Mutagen

"Gege, what is that light?"

Mei asked Mark, voicing the words in everyone\'s mind at the moment.

Mark on the other hand was having a hard time to answer that question. He recognized that flash of light since he had seen it several times before.

It was six years ago when he experienced a very spectacular event that would surely not happen once again even if he reincarnated.

At that day six years ago, he was walking home after college. He was running late at that time because they had to chase of the deadline of their thesis. Because of the time they finished their work which was almost eleven in the evening, it was hard to find a passenger vehicle to commute and as such, he had to walk all the way home.

In eagerness to reach his house faster, he strayed away from the main road and went towards several secluded streets for a shortcut. In the end, he saved a lot of time going through those dangerous streets. Even though those places were dangerous due to being secluded and the lack of people, he was not fazed. It he was to ask, with his face, he was the one who would look like a criminal. Some of the people walking at those streets even tried to stay away from him as he passed by.

One of the areas he passed by that time was a wide undeveloped plot of land with a dirt path going through it. Aside from the dirt path, the place was covered with grass and trees. Walking through that plot of land looked scary. Nevertheless, he walked through like it was nothing. He had several more frightening encounters when he was a child as such, walking through a place like that would be nothing. He also did not expect that something would happen.

Mark was wrong at that time however…

There was a flash of light in the sky which he learned later that it came from the explosion of the large meteorite after a missile from the United States hit it. That flash illuminated the dark sky as if it was day time for several seconds. That was not the issue however. After the meteorite exploded, he saw quite a number of balls of light flashing across the sky like dragon balls scattering across the world. One of those balls of light and the biggest one were actually heading straight towards him.

Thinking that it was a dangerous thing, he started to run away. He managed to get out of the plot and watched the falling ball of light. The ball of light fell into the plot of land but the explosion he expected however did not happen. Out of curiosity, he went back and saw the actual appearance of the ball of light exactly at the place where he stood before while watching the sky.

At that place, he saw a double terminated crystal with a vivid violet color defying the laws of physics and was floating about three feet in the air while flashing a violet colored light. Around the double terminated crystal, there were three marble sized sphere crystals circling around.

Fascinated by the sight, Mark subconsciously moved closer. He then saw that while one of the sphere crystals had the same appearance as the double terminated crystal, the other two did not. The two had the same vivid violet color outside but he could see a golden orb glowing inside one and while there was a red orb glowing inside the other.

Mark went closer even more to inspect the odd crystals but he did not expect that the crystal with the golden orb would fly towards him. He tried to dodge but the crystal kept on following. Without any other choice, he caught the crystal with his bare hands. Managing to catch it, he felt relieved just to see the crystal crumble into golden wisps of light and entered his body.

He panicked a bit as he was caught off guard by the event. Seeing something unknown enter your body was an experience anyone would panic to. Feeling that there was nothing wrong with his body, he felt a bit relieved but it still bothered him.

He then approached the remaining floating crystals but none of them behaved the same way as the one that flew towards him. Mark then took off his jacket and wrapped the crystals with it bringing the crystals home. He did not understand why he did it but he just thought of bring it home for no apparent reason at that time.

After arriving home, he removed the crystals from the jacket and all of it continued to behave the same way when he found them. The bigger crystal floated three feet from the ground while the smaller crystals flew around the larger one in an orbit. He tried touching the two other sphere crystals but nothing happened. With that, he encased the crystal except for the one with a red glow in a large glass sealed jar. The crystals inside the jar continued to behave the same way hovering at the center of the jar.

The bizarre crystals became one of his precious collections. However, due to the bizarreness of the crystals, he did not dare display it or someone might see it accidentally and just hid the jar inside the closet.

That night however, he fell ill. He had fever for the whole night. He was afraid that it was because of the crystal that entered his body but he recovered the next morning. Due to being fan of manga, anime and video games, he also thought that the crystal would give him some sort of ability. Nonetheless, the crystal did not seem so end he felt like an idiot for trying out several things like some spider dude before he learned to shoot webs.

Thus, he continued his normal life then. A normal life staying as far away from places with many people due to him feeling exhausted for staying at those places for a long time.

However, one thing that made him happy was that his exhausted mind would feel revitalized after going home ever since he found the crystals.

Time passed and he felt that he was starting to develop a sort of dislike in overly populated places and he would feel exhausted even faster. That was when he learned that he was an Empath and his ability in that field was growing.

A year later, another bizarre thing happened at the crystals at the jar. Mark saw a bright purple light seeping out of his closet flashing several times. When he checked, he saw another marble sized crystal inside the jar aside from the previous one. And thus, six years later, there were now six marble sized crystals floating around the larger crystal.

Back to the current time, Mark could not think of any reason for the crystals for flash that bright light at this moment in time. It was not the time for it to produce another marble sized crystal. Furthermore, that flash was obviously brighter than the previous circumstances even baffling him some more.

Unless, those crystals had some relation to the outbreak which Mark found hard to imagine.

The crystals appeared six years ago and the outbreak started four days ago. The only thing that could link the two was that both circumstances originated from a meteorite coming from space.

Mark suddenly woke up from his deep thinking as he saw a small hand waving in front of his face while he contemplated.

"Can you move your hand away from my face?"

Mark looked at Emika who was gleefully making fun of him.

"Hehe, I thought Scary Uncle was sleeping."

Emika hurriedly pulled her hand back.

"Gege, is something wrong?"

Mei worriedly asked which made Mark shook his head.

"I\'m just thinking why that flash of light happened."

"Then Boss, you don\'t know what made that flash of light?"

Melissa interjected.

"Actually, I know what caused it. But it shouldn\'t create a bright flash like that and not at this time of the year."

Everyone stared at him with askance.

"Are you related with the outbreak, Boss?"

Melissa asked. After all, they saw how the infected got agitated after that flash of light. It meant that whatever that caused that light was somehow related to the infected. Mark knew of that cause and the place it originated was his house. Anyone who could think would have that suspicion.

"Pfft."

Mark smirked.

"If I\'m related to the outbreak, then I wouldn\'t be trapped in a mall, you know that? And I will surely prepare for the outbreak if that was the case. However, if not for my wits and luck, I could already be dead now."

Those words dispelled Melissa\'s line of thought. She already saw a lot of things Mark did and to say, he was really not prepared for everything and he was just using any means he could think of.

"But what is that flash of light."

Carlo asked.

Mark then rummaged in his bag for some reason making everyone confused. He then pulled out the small strap bag he was carrying even before the outbreak. From that strap bag, he pulled out a small bottle sealed with a metal cap. Inside the bottle was a marble sized sphere crystal with a vivid purple color and a red glowing orb at the center of the crystal.

Mark showed the bottle to everyone making everyone amazed. It was because they could see that the bizarre crystal was floating inside the bottle like magic.

"You see, the cause of that light was similar to this one. Just a little bit larger. Oh right, I have a picture and a video of that. Wait a minute."

Mark rummaged inside the bag again and found his old phone. The one he also used before the outbreak. Browsing in the gallery, he found the picture and the video of the crystal in the jar and showed it to them.

They were all stunned at the bizarre and amazing sight of a set of crystals floating in the air.

"This is not edited?"

Melissa asked once more.

"There is this one and you ask if it\'s edited…"

Mark held the small bottle and shook it in his hand.

He then told the summary of how he found the crystals to them after he made the drone land at the roof on one tall house nearby his home.

"…Well, that\'s how I found it. That should be the thing that created that flash of light."

Mark finished story but hid the fact that one of the crystals entered his body and just changed that part telling everyone that the crystals would vanish after being touched.

Everyone showed a different face towards his story. After all, it sounded some sort of fantasy story theme. Still, they could not deny it as the bottle on Mark\'s hand was the evidence.

"Then Master, if you found those six years ago, why does it seem that the infected were after it now?"

Odelina spoke her thoughts.

"Actually, that is also what I\'m thinking about."

Mark could also not make head or tails of the issue.

"Well, those crystals were actually among the things I wanted to take away so we\'ll probably learn the reasons in the future."

Mark continued.

"Bro, you still want to go home with all those infected around?"

Carlo could not help but ask. After all, it would be a suicide mission. Everyone around also looked worried about what he wanted to do.

"You all know that the infected wanted those crystals right? Then, that\'s more the reason to not let them get it or else, who know what will happen."

Mark voiced a reason no one in the group could refute. They all saw what happened on the scene captured through the drone. It was obvious now what was the reason why the infected gathered around this remote area.

"Alright, who will prepare dinner?"

Mark asked because of the state Anna was in.

"That\'s… My work."

Anna surprisingly spoke up. Her mood was still down but it seemed that she did not want to shirk her duty.

"Are you sure?"

Odelina asked. After all, she knew how it was hard to lose your family since she thought that aside from her husband, her children also did not make it before.

"I\'m fine. Help me a little though."

After that exchange, Mark told the group to rest early after telling them his plan on retrieving his things from his house.