The Astral soul system-Chapter 149: The theory of evolution

The class went by with nothing interesting happening. Zyro stayed awake despite knowing everything that was being taught, Xavier and Neo were goofing off whenever Gemma wasn’t staring them down and Maximilian if anything seemed disinterested in the class, but still payed some level of attention, similar to one/three of his roommates,he was a genius and this class honestly didn’t do much for him. Zaria had a similar personality to Zen when it came to studying and honestly got bored FAST, almost dozing off on multiple occasions. Diane quickly got bored and started to tease and mess with Jade who was the only one in the entire group who actually tried to pay deep attention to the class.

It was safe to say Aurora was exhausted and Gemma, furious by the end of the class.

"Alright. That’s all for this class. Any questions?" Aurora asked to the class, and once again it seemed like no one would ask when someone suddenly put up their hands.

"Yes?"

"About the war. You said that the previous conflict against the arcade lasted for millenia, but the military alongside the main families took them out just recently and there wasn’t even any casualty count announced. If it could be done just like that,why did it last so long?"

Zyro was suprised to hear this and even tried to look to see who asked it.

A scowl suddenly appeared on Aurora’s face as she heard that question.

"Tch! Kids"

It was obvious that question had upset her.

"Let me guess, your parents probably work for the military, right?"

She didn’t wait for the student’s response before continuing.

"Let me guess, your parents probably told you growing up that whenever you saw someone bearing the mark,to forget about fighting and just run, but you probably didn’t listen, thinking they were just overreacting or that you’d be strong enough to protect yourself "

From the looks she could see in the crowd, she could tell she was right. Her tone suddenly took on a grim edge

"You all still don’t know what fear is. The presence of that mark on a battlefield was as good as an act of divinity"

’well it’s an act of something ’ Zyro thought

"I’ll be perfectly honest with every single one of you. If you’d ever been unlucky enough to have been born when the war was still going on, you’d all be dead"

Aurora proclaimed like it was a fact

"As for how many....It would probably take a level four player to kill you all singlehandedly.... save a few exceptions"

Hearing that,murmurs and dissatisfied grunts spread out through the class as they felt like Aurora was insulting them. There was no way they were that strong.

Aurora sighed as she heard their disagreements and just said.

"I suppose i still have to answer your stupid question,so here you have it. The arcade had several advanced technology and other unknown powers that were far more advanced than the modern world,so much so that they were even considered magic or miracles by some. Also, mutations for some reason were quite common with them, while less than ten percent of humans develop mutations, it’s been estimated that about eighty to ninety percent of players have extra capabilities seperate from their abilities and although not all mutations are good in combat, they did make a difference. Finally , even the most average player was quite skilled, matching veteran fighters and soldiers "

Aurora stopped the textbook explanation that was obviously just memorization from some boring book she found since she was too lazy to bother with the student’s question.

"In conclusion, you’re all trash, and if by some misfortune you encounter someone with the mark...Run. Don’t fight.

Zyro chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his right hand as the class emptied out.

"Fuck that. There’s no way that’s true "

"I don’t buy it. Magic? Sounds like excuses to me "

"The military’s obviously trying to save some dignity after getting disgraced for the past few hundred years "

"Yeah,i could take one of those shit heads no problem"

"Do they actually expect us to believe those fairytales? One player against a hundred soldiers? Yeah right "

"Back then? Maybe, but now? There’s no way that could work with the new theory of evolution"

That’s right,the new theory of evolution. It was honestly quite simple. This theory stated that when aether came into the world and it practically rebuilt itself, the biological limit of humans and all other creatures was reset at a higher rating, allowing humans to advance with every generation. It was calculated that the average teenager nowadays was around the fitness level of the worlds strongest at the time before aether. This boost was also why humans were able to survive the earth’s insane new mass and gravity. After growing larger than the previous largest planet, Jupiter,the earth’s gravity was theorized to be four to five times what it was back then.

The earth’s gravity was also why materials like steel and copper were barely used anymore. They had been rendered almost completely useless in the face of the planet’s density when the new elements were introduced.

At its core the theory stated that every new generation of humans would be qualitatively better than the last. It had been debated by many scientists and eventually published.

Of course Zyro knew all this was bullshit.

Or at least it is now

The theory of evolution actually used to apply,a few hundred years ago, but similar to before, humans had once again hit the biological limit after a few centuries. It was just old news, the so-called theory of evolution was based off nothing but a few unnoticeable, arbitrary and frankly useless changes between generations. Like an increase in average muscle density by 0.0000001 percent,or something like that.

The murmurs continued with students discrediting what Aurora had said, confident that it was just the rants of an old coot that didn’t want to admit they were defeated.

"It sounds weird hearing all this stuff now that we know that you’re...you know"

Xavier suddenly said

"You think you feel weird? Ha! Imagine being me"

"Yeah" Freya agreed

"I still wish you’d tell me what this arcade even is" Lilith added

"Yeah, it’s driving me crazy. Spill already. Are you guys like conquerors or something" Sylphie asked

"Well..."

Zyro suddenly asked Freya

’Hey Freya,you went to this academy, right?’

"yeah?"

’well i wanted to know if you ever met my teacher’

"Huh? I-"

"No way"

"It’s him"

"He’s back"

"Oh shit!"

Zyro looked at the door to see what all the commotion was about and saw a vaguely familiar figure with brown hair forcing his way past the students and into the classroom.

"Well this is going to be interesting"

"Hmm? What do you mean? Who is that?"

Neo suddenly remembered that Zyro wasn’t around at that point and pointed at the center of the commotion.

"That guy, is Gary storm"

"...O...Kay?"

Neo realized that Zyro still didn’t understand so he continued.

"Zen got into a fight with him, and beat him, really bad."

"Oh"

Diane suddenly giggled remembering it.

"Yeah, he used that weird eye to do something to him"

"WHAT?!"

Zyro suddenly exclaimed, getting up and punching the table. Everyone was shocked by his outburst but Zyro didn’t seem to care.

"He did what?"

Zyro’s expression suddenly turned strange as he sank back into his seat. Gary seemed unimportant now.

"He....why? What about P-"

He suddenly took a deep breath, his smile returning so fast it was unsettling.

"It’s no biggie. We know about the side effect,he didn’t go crazy"

"That’s not..."

Zyro sighed.

"I guess that’s good enough"

The others exchanged glances before looking back at him. It seemed there was some history regarding their mutation.

Gary suddenly seemed to have spotted Zyro and started walking towards him, his gaze fixated on him intently.

Zyro braced himself for whatever was coming and unlike the violent reaction they all expected,Gary stopped in front of Zyro, looking down at him.

"You...."

The entire class seemed to freeze as everyone was fixated on the two of them, preparing for a fight to break out any minute as Gary stared down at Zyro with a determined expression.

"Hi"

Zyro waved a bit trying his best to guage Gary’s emotions as he nervously waited for him to say or do something.

Strangely the two just ended up staring at each other for the next few seconds, turning the previously tense atmosphere weird and honestly a bit weird.

Neo chuckled and whispered

"Ga-"

"Shut up"

Maximilian put his hand over his mouth, shooting a warning glance at Xavier.

"We need to talk. Alone"

Gary said in a demanding tone, emphasizing the alone part.

Zyro was a bit shocked. He was expecting anger or just straight up violence but not that.

"Okay. Sure"

Zyro got up and Zaria suddenly grabbed his hand,her fingers squeezing the leather gloves

"Are you sure about that? What if he’s planning something rotten? It could be a trap"

Zyro smiled.

"I can take care of myself. Besides,i want to hear what he has to say. Please don’t follow me"

Pulling his hand free, Zyro left the class with Gary, walking behind Zen’s old opponent towards a deserted section of the school.

Zyro’s friends waited for a few minutes, getting more and more worried with every second that passed.

"This is a bad idea, this is a really bad idea" Zaria said nervously, resisting the urge to bite her nails.

"Do you think he’s okay?" Jade asked Diane

"Crazy boy number three? Probably not"

Jade pouted and lightly punched Diane in the shoulder, unamused by her attempt at humor.

"Maybe I should go after hi-"

"Hey guys!"

They all looked at where the voice came from and saw Zyro waving at them, not a scratch on his body or even some dust on his clothes. Gary on the other hand was nowhere to be seen.

Getting up to meet him, they bombarded him with questions.

Try to guess who’s asking which question

"You’re alive?"

"What happened?"

"Are you okay?"

"Did you guys fight?"

"He threatened you or something?

"Did you two k-i"

SHUT UP!

"Alright, enough. One at a time. First things first, how did it go?"

Zyro grinned a bit too happily.

"It went well. He was... agreeable"