The past and present

As soon as the hour came, an enormous wave of mana descended onto the Earth like a tsunami.

The ground trembled slightly as its composition was changed.

The air grew heavier, creating a suffocating feeling to all beings similar to what Merlin had done in the conference room.

However, within a second, this heaviness disappeared, leaving a refreshing feeling within the air.

This was the mana saturated air evolving to a higher Tier along with the rest of the planet.

Merlin stood, floating in the air in his black hoodie, and track pants. The illusive layer of protection from the mana drain on high Tier beings began to fade a little, allowing the now evolved air of the earth to enter Merlin's body.

With this, everyone received a notification.

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Congratulations on surviving Round 1 of the Apocalypse.

Round 2 begins now!

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With this notification, some peak Tier 1 beings received another pop-up from the system.

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Alert!

-You have reached the level at which you can evolve into a Tier 2 being.

-You have reached the max stat points in Strength, Dexterity, Vitality, Mana, Intelligence, Sense, Evasion, Critical and Toughness. In order to increase the max stat points, you must first evolve to a Tier 2 being

[Do you wish to evolve to a Tier 2 being? It will take 4 hour to complete the process, and you will lose consciousness during the period.]

[Y/N]

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Seeing that a few people were hesitating on whether to evolve or not, Merlin took the task and spoke to Phillip,

"All peak Tier 1s who have received a notification to be able to evolve will move to the nearest base's cryo-genesis chamber and evolve there. Do not worry. Even the zombies must undergo a 4 hour hibernation in order to evolve to Tier 2. This order applies to all those peak Tier 0 as well who got the notification to evolve to Tier 1. Quickly move and undergo the Tier evolution.

The Sanctum's safety depends upon it!"

With these few words, the entire base began to move into action. All those with evolution notifications began to move to the nearest base, while others quickly took their place.

Within 10 minutes, all the changes to the patrols and guard stations throughout the sanctum had been made, and Merlin was quite satisfied by the efficiency of his subordinates.

With most of these matters out of the way, Merlin stared into the distance with an aggrieved look.

This was the first mana burst. In his previous life, many humans had reached Tier 1 and some even peak Tier 1. They had formed large groups of survivors into strategically optimal defence locations across the world, and had grown complacent at the weakness of the zombies around them.

When many of them had received the ability to evolve, they unhesitantly chose to evolve nearly the entire upper echelons of every survivor base fainted.

Many of the ill-managed groups split apart and ran away from their captors, while the better managed groups stayed together.

Merlin was part of the later groups, along with Jack, who was not very famous at the time. Their direct superior, Zane, was a tank, aspiring to become a Paladin from the games. He was rather strict on the outside, but extremely kind on the inside.

He was one of the few who evolved to Tier 2 at the time. By the time he woke up, a zombie wave had already begun their assault onto the camp, who also had around 12 Tier 2s, while the camp only had 5 Tier 2s.

Seeing this situation, 2 of the human Tier 2s turned around and ran away to protect their lives, leaving the others to fend for themselves.

The humans were able to persevere in the end, not by vanquishing their enemies, but by abandoning the base and fleeing for their lives, losing many people in the process.

Zane was one of the people, and the only Tier 2, that died on the battlefield, trying to protect his direct subordinates.

'Sigh, many people will die this time too.'

Although Merlin had strengthened the people around him to an extreme extent, the zombies had also strengthened themselves for some reason. Just as the humans were growing, the zombies were also growing just as fast, if not faster.

'Could this be the so called butterfly effect?'

Clearing such thoughts which strained Merlin's mind too much, Merlin thought of something positive to look forward to.

He turned around and flew back into the underground basement where his Tier 1 and peak Tier 1 captives were kept with an insidious smile.