393 Through Taytay Rizal, Encounter at the Alternative Route (1/2)

Day 67 - 12:22 PM - Highway 2000, San Juan, Taytay, Rizal

Passing over Barkadahan Bridge that goes over Manggahan Floodway, they gained a bit of breathing time until they enter the busiest parts of Taytay, Rizal.

Even though they already drove past one of the longest and busiest bridges in the area, everyone was not content with their current pace. They were already behind schedule when leaving the first resting point. After passing over the Pasig River, their movement had been too slow.

As they move further and further away from Metro Manila, they encountered more varieties of infected that caused them to slow down. After all, going head-on against infected with unknown capabilities was the worst thing an individual could do. Regular people might copy game characters, tackling unknown enemies without much consideration. The military, however, was conscious of that fact.

They would preferably not rely on luck where not only their lives but also those of who they protect would be in jeopardy.

And thus, the soldiers pretty much try to deal with the new kinds of infected first before they got close.

They were precisely right with this. Some of the infected could release toxic liquid or explode upon death. Letting them come closer without knowing their capabilities was the same as committing suicide.

Although everyone was dissatisfied with the current pace, it was to ensure their safety. Because of that, no one would complain.

Mark, who returned from the lake earlier, was also enjoying the current pace. He happily turned the camera he pinned on his collar on and was even taking pictures as he fought. The military gave him enough data for most of the kinds of infected they found around Bay City Settlement. Nevertheless, finding out things on his own was more enjoyable.

The feeling was pretty much the same as playing a new game without following any walkthrough. The player needed to discover everything inside the game on his own.

Mark knew that things of this caliber were different from video games. It was an issue of life and death. Nevertheless, his trait as a Mutator erased the feeling of fear inside him. That enabled him to enjoy these things, albeit the very same circumstance he had as a Mutator would remove this enjoyment soon enough.

Leaving the vicinity of Barkadahan Bridge, they entered another development area. The stablishments around were all aimed for industrial use. Many were factories, while some were large scale retail stores. However, like the others, these areas would never be finished.

Furthermore, the construction materials and other things left around the unfinished establishments caused more kinds of infected to sprout.

The infected in this area was lesser compared to the previous areas. However, the ratio of mutated infected over the normal ones was higher.

One of the infected that stood on their way was quite slow on its foot but hard to kill with usual means. It was because its large body was covered with thick concrete. The infected was also a heavy one that even the [Exceed: Disintegrator Fortress] was rattled after ramming it to the side.

The concrete covered infected was still alive despite that, however. Still, it was funny to see how it struggled to get up because of its heavy body.

Mark got down from Chaflar to look at the infected with interest. While it struggled to get up, Mark broke parts of its concrete armor as if trying to ascertain something. Soon, he just shook his head. After taking a few pictures, he made Chaflar breathe fire on its head killing it almost immediately.

”Big Bro, what are you trying to do?”

Jaeya's voice sounded on Mark's head as he headed back to join the group.

As she had already seen Mark bring back a few things he was interested in, she was curious about what he was up to this time.

”Nothing much. I just tried to see if we can exploit that one.”

Mark replied in his mind.

”Exploit?”

Jaeya was confused. Everyone was just going nuts wanting to kill or run away from the infected. Mark, however, was the complete opposite. Not only that he had no fear facing them, he even wanted to exploit these carnivorous creatures.

”Yeah,” Mark replied. ”I just tried to see if it can regenerate its concrete armor. If it could, then we can bring it at the base, feed it and make it produce concrete, at least, cement for us.”

Hearing that, Jaeya understood.

Since her knowledge about the infected seemed lacking, Odelina and Karlene took the opportunity to teach her. From the two, she learned about [Armor Type] infected and the ability of some of them to regenerate their armor once damaged. By the looks of it, that concrete armored infected could not.

Still, Mark's ability to think of using the infected as a resource amazed her quite a bit.

***

Midway Highway 2000, their vehicles came to a stop once more. Sure enough, the road was blocked. Unlike the circumstance back in Metro Manila Skyway, however, this one looked normal.

The cause of the blockade was heavy traffic after two dump trucks crashed at each other. One of the two heavy-duty dump trucks was overturned and lay in the middle of the road on its side. Furthermore, it seemed that the fuel tanker of parked at the gas station was involved in the accident and exploded. Most of the vehicles along with a few structures around the place were scorched beyond recognition.

Among the wreckage, there were also mutated infected with distorted and charred looking bodies.

Mark instructed Chaflar to burn the infected. Sure enough, the infected were ignited but did not die. They continued to shamble towards the vehicles despite their bodies covered in flames.

”At least, these ones were normal mutated infected.”

Mark thought as he beheaded the scorched infected. It made him remember the infected affected by Gar'Vlam's flames that had their bodies burning despite looking like normal infected.

”Sir, which alternative route are we going to take?”

1st Lieutenant Baller asked.

”Okay, wait a bit.”

Mark replied and sprouted his wings.

He then flew up to survey the area. It was more reliable to do this than just consulting his outdated maps. In fact, the map would only show two short alternative routs around this part. However, one of those two was a set of roads inside a planned private housing subdivision. Although it had an extension dirt road before, it could be different now.