Chapter 30: Virus's Truth

After consuming the Mid-Grade Mutant Blood he just received (which delayed the Survivor's Curse by 24 hours instead of just 12 like their Low-Grade counterparts), Cyanide began searching through the basement of the Aterra Headquarters.

For some reason, this floor, which only served as a home to the security staff of this company, also had access to the backup power supply of this building like the R&D department, which remained active thanks to solar power technology.

Cyanide was certainly confused on why this floor of all possible places was like this, but he wasn't about to complain. This made it easier for him to navigate and search anyway.

All of the guards' individual rooms were mostly the same. Very minimalistic, teal walls, white furniture, a bed, a sink, and a work desk with two locked file cabinets.

The common bathroom was further down, but Cyanide already searched there earlier and didn't find anything of use. He did, however, take a shower, since it's been quite some time since he had done that. Of course, he checked the water quality beforehand, and made sure it contained no poison with the [Poison Detect] skill he purchased with the level-up to Level 21 just now.

After the shower, he made new clothes and armor using the Crafting system and the Polyester he just got plus Metal. It felt nice, wearing a fresh set. The durability on the old set was also getting low, so it was ideal to switch to a new set anyway. It also helped relieved some weight from his inventory, albeit only a little.

There really wasn't much interesting about the security guards' rooms, apart from the locked file cabinets. And so, Cyanide pried all of them open with his crowbar, but to his dismay, they didn't contain anything of use either. One cabinet in each room held work files, while the other held personal items such as pictures and belongings.

One of the photos Cyanide found was that of a warm, smiling father and a baby daughter who looked to only be 3 years of age at most. The date at the top right corner read 12/25/2069, also the year when the apocalypse struck.

"To think such a kind, doting father like this could be turned into a mindless, bloodcrazed cyborg zombie mutant..." Luna sighed. "How depressing."

Cyanide, on the other hand, didn't particularly care. He was more interested in the date of the photo. He now knew that the apocalypse happened somewhere between 12/25/2069 and 12/31/2069, narrowing the possible range of dates from 356 to a mere 6. That was valuable information, and perhaps help him solve the mystery of how this apocalypse came to be.

After browsing through all the other file cabinets and in all the different rooms, Cyanide left. Nothing here was worth having, though it was a nice place to stay. His plan was to clear out this entire building of mutants, then take all the food and drinks in the convenience store into his inventory before dumping them all here and claiming this place as his new base.

"Heading for the upper floors, Cyanide?" Luna asked as he headed up the stairs.

"Yeah," Cyanide replied. "There is bound to be more information there, and I need to clear out this building of mutants anyway."

"Very well. Be careful though—this knowledge was unlocked for me just now, but apparently, all POIs contain a Stage Three Mutant hiding within."

At this, Cyanide smiled slightly. "A Stage Three? Perfect... I was aching for some stronger enemies to take on. Wouldn't want to get bored in this new world after coming here for the sole reason of not wanting to be bored."

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"Cyanide... you get bored abnormally quickly," Luna said with a sigh. "Do you have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, perhaps? Or are you just a calamity magnet daredevil who loves danger?"

"Neither," he replied. "Just an ordinary man, tired of the old ways."

*****

Clearing out the building of Stage One Mutants didn't take long. All of them were quite weak compared to Cyanide's current level, and the few Stage Twos were also easily taken care of with some Stealth Takedown executions. He still hasn't encountered the Stage Three Luna spoke of, but he guessed they were hiding in a room somewhere.

There were still plenty of locked rooms around the building, ones he couldn't get into without a key or powerful explosives. Brute forcing wouldn't work, as he couldn't just punch through metal with a STR stat of 60. Maybe in the future, sure, but not now.

Now that the entire building was mostly cleared of all visible threats, Cyanide headed up to the R&D floor. Last time he was here, he had his first encounter with a mutant and nearly got killed. This time, however, he was free to explore this place to his content.

After looking around for a while, though... he saw that there weren't any actual paper documents anywhere. All the information was stored on computers, but all said computers were either physically broken or just completely dysfunctional. Even with the electricity on this floor, it was useless.

He then glanced at the vials of bright green liquid stored in a tray on top of a cart, labeled {ANEXERDYTE-1}. That was the failed antidote Doctor Finch had come up with, as it didn't do anything to relieve his Survivor's Curse.

Speaking of Doctor Finch...

"... Luna," he suddenly said as an idea formed in his head.

"Hm?" Luna tilted her head. "A question, Cyanide?"

"Is it possible to fuse wires together with the Crafting system?"

"Yes. That is a default crafting recipe, meaning you don't have to find any Blueprints for it. But... what do you need a long wire for?"

Staring up at the open part of the ceiling where wires dangled, spouting electricity, Cyanide smiled. He had used this last time to kill the mutant... who knew it was going to be useful to him again so soon?

".... Luna, bring up the crafting menu."

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