Infinite Evolution: My Idle Evolution System - Chapter 301

Chapter 301: A Life Long Gone [Bonus Chapter 6/7]
FWIP!

Upon returning from Challenge #4377, Cassius’s legs hurriedly moved. He leapt over to the next Challenge he’d be attempting, doing so without wasting a single second.

This was how he had been operating for the last three years, and until reaching the very end of the Platform arrangement, he’d continue acting this way. Like a robot with a prime directive.

“Another Challenge, another opportunity for Character Development…”

The teachings of the Idle Evolution System had been engraved into the deepest, darkest crevices of his being. It had gotten to the point where his every action was made solely to develop his Character. And without exception, his ‘Character Developing’ consisted entirely of him being tortured.

It could be seen as a very cruel training method devised by the System, but it was undeniable that it worked. Without it, it was highly unlikely that he would’ve retained his sanity after three painfully excruciating years participating in the Class Change Quest.

Little did he know that his suffering had only just begun…

— 65 Years Later —

*Crackle, crackle.*

The distinct sound of crackling fire echoed throughout an empty field.

Within that field, there were tall horsetail grass pieces wildly blowing in the wind. The sky was dark, with the three differently colored moons casting an eerie, colorful luminescent glow on the endlessly vast world below. A world that, besides the area a lone man and a lone campfire lay, was covered in raging blue flames.

Neither animal nor human life was present in this massive fantastical world, but they used to be… they used to be…

Sitting beside a brightly lit campfire was a long, raven-haired man with a quiet presence, like a storm that had settled into an uneasy calm. His dark, baggy eyes betrayed the weight of his pain—indescribable pain…

The man appeared guarded, protecting what little he had left to lose. Which was…

“What do I have to lose again?” The man spoke, his voice carrying a tone that mirrored the fragility of life.

His eyes held a heaviness that seemed both tired, distant, and unfathomable. The way he listlessly stared at the perpetually raging fires on the horizon made him look both there and somewhere far away… very far away…

“I’ve lived in this world for 10… maybe more years,” the man said, his voice becoming even hoarser. “I experienced so many things, built an Empire, met so many people… made friends… I even… I even…”

Time—no matter who experienced its waves—was capable of changing people.

And with the passing of 68 years, a person whom you once knew like the back of your own hand could become someone unrecognizable.

Cassius… In his second-to-last Challenge—Challenge #99,999 of the Evolutionary Tier—he was given his most difficult task yet.

He was simply to live life.

Yet, he was to do so while wholly understanding that the world would come to an end in less than 15 years’ time…

Now, hypothetically, what would happen to a man if he were suddenly thrown into a thriving, limitlessly magical world with the ability to communicate? The ability to communicate after living an entire mortal lifetime without the ability to do so?

For 50+ years, that man had been doing nothing but killing and dying in endless repetition. And yet, out of nowhere, he was finally given a chance for a break.

No matter how much of an immovable, stone-hearted person one believed themselves to be, they’d fold. They’d fold immediately.

In this world—one billions of times larger than Earth—Cassius lived life just as the Idle Evolution System instructed. He forged relationships, resolved wars, cultivated friendships, saved countless people, and even… found love with a woman…

Cassius got married. He had children. He had in-laws. He made a life for himself with the woman he loved, surrounded by the people he loved.

And for years, he was happy. Truly, genuinely happy.

However, all good things must eventually come to an end…

And on the day that the world’s final countdown arrived, Cassius was forced to take a life. The first life he had taken since beginning Challenge #99,999 all those years ago.

The life of his…wife.

As heart-wrenching as it may have been for him to discover, his wife—since before they first met—had been planning his demise.

That woman wanted only one thing from Cassius—everything.

She wanted the authority he built for himself, the wealth he amassed, even the treasures and connections he had. She wanted all of it. And to get it, she played the part of an affectionate lover to perfection, biding her time for when the moment was right. Even her parents and the rest of her family were in the loop of her wickedness.

Only Cassius… Only him and his naivety were kept out of the know… naivety that was developed as a result of his yearning for normality. For a life that wasn’t just eternal suffering.

However, eternal suffering… It came in many shapes and forms…

Sure, Cassius could’ve seen the signs or realized the truth of things if he really wanted to. But he didn’t… Whether consciously or unconsciously, he ignored everything that should’ve opened his eyes to the truth…

And on one fateful day—the day that marked the Beginning of the End of the World—Queen Yara slipped the world’s most toxic poison into her faithful husband’s drink. The poison was colorless, tasteless, and incapable of being discovered by even the world’s 12 Paragons, 72 King Masters, or the 5 Earth Gods.

Queen Yara’s husband—Lord Emperor Cassius—however, was not even considered to be among the strongest in the world. The poison—Final Destination—should’ve been more than enough to let him meet his maker. In fact, Queen Yara felt a tinge of regret over spending so much of her husband’s money on purchasing this poison from illegal sources.

That’s right, she cared not the slightest bit about the fate of her husband, only about how much fuller her pockets could be after his death.

However, what neither she nor the rest of her co-conspirators could’ve expected was that Lord Emperor Cassius—the man who built the world’s #1 Empire without violence or a show of power—was, in actuality, a being far, far beyond their comprehension…