Marcus stepped into the bustling street, he had been home for the past four days, gathering all sorts of information online and recovering at the same time.
He also completed daily quests like running, jogging, and weight lifting, Marcus had gained much XP, and with just a few more he would reach level two.
His body was now brimming with energy.
The newsflash the other day was dismissed as nothing important as there wasn't any case like that and scientists couldn't figure out what happened after many questions.
Was there a possibility of slow evolving mutant beast? Or could gems from mutant beasts cause other creatures to mutate into mutant beasts?
But every experimentation had been carried out, almost all species had been fed gene core but there wasn't any mutation.
This made Marcus realise he was indeed special.
Only he could consume gene core and evolve, and grow stronger.
He was the first and the last of every creature who could do that.
Marcus grinned. 'If only the system could let me cook or barbecue any creature I wished to consume' he sulked inwardly.
'Well, I don't care, as long as I grow stronger, then there wouldn't be any problem'
He held the blue gem up in his right hand while scrutinizing it as he walked.
The weather was cool and crisp, nevertheless, the kite-shaped blue gem remained warm against Marcus' skin.
It was about 50 mm in length and 15 mm in breadth, Marcus gazed at it with an incredulous look as he held it between his right thumb and index finger.
It felt like it was a living thing, well that was to be expected after all it was solidified raw genes, and coupled with the fact that it was also bioluminescent, it makes it more believable.
But Marcus knew he was the only one who knew that, other people and scientists thought that it was a rare mineral.
Since science deals with curiousness, scientists had questioned the existence of this rare and precious mineral in the body of mutant beast but couldn't come up with any plausible reason so they discarded the matter.
Marcus headed to the jewelry merchant shop down the street.
If it was before, a person of his caliber wouldn't even have anything to do in a jewelry merchant shop, but now Marcus felt like he had struck it rich.
Marcus recalled how Mei Ling had scrutinized the gene core, saying it would be worth at least 4 million Yuan.
His heart leaped for joy at hearing that, having something so expensive, he couldn't stop being overjoyed.
Marcus reasoned that this era might be the best possible era, the era of the awakened except it also brings destruction.
Looking around the vicinity, there were buildings always in construction due to being caught up in a beast inbreak.
Almost every street had at least a couple of buildings with cranes looming over it, but it seemed the Awakened league the government created tried their best to fight them off.
But three numbered areas were yet to be cleared in the whole of Haicheng, the capital city, with casualties upon casualties anytime the awakened went to raid the areas, only a few were able to escape.
Earning millions of Yuan just by killing a mutant beast, and an S-Grade for that matter, it was unbelievable even though Marcus suffered, but he realised it was all due to his lack of power, if he had grown stronger, then it would be easier.
"Wait a minute, I could ask the diamantaire to cut it into two, I would then consume one half and sell the other after all I still need one more to merge, and using splitting skill to split it wouldn't give me any reasonable skill"
Marcus smirked at the idea.
[Host needs to consume the whole of gene core!]
He made a disgruntled expression at this. 'Well, as I'm now, I need money, my mum's hospital bills would have piled up so I have to sell any gene core I see'
He thought about it while gazing up at the sky, he reasoned that even if he could consume the half, selling the other half would only earn him less money. This made him feel much more high-spirited.
Then his mind wandered to the beast mole cricket and he became depressed. "If I had known I would have eaten a chunk out of it, perhaps I would be able to use it to craft some gear and the fact that crickets are rich in protein" Marcus sulked.
[Notice!: Host would be able to craft Compass of the Gods from gene remains of the beast mole cricket. The gear could detect the direction of an incoming attack on the Host; it would now be up to the Host to evade it. With this newfound ability, Host must remain vigilant and agile, as the compass will only provide a warning—how Host responds will determine host's fate.]
"Cool!!" Marcus yelled outwardly unconsciously, then he wailed inwardly, compass of the gods, a gear which could relay the direction of an incoming attack from an opponent, how could he have missed that opportunity?
If he had it he would be able to predict an attack even if he was surrounded.
But he would need to increase his strength, and speed in order to evade them, since he was five times more agile than an average human according to his stat.
"Well, it can't be helped, after all, I didn't lose completely, I can now summon my exoskeleton armor at will and I have a gemstone worth millions at hand"
Marcus rejoiced and nodded in concurrence.
He kept on walking not until he heard:
"Hey, brother how do you do?"
A voice boom from his back
Marcus turned to look and was surprised immediately.
"Huang Zhiyuan?!"
He recognised him immediately, he was the youngest son in the Huang clan's main family, they had many industries all over Yangdao and were well known but they were ruthless and arrogant, Marcus knew that as much. But the clan is based in Qinghe.
"Shit, what is he finding in Haicheng, the capital" He muttered under his breath as Zhiyuan and his two friends walked toward Marcus gracefully.
'Oh, Zhiyuan's girlfriend is living around here!' Marcus realised, because he saw him and his girlfriend on social media when he was surfing the internet two days ago.
Marcus made an irritated expression then because he was almost two years older than them and Zhiyuan had a girlfriend.
He checked the girlfriend's profile and saw that she lived around here, and she was a black belt in karate.
Marcus wondered how such a girl ended up with a chubby pig like Zhiyuan, perhaps it was a family-like relationship.
Marcus' eyes glanced at their pieces of jewelry greedily.
These were gene cores of all shapes and sizes, Zhiyuan wore three gene core necklaces and his fingers were full of gene core rings, his wrists were also full of gene core bracelets of all colours.
It was so beautiful and many that Marcus couldn't help but drool at the sight.
He feel like beating Zhiyuan and snatching all of them to sell, if Marcus were to do the math, all the pieces of jewelry would be worth billions of Yuan given the sizes and the qualities.
While his two friends who walked by his sides also wore one or two gene core necklaces.
[Notice!: That emerald green one is from a beast cheetah]
[If host were to consume and split it with Gene Scissors, host would gain godspeed skill]
Marcus' eyes widened, he remembered when he was surfing the internet and saw a video of how two cheetahs that evolved in the zoo cage were killed.
It was Tianyu, Zhiyuan's brother who defeated them both, earning him a B-rank since the beasts were S-Grade.
His awakened power was to let him turn invisible, no, it wasn't invisible, there was no way a person could turn invisible, according to scientists, he could change his body colour with his surroundings like a chameleon, an effect of the evolved junk DNA.
But he had to be naked in order to use the power to his advantage unless the beast cheetahs would have seen clothes moving and sneaking around them in the air.
'That meant Tianyu must have the other beast cheetah gene core in possession'
'That ability is cool if I could get my hand on a chameleon'
[Host would need to consume gene remains or gene core of a beast chameleon to gain such ability!]
'What? But I thought I could consume any animal as long as I like its ability!'
[It's limited in the case of creature which aren't mutant beasts!]
'Tsk! You could as well told me all that before, you actually get my hopes up, so it was because you could punish me that was why you coaxed me into consuming that Axolotl' Marcus felt irritated.
But thinking about having godspeed, the thought of being able to run at the speed of light made Marcus eyed the beast cheetah gene core more, Marcus knew it would surely boost his speed stat to brim.
"Man!, Isn't that amazing!" the words tumbled down from Marcus' lips as he watched them walk closer to him, they all looked plump like an overfed pig.
"It is amazing right?" The one by Zhiyuan's right side bragged while holding his necklace up and grinning like an idiot, it seemed they heard him.
Zhiyuan raised his right hand upward to silence the guy.
"Brother, I'm Huang Zhiyuan from the Huang clan, nice to meet you," he said and offered a handshake.
Marcus was hesitant and thought about what they wanted, 'Don't tell me they are eyeing my gene core' Marcus guessed because ordinarily, these people in power positions wouldn't even glance at a person like him.
Marcus shook Zhiyuan's hand hesitantly while his eyes gazed greedily at the gene core in the dangling necklaces.
"I-I'm Gene"