Mutagen

Using the rumors and the information that had been released by the military after the rebellion, people started to speculate Mark\'s abilities, personality, and strength. Even though the military already disclosed that the rebellion was concluded with his participation alone, it was not enough for the imaginative minds of the people who wanted to escape their fears and turn their attention to anything else but the situation outside the settlement.

Only a very small number of people noticed.

It was eerily peaceful these past few days aside from some small skirmishes on the eastern and southern walls.

At the parking area, the alleged members of [Team Fairy] together with their actual leader, two actual fairies and three new members, Karlene, Edzel, and Spera were preparing.

p Mark still lacked enough blood to be able to modify the Lorry according to his design. That was why he decided to go out of the settlement to procure the items himself. At the same time, he would go out with the whole team for the first time to observe their battle style and they would also drive the newly modified MB Sprinter and test its capabilities.

***

"Yawn…"

Mark felt a bit sleepy.

The meet up with Senator Ramon and Congresswoman Lanie yesterday evening left Mark quite satisfied because of the answer of the two. His request was not that big and could be dealt with easily due to their position and influence in Bay City. And thus, the two readily agreed despite the fact that they felt a bit of loss after Mark said that they would leave this settlement later. After all, [Team Fairy] had already become a pillar and support of Bay City and things would surely become harder without the powerful group protecting the settlement.

After the meetup, Mark and Mei spent some time together flying under the night sky and ended up returning home late.

Yet, Mark did not want to delay his plans any longer than necessary and woke up early to prepare to leave.

Unlocking the padlock of the metal container, the finished appearance [Exceed: Personnel Carrier] was shown in front of those that only saw the first touches yesterday.

"Master, is this really the same vehicle from before?"

Odelina could not help but ask as she stared at the vehicle she had driven since the start of the apocalypse.

"It is still the same if you enter. I barely touched the insides of the vehicle aside from the sniper dome part behind the front seats."

Odelina entered the vehicle and saw that the appearance of the vehicle inside was almost the same aside from a number of additions like the gun mounting slots by the windows, the controls for the needle launcher and the adjustable seat under the sniper dome.

As she sighed on how much the outside of the vehicle changed, Odelina heard Mark spoke. Later, I\'ll also change the insides after we got more parts and materials.

Odelina could only smile bitterly hearing that.

Soon, their preparations were finished and everyone boarded the vehicle. Odelina drove the vehicle out of the parking area and for the first time, the modified vehicle named [Exceed: Personnel Carrier] made its public debut.

The strangely high-tech looking vehicle drove off on the road making everyone by the roadside stop with shocked expressions.

"Well, this is a real head-turner isn\'t it?"

Mark said in a joking manner as he saw everyone else in the road turn their head following their vehicle with their eyes. Luckily, he made sure to tint the windows by mixing Oracle\'s and Crimson\'s blood metal or everyone would see them inside the vehicle.

"Master, I told you, you went overboard."

Aephelia who was sitting at one of the two seats designated to her and Amihan above the dashboard spoke reprimanding Mark.

"Nah, it\'s fine. The military workshop will sure get a lot of attention though since they were the only ones that modify vehicles here."

Mark replied while shrugging his shoulders.

The vehicle took quite an amount of attention before making it out of the settlement. Even the soldiers stationed at the gates had to stop them and confirm their identities before allowing them to go out.

While the [Team Fairy] which Mark decided to change into [Team Black Tourmaline] from the unofficial name drove out. Mark\'s prediction came true.

Inquiries about the alleged high-tech vehicle flooded the military, especially the Workshop. Of course, the military could not say anything about it as none of them also had any idea about the vehicle Mark created.

Mark had just caused General Perez and his officials another headache.

***

"Where are we going Papa?"

Abbygale who won the rock, paper, and scissors and sat on Mark\'s lap asked her father who was browsing on a mobile tablet installed with an offline navigation app he downloaded before.

Answering the little girl, Mark pointed at a figure on the mobile tablet.

"We will go here first."

What Mark pointed at was the University of Perpetual Help System DALTA in Las Piñas. It was more than seven kilometers south of Bay City. Of course, the actual distance following the roads was way longer than that.

However, that was the best choice nearest from Bay City. This university offered a lot of educational services from basic education to college. One of the college courses they were known for was their medical courses and they also had their medical center for internal medicine. From what Mark knew, this University not only had its own school division for medicine courses but also had its own blood bank. They even organized blood donation drives from time to time.

That made it the most optimal choice to search.

As Mark browsed the mobile tablet, he was thinking about how this was quite inconvenient from before. Unfortunately, he had no choice but to play by the rules unless he wanted to play a random roulette with his body.

Before, it was fine even if he just absorbed blood from the infected. But now, he could not do that anymore. Blood of humans and evolved animals was still fine as normal human blood was not that risky and most animals had different DNA and genes from humans. As for the infected blood, if he absorbed that kind of blood carelessly, he could risk mutating himself unwantedly.

It was the consequence for him to be able to contain miasma in his body. He became stronger but it limited his ability to absorb the blood of others.

If he just needed blood, he could conduct a large blood trade in the settlement, however, not only it would need proper equipment but would also take more time than necessary to gather enough blood and would need Mark to gather resources to trade when the resources necessary for survival near the settlement had already been taken by the military.

Furthermore, doing a blood trade would risk him of exposing his abilities to the public. It was still fine with the officers of the military of Infanta and Bay City to know since they were on his side but others were not.

As for the [Blood Children], they could still absorb blood from the infected but as all of them with him already mutated into another type, the type of [Blood Metal] he needed the most could only be made by him unless he took returned to the base and take another [Blood Child] that had yet to mutate.

***

Day 58 – 10:11 AM – Carlos P. Garcia Ave. Ext., Barangay Pulang Lupa Uno, Las Piñas, Metro Manila

They followed the Cavite Expressway south of Bay City Settlement and drove about five kilometers without many problems as the route was used by the military frequently. It was also the route that they took before they tried to storm the NAIA Airport.

They encountered quite an amount of infected though which put the vehicle to test.

Many Biters rushed to the side of the vehicle as they passed by. Mark made Mei open the [Side Panel Blades] to try it out.  Like a certain robotic liger that evolved from being a shielded one to a bladed one, two blades unfolded by the sides of their vehicle.

SHIIINGG!!!

All the common infected that rushed to the side of the vehicle fell down in the middle of the street as they lost their feet. The vehicle left a trail of blood and feetless infected as they passed by.

Finally, they reached the closest route Mark found and it required them to get off from the main highways and into the main road inside a populated district.

However, they were stopped.

"Mei\'er, is this blockade here before?"

Mark asked. It was because the road that they were about to take was blocked by vehicles and other obstructions.

"Gege, I don\'t think that these were here before. If we knew, we should have told you."

Mei replied frowning. Odelina also agreed that this blockade was not here before.

"Odel, driver forward. Let\'s try the next street."

Mark said as he looked at the map once more. There was another street just quite a distance away that would lead to the same direction he intended to go. As this was a newly developed highway, there were very few streets that would lead to their destination without needing to go through a detour. Going through a detour would only lead them to spend more time, probably hours, just to get the University.

To their disappointment, the next branching street was also blocked.

For sure, there was something going on here.

As they were all feeling strange, Mei who was capable of seeing far away in a fast manner scanned the area quickly. She then spoke.

"Gege, we\'re being watched."

Mark looked at her and she was staring at a couple of buildings about a hundred meters away from their location. The buildings were likely to be a condominium complex.

When he tried to find out what Mei had seen at the buildings, although he could not see that far as clear as Mei, he managed to spot several silhouettes on the rooftop of the eleven-floor building.

"Mei\'er, what do you think?"

Mark asked as it was Mei who could see them as clear as day.

"They seem to be wary. There are three people... No, one of them ran off. It looks like they were up to something."

"Of course everyone will be wary if a vehicle like this is at their doorstep."

Karlene spoke. What she had said was not wrong at all.

"Alright." Mark decided. "Odel, continue driving. There is another route we can try about a kilometer away."

With his order, the vehicle drove away. Although the previous route should have been closer, Mark did not want to waste time clearing the blockade and possibly needing to deal with people. They were just living on their own. Unless Mark detected that they had ill intentions, that would be the time he would waste time to clear them up. Even if they were not enemies, Mark had more things to do than attend to survivors he knew nothing about.

***

Unknown to Mark and his team…

"What in the f*cking hell is that car? It that some kind of transformer?"

One of the men on the rooftop spoke in total surprise seeing the vehicle that seemed to initially want to drive through the blocked street.

"I don\'t know man. That thing is straight up from a movie. You think Boss will make a move because of that?"

"No f*cking idea." The first man shook his head. "We are just lookouts, so it\'s the other\'s business. But it is likely that Boss will make a move. He\'s a f*cking possessive and greedy madman. He f*cking want everything in the world as his."

"Shhh… Don\'t let Boss hear what you just said or you will get screwed like the others."

"I know, I know. I\'m speaking right now since that mosquito already went in to tell Boss what we just saw."