Ryver's brows knitted slightly at the word 1st-Degree Infected.
"That's impossible. There shouldn't be a 1st degree infected yet." While he didn't know how the others evolve, Ryver had calculated and according to his calculations, it was incredibly hard for a normal person to evolve just one stat. As they would need to kill at least 45 zombies for a single stats on evolution points, including the occasional Dec-kill bonuses and also consuming Plexuses.
Ryver could guess that it was the same for zombies too. While it was possible that there might be variants amongst them this fast, they were still roughly within the scope of normal infected corpses.
Now, Jacob was saying there was an actual 1st degree infected out outside of Mega-tech.
Just how many humans had the zombie consumed for it to have evolved so quickly? Probably about 500 or even one thousand. With its strength reaching 10 points within this short period of time, it was definitely at the top of the food chain.
Ten points in strength, that about ten times stronger than a regular human and about five times stronger than himself on a regular day.
Facing such a monster isn't much different from flirting with Marie (TN: Special surprise to the first person who gets this refrense). Unless one's strength surpassed ten points, it would be extremely difficult to face on such a monster.
But then, Ryver thought of something. If a 1st Degree Infected was truly prowling around Mega-Tech, why wasn't he attacked when he was outside the company?
Ryver turned with a deadpan expression and glanced at Jacob from the corners of his eyes. Faint evil intent flashing on his hidden pupils as he said. "How are you so certain?"
Jacob was momentarily startled by Ryver's words, but then, he understood.
"I have a video to prove it. A fellow worker transferred the file to me through Touch-link. check this out."
Jacob closed his eyes and then opened them, macro-leds flickered within his pupils as he searched through files in his Bionic Smart Lens, he then stretched out his palm. A projection shot out from his eyes and landed on his palm then a video could be seen playing on his palm.
Ryver craned his neck and watched the figure within the video. His expression turning grave by the second. What he saw was an absolute monster that didn't seem human at all!
The monster's appearance is truly horrific: multiple layers of skin have receded and torn, exposing the majority of the creature's muscle tissue. Its hands and feet have altered to sport a series of long, razor-sharp claws that allow the creature to crawl on floors, walls and ceilings as well as rip its prey to shreds.
Perhaps its most disturbing feature is its head: it has no eyes, no visible nose or ears, its brain is exposed and its mouth is filled with sharp rows of teeth.
Everywhere it went, it leapt over the vehicles blocking its way as it jumped at its prey, gulping down the head of a terror-stricken lady in a single bite.
The person recording the video seem to be scared to death as they whimpered and quickly hid behind a destroyed vehicle in time before the video stopped.
Ryver's pupils constricted as he realised how lucky he was. The monster hadn't attacked him probably because it was occupied or because it wasn't within the vicinity.
Ryver frowned. "Did you happen to get the name of the beast?"
"Yeah, information showed that its called a Licker and apart from the degree of infection, no other information was revealed." Jacob explained.
Ryver was suddenly reminded of Richard. Was the corpse holding a grave grudge before it died. There would more than enough time to test his theory, but for now, it looks like there was nothing he could do but increase his overall power points until he reaches at least 15 to twenty units until he was able to face the Licker head on.
To grow stronger, he would needed to kill zombies and preferable humans. And lots of them. But it wouldn't be fun if he just killed them.
"Will you join us?" Jacob asked. He had scanned through Ryver's status and he was well aware that Ryver's PowerPoints had reached 6 units, the same as his own.
Ryver thought for a while and nodded. Zombies tend to head towards where humans are almost unconsciously, which meant he would be able to kill more zombies that way.
"How many people do you have in your group?"
"Come, let me introduce you." Jacob headed towards the far end of the floor.
There was a door leading to an enclosed but spacious office. As soon as the door opened, several people sighed in relief seeing that Jacob was totally fine. They all had an improvised gas mask on their faces, protecting them from the toxic radiation in the air.
Ryver's eyes lit up radiantly as he saw the amount of people within the office. They amounted to about twenty six survivors, with improvised gas masks.
But then he frowned. Jacob is leading a total group of twenty plus people consisting of the young workers and mostly middle-aged workers and their lives rests on his shoulder.
They would undoubtedly die out one by one of they don't find a good place to stay in.
"This is Ryver, a survivor I chanced upon." Jacob introduced.
The group was too much in a panic to greet Ryver. Muffled sobs could be heard as reality was beginning to sink into some of them.
A middle aged man suddenly stepped out from the huddled group. His face wasn't looking too good as he said.
"If we keep accepting more people into the group, it's only a matter of time before we are discovered. Moreover, there's barely any room for more survivors! The group is barely able to keep silent as it is and at this rate, even the slightest sounds each of us makes would turn out to be no different ftom shouting!" Although the middle aged man tried his best to whisper his words, he couldn't contain the agitation he was feeling.
Jacob's face darkened. "I do not remember you making such suggestions when we decided to take you into the group."
Jacob ignored the man and turned towards Ryver and pointed at the middle aged man. "This is Jonathan."