EPISODE 4 - PART 1

- THE SILVER RABBIT -

[WHITE]

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Imagine there’s a prey in the forest and it constantly is attacked by fast predators, so what would it do?

It would evolve to be faster or be able to hide better, or it’ll die. The predator, on the other hand, needs to evolve to hunt it better, or he'll die.

Whatever, there's a big problem there: you can't become better for free; you need biological energy for that, and you can do three things to overcome that issue:

One, cut off some of your capabilities, that way you can focus the energy consumption for the important things, but generally, that isn't good, mostly because the features you already have are useful in some way. So, this path isn't the great answer to all your problems in the long run.

Two, cooperation or mutualism, then you don’t even need to produce extra energy, but those are based on luck and finding another creature compatible, which isn't that stable or trustworthy solution to have. Besides, there might be some things that a relationship cannot provide perfectly.

And finally, three, the increase of the biological energy gathering, which means to have a better way of collecting energy passively, or eating more.

Of course, the best option is the third one, no sacrifices or instability, just the survival of the fittest is needed. That way, the race for the prey to get away and the predator to feast gets more and more intense, but still, you may be forgetting one thing.

The predator will hunt more, the prey will eat more plant food to outplay death, but what about the plants? It's not like they can be faster or be able to survive better, can they? Actually, they can.

Plants are like any other living beings, they sure are slow and look changeless, but they can also evolve, and the three biological energy managing rules apply to them as well.

And so, they'll sacrifice parts of themselves, join forces, and even eat more. You may ask, how a plant can eat? Well, normally it just takes its food from the ground, which is mainly water, minerals and other nutrients, but that's just the basic way to do it.

Plants can create deeper roots to reach even more space underground; eat insects, animals or other plants; and sometimes they can invite creatures to live nearby, for them to spread their seeds to other places, or to provide food back for living close by or when they die.

Nevertheless, there's one more thing that's more important than the individuality of life, and that's the territory, without it, it doesn't matter if you are the strongest being out there, you'll be extinct.

Humans once could easily build up cities and takedown forests for more territory, animals couldn't do much by the handicap of intelligence and tools. That's why we were one of the top species dominating the world, actually, the only creatures that could fight us off at that time were the insects or smaller beings, which were tiny, being able to live inside our territory in a different scale and by the most important thing: with mass reproduction.

Now, can you explain why mass reproduction is such a decisive fact?

The thing is, in the insect world they were tiny, had a lot of food opportunities, and they had a short lifespan.

That leads to two main things, the first is: there’s way too much land to conquer; and second: the competition increases in number.

And how's the best way to fix those two problems? Mass reproduction. The more soldiers you have, the better chances of survival and more spread you can get.

Now, what if something made the same characteristics that were on the insect world go to our world? If competition increases between all species, more killing would happen, more the necessity for territory and individual power, more reproduction, resulting in more biological energy that would be available.

All of that happened when SAE arrived, forcing nature to become a never-ending warfare of evolution.

Creatures who were prey, started to escape; the predators increased their territories; the plants got more competitive and attractive traits; bacteria developed a more efficient energy production; while the fungi increased their mutualistic or parasitic abilities.

Those living beings have done some, if not all, of the managing biological energy or niche reconstruction techniques over time for evolution.

But do remember: evolution isn’t the same thing as becoming “stronger”, but actually to adapt. So, the creatures aren’t necessarily going to evolve if they are balanced on their living quality.

And sometimes avoiding a problem is better than overcoming it.

With all of that being said, there’s one theory that was developed long ago; that if a species fight themselves in territorial competitions and take the upper hand on the evolution, they could snowball in power, being able to consume even more to become more powerful, always trying to overcome themselves, meaning that one day, they could destroy the entire planet by killing everything around them, that hypothetical creature is called:

“The Perfect Entity.”

The professor's voice echoes in the classroom, scaring everyone. That’s the first time they hear about this, but the digestion of the information is broken at the sound of a bell.

“That’s it, students,” The professor says slowly in tiredness, picking up some papers on his desk, preparing to leave.

Nathan Kearney, the professor for evolution’s classes, has a light-brown straight hair that goes near up the shoulders, he’s blind from the left eye, having an opaque color to it, and his face is of someone who hasn’t slept for a week.

As he goes to the exit, the class starts talking with each other, then he stops at the exit door.

“Oh… and this will be on your tests, so study further on the books.” Nathan's announcement makes the entire class whine.

“What the hell… more?” Vincent leans over the table with his elbows. “Didn’t he pass a two-hundred-pages book last week?”

“He did what?” Larry says surprised.

“The fortress defense something, didn’t you started reading it yet?” Oskar explains with a smirk.

“It’s easy, so you don’t need to worry,” Zack says focused on reading his own annotations of the class.

“It’s easy for your smart-ass,” Vincent replies in anger. “I tried to pass the first chapter, but-.”

The group of girls starts to laugh about something, as they exit the room, interrupting Vincent and making him lose his line of thought.

Fenik puts his annotations on a side shoulder book bag, then get up of the chair of the second front roll on the left corner, and starts walking to the right, where the exit is.

“Hey! You!” Vincent yells at Fenik, who seems to ignore completely. “The white hair kid.”

With that phrase, Fenik turns his head as if someone was swearing at him. Vincent gets up, serious, then starts walking towards Fenik, which only remains still, emotionless, and slightly confused.

Vincent then puts his arm around Fenik’s shoulders.

“We need to talk seriously now,” he says threateningly.

Fenik remains with his face closed, only waiting for whatever is going on to happen.

Oskar starts walking to them, cracking his fingers on a closed fist.

“You did see that, didn’t you?” Vincent continues more quietly.

“They are all together…” Oskar complements, getting closer. “…and we are getting behind.”

“What do you mean?” Fenik says seriously.

“The girls, my dude,” Vincent responds annoyed. “They are all friendly friends, and here we have a guy that sleeps all the time, two emotionless bastards and one that’s seated on the chair closest to the exit just to get out faster!”

“And there’s that guy who when isn’t with his girlfriend, he is talking about her…” Oskar complements with disgust.

“What I have to do with this?” Fenik responds in a slightly irritated tone.

“You are one of the emotionless bastards, man!” Vincent says close to Fenik’s face. “We need to start getting together, teamwork and all, you know?”

Fenik looks to the four in the room.

“So, you want… to form a group?” Fenik says still confused.

“Yeah, but not a group, we’ll be like, friends and all, you know?” Larry responds seated on the desk in the middle of the room, smiling.

Fenik hesitates for a second.

“No, I don’t want that.” He says callously.

Vincent loose Fenik, rolling his eyes in disapproval.

“C’mon, man... why’s that?”

“Uh?” Fenik’s eyes are with a subtle angriness, as if he’s threatening to start a fight. “Because all of you are weak.” His words are sharp and cold. “No use to be friends with dead people.”

The room gets silent, which is broken by the Fenik’s steps going to the exit.

“What do you mean by that?” Zack asks still seated on the back of the room.

Fenik stops and looks to Zack, with emotionless eyes, ones that you wouldn’t dare bet to be of a human, he appears to slightly open his mouth to speak, but it would be a waste of time. He moves a step, turning his head forward, getting out of the room.

Larry, Oskar and Vincent look to each other disoriented.

“Maybe we shouldn’t have started on the most difficult one?” Oskar says uncertainly.

Zack gets up, looking at his annotation, with anger in his face. He starts walking to the exit door, Vincent asks what was up, but Zack ignores, entering the main corridor, were Fenik is going to the entrance gate.

“Why do you think we are dead, huh?” Zack challenges Fenik from afar, some other class students from teams B and C stopped their chatting to hear. “I’m alive! So, why can’t you be friends with us?”

Fenik turns just to be grabbed by the collar, Zack’s eyes are a mix of anger, disgust and doubt.

“Tell me! I’m dead?”

Fenik doesn’t respond.

“I’m weak?” Zack shouts.

The silence makes all eyes looking at them heavier.

“Just because I lost to you once on the first day, it doesn’t mean I’m worthless!” Zack shakes Fenik’s uniform with force. “Do you hear me? I’m going to surpass you! You’ll be so upset that you can’t win against me, that… that-”

“What are you talking about?” Fenik says in disgust as if he’s talking to an insect. “You shouldn’t be trying to win against me.”

Zack releases his grab, confused, asking himself if he misunderstood something, he starts to recall everything Fenik said, but he can’t grasp where he could have misread.

Did he say that because he thinks he’s unbeatable?

Fenik turns, going to the exit, the people start to whisper around louder.

Something tells me that isn't it, but what could it be?

Fenik passes through the front gate, reaching his hand to the pocket and looking at the time in his watch, he turns to the left and puts it back, quickening his walk.

“Zack, you alright?” Vincent asks waving to the people that glance back just to chuckle and gossip.

Oskar and Larry are right behind him.

“Let’s follow him” Zack responds confidently.

“Huh?” Vincent lifts an eyebrow.