I See One Second Into The Future: Loner In The Apocalypse

"Wait, me too!"

"C-Could I come as well?"

"I know more about farms, take me instead!"

Kairos blinked a few times as he watched the various windows of this building open.

"It seems like there's a party going on over here."

Everyone seemed to get even more anxious after hearing that.

"I'm stronger than everyone else, I can work the farm better!"

"No, I'm more hardworking, I won't slack off at all!"

"Wait, I'm naturally a small eater so I can pay even more taxes."

Kairos blinked a few times.

"Well, I never said that there were only so many that could come."

Everyone seemed to calm down somewhat.

Kairos sighed.

"But I can't guarantee that all of you will get in. Let's first get there and we will see, alright? Pack up fast, I'll be waiting at most ten minutes on the ground floor."

Upon hearing that, all of them anxiously rushed to do their own things.

Kairos leaped off, landing back on the ground floor. He then began waiting, counting down the individual seconds needed for ten minutes. Though, he couldn't help but count a little bit on the faster side since he didn't really want to wait for that long.

Yet, as he was waiting, he heard a scream coming from the inside.

It was then Kairos realized that there were probably monsters in the hallways of the apartments, and these people were essentially sheep against them.

His eyebrow twitched.

"...I should probably help."

With that in mind, he searched for the entrance of the place, which he found after just turning a corner. There were windows in place, letting him easily see the inside.

There were countless pieces of furniture blocking the doors, stacked up so high that he could only make a few slivers through the tiny cracks.

Kairos raised an eyebrow.

It seemed some people were courageous enough to block the place off. Though... they were probably also dead. From what Kairos could tell, this person was brave enough to help in creating a barricade, but that kind of thinking also meant that they were a coward.

They weren't the kind to prefer direct confrontation, thus probably didn't kill many monsters.

In other words, this kind of person was brave, and also weak.

With those thoughts in mind, he pushed against the glass door casually, seeing if it would open. The furniture stacked up creaked loudly, on the verge of snapping. However, they didn't get pushed back.

Assuming that the furniture itself wouldn't break, then this barricade would hold.

Kairos wondered if this was a coincidence, or if someone actually did such a thing. He pulled back his fist all the way, before suddenly letting it loose.

With a loud crash, he shattered the glass door into pieces and destroyed all the furniture in front of him. Various wooden legs scattered into the air along with the stuffing of cushions.

Kairos continued walking forth, and immediately found the place smelled quite bad. Though, it still wasn't nearly as bad as the room he saw before. Despite the debris from the wrecked furniture covering the ground, it was still fairly easy to see quite the large amount of dried blood splatter across the place.

Kairos pushed on a little further, and found himself getting a little lost.

He didn't exactly know where the staircase to go up was, and he was not even going to bother trying the elevators. The place was in so much of a mess, it was basically impossible to tell what the place originally looked like. After a bit of searching, he found a door and decided to try and push it open.

Yet, it only gave slightly, along with the sound of creaking furniture.

Kairos raised an eyebrow with interest. It was the same kind of barricade blocking the original door. Though he could tell it was only made out of a few pieces, thus just pushed a little harder, causing the furniture to break apart.

With several loud snapping sounds, the door slowly gave in.

As Kairos pushed, he found that this was actually a janitorial closet. His original intention was to give up as he pushed, but there was the smell of blood inside, which made him curious.

He continued to push it open most of the way, and in the corner of the room, was a man in the corner. There was a small puddle of blood underneath him, while his head hung limply.

His body looked quite terrible, especially considering he was basically just skin and bones. His hair was bright yellow, while his clothes were casual ones, though they were ragged and bloodied now.

Kairos rubbed his chin.

"...What kind of idiot locks themselves into a closet and dies there?"

That was when the man's head slowly turned in his direction.

"An idiot... that trusted...."

Kairos blinked a few times.

"Wow, you're actually alive despite looking like that."

The man slowly closed his eyes.

"I might as well be dead..."

He took in a slow breath.

"After all, all my friends are."

Kairos paused for a moment.

"Well, the monsters are pretty scary in the apocalypse."

The man shook his head.

"It was by the people here... We took care of all the monsters in the building..."

Kairos rested his spear on his shoulder.

"...So you helped them and then they killed you?"

The man smiled bitterly.

"Some of them wanted to hold power over the situation. Since everyone looked up to us, we had to go."

Kairos nodded.

"So that's why they are all holed up in their own rooms. They can't even trust each other."

A smile slowly formed on his face.

"That means they are perfect for the job."

The man was surprised by his words, so much that even being on the verge of death, he had to ask.

"Job? What job?"

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"Farming."

The man furrowed his brows.

"What? How does that even..."

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"They are the kinds of people that are led by their emotions. Scare them a little bit, and they will do anything you ask. They can hardly think for themselves, and won't dare to challenge someone stronger than them."

The man fell silent.

Kairos didn't plan on ending the conversation just yet though.

"Say, you were the one that made this barricade and the one in the lobby too, right?"

The man let his head droop, hitting the wall next to him. He didn't bother answering.

Kairos sighed.

"Well, considering there's only one way into this place, it must've been you. Are you a scientist or something?"

The man shook his head.

"...No."

Kairos narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Are you lying to me?"

The man shook his head firmly.

"No. I was never employed as a scientist, even though I graduated with a PhD."

Kairos couldn't help but chuckle.

"Sounds like you are a bad scientist."

He was expecting this to poke at the man's pride, causing the man to flare up. Yet, his facial expression didn't change at all.

After a few seconds of silence, the man spoke.

"Yeah, I am."

Kairos was confused. He couldn't help but feel intrigued.

"Hey, do you want to come with me?"

The man weakly scoffed.

"I don't want to farm with those people."

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"What if it wasn't farming you had to do?"

The man slowly looked up.

"...What do you have in mind?"

Kairos raised a finger.

​ "How about you help out in making things like this barricade you have here?"

The man did not respond for a few seconds, thinking about it.

"You mean like the research department of a company?"

Kairos nodded.

"Pretty much."

The man slowly got up to his feet.

"Then... I'll try it."

Kairos rubbed his chin.

"Alright, well I would give you some food if I had any on me, but I don't. I guess your first trial will be getting to the city I take you to first."

The man slowly nodded.

"Alright."

Kairos let out a small gasp.

"Ah, right. Do you know where the stairwell is?"

The man pointed weakly in a direction.

"There."

Kairos nodded.

"Alright."

As he walked in that direction, the man called out to him.

"By the way, my name is Quinn."

Kairos nodded.

"Kairos."

Then, he continued walking to the stairwell door. This one was also barricaded, but Kairos just did a simple shove and was able to push it aside.

What was revealed was a stairwell, like he expected. Though, there was also a bit of fresh blood dripping down from above.

Kairos raised an eyebrow before walking up the steps to see what was happening.

"What the hell are you going to do? You're just going to die anyway, why are you even trying to get to the farm? That's the job we should rightfully have!"

There was a fight in the cramped stairwell. A few people had knives in their hands and were preventing anybody from getting past the second floor.

The dead bodies at their feet was proof of that fact.

Kairos rubbed his chin.

"Rightful position, is it? Since when did you think you somehow earned that rightfully in any fashion?"

A man blocking the stairwell turned around with a deep frown on their face.

"How dare you-"

Yet, before he could speak any further, the woman next to him covered his mouth. She smiled awkwardly.

"S-Savior, this isn't what it looks like!"

The man was initially confused, trying to pull off the woman's hand by force, but quickly stopped once he realized what had happened.

A small smile formed on Kairos' face as he took a step forward.

"Alright, if it isn't what it looks like, then what exactly is it?"

The woman was at a loss for words. That was when the man began pleading.

"We were just taking care of people that were going to die anyway! It would've made the journey less of a burden..."

Kairos rolled his eyes.

"I just care about farmers. You don't need super strength to do that. The only thing I see, is you wasting my time."

After a few moments of awkward silence, the woman changed the way she moved to be more sultry. The woman even leaned over so that her chest was more visible.

"Savior, you don't have to take the man next to me, but you will at least take me, right? I can... provide things he can't."

The man immediately freaked out.

"You bitch! How could you-"

But before he could say anything more, the woman stabbed a knife into his stomach. The man's eyes widened, and could no longer find the strength to scream. Instead, he fell down to his knees and slowly bled to death.

Kairos slowly walked up, with a wider smile.

This in turn made the woman smile as well.

Kairos' head tilted to the side slightly.

"You know..."

Then, he grabbed onto the woman's head causing her to freeze in place.

"...I always hated it most, when a girl tried to convince me in that way."

The woman opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, Kairos' gripped suddenly tightened.

And he directly pulled it off.

His thumb pierced deeply into the woman's eye, which would've caused her to scream if she was still connected to the part of her body that allowed her to do that.

It was only a few seconds later that she died.

Everyone in the stairwell froze in place, now deathly afraid.

Kairos took in a deep breath, before shouting at the top of his lungs.

"I gave you all this opportunity because I thought it was something I could do along the way, that wouldn't take too much time. But if you're going to waste my time with bullshit like this, then it clearly means you don't respect me."

He paused for a moment, with a small frown on his face. And this time, he spoke as though he was ordering food at a restaurant.

"And naturally, that means I have no obligation to respect you."

With that, he dropped the head, letting it smack into the floor, before walking back down the stairs.