Mutagen

Mark continued to communicate with Mei through the ring as he flew down to the lower roofs of the orange-colored building. His destination was the next building south of this one. It was because he saw some rooftop park and a bar which looked interesting.

A rooftop park with planted trees and bushes were very unusual if one came from the Philippines. It was no wonder that he would be interested in this one.

The rooftop was empty. There was no infected either. It was kind of understandable because it was easy for the infected to fall off from the roof.

Still, the evidence of the struggle was present in the area. Dried blood stained the floor and walls. There were even chunks of desiccated flesh at some places.

The tables and chairs were overturned, the gla.s.s walls were shattered.

Fortunately, the flora on the rooftop was enough to overshadow the despair left in this place.

At the clear sight of the park, Mark said.

"The plants had overgrown."

Without maintenance, these trees and plants planted in an unnatural environment should have withered already. Yet, they were still living vigorously and had overgrown. The effect of Mutagen on flora was very apparent in this situation.

As he landed, Mark noticed a tourist pamphlet that already stuck to the floor. He tried to sc.r.a.pe it off to check, but because of the very long exposure to nature, the paper was already brittle. The pamphlet was torn. However, he was able to read a large part with pages stuck together.

Through this pamphlet, he learned where in the world he was currently.

After throwing the pamphlet away, Mark noticed webs on the overgrown trees while walking. 

The newly created webs were rather thick for a regular spider, and each strand was enough to be used to sew new clothes. This meant that whatever that created these webs must be nearby.

"A Mutated Infected Spider or an Evolved Spider?"

Mark could not help but speculate.

He then heard a rustling among the trees, which immediately alerted him.

And here was the answer, jumping out of the trees while shooting webs at Mark. As Mark sidestepped to dodge the thick, sticky web, he watched the a.s.sailant without expression.

He was wrong in both a.s.sumptions.

"A cat?"

Mark murmured as he looked at the bloated creature in front of him.

It was a gray fat tabby agilely moving while spitting strings of webs through its mouth. With its swift movements that a regular human would only see a blur, it was questionable to call it fat at all.

"Ah. I see."

Mark realized that it was not a web but might be a string made of fur. This infected cat might have mutated some of its organs to become like this.

The cat charged towards Mark while shooting those strings like a regular mindless infected. Thus, with a swing of his [Blood Whip], the cat"s body fell with its head off.

Looking at the dead body on the floor, Mark could not help but say.

"What a weird one."

Leaving the body behind, Mark walked off towards the bar.

He wanted to look for food as he was kind of hungry now. As it was unexpected that he had to drag the enemy away, he never prepared any food for him to carry. Besides, the food situation of his base was not good either because of the enemies. They could not make any dried goods because of the veil of fog.

Disappointingly, the bar was already ransacked. It was kind of expected, but Mark was feeling lazy to go around to search for food. He had just finished a tiring battle. This made him want to relax a bit while he observed the inheritor on the building to the north.

"Oh, well."

Mark shrugged as he decided to find some food in places below. This was a tourist area, there should be a lot of restaurants and stores.

BOOOM!!!

Before Mark could even take flight, a loud explosion was heard from the northwest. It sounded like it was quite far away, but the sound was loud enough to be heard clearly.

The explosion made Mark fly up in the sky to see the source.

"What the f-?!"

Mark almost cursed at the sight he saw.

He was not able to see it earlier because it was still dark, and he did not pay attention to the residential areas of Atlantic City. Now, however, he was able to see it.

The whole highway to the northwest was already scorched along with every building beside it. Looking at the way the establishments looked charred, it was not because of fire but because of something too hot near it. It was like the structures were exposed to smoke for a very long time.

The situation was quite strange as the charring of the buildings looked old.

And the source of the explosion was a car that was abandoned in the middle of the highway.

As for the culprit, it was a bungalow-sized red slug moving across the highway at a slow pace. The slug"s body was glowing like magma, releasing smoke every time it breathes.

Mark noticed the people on the rooftop of the violet building come out to see the spectacle. They did not seem surprised at the situation, making him realize that it was not new to them.

Thus, turning into a black mist, Mark decided to eavesdrop a bit.

***

"It moved again. When was the last time?"

A female Mutator said with a frown.

"Its been dormant for a week. It"s not any different from the previous times. Since that thing appeared, it will move a few blocks for a whole day before sleeping for at least five days. Just be glad that it is not moving our way."

A male Mutator replied.

They all watched the spectacle together with other survivors that were interested. As for the others, they could care any less.

But then, another Mutator seemed uneasy. He was a thin Black-American, with a generic office worker look. He had an honest and straightforward vibe on him, and with the interaction of the non-Mutator survivors with him, it seemed that he was very well-liked. 

The same man then turned serene.

"Who"s there?!"

The man shouted at the blind spot of the rooftop.

He then ran towards the place with his uzi on hand.

But when he reached the spot, there was no one there.

"Morgan, what is wrong?"

The other people chased up to him with a wary expression.

"There"s nothing here."

Another survivor said while peaking out.

"Morgan, don"t scare us like that. We"re at the rooftop. No one will be able to come here without us knowing."

A bulky bodied Mutator tapped Morgan on his shoulder. They all pulled him back amicably. They might have thought that Morgan was playing a joke on them.

On the other hand, Morgan was silent. He did not know why, but he was sure that he felt that someone there.

***

"So, he"s called Morgan, huh. He"s pretty sharp."

Mark said with a smile as he looked at the man, who was returning with his group.

Unfortunately, Mark could still not tell what ability this person inherited. Although he could feel the inheritors through the crystal, he could not learn whose powers they had unless they used it in front of him at least once.

The only exceptions to this were Nia and Allen, who inherited the two closest people in Freed"s life. He had a special connection to them, and he would know who they were, even if he did not want to.

Leaving the vicinity of the casino-hotel, Mark flew towards the giant slug while avoiding the sight of the people back there.

And the more he flew, the more the frowned.

"What the h.e.l.l is wrong with this city?"

Mark murmured, while a sizable number of infected tried to chase him from below.

The city was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with infected. It was not surprising as it was a tourist area. If the wave of infected that happened before also happened here, the number of infected was more acceptable.

Still, it did not explain why the ratio of common infected and the mutated ones was tilted the wrong way.

The common, regular infected could not be called "common" at all as he could count more mutated infected roaming the streets.

It was more appropriate here to call the mutated infected as the common ones.

Fortunately, almost all of Mark encountered on the way so far were all [Level 1] mutations. If they were all [Level 3], he would question why that group in the casino-hotel was still alive.

Nevertheless, the sight on the street would make anyone s.h.i.+ver. There was no way that any survivor would be able to use the roads at all.

That survivor group was stuck at the rooftops, there was no doubt in that.

Mark also saw some food stores along the way and tried to peek a bit. Almost everything was untouched. This meant that this city was overwhelmed by the infected since the start of the outbreak.

There was also one thing that Mark noticed. There were chunks of airplane parts everywhere, and there was even a large cut of a wing stuck at the face of a building.

As Mark continued to fly, observing the surroundings, something jumped on the walls of the building, trying to catch unto him.

"A [Level 3]."

Mark murmured as he spun his body, evading an attack from the mutated infected.

The infected was a teenaged male, and he was shooting pointed bones from his arms as he chased after Mark.

But then, he saw his prey vanish in a puff of smoke. The next thing he knew was that his head flew away as his headless body plopped unto the streets.

Mark continued to fly, leaving the horde on the street that started to feed on the dead body of their previous comrade.

"These guys are starving, arent they?"

It was no surprise, though. Not all infected were dead, after all.

Along the way, Mark found two small infected nests. One was at an apartment building, and one was at a school.

For two infected nests to exist just two blocks away from each other was quite odd in a sense.

Nevertheless, Mark did not pay much attention. What he was interested in was that gigantic magma slug.

It made him want to call Aephelia here and capture this one. But it seemed to be impossible right now unless he wanted to give up on either Gifre or Logan.

Nevertheless, he did not know whether it would worth it. From the discussion of the survivors on that rooftop, this slug was something slow-moving. And it was not suitable to be kept on his base as it might cause a forest fire even without doing anything.

As he flew closer to the highway, Mark started to feel the temperature going up. Sure enough, it was something emitted by that gigantic slug.

In the end, he was not able to reach the highway at all. The heat was too much to bear. He could only get about two blocks before the gigantic slug, and it already felt like his skin was burning.

However, not that he was closer, Mark realized something as he observed the gigantic slug.

It was nowhere like a common slug that one could see in damp areas.

There were flowering coral-like designs on its head and back along with a beautiful pattern on its body. There were holes in its back where it releases smoke, and after it was done, the holes would be sealed with beautifully colored gills.

It was a marine gastropod mollusc, a Nudibranch.

Mark wanted it even more. It was not like a mutated infected at all but something that naturally born of nature.