Mutagen

Day 325 - 6:21 PM - Mountain Base, Mount Malabito, General Nakar, Province of Quezon, Philippines

The same day the Black Lotus Group left for the expedition, Mark's group did something different from what they had done since they arrived in the Reclaimed City.

It was to accept a commission from the bureau.

For the first time, Mark's group took a commission, which was registered by the same receptionist they met the first time they went here.

Sure enough, they took a lot of attention by doing so. However, due to the Temple, no one approached Mark's group for whatever intention they had in mind.

And just before lunch, a rather odd time to choose, the Evernight Group left the confines of the Reclaimed City into the ruins.

***

Well... All of it was just a guise. After all, it would be odd if the restaurant suddenly had no one in it.

After leaving the Reclaimed City and making sure they were not being followed, they entered a portal opened by Spera.

And the portal's destination was nowhere else but home. The Mountain Base.

What was the reason?

"Happy Birthday!"

Everyone inside the Cliff House's living room yelled as Mark blew out the candles of the cake before him. All the while, he sighed with a bitter expression as his closest people congratulated him.

That was right. The occasion was Mark's birthday.

Mark was not really keen on having a party, but the girls would not let it be like that. And by majority vote, here they were.

Just like Abbygale's birthday, the residents of the Mountain Base also had a scrumptious dinner party outside. Of course, the main party was inside the Cliff House since being in the middle of the crowd would be uncomfortable for Mark, and making him uncomfortable at his own birthday party was not something everyone here would want. They basically forced him to have his birthday party, after all.

Mark was thankful for the sentiments. In fact, he could feel their genuine emotions as they greeted him. Unfortunately, Mark was a hardcore introvert, and social parties were one of his banes. Well, if it was a blood fest, he might join willingly.

"Papa, here!"

Miracle said as she gave Mark the gift she had made together with her two sisters.

A gift shared by the three girls. It was a birthday card that the girls created together while Mark was busy going outside.

"Thank you."

Mark accepted the card with a rather nostalgic smile. He remembered when he was a child. He and his siblings would also give handmade cards to their parents on these kinds of occasions.

It was a simple card with a few intricate cutouts and drawings. These cutouts and drawings might be the work of Iola, while the uneven coloring of the drawings should be the work of Abbygale and Miracle.

A two-sentence message was written inside.

It said...

"Happy Birthday, Papa! We love you!"

And at the bottom of the card.

"From Miracle, Gale, & Iola."

It was a simple message, but it made Mark show a smile, a smile that made everyone watching surprised.

The reason being... None of them had seen Mark show such a genuine smile. It was clear that it was different from his fake smiles to the point that those who did not know his emotional restraints could still tell.

Unfortunately, that smile vanished a second later as Mark noticed that everyone was staring at him.

"Elder Brother! Here's my gift!"

Elise hurriedly chimed in.

And here, Mark received various gifts from everyone. Given the current circumstances of the world, gifts during occasions were not really a necessity to have. Even so, the people close to him still made time to have small gifts for him.

These little trinkets would surely be part of his collection of things.

After that, it was a party filled with laughter, food, and... drinking. Although Mark hated participating in activities involving liquor, he got dragged into it. Soon enough, it turned into a competition involving the heavy drinkers and Mark.

And... Mark sighed as he looked around at his knocked-down opponents.

Mark might hate liquor, but he could hold his liquor extremely well. It was a pity since many liquor lovers did not have such heavy capacity.

"Gege, here."

Mei gave Mark a bowl of hangover soup after the contest. It was not that he extremely needed it, but it was definitely a nice thing to get the awful taste and smell of liquor out of his mouth.

"Thish is unfair. Why are youu still okay~? Youu don't evenn drinkk..."

Amazingly, although she was already wasted, Karlene could still complain about Mark's high alcohol tolerance.

"Not my fault."

Mark replied with a shrug.

The party continued far past midnight. Although after the drinking contest, everyone stayed away from more liquor.

As for the little girls, they went to bed earlier. Today might be Mark's birthday party, but they still had a long day tomorrow.

And while Mark's group was celebrating his birthday...

***

Day 326 - 01:12 AM - Black Lotus Camp, Sayama Park, Tamakocho, Higashimurayama, Ruins of Tokyo

An entire day had passed since the Black Lotus Group left the Reclaimed City. And after the painstaking journey, they reached one of the few prospective places where they could possibly hunt animals for meat.

Sayama Park was situated beside the water reservoir called Tama Lake. Due to this, and the fact that the drastic changes of the world caused the areas around the lake to be covered with flora, it was a good location for Earth's new animals to gather.

Unfortunately, it was extremely exhausting to reach this place with Tokyo's current state of the road.

Before the apocalypse, this park was just about an hour's drive from Kachidoki. Now, an entire day was not even enough. It was already dark when they managed to find a suitable place to camp, and the safety of the place was not even a hundred percent guaranteed.

Fortunately, the Black Lotus Group was not just a ragtag group of people. It was a powerful group of ninjas trained to serve the Mitsui Family in the shadows. And it was the very same reason why the Mitsui Family despised Ren for being the successor of this much power despite the head of the family still alive.

Although the road here was dangerous, not a single casualty occurred among the members of the expedition. The vehicles received some damage, though. However, most of the damage was due to the bad terrain than the actual battles they faced on the way.

Whether it be the [Infected], [Mechids], or even Demons, the Black Lotus would not easily fall. Even if they were besieged by a rather large horde of such things, they would not falter.

Of course, all of it had a limit. Even the Black Lotus Group did not have enough strength to take down something like the [Boss of Oshiage]. If they could, Oshiage had already been removed from the list of Forbidden Zones long ago.

Speaking of Forbidden Zones, the Black Lotus Group had to make a few detours to avoid such locations. There were quite a few locations along the way, such as Yahatacho, Midoricho, and a few more.

There was also the Ogawahigashicho just southeast of Sayama Park. Fortunately, it was far enough to not be much of a threat to the expedition.

Discovering these dangerous locations took a lot of sacrifices. Thankfully, the information the brave people gathered was now being used for the safety of people.

Still, avoiding such locations caused the expedition to take more time on the road than it should have.

It was already past midnight. However, a third of the members of the expedition were awake to fulfill their duties. Some were the lookouts, others were doing a survey of the immediate surroundings, while inside the largest tent, Ren and her associates were planning their move after dawn arrived.

"What animals are seen in the area so far?"

Ren asked the subordinates that returned after a short survey.

And from the report, it seemed that Ren's subordinates found traces of deer and other animals. However, the most prominent ones were birds, which was expected of this place even before the apocalypse.

The initial results of the survey were good. Birds, which were harder to hunt, were a much better source of meat than hunting mutated household pets. Although it was not really the time to be picky, many people were still not welcoming the idea of eating dog and cat meat even if they had already mutated.

And since it was a lake, fish would be good too.

Since the Reclaimed City was surrounded by water, one would think that they could just catch fish and other seafood there. Unfortunately, it was also a bad idea.

Many rivers flow through Tokyo and end up in the waters around the Reclaimed City. It meant that the creatures in these waters were a hundred percent human-eaters.

Thus, a closed water reservoir like Tama Lake was a much better choice for a location to fish. It was not like it was a hundred percent clean, but the idea was there.

CRASH!

A loud sound from outside was heard, taking the attention of those in the meeting.

"Tadashi, check out what is happening outside."

Ren ordered.

"Yes, miss."

Tadashi replied before vanishing into thin air. It did not take long, and he reappeared in the same manner.

"A [Mutated Owl] attacked one of our lookouts," Tadashi reported. "It managed to knock down one of our tents, causing the sound just now, but it had already been dealt with."

"Good," Ren nodded. "Fortunately, food is coming to us without us needing to hunt them."

To others, getting attacked at night would be something to fear. But for the Black Lotus Group, getting attacked by these mutated animals would be a blessing instead.

The night lookout changed to another group soon. Well, after facing a few more attacks from nocturnal animals like bats. The most unfavorable event was an attack from a group of crickets, with each being the size of an adult dog before the apocalypse.

It was a large quantity of cricket meat... But well... It was definitely not an appetizing thought. Some other countries would definitely like it, though.

It looked like the Black Lotus Group's expedition was going smoothly... So far...

***

"Do we really have to be this far? We can't even see them."

Atop a ruined hotel northeast of Tama Lake, a few voices could be heard talking.

"Our task is to monitor their location," A feminine voice replied. "Don't underestimate them and go closer than necessary. Those people are monsters in their own right. They can easily find us if we mistakenly go into their range of detection."

"Yeah, yeah... I know." The first voice replied snarkily. "Who do you think my employers are? Of course, I know what the Black Lotus Group is."

"Haah..." The woman sighed. "Why do I have to pair with you? Our parties have an alliance, but it did not mean we have to collaborate in missions like this."

"Don't ask me." The snarky man replied. "I'm only following the orders of my boss."

And after seeing that, the snarky man glanced behind him. There in the back, a silhouette of a man holding a sword could be seen sitting silently.

"Aren't you bored?" The snarky man talked to the swordsman. "Wanna chat?"

However, there was no reply to the snarky man's invitation.

"Geez, at least reply..." The snarky man complained before murmuring. "This is why I hate traitors. They are so edgy."

But as the snarky man uttered those words, he froze, seeing a slit in space just in front of his neck. He could only step back in a cold sweat.

"Alright, alright! Sorry, I'll shut up."

The snarky man backed down, and the slit in space vanished.

"That's right, shut up." The woman said with a frown. "Focus your eyes on the targets instead of causing trouble."

And with that, the three went silent... for a bit... before the snarky man started talking again.