Infinite Evolution: My Idle Evolution System

"Why did you take your hand off again…? It's not that I don't like the pets.…" Grace mumbled.

"So you do like it? How much do you like it?" Cassius couldn't stop himself from teasing the adorable girl a bit, both with his words and his hands..

Although embarrassed, Grace answered, "Mhmm… A-A lot…" with a blush seemingly glued to her peachy features. She was unable to look at him as she was, so she pulled him through the last set of spinning doors of the Sushi Haven Restaurant.

Cassius kept his eyes on the perfectly curved back of the beautiful brown-haired girl dragging him around in an unusually forward manner. He enjoyed her presence; it was a breath of fresh air, one that he hadn't known he needed. However, there was a large part of him that didn't believe he deserved something so nice.

His entire life, he lived believing the bare minimum was already too good for him… Yet to suddenly encounter Grace and get to know a new side of Aya… It almost felt too good to be true.

And then there were the continuous improvements to his strength, which although acquired because of the system's sadism, still left him joyous beyond belief.

Yet, that once again made him think that something was amiss…

'A ploy…?' Cassius's overly cautious side got the better of him as he thought useless things.

Why would anyone out there be plotting against someone as inconsequential as he was?

—--------------------

— Outside an Airport Runway in Hoshito —

BAM!

A small explosion occurred around the body of Adam Steele. His eruption of rage startled the flight attendant females lined up on the side. They all kept their heads down, afraid to offend Adam and the classy woman walking next to him.

"You must calm yourself, Malakar," said the woman, her gaze cold and calculative. "I know you have been patiently waiting for 'it' to return to her son. But you and I both know we can't rush things."

Adam's face further scrunched in anger as his brows deeply furrowed. "I know that as much as you do, but I secretly checked the incompetent son of that bitch, and although his physique has miraculously improved, he's still as useless as ever! Awakened humans are already inferior creatures as it is, and yet that one is even more useless!! If I were his mother, I would never come back to save him, so what's even the point of keeping him around as bait!??"

'He's still as short-tempered as always… I really can't understand why the Mothership decided him to be the one most fit for this assignment…' The classy woman sighed heavily before ascending the stairs of a golden-plated private jet. 'Well, at least he is a decent enough actor… that Sasha character we meticulously selected in hopes of activating 'its' maternal jealousy should also be bringing forth some results. Yet we have no idea how close 'it' is to coming out of hiding… Hah…'

The classy woman, whose name was Selena, rubbed her temples before finding herself a seat on the jet.

The livid Adam (Malakar) came in a second later and sat down in the row of seats next to hers. His body seemed to rapidly expand and protrude in a few areas as a purplish shell-like material took the place of his skin. Yet, before he could revert to his original form and take up all the seats, Selena glared at him.

"Don't do anything rash while we're still blending in among the humans," she said. "Though the strongest of the humans are still ants to the weakest of us, you should know as well as anybody of those anomalies. That is how you got that scar, isn't it?"

Following her eyes, Malakar ground his sharp teeth in anger upon seeing the large, gnarly scar strewn out from the top of his chest down to his waist. He could still faintly recall the ethereal human with his sword-like eyebrows and his long, flowing black hair. He had stood domineeringly atop a massive greatsword while looking down on him as if he were mere trash.

"I am the Guardian of this Floor, Outsider. You and your friends up there may continue coming down here, but you will simply keep on losing. Your life; your choice. But if I see you again… I'll kill you."

The man's icy sharp eyes then flashed as he somehow flicked the giant greatsword around like a blur and left Malakar with his scar.

Malakar ground his teeth to the verge of turning them to dust just remembering the sheer level of disdain that puny human had held for him.

"Damn it all!!" Malakar bellowed as he was about to disregard everything and morph into his Kaiju form. Yet, before he could do something so foolish, Selena dispersed his aura and commanded, "Sit."

"S-Selena, you!!!" Malakar's eyes lit up in anger, yet he knew that it would be unbelievably stupid to go against the one who held the title of 'Intergalactic Sorcerer.'

"Do not get ahead of yourself, Malakar," Selena said as she calmly sipped on a cup of tea. Her neutral face suddenly frosted over, with her swirling frigid gaze boring into the monstrous Malakar like the coldest of tundras.

"You may be the one leading the mission of getting 'it' to come out of hiding, but I am the one tasked with making sure you do your job properly. You are to get 'it' out of hiding without angering 'it' enough to prevent us from ascending to the next floor. With that Floor Guardian being abnormally powerful for those of a Tower like this one, we must take this backdoor method and ascend the Tower without encountering that man. To do that…"

Selena pierced through all of Malakar's defenses with just her gaze.

"To do that, you need to get yourself together and strike at a different angle. We need to let down 'its' guard, and the only real method we have is holding her son hostage, which means that we can't kill him. Find a different way to force 'it' out. You know the deadline before a replacement for you is found and sent down."

"A different way!?" Malakar roared, concealing the fear he felt because of this unearthly beauty before him. "What other way is there!??"

Selena's irises frosted over at his tone. "I don't know; that's not my job to figure out. It's yours." She returned to ignoring the fuming man's presence, not caring a single bit about his grievances.

The private jet started moving before ascending to the skies like a bird in a gust of wind. Their destination was a skull-shaped island to the far east—an island that would not show up on any conventional map in the world. In that island lived several extraterrestrial existences that did not belong to this Realm—mysterious beings capable of crushing S-Rank, city-destroying level humans like bugs.

Yet, even though they were so powerful, they seemed to be constantly stepping on eggshells, afraid to so much as stick their heads out too far.

All because of a single man…

Atop the zenith point of a mountain that touched upon the clouds, a refined middle-aged man with a piece of horsetail whisk in his mouth tipped his ragged traveler's hat to the east.

With his entire face shrouded by blackened shadow lines, he spoke in an antiquated voice that didn't match his handsome, youthful visage. "It seems like things are finally getting interesting." He then vanished from his spot, with slight traces of a wistful smirk flowing through the speed stream.