Mutagen

A powerful shriek echoed throughout the ruins. Calling it powerful was not irrelevant. It caused the ruins in the immediate surroundings to shake, pulverizing the remaining intact pieces of glass in a wider range, and Mark and the Priestess, two powerful beings, had their ears deafened and ringing.

It seemed like the boss of this Death Zone had graced Mark and the Priestess with its unusual presence.

THUMP! THUMP!

Loud thumping could be heard as a large fast moving creature made its way toward the location of the two.

In this kind of scene, the protagonists would have time to face and prepare for the arrival of a unique foe. However, Mark and the Priestess could not have such a luxury.

The moment that shriek was heard throughout the ruins, the [Ruin Stakers] went berserk. Although most of the [Infected] only relied on instinct and were always aggressive to the living, saying they had gone berserk was clearly on another level.

All the [Ruin Stalkers] in the vicinity began throwing themselves towards Mark and the Priestess to the point that they could not attack each other anymore. Furthermore, these [Infected] threw away their instinct of trying to bite and infect the living and began to charge at their targets with the sole goal of killing.

And if the [Ruin Stalkers] were not enough, the other [Infected] within the Oshiage ruins began to arrive.

Mark\'s eyes glistened. The number of [Infected] gathering in the area was the second largest gathering he had seen so far, with the largest one back in Pennsylvania.

Although the human population in Tokyo alone was huge, such a large congregation of [Human Infected] was still a surprising scene to witness after the [Fusion of Dimensions]. Furthermore, this zone was just a few kilometers from the Reclaimed City.

Fending off the crazed [Ruin Stalkers], Mark finally took out a weapon. However, unlike his old armor, Mark took out the same new sword he used against the [Mutated Hornets], the [AT-Divicer]. It was not like his old weapons would be ineffective against the enemies. The number of enemies was pretty large, but Mark had yet to see them as an immediate threat. If there was a threat here, it was the Priestess who was still able to sneak talismans flying his way despite being in the same situation as his. In any case, Mark had to make fast work of these enemies, and this new sword was far more efficient in this scenario.

To retaliate to the Priestess\' attacks, Mark fired his own fireballs at her. She managed to dodge it, of course. It seemed that the Priestess realized that she should not block his magical attacks with her paper fans unless she wanted its enchantments to weaken drastically. Still, it was unusual to see a Shrine Priestess fighting a crazed horde of mutated creatures by slapping them with her paper fans and swinging kicks every now and then.

"Hup!"

Mark let out such a voice as he hurriedly jumped away from his initial position.

SPLAT! SIZZLE!

Where Mark stood before was suddenly covered in foul-smelling greenish goo. The sizzling of the goo as it tried to melt everything it covered could be heard loudly despite the constant growls of the crazed [Infected] and the sound of fighting. Even some of the [Ruin Stalkers] attacking Mark were splattered with the goo and immediately succumbed to its acidic properties.

And not wanting another of such an attack to suddenly come after him, Mark shot one of his fireballs at a long-necked, wide-mouthed [Mutated Infected] on the streets. In this regard, it was quite amazing that an [Infected] managed to shoot its acidic goo from a few dozen meters away.

With a painful shriek, the acid-shooting [Infected] succumbed to Mark\'s flame.

However, it was just one of the deaths among hundreds to thousands of [Infected] gathering in the area.

Mark\'s eyes observed his surroundings as much as he could. Aside from the [Ruin Stalkers] attacking him and the Priestess fighting on the other side of the ruined Skytree, Mark was paying attention to the [Infected] below.

Since Mark and the Priestess were atop the ruins, the [Infected] were trying to get to the two as fast as they could. However, most of the [Infected] was incapable of climbing up the ruins even if the walls were on a slight incline. However, just like the [Ruin Stalkers], all the [Infected] below the ruins were in a crazed state. Those that managed to get to the walls started clawing on the concrete, and those who were not were grabbing and dragging other [Infected], enabling them to climb up another. Some of the clumps of the [Infected] horde were even beginning to pyramid up the inclined walls.

Worse, the stronger types of [Mutated Infected] began to trash around, destroying everything they could, no matter what it was. While it was helpful that these types were causing the pyramids of [Infected] to collapse, they were also making the ruins crumble even more.

And as Mark and the Priestess exchanged another volley of attacks while trashing the [Ruin Stalkers] around them, the awaited boss of the zone finally arrived with its loud thumping footsteps.

The boss immediately took Mark\'s attention. Why? It was because it was the first time he had seen such a unique [Infected].

All [Mutated Infected] were technically unique on their own. After all, each individual would not have the exact same appearance even if they had the same catalyst for mutation. The only thing identical between them were their abilities, capabilities, and, of course, the distinguishable traits of their mutation.

For example, the [Ruin Stalkers]. The [Ruin Stalkers] were good at traversing the ruins, climbing steep concrete walls, and leaping over large distances while being unable to effectively traverse forests and natural terrain. They also had distinguishable and similar-looking claws and armor-like growths on their bodies. However, just like humans, they had varying looks and appearances, making each and every one unique.

But in terms of said abilities and distinguishable, the [Ruin Stalkers] was a kind of common mutation of the [Infected] to adapt to the terrain that the ruined Tokyo provided.

On the other hand, Mark had never seen any similar [Infected] comparable to the boss in front of him.

It was a female [Infected], without a doubt. It might be hard to distinguish using the boss\' other body parts, but the two exposed mounds on her chest clearly indicated her gender.

Why would her gender be hard to distinguish aside from that part? It was because the entirety of her body was covered in mutated, crystal-like armor with a dark sheen.

The [Infected] boss\' upper body was humanoid, but her lower body right below her pelvis had mutated into an insect-like appearance. Mark might have called this [Infected] an [Arachne] if not for the fact that her lower body was nowhere spider-like.

Her lower body had an abdomen akin to a beetle\'s. She had six thickly-armored legs, with the front legs looking like giant shields.

While she luckily did not have wings, that beetle-like abdomen was protected by a metallic carcass no less thick than the two shield-like forelimbs.

The carapace extended right up to the abdomen of her upper body, only leaving parts of her humanoid body exposed. Her arms were also mutated, looking like giant blades, even larger than her entire upper body.

Her head was also covered in that mutated armor up to her neck and upper shoulders. However, it left her oddly-numbered eyes exposed through the helmet. It seemed that her mutation caused her face to distort as her left eye was an enlarged compound insect eye while the right side of her face had three separate ocelli-looking eyes.

And the most distinguishable trait of the boss was her size. Saying that she was large was an understatement. The boss of this zone was HUGE! She was around five meters in height from her head to the tip of her front legs. If she was measured in length, from her head to tail, it would sound like she was even larger.

As he observed the new enemy, Mark had a few huge questions in his mind. This [Mutated Infected] was clearly not a [Monarch Type] as she did not show a human-like level of intelligence. Furthermore, Mark could not detect any newborn consciousness from her, unlike the [Monarch Type Infected] he had encountered before.

However, the feeling that this zone boss exuded, the level of danger and strength, was not that weaker than a [Monarch Type Infected].

Then, there was only one possibility.

This gigantic [Infected] leading the Oshiage Forbidden Zone was a [Patient Zero].

A [Patient Zero] would usually refer to the first carrier of a communicable disease and the origin of its spread. However, it was a bit differently defined in terms of the [Mutagen] outbreak. Since the [Mutagen] rained down to Earth through the explosion of meteorites in the atmosphere, there were multiple [Patient Zeros]. There were hundreds if not thousands.

These [Patient Zeros] were people who were first exposed to the concentrated amount of [Mutagen] upon its entry on Earth. For example, passengers of airplanes in flight during the entry.

And these [Patient Zeros] had one thing to distinguish them from the rest of the [Infected] in the world.

It was their advanced and unique mutations that other [Infected], even [Monarch Types], could not compare to. It was not like all of the so-called [Patient Zeros] turned out this way, but only they had the possibility of becoming one so far.

But even if the boss of Oshiage was a [Patient Zero], it was not like it was the first time Mark had seen one.

When Mark first arrived in Quezon Province, he saw one of the crashed airplanes. There, a [Patient Zero] conducted her revenge in a crazed state as she tried to revive her trampled daughter. It was Miracle\'s mother and the person who created the [Blood Children]. Her mutation was totally unique as Mark had never seen any other [Infected], or even [Mutators], who had a similar ability.

Unique existences among those changed by [Mutagen]. That was the [Patient Zeros].

And that was where another question was coming from.

There were no crashed planes in this area, from what Mark knew. How was it possible that there was a [Patient Zero] lurking in this place? Was it the Skytree? That was a bit too farfetched. The Skytree did not even reach a kilometer in height, after all.

Mark\'s thoughts were interrupted by the same powerful shriek. It caused the ruins to shake again. And this time, it actually caused some places damaged by the rampaging [Infected] to collapse.

It was when Mark realized that the shriek was not just some shout. It was actually a soundwave attack, as Mark felt disoriented after getting directly affected by it.

Since Mark and the Priestess took the brunt of that shriek up front, both of them had the same state. It became harder to fight the [Ruin Stalkers] as the two were thrown into the defensive.

And if that was not enough, the [Boss of Oshiage] began her preparations. She lowered her body and positioned her legs.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! BAM!

With several quick steps in succession, the [Boss of Oshiage] charged and rammed her side unto the bridging ruins of the Skytree.

CRUMBLE!

Mark and the Priestess began to lose footing as the ruins of the Skytree shook violently. And unable to resist the attack of the [Boss of Oshiage], the ruins began to collapse.

Still dizzy from the soundwave attack, Mark forced himself to take flight. On the other hand, the Priestess used her [Shukuchi] to retreat to a different ruin further away.

Mark shook his head. The effects of the soundwave began to disappear. Unfortunately, he had no time to rest as several homing fireballs flew in his direction before converging into a large explosion in his location.

Of course, Mark managed to evade the attack. However, he could only sigh.

"That cheeky old hag."

Mark murmured as he looked at the Priestess far away. She was also recovering from the soundwave attack, but the Priestess did not forget to send some talismans on his way.