Mutagen

Day 377 - 12:42 AM - Port of Gilimanuk, Gilimanuk, Melaya Subdistrict, Jembrana Regency, Bali, Indonesia

The arrival of Mountain Back, the mountain-sized [Infected Tortoise], officially began the busy day in the town of Gilimanuk. Stay tuned with empire

After a light breakfast, they spent the next few morning hours planning, assigning groupings, allocating resources, and setting up other management-related arrangements. A few hours of preparation was short, but they had no choice. They had to do more as much as possible.

The Indonesian survivors, along with a few members of the Evernight, were assigned to several groups.

The first group divided for the tasks was led by Limabela, along with her father and brother. It was also the only group with members of Evernight included. Along with Aephelia, Louis, and Felicia, they would survey the coast south of the town. Their task was to determine the most effective location for Mountainback's final resting place. The layout of the seawall Louis would work on would come afterward. Devon also volunteered to join them. Since he was the CNC's agent for the country's contract, it was not surprising for him to be privy to information and knowledge about geography and territorial planning.

Then, there was the group led by Edge, going in the opposite direction the first group needed to go. It was a small group of ten [Mutators] and [Evolvers] whose abilities focused on agility. Their task was to scout the mountain areas to the north. What they needed to do was to find a suitable place to build the outpost and emergency shelter. There was also a mountain to the east, which seemed safer against a tsunami if they were only looking at its geographical location. However, it also had thicker forest areas, making it more dangerous as it could be home to mutated creatures. The mountain to the north, on the other hand, might still be surrounded by coastal areas but was far from the country's borders.

Led by General Wijaya, the third group, whose members were mainly soldiers, were tasked was to secure the perimeter of the town. It was supposed to be the task of Mark and the others yesterday. However, the discovery of the survivors, the horde, and Mark's current state ended it prematurely. Mark did manage to lure out most of the [Infected] from the town. However, quite a number of [Infected] were trapped after they failed to climb the walls.

Then, there was the group in which the majority of the survivors would participate. They would arrange their current resources and materials while also gathering things they could salvage from the secured areas of the town.

Last was Luna's group with Nelia and Estia. The three of them were going to interview the survivors rescued yesterday. It was something Luna and her friends had done with their members before after experiencing the betrayal of their first followers. The goal of the interview was to determine the personality of the strangers and to find what suitable tasks would be best for them to have.

The Indonesian survivors continued their busy day with every task assigned to their respective groups.

Then, the only ones left would be the rest of the members of Evernight. Of course, it was not like they had nothing to do.

Spera had already left with Annica and Chaflar to fulfill the task given to them by Mark. Informing their allies in the Philippines about the incoming disaster was an urgent matter, after all.

On the other hand, Mark was back to his papers, designing the next batch of weapons and equipment. It seemed that he did not only plan to create his new armor and Mei's new weapon. He also wanted to upgrade the equipment of the rest of his group. With new knowledge inside his head, he sure was filled with inspiration.

Of course, Mark should not be left alone. As such, he had a bunch of pretty-looking guards rotating shifts while watching him. Well, it was Mei and his daughters. Elise, Emika, and Amihan were included too.

That should have been Mark's routine for the day. It was until something unexpected happened.

"Master."

A familiar voice he had not heard in a while called out to Mark.

Of course, Mark had already noticed her arrival, along with the unexpected return of the group who should have left earlier.

"Is something wrong, Odel?"

Mark turned away from his table and asked Odelina.

With an exasperated manner, Odelina replied with a sigh.

"Please, give me a complete briefing of the situation. I will need it to write proper documentation and a letter you need to sign."

"Is that really necessary?"

Mark tilted his head.

"Master, I know you have no experience in this regard, but please understand. I heard the summary from Spera, but it was far too lacking in detail. Considering the scale of the event and the risks involved being too large, a verbal exchange would have less impact and would not be taken seriously. Detailed documentation and a letter relaying your thoughts would make the recipients think you mean business."

Odelina relayed her serious thoughts on the situation.

Mark could only bitterly smile as he received Odelina's untimely lecture. He could even feel Luna and her friends peeking from outside, curious about the new older maid and the current situation inside Mark's tent.

"Haah..." Mark sighed. "Alright, take a seat first and listen."

Mark could only comply. It was not like Mark was entirely wrong for just sending Spera with nothing in hand since she only needed to relay some information. However, Odelina's point was stronger in this regard. Mark might be stronger if it was just raw power, but otherwise, there was no defying his loyal maid.

"Who?"

Outside, Luna could not help but ask Mei who Odelina was, especially seeing how Mark seemed to be defeated by her.

"She's Odelina," Mei answered. "She is Gege's first and most loyal subordinate. She is also Hannah's Aunt. We leave most of the management of our base to her."

"Ohhh..."

Everyone was surprised.

However, for the person in charge of the base to appear here meant that Spera and Annica were both lacking for the job they were given.

"Hmph."

Sensing their stairs, Spera could only turn her back on them.

***

Even with a surprise guest, work could not be postponed.

Luna's group began calling the survivors of Gilimanuk into a designated tent one after another. It was like an interrogation where the suspects were being separately questioned, but it was necessary. It would allow them to screen any lie and solidify the truth.

The only exception to the interview was the children. There was no necessity for them to experience another nerve-wracking situation.

Interviewing the survivors proceeded smoothly. They were obviously cautious, but they all seemed to be telling the truth so far.

"Next!"

Estia called out for the next person outside.

A woman entered, and the attention of the three immediately gathered on her for some reason.

"Please, sit."

Estia pointed at the chair in front of their table.

The woman timidly sat on the chair.

"You don't have to be nervous. We are just going to ask questions."

Nelia assured the woman with a smile.

"Y-yes..."

The woman nervously replied. Her conduct was not that different from the previous ones they had already interviewed.

"Miss Uli, correct?"

Luna asked.

"Y-yes, I'm Uli."

Uli replied.

"Are you good with children?" Luna went straight to the point. "I saw the children gathering around you instead of the other adults yesterday."

"I don't know if I could call myself good with them," Uli truthfully replied. "It's just I've been taking care of them for a while now. I'm bad with most of the other things, so taking care of the children was the only task they could give me."

A few more questions and answers were exchanged between Luna's trio and Uli.

Apparently, she was not a local of Gilimanuk. She arrived at this place with another group of survivors. They all joined the town since they had nowhere to go, and the townsfolk were nice. The leader was rather strict in things, but he did not seem manipulative nor did he force people to do things they did not want to do.

However, while the leader of this town would not go skirt-chasing, he would not hesitate to accept any woman who knocks on his door in exchange for some benefits.

This side of the conversation led to a question.

"Is that why you seem wary of Sir Mark?"

Luna asked.

"Ah! That's..."

Uli froze. It seemed Luna hit the bull's eye.

"I saw your reaction this morning, you see. The time you locked gazes with Sir Mark."

Luna spoke. Of course, it was a lie. She did not see it. It was Mark who told her.

"Yes... He had a lot of girls around him, just like the leader."

Uli replied.

And that reply actually made the three interviewers giggle. They understood Uli. They had the same thought when they first saw Mark and his group, which only had females.

The three then explained to Uli that she was mistaken. Mark only had one wife while having three adoptive daughters. Of course, it was actually the daughters who adopted him as their father. Then, while not disclosing the specifics, they told her that Mei had bad experiences with men, so the group mostly had girls because of that.

"Is that so?"

Uli asked, enlightened to the situation.

"Yeah," Luna nodded. "Mark might not look like it, but he's pretty loyal to his wife."

Unexpectedly, the conversation about Mark slowly lowered Uli's cautiousness towards the three.

Sensing that, Nelia decided to push to the next questions.

"Miss Uli, you said you aren't a local. Can I ask where is your hometown?"

Unexpectedly, Uli froze a little as she scratched her chin with a nervous smile.

"Is it a bad topic to ask? If so, there's no need to answer."

Estia chimed in and said so.

"No, it's not really a bad topic," Uli answered. "It's just... I don't know what to answer."

"What do you mean?"

Nelia probed further.

"I..." Uli hesitated but still answered. "I don't have memories of my past. They said I have that amnesia or something."

"Ah..."

The three had the same reaction upon hearing Uli's answer.

"Can you share what happened?"

Estia, who had been playing as the good one, amicably asked.

As if sensing the sympathy of the three, Uli slowly shared her story.

From Uli's story, it seemed that the group she arrived here with was the people who first found her. They found her under a pile of vehicles involved in a massive car accident a few days after the initial surge of [Infected]. It was very likely that she was among people rushing to the nearby airport to evacuate before getting involved in the accident.

While the group was scavenging, they found her among the cars underneath the pile. Unexpectedly, she was alive. She was unconcious due to a head injury, which likely caused her amnesia, but that was all.

It might be because she was in a location that was hard to reach that the [Infected] did not get to her while she was unconscious.

When she woke up, she had no memories of her past. Worse, she also became a bit linguistically challenged, unable to construct proper sentences although she could understand them. She also had episodes of getting a bit violent. Fortunately, the group did not give up on her. It got better over time and she regained some abilities through diligent practice, but her memory never returned.

They stayed on the outskirts of the large town far northwest for several months. However, as the [Infected] grew stronger, they had to leave. They wandered about until they encountered a scavenging group from Gilimanuk, which led their group here.

"Where are the members of your group now?"

Nelia asked.

Uli's expression turned sour as she answered.

"There were ten of them when they found me. I was the eleventh. Three of us died, which caused us to flee the town. While wandering around, another four left us. We tried to find people to join us, but it became harder and harder to find living people as time went by. The people we managed to find already belonged to groups, and they were not accepting new people if we wanted to join."

"There were only four of us when we arrived here," Uli continued. "Another two left us soon after. One joined a scavenging group, but it was one of the few groups that never returned. Another died after a large-scale attack while finishing the moat. Endro and I were the last members. But Endro... he's the corpse brought back with us yesterday."

Luna and her friends could not help but fall silent. It seemed that Uli was channeling the loss of her friends into taking good care of the children.

With the heavy atmosphere, it was hard to continue the interview. With a few more questions, they allowed Uli to return and interviewed the next survivor with less energy.

***

Soon, the interviews were done and the survivors of Gilimanuk would be allocated to proper workplaces tomorrow.

On the other hand, Luna, with the record of Uli's interview in hand, entered Mark's tent.

It seemed that Odelina was still there, writing the document while Mark watched. As Luna entered, he turned to her.

"Is it done?"

Mark asked.

"Yes, we just finished," Luna answered as she handed him the record she was holding. "Here's Uli's information."

Mark then immediately began to read the record with a serious expression.

"She seemed fine," Luna spoke. "She also had a tragic past. Why do you seem too wary of her?"

That was right. Mark had a hand in the interview, specifically in Uli's interview. Some of the questions they asked were from Mark.

But Mark's answer made Luna's eyes grow wider.

"I think it's natural to be wary if an [Infected] is living with the [Non-Infected], right?"

Luna could not believe what she had just heard from Mark.