1 Collusion

In the year 20XX, a mysterious phenomena called 'Portals' occurred. Known beasts flooded out from these portals, dropping gene fragments whenever they died. Any one could collect these gene fragments, people, animals and otherwise.

With that, all evolution theories the human world had about Evolution were disproven. The ones to benefit most are those who entered these portals first, for the animals in the portals dropped even more magical evolution gene fragments.

Once you collected the evolution gene fragment, you could evolve in that direction. People called them evolution dungeons. Others called them gates - there were as many names as there were languages. More, if you consider internet slang along with the rest.

However, people soon found out, Evolution is selective. While these dungeons did drop evolution gene fragments, the percentage of gene fragments they dropped reduced over time.

Over time, these dungeons are classified into two types of dungeons.

Evolution Dungeons and Drop dungeons.

Like with any other change process, even for evolution, there's a path that leads to the highest peak, almost able to create 'The ultimate one'.

This evolutionary path is called 'Immortal Evolution'.

At this point, you must be wondering who I am, to know this much about evolution.

I am Vikram, a regular Joe who couldn't be more ordinary if I tried.

And how do I know so much information despite being an ordinary Joe?

Because the man who brought me here as a human sacrifice llllloovvveed to talk. Notice the insistence on the 'loved'.

Why?

Who knows?

Probably because he thought I could not escape.

Or even worse… because in his eyes, I don't even count as human, just a little animal waiting to be slaughtered.

who knows how a psycho serial killer's brain works ?

Any way, he just dumped me here, in this hateful place where I have first experienced betrayal, while he carried on with his petty business.

I am not angry.

I haven't got the energy for such an emotion.

I couldn't wait to die.

No, I am not depressed.

it's just there's no point to living any more. I am a sitting duck.

Death is only option for me no matter how much time passes.

I couldn't wait for someone as diabolical and cruel as the guy who brought me here to take over this world.

How else would they know my pain?

Let them suffer far worse than I did, because this guy does look like a mad, torture loving crazy priest, who has more than one screw loose in his head and quite in love with human sacrifices.

With a person like him in charge, this world will perish sooner or later. Even if he doesn't perish, living in the same world as such a person couldn't be any happier, I guess.

There.. The dude is coming back.

I think his name is Salim or something, yet, he called himself Talin.

It doesn't matter.

Death will be a sweet relief, and this dude does look like he will be a perfect executioner.

▬ ● ◘ ◘ ● ▬

As both of them stood above the altar where Talin was going to sacrifice Vikram.

Vikram glanced sideways at the button that is supposed to bring down the guillotine.

"Does this thing work? " Vikram asked doubtfully.

He was just messing with Talin. He is about to die, he is allowed petty revenge.

"Sure it does! Want to see ? " Talin asked gleefully.

"Sure." Vikram answered lightly, shifting towards the slanted low of the guillotine.

However, the guillotine did not come down at the press of the red button.

"Hey! That's not right!" Talin mumbled, as he leaned over the guillotine to check the wires underneath.

'To whichever entity is listening to me out there! I, Vikram, am sacrificing myself and this bastard Talin for the last relic of immortal evolution.' Vikram prayed before pulling out the little remote in Talin's pocket and pressing the red button.

A ring came out of the pocket along with the wand, and fell down on the floor right beside Talin.

The next moment, the guillotine blade fell on Vikram's neck and Talin's waist.

'Crunch'

That's the sound of Talin's spine being cut into two.

'Ssrrrupp'

That's the sound of the guillotine blade coming for his neck.

Vikram managed to live 0.01 second longer than Talin, before he too, died.

▬ ● ◘ ◘ ● ▬

The pain was so unbearable for the single moment it lasted, he jumped up in surprise from his bed.

Lo and behold!

He's back in time.

Or this must be how heaven must look like for himself.

All the same, he was back where he was, in his father's home town.

Firstly, they lived in the state capital H and this trip was just to deal with their remaining properties in the home town, which are numerous, and of very little value compared to the city.

Last time around, the selling of the properties lasted all four days, and only a single gate opened in this town. At this point, We must know what happened in the last life of our protagonist Vikram.

Vikram was born in a very middle class family to a teacher, had two younger siblings, and following the fad, studied engineering. He has a job that earns more than his father, but less than all his peers.

Ideally, their family should have been far better off than they were, if not for the vampiric family of his father.

You see, Vikram's father was what one would call a soft persimmon. He paid for his siblings' studies, their grandmother's living, and now, he was still paying for their cousins' studies occasionally.

If it were all, Vikram did not have much problem with it. However, two years ago, when his father suffered a heart attack, and they had to gather funds urgently, the response of each and every one of his uncles chilled his heart.

Not a single one of his father's siblings seem to be caring for his fathers health. They were far too busy on how to divide their measly holdings in a way that benefits them. After the incident, their father had a bit of enlightenment.

This time was supposed to be the proverbial severing relations with the family, for the good of everyone.

Only, the mysterious portal opened in the town. Not just this town, but all over the country.

Other countries were shocked and started cordoning off the locations. Obviously, Indians did not care at first, but followed the trend of cordoning off these locations.

Three days later, the evolutionary beasts erupted from the black gates.

Fortunately, the beasts that attacked their hometown were only sparrows.

When they saw reports on the TV, everyone in their hometown realized they needed to kill the animals.

That was the beginning of the tragedy for their family.

Their family joined the efforts as well.

After all, it's just sparrows.

How hard is it to kill them ?

So, they killed the sparrows. They were able to kill them just fine the first four hours.

However, once the first wave of sparrows were killed, the second wave of sparrows emerged from the dungeon. These second volley sparrows were bigger and smarter than the first wave of sparrows.

He remembered thinking, we must kill them all, and going crazy killing one bird after another with the short fruit knife in his hands.

However, that was not all of the animals in the dungeon.

The waves continued one after another, as the sparrows got stronger, smarter and savage.

When the men realized how futile their efforts were, they ran back home.

He and his friends retreated just as the fourth wave ended.

As they were retreating with their uncles, a fifth wave of sparrows began. These sparrows were the size of eagles.

His uncle-in-law stabbed his father and pulled his father's body to shield himself from the sparrows, as they tore at the eyes and ears of running men.

Vikram couldn't even imagine such malice from someone he knew, much less family.

He was overcome with anger as he slashed at his uncle, but his uncle threw his father's body into his arms, and his uncle slashed his side to stop the pursuit of the beasts, then, his uncles ran away together to their homes.

Left alone, he kept fighting the sparrows, but the beasts only ever got bigger and greedier.

It is as he killed a giant sparrow that bit off his leg he got his first gene fragment, 'stasis'.

A worse gene fragment befitting his situation could not exist.

Stasis kept a person alive as long as they did not move, but it never improved or reduced his body condition. You have a wound, it would remain painful, bleeding and open. Your body only ever heals at the same rate as your wound harms your body.

However, a certain amount of physical power is needed to use stasis on yourself, or a team mate. While Vikram used stasis on himself, the next giant bird to land kicked him off to the side, to get at his father and friends' dead bodies.

Vikram rolled into a ditch by the side of the road, full of thorns.

So, Vikram lived there in limbo, as he watched his father's and his friends' bodies get eaten. The pain on his body was still lesser than the pain in his heart.

He went through five stages of grief, and more, yet, the stasis did not end.

He thought he would live in eternity with this pain with no relief ever, but Talin found him.

Seems the dude killed off the sparrow boss in a fit of rage. Vikram focused on the gene fragments Talin did not collect, and with them came a heal. Vikram jolted himself free of stasis, and hobbled out of the thorn forest only to be caught by Talin.

In the first place, thinking he, the white collar worker, could run away from Talin the mercenary was a wrong assumption.

Vikram has had enough of the pain, and he held no hopes for his mother in the city either.

His mother and father are truly a matching pair of soft persimmons. His mother probably would have tried to help out every neighbor that asked, as well as her own sisters. All of whom are more selfish than their parents.

Vikram had no hard feelings about being caught by Talin. He had no qualms about the cruelty of people any more. It is more of a norm than an exception. He had seen enough of the world from the cover of thorn trees to know even if it's not Talin, someone else would grab and kill him.

Talin had no friends.

Also no enemies. Because Talin does not suffer his enemies to live.

At least so, in Talin's own words.

With his psycho personality, Vikram would feel sorry for the earth itself if there was one more Talin, despite his own anger at the blue planet.

Talin loved the sound of his own voice.

He did achieve a lot over time. He travelled to all seven continents and made a pit stop at oceania. He did many many dark things including burning down a village just for fun in the Middle east.

Talin loved these achievements, as gruesome as they are.

He loved showing off originally, but in these apocalyptic times, the only people willing to listen to you are the ones who are scoping you out to kill you.

Thus, he could not brag to his heart's content in any other place.

Now that he has Vikram, the little bug he could squash any time, he couldn't stop bragging.

Talin explained in detail how he went from country to country murdering and pillaging his way through. Once he takes the last immortal evolution gene fragment, no one could stop him.

Getting this last immortal gene fragment was easy. Sacrifice a man to the deity holding an immortal fragment. In exchange for life, the fragment would be given.

Vikram had an extremely bold and crazy idea in his mind at the moment.

Fables are told to children for a reason, and this time, he realized his situation is exactly the same as Vikram's name sake, king Vikramaditya, when he met the dark wizard.

Only, he did not even have a great chance of mobility, thus, all he could do is use his mind.

A mind is the most treacherous of all.

For his plan to succeed, Vikram needs to be hundred percent willing to give his life.

No doubts in the back of his mind.

Not even a stray thought about survival, even in the bottom most corner of his mind, lest it will catch Talin's attention. Talin was a mind reader.

When passive, Talin could detect any malicious intention towards him, when active, he could detect all thoughts, including involuntary reactions.

It is only with complete control of his own mind Vikram stands the chance to steal the immortal's last gene fragment and the drop of the earth god temple.

Vikram understood… a world could contain any number of relic level fragments, but only one complete set. Immortal evolution is the set of the current world. It allows one to traverse between infinite versions of the world.

That is why he has woken up at this point. This is World 2.0…

The fragment Talin is aiming for, does not exist in this world. Some other set might, but he and Talin would be beginning from the same start line.

Vikram's feelings were simple. screw the shitty world where cowards and cutthroats like his uncles lived !!! he doesn't care if it gets destroyed thrice over.

New world !! Here I come !