Mutagen

Day 359 - 4:17 PM - Central Plaza, 41st Settlement, Outer Wall, Sacred Muria Fortress, Mount Muria, Jepara Regency, Central Java, Indonesia

A plethora of intense emotions overwhelmed all the residents of the 41st Settlement.

Joy. They felt this emotion as they learned of Farel and his group's return.

Sorrow. Learning the untimely death of their loved ones, the families of Farel's deceased members cried out loud.

Bewilderment. Mark's sudden display of his abilities caused the witnesses to feel bewildered. However, it was replaced soon after.

Anger. The bewilderment Mark caused was replaced by anger as the residents saw him gather six of their members and violently throw them into the center of the plaza.

Shock. After the revelation of the truth, everyone felt the shock of their life.

The six people Mark gathered at the center of the plaza were not the same people they knew. These six were impostors wearing the faces of their loved ones.

There was a lot to swallow in this unexpected event. The situation hardly sunk into the minds of the loved ones of the six. It was the same for all the people watching.

With the eyes gathered at them and the truth utterly revealed, the six impostors had no other choice left.

All of a sudden, the bodies of the six became frozen stiff.

Mark, who was still holding the impostor woman by her neck, noticed something was not right. He immediately threw her to the ground, not holding back in the slightest.

But before the impostor woman even hit the ground, her body turned to ash. It was the same for the other five impostors.

Everyone watched in confusion. Now, all that was left was six piles of ashes in front of Mark.

With a frown, the red glow in Mark's eyes dimmed. At the same time, everyone felt the pressure on them vanish.

Now able to move, the families and relatives of the victims of the impostors approached. However, all they saw was the pile of ashes and four skin masks. As for the two, the woman and the child, their masks were in Mark's hand.

The man with the machete stood by the pile of ashes of his wife's impostor. The wife he knew was definitely not this pile of ashes.

Mark then approached the man and handed him the skin mask. The man blankly received the skin mask and noticed. The familiar texture of the skin mask. It was the familiar feeling of touching the face of the wife he loved.

The man's grip on his machete loosened as he realized the truth. With a clang and a thud, the machete fell to the ground as the man fell on his knees.

"FAREL! WHAT IS HAPPENING? MY WIFE! My wife..."

Mark also handed the other skin mask to the mother and father of the child. As for the remaining four, seeing the two skin masks Mark gave, they picked the skin mask that belonged to their loved ones.

Initially, they thought the skin mask would be something made of plastic or some artificial material. But as they touched the mask that felt like real skin, the families of the victims of the impostors froze. One even almost dropped the skin mask. After all, the sudden feeling of human skin on an item that was supposedly not would make anyone shiver.

At this point, Mark handed the duty of explanation to Farel.

Farel then told what had happened.

Wahyu's wife could not hide her shock when she learned that the Wahyu that left with Farel and his group was not the real Wahyu. She wanted to deny it. After all, who would want to accept it?

However, just like the six, Wahyu's impostor left something. It was the skin mask made with Wahyu's face. Seeing the skin mask, Wahyu's wife immediately fainted. She was not in the best of health, both physically and mentally. Wahyu's wife was unable to handle her husband's likely death.

No, if it was just death, Wahyu's wife might be able to accept it. The real Wahyu was a valiant person. He was the type of person to die to protect others. However, that was not the case. Wahyu was killed and was replaced by an impostor.

Not to mention that Wahyu's impostor caused the disaster Farel's group had gone through. The deaths of the members of Fire Fighters were caused by Wahyu's impostor. That was the thing Wahyu's wife could not accept the most.

Furthermore, if Wahyu's impostor was not found, it might have implicated the Moon Chasers, too, after they saved the survivors of Farel's group. 

Farel and the others managed to find the impostor because of a certain person. It was Mark.

Soon, the gathering finished with an awful atmosphere.

Finding out that some of them might be an impostor would make everyone restless. Fortunately, Mark took the time to announce that, aside from the six he captured, there were no other impostors inside the 41st Settlement. At least, there was no more, for now.

No one questioned Mark. After all, there was no doubt he could find the impostors. No one knew how he did it. However, the evidence was clear for them to doubt.

Work began. The members of Fire Fighters began to transport the meat of [Ground Hunters] into their warehouse. With this amount of meat, they would have no worries about food for a week or two. Unfortunately, with how the events were unveiled this afternoon, no one really had the appetite for dinner.

Mal's corpse was also transported. They planned to do a funeral tomorrow for Mal and their other dead members. It was unfortunate that except for Mal, the other graves would have no bodies inside them.

With the things in the 41st Settlement done, the Moon Chasers and Evernight began to prepare to leave.

Before leaving, Mark told Farel to investigate some things, specifically the similarities between the victims of the impostors. If there were similarities to be found, it would be easier to know when and how they were replaced.

Luna also decided to do some investigations on her side just in case and invited Farel to discuss things later. They also decided to call their other ally for this discussion.

As the guests walked out of the 41st Settlement, Farel thanked Mark. It was the right of the victims of the impostors to know the truth, and Mark made it happen.

Mark did not say anything and just patted Farel's shoulder before leaving. Farel was several years older than Mark, but it looked like the latter was the older person in this scene.

***

At almost six in the evening, they reached the 38th Settlement.

It was the base of the Moon Chasers.

The Moon Chasers returned triumphantly. Their group did not incur any deaths. None were even badly injured. The best of all was that they brought back a lot of things they scavenged, along with some cases of canned beer they unearthed before meeting Mark and his group.

And after Luna announced they would have more supplies coming in the next few days, everyone rejoiced even more.

Luna gathered everyone for the announcement. She made sure everyone was present. And all this time, she was glancing at Mark. It was not only her but also the other members of the Moon Chasers who had just returned from their expedition.

And to everyone's surprise and relief, Mark raised his thumb and stood to the side without moving.

What did it mean?

The 38th Settlement did not have impostors among the settlers. 

It was a good piece of news. Nonetheless, it was baffling at the same time.

Mark closed his eyes and mulled over what he had gathered so far.

The 41st Settlement had six, no, seven including Wahyu's impostor.

There were two in Kudus Outpost, one among General Wijaya's entourage, ten among the people they encountered along the way, and five among the guards of gates they passed by.

Mark did not tell anyone, but there were a lot of impostors, and more likely scattered across the whole fortress.

But, strange enough, there was none in the 38th Settlement. Not even one in the Moon Chasers. What was going on? If Mark did not know any better, he would suspect that the Moon Chasers would be the perpetrators behind the impostors.

Fortunately, that was not the case.

So, what was going on?

Mark suddenly opened his eyes. He detected someone familiar.

Raising his head, Mark looked at a house with a second-story balcony. A child around eight years old stood on the balcony, looking back at Mark.

Mark shrugged as he looked at the familiar figure.

It was Thirteenth.

The 38th Settlement was the right destination, and Luna was, without a doubt, the candidate.

Night came, and the 38th Settlement was really lively. Despite their difficulties, everyone in this settlement was happy. Luna and the Moon Chasers were clearly doing a good job managing the settlement.

There was a welcome celebration. It was just a simple party, and the food was not lavish at all.

The members of the Moon Chasers who had just come back were not really in the mood for a party. After all, they had just experienced the heartwrenching circumstances in the 41st Settlement. Nonetheless, they joined. It was not for them but for the sake of the settlers of the 38th Settlement. The Moon Chasers could not let their mood affect their people.

It took until nearly midnight before everyone went home. The party was fun, but the Moon Chasers also needed to rest after several days of traveling outside.

However, this was not the case for Luna and her friends.

Inside the meeting room of the Moon Chasers, Luna, Bajing, and Limabela sat on one side of the table. On the other side were Mark and Mei, along with their three children and Amihan, although Abbygale sat down on Mei's lap, already asleep. Amihan was the same, although she was slumped on Mark's shoulder. Miracle sat on Mark's lap without a sliver of sleepiness while Iola sat beside Mark.

"You could just leave your daughters in your room and let them sleep."

It was Luna's opening conversation. She was more concerned about the little girls staying up late than the actual topic of this conversation.

"It's fine. The girls wanted to come," Mark patted Miracle's head, causing her to squint happily. "They might wake up in a bad mood tomorrow if we just left them in an unfamiliar place."

Seeing how Mark pampered his daughters, Luna and the other two began viewing Mark as a doting father. It was a completely different image compared to how empowering he was when he was exposing the impostors in the 41st Settlement.

"Then, should we start with the actual topic?"

Luna proposed.

"Isn't that why we are here?"

Mark agreed.

But first...

"So, when are you showing yourself?"

Mark suddenly blurted out.

"Bah, your existence is something, but your personality isn't exciting at all."

Thirteenth appeared out of nowhere, looking at Mark with a hint of displeasure.

"Yeah, yeah. It's not something new."

Mark nonchalantly replied.

Luna and her friends watched the banter between Mark and Thirteenth. The three looked at each other with bitter but relieved smiles. Although Mark said Thirteenth's name before, they could not be sure until the truth was revealed. As they saw how Mark and Thirteenth interacted, they became sure the two knew each other closely.

At the side, Limabela's eyes had a mysterious sparkle as she looked at Mark.

Limabela knew Mark's group was here to help them. That was what her visions showed her. She was unsure what help it was as not everything could be seen clearly through her [Clairvoyance], but she saw Mark's figure standing in front of them, protecting them, in one of her visions. That was why she was happy to see them back in Indramayu.

In that vision she saw, Limabela saw herself barely conscious, looking at Mark's back. Luna was conscious, but her body was bleeding in various places. Bajing was also there, but she had already fainted beside her.

Unfortunately, clairvoyant visions were often fragmented. Limabela saw that scene, but she never knew how everything ended up like that. She also did not know whether it would come true or not.

However, what made Limabela scared was a different vision of the same scenario with different circumstances. In the alternate vision, Limabela was barely conscious, looking at Luna's back as she fell with something piercing through her heart. In this vision, Bajing was not only unconscious. It was because Bajing's head was not attached to her body anymore. Also, Limabela was barely conscious within this alternate vision for a different reason. It was because her arms and legs were cut off, and she was bleeding to death.

The worst thing was that the bad vision was the original one. It was the nightmare Limabela repeatedly visited since the apocalypse began. The vision only began to change for the better recently.

Two visions. One was survival, while the other was clear death. And the only difference was Mark's existence.

In Limabela's eyes, Mark was here to help them.

Mark was here to save them.