Mutagen

Following the reported count, twenty people died after trying to fight the swarm of [Mutated Suzumebachi]. The unconfirmed or missing was around thirty. Considering the size of the swarm, which numbered around three to five thousand hornets, with each hornet several times its original size, the small number of casualties was just fortunate.

It could have gotten worse. Real worse.

And among the people who fought the hornets, a group stood out above everyone. The recognition they received was even far above the military who stood on the front lines and the Shinto Priests that ended the battle magnificently.

It was a group of two adults, a barely an adult, four children, and a [Sylph].

The rumors about that mysterious group and their performance during the Combat Examination had yet to die down. And now, they performed a crucial part in defending the Reclaimed City from the sudden attack of the giant hornets. Many people witnessed the event, not to mention that some of them were important pillars of the Reclaimed City.

The people\'s interest was even more piqued due to the fact that the mysterious group left the scene as soon as the battle ended. And they left everything else under the management of the Black Lotus, which included the spoils they got during the battle.

And as if the Black Lotus was on their roll with lady luck, they managed to sell the corpses of hornets that the mysterious group had killed to the military for a good price. How? Most of the hornets that Mark\'s group killed were in pristine condition. All of them were killed in one attack, leaving most of the usable parts intact and suitable for processing. The most damaged ones might be those whose bodies got bisected into two or those with crushed heads. However, even those were still far better than the ones killed by the military that ended up getting drilled with holes from gunfire.

The military was also happy with the deal. After all, the soldiers also needed to recoup the losses in the battle. Mostly in equipment and material loss, as they barely had any casualties.

That was not the end of the Black Lotus Group\'s news for the day. The weekly auction within the rich area of Toyosu was also today. Normally, the main attraction for the auction would be rare items or equipment. Some items auctioned were magical items that appeared after the [Fusion of Dimensions], such as glowing crystals or unusual crafting materials.

This week\'s auction was unique. It was due to the fact that the main attraction ended up as consumables. However, it was not just regular consumables such as food or medicine. It was luxury items such as chocolate and cigarettes. These items were expensive even before the apocalypse began, and these things were items that people thought they would never ever see anymore.

Chocolate and cigarettes were things that people were eager to consume. However, the production of such luxuries was less prioritized. Of course, due to obvious reasons. As such, even the cheapest brands before the apocalypse became rare and expensive commodities nowadays.

Furthermore, a nice amount of items were put up for auction by the Black Lotus. Normally, this kind of move would reduce the item\'s value. However, the people were craving. The contest for the items was fierce. And the fact that the Black Lotus announced that these would be all the stock they had further raised the eagerness of the people to get a hand on at least one of the products.

And the appearance of the luxury items in the auction netted the Black Lotus Group a hefty amount of profit. Probably much more than what they could have earned until now since the credit system was established.

It was no news that the Black Lotus was having problems financially. It was due to the fact that the territory of the Black Lotus was the ones voluntarily feeding those incapable of feeding themselves. That was right. The Black Lotus was doing volunteer work, giving food and shelter to poor people who had zero chance of living through the apocalypse.

This was supposed to be the government\'s duty. In fact, they were obligated to transfer funds to the Black Lotus to use for those poor people. However, would the funds they sent be enough? Obviously not. Mitsui Ren had sent petitions to the government backed by a few more concerned groups. However, the petition was never put to fruition.

It was no surprise. There were people behind the government that was controlling the strings. And as such, Ren and the groups supporting her could only persevere.

And yesterday, all those perseverance finally bore fruit.

Although most people who witnessed the event thought it was the good karma that the Black Lotus accumulated, the brighter minds thought otherwise.

There was only one change that the Black Lotus had in these two days of prosperity.

The mysterious group.

It was the group of newcomers that registered themselves under an unusual name.

The [Freelancer Group] named the [Evernight].

[Evernight]. The lasting night and a type of darkness that would influence everything around it.

***

"What\'s our plan today?"

Spera asked as she slurped the seafood-flavored cup noodles she had for breakfast.

"Nothing, really," Mark said, slurping the soup on his cup noodles. "With what happened yesterday, it\'s better if we lay low for a bit. Probably, we can ask Ren to look for house locations? Looks like they earned a lot by selling the stuff I left to her."

Mark had not met Ren after going home yesterday. However, he felt their arrival at night, in which Ren and her companions were in a really good mood.

"Nee~ Uncle," Emika chimed in while staring at her breakfast. "Can we have something else to eat later? It\'s always been noodles except when Ren-nee-san treated us the other day."

Mark looked at Emika. He had no problems with the instant noodles since he had been eating this kind of food for years since its cheap and affordable for him, who barely had money. But it was also true that they had been eating instant food since they arrived in Japan due to the fact that they had no good place to cook.

It seemed that it was not only Emika. The rest of the girls were obediently eating what was given to them, but they were already looking for the taste of a different kind of food. The only exception was Amihan, Miracle, and, unexpectedly, Spera.

Amihan only ate any kind of fruit, so it did not matter to her.

​ Miracle was only eating for the sake of eating. If she was to choose, she would prefer Mark\'s blood instead.

On the other hand, Spera had no qualms about what she was eating as long as it was edible. She would become happier with tastier food, but she did not mind whatever it was as long as it would not make her sick. With the life she had until six years ago, the cup noodles in her hand were already a luxury.

The group could just go back to the Mountain Base in an instant if they wanted to with Spera\'s portals. However, that was quite risky, and Mark did not go back too often unless it was extremely necessary. After all, it would also break the feeling of adventure if done too often. Of course, the other day was one exception when the group was really itching to take a bath.

Mark shrugged. He then took something out of his ring and distributed one to everyone.

"Endure it for now with these," Mark spoke. "Once we get a different house, we can set up a proper kitchen."

Emika happily received the bar of chocolate. If those people in the auction saw that Mark was giving the girls the same kind of chocolate they bought expensively just to reduce the fed-up feeling of eating the same kind of food for a long time, they would probably spit out blood.

"Set up a kitchen?"

Mei asked Mark.

The question was short and seemingly lacking more context, but Mark understood what she meant.

After all, Mark only came here with the group to search for people. Once that was done, they would leave and set off to another country.

"Yeah, we\'ll set up a proper kitchen," Mark nodded. "Maybe, we should refurbish it properly too. Then we can go back here anytime we like, and we will have a nice place to stay. Since we are buying a property, it will be ours until we sell it away, after all."

That was right. Using Spera\'s portal, they could come and go to places she had been to, including the Reclaimed City. Then, they could just keep a well-furbished house as a base in this place whenever they decided to visit.

Besides, except for the political nuances that were a problem anywhere anyway, Japan was a good place to go on vacation despite the apocalypse.

In fact, it was already late autumn. Many trees that now decorated the ruins and many places in Tokyo already had a vibrant reddish-orange color. It was a beautiful sight if one disregarded the [Infected] lurking about.

"Then, we\'ll just stay put today?"

Spera asked.

"Yeah, let\'s just stay here today. Play games or whatever. It\'s pretty cold outside, anyway."

Mark replied.

Everyone in the group was fine with the arrangement. It was pretty tiring ever since they arrived in this country. This would be the first time they would actually have a nice long rest.

On the other hand, Mark had another reason for not going outside. The first step to gather attention was done magnificently. And now, they gathered a lot of unwanted attention. In fact, many eyes had already been watching the place since yesterday, and more arrived when Ren\'s group returned from the auction.

Most of those eyes were just there, watching. However, some of them had other agendas in mind and were only waiting for a good opportunity to strike.

Unfortunately, none of those people hiding outside were among the ones Mark was aiming for. As such, they could only wait until the right people finally arrived.

And since they plan on not going out today, Mark took out a few of his creations.

One was a generator. It was much smaller than the first one that Mark made that powered the Mountain base. And instead of using a [Lightning Manipulation Mental Crystal] as the battery, it was using a white cylinder that emitted light. This light was similar to what their weapons emitted during the battle yesterday.

That was right. It was an electricity generator that used a [Mechid\'s] power core as its power source. Most scientists would be drooling over this thing if they learned about it.

Mark called it a [Plasma Core Generator], following its power source. From Mark\'s studies, the power source of a [Mechid] was concentrated plasma. It was concentrated to a point where it formed an ectoplasmic body put into core batteries for the space robots. After Mark successfully managed to extract the power source, the first thing he did was try and use it for himself.

After turning the generator on, Mark then plugged a disk-like object into one of the sockets. It was a warming device that would heat up the room nicely. It was a cold morning, after all.

With the power source set up and the room temperature regulated, Mark\'s set up a network for everyone to play as he gave each of them a phone to play on.

Using this as a distraction, everyone would have no problems spending the rest of the day inside.

Well, it was until Mako knocked into the room with a heartfelt request.