WHAT'S EVOLUTION

"We are ready. Let's hear your hypothesis," Anne exclaimed.

"Okay... Do you guys remember what happened to you after you came out of our hideout, that's after escaping from the monsters you were fighting?" Leo inquired.

"Wait, how did you know we were fighting monsters, and that we escaped on top of that?" Anne interrupted, curious about how Leo knew. He was certainly not there.

"Mark told me," Leo dodged the question, feeling it would be bothersome to explain.

From the way Mark reacted after claiming their old hideout had been destroyed and was now infested with ants, he could guess that they had faced monster ants and had failed to subdue those ants and on top of that had to escape.

Anne rolled her eyes at Leo, thinking he wanted to dodge the question because she believed Mark hadn't informed him about what had happened. After all, they both woke up at the same time.

"Does he truly like me, or did I misinterpret things?" Anne pondered, still unable to discern Leo's feelings.

Leo was the top student, ranking first nationally, while she trailed behind as the second-best in school; however, on a national level, she didn't even make the top hundred.

She easily got to know who Leo was, as she had always topped her class. But out of nowhere, a no-name boy beat her—or so she thought. After investigating him, she noticed he was quite famous, being the best student in the whole country, having received a lot of awards and attending Koryfi High School, one of the leading international high schools in the world by the direct recommendation of the president.

Upon discovering more about him, she began to consciously observe Leo. She noticed his frequent glances in her direction, a behavior she was familiar with, given that many boys in the class did the same. The bolder ones often took a step further by proposing, all of which she promptly rejected.

She had kept her eye out, waiting for Leo to also propose, but that never happened, even though he continued to steal glances at her.

After being trapped together, the fear, pain, and discomfort pushed all that at the back of her mind but after stabilizing it resurfaced as she saw how Leo could do what most people his age couldn't. Fighting the orna rat, eating animals raw, and his calm state despite the situation they were in.

She had expected him to try to get closer to her but that did not happen, he behaved indifferently toward her making her doubt her assumptions that he liked her.

Mark who had shown no interest in her behaved more like a gentleman than the one she thought liked her, making her doubt her judgment.

She observed him after the flood, hoping for any clues indicating his interest, but found nothing, which left her pride shattered.

"Leo, have you given up or something? You keep on losing points with her," Mark whispered to Leo, noticing Anne's reaction to his words.

Anne, who had undergone evolution, had her senses completely upgraded and thus was able to hear what Mark said.

She smiled to herself, her pride restored as she had gotten confirmation that indeed Leo was interested.

Leo, who noticed Anne's smile, knew for a fact that she had heard Mark. So, he also whispered, "Man, don't spout nonsense. She is way out of my league. I gave up the very first day I felt... but I believe you got a chance; she seems to like you... but for me, she treats me indifferently."

Anne became startled by Leo's words, as she was not expecting that. She unconsciously turned towards the two, her gaze meeting Leo's.

Leo, who knew she had heard him, pretended not to and cleared his throat awkwardly.

"So, as I was saying, do you remember what happened when you got out of our hideout?"

"...No... I... Yeah... Now that I think about it, no, I felt a sharp pain after which I passed out," Anne stated, her mind raced, trying to figure out the events that transpired after they escaped from the ants.

"Mark, what about you?" Turning to Mark, Leo inquired.

"I didn't pass out immediately, but I was hit with intense pain... If I had given in to it, I don't know what would have happened to us, given we were being chased by the ants. I gritted my teeth and got us to safety before succumbing to the pain," Mark exclaimed.

Leo nodded his head as he listened to the two speak.

He proceeded to tell them what their body went through after they collapsed—bones breaking, blood spewing, writhing in pain, and all.

"Blood... Now that you mention it, I do feel uncomfortable... Eh Anne, you got blood on your thighs," Mark exclaimed, noticing the dry blood on Anne's thighs.

"That's strange, you said our whole body spewed blood, how come... Oh, you cleaned us up, but how come my thi... Oh, I get it, thanks," Anne thanked him as she now noticed that dried blood was on her skin under the clothes, understanding that Leo could not remove her clothes despite seeing her almost half-naked.

In the bunker, to seek warmth, she had stripped, leaving only her undergarment, and huddled with the two.

She shyly looked away from Leo, impressed by his gentlemanliness.

"Man, I understand why you didn't completely clean her up, but what about me?" Mark inquired, a bit perplexed.

"Just didn't want to, got a problem with that," Leo retorted.

"Ah."

"Got a problem?"

"No, no problem."

"Okay, let's continue," Leo said, shifting his attention from Mark, who sat there silently pondering why the heck Leo was like this.

He sometimes did the nicest things but sometimes would not, and when questioned, gave the same answer, "just felt like it."

"Mark, don't think too much into it. He might have some rule against touching people's naked bodies," Anne whispered to Mark, trying to console him.

"Nope, he has no such rule. He nursed me when I broke my hand during one of our adventures. He helped me bathe; I was too old for my mom or dad to do that," Mark stated, knowing for a fact that Leo had no such rule.

"It seems you guys got something else you would rather talk about," Leo said sharply, silencing the two who were whispering to each other.

They quieted down and awkwardly shifted their gaze to him.

"You remember the announcement we all heard?" Leo asked.

"Yeah, the one about the trial to godhood," Anne responded.

"Yeah, that one. From what has happened so far, I believe this world is undertaking a trial to reach the godhood the announcement stated. From most games I have played, the stats, the monsters, and the soul energy are all similar to that of games.

As said earlier, the stats are meant to quantify our physical abilities, but I don't think that is all there is to it. For now, that is what I believe. If you look at your stats, you will notice the change in vitality compared to before the evolution stat showed up.

I believe the evolution stat measures how close we are to this godhood, as the term 'fetus' refers to an unborn baby. That means, as of this moment, we are unborn godly babies," Leo explained.

"Unborn babies, then how strong will the adults be?" Anne exclaimed. She had not given it much thought, but from what Leo said, it sounded about right.

The evolution stat measures the extent of an individual's 'godification.' The first and least stage is the fetal stage or 'fetus.' The second is the infant stage or 'infans,' and the third is the young child stage or 'parvulus.' The late childhood stage is 'Senex parvulus,' the fourth is the adolescent stage or 'adolescentulus,' the fifth is the young adult stage or 'iuvenilis adults,' the sixth is a late adult or 'senex adults,' the seventh is the angelic state or 'Angelus,' the eighth is the archangelic stage or 'Archangelus,' the ninth stage is the godhood stage or 'Deus.'

And the stage above that is the sovereign stage 'Sovranus.' This state is held by the supreme ruler of the universe, a status that can only be attained by one person at a time.

"So what we have now evolved and have started this so-called trail to godhood. Does that mean we are now god candidates, and when we survive, we will attain unimaginable powers?" Mark inquired, excited at the prospect of being the strongest.

"Yep, that sounds about right... And I believe this is just the beginning..."

CRUNCH!!!! CRUNCH!!! TRAMP!!! TRAMP!!! CRUNCH!!!

"What's that sound?" Anne interrupted Leo mid-speech as she heard strange sounds coming from outside.

After listening closely, the two heard the same. Mark got up and headed towards the door to peek at what was happening outside.

A wicked smile blossomed on his lips as he saw what was going on.

"Convert."