"No! There's no way we are taking you!"

Tori seemed a little distraught.

"But…"

Kairos pinched the bridge of his nose.

"You really couldn't think of any other terms while we were gone? How about this, we will stand very far away from you, but you let go of Nicole while within our sight. Then, you can go free without any repercussions."

Tori's lip twitched.

"…Then can I have my katana back?"

Kairos blinked a few times.

"You still have to be reasonable, alright?"

Tori frowned.

"I need the katana!"

Chase chuckled.

"And why do you wish for the katana so badly?"

Tori did not speak for a few seconds like she was struggling internally.

"…I just want it, ok?"

Kairos raised an eyebrow.

"Can you not survive without it?"

Tori clicked her tongue.

"I can live without it, but it just means a lot to me! I didn't realize how much I missed it until you took it away from me."

Kairos' eyebrow twitched.

"Hasn't it only been a few minutes?"

Tori's eyes were slightly bloodshot.

"They were a long few minutes to me!"

Kairos took a deep breath.

He was pretty sure Tori wasn't lying, and if she was, then she was a good liar. But at that point, it was better to not drop the katana in the first place and say that she needed it to survive for some reason.

Kairos let out a soft sigh.

"Then how about we leave your katana far away from you, while we stand at the opposite end. And from there, you let Nicole go."

Tori's mouth opened and closed.

"So… no teaming up?"

Kairos pinched the bridge of his nose.

"It seems pretty much everyone here doesn't want to be on the same team as you."

Tori looked down and paused. Then, she suddenly perked up again.

"I… I know where something special is."

Kairos blinked a few times.

"Something… special?"

Tori nodded.

"I don't know exactly what it is, but it appears valuable and guarded well. It was actually the place I was planning on going to later, but never had the chance to."

Chase narrowed his eyes.

"So you want us to take a gamble on it being valuable in exchange for accepting you as a teammate."

Tori grit her teeth.

"It's not a gamble! The damn thing is definitely valuable, but I just don't know for what."

Kairos sighed.

"So… you will lead us to it in exchange for teaming up? Why do you even want to team up so badly?"

Tori swallowed.

"There… There are some really powerful people."

Kairos furrowed his brows.

"What do you mean?"

Even Nicole ended up settling down, wanting to hear this.

Tori took a few shaky deep breaths in.

"I saw… something tossing cars around."

Kairos' eyes widened considerably.

Although he believed that he was quite strong right now, he was definitely nowhere near strong enough to lift a car.

Chase sucked in a cold breath.

"…That sounds dangerous."

Kairos turned to look at Harold and Sydney, who also seemed to be quite scared. He then turned back to Tori.

"I guess that is a good reason to team up. Especially if there is an enemy that is stronger by so much."

Tori took a deep breath.

"So you agree?"

Kairos looked at the others. Most of them had slightly displeased expressions but seemed to think it was better to team up.

He sighed.

"Sure, why not?"

Tori slowly let go of Nicole, who scampered away once she had the chance. Tori then coughed.

"Can I have my katana back?"

Kairos thought about it for a moment. Then nodded. With his recent stat increase, he was confident in being able to take her out even if she did, thus gave back the katana.

Tori hastily accepted it and began stroking it like it was her child.

Kairos coughed.

"Anyways, get your supplies and then lead us to that place. Time will not wait for us."

Tori nodded.

"Ah, alright."

She ran into the grocery store and as she passed by, Kairos snuck a look at her bloody wrists.

They looked like they had healed already.

As Tori and Nicole were getting a few things in the grocery store, Sydney began talking to the mother and her children.

"Do you want to join us? I'm sure it will be easier if we are all together."

The woman seemed rather hesitant.

Overhearing this, Kairos walked over. He did not want to take the woman.

"Of course, if you don't want to, you can also just stay in the grocery store. There should be plenty of food left over after we leave."

The mother flinched and looked over to Sydney and Harold.

"Um… is it possible for me to join only you two?"

Harold furrowed his brows.

"Uh, sorry, but no. I am not abandoning my daughter."

The woman nodded hastily.

"Ah, I see, I see."

She looked towards her children.

"Then… I will just stay here at the store then."

Sydney opened her mouth, but eventually closed it. She seemed to realize what would happen if the mother was left alone at the place, but decided not to say anything about it.

The rest of the group got ready. And as such, with Tori leading the way, they left.

As they walked past the side of the grocery store, they came across nearly twenty monsters all lying against the wall like soldiers in wait. The moment the group appeared, they all scampered away, running to behind another wall.

Chase raised an eyebrow.

"They are acting just like vermin."

Kairos furrowed his brows.

"Those monsters were waiting for us. They knew we were fighting with each other and wanted to take advantage of the victor after they were weak and tired."

Nicole's eyes widened.

"What? They can't be that smart, right?"

Tori let out a soft gasp.

"That is what they were doing?…"

Kairos shook his head.

"Whatever. Let's just go to the place."

Tori nodded.

"O-Ok."

She led the group to a series of houses. Just some random place within the neighborhood that didn't seem special.

Tori looked back and forth between the various houses.

"Um… Not this one. Er… Not this one either.

Eventually, she came across a house with the front door bashed in, now laying on the ground.

"Ah, it's here!"

Kairos furrowed his brows, clearly distrusting this woman.

"And what exactly is so special about this place?"

Tori pointed at the house.

"The basement… leads to an underground cave. There was this strange red thing when I was last there, but I was too afraid to fight the monsters guarding it at the time."

Kairos let out a soft hum.

"Alright. Lead the way."

Tori nodded. She went into the house and led the group into the house and straight towards the door to the basement.

After opening the door, Tori gasped.

"…It's a little redder than I remembered."

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