Mutagen

They had been aiming to usurp the settlement and capture the people to replenish their dwindling supply of slaves. After all, the people in Death Valley Settlement sometimes get rough with their slaves and would "accidentally" kill them. There were also some other activities that involved slaves killing other slaves and using them as bait for hunting animals in the mountains near their settlement.

Furthermore, because of the location of Death Valley Settlement and as more and more days passed after the apocalypse started, they started to have a hard time capturing more people.

Since it would be hard to target the Military Settlement, they chose to deal with the East Port Settlement first. Even though there were many Mutators in that settlement, most of them were not well versed in killing and fighting. Compared to normal soldiers, the Mutators of East Port Settlement mostly lacked the skill.

In order to lay out this opportunity, he took the Ruanto Family as allies despite the fact the he hated the government and their people. It was all to use Jacob and kill the bastard when there was nothing left to use him for. After all, just being beside an arrogant government official like him was already revolting not to mention the overwhelming ambition Jacob had.

With Jacob and his spies serving as their informant, the net had been cast and only needed to be pulled back into the boat. Their easy success however fell apart abruptly. It was too abrupt that it was like a nightmare.

Where did it start? Where did the flaw come from? Adrik thought these questions while he clutched his wrecked arm as he was escorted to their vehicles.

The first thing that came into his mind was when he underestimated the little girl. Not only him but everyone thought that it was just a little girl. She was a weak and fragile child that would not be able to do anything. Yet, the same weak and fragile girl wrecked his arm in one punch. She was able to break his bones even though his bones should have been sturdier due to being a Mutator. Furthermore, the little monster did not die after she was buffeted by countless bullets and even caused more casualties in their ranks.

Another thing was those slimes. He remembered those creatures being popular pets in the auctions that happened between the high ranking people in their settlement. However, none of those slimes were capable of killing people or even being tamed. It became a huge wonder as to while the slimes seemed to help the people from the East Port Settlement.

There was also the infected. They suddenly appeared and attacked his men when they all lowered their guards.

Adrik froze in the middle of running away.

He finally noticed and turned to one of his men.

"Did we encounter the infected before we surrounded those bastards?"

"Emperor, no. It\'s strange but we did not even encounter a single one."

Adrik finally came into a conclusion.

They were bound to lose since the start. Even though they noticed that they did not encounter the infected, they all failed to realize the peculiarities of the situation. If it was just the little girl and those slimes, they would still be able to handle the situation but the appearance of the Infected turned everything around instantly. The infected ambushed them from behind and no one was able to comprehend how. It caused their ranks to fall into sudden disarray.

"F*ck. The operation was a failure from the start."

Adrik murmured.

With the sudden appearance of the infected in a coordinated manner, he could not help but feel that they were being controlled.

Arriving at their vehicles after being blocked by the infected, Adrik slammed his fist on the door of the vehicle in frustration.

***

While Adrik and his entourage fled, the remaining men from Death Valley fought for their lives desperately. However, they fell one by one because of both the infected and the people that they besieged. Among the evacuating people, many also died but in the least, their deaths now was something more valiant and not because of cowardice.

The situation reversed too suddenly but the people of East Port Settlement felt relieved as the men from the Death Valley died one by one because of the onslaught of the infected. However, the people also felt stifled. After all, there was too many infected surrounding them now. The numbers amounted to a thousand or more.

Unexpectedly, the infected ignored the people from the East Port Settlement as they tore apart the bodies of the enemies. There were times that one or two infected would move to confront the evacuees but with a growl from a Mutated infected that jumped into the room of the house nearby, the infected stopped and changed their targets.

Miracle who still looked like a lump of flesh tentacles walked back to the people making some of the step back. The current appearance of then little girl was revolting to the eyes of many. Fortunately, Alana and Karlene thought differently.

"Miracle! Are you alright? Your appearance…"

The two approached Miracle with worried expressions ignoring disgusting felling from her current appearance.

Miracle turned her body around seemingly looking at the situation around them. Seeing that the fight was almost over especially since the retreat of the commander made the enemies fall into panic, the tentacles on Miracle\'s body wriggled and started to retract.

Soon, the little girl whose clothes were filled with holes appeared once more. Her looks was too pitiful. Her clothes were torn, bloody and the armor she was wearing was filled with dents.

Seeing that she returned to normal, Alana and Karlene immediately hugged her.

"You made us worried you little brat!"

"Right! Who told you to do that?"

Miracle received some scolding but she did not mind.

Then…

BUZZ!

A single buzzing sound was heard and a huge and beautiful red insect landed beside Miracle. Both Alana and Karlene were shocked. This insect was very familiar to them. It was the parasite queen that caused the attack of the four-thousand infected horde at the Military Settlement.

"Miracle! Get away from that!"

The two panicked. They did not know why this was here. The two immediately pulled their guns out.

"No!" Miracle stood in front of the insect with her hands stretched out. "Queenie is a friend!"

Hearing that, the two was shocked even further. Now that they looked at it, it was really not attacking. In fact, it was hiding behind Miracle like an aggrieved child.

"Miracle, what is happening here?"

Alana asked after she calmed down.

"Secret! Father said not to tell anyone!"

The little girl replied. She did not say much but it revealed that it had something to do with Mark. They were right about this.

When they left the Mountain Base to go to the East Port Settlement, they tested their weapons in this place. However, it was not the testing of weapons that took too much time but because Mark and Miracle ran off to who knows where.

What Mark did was to get Aephelia out and control the Parasite Queen and a few [Leader Type] infected in the town. Unexpectedly, Aephelia\'s ability to control the infected worked better against the infected affected by Mutagen rather than the PsyPathogen. The number of infected she was able to control tripled and she managed to control even more mutated infected.

Next thing that happened was for the Parasite Queen to lay eggs on the infected that was not controlled by Aephelia. Was a male parasite needed? Fortunately, Aephelia confirmed that a male was not needed after she controlled the Parasite Queen Miracle\' called Queenie. The Parasite Queen could produce its eggs and fertilize the eggs on its own it seemed. The egg laying was rather on the slow side but it allowed Aephelia to add a control relay on the infected.

Why did Mark do something like this? He was preparing this new horde to deal with the Death Valley Settlement. The plan he had before was to make this horde invade that cursed settlement. That was until the whale came.

Still, who would have thought that the horde still played a role against the plans of the people of Death Valley Settlement?

***

Day 41 – 4:25 PM – Death Valley Settlement, Barangay Poblacion, General Nakar, Quezon

While the people of East Port Settlement managed to avert the disaster they faced, Mark currently brought a disaster somewhere else.

Riding on the back of Chaflar, Mark took some painstaking effort and lured the whale towards the direction of Death Valley Settlement.

Upon arriving, Mark cut off the release of his energy and used the [Photokinesis Mental Crystal] to hide from the sight of the whale.

Losing its target, the whale was infuriated. It started stomping in an erratic manner causing tremors and the buildings collapsed by its feet. The walls of the settlement immediately crumbled.

Armed people from the Death Valley swarmed towards the walls to deal with situation. However, they found out to their horror that their guns and even rockets brought very small damage towards the armor of the whale. Instead, their shooting took the whales attention and crushed the walls even further.

WOOSH!

WHOOS!

BOOM!

BOOM!

Two rockets were fired almost simultaneously, and hit the same spot of the whale. A scratch was made finally. At that time however, the whale did something incomprehensible. It curled its body like a hedgehog. Then…

The shells of the barnacles opened revealing thousands and thousands of eerie looking thorns.

Then the thorns were launched everywhere.

The speed of the thorns was way scary. Many of the thorns even reached Mark\'s cover. To avoid, Mark grabbed Chaflar and transitioned the dragon with his [Shadow Mist Movement. It was quite taxing for him but it was better if they moved to where the thorns would not hit.

That time, a problem appeared.

Several thorns bypassed the [Shadow Mist Movement]. Mark was quite surprised that his subspace had been penetrated as he heard the clanging sounds coming from the body of Chaflar.

One of the thorns grazed Mark\'s cheek and it left a rather long wound. Although it healed quickly, it was still painful. He did not expect that this huge whale had that sort of ability. Mark them made Chaflar keep distance from the whale and made Chalfar fly around Death Valley Settlement.

It was because of two important reasons. First was to check were the [BloodChildren] in the settlement was kept while the second was to look for good candidates among the slaves below.

The rampaging whale caused a ruckus and after it destroyed a lot of things, the people in Death Valley Settlement fell into disarray almost immediately. Why? It was because the majority of the people capable of fighting were brought out by their leader to catch some people. Without the people needed and capable, the Whale managed to enter the settlement almost without hindrance.

With the whole settlement in disarray, the slaves finally had the opportunity to escape. However, many fell after the area attack the whale unleashed earlier, not only the criminals but also the fleeing slaves. However, that was not Mark\'s concern right now. With his empathic ability, he was searching for slaves with good nature.

Because of the whale\'s rampage, the desperation of the slaves was obvious. As they panicked, it was easier to spot those who only think for themselves and those that helped others. He would surely ignore those that ran alone but he would stop and pick up those that passed his assessment.

With his arrangement, the destruction of the detestable settlement finally started.