"I'm going to the hospital"
After a couple of hours, Marcus stood at the entrance and told Mei Ling, it was early evening and she was still doing some chores.
"To your mum?"
"Yeah—" Marcus hadn't even finished the word when he saw her rushing forward.
"Mind if we go together?"
She asked as if he was going shopping.
Marcus looked at her with disbelief and finally thought it wouldn't hurt to let her follow.
"No problem"
"Do you know a mutant beast could have two gems?"
Mei Ling started talking as they stepped into the streets.
"Really?, I didn't" Marcus was more concerned with the unusual silence of the street, he couldn't help but wonder what was going on.
'Is there a beast inbreak nearby?'
Marcus gazed afar with a narrowed look.
"Yeah, Scientists said it might be that they are in the stage of evolving into SS-grade beasts since it was more common in S-grade mutant beasts"
Mei Ling strode playfully beside him along the street.
"So they think the gems merged when the evolution is completed since SS-grade beasts only have a gem"
'Still, with all these discoveries, the gems are still considered precious stones and not gene core, earth scientists are such a joke' Marcus managed to suppress a smirk.
He looked at her with slight disbelief, she was indeed a high-spirited fellow, then he muttered: "I see"
'If only I could get those, well, soon enough'
"Yeah it's indeed a rare case, they must have consumed countless humans for it to happen"
'Come to think of it, aside from the three uncleared areas, there have been four more since yesterday in Haicheng'
Marcus reasoned the way the numbered areas were increasing was alarming.
"You two! Where are you going?"
The nervous voice of a woman drew Marcus and Mei Ling's attention, she had a super frightened expression, Marcus recognized her to be living in the house beside Mei Ling's apartment it seemed she was returning and she looked impatient, even her breath was ragged as if she had been running, perhaps she stopped when she was out of breath.
"Mrs Qian Ru, how do you do" Mei Ling was surprised, she greeted the woman.
"I'm not fine" she shook her head panickly.
"You should get out of here, there is a beast inbreak in the next street!"
The woman turned to Marcus with a grim expression. "You may be her boyfriend but as a civillian you had better not drag Mei Ling into any mess! "
She then turned and continued her fast stride.
'I thought as much, so there was a beast inbreak'
And suddenly, Marcus felt something nudging him towards a particular direction.
'So the beast is over there, what is with this nudging, perhaps it is related to my perception, I can somehow make out where it is'
As he watched her walk away, Marcus scoffed at the sound of civilian the woman called him 'Well, I'm neither a civilian nor an Awakened' he chuckled darkly inwardly.
Mei Ling looked up at Marcus with a guilty expression.
"I'm sorry about this but shouldn't we turn back?" Her voice was squeaky.
'Hmm, it is amazing how people fear mutant beasts, but there should be government Awakened league there already, preventing overrun of the location.
But it was understandable, after all, she didn't know what I was capable of doing
'Wait, what is with this sudden confidence?
Come to think of it, I think my Will stat is triple that of an average human, I wonder if that is the reason
But does that mean that I wouldn't fear even if I'm in the face of death and even if I'm powerless against the opponent?'
Marcus felt there was more to the Will stat than met the eyes, but since this Awakened age wasn't anything magical, the connection with magical spells was out of the matter, but was it? Since not all the power of Awakened had been scientifically explained, at least about five percent of the powers, he had no means to justify any claim yet.
'Aside from that, this beast is likely S-grade or lower-tier SS-grade, it seemed the system won't notify me unless I see the target'
"I'm going," Marcus said frankly. "You can go back"
"B-but, beast inbreak..."
He looked at her, she indeed looked scared, normally, she worked with the government Awakened league to clear numbered areas of little threat, but it was because she was with the Awakened, but talking about Marcus, she believed he was powerless like an average civilian.
Marcus gazed forward and continued his stride along the silent street 'She will probably turn back'
Marcus had walked a considerable distance when he saw her rushing towards him.
"I think it will be alright since government Awakened will have been called there already," She said breathlessly, but as Marcus looked at her, he knew she didn't want to leave him and turned back.
'But she isn't guilty of anything...'
She clutched at Marcus' right arm.
'This one is super spooked'
After a while of walking, they turned to the street that led to the avenue where the hospital was.
[SS-grade beast Cockroach!]
The system notified, Marcus looked afar, it was a single mutant beast but it had caused a significant amount of damage and catastrophe, But it was to be expected, an SS-grade mutant beast, soldiers were surrounding the beast Cockroach that was the size of a truck, desperately shooting at it. Huge cracks ran across building walls, some were even dilapidated, and cars had been smashed, it seemed the beast really wanted to claim this location.
Mei Ling clutched at Marcus' arm tightly in fear "W-where are the Awakened, t-they should have arrived"
Marcus thought so too, there were only soldiers here, and the street was devoid of inhabitants, perhaps they had evacuated, nevertheless, bodies of soldiers could be seen littered the ground by the beast Cockroach mercilessly killing.
Its exoskeleton was hard for bullets to penetrate and once it extended one of its thin sharp legs, it would pierce the chest of any soldier in a blink of an eye and retract backward as fast as a woodpecker beak! There were at least a few dozen soldiers there, shooting desperately at it.
This was indeed a massacre, blood stained the ground red.
Marcus saw a soldier running away with tears flowing from his eyes, approaching them at a fast pace, he almost tumbled a moment.
"I can't! I can't fight that monster!" He cried like a baby with a gun in his hands as he passed them by, Marcus felt some weird feeling welling up from him 'he has a family'
"Five minutes is too much for us to hold that monster till the Awakened arrive!"
No matter how one looked at it, this was a massacre, the leg that the beast cockroach shot out was spiny, leaving a hole in the chest of soldiers that it pierced, and the soldiers couldn't even dodge it, after all, they can't dodged what they can't see coming, even the leg appeared as a blur to Marcus who was three times perceptic that an average human.
'Which means, I can only stand on the same ground with S-grade beasts, perhaps certain ones, depending on the animal type and ability.
I'm still weak, I have to level up as fast as I can'
But just after the crying soldier ran away, a car came speeding towards the beast from the opposite direction.
"Retreat soldiers! You have done well," a voice boomed from the radio inside the car, the surviving soldiers started scampering away and thanking their stars, the ones dead had their luck to blame, just after the region around the beast was cleared, a couple of Awakened jumped out of the speeding car and the car ran into the beast.
WHAM!!
The beast Cockroach had already extended one of its legs forward as if to stop the speeding car but the leg was so sharp that it ended up piercing through the car and extending at the other end of it, nevertheless, it stood its ground and stopped the car.
"In addition to the strong exoskeleton, fast sharp legs, it also has remarkable strength"
"But is a party of two Awakened really enough to defeat an SS-grade beast Cockroach?"
"It's Chen Hao and Wei Long!!" Mei Ling exclaimed happily as she released her grip from my arm. "The two B-rank brothers!!"
And then the two guys who looked prideful started approaching Marcus and Mei Ling.
Marcus looked at them with disbelief and he recognised the weapon they held immediately.