Mutagen

Day 366 - 6:05 PM - Campsite, Larikrejo, Undaan, Kudus Regency, West Java, Indonesia

Dr. Willis Reagan. It was the name of a biology genius with a rather quirky personality. Yes, he was the crazy scientist who now caught up to the isolated group. Willis' name sure did not sound like a local's. It was because, although his mother was a pure Indonesian, his father was not. His father was an American biologist. He came to Indonesia to study its ecosystem.

And Willis followed the steps of his late father.

"Why are you here? How did you even get to us?" General Wijaya could not help but ask as he stared at Dr. Willis and his companion. "There's only two of you?"

"Hmm???" Dr. Willis turned his head to his companion and then made exaggerated gestures as if he were looking for something. "Me... this guy... Hmmm... I don't see anyone else.

How many do you want us to be?"

General Wijaya's eyebrows began twitching.

"Alright... There's only you two," General Wijaya replied. "Then why and how did you get here?"

Looking at the situation, it was quite odd. Given that they had quite several encounters with the [Infected] just today, there was no way Dr. Willis and his companion would be able to follow them, especially this quickly. After all, Dr. Willis and his assistant should be just regular people, scientists cooped up with their research.

"You're asking why? Then why would you think I will stay there?" Dr. Willis replied with his own question, once again. "I only research what I want and not what others want me to. Do you think I will be able to do that if you leave me there? Why would you even leave without telling me?"

General Wijaya fell silent. There was a reason Dr. Willis stuck to him. It was because he never forced Dr. Willis to research something he did not want to. It was due to the fact that whatever he was trying to research would benefit the people in many ways.

However, it was not something others would realize, especially if those two pig Generals were the ones left to manage the survivors from Mount Muria.

"Alright, I get it," General Wijaya raised his hands in surrender. "But you know. Even if I informed you, there's no way they would let you or any valuable personnel leave to follow me."

"But there's no need to inform them???" The professor harrumped. "Look at me! I sneaked out on my own! And now I'm here! The problem is, you're too upright! You're so upright that you let snakes coil around you easily!"

Dr. Willis and General Wijaya continued their banter while being watched by everyone. It did not feel like they were just in a superior and subordinate relationship.

"They're at it again, huh."

"It is the usual."

Captain Timur Guntur, the former in-charge of Kudus Outpost, and Staff Sergeant Welinda Cahya, General Wijaya's secretary, commented to the side. It seemed that this scene was not new to them and the General's other soldiers.

"Hah..." General Wijaya sighed as he brought Dr. Willis to Luna and the others. "As you can see, this guy will now come with us."

"I don't think anyone would have issues with it," Luna said, as she looked at everyone around. "A scientist is valuable in these times, no matter what their expertise is."

Everyone agreed with Luna's words, and some even nodded in agreement.

"See!" Dr. Willis exclaimed. "At least these young people understand! Those old farts back there can't even hold a candle to them!"

Dr. Willis really had a bad view of the people back in the main camp.

Mark and his group had nothing to say in this situation. They just gathered to the side, minding their own business. Of course, Mark was paying attention to what was happening.

Well, it might turn out to become annoying if Dr. Willis began pestering Mark's group about things. He had a record of doing so back in Kudus during the sale of the [Fog Crawler's] remains.

But, rather than Dr. Willis, Mark's attention was focused on someone else this time.

Sensing Mark's stare, the person looked back, nodding at Mark with a polite business smile.

The person's emotions were undisturbed. He was the epitome of a businessman's ideal personality.

Yet, that guy was introduced as Dr. Willis' assistant.

It was odd. Something was odd.

Mark could feel it but could not pinpoint what it was.

But if that person felt like a strange businessman, Mark had an inkling of who he could possibly be.

***

Soon, the camp for this night was established. The next thing to do was prepare dinner, and many people worked together to cook the best they could serve for everyone. Fortunately, they had enough food supplies to last everyone for at least a week or two, even if they splurged a bit.

They could also hunt along the way, and edible animals were plenty even though almost everything near Mount Muria had already been burnt to ash.

Still, everyone could not help but stare north from time to time. There, the silhouette of Mount Muria could be seen, which was more visible at night due to the lava it continued to spew.

Thick volcanic ash continued to rain. It was good that they had the help of Mark and Amihan to at least lessen the ash during the night.

As the night deepened, everyone went to sleep inside their tents, leaving the nighttime guards on their shift.

Of course, Mark was the guard for his group. Feng Zhiruo and Hannah also volunteered. It was the same for Felicia and Louis. However, Mark told them to rest instead. Since Mark wanted to do some tinkering, he could guard at the same time.

Well, Mark did not end up alone. As he sat on a clean mat while tinkering with some small metal parts, Mei sat beside him after putting their daughters to sleep. She then rested her head on his shoulder, and Mark just let her do so with a slight smile.

Inside one of the tents, Elise and Spera were peeking through the tent's door, watching Mark and Mei.

"You're not going to run there and ask for a hug or something?"

Spera asked Elise, as it was what the latter was usually doing.

However, Elise gave Spera a sharp stare.

"I'm not boorish to steal Elder Sister's time with Elder Brother," Elise's stare then turned melancholic. "It hurts when people you love get stolen from you. I don't want to do the same to Elder Sister."

"You..."

Spera was surprised by Elise's remark, making her turn to Elise. However, Elise already turned her back on Spera, trying to sleep.

Due to that interaction, Spera now felt doubts about Elise. However, she could only sigh before going to sleep.

***

Day 367 - 9:21 AM - Campsite, Larikrejo, Undaan, Kudus Regency, West Java, Indonesia

Nighttime came and went quickly. It was not an entirely peaceful night since a few small groups of [Infected] tried attacking the camp. The most dangerous ones were near midnight when a group of seven [Predator Type Infected] tried ambushing the camp with their chameleon-like abilities.

Unfortunately for this group, they were attracted to the magical energy around a certain part of the camp and attacked there first.

That part of the camp was where Mark's group resided. As such, they were not even able to reach the edge of the camp before their headless corpses fell to the burnt ground.

Morning came. Most people still felt tired, while some barely rested due to the scary sounds of fighting throughout the night. Nonetheless, they could not just lay down even in their current condition.

After a quick breakfast with a bowl of porridge, everyone continued on with their arduous journey.

From the current camp in Undaan to the western edges of the Island of Java, they still needed to traverse just a little bit under five hundred kilometers. Even before the apocalypse, such a distance would require several days of walking. But in the current state of the world, it would surely take double, or worse, triple, the time needed.

Normally, no one would want to go through such a long journey, especially with both the [Infected] and [Mutated Creatures] around. But there was no choice for everyone here. There was no place safe anymore on the island of Java.

And since they now had the option to leave the island, they would take it, even if it was a huge gamble.

Between a gamble and certain death, there was no need to ask what most people would choose.

It made some people wonder. What were the people in the main camp thinking when they decided to go to Semarang? Sure, there was a military outpost in Semarang. But it never meant that it was a safe place against one of the greatest threats in Java.

***

After leaving the camp, several hours passed without problems. It was not several peaceful hours because there was already half the number of [Infected] encounters compared to yesterday. Nonetheless, no one was injured, especially with Luna's group in the lead of the fight.

The new weapons of the leaders of the Moon Chasers surely proved to be of great use against the [Infected].

Edge's shield could stop even attacks from a lot of gigantic [Infected]. Limabela and Nelia's bullets would switch between fire and electricity, being effective against both armored and unarmored enemies. Livia's hammer could smash through thick [Infected] armor, while Bajing and Luna's attacks could pierce through them.

Almost all who saw them fight could not help but feel fascinated by those weapons. Some even gathered the courage to ask where the weapons came from, only to receive no direct answers.

And those who knew could only give the creator of the weapons a glance. Unfortunately for them, trying to ask for the same kind of weapons would be hard. After all, they were not as close as the leaders of the Moon Chasers to the creator of the weapons.

The journey continued with the Moon Chasers as the protagonist of most battles. It was not like they were trying to show off. It was just that the encounters with the [Infected] were becoming more and more dangerous as time went on.

While the time difference between encounters with the [Infected] hordes was pretty random, and the scale of the hordes was quite on the smaller side, each horde contained high-level [Mutated Infected].

On Mark's self-made scale based on the mutations that occurred in Freed's planet, Eriellis, the levels of [Infected] they were encountering now were around level three to level four. A lot of them were even [Hybrid Types]. These [Infected] were not easy to fight, even with a group of [Mutators] or armed soldiers, especially while protecting a large group of non-combatants.

As such, they needed to kill these [Infected] as fast as possible to reduce the possibility of the non-combatants getting involved in the battle.

Unfortunately, only the leaders of the Moon Chasers equipped with powerful weapons could quickly kill these high-level [Infected]. They could only fight despite the increasing number of battles beginning to tire them.

"Huh?"

As the journey continued, some people noticed something odd.

In the distance, there was a rather large group of trees and bushes growing atop a large hill. The strange thing was that the large hill appeared to be in the middle of the already burnt area, turned to ash by the wildfire.

It was truly an odd sight, especially when the group got closer since the hill was on the path they were taking.

No. It was not just their group that was getting closer.

The large hill was also getting closer to them.

THUMP! THUMP!

It did not take long. Everyone felt the ground shaking, and loud thumps entered their ears.

And the large hill from the distance was actually larger than they thought. It was more or less a small mountain.

And the mountain actually had gigantic boulder-like legs to the side.

Then, the giant boulder in front of the mountain began to rise, revealing a gigantic frog-like head and snake-like neck.

"G-GET READY FOR BATTLE!"

Luna could not help but stutter as the ground heavily shook when she shouted.

This was not the first time Luna and the others encountered a gigantic creature. The [Fog Crawler] was enormous itself.

However, whatever the creature in front of them was, it was far larger than a [Fog Crawler].