The man gradually became aggressive as he felt his body changing.
“There’s… no way that this is real.”
His skin reddened. While no obvious monstrous traits had appeared from eating the potato, from what it looked like, he wasn’t all that far from becoming one.
Kairos waved his hand dismissively.
“Don’t worry, it feels weird now but it will settle down soon.”
The man looked down at his body, which had turned as red as a beet.
“…But it feels so weird. It’s not settling down at all!”
Kairos spoke slowly and calmly.
“You’re overreacting. Don’t worry so much about temporary things.”
The man furrowed his brows intensely.
“…Ok. W-When is it supposed to settle down?”
Kairos blinked a few times.
“It varies, but generally after ten minutes.”
The man’s eyes widened.
“I’m going to be like this for ten minutes?”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“It’s a temporary side effect. You’ll be fine soon enough.”
The man slowly nodded.
“…Ok.”
Quinn shot a few glances at Kairos, but eventually focused back on the man. Though he found this a little much for him, he also understood that the mutated food was a problem they would have to tackle sooner or later. Although the method was a little intense and manipulative, there weren’t many other better options.
And so, he just stayed there, continuing to observe.
The three of them remained in that room for quite a while, all not really sure of what was going to happen.
While that was happening, there were other people discussing Kairos. Though, it would probably be the last person he expected to be doing such a thing.
In a town far away from the city, a teenager with blonde hair and blue eyes was staring down at a blue crystal with a frown on his face. He was sitting on a chair, in a tall building.
“…That is not the ideal situation.”
Another teenager across from him slammed the table.
“What the hell is this? Not only was the scouting team killed, but this weird ass red light turned so many of our slaves into monsters!”
This boy was a bit on the muscular side visually speaking and had short brown hair. His eyes were emerald green, and a deep frown was plastered across his face.
A girl with long black hair that reached past her face scowled.
“We have to get revenge on them. Plus, they might have some people or resources to take in that big city.”
The teenage boy with blonde hair shook his head.
“No. I’m not willing to fight against them.”
The boy with brown hair sighed.
“Yeah. At the very least, with less mouths to feed our resources will last longer. It shouldn’t be all that hard to recruit more people. Just show them a little bit of food and they’ll come running.”
The girl frowned.
“…We kept our food supply on the ground floor.”
The boy with brown hair raised an eyebrow.
“And?”
The girl sighed.
“I remember seeing what happened to the bananas I left out on the counter by the window. When the red sun shone on them, they began glowing red, becoming far bigger. I didn’t know if the banana had somehow turned into a monster, but what I do know is that it didn’t look safe to eat.”
The boy with blonde hair kept his head down and remained silent. As for the other, he furrowed his brow.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
The girl pressed two fingers onto her forehead in frustration.
“It means most of our food supply has been mutated into weird red versions. In other words, we no longer have food to dangle in front of people’s noses. That is unless people are going to be stupid enough to flock to bright red glowing mutated versions of it.”
The boy with brown hair fell silent.
“…We have to attack that city.”
The boy with blonde hair spoke up almost immediately.
“No. They are probably stronger than us. To be able to build something like that in the first place is already a pretty big show of strength.”
The boy with brown hair raised an eyebrow.
“You of all people are saying that? You’re one of the strongest people we got! Sure, we don’t have big ass metal walls, but that’s because we don’t want them. It’s not like we couldn’t arrange something like that. Plus what’s the point when you can just blast them down easily.”
The boy with blonde hair furrowed his brow.
“It’s not so simple… don’t you remember how our team suddenly just collapsed and died? How are we supposed to fight that?”
The girl rolled his eyes.
“There are obviously limitations to those kinds of abilities. She spent so much time stalling and even brought the team right up next to her. As long as we aren’t stupid, I doubt it will have any effect on us.”
The boy with blonde hair frowned.
“…I still stand by my view of not attacking.”
The girl looked at him strangely.
“What the hell has gotten into you, Edward? Why are you even scared of others when it should be the other way around?”
The boy with brown hair rubbed his chin.
“That is quite strange…”
Edward took a deep breath.
“…I already know that while that girl is strong, she isn’t invincible. I’m sure I’d be able to contest her with the help from a couple other of the top ones.”
His eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
“Instead, it’s the boy next to him that I don’t want to face.”
The girl looked at him strangely.
“Huh? Him?”
Edward blinked a few times.
“His name is Kairos. The guy that never liked talking to other people. You should remember that much, Nola.”
Nola was lost in thought for a moment.
“Ah… that person? Why the hell would you be scared of him?”
The boy with brown hair furrowed his brow.
“…Wait. He’s the one with all the rumors around him. Kairos, right?”
Nola narrowed her eyes and turned to look at him.
“Rumors? What are you talking about Collin?”
Collin closed his eyes tightly as he thought to himself.
“It happened a damn long time ago, but I remember. There was this one guy who went around taking money from as many people as he could. I completely forgot his name, but I remember him clearly.”
Nola clicked her tongue.
“So now we’re scared of a kid that just took money from other kids?”
Collin shook his head.
“…No, it was that one kid who acted up really strongly when he tried to rob him. They said it was an accident, but the guy got his arm broken in one of their scuffles.”
Nola blinked a few times.
“Now that I think about that, I can vaguely recall that incident. But this is the apocalypse we are talking about here, why the hell do you care about someone that broke an arm? Maybe it really was just an accident.”
Edward slowly shook his head.
“It’s definitely not an accident.”
Nola looked at him strangely.
“And how do you know?”
Edward didn’t respond for a few seconds.
“Because he told me how I could snap someone’s elbow, and how to disguise it as an accident.”
Nola fell silent after hearing that. As for Collins, he gasped.
“Wait, then that probably means he really was responsible for that!”
Nola clicked her tongue in annoyance.
“What do you mean by that? Just say it directly!”
Collins took a deep breath.
“I didn’t see it myself, but some other guys were talking about how they saw someone in one school bathroom with all of their limbs broken, and torn off too. It was the guy that had his arm broken.”
Nola rolled her eyes.
“Alright then, that’s complete bullshit! I would’ve heard about and remembered something like that.”
Edward sighed.
“The school was quick to cover it up. They sent hush money to the family involved, while all rumors about it were banned and considered misinformation.”
Nola furrowed her brows.
“Someone dying like that can’t be covered up that easily!”
Edward shook his head.
“That guy fell into a coma and went to a hospital. They made up the excuse that he had some sort of cancer which caused the urgent need for a hospital.”
Nola couldn’t speak for a good few moments.
“…That still sounds really stupid.”
Edward slowly nodded.
“I didn’t think death could be covered up that easily too. But apparently, the entire school was on the verge of closing down because there was another private school nearby that was far more popular. A scandal like that definitely would’ve gotten the government to close that place down, and all the staff would be fired.”
Nola blinked a few times.
“So you’re saying all the teachers were in on keeping it a secret?”
Edward rolled his eyes.
“All those teachers clearly weren’t competent. They could just barely get a job teaching, so obviously they would go quite far to keep their jobs.”
Collins frowned.
“…Yeah, I remember people would only whisper it to each other, but the general gist of it was to stay away from that gloomy kid. Several people told Chad that, but it seemed like he didn’t really care.”
Edward shrugged his shoulders.
“Chad was clearly an idiot. And now he’s probably dead. Go figure.”
Nola took a deep breath.
“Alright then. I get that this kid was dangerous before the apocalypse, but who’s to say he can do anything now? Sure he may be a little unhinged, but now with everyone having powers, it’s a completely different story.”
Collins gave a small nod.
“Ah, right. That makes sense. Even the professional boxers aren’t in that much of an advantage now because of how dependent our strength is on evolving and our abilities. Some random kid like that should be in the same boat.”
Edward narrowed his eyes further.
“Maybe, but I don’t think it’s something like that. Even when he was just a kid, he was already ruthless.”
Nola clicked her tongue.
“I don’t realize how that counters the point I just made. Are you really going to be this hung up about some random guy?”
Collin blinked a few times.
“…Wait, you were his friend before. Is that why?”
Edward slowly shook his head.
“I wish I could say that was the reason.”
He leaned back into his chair and closed his eyes.
“But really, it’s because… I’m afraid of him.”
Nola clicked her tongue.
“If you’re so afraid of him, then let’s go there and you can personally kill him! The only thing he did was just stand there.”
Edward frowned.
“…I think he did that because he knew there were other people watching. He probably didn’t want to reveal his capabilities.”
Collins blinked a few times.
“Ok, I somewhat agreed with you, but that’s just taking it too far. The crystal was embedded into his stomach, and neither of them could see it! They didn’t even check the dead bodies afterward.”
Nola sighed.
“What? Did this kid poke you with a stick when you were kids, then traumatize you?”
Edward smiled bitterly.
“…Well, that’s not entirely wrong.”
Nola looked a little baffled.
“Eh? Really?”
Edward cleared his throat.
“The poking with the stick part is wrong, but he definitely traumatized me.”
Collins raised an eyebrow.
“What the hell? Did he threaten you or something? If so, that’s only more reason to go attack that city!”
Edward let out a genuine laugh that gradually tapered off.
“…Ironically enough, he saved me.”
Nola slammed her fist on the table.
“Can you be a little serious here? There’s no time for joking!”
Edward lowered his head slightly.
“…I’m not joking. Though I don’t really want to think about it, I’ll tell you guys about it.”
His eyes narrowed.
“The gist of it is that guy does not care about the method, so long as there is a good result.”