Mutagen

Day 131 - 11:49 PM - Glassgow Quarry, King of Prussia, Upper Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Christia declared Heron's defeat without bitter expression. Still, while she looked pleased, she felt a bit disappointed inside.

Mark could tell clearly. Disappointment, it was a negative emotion, after all.

However...

"What are you saying, Christia? I'm not defeated yet."

Heron said with confidence. If not for his current appearance, anyone would feel that he was speaking the truth.

Or maybe... Heron was speaking the truth.

As Heron finished his sentence, his body started to heat up. It was too hot that even the rubble under him began to turn red. Then, parts of Heron's body also turned red, specifically, his dented chest and twisted limbs.

And there, like time being rewound, the twisted limbs moved back to its correct positions, and his dented chest returned back to normal.

Heron's gigantic body stood up. He was as good as new.

"Nitinol?" Mark murmured. "No, probably just something similar."

Nitinol or Nickel Titanium. A kind of metal alloy that could be bent and dented but would return back to its original shape as long as it was given enough heat.

Mark was reminded of that when he saw how Heron's body turned back to normal.

And with this, the battle could be continued. That was what Heron wanted.

Unfortunately for the silver giant...

"No, my King. You already lost."

His desire was shot down by his Queen.

"What are you-"

"The moment you went down there laughing, he could have killed you several times already. Even that attack that incapacitated you also could be he only decided to disable you. It's your loss."

"No, that's-"

There, Heron could only stop as Christia gave him a death glare.

"So, it's already my win. That's final, right?"

Mark asked.

"Yes. Absolutely. I'm afraid that if you two continued, you two would end up killing each other."

Christia smiled.

That was right. The intensity of the battle already destroyed the whole quarry. If they continued, they would probably end up turning the entirety of the township into rubble. And worse, Mark and Heron might accidentally destroy each other.

"Then, I don't care about your lover's quarrel. Just get ready to answer my questions."

Mark said in an irritated tone. He could not see through Christia at all. She had consciousness and human memories, but the amount of emotional energy she was releasing was too thin for Mark to read.

"Of course, I will answer." Christia agreed. "But not in this place. Your battle with my King already caused quite a commotion. The lower classes will gather here soon, and we won't have a good chat when that happens."

That surprised Mark a bit. Who would think that Christia would be bothered with other infected that would start gathering in this place? But then, it was a clue about something that bothered Mark for a while now.

Thus, he could only nod.

As Heron turned back to his human form, Christia asked Mark to lead them somewhere else.

Sure enough, Christia was a clever one. Making Mark lead the way swept away any suspicions of her and Heron setting up a trap.

There, Mark flapped his wings, leading the two further north.

His intention was to lead these two away from the golf course even more just in case they plan to do something.

As Mark took flight once more, Heron also brought out his metal wings under Christia's request. The Silver Infected King then carried Christia as they followed behind Mark.

Mark found an abandoned office building of a furniture company. After securing that the two really followed, he landed.

A five-story building. The rooftop was not exactly empty, though. There were makeshift shelters made of wooden furniture on the roof. However, it was already devoid of any life or movement. The only thing left of the survivors that might have stayed here were the markings of washed-up blood that was splattered everywhere.

"This place is fine, right?"

Mark asked as Heron let Christia down.

"Quite an ugly place but its better than a place brimming with the lower class infected."

Christia replied.

"Just don't mind the place."

Mark shrugged.

"Alright. Just ask me anything. As long as I know the answer, I will say it." Christia replied. "Of course, I will not answer questions that will reveal our skills and weakness. Please refrain from asking about those. No one would feel happy if they were asked those kinds of questions."

Mark nodded, hearing that. Even he would not entertain such kinds of questions.

"Then, let's start with this." Mark looked straight at Christia. "We changed places because of the other infected. It meant that even though you two are King and Queen among the infected, you can't just control any infected you come across. If what I said is correct, can you tell me why?"

This was one of the things that bothered Mark since the start. Janette and Trixie were already proven to be Infected Queens by the [King Type] that he caught. However, how come both of them never controlled any infected when they were traveling. Even the [King Type] never showed any sign of controlling the infected along the way to attack their vehicles.

"I guess there's no problem answering that," Christia replied and peered down the building, looking at the infected on the street. "Knowing how humans are, they will figure this out sooner or later."

And there, Christia affirmed what Mark had said.

Even if they were crowned as King or Queen among there infected, the Highest Class of Infected that gained intelligence, they could not just go and control every infected they could see.

Even the infected. The infected were not grouping up in hordes just because they were all infected. If that was the only factor, all of the infected should have already formed a single large group that was enough to obliterate all humans.

However, that was not the case. And even if there were hordes that had several thousands of members, they were under a higher class infected as their leader.

In that case, there was an unknown factor that caused the infected to form hordes. Still, there were observed conditions where hordes of infected were created.

First, infected that came from a single place was easier to form hordes. A good example was infected that came from a single neighborhood or city.

Second, infected with similar mutations also tend to group up with others. It was displayed at that time in Bay City when a group of bat-winged infected attacked the settlement.

Third, as said, there should be leaders among the infected. It could be [Leader Type] mutation or the higher [Monarch Types].

But even so, the third condition was also not that easy to establish.

According to Christia, [King Types] could only control infected in an established territory. It would create a mental network in that territory where the infected were linked together under the King's rule and command.

And that territory was fixed in place and could not be moved at will. The [King Type] could move in and out of his territory, but it did not mean that he could just create another one easily or expand the current territory.

In the first place, the territory could not be chosen by the [King Type] at all. The territory that the [King Type] had was the very same place where he awakened as a King, and the infected that was inside when the territory was established were his subjects.

The only way that an existing territory to expand as Christia knew was when more infected that was not the King's control entered it. Slowly, they would be affected by the network of control and come under the King's rule. If that continued to happen, the population of infected in the territory would start to bloat, forcing the infected to occupy more space. And as such, the newly occupied space became part of the territory.

Of course, it did not mean that the King could just make his horde move and scatter to claim more territory. It would not work that way. Still, it did not mean that the King could not command the horde to leave the territory either. They could do it. Only expanding the territory that way was not possible.

As for the [Queen Types], it was different. Christia already said it before. They were nomads. Their awakening was not as flashy as King Types. They did not have territories or have a horde suddenly under them the moment they woke up. In fact, not all Queens had the ability to rule a horde. Only those that were [Leader Types] before awakening as a Queen had the highest possibility to lead a horde while most of those who were not were left alone.

And that was where the struggle start for the [Queen Types]. Without a horde, they were more susceptible to death.

After all, any infected that was not under the leadership of a [King Type] or [Queen Type] also had the tendency to attack. At more unfortunate times, weaker [Queen Types] would end up being eaten by the normal infected.

It was not surprising since not all infected were born with the same strength. Some mutated stronger than the others, while some were even weaker than an Eater.

"So, that is why only you two are here..."

Mark said as he looked at Christia. On the other hand, Heron was not here anymore. He left midway the explanation to rampage below the streets, killing every infected that started to attack him.

"That is right," Christia replied. "We could have moved our horde to surround you and your group, but this place is quite far from our territory. By the time we arrive here, your group would have left already."

Mark started at Christia with a frown. She was not hiding the fact that she wanted to kill Mark and his group. But in the least, she already gave up on the idea.

Nevertheless, Mark was satisfied with the explanation he heard. It was not totally complete since there were still a lot of things that Christia did not know. However, it explained a lot of things that Mark had the suspicion about.

It proved the reason why Janette, Trixie, and the Miasma [King Type] were not able to hinder their journey back then. It was not like Janette and Trixie had any motive to do it, but at least, the [King Type] had. Furthermore, according to the explanation, it was also possible that both Janette and Trixie could not form hordes at all since they did not even mutate to a [Leader Type]. And for the [King Type], he could not command his horde anymore. For sure, his established territory was around Bay City, where he was born because of the residues of Mark and Gar'Vlam's battle.

As for Snow, in the first place, she had no capability of forming hordes at all. The only reason that she was able to lead the horde back then in Atlantic City was that she was the host of the [Empress Spider], and the horde were all hosts for parasitic spiders.

That also explained why the Miasma [King Type] suddenly had a horde of several thousand when Mark and his group only left Bay City for two days to gather blood bags. If the [King Types] had to gather a horde like that manually, it should take a lot longer to happen.

"Did my answer satisfy your curiosity?"

Christia asked as she saw Mark pondering about the information he just heard.

And to say, Mark was quite satisfied.

"Then, next question..." Mark looked at Christia once more. "This one is a very important question. Answer it as much as possible."

"I already said. I will answer if I can."

"Then, what is the actual goal of the infected?"

Mark said with a serene expression.

It would be hard to determine the answer just by observing the infected. However, this time, Mark was asking an Infected Queen. After all, she had both experiences as a human and as an infected.