354 The Mysterious Seed, Revealing its Origins and Purpose (1/2)
Day 57 – 4:43 PM - J.W. Diokno Blvd., North District, Bay City Settlement, Pasay City, Metro Manila
The [Exceed Convertible Transport Type-1: Disintegrator Fortress] was one of the few designs he thought up last night together with the [Exceed: Personnel Transport] that he had just finished making.
Unlike the [Exceed: Personnel Transport] which did more of just reshaping and equipping the MB Sprinter, the design he chose for the Lorry needed more of building things from scratch with the truck as the foundation and core. It was unlike the MB Sprinter that was fully designed. The Lorry only had its tractor unit shaped and the semi-trailer was nothing but a cage made of metal.
That was why with that cage as the support, he could shape the Lorry in any way he wanted as long as the changes did not affect the capacity and speed of the vehicle.
The primary goal for the use of this large vehicle was to transport the large-bodied Aimee and the body of the flame demon. However, it did not mean that they were just cargo, especially Aimee. The design of the Lorry he had right now would utilize her unique and strongest attacking trait.
It was called the [Disintegrator Fortress] because it would make use of her tentacles and light beams.
In the design in the paper he had, there was a sketch that made the Lorry look like a combination of Sci-fi and Cthulhu. It was a sci-fi looking fortress carrier that had tentacles extending out of it ready to disintegrate any foe and obstacle that it would meet.
Aside from utilizing Aimee's abilities, the horsepower of the Lorry was higher enabling it to carry heavier loads than smaller vehicles. That was why the design Mark made not only made the Lorry capable of removing obstacles such as abandoned cars with its ram but was packed with both cold and hot weapons. The design had a large variety of weapons from saw blades, swords, poison needle launchers, gun mounts with different guns and even rocket launcher mounting slots.
Furthermore, each of the weapons did not require electronics to control but only had levers and springs as mechanisms. It even included reloading mechanisms for the rocket launchers without needing anyone to come out of the vehicle.
It was a design that would need Mark to work for quite an amount of time longer than he worked on the MB Sprinter.
However, he would need to stall the creation of it for now.
Mark looked at the Freezer Vans containing the blood bags the military gave him. One was already empty while the other already had less than half of its previous contents. His current resources were not enough as he thought from the start.
Unfortunately, he doubted that the military could give him more of their current supplies. As he knew, they already gave him all they could give. They still needed the still usable blood for medical and scientific purposes after all. That was why for sure, he needed to visit a place that had these things tomorrow or just raid a horde and take their blood.
Still, it was quite peaceful in the settlement lately. There were a few small attacks but there was no danger that needed to utilize the whole military forces.
Mark actually expected that there would be more attacks as the infected would surely get attracted to the commotion that happened the other day. Not only that the event caused a lot of noise with the explosions and thunder, but, the use of psychic and paranormal energies at that time would surely attract the infected. Yet, nothing of sorts happened.
It made Mark feel a bit strange as to why it would happen.
”Gege, are we done for today?”
Mei asked as he stood thinking while blankly staring at the half-empty Freezer Van.
”Yeah, we still need more resources so we can stop for now.”
Mark sighed. He was in the mood for building things but there were still the constraints to stop him. Also it was getting quite late in the afternoon.
”Alright, let's tidy up the place. I'll also make something to prevent annoying things from happening.”
With Mark's lead, they started to place the parts he removed from the MB-Sprinter into the empty Freezer Van. After that, Mark conjured his [Blood Whips] and started to make something else.
***
The fifth hour of the clock was finally struck when the idlers outside the wall of miasma noticed that it was vanishing. Those that were around to spy on the situation started to contact their superiors and see if they would have the opportunity to contact the alleged person in the rumors.
When the wall vanished, however, they saw no one in the parking area. The only strange thing they saw was a large reddish-black rectangular metal box that was placed in a parking slot between a Lorry and two Freezer Vans. There was no one in sight and no one saw anyone exiting the ominous-looking wall. The box seemed to be a large container as there was a double door on one end facing the exit and was locked with an ominous designed padlock.
Not only the idlers but Keene and his men were surprised. They knew that Mark was in the parking surrounded by that wall and Mei also did not leave the premises after she went in. And yet, no one was there. It was as if they were spirited away leaving a strange container behind.
As Keene was about to contact his father about this, he noticed a small box that mysteriously appeared by his feet which almost tripped him. However, just seeing the box, he knew who it came from. It was because the box by his feet and the large box in the parking area both had the same color and material.
Opening the box, he saw a letter addressing him. It said that their duty for today was done and they could go. There were also things said that he needed to tell the general.
What took most of his attention were the exquisite looking combat knives inside the box. There were ten pieces that were equal to the number of soldiers that diligently guarded the area. According to the letter, the knives were souvenirs for doing good work which made him feel proud. The letter also mentioned about leaving the metal box on the parking alone.
With their work done, the soldiers pulled out leaving the confused people what was going on. It was especially devastating to those who had other motives while waiting since the orders they were given were failed without even being able to start it.
As the soldiers guarding the wall that vanished pulled out, the curiosity of the people went to the large metal container in the parking area. However, no one tried to tamper with it as it was within a military facility and they could be caught even just for trespassing if they entered it without permission.
***
Everyone returned to the military residence without anyone noticing. It was because Mark hid everyone with [Optical Camouflage] and flew off to avoid nuisance. They did not even enter the building through the main door but used the rooftop instead. It was very convenient since they did not need to use the several dozens of sets of stairs due to the elevator being activated and available to use only during emergencies to conserve power as much as possible.