5 The crew kept advancing forward in fear and trepidation. Sometimes they would meet lifeless walking bodies strolling around aimlessly. They seemed to be oblivious to their presence, but before Neo could make further investigations, Shitface would have pounced upon them and crushed their skull with a heavy metal rod that he found on the floor. But from the little he was able to glean, he learned the virus was even more potent than he thought. According to what Scholar said, they were in the quarantine room for a week, and within that time, all eight hundred members of the Disease Control Center were infected. There was even a probability of the days being lesser since they stopped receiving food supplies three days prior, which meant that the way in which the virus spread was indeed terrifying. It also seemed to make the bodies of its host rot faster, but what was truly bothering Neo was that despite the fact that they were the ones to make first contact with the virus, they were perfectly fine.
"Why am I even thinking about this?" Neo thought, kicking all stray thoughts off his head. "My business here is to eliminate the threat, whoever or whatever it is." The crew suddenly came to a halt. A deep frown appeared on everyone's face. Neo bowed his head and gritted his teeth. A tired sigh found its way through his lips. He looked at the face of the others; they were just as bewildered as he was. Right in front of them, the roof had collapsed to the floor causing a dead end. The sky was visible right above them; the sun was approaching the horizon, welcoming the moon in its absence. It was dusk. There was no speck of dust in the air, which meant that the collapse didn't happen recently, hence it wasn't the work of the mutated monster. Also, scaling it and going outside through the roof was out of the question. From Neo's position, he could already see hordes of those mindless creatures wandering around. Their eyes were filled with rotten viscera and their movements were erratic, lacking any form of sentience or sapience. Neo was deeply disturbed by their presence. Shitface stared at Scholar with a complicated look on his face, saying, "Hey, nerdy, is there no other way out of here?" Scholar sighed and replied, "The other way is around the core research station. It would take us at least two hours to get there." Shitface threw his head back in annoyance, and then he muttered between gritted teeth, "Let's get clearing then, we don't have all day." Shitface and Beauty grouped themselves together while Scholar came to join Neo. They kept moving slabs after slabs of stone. The road ahead was already getting bigger, big enough to size a human's head, but not a human's body—at least not yet. Neo and Scholar successfully lifted a short stone slab and dumped it aside, making it crumble. As Neo stood up, Scholar's lip suddenly came close to his ear and he whispered, "Be wary of them, especially the lady." Neo simply nodded in reply. He had his own quota of suspicion for each and everyone of them anyway, and of them all, he suspected Beauty the most. Shitface seemed to be quite predictable, while Scholar was more or less the same, but Beauty was the only person he couldn't quite see through. Which signified that she was truly dangerous. As they were working, Neo observed each and every one of them. Everyone seemed to have a lot going on in their minds, but they had at least one thing in common: they were all extremely weak. Shitface, who seemed to be the strongest amongst them, was struggling to lift a slab of stone weighing a few kilograms. Neo was faring far worse; he was sweating laboriously despite doing the least of the work. Things were looking bleak. Neo was about to pick a piece of stone when it vibrated and fell off his hand. The sound of metal tearing apart wildly, immediately followed. It started as one loud metallic clang, and then another, then it became a continuous and rhythmic clangor. Whatever it was that was causing the noise was getting closer to the crew with immense speed. The crew quickly found a place to hide, just in time for a familiar figure to break through the alloy sheet with force. It shrugged off the numbing effect as it slowed, then it looked through the breach in the roof and jumped through it in one powerful and inconceivable leap. It landed gallantly on the roof, unleashing a bestial roar that sent shivers down Neo's spine. Then, it plowed and decimated the mindless wraiths like a combine harvester. The mutated monster left as fast as it came, leaving only a giant hole in the wall and dripping blood as an object of remembrance. "I think our friend here doesn't understand the concept of doors and passages," Beauty said, coming out of her hiding place. Her sentence made Neo once again stare at the devastating hole left by the monstrosity. "I hope this is not the threat I'm supposed to eliminate," Neo thought, swallowing hard. If there was any advantage to the mutated beast's sudden arrival, it was that the hole it created in the wall led to another passageway. Neo wasn't the only one who noticed that too. "Are you sure this place would lead us to the door you spoke about?" Shitface asked. "Of course, let's go," Scholar said, urging the crew to move faster. As they moved further in, they alighted a couple of stairs and then moved further again. After repeating the pattern for about thirty minutes, the crew finally ended up in front of a thick metallic door. Scholar scurried up to unlock the door, and only then did he realize that the door had been shut down. Since the electricity supply of the DCC had been cut off, there was no way he could reactivate it, which left them with two options: break the heavy metal door or return to the breach in the roof. Scholar finally broke the news to the crew, and an exhausted sigh echoed throughout the last floor. Beauty was the first to speak. "What are our chances of breaking down this door?" Beauty asked. "I'm sorry, but it is less than zero. This door right here is forged wholly from tungsten, not even a rocket launcher would dare to leave a scratch on it," Scholar replied, tapping on the door dramatically. Shitface's muscle suddenly tensed as he gripped the metal rod and ran towards the door in a fit of rage. "I refuse to be defeated by a door!" he yelled, and then hit the rod on the door. A metallic ring reverberated across the last floor, and the rod vibrated wildly, transferring the numbing vibration through to Shitface's arm. He dropped the rod unwillingly and winced in pain. Indeed, there was no scratch on the door. "Uhh… If we start now, we should be able to make it to the breach before nightfall," Shitface said, staring at the door resentfully.As the crew walked back, Neo entered an introspective state for a moment. He just couldn't help but think that the scholar was intentionally stalling for time. Granted, he couldn't have known about the breach in the roof, but there was no way he wouldn't have known about the door situation. The pieces were already connecting themselves—the scholar was up to something. Beauty also seemed to have the same suspicion, even Shitface, who wasn't very much on the brain side, was throwing occasional glances at the scholar. Even he could tell that something was wrong with the unassuming scholar. But there was nothing they could all do. Dismissing or eliminating him was as good as spelling their doom. He was the only one who knew his way around the maze-like structure of the DCC anyway. So they just had to be quiet and watchful.By the time the crew got to the breach in the wall, it was already nightfall. The moon had already chased away its glamorous counterpart dominating the night sky in all
7 Neo glanced around, waiting for the next command. But he was met with other tired and weary gazes. They were all too spent to even come up with a sound idea. Scholar finally broke the silence, his voice accompanied by the whistling sound of the wind."If we can make it across this beam, alight the ladder, we would hustle our way through the horde, I would override the defense HQ and activate the gate. Our salvation lies beyond the gate," Scholar said, pointing to the almost imperceptible gate in the distance. His hand trembled, either due to the cold or his fatigue. Neo couldn't really tell which. Neo's hope was suddenly ignited. The salvation Scholar spoke about was very alluring. Very pleasant to his ears. Although it was easier said than done, Neo didn't really care. He just wanted to get out of that hellish landscape. No matter how bleak their chances of escape were, it was like a beacon of light at the end of a harrowing, torturous journey through the night. He almost felt li
8 Life is sometimes funny, isn't it?Few hours prior, Shitface had made his mind. Together with Beauty, or even probably Scholar, to use Neo as bait if… or when the need arises. When Neo woke up, Beauty had said that it changed nothing. If anything, they would have been happier, given the fact that they wouldn't have to carry the bait around. It's like leading a ram to the slaughter, but the ram this time was Neo. And about Neo defending or launching an attack himself, that would have been the least of their problems – actually a swing from Shitface's metallic rod would have done the job. For all he knew, his presence must have been the reason the rambunctious muscle glory was holding the metallic rod amongst other things. But eventually, he ended up being made wraith bait by his most trusted companion.Talk about the irony. Neo would have laughed out loud if he wasn't too weak. Breathing was enough stress though. But that wouldn't make him stop thinking about what just happened. Wh
9 Neo entered the building, glancing around to find his way. It didn't take him long to find the light source, likely triggered by Scholar. The whole place was pitch black because there were no windows. Even the oxygen seemed thin. The security was... admirable. And best of all, it made tracing the light source much easier. Neo suddenly entered the room, making Scholar tremble. A dry smile appeared on his face as Neo walked up to the control deck to check out what Scholar was doing. What he saw made his eyes widen. There were two buttons beeping red. They seemed to be working on some kind of separate energy reserve, so the energy shutdown on the DCC didn't affect them. Beside both buttons were written: ... INITIATING NUCLEAR DECONTAMINATION ... INITIATING PERMANENT SHUTDOWN Neo's fist tightened as he stared at Scholar with murderous intent. His face demanded an explanation. Scholar's lip suddenly trembled, and he replied, "Fine… fine, now that you have found out, I gu
10 "Ahah!! I see you have killed him, now we are even," Beauty said, a disturbing giggle escaping her lips. "Yes, I did. That should tell you just enough about me," Neo said placidly, attempting to play the formidable and dauntless assassin. He was already on his last legs. It would be unfortunate if she chose that moment to attack, so he had to put some contingencies in place. "You should understand that there's strength in numbers, right? So why did you kill him?" Beauty said, staring daggers at him. Neo tilted his head. Beauty's understanding of "strength in numbers" made him shiver. Her concept of strength in numbers meant wraith baits, most especially the ones that would transport themselves to the point of slaughter. "How sinister." Neo cleared his throat and replied, "He tried to kill us all, so I killed him first." He tried to maintain his elusive behavior. Beauty walked up to the corpse, confirmed its death, and with her usual sinister smile, she replied again. "Now tha
11 A monster stood gallantly, its back turned to an open gate a few meters away. It looked like it was playing "eeny meeny miny moe" to decide which of the two humans before it would taste better. One of the humans, Neo actually, was struck by an epiphany in the middle of impending danger.-How timely- He had finally realized the reason for their weakness and lethargy. Since the vaccine's effect was waning, the virus was trying to take over their consciousness. He already had quite a similar experience during his test for allegiance trial so he was quite sure of the feeling. But it was of no use anyway; they were a few seconds away from being monster dessert. Speaking of vaccines, Neo had one of them stashed away in his pocket at the moment. At that moment, Neo suddenly had a crazy idea. What if he took it to suppress the virus, making Beauty—the most virus-infected—between them? The caution only said he might die; it didn't say it wouldn't work, so it was a fifty percent chance,
12 "You are on your way to the afterlife." Neo grinned, as the cloud of darkness receded gradually, the faint light of dawn piercing his eyes. He was in a cave; there were crystal cones protruding from the roof and the floor. Neo knew they were called stalactites and stalagmites, but he didn't know which was which, not that it mattered anyway. His happiness had been quenched by the sight in front of him. One look was all it took for him to know that he was not in a human settlement; in fact, he was far from it. The entrance to the cave was in sight, the visage of a glowing white sun towered above the world. "Where is this place?" Neo mused, walking towards the entrance of the cave. He felt something thin press against his pale skin. Neo looked down to check what it was, before he could recover from the shock that he was stark naked; an arrow pierced through the air with insane speed and lodged itself firmly into his shoulder. The force sent him reeling to the ground. Al
13 Neo checked out the skin and phantoms, and they were unsurprisingly empty. They were supposed to be extremely scarce anyway, so he didn't bother himself too much about them. As far as being cool went, skins and phantoms were also considered top-notch, albeit not as cool as specters, but in Neo's own opinion, they were as cool as specters, even much more so. The usage of skins and phantoms was rather simple. A skin will provide the wielder the ability to transform into a creature for a specific period of time. The usage time and cool-down period is dependent on the level of the creature. Phantoms work in an almost similar manner except for the fact that the wielder summons the creature whole without having to transform into the said creature. As for the perks and quirks, Neo already had a probable explanation for that. "[Bone of contention]," "[ten lives per second]," and Neo's second ability "[soul stinger]" were all Reaper's gifts, and they all had perks and quirks, so that pr