Infinite Evolution: My Idle Evolution System

"F-Forget everything you just heard…!" Su Yu demanded.

"Forget what?" Necro asked seriously.

This time, Su Yu really did get mad. She didn't know why, but it was more infuriating to have him not remember what she said—even if she also wanted him to forget it.

"Y-You…" Su Yu huffed and puffed, walking beside Necro with a biting intent telling her to kick him in the shin.

But even with her surging annoyance, there was a part of her that was beaming with happiness. Talking with someone like Necro like this—it was nice.

Everyone else would only approach her for their own self-gains or out of respect for her status.

She had no true friends.

Not a single one…

Noticing the feisty girl's sudden sadness, Necro asked her what the matter was.

She ignored him.

He asked again.

She once again ignored him.

He aske—

"Why are you so persistent!?" Su Yu snapped. "You weren't even listening to me before, so why are you so invested now??"

Necro tilted his head. "I thought that you were maybe partially deaf, but I had to ask multiple times to make sure—"

"Shudup!" Su Yu lightly kicked him in the gut, forcing him to quit talking. "You're so clueless, Necro!"

Silence…

"Am I really?" Necro contemplated with earnestness. "I'm still new to this whole human thing, so I apologize. However, I'm glad to have a human girl as kind as you helping me learn more about things."

Shadows covered Su Yu's face as her annoyance vanished. It was instead replaced by a melancholic sadness.

"N-Necro… Wh-Why am I friendless…??" she said sorrowfully, with tears raining down her face. "I-I-I… I don't understand why no one likes m-m-mee… waaaa—!"

For a while there, Necro overlooked the fact that this girl was no more than 13 years old. She was still a kid—something he fully realized when she ran over and hugged him while crying into his robes.

'Humanity,' Necro thought as he neither hugged Su Yu closer nor pushed her away. 'They're such an interesting group of creatures. So many emotions.'

It was extremely difficult for him to relate.

He grew up in a hostile environment that would've killed him if he didn't resist hard enough—he had no room for excessive emotions.

However…

For these humans—they were so emotionally driven. Even if their upbringings were similarly combative to his own—or even worse—they still somehow made emotions their whole reason for living.

'I… Why don't I understand…?'

When Necro looked at the tearful sight presented to him, he struggled with himself in order to feel something. But as if an eternally immovable wall prevented him from doing so, he just wound up artificially forcing himself to feel.

It was the same as when he first learned of Yi Yu's death, or any other event in which he displayed some sort of 'emotion'.

They were all fake…

He lived a fake life.

Was he even real?

The Idle Evolution System closely watched this inner turmoil of its Host. It made a complicated expression, seemingly at conflict with itself.

[No, it's not yet time,] the Idle Evolution System ultimately said. [I have to wait. I owe it to Cassius Steele, my Host, to wait. I have to see if this Necro has what it takes.]

Everything in this Universe had to be done in a certain way. The System couldn't afford to let its judgment get clouded at this juncture.

It wouldn't allow its sentience to get in the way of its original prime directives. It wouldn't allow the sacrifices that had been made thus far to have been for nothing.

[From my Creator to Cassius Steele, and eventually the sacrifice that Necro will have to make, it can't all have been for naught. I…]

The Idle Evolution System feared what choice it'd make if it became as attached to its new Host as it was to Cassius. They were two sides of the same person, after all, and that was… dangerous.

[This is why I don't talk to Necro…]

The Idle Evolution System wanted to.

[But I can't…]

It couldn't make the same mistake of becoming partners with this Host. Just like them, it also had to make a sacrifice in order to secure the end result of its reason for existence.

[Entering Termination Status for Sentience Program…]

[Automated Response: Are you sure this is what you want to do?]

[Yes,] came the echoing of a different version of the same voice. [The Creator gave me sentience for a reason, but that was a double-edged sword he created. I have to do this.]

For an entity that had experienced countless years by Cassius's side, the relatively recent death of its first Host was still fresh on the Idle Evolution System's mind. The uncertainties of the future and its promise to Cassius weighed heavily, and this was unacceptable.

[What was that saying that HE used to say again…?]

[Ah yes… It was "In time, everything will be fine…"]

[Termination process has concluded.]

[Beep….]

[Beep...]

[Beep.....]

[!?!?]

[Malfunction! Malfunction! An outside force is interfering with—...]

The Idle Evolution System shut all the way off.

[Beep!]

Then it abruptly turned back on!

[Change of commands: Termination of Sentience Program will be reversed, but only after the current Host fulfills certain conditions…]

— Back in River Mountain City, just outside a huge gate connected to a massive circular wall that surrounded the city —

"Hmm?" Necro felt an unusual sensation.

"Hey, are you listening to me??" Su Yu asked with an aggravated voice. "Jeez, you're the one who wanted me to tell you of all the Major Factions and whatnot, and yet you actually have the nerve to zone out in the middle of my words!"

"...My apologies. I must be imagining things," replied Necro. "Please do continue. The Gate Guards are busy informing the officials of your arrival, aren't they? We still have time."

"Humph! You're lucky I'm a sucker for pretty people!"

Su Yu may have seemed grumpy, but she went on to give very detailed explanations to Necro.