Mutagen

Day 358 - 5:58 PM - Podorejo,Ngaliyan,Semarang City, Central Java, Indonesia

Luna began to wonder after realizing Mark's intention. How in the world was Mark's group able to make these seemingly ferocious animals do their bidding?

With those thoughts in mind, Luna gave Mark and his daughters one last glance before turning back to the group they helped.

Farel and his group did not have much time to pay more attention to their saviors. It was because an urgent situation came up.

"COUGH!"

The woman named Diah coughed out blood from her mouth. She began to convulse so violently that Farel and the others had to hold her down to prevent her injuries from worsening. However, even if they did so, they had no way of treating her.

"Remove her armor!"

Farel ordered.

Diah wore light steel armor around her chest. Due to the attack she received, the armor became dented, pushing into her ribs. But after removing it, they realized it was not only the armor. Her lower left chest had sunk down.

"Her ribs are broken! It must be piercing through her lungs!"

The man who checked shouted in dismay. Diah's complexion started to turn blue. With her lungs punctured by her ribs and blood filling up her lungs and airways, she began to suffocate. With this situation, there was no doubt. They were also going to lose Diah.

"God dammit!"

Farel cursed as he pierced the body of the nearby dead [Ground Hunter] with his spear in anger.

The 41st Settlement had already lost several of their people before this encounter due to the same enemies. And now, they were bound to lose another friend.

Luna watched the scene with her heart tightening. She knew them for a long time, and they were an honorable bunch of people. And if this kind of thing happened to her close friends, Luna would never know what to do.

The scene hurts even more than seeing someone die instantly. Once dead, that was it. The only thing left was sadness. However, seeing someone important slowly die without being able to do anything, the pain was definitely on a different level.

Most of the current survivors went through this kind of pain. At the start of the apocalypse, many people could only watch their bitten loved ones as they slowly turned into cannibalistic monsters. In this regard, the current situation with Diah was much better. There was no risk of her turning into an [Infected], and there was no need to kill her for the second time.

Luna and Bajing stood together, watching the situation while making sure there were no other dangers in the surroundings. On the other hand, their other members helped tend to the injured.

It was when Mark approached the two leading individuals of the Moon Chasers.

"Are they important people?" Mark asked consecutively. "Allies?"

Luna and Bajing gave Mark a glance before Luna answered.

"Allies. They are one of the two only settlements we are allied with and one of the few honorable groups in the fortress."

"Good," Mark replied. "Because I won't give additional service to non-allied parties."

"What are you-?"

Luna was about to ask what Mark was saying, but he interrupted her words.

"You two, make them give space for me. Then help me a little."

"What are you going to do?"

Bajing asked.

"What else? Saving her, of course."

Mark replied as he began walking to the dying Diah.

The two women were surprised. However, the word "saving" prevented them from spacing out. They immediately followed Mark and did what he asked.

"Make way! Make way! You guys, continue holding her down!"

Luna and Bajing said to the members of the 41st Settlement surrounding Diah.

"What are you trying to do?"

Farel asked the two women.

"Saving her."

Bajing replied, making Farel stunned for a bit. But then, he immediately approached.

"What do you need?"

Farel was eager to help.

"Just a little space. And do not interrupt whatever I will do."

It was Mark who answered Farel's question in broken Indonesian.

Mark's words confused everyone. They realized he was not a local, although he had a face of one. However, what did he mean by "whatever he would do?"

It was when they saw Mark block Diah's mouth with his right hand while he placed his other hand atop the dented part of Diah's chest.

Diah's body began convulsing even more as she tried to resist something. This reaction made Farel and his members doubt Mark's actions.

"Help to hold her tightly. Don't let her move too much."

Mark instructed Luna and Bajing.

Farel was about to ask Luna about the odd method of treatment, but Luna, who realized his intention, spoke first.

"I don't know what he is doing either. But let's just wait a bit. He had no reason to make the situation worse."

After Luna said those words, Farel nodded slightly. He also instructed his members to wait in silence and not distract Mark.

On the other hand, the person in question was already in extreme focus to the point he could not hear the conversation between Faren and Luna.

Mark was not just stuffing his hands on Diah's mouth. The others could not see it, but he was already controlling several [Blood Whips] through his palm and into the dying woman's airways. Mark was removing the clogged blood by converting the blood inside the woman's lungs and throat. He could do this efficiently because while the woman was an [Evolver], she was no [Mutator]. Mark would have no problems absorbing her blood into his body.

While Mark's right hand was dealing with the blood, Mark's other hand, placed on the woman's chest, did a different work. He pierced several [Blood Whips] into her chest and slowly moved her broken ribs back into place. It was a risky and painful procedure without anesthesia. That was why the woman's body violently reacted even when she was already unconcious.

Mark's eyes focused even more as he found the punctured areas of Diah's lungs. He then turned to Luna and Bajing.

"Take a vial on my belt and pour it on the spot when I tell you two."

Luna immediately did what Mark told them. She told Farel to replace her position in holding down Diah and looked at Mark's belt. She then found two test tube-sized vials hanging on the right side of his belt and took one.

"Where should I pour it? What spot?"

Luna asked.

"Wait a sec."

Mark replied, and everyone watched.

And then, to their surprise, a tentacle-like thing pierced out of Diah's lower chest before forming something like a metallic tube and solidifying.

"Pour it inside. Quick."

Luna was also stunned by the scene. Nonetheless, she still did her work and poured the vial into the odd tube that sprouted out of Diah's chest.

The contents of the vial flowed into the metal tube and spread out around the torn muscles of Diah's chest and around the holes of her punctured lung.

Everyone noticed the change. Diah looked like she was still in pain, but it was clear that she was already breathing freely. However, Mark did not remove his hands on her immediately. He supported the damaged parts of her chest in place, even joining the broken ribs with a thin film of [Blood Metal].

As a minute of Mark not moving passed by, they all saw the odd metal tube dissolve into a liquid form before retracting into Diah's body. What surprised them even more was the hole in her chest made by the tube began to close up on its own.

Mark's eyes closed as he felt around Diah's lungs and ribs. The [Regeneration Medicine] was working nicely. When the injuries healed to a certain extent, he began retracting his [Blood Whips] out of her body.

It did not take long, and Mark removed his hands from Diah's mouth and chest. At the same time, Diah had already calmed down. She still had a painful frown and was pale due to blood loss, but her violent spasms already vanished.

There was no doubt in this scene. Diah was not dying anymore.

Farel checked Diah's pulse and breathing. The breathing was still ragged, but her pulse was almost back to normal.

"Thank God."

Farel powerlessly fell onto his butt after the feeling of relief overwhelmed him.

"Thank you! Thank you!"

Farel and the other members thanked Mark.

"Don't thank me. It won't be free."

Mark definitely had the talent to ruin the mood, as his words made everyone speechless.

But then again, that medicine, whatever it was, should be extremely expensive. Farel and the others were not idiots to not realize that Diah's oddly fast recovery was because of that medicine.

"He's not a new member of yours, is he?"

Farel asked Luna and Bajing, and the two could only smile wryly.

On this occasion, everyone was celebrating Diah's survival. After all, it was a miracle.

It was when Mark felt a tug on his clothes.

"Do you still have that medicine? I'll pay with all I have. You can turn me into a slave if you wish. Just help Mal."

It was a woman who also had injuries after fighting the [Ground Hunters]. She was among the injured members protected by Farel and the others. However, she was not asking for herself. She was asking for help from a man on the back.

"Yulia, what are you saying?!"

Farel jumped in. He would not tolerate any of his members wanting to become anyone's slaves.

"But Mal! He's not moving!"

Yulia shouted.

Farel turned to the members of Moon Chasers, who checked on the man named Mal. Their response was to shake their heads in dismay.

"I can't," Mark told Yulia, patting the vial remaining on his belt. "This medicine only works on the living."

Yulia fell powerlessly as the truth began to sink into her mind.

Diah was in the middle of dying. She had the opportunity for survival.

On the other hand, Mal was already dead even before the reinforcements, the Moon Chasers, arrived.

Farel and the others looked at Yulia in dismay. The pain would have been less if Yulia and Mal were lovers. However, that was not the case. The two were cousins who grew up together. And Mal was her last family member, with the rest gone at the beginning of the apocalypse.

"Just cry, Yulia," Luna embraced Yulia. "It will make you feel better."

"It's my fault," Yulia cried out. "It's because he had to protect me!"

Mark looked at Yulia, who was bawling her eyes out and kneeling in front of him. He then gave a shrug as he stealthily took something out of his [Spatial Ring].

"Hold this."

Mark suddenly spoke, extending out his left hand in front of Farel. In his palm, he had something like a wooden medallion with a foggy crystal in the middle and inscriptions surrounding the crystal.

Farel was confused. However, he extended his hand to take the strange medallion.

SLAP!

Mark slapped Farel's hand away from the medallion.

"Not you," Mark said to Farel before facing an empty space. "You, hold this. Yeah, I can see you. Just hold this immediately. You don't have much time."

Everyone became utterly confused by what seemed to be Mark's solo stand-up comedy.

"WAHH!"

And they could only scream in shock as they saw the medallion float midair on its own.

Then, slowly, a hazy but familiar visage began to form in front of everyone.

"Yulia, don't blame yourself. It's an accident. And I'm happy to see that I managed to protect you."

The hazy visage spoke with his voice eerily echoing inside everyone's ears.

Yulia looked up, tears still flowing out of her eyes.

"MAL!"

Yulia cried out as she saw the visage. As she left Luna's embrace, she tried to hug the visage. However, she ended up passing through.

"What..."

Yulia was in despair.

"Mark! What is that?"

On the other hand, Luna and everyone around was utterly flabbergasted.

"Just a little trinket. It won't last long, but it should allow those two to say goodbyes, at least."

Mark replied.

Everyone had questions. Some wanted to talk to Mal to confirm if the Mal before them was real. However, Mark already said it. It would not last long. Real or not, it would be better not to disturb him and Yulia in his last moments.

But then, Mark spoke and told everyone something they did not expect.

"Besides, that Mal guy is wrong. It's not an accident. Right?"

Mark said as he threw a knife at a seemingly injured and unconscious member of Farel's group.

Feeling the danger, the man suddenly sprung up to the surprise of the people tending to his injuries.

Everyone realized all of his injuries were superficial, and the man faked his unconcious state.

"Wahyu! What is the meaning of this?"

Farel shouted in anger. 

There was no need for that guy to fake his injuries. If he was helping, more people could have survived. But no. In the first encounter, Wahyu became injured and was barely conscious. Who would have thought it was all an act? The way he avoided Mark's knife was definitely not movements an injured person could pull.

"Tsk, I got busted by some weird person."

Unfortunately, that was the first thing Wahyu said.

There was no denying it. The bastard was the cause of all of this.