Mutagen

Spera was watching Mark closely. His recent actions had been bothering her.

Fighting was restricted, and Mark would leave on his own at random intervals. If that was not enough, Mark also gathered old dusty blankets, mattresses, cooking utensils, and pots into his ring earlier. Then, using those old items, Mark decorated their camp within the historic building.

Now, their camp smelled like dust. Well... Considering it was a ruin of a building, it had always been a dusty place since they arrived. It was just that what Mark did made it worse.

"Gege... I don\'t think we will be able to sleep with these."

Mei told Mark with a worried expression while looking at the current state of their camp. It was not like Mei and the girls were being picky. It was just the dust, this time, was too much.

"It\'s fine," Mark replied with a shrug. "It\'s very likely we won\'t be sleeping here tonight."

Those words from Mark made the girls realize. It looks like the strange things Mark had done in the past few days were in preparation to leave.

However, why though? There was no need to do such things if they were leaving.

But before the girls got their answer, the silence of the ruined city was disturbed.

Usually, it would be the sound of growling [Infected] or the howls of [Feral Evolved Fauna]. But it was different this time.

RRRRRRMMMM!!!

It was the echoing sound of multiple vehicles. The sound was not that loud. It was just that the ruined city was too silent that the sound of the vehicles could be heard from far away.

"Cars?"

Emika blurted in surprise as she tried to run out of the room. However, Mark caught her arm.

"Don\'t be too careless."

Mark said to the green-haired girl with a sigh.

"Ah..."

Emika realized that she was about to do something stupid. After all, who would know if those vehicle sounds were enemies or possible allies?

Mark patted Emika\'s head, telling her it was alright and she only had to be careful in the future. Unfortunately, it would be hard for Emika to not repeat this kind of blunder. It was because of her [Mutator Trait] that she was like this. Her unnecessary and excessive [Cheerfulness] would cause her to lay her guard down from time to time.

On the contrary, this trait of Emika would allow her to keep her mentality on top condition, even in the direst situations. While she could still feel emotions, extreme ones would be far away from her.

And despair... would never be within Emika\'s vocabulary.

"Just stay inside."

Mark said to the girls as he took out a weapon.

What weapon? Instead of the new weapons that he developed within the past month, what Mark took out was a .38 five-cylinder double-action revolver. It was a New Nambu M60. The standard issue firearm carried by law enforcement officers in Japan. It was a pretty neat gun, but definitely incompatible with fighting hordes of [Infected].

The gun on Mark\'s hand looked pretty beat up, with scratches all over its body. It was not surprising since Mark got it from a nearby destroyed police station.

Seeing Mark take out a nearly broken gun, Spera sighed. Even now, Mark was behaving weirdly.

Mark made his way out into the open part of the floor. He then saw several vehicles coming from the southeast direction of the main road in front of the Meiji Seimei Kan.

There were two military trucks and a military jeep driving through the road. They were evading road blockades and debris as if they were used to driving through the ruined streets.

Seeing the three vehicles, Mark stealthily glanced at the building southeast of their direction, just on the opposite side of the road. Mark\'s eyes then flashed a satisfied glint as a slight smile crept up on his lips.

"All according to plan, I guess," Mark murmured. "Let\'s just wish these people were decent. If not, don\'t blame me. But so far, they do behave decently. Except for one, though. Why is that person showering me with hate for no reason."

Mark then turned his eyes back on the incoming vehicles while keeping his attention on the four individuals posted in different buildings around the Meiji Seimei Kan.

From the start, Mark\'s actions were pretty much calculated. Why Mark chose this building to camp in? Why his actions were weird in the past few days. All of these factors come in together to get this outcome.

***

Day 317 - 5:32 PM - Route 406, Marunouchi, Chiyoda City, Tokyo

Mitsui Ren and a few designated group members drove through the ruins of Tokyo.

Normally, the roads of the current Tokyo were impassable due to debris and changes in ground elevation and geography. However, there was no way the government and its people would trap themselves within the Reclaimed City.

What if it fell? How would they escape?

That was why several main roads in Tokyo were cleared of debris. Not that they were entirely unblocked, but at least it allowed vehicles to pass through. And this process, of course, took quite a good amount of lives sacrificed to pull off.

Nonetheless, it gave the residents of the Reclaimed City a way out if things went further south.

And to further ensure that these escape routes would be usable in case of emergency, assigned groups would check these roads at timed schedules. It was how the scouts of Black Lotus found the survivors staying in Meiji Seimei Kan.

Mitsui Ren looked outside the window of the military jeep she was riding. They were getting close to the location.

The vehicles stopped in front of the Meiji Seimei Kan.

Of course, with several [Infected] on their tail. The members of the group stepped out of the vehicles first to deal with the enemies chasing them.

On the other hand, Mitsui Ren waited until her door was opened. Only then she stepped out of the military jeep. As the leader of the group, there was no need for her to step forward to deal with a few enemies.

Ren looked up to the remains of the fifth floor. It was when they heard a man\'s voice shouting at them.

"Who are you, people?!"

The cautious shout of the man from the report entered Ren\'s ears.

From the report, it was already speculated that the group here were not locals and were foreigners. Hearing the man\'s voice and sentence made them conclude that the speculation was true. It was because while the man\'s sentence had proper grammar, it sounded a bit awkward. It was a trait common to people who were not that used to speaking a different language from what they usually used.

One of Ren\'s subordinates was about to reply to the man. However...

"I\'ll handle this."

Ren stepped forward and shouted to the man.

"We are not enemies! We are the Black Lotus group from the Reclaimed City! We are tasked by the government to find survivors in this area and bring them to safety."

"Really?" The man shouted back. "Can you provide proof?"

Ren expected this to happen. It was not the first time, after all. Besides, not being cautious about the people you meet in the current times was just asking for trouble.

"I can show you my identification card," Ren suggested."Can I climb up?"

"There\'s no stairs. Use the ladder behind the wall in front of you."

The man answered.

Ren turned to her subordinates and signaled them to stand down and stay. Of course, they were against their leader going up alone. However, none of them voiced their complaints. Their leader was not just the leader in name. She was among the strongest ones in their group.

"There\'s no need for the ladders. Please stand away from the edge."

Ren shouted as she used the remains of the ruins to jump up to the fifth-floor ledge where the man was taking cover.

The act that Ren showed displayed the fact that she had the strength to fight but would not use violence toward the group. Hopefully, this could add to the fact that they were genuine rescuers.

Arriving on the fifth floor, Ren immediately raised her hands. The man was pointing a gun at her.

"Where\'s the I.D.?"

The man asked, to which Ren responded by opening her hand.

This I.D. was an official one. Each ability-holder that entered the Reclaimed City was examined and assessed. Then, they were given an I.D., which also served as a license.

Ren slowly stretched her hand that held her I.D., and the man snatched it to take a close look. Finally, it seemed that the man believed her as he lowered his gun and apologized for his aggressiveness.

Of course, Ren did not mind. She had a fiery personality, but she had enough understanding of the possible circumstances.

And here, things went smoothly.

Ren signaled her subordinates to help with escorting the survivors. She supervised her subordinates closely, making sure that they showed hospitality to these poor survivors.

On the other hand, Ren was pretty surprised at the group. Although she had already received the report, seeing it in person still had a different impact.

For example, the [Sylph]. From what Ren knew, [Sylphs] should have greenish-blonde hair and emerald-colored eyes. However, the [Sylph] accompanying the survivors actually had black hair and dark eyes. She looked strange and out of the norm, but legends and myths had variations, and such unexpected things were possible.

The [Sylph] aside, Ren and her subordinates were mesmerized by the older woman within the group. The messy report did say unparalleled beauty, but the truth was several million times better. Ren was confident with her looks, but she immediately conceded in front of the woman.

Unfortunately, there seemed to be some issues with the woman. She did not want to approach any men other than the man in their group. Ren immediately caught on and tasked the women of the Black Lotus to be the people to mainly assist the group\'s rescue.

The green-haired girl was also eye-catching. Furthermore, her cheery attitude made it easy for Ren and her subordinates to smile around her.

There were also the other three girls and the teenage girl. And although they were using a different language, Ren and the others immediately realized that the little girls, the beautiful woman, and the man were a family. The teenage girl seemed to be the beautiful woman\'s younger sister. It was hard to determine the relationship between the green-haired girl and the rest of the group, but they did hear her call the man "uncle."

After retrieving the important items in the camp, the survivors were escorted to the military truck.

Ren was supposed to ride on the military jeep on the way back. However, she decided to accompany the survivors in the truck. Ren wanted to interact with the group more, especially the man. After all, she was really interested in the [Sylph], who seemed to be contracted with the man. Of course, it was also a way for her to gather information about the survivors they rescued.

Since Ren was used to dealing with people, she tried to not make things too awkward. After all, it was bad to suddenly overwhelm the survivors. Within the truck, she learned of their names and observed their personalities.

However, Ren found a wall in trying to interact with the group. Language wall, that was. Aside from the man and the green-haired girl, the rest of their group could not speak Japanese. They could understand a few words, but definitely not at a conversation level.

The fact that there was a language barrier was quite troublesome. After all, the group\'s statements were needed to gather information and verify their identities. If the rest could not speak, the amount of information they could gather would be limited to what the man and the green-haired girl would say.

But at this point, Ren did not feel too pressured about gathering information. As she interacted more with them, Ren felt that it was impossible for these survivors to be spies sent by the enemies.