Mutagen

Day 368 - 3:06 PM - Lempongsari, Gajahmunkur Subdistrict, Semarang City, Central Java, Indonesia

Within the mosaic of the past civilization and the takeover of nature, a heavily armed group carefully traversed the dangerous ruined city of Semarang.

Of course, the group was no other than the soldiers led by General Wijaya, accompanied by Mark and Spera.

While the group was moving cautiously and without running or jogging, their pace sure was faster than regular walking speed.

"It seems they should have arrived safely at the outpost."

General Wijaya remarked as he looked at the ground.

Since the path they were taking was a road diverged from the cleared railroad, it was the very same route the survivors from the larger camp took to reach the Semarang military outpost. The fact that the barely erased footprints and wheel tracks on the ground were the evidence to that scenario.

But while the survivors did reach the outpost safely, the outcome was far from ideal.

"It seems the location is clear so far, Sir," Captain Guntur spoke to General Wijaya. "Still..."

Captain Guntur panned his gaze at several locations around them. While most of the markings left by the survivors on the ground were still intact despite the volcanic ash accumulating in the surroundings, a lot had already been erased by much larger markings that nearly altered the surrounding geography. To be exact, the markings left by [Fog Crawlers] lurking about during the fog.

"It's just like what we saw while we were on the back of the giant turtle."

General Wijaya replied while adjusting the gauntlets, which he received from Mark and was now wearing.

"Does it fit properly?"

Mark suddenly asked.

"It actually fits too perfectly that it's surprising," General Wijaya responded. "Is it the same as the weapons you gave Edge and the others? How should I use this?"

Mark sure gave General Wijaya one of his [Prototype Magic Weapons]. However, it was nearly barebones, with fewer functions due to time constraints. As such, it did not have voice instruction or element-infused attacks. However, it had full strengthening functions. For General Wijaya, who had a near impenetrable body, it was more than enough.

As service, the gauntlets had weaker impact mitigation, allowing General Wijaya to receive less feedback due to his pain-inducing attacks. While his punches could likely dent a tank's armor, it did not mean he would not feel pain due to his own attacks.

"But... Gauntlets, huh?" General Wijaya observed the gauntlets. "Did you notice the weakness of my mutation?"

"Yeah," Mark nodded. "Your body can become as tough as titanium, but, in exchange, your muscles and joints become stiffer than normal. The side-effect is worse on smaller joints. That's why you can't fire guns while transformed because your fingers get stuck on the trigger. It also meant you're not suitable for any weapon that needed to be held tightly."

General Wijaya showed a bitter smile since Mark was on point. It was pretty embarrassing that, as a soldier, he could not use guns or other weapons he was trained with at all.

The group remained at the same pace and continued traveling south. Of course, it was not all safe. Just like when they were traveling east, they encountered a number of [Infected] along the way. However, the number was not as much as the hordes they encountered before, which was not exactly a good thing.

It was because it meant that the other [Infected] had already been attracted by the catastrophe that befell the military outpost.

Soon enough, they saw a drastic change in the surroundings. There was more destruction left by the [Fog Crawlers].

Most importantly, the smell of blood was getting thicker. There were also more and more [Infected] along the way.

Worse, some of the [Infected] were definitely new ones, with fresh, bloody injuries and missing body parts.

After seeing the possible remnants of the destroyed military outpost, the soldiers could not help but show serious expressions on their faces.

As everyone came closer and closer, the gunshots intensified. Even General Wijaya was getting used to his new weapon due to the number of enemies they began to encounter.

It was not just the [Infected]. There were [Evolved Animals] too. And the two parties were also having battles of their own. It seemed that the animals and the [Infected] were either competing for prey or preying on the opposing side.

The destroyed walls of the outpost were soon in sight. Of course, it was the same for tents and other things placed outside the walls. Given the large number of refugees from Mount Muria, there was no way the outpost could accommodate them all inside the outpost. In the first place, this outpost was created to gather newly discovered resources from the nearby mountain and not to shelter refugees.

As such, it was very likely that the majority of the refugees were killed outside the outpost, as everyone could see when they arrived.

Mark frowned as they entered the vicinity of the camping area outside the outpost. The residual emotions from the dead were still fresh. Their fear and despair were uncontrollably being absorbed by him, to his dismay.

"This is horrible..."

One of the soldiers said as he crouched while looking at something. In front of him, lying on the ground, was a bloody severed arm of a child, likely around five or six years old. This child should still be alive just about two hours ago. But now, only his arm was left in this place.

It was not just the child's arm. There were various body parts littered in the area. Of course, many of these body parts were already eaten away by the [Evolved Animals] and the [Infected], but a lot still remained.

"There were a few thousand survivors from Mount Muria..." Captain Timur sighed. "But there's not a single survivor left."

"We still haven't entered the outpost," General Wijaya tapped the saddened Captain's shoulder. "The bunker there already survived several instances of the fog. It should still be intact."

"Will it be?"

Mark suddenly asked.

General Wijaya was unable to answer, however. After all, the intensity of the damage from the fog this time was far different from the previous ones.

"RAAAAA!!!"

All of a sudden, a [Mutated Infected] attacked the soldiers. It was too fast that soldiers failed to react. Even General Wijaya failed to intercept it, as they could only see a black blur as it moved.

However, like mist, Mark appeared before the [Infected] and beheaded it with a single slash of his sword.

"A cheetah-like mutation, huh?"

Mark voiced out, seeing the [Infected's] appearance.

The [Mutated Infected's] headless body slumped to the ground, and its head rolled towards General Wijaya's foot.

"This guy..."

General Wijaya could not help but crouch down to have a closer look at the face of the [Mutated Infected].

"He's the leader of the 37th Satellite Settlement."

"The guy harassing Luna and the others?"

Mark asked, and General Wijaya nodded.

"From what I heard, this guy also instigated the spread of the rumors, which caused the majority to isolate us."

General Wijaya added.

"So, this guy is the culprit, huh?"

Mark said, pulling its hair and picking up the head.

Before anyone could ask Mark what he was doing, a bright light from Mark's hand caused them to look away. As their vision returned, they saw Mark throw the head away with enough force that it turned into a bloody mush after hitting the ruined outpost walls.

While playing with a new crystal between his fingers, Mark closed his eyes. He expanded his [Empath Detection], scanning the immediate surroundings.

And when Mark opened his eyes with his pupils emitting a reddish glint, he turned to General Wijaya.

"It looks like there's no survivors, after all."

"That's..."

General Wijaya's arms slumped, losing strength in dismay. He already knew parts of Mark's abilities as an [Empath]. One of them was his detection abilities. If Mark said there were no survivors, that should be the case unless he was lying.

However, there was no reason for Mark to lie at this point.

"Is there really none?"

Captain Timur asked.

Mark replied with a shake of his head and a shrug.

It was not like Mark failed to detect anything. However, what he was detecting was not living people but souls who had yet to pass on due to their strong emotions.

With low morale, the soldiers dragged their feet into the ruined outpost. They immediately located the bunker. As they opened its door, the thick smell of blood assaulted their noses. Blocked by debris, the entire bunker seemed to have collapsed, killing everyone inside.

Shaking their heads, they closed the bunker door.

The other soldiers did not believe Mark and still tried to call for survivors to no avail.

While the soldiers were doing all those pointless things, Mark started exploring the outpost, even asking General Wijaya where the storage area could be.

Understanding what Mark wanted to do, General Wijaya told Captain Timur to lead Mark to the outside storage. It seemed there was another storage area inside the bunker, but it was not accessible anymore due to obvious reasons.

The storage area was a medium-sized warehouse. It was already half-collapsed, and the walls were broken through. Everything inside had been thrown across the place. The destroyed boxes of ammunition scattered bullets everywhere. A lot of equipment and weapons were already crushed by the debris from the collapsed roof and destroyed walls.

Still, Mark took what he could. Even the broken guns could be smelted into metal and used in creating new weapons.

However, the best stuff Mark found was the collected remains of [Mechids] and the new resources this outpost stored from the nearby mountain.

What surprised Mark was actually a complete trunk of a [Sprit Tree]. Such a rare material was stored at the corner of the warehouse along with the useless and broken stuff. It made Mark want to curse.

When Mark walked out of the warehouse, he saw the soldiers also doing the same as him. They were collecting still usable items from the area. It seemed they had already accepted that there were no survivors, albeit reluctantly.

Well, Mark was not really sure if no one actually survived. In the least, no one in this place. If there were survivors, then those people were not here anymore.

"Hmmm?"

Mark was surprised. The soldiers actually found two still-drivable military trucks. There was also half a large tanker of fuel for those vehicles. It seemed the fuel storage was pierced with holes, but half of its contents did not spill out and had yet to evaporate.

The soldiers immediately looked for containers to pour the contents of the tanker into to prevent it from going bad faster.

Weapons, ammunition, food, fuel, and even vehicles. It was such a good harvest.

While looking around, Mark kept his vigilance. In his eyes, General Wijaya and the soldiers still showed a gray shade looming over them.

"Hey, look!"

Spera, who was currently standing atop a nearly collapsed wall, suddenly called Mark in agitation while pointing to the west. Although Spera became a rather emotional girl after joining Mark's group, it was pretty rare for her to show this amount of agitation.

Mark immediately jumped to Spera's side and saw what was going on. And he, too, became somewhat surprised.

"No way..."

Mark voiced out as they saw the sky-reaching tree they had seen before begin tilting to the south as it started to collapse.

Before their eyes, the giant tree in Jakarta fell from its majestic visage.

TOOOOOM!!!

The sound of the tree's collapse even reached their location in Semarang. Although they could not feel any tremor from its fall, they sure heard it loud and clear.

"W-what happened?!"

General Wijaya and the soldiers were bewildered.

It was when Mark felt danger.

"General!" Mark called out. "Start packing up! We are leaving!"

The soldiers were a bit surprised, but no one questioned anything. They had yet to finish transferring the contents of the tanker, but they should prioritize their safety.

Unfortunately, even though Mark managed to warn everyone early, it was not enough.

WOOOOM!

A faint sound entered Mark's ears as the already cloudy afternoon sky changed into night in the blink of an eye.

"Spera... Get them to safety."

Mark ordered Spera while staring at the sky.

There, four figures could be seen floating.

Two were still locked in a near-endless battle. However, the other two were staring back at Mark.