Mutagen

Loud, unpleasant sounds echoed along the Atlantic City Expressway.

The outlaws were already close to catching up with their target vehicle. In front, the blocked overpass was also visible.

However, all of them were utterly confused when the vehicle continued to speed up instead of slowing down. It was as if the targets wanted to ram their car unto the blockade.

That was when the flash of blinding light deprived them of their sight. Some of the cars managed to stop, slamming on their breaks violently. Most of them, however, failed to do so.

Especially for the motorcycles, there was no way for them to stop immediately while going at top speed.

Thus, with the shock, confusion, fear, and being unable to see where they were going, forced the outlaws into different accidents.

One of the two jeeps crashed into an abandoned vehicle. The front of the car was utterly mangled due to the strength of the impact. The driver and the passenger at the front seat immediately fell unconcious after their heads hit the steering wing and the dashboard. For the other passengers of the car at the back seats, since they were all standing and shooting at the target vehicle and without any safety precautions, they all flew off everywhere. They all laid on the road injured. The unluckiest of them fell headfirst, bashing his head on the concrete like a tomato.

All of the motorcycles crashed one after another.

Both the drivers and back riders fell rolling in the middle of the road for several meters while their motorcycles continued to slide. Some only stopped after crashing unto an obstacle or just because of the friction. Falling at that speed, unless they were endurance type Mutators, they would receive grave injuries.

Some of the drivers of the motorcycles definitely broke their legs after falling. As for the back riders, most of them had injuries on their arms since they tried to mitigate the fall by reflex. Two of them had their arms bent the wrong way in the wrong part.

One of the back riders had the worst fate, though. After he fell, the quadbike following behind ran over him, breaking his arms and ribs in the process. The outlaw immediately died. As for the quadbike that killed that man, the driver and passenger were not left unscathed. Suddenly running over a bump, the killed back rider, at that speed, sent the quadbike flying. It was not high, just a few inches above the ground. That, however, made them lose balance, and the two rolled over together with the quadbike.

Both were dead, with their mangled bodies.

The other quadbike lost control and went over the gutter. It crashed onto the divider of the opposite lanes.

The driver and passenger were sent flying unto the other side of the road.

As for the others, the drivers managed to stabilize their vehicles. However, they could only hold their faces in pain afterward as their eyes hurt like hell.

They could hear the painful moans of their comrades, but what could they do? Everyone was murderously staring at their target, and none of them was able to react to that blinding flash of light.

Nevertheless, while that blinding light hurt their eyes, it was not enough to blind them permanently. After more than ten seconds, they regained their sight, although their eyes were still painful.

And there, instead of helping their comrades immediately, those that recovered their sights could only stare in front with their mouths agape. They also realized the unpleasant smell of burned materials that entered their noses.

Their target was gone, and there was a huge, molten hole on their blockade. Similarly, the men that should be waiting on the overpass to ambush their targets were also gone.

The outlaws could not help but shiver in fear at this scene.

Just what if whatever that was, was pointed at them. It was able to create a hole through several vehicles. If it was them, not a single trace of them would be left behind.

As their heads failed to process the scene in front of them properly, they succumbed to fear immediately.

"F*CK! I\'M OUT OF HERE!"

The first cry of fear echoed as the man hopped into his quadbike, wanting to leave. Then, because of that man, the others that were still fine followed unconditionally.

They did not care if their boss was among the people rolling on the ground in pain. They only wanted to leave this place as soon as possible.

After all, while they liked killing others, they did not want to die.

Ignoring everything, even the pain in their eyes, they hopped into their vehicles and turned around.

But then... They were not able to move an inch anymore.

"W-WHAT...."

The road back... it was being blocked by a veil of black smoke.

Overwhelmed by fear, they lost their reasoning.

It was not known whether the black smoke was harmful or not. At least, unlike the vehicle they were chasing that created a melted hole on their blockade.

Thus, one gambled on it.

VRRROOOOMM!!

Squeezing the throttle of his quadbike, he rushed through the black smoke.

The others that did not dare to gamble with their lives watched in fear.

They felt a bit of hope when they heard the sound of the quadbike seemed to have passed through the black smoke. Maybe, this smoke was not harmful at all.

But then...

"AAAAAGGGAAAAHHHHH!!!"

The blood-curdling scream of the man was heard, along this his quadbike that crashed unto another abandoned vehicle.

That scream... made the remaining men horrified to their bones.

With the lead of one, they decided to ditch their vehicles. They started to run away towards the forest at the side of the expressway.

Before they could do so, however, the black smoke surged towards them.

All they could do was scream as their bodies were enveloped by the sinister, black smoke.

Those screams did not give then any ounce of hope. Instead, the screams started from fear, had gone coming from pain.

They could only scream. There was nothing else that they could do as their bodies started to fester.

It was the same for those lying on the ground. Their already painful moans turned to screams of pain.

In a way, those that died immediately after the accident were lucky.

At least, they did not have to suffer the pain and fear while watching their bodies slowly rot to their deaths.

It did not take long, and the smoke gathered into a small ball and flew away.

At its departure, all that was left was the rotting corpses of the outlaws that were lively just a minute ago.

***

"Gege, that..."

Mei did not know what to say. It was even more so for the rest of the group.

,m The [Shooting Moon Edge] was given to Mei by Mark after he finished it. However, she never knew about what Mark did just now.

"Haha."

Mark laughed with a bit of a secretive smile. He opened the window and threw away the dust that was left on his hand.

"It\'s some experimental thing. It\'s not easy to make, so, that\'s the only one I had."

An experimental thing. Those words made the people inside the vehicle shiver. It meant that it was something not completed yet and could pose a great danger even to the user.

What if that thing failed and exploded inside the vehicle instead?

Mark shrugged his shoulders. It was easy to tell what was in the minds of the people here, even without his Emphatic abilities.

Still, Mark returned to his seat beside Mei without explaining anything. He wanted to let their imagination run wild for now.

What they were thinking were true in a sense. What he used just now was a bit unstable. However, it was not to the extent of exploding or backfiring. The harm it could do at most was blinding both enemies and allies for a couple of seconds.

After all, it was nothing but a high concentration of light with enough heat to melt metal instantly.

The unstable part of it was that it was not supposed to scatter that blinding light like that. In the least, everyone that stood behind the user would not be affected by the blinding light.

As for what it was, Freed called it something like a [Crystal Converter].

Yes, it was something that Freed created in Eriellis after the outbreak started on their planet. It was created with the help of Keeper, who was the original owner of the [Psycrystal].

It was something that could be attached to the weapons they developed back in Eriellis. Pretty much like how Mark used it with Mei\'s sniper rifle. The palm-sized board that had circuit-like markings was capable of converting the energy within the crystal into certain attack elements.

Specifically, what Mark created was called [Beam Type Converter]. The [Beam Type Converter] could convert the crystal into a beam of light. The size of the beam differed depending on the circuit. What Mark made was the one with the largest beam.

However, the creation of these [Crystal Converters] was nothing to joke at. Every line in the circuit should be made in a precise manner. A single mistake would waste the whole circuit, and Mark would need to make another one from scratch.

The biggest problem, as Mark had murmured before, was the materials to create this kind of weapon.

These [Crystal Converters] were not meant to be disposable. In fact, some of the successful ones that Freed created made it to their final battle before everyone perished.

However, the materials that Freed used to make the [Crystal Converters] back then was some rare metal that appeared in Eriellis after the outbreak.

Mark had no way to get hold of that metal. Thus, he tried to find a substitute.

The property of that metal was that it was able to flow magical energy through it, even without the carved circuit.

It was the very same property that the wood from the core of a spirit tree had.

While Mark succeded in finding an alternative. It was subpar.

Mark was a good craftsman, even before the outbreak. Alana, who was his customer, could attest to that. Even the things he made after the outbreak were good.

Then, the problem did not lie in carving the circuit. It was because of the material.

After carving the outlines of the circuit, Mark needed to fill the carvings with powdered empty [Mental Crystal]. However, while doing that step, it was rather common for the wood to crumble to dust, before the filling was finished as it was unable to contain the energy within the circuit.

In creating the one Mark used just now... Just how many [Mental Crystals] and pieces of the core of the Spirit Tree had he wasted?

Furthermore, the finished product was still defective.

However, when making this weapon, Mark discovered something.

The metal that was used in the weapon they got from Huo Long Yue was able to conduct magical energy without problems. However, there was no way for Mark to dismantle the weapon he made for Mei just for something like this.

Thus, it became one of his goals in the future. If he could get hold of this metal, he might be able to create something that was not defective even without the actual materials from Eriellis.

With those in mind, Mark smiled. Crimson then appeared on his lap out of nowhere.

"Done with them?"

Mark asked.

There was no need to answer, but Crimson wobbled as if nodding.

Mark patted Crimson, and he vanished once more.

"Crimson is really like a Shadow Guard, isn\'t he?"

Mei said with a smile. Mark shrugged. What she said was true, after all.

Now that there was no one chasing behind them, aside from some infected, everything went back to normal. No one pestered Mark about the [Crystal Converter] either.

Driving silently with a few bumps on the road, they reached Deptford Township. At the flyover at an intersection, they decided to stop and have a quick lunch.