One minute, five minutes, fifteen minutes, thirty minutes, an hour, two hours-

Asher patiently waited, waiting for a change. Until finally-

Gurgle*

"Ugh... Now I need to do number two." Asher muttered in discontent and teleported back to his reality.

After a short bathroom adventure with unpleasant sounds and a sickening stench, Asher lay on his bed, feeling a pound lighter.

"Well, if anything, it did a good job as a laxative..." Asher muttered and looked at his smartwatch. "XiPi, did my body experience any changes?"

"No, User. There are no changes." XiPi answered.

"Not even latent ones?" Asher asked.

"No. If such changes were evident, they would already show in an increase in Biological Activity." XiPi answered.

"Seems like I don't have much of a choice..." Asher muttered and got up. "I'll try things from here."

The next moment, Asher disappeared, returning to the other world.

Taking out another crystal, Asher felt the familiar sensation of wanting to eat it.

"My body is telling me to eat it, but what if I end up like those mindless freaks outside or even die?" Asher frowned, feeling conflicted.

But soon, he stopped worrying about it. Instead, he crushed it with a hammer, creating a crystal powder, and then poured it into a cup. Even then, its attraction to Asher didn't dissipate.

But knowing he had no choice, Asher turned to XiPi and said, "XiPi, begin real-time monitoring. Notify me if anything abnormal happens."

"Affirmative," XiPi replied.

"At most, I will use my powers to isolate anything harmful... Hopefully, it wouldn't cause anything weird to happen." Asher thought as he drank the raw crystal liquid.

It didn't taste special, but his urge to swallow it multiplied with every gulp, and before he knew it, he drank it all.

Just a minute after it entered his stomach, XiPi began alarming him.

"Warning! Abnormality detected. Initializing auto-scan."

Tzt*

"Scan complete."

"Warning! The User's body is undergoing an unknown and aggressive genetic enhancement."

"Genetic Enhancement: General(1%... 2%...)"

"Biological Activity is showing signs of increasing in real-time."

"10.01... 10.02... 10.03..."

But Asher couldn't care less about it since he began feeling intense pain all over his body.

"ARGH!!!" Asher screamed in intense pain, feeling as if someone was tearing his muscles, bones, and organs and rearranging them.

Slowly, he felt himself losing consciousness due to the intense pain, so he did the smartest move he thought possible and teleported himself to the gold vault for self-protection.

Thud*

"Ugh! Guh! Argh!!!" Asher screamed and kicked the air while rolling around in pain. He even wished to bang his head against the wall to knock himself out cold.

However, he knew that this wasn't the end. And sure enough-

"Warning! Detected an unknown violent infection! Calling the emergency hotline- error! Cannot connect." XiPi said in an urgent voice.

"ARGH! Fucking knew it!" Asher gritted his teeth as he used Spatial Perception to sense within himself.

He soon found the aggressive infection, quickly latching onto his blood and organs and rapidly multiplying.

"FUCK OFF!" Asher growled as he used Spatial Swapping to remove the cells from his body, placing them inside his Spatial Storage.

"Notice, infection removed. Continuing observation."

"Genetic Enhancement: General(51%... 52%...)"

"Biological Activity: 10.51... 10.52... 10.53..."

Slowly, the transformation became slower and slower, and Asher felt the pain slowly go away.

"Hah... Hah... Hah..." Asher panted, as if he had just released the most painful constipation ever. "This better be worth it..."

"Genetic Enhancement stabilized."

"Biological activity has stabilized."

"Current Genetic Enhancement: General Enhancement(100%)"

"Current Biological Activity: 11"

"Warning! Detected that the user has entered a state of starvation. Please consume high-energy foods immediately."

Gurgle*

"Fuck... I'm starving. Good thing I packed a ton of food." Asher muttered.

The next moment, he took out a still-hot laffa with shwarma from the Spatial Storage and ate it. However, he still felt hungry, so he ate two sandwiches and drank a whole bottle of OJ before he relaxed.

"Burp* That hit the spot. Never ate so much in one go in my entire life." Asher rubbed his stomach.

Once full, Asher looked at XiPi and asked, "How long did it take?"

"From the moment changes were observed, you were changing for approximately 20 minutes, which is an astounding speed considering your transformation. Normally, it takes a whole day to reach Biological Activity 11 after receiving the General Enhancement." XiPi said.

"Wow, I could have sworn half a day passed," Asher muttered. And then he asked, "How is my Overloading situation? Did it improve?"

"Affirmitive. It has indeed slowed down by approximately 5%. It is estimated that you would require at least a Biological Activity of 30 to stop the deterioration. As your genetic enhancement is in the general standard, your biological activity will naturally improve over the next few months to 15, meaning it would slow down by 25% at the peak." XiPi explained.

"Well, better than nothing... But what if I eat more crystals? Can it be enhanced further?" Asher asked.

"Unknown. But since you don't have a choice, you might as well continue. Perhaps you can increase your genetic enhancement to Premium, or even Ascended. Of course, the amount would likely be dozens of times more." XiPi answered.

"Good enough. Would there be a problem continuing it now?" Asher asked.

"No. You can continue. I will tell you when to stop." XiPi said.

"Okay." Asher nodded and took out a crystal. This time, the attraction he felt to the crystal was slightly less, but it was still there.

Asher then repeated the process, crushing the crystal before drinking it with water. And several minutes later-

"UGH!!!" Asher gritted his teeth while enduring the transformation again.

However, this time, it was somewhat less intense than before. However, his head also strangely hurt. He also got infected again, but the spread was noticeably slower. Nevertheless, Asher didn't take risks and removed it.

After the pain was gone, Asher felt hungry again, so he took out more food.

"Good thing I put several hundred meals inside, just in case," Asher muttered as he ravenously ate.

And after he was done eating, he checked his scan result.

 

"Current Genetic Enhancement: General(90%)/Premium(10%)"

"Current Biological Activity: 11.9"

"Current Mental Activity: 10.1"

 

"Hah... Doesn't that make me 1% smarter? I do feel slightly more clear-headed." Asher scratched his head.

Regardless, Asher continued. After eating four more crystals, and his Biological Activity reaching 15, Asher didn't notice that his eyes turned Amber. And after eating another five crystals-

 

"Current Genetic Enhancement: Premium(100%)"

"Current Biological Activity: 19"

"Current Mental Activity: 12"

 

"Well, holy shit. Doesn't that mean I am about 90% stronger and 20% smarter?" Asher mused. "But I don't want to stop here. Let's continue and see how far I can take it..."

With that, Asher continued eating more crystals. Soon, he didn't bother to crush them and ate them with his food. The time between each transformation became less and less, and the pain lessened.

Asher's hair, teeth, and nails fell off, but were quickly replaced by new and stronger ones. His forehead burned as a round black diamond dug out from under his skin and replaced part of his skull. His bones and skin adjusted and fine-tuned, making him look incredibly handsome while maintaining a resemblance to his old self.

However, he continued without care, until late at night, finally-

 

"Current Genetic Enhancement: Ascended(100%)"

"Current Biological Activity: 30"

"Current Mental Activity: 30"

"Passive Overloading has ceased."

"Congratulations, User! You are an Ascended!"

 

"Phew... At least I won't passively die anymore." Asher sighed in relief as Damocles's sword no longer hung above his head.

Of course, he wasn't completely safe yet, but at least he wouldn't passively die.

Asher stood up, carefully feeling his body and the power coursing through it. His mind was also much sharper, and he remembered many things and details that he had forgotten or missed.

"I feel so much stronger, and my mind is clear..." Asher smiled.

But then, there was an obvious problem.

"How the hell am I supposed to blend in my world with a fucking crystal on my forehead?" Asher frowned while touching his crystal. "Would I need to wear a bandana wherever I go?"

Just as he was wondering this, he started noticing something. Presences. They were all around him, and he knew where they were, and they knew where he was as well. They surrounded him, just outside the bank vault! Some of these presences felt domineering and powerful enough to make him shiver, and he felt an instinctive fear of a prey meeting a predator. He knew what they wanted.

"Oh god... Are those the fungus zombies?! Weren't they supposed to be mindless things?! And why are they gathering here now?! Why do I feel like they want to eat me?! And I feel like there are weaker ones and stronger ones?! What the fuck is going on?!"

.

.

.

Inside the bank-

Dozens of monsters surrounded the vault. A third were lean and agile, another third were meaty and tough, and the last third had a balanced build. They were several times more powerful than regular humans, and they all had a black diamond on their foreheads. All of them were salivating, greedily eyeing the vault.

Outside the bank, seven creatures that looked like evolved variants looked at one another, each with a red crystal on their forehead. They were heatedly discussing the situation.

"The Ascended is inside that building."

"It's just one, and it is a Black-Tier Commoner. Either it is an outcast, a survivor of an exploration squad, or..."

"Or the unenhanced lone human we found earlier."

"How did it transform so quickly? Not even a day has passed."

"There is also the matter of food, water, and infection. I thought it would become a Slave Drone, or at most a Grunt."

"Yeah, and how did it get inside that impossibly robust vault? The power is out."

"It doesn't matter. It will come out eventually... or commit suicide inside."

"Let's hope it is the former. The Ascended are very pure. Even if he is only a Black Tier Commoner, one is enough to promote one of the Black-Tier Grunts to a Red-Tier Leader like us. A welcome addition."

"Agreed. I wonder which lucky Grunt will become our new companion."

While they were heatedly discussing, a sudden change happened-

The Ascended disappeared.

"What?!"

"How is this possible?!"

"Did it use masking technology?!"

But soon, they discovered the prey's location again. It was-

"Right behind us?!"

Bzt* BANG*

"Urgh!" One of the meatier leaders received a shot to the back, its robust skin bursting in an explosion of heated plasma, turning around, its amber eyes staring at the prey angrily. "The damn prey dares to retaliate?!"

"Want to eat me?! Then get some, you ugly things! I have an entire police department's arsenal to feed you with!" Asher taunted as he aimed a laser rifle at them.

"You want to hunt me?! Then I will hunt you first! I will use you to enhance myself even more!" Asher excitedly grinned, like a predator seeing his prey.

And so began a dangerous game of hunter and hunted.