Mutagen

<strong>Day 130 - 4:21 PM - Browning Square, Bellmawr, Camden County, New Jersey, United States of America</strong>

Suddenly receiving a tip out of nowhere, Captain Morrison and his soldiers prepared as soon as they could. They did not know how Mei suddenly had this news or if it was true. There was some opposition, and some did not believe it. However, having no lead at all, they could only gamble and try.

Still, they went out full force, leaving only necessary personnel to guard the school. After all, it was the outlaws that they were talking about. They were the very same group that pushed this settlement to a corner. If the soldiers wanted to rescue the captured people, they needed to move a lot of resources they had.

Despite the preparation, it took them some time to arrive. After all, the event yesterday caused the roads to be filled with infected. Even if they had enough manpower, clearing their way was not easy.

But when the soldiers arrived, the only thing they could do was to stare agape at the scene in front of them.

The mountain of infected corpses outside the walls, the headless bodies inside the compound, and the prisoners reverently staring at the man the soldiers knew.

Mark, on the other hand, was looking around the bodies of the infected scattered around when the soldiers arrived. He could only scratch his head after seeing how much preparation the soldiers had before coming here.

He trusted Mei to relay the very same words he told her through the ring. After all, what he said was to bring transport trucks, and he already got the prisoners. Yet, the soldiers came prepared for battle. Even Roan was present as their main attacker.

Captain Morrison and Roan went down from the military convoy and approached Mark, not minding the bloody smell around him.

"This..."

The Captain did not know what to say about the current situation.

"I only said to bring transport vehicles." Mark shrugged. "Why did you guys bring tanks?"

That question made the soldiers troubled. If they knew that there would be no fighting, they would not bring this many soldiers and the two tanks they had. Thinking about this, they just wasted precious fuel. After all, tanks were monsters at fuel consumption.

"I also said that I already got the prisoners. Yet, you all came in full battle gear." Mark added. "I don't think there's any mistake with the words I said, right?"

"It seems like we misinterpreted it. We only heard that you had the prisoners with you. We thought that you needed rescue."

Captain Morrison replied with a troubled expression.

Mark did not say anything else. What he said could really be misinterpreted. It was more understandable since these people did not know about his abilities.

"Anyway, just go and loot this place out of everything you need and bring those guys back. Their stares are making me uncomfortable."

Mark nonchalantly said, pointing at the prisoners that minded him more instead of the rescue that came for them.

Captain Morisson left to order his soldiers, and they started to explore the whole place. Roan, on the other hand, stayed around Mark.

"Seems like what Felicia said about you fighting hundreds of infected alone is true."

Roan said while looking at the hundreds of infected corpse around Mark.

"I don't think she's a liar, though?"

Mark said as he looked at a Mutated corpse closely.

"My sister is not a liar, but she did lie." Roan shrugged. "About her happily living after Jude left her."

Sure enough, Felicia did not say everything she experienced in the past years to her family. She already brought them remorse and sadness when she left. Felicia did not want to give more.

However, it seemed that Roan saw through her lies.

Well, Mark had no reason to say what he knew and ignored what Roan had just said.

Getting ignored like that did not sit well with Roan. However, he was not someone that would force an answer out of anyone, or else he could just ask Sandie and the others. After all, it seemed they also knew about his sister's story. He only mentioned it to Mark since he was the one to most likely not care about telling it or not.

With a shrug of his shoulders, Roan decided to leave. That was when Mark spoke.

"Just ask your sister when she's ready to tell her story."

Hearing that, Roan smiled.

"I guess. You're right."

There, Roan left and joined the soldiers to explore the place.

The soldiers were happy to see the prisoners that were rescued from the outlaws. Some of them were friends, and a few were family, after all. Of course, it was not an overall happy occasion. It was because the number of freed prisoners here was less than half of what their numbers were supposed to be.

There was no need to ask what happened to the people not present. The people here could only pray that they received peace in the afterlife since the culprits were all dead.

What made the soldiers feel happier, however, was the number of supplies and weapons that the outlaws amassed. They also had a lot of fuel barrels and even ammunition that who knows where it came from.

And the food and water, there were three large storage units full. This place had more food and water than they had stored in school.

While the soldiers scoured the place and loaded the loot into their vehicles, Mark continued to check the infected corpses since he had the chance to do so.

The [Physical Crystals] did not only absorb Mutations from the Mutators but also from highly intelligent Mutated Infected. Unfortunately, these kinds of infected were rare to find. Except for the [Queen Type] and the [King Type], Mark and Mei only encountered one once.

It was the [Leader Type] bat-winged Mutated Infected back then in Bay City.

This time, Mark was going around from corpse to corpse while holding a [Physical Crystal], trying to see if the crystal would react or not.

Unfortunately, despite a large number of infected corpses around him, the [Physical Crystal] did not even glow a little.

It was almost sunset when they finished. There, everyone was eager to go home.

Mark did not ride the vehicles when the soldiers finished. Instead, he flew home first, leaving them all behind.

***

The base of the outlaws was just two kilometers away from the school. Of course, that was when flying in the air and not taking the route on the road. It did not take too long, and Mark arrived back at the school compound.

It was quite dark already, and no one saw Mark as he landed on the roof of the building. There, he went straight to the room Mei was staying and saw her staying in bed as he instructed. She was sleeping. It seemed that she had fallen asleep while waiting for him.

Mark went out a bit to change clothes. He was reeking with the smell of blood even if he was not splattered by it. After that, he sat on the chair beside Mei's bed, watching her.

From time to time, she would frown. Maybe because of the pain on her back, or because she had an unpleasant dream. At those times, Mark held her hand tight and caressed her hair gently. That was when she would show a comfortable expression and a little smile on her sleeping face.

Watching her like that, Mark could not help but smile. It was only beside Mei that he would feel at peace and comfortable. Soon, he did not realize that he had fallen asleep beside her bed.

***

<strong>Day 130 - 7:32 PM - Arctic IceCaps, Arctic Region</strong>

A blizzard surged strongly, causing the ice-covered surroundings to become blurry. It was already night, and in the frozen Arctic, only ice could be seen. The blizzard only made the situation worse.

Despite the strong blizzard and the cold temperature, however, silhouettes of creatures could be seen moving about.

BAM!

Loud sounds echoed, carried by the wind along with the sound of the blizzard.

ROOOOAAARRR!!!

A gigantic silhouette could be seen roaring loudly after its enemy punched its face hard.

And that enemy? It was a humanoid with six different wings.

He was no other than Chimetrice, and he was currently fighting against a gigantic Evolved Creature.

The Evolved Creature was a giant octopus with white skin about seven meters tall, not including the length of its tentacles. Its tentacles had suction caps layered with teeth while its head was covered with long fang-like thorns.

"Tch!"

Chimetrice clicked his tongue as he avoided the monster's long and thick tentacles.

He was having a hard time fighting this monster with just his pure strength. However, he was doing this because his other abilities were not effective on the creature. Instead, he was doing this to further accustom himself to his new body.

After leaving Mark yesterday, Chimetrice and Illia immediately proceeded to find his creator's lab. The birthplace of the anti-god weapon with the form of a humanoid chimera.

However, a very long time had passed. There were a lot of things that changed from the world they knew and the world as it was now. Finding something that existed five thousand years ago was not easy.

Both Chimetrice and Illia had no choice but to look for clues and seek for the possible locations they could think of.

And now, they found themselves wandering the cold Arctic since one of the things they could remember about that place was that it was built somewhere very cold.

It was not wrong since the cold temperature would help in preserving the dead specimens that Chimetrice's creator got. Back then, refrigerators and freezers were still not invented. Aside from ice monsters and magic, there was no way to preserve things needed for experiments and studies.

Furthermore, the gods that appeared on Earth back then all came from underdeveloped worlds. No, in a sense, their worlds were not underdeveloped. Instead, because of the existence of Gods and magic, their worlds developed in a different way than Earth had.

They had been searching for a day already. And it was hard.

The gigantic monster that Chimetrice was currently fighting was not the first one they encountered. There was also a giant ice worm and other evolved creatures.

Fighting all these creatures was a hassle, especially to Chimetrice that was still getting used to his new body.

"Master! Kill that faster! It's too cold out here!"

Illia shouted as loud as she could while peeking out of the shelter they built to pass the blizzard and the night.

"Alright!"

Chimetrice shouted back, and his flying speed suddenly increased.

ROOOAAARRR!!!

Now that Chimetrice was not holding back, the giant octopus could only roar in pain and fear as its body started to break from the attacks it received continuously.

It did not take long, and the roars vanished. With a loud bang, the giant octopus crashed unto the sheet of cold snow and ice.

Chimetrice then came back, carrying a large piece of the octopus' body with him.

"Is this thing really edible?"

Chimetrice asked, poking at the flesh he carried.

"Octopus tastes good, you know?" Illia replied. "It's a pity we didn't bring anything to cook it properly. We can only grill it over the fire."

Illia then used her dagger to cut the flesh into smaller pieces before grilling it over the fire.

"It's strange though how an octopus managed to come here. We are nowhere near the ocean, and the ice below us is thick."

Illia grumbled.

It was not surprising for her to get fed up with the monsters they encountered. Most of them were, for some reason, appearing in front of Illia and Chimetrice as if they knew that they were coming.

Chimetrice picked up a piece that Illia cut that had some skin on it. There he seemed to have remembered something.

"Illia, look." Chimetrice pointed at the strangely shaped spots on the white skin. "Doesn't this look like similar to the creator's pet octopus back then?"

Since Chimetrice said it, Illia also remembered.

"But that one had black skin with white spots."

Illia said.

"I wonder." Chimetrice sat down. "Maybe, that octopus managed to escape the laboratory, and that giant one was among its descendants?"

Illia froze. That was highly possible.

If that was the case, they were going in the right direction.