Endless Evolution: Last Star

The ghastly jaw of the flower monster appeared out of the darkness, with its long paws eager to tear flesh apart.

"ARGH!!!!"

With a shriek, Adam woke up, coming out of the nightmare. He didn't know how much time had passed, but it seemed that his dream only lasted a few seconds, as the monster's silhouette immediately woke him up.

"Oh, you're finally awake. I've been waiting for you." Lola uttered, with a slight smile on her face.

Adam looked around.

The first time he had heard of prison, he had expected to spend his next six months in a filthy cell, with rusty bars and a bed with a torn mattress. Sure, his expectations changed when he saw the passage to Fall Hill Prison and learned a little more about the place.

However, there was no way he could have expected this...

He was on a simple but clean bed, opposite him, Lola was lying on the white couch, reading a comic book with a carefree look.

There was nothing else, the shower, kitchen, and so on were shared in the F-Zone, but that wasn't what surprised Adam the most.

'No bars...?' Adam inwardly muttered, looking at the open passageway. There was nothing preventing anybody from entering his cell as well as leaving it since not only bars but there wasn't even a door!

Ignoring Lola, Adam got up from the bed and headed for the exit.

The first thing he saw was a dozen prisoners - all of them were dressed in white, just like him. However, there was a big difference between them and Adam, because they were downstairs on the first floor, and he was on the top one.

A few seconds were enough to realize the difference between the first and the second floor. There were many more people on the first floor, and there were several Phantoms in the cells. Only on the second floor, the Phantoms had private rooms where no one would disturb them.

"You seem surprised, don't you?" Lola uttered, walking over to him and holding up the comic book in front of her dress.

Adam nodded.

"Why am I here? I just got into the F-Zone... then why are they at the bottom, and I'm at the top?" Adam realized that being on the top floor was a privilege that had to be earned.

"I'd say you're lucky, but you're not. You deserve to be up here. Let me tell you all about it in more detail in the dining hall." Lola said, pointing to a large room in the distance.

There was nothing like this on the first floor, it was a unique feature for a second floor.

Adam nodded, looking around.

The F-Zone had the most people, several hundred, but there were only ten cells on the second floor, and only six were occupied. One of which was now home to Adam.

All of them had calm faces, full of humility and boredom... it seemed like they weren't even going to approach the main thing in the F-Zone - the gate!

"I mean, that's..." Adam muttered, looking at the massive gate opposite the one he had come into the F-Zone. Prago had gone through them earlier.

Lola nodded.

"These are the gates to the next zone. As you can see, they are slightly different from the one you came through. Come, I'll tell you all about it. What's more, I'm starving." Lola waved her hand, stepping further away.

Adam cast a glance at the gate before following her.

The exit gate was the same as the entrance one, but it had one major difference - green lines around the edges.

They sat down at a table, and Lola took two trays of food: nothing special, rice, vegetables, and some low-quality meat. Of the drinks there was only water, tea, and coffee without any variety.

"Well... I guess I shouldn't have expected better food than this in prison, should I?" Adam muttered, gazing at the rice that looked like some sticky, unflavored mess.

Lola shrugged.

"Every zone has a different set of food. Moreover, you're on the second floor, so you can eat whenever you want, and besides water, you have coffee and tea." Lola said, in a way, as if Adam should be happy with such an assortment.

Sure, Adam had eaten quite poorly for most of his life, but during his time as a Phantom, he had gotten used to not denying himself anything in terms of food. With his income from the missions, he could afford any food in any quantity.

"Hmm? There's no dining hall downstairs?" Adam raised an eyebrow in confusion.

Lola shook her head.

"The first floor gets food either, three times or five times a day. It depends on each Phantom individually. Furthermore, they only have water, nothing more. Also, as you may have already noticed, they don't have individual cells, their cells are much smaller than yours and don't have a couch." Lola explained, continuing to eat with an obvious appetite.

Adam nodded deeply.

"So why did I end up on the second floor?"

Lola pointed to Adam's pocket where his card lay.

Adam pulled out the card, and his eyes went wide. Originally, his card had a number on it - '0', now the number was three digits - '999'.

''Are these some kind of points...? But, why do I have so many of them? How do I use them?" Adam looked at the card puzzled.

"You don't. You can't spend points, because they open up opportunities for you. For example, those with 100 points in F-Zone can eat five meals a day, those above 300 can spend more time on the internet, those above 700 don't have to do work from the Guardians, those above 900 get in on the second floor." Lola said quickly.

In reality, the life of a prisoner was affected by almost every point received, but Lola explained about the most important benefits and milestones in this system.

"Guardians'?" Adam tilted his head.

Lola nodded.

"Each zone has its own Guardian. All of them are fairly strong K1-Phantoms from Azure Lotus. Here, Azure Lotus was able to use their influence by relying not only on Prago but on the other Phantoms to keep the entire prison under control."

Lola continued as she pointed to Adam's card.

"When you reach 999 points, you have a unique opportunity - to challenge the Guardian of the Zone and get the last point to reach 1000. That will be enough to open the gates to the next zone just for you."

Adam put the food aside, not intending to eat it, and directed his pensive gaze to the ceiling.

"You got 999 points because you were able to withstand an attack by the prisoners' auras. It happens to everyone, and only some are able to withstand it. Furthermore, you were personally attacked by Prago, that carries weight too." Lola waved her hand.

Adam glanced at one prisoner who was bored looking and reading something, his card also had 999 points on it.

"Why is he still here?" Adam raised an eyebrow.

Lola sighed heavily.

"Because he lost to the Guardian. Don't think they'll be easy to defeat because, unlike you prisoners, the Guardians have Nexuses. That will make it much harder. I think you understand."

Adam didn't answer anything. He just looked at his hands - it was unusual to be without his gloves.

"By the way!" Lola exclaimed energetically, "You have to pass the strength test on the first floor! Let's go!"

"What...?" Adam was puzzled, but had no choice since Lola had already run off waving at him.