Chapter 43: Back To The Surface

"Hah… hah… hah…"

An old man in a dirty laboratory suit coughed and panted, leaning against the concrete walls of the sewer tunnels, exhausted. After Cyanide defeated the Stage Five Mutant Baby Zeus, it didn't take long for the man to find him and regroup, out of fear that there may be something else lurking down here in the sewers.

"So… how long, exactly, are you just going to sit there for?" Cyanide asked coldly, narrowing his eyes impatiently at the man—or rather, Stage Three Mutant.

"S-Shut it, boy!" The old mutant—Doctor Finch—yelled. "Do you have any idea how terrifying runnin' away from those lightning strikes was?! God, I haven't moved that much in years…"

"But you are still alive, are you not?" Cyanide arched an eyebrow, folding his arms.

"Yeah, just barely!" The Doctor shot back, wiping sweat off of his forehead. Apparently, Stage Three Mutants and above could sweat as well. "I swear to god, I'm beginnin' to really regret lettin' you Imprint on my core, dammit…"

"Well… unfortunately, you're going to have to just deal with it," Luna said helpfully, smiling in the holographic screen that displayed her alluring figure. "This is just how Cyanide always is. Once you get used to I thought, it's not all that bad."

"Are you claiming my methods are bad?" Cyanide raised an eyebrow at his creation, as if challenging her.

"No, not at all. But they are… somewhat unorthodox, if you will. Most people will not understand the motive behind your plans, which is why I am the only suitable partner for you, in all senses of the word~♪"

"Unorthodox?! His plans just involve having someone else be a sacrifice! Ugh, kid… I really hope you're not going to drag me into another one of these 'plans' of yours," Doctor Finch groaned, slowly rising up to his feet. "I may be immortal, but that's only from natural causes! So if you want to get your hands on those potions I can make, I'd recommend keepin' me alive. Y'know, just a suggestion."

Cyanide gave a brisk nod. "I will take that into consideration. Now, are you done resting?"

Doctor Finch was far from convinced, but there was little he could do to the young man who quite literally had the poor old mutant's life in his hands. The Doctor could only hope the revenge he will finally be able to obtain by the end of all of this will be worth the insufferable journey.

*****

With Baby Zeus gone, electricity was restored back to the city. The Stage Five Mutant had been absorbing the power directly from the wires, though the exact science behind that method was unknown. And quite frankly, Cyanide didn't care. The mutant was dead. That was all that mattered.

Now that electricity had returned, there were many more places that Cyanide could explore that he couldn't before. Namely, places that didn't have a backup power system like Aterra Headquarters did, so there was constantly the risk of getting surprise attacked.

One such place Cyanide had in mind was the abandoned parking lot he had came across during the first Scarlet Hour. Even during the daytime, the interior of that place was frighteningly dark. He had a Radar skill, yes, but that had a duration and a cooldown. If a mutant or multiple mutants at once attacked while the skill was down, Cyanide wasn't confident he would be able to escape unscathed.

However, now that electricity was back to all of the city, he made up his mind to go check it out sometime soon. Last time he was there, he had felt an ominous presence that brought chills to even his spine—and he, out of all people, was not easily scared.

Still, he wanted to make sure he was prepared before he went in, just like everything else he did. The mutant hiding there—if that's what it was—would undoubtedly be many times stronger than Baby Zeus, and would be most likely either a Stage Four or Stage Five Mutant. And if possible… he wanted to Imprint on them.

Cyanide didn't hate having subordinates—after all, having teammates to help him would make any operations a lot easier. Back on Earth, he just never worked with anyone else besides Luna since he was constantly wary of possible betrayal. With the Imprinting feature in Endzone, however, that possibility was completely erased, and Cyanide would never say no to a powerful and loyal servant who was guaranteed to never betray him.

As it was getting dark, he decided to just head home and get some rest for the day. He wasn't a workaholic; he knew rest was just as important as food and water. It was a necessity for swift and efficient combat.

After eating dinner with the food brought over from the convenience store and stuffed into the fridges in the security officer dorms in the basement, Cyanide decided to run another sweep of the building, just to make sure no mutants had found their way in.

As for Doctor Finch, he kept on gobbling away at the food, since he had expended a lot of energy today. Apparently, in addition to their solar panels, Stage Three Mutants could replenish energy through human food, Stage Fours through human fluids, and Stage Fives through a unique source of their own—for example, Baby Zeus and electricity.

This was also the reason why Stage Three Mutants and above could remain operative even after the Scarlet Hour concluded every night, while Stage Ones and Twos who couldn't replenish their limited energy on their own were forced to shut down—at least, from what Cyanide could deduce.

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His complete check-up of the Aterra Headquarters finished before long. He began with the basement then worked his way up, all the way until the roof of the building. There, he stepped out of the stairwell door and welcomed the wind inside, feeling the cool breeze against his skin.

This was one of the tallest buildings in the city of Lumina, allowing him to get a good view. However, there was one massive central tower in the middle of the city, preventing him from seeing the Mutated Zone which was directly on the other side of that tower. He was going to explore that tower too, sooner or later, but his journey in this world was just beginning.

Sitting down on the roof's rough pavement, Cyanide brought one knee up and rested his arm on it while letting his other leg extend freely, and stared at the beautiful orange sunset over the horizon. How long has it been since he had appreciated nature like this?

"What's the plan for tomorrow, Cyanide?" Luna asked, her holographic figure appearing beside him.

"There is a place I want to check out, not far from here," Cyanide said. "I passed by it a while ago while clearing the streets of mutants, but didn't go in out of caution. Take a look."

He brought up his digital map with a swipe of his hand, zooming in on the building he was talking about. Luna tilting her head curiously after seeing what it said (despite her black blindfold that was just for show), and read it aloud.

"Hm… Lumina High, eh? But why would a high school for teens be labeled as a POI…?"

Cyanide closed up his map and turned back to the sunset. "Exactly what I am wondering as well. That place is hiding a secret—and I intend to get to the bottom of it."

"I see… I must agree, this is intriguing."

With a nod, Cyanide stood back up and did a short stretch, then turned away from the sunset and prepared to head back into the building. Night was falling, and he still had some things left to do before going to bed.

But just as he took a step, he suddenly heard the sound of a grandfather clock that rippled across the entire land. Once. Twice. Thrice.

Furrowing his brows, he quickly brought up his system screen and checked the time. It was 6:54 PM. Not 7 yet. And even if it was just a bug, the clock should've rang seven times, not just three.

All around Endzone, players looked up at the sky in confusion. From forests to caves, islands to cities, Survivors paused what they were doing and listened.

And amidst all of this, a woman's single cold and mechanical voice declared:

[Attention: Arena Closing. Survivors Remaining: 900.]

Cyanide narrowed his eyes and opened up his map, then zoomed out to the maximum. It was mainly filled with fog, signaling that most of the world was still undiscovered for him, but he could see that near the borders of the flat world, a field of blackness closed in ever so slightly in a circular shape, something that was not there before.

"What is this…?"

Luna folded her arms as she accessed her newly-unlocked database, and relayed the information to Cyanide, word by word:

"For every a hundred Survivors who perish, the Arena—in other words, the playing field of this survival game—will narrow. The Mist closes in from the outer borders of the world, and you can keep track of it through your maps. Converge towards the center as the game progresses, or die trying. Step outside the Arena, and perish. Fight for survival, and become the final victor."

"… I see. So this is how they are combating campers," Cyanide muttered, answering the question that had lingered on his mind for a while now. "This will make things interesting."

"Lumina, the city we're in right now, is at the direct center of the map. This means that the final battle will occur here," Luna said thoughtfully. "And if players are to converge towards the middle of the world, that means…"

Cyanide smiled devilishly. "… Looks like mutants aren't the only enemies we'll be having soon enough, huh?"

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