Edited by: Kuro and Lille
This is 1/3 for the bonus chapters! Thank you to some of my readers for completing the ko-fi goal!
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While Adam 1 was working day and night on the blood samples, he was oblivious to what was going on outside of the capital.
At MI Base, Morgan was listening to the researchers at the weekly meetings. It was in the office building that they had cleaned out. None of the lights were working in the buildings so they had small crystals filled with Light ability. It lasted a few hours and could be cut off to preserve its power. Very convenient.
In the room, there was a large rectangular table but the seats were of different sizes and styles. This was normal in the apocalypse. All they needed were chairs that weren't broken so that they could have a place to sit.
Other than Morgan and Cooper, there were 9 researchers. One of them was missing. It was the leader of the group, the one who kept pressuring the military to go to the capitol building.
"Where's Dr. Linus?" Morgan asked the tired researchers who looked like they hadn't showered in days.
After a long pause, an old male researcher spoke up. "We haven't seen him in days. The place he was living in is vacant and there are no signs of him…"
He was the oldest of the members. He wasn't the leader of their research team as he didn't care about those kinds of things, still, he was well respected in the community before the apocalypse happened.
"What? Did he try to go to the capital by himself?" Cooper questioned. He remembered how adamant Dr. Linus was about going to the capital to find something, even stating that he wanted to go with the military.
The only female researcher held her head. "We looked everywhere for him, but we couldn't find him anywhere. No one saw him leave his apartment either." She had a headache from lack of sleep. They spent two days looking for him with only an hour of rest.
"Do you think he would go to the capital? What is even there that he needs to get so desperately?" Morgan didn't know the reason, he was just pushed to raid the capital even though there was a ridiculous amount of zombies there.
All the researchers looked at each other. It seemed all their eyes landed on the oldest researcher. He was unconsciously designated as their new leader until Dr. Linus came back.
"We worked under Dr. Linus to create the most perfect artificial human. The zombies… were the failed results of Adam 1, the artificial human we were able to create before we were all forced to flee the capital. As we speak, Adam 1 is in a nutrient fluid to allow them to grow."
Another scientist gritted his teeth. He didn't like the project but they were being paid and hounded by the higher-ups for results. "Dr. Linus wants to get Adam 1 to control the zombies. You ability users gained your powers from Adam 1, which makes him the strongest weapon of mankind. If we can research him more, we should be able to formulate the vaccine for the Z-virus."
Morgan and Cooper wanted to be skeptical but considering they were living in an apocalypse era with abilities, they couldn't help but believe it.
"I understand… Then we will get ready to go to the capital. We will look for Dr. Linus and Adam 1."
The scientists thanked Morgan and Cooper one by one before going back to the research building to continue their efforts in creating a vaccine for the Z-virus, the virus that caused people to turn into zombies.
Unbeknownst to them, one of the researchers was hiding Dr. Linus. The two were waiting for the perfect time to act. He continued to act along with the other researchers, hoping no one noticed him acting strange.
Once Morgan and Cooper were alone, Cooper finally said what he was thinking. "The spark of life that lit up in the capital…"
"It's not Dr. Linus so it's probably Adam 1."
"All the more reasons we should go. I will have the soldiers get ready to infiltrate the capital."
"No, I will be going alone."
"Alone?!" Cooper shouted before protesting, "Sir, please reconsider! It's too dangerous for you to go alone. You are the strongest ability user in this base. What would we do if you died there?"
"I'm the strongest metal ability user. No zombies can penetrate my skin so I won't die. I won't take too long. Having too many people would just feed the zombies, and we can't do that when there need to be people protecting the base…"
It was a sound argument but Cooper felt it was best if he at least went with Morgan. "At least allow me to go with you. I may not be that strong but I'm a spatial ability user. I can escape into my spatial space and give us a place to stay during the night. I can even hold the provisions!"
"Cooper, it would be safer if you stayed here." Morgan was a level 4 Ability User who could cover his whole body in metal. They had tested it and there hasn't been a zombie that could bite through his metal-like skin.
Unlike zombies who were classified in tiers, Ability Users were classified by levels. They also had a core within their brain that wouldn't increase in size but was measured by how tightly packed it was. The denser and more opaque the core was, the higher the level the Ability User would be. This also applied to zombies.
Cooper was a rare level 3 Spatial ability user but that was his only benefit. He wasn't good at fighting but he could provide a safe space to sleep in for the night or carry large amounts of food. He had been training since he arrived at MI Base, but he paled in comparison to the combat-orientated Morgan.
"I won't drag you down! I can carry all of our supplies, give us a safe place to sleep, and even protect us if we get surrounded. Please, Sir!"
Seeing Cooper's eager and unwavering expression, Morgan couldn't say no.
"Alright, you can come with me."
"Thank you, Sir! I promise to be useful to you."
After their small, private meeting, the two got ready for their trip. It took a couple of days to pack up, but they knew that they had to get everything they owned as they may never come back.
*****
'Scan the molecular structure of this virus.'
[Commence scanning... Scanning complete.]
Adam 1 and System 225 were working together to find the cure for the virus as well as create the serum to help zombies evolve. It was unrealistic to save all the zombies but saving a few hundred or thousand wouldn't be too bad. But at the same time, he would have to figure out a way to wipe out billions of zombies that were roaming the world. He could try to absorb as many as he could. Maybe, he could try to send the rest of humanity into space while he deals with the zombies somehow? Ahh, it was really frustrating.
He went back to focusing on the microscope in front of him. There was a slide with two different bloodstains on it, they were overlapping each other. He was looking at how his blood, specifically his leukocytes, were interacting with the Z-Virus— the airborne virus spread by zombies.
At first, it seemed like the virus and his blood were living in harmony, but the moment the Z-Virus touched a white blood cell, hell broke loose. The T cells, a type of Lymphocyte that was produced in bone marrow, started attacking the viruses. It was a brutal, one-sided slaughter of the Z-Viruses. It only took a second for the white blood cells to eliminate all the Z-viruses in just that drop of blood.
Adam 1's eyes lit up as he stared at the microscope. "My blood is so vicious." He wondered how it would be if they touched other things like cancer cells or other crazy viruses like Ebola. Well, he pushed down that curiosity and recorded all that he had just seen.
His days and nights continued like this for the next couple of weeks. He didn't have to eat or remove waste from his body. All he really did was wash himself up for comfort purposes. His body auto-cleaned itself so he honestly didn't need to, but he liked taking showers and stuff. It was weird being an artificial human, he felt too perfect. All the inconveniences and flaws that humans had were nonexistent. The only downside was that Adam 1 didn't understand emotions all too well. Ah, he also couldn't die naturally...
After finding the antibodies that remembered the Z-Virus, he focused on seeing if his blood was capable of evolving zombies. He couldn't do much with the vaccine as he didn't have any live humans to test it on, so he wanted to create the serum while he was here as well.
He had the perfect zombies to test it on and millions more outside, it was the perfect opportunity to test serums.
Adam 1 went back and forth between the computer and the microscope. It was like he lived and breathed in the laboratory.
.....
From his observations, only a selected number of zombies were capable of evolving, like the zombie he found sitting at the desk. Mutations were really prevalent in zombies, and there was a certain gene that was going to help zombies evolve.
Weirdly enough, he could control all zombies regardless of their genetic makeup.
Out of the ten zombies he brought with him, only one had a certain gene. Even if he didn't give the adorable zombie a serum, he would eventually evolve on his own, though it would take a while, it wasn't impossible. The desk zombie's name was Jerald. He had a name tag on his shirt that looked like it hadn't been taken off ever since the outbreak started.
It was like Jerald could sense that Adam 1 was thinking of him because he looked up and grunted.
"Jerald, I was just thinking you are kind of adorable." Adam 1 patted him on his head.
Jerald didn't really understand so he tilted his head in confusion. It was like a black-haired cat with big brown eyes, staring at him like he was the only one in Jerald's eyes.
[Host... I think I understand what you were saying before.] Even System 225 couldn't help but think Jerald was cute too. Even though he was looking at a rotting zombie with a part of his neck ripped off and his arm showing some bones when he tilted his head like so, he felt like he was looking at an affectionate but confused cat.
'Let's find a different zombie to test this serum on. When I get it right, then I will give it to Jerald.' If he destroyed the cute Jerald, Adam 1 would probably cry.
[What happens if the others are also as cute as Jerald?]
Adam 1 faltered for a moment. If all the zombies with this genetic mutation were this cute, could he even bear to give them the serum? But he needed to do that so he could help as many zombies as he could.
'I will look more into the serum after I find other zombies like Jerald. I hope they aren't as cute so I won't feel so horrible...'
It was a long and hard struggle for both Adam 1 and System 225 but they were determined to finish one mission at least.