508 A Woman Feeling Restless, Meis Sudden Arrival (1/2)

Day 127 - 1:22 AM - Cliff House, Mountain Base, Mount Malabito, General Nakar, Quezon

Midnight had already passed more than an hour ago in the Phillippines. Everything in the base had already returned to normal.

Still, it would take time before the area surrounding the base return to its previous appearance.

After the everyone that evacuated finally returned, they were in dismay. It was not hard to feel that way when the fields they poured their sweat and effort vanished into nothing but a patch of empty land.

Nevertheless, they could not deny that they were relieved that they were still able to return. While looking at the surroundings, it would not be surprising if the base was wiped off the map.

But it still stood. The people only needed to give more effort in recovering what was lost.

As night came, everyone went to sleep. With Chiyo around, the base did not even need a lookout for the night, enabling everyone to get enough rest.

At the main house of the base, etched on the face of the crevice, however, almost everyone was still awake.

”Sis, you should sleep. It's already past midnight...”

Jaeya complained while yawning.

For some reason, Mei was quite restless. She was trying to contact Mark through the ring, but he was not answering. There was definitely something going on.

She wanted to use the ring to teleport to Mark already.

If there was a problem, she wanted to help him. The girls were already sleeping. It was also okay for her to be absent from the base for half a day.

However, they were waiting for something.

Spera already woke up before midnight. And there, a problem was found.

The portals Spera created could only connect places that she had seen personally. Simply, places she had been before or seen with her naked eyes.

It was the same for the place she opened the portal with Mark's order. In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean where travel routes of passenger planes were located.

And the problem was...

Spera had never been into New Jersey.

The bases of Auraboros was spread out worldwide. However, these bases were only located as energy gathering points and hidden places. Those were located far away from human society as much as possible.

And thus, no bases of Auraboros exist in New Jersey. The state also had the thing they called an energy gathering point. However, not only that it was already occupied, but it was also surrounded by cities and towns. It was not fit for the activities of Auraboros.

From New Jersey, the nearest one was far North East of New Jersey. In a hunting grounds in the middle of Pennsylvania.

And the nearest place that Spera could open a portal from New Jersey was at Reading, Pennsylvania, that she had been to before.

While she checked the map, small holes could be seen floating midair in front of her. She was opening portals as tiny as possible that could make her see the place on the map.

She would search the map, peek on the hole, and would end up shaking her head.

The whole world was already devastated, after all. It was hard to find a safe place that they could designate as the receiving point.

”Here, drink some coffee.”

Aephelia and Odelina came into the room, bringing some cups of coffee for everyone.

They were all here planning to open a portal at a suitable and safe place. There, they would enter the portal to wait for Mark in advance as it was more convenient to do so rather than randomly opening a portal at the place when they did not know when Mark was going to arrive.

Spera's portals were also not unlimited. She was able to use these holes to peek, and save energy, but the number of portals she could open that would enable humans to pass through was still limited in number and duration.

It was more efficient to open one at the right time.

”Here!”

Spera exclaimed.

Finally, she managed to find a good location. Once the sun had risen once more, they would travel to that location and wait for Mark.

On the other hand, Mei would leave as soon as she had the map Spera printed.

After all, she really felt restless.

***

Day 126 - 1:25 PM - Lower Rooftop, Bally's Casino, Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States of America

On the lower rooftop, Mark's blade-whips and metal limbs moved without pause.

How many infected was there? And how many infected did he kill already?

Everyone watching had already lost count.

Currently, to everyone's eyes, Mark was like a killing machine.

Corpses of infected hosts and spiders littered the large part of the rooftop, being trampled by the new ones that arrived.

Still, everyone found it odd that the woman that seemed to be the leader of the horde was just watching at the side, intently staring at Mark. It was not a behavior that an infected should display, after all.

Unfortunately, even though they could see the woman opening her mouth several times before, they could not hear her voice because of the far distance.

If they knew that the woman was actually talking despite being infected, everyone would be in turmoil.

On the rooftop, the survivors started to believe what Ernst thought of more and more.

They could not unsee the difference between the behavior of the battle before and now.

Furthermore...

While the infected with spider limbs on their backs fought Mark, they also started killing each other when the opportunity came.

It only happened to the ones with smaller spiders on the backs of their heads. The regular ones still behaved the same.

And as the battle became centered towards the infected with smaller spiders, it started to become a free for all.

”What the hell...”

Mark could only murmur as he noticed what was happening.

As he looked at the sticky stare of the [Queen Type], it was not hard for him to understand what was happening.

Furthermore, the more he killed the ones with smaller spiders, the emotion from the feeble consciousness of the [Queen Type] was getting stronger.

Lust? No, it was not that, but close. It was the instinctual urge to breed. It was an instinct that was highly present in animals and insects.

And of course, Mark felt unpleasant as that instinctual urge was targeted to him.

That was when Mark remembered.