Mark readied his gun and aimed at the creature which looked humanoid in nature. And then he fired it, expecting the creature to die. But it did not produce the desired result at all.
In fact, the creature seemed to be in a rage. While the gunshot had damaged it, it was not nearly enough to even wound it critically which made Mark sweat.
Truly, this was a unique specimen in making and the B grade gun was not good enough. He wished he had the A grade one to try but it had not restocked in the shop and he had not checked after the upgrade.
He had another tactic up his sleeve but the arachnid was charging at him, so he had to take care of that first.
Luckily, there was a lot of cover space available to him and he's not so impressive physique made it incredibly easy to make use of such a thing. It allowed him to hide away furniture and other things and be out of sight for a longer duration of time.
It was easy to sneak around but Mark did not think to leave the area just yet.
While the arachnid was busy with the task of finding its human meal, he made sure to dispose of the other spider monster in the vicinity. Countless black eyes looked at him from the disfigured head of the spider but it did not scare him like before.
His emotions and touch with reality were too dull to register such a shock and Mark had never felt better to rely on his system. His rational mind did point out that it was extremely unhealthy and dangerous to allow something like that such access inside his mind, but he did not care much.
He was too busy thinking of how to capitalize on such an amazing opportunity he had been provided with.
Dispatching the normal monster had been an easy task. It had not gone down in one shot or even two but a quickfire had taken care of the problem easily.
Now there was Mark and the humanoid arachnid which had definitely heard the gunshot and seemed to be coming toward him. Its body, the pedipalps' attack, hit the area he had been on with full force.
The wood of the table shattered but Mark had made his dodge in time.
The resulting break in the solid surface seemed to cause the monster to lose its balance and the 8 legs split apart in different directions and the body fell.
The impact felt heavy by the sound of it and Mark made sure to capitalize on the chance. He opened his system window and scanned the monster.
The sounding beep was faster than he had anticipated and he looked on in fascination at the result.
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Error: Information not found in the database- entity out of system's control.
System emergency protocol launched: standby: data being added
ERROR: Entity not natural to the system - presence of virus detected - looking for solutions - solutions found.
Actions suggested to the host: Proceed to collect the sample and eradicate the virus specimen. Buffs will be provided - operation not negotiable.
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So it had been something that had not naturally existed before. The virus that caused this must be the same one Liam had mentioned before, but did he know that this was a likely outcome of it?
Mark did not think so since he was sure even Liam was not that big of a bastard to not tell him about such danger while sending Alan with him.
So this was an abnormality in the scenario? Well, Mark was one too.
If the guns would not work, then he was sure that the physical force would have to. Anyway, that was the only option left to Mark right now and he had a solution with him for that too.
Or at least, he had a thing that was close enough to a solution.
His inventory opened up before he could call for it and the S-grade sword was right on top. There were some words in its description now when there were none before but if Mark had time to read those, the situation would not have been half as dire as it was.
Mark took out the sword and used it to stab the closest leg of the spider.
The protein of the leg broke under the sharp cut but there was no blood or any indication, just an angry cry.
It was understandable since these monster parts did not bleed under normal circumstances. But what about the human part?
Some monsters did bleed and Mark had a suspicion that they had a part of human DNA inside them too. Another theory that was inside his mind, just about to bloom.
Having suffered a blow it had not been anticipating, the monster seemed to be at a loss and rage, attacking anything and everything he could possibly reach.
Mark just hid behind the closest and sturdiest furniture he could think of. It seemed to work for some time but even Mark knew that would not last for long. What he needed was to find a way to dispatch the monster as fast as he could.
The nuclear plant had many such options but the office working area likely did not have one. Currently, he knew that his body was not strong enough to take on the monster should it decide that it wanted to exhibit its full power.
What he needed was to gain higher ground and use the force of gravity to his advantage.
He climbed up a sturdy looking Almira, metallic and very heavy looking and hoped that the spider-human hybrid would not turn his way. He was willing to take this gamble since he was already running out of time.
He waited and saw that the spider froze for a second before he hissed. There was a crashing noise, it's strong enough to even travel through solid walls.
It seemed to agitate the monster enough to stop its rampage and it stopped moving.
Mark saw his chance. He was sure had he not numbed his mind, he would have missed it completely but he had and he noticed.
And he jumped on the spider, the sword going right through the monster's body.
Red blood bled but that was not all. There were wet parts on that body that was not due to human blood. The wet parts reflected light like water but it was the spider's blood.
The body contained both blood, red overpowering the transparent from where the body had been stabbed.
The monster thrashed its body but Mark pressed deeper and the body went still.
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Observation complete: Results:
Rate of mergence: 5% - failed specimen - Status: Disposed
System status: Downloading additional files - absorbing the virus and extracting information.
Warning: Small package found - installing - complete
User upgrade found - applicable status - yes/no (Upgrade cannot be reverted)
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Mark closed the window and decided to think about it all later.
Upgrade? Specimen? Everything was so new and still seemed to be changing. And the system itself was getting so suspicious now. Absorbing the virus? Hadn't it absorbed the system Liam had initially given him?
How was it possible?
And the worst part about it was that he could not talk about it at all. It was a secret he would likely take to his grave if he was allowed to ever die.
Then his mind seemed to crash back to him and he remembered that Alan was out there and there had been a big crash that had resulted in all this.
Was Alan ok?
Mark picked himself up, his body feeling heavy and in strain. The sword was quickly pulled out and shoved back into the inventory.
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System notification: The user is too detached. Suggestion to change the system settings to medium
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Mark did not pay any attention as he closed the window. He could not allow himself the luxury of doing that. Not until he was more in control of himself. Once that was done, only then could he allow himself to feel all the emotions again or he would crash.
He took in deep breaths and allowed himself to feel for Kuro.
She was nearby, a corridor or two away and she felt alright. She felt safe.
He opened his map to match the location to the safe point and it coincided. That meant that Alan and Kuro had made it.
He felt much calmer with that information. Calm enough to switch the setting back to medium and allow himself to back in the muted feeling before he turned the corner.
They were there, the teen huddled upon himself and the kitten seemed to be trying to get him to uncurl. As soon as he was near enough, Kruo seemed to sense him and she hurried to take his legging in her teeth and try to pull him toward Alan.
He followed her without much resistance and the teen seemed to look up once he was near enough.
"I don't think I can do this Mark. I'm too afraid to move right now. I thought I could do this but I don't think I can" The teen seemed to be breaking down and Mark did not know what to do in this situation.
Motivating people had never been his job, it had always been someone else at the front while he had been the comedic relief. However, that would not work here. The teen did not need cheering up, he needed the motivation to keep ongoing.
In the end, all Mark could do was to tell the teen his own current reason and hoped that it would be enough.
"Take a deep breath Alan and remember, you're not doing this for only yourself but for your loved ones. If you stop here then they stop too so you need to keep pushing yourself forward for their sake" Mark was sure he had said something like this before.
It was far from enough but it must have touched something in the teen, just enough to give him hope and a small smile made its way onto his face as he finally picked up his head and stood up.
Now they could finally move forward.