Mutagen

Day 203 - 1:25 AM - Presidential Mansion, Central Area, Safezone, Corregidor Military Settlement, Island of Corregidor, Province of Cavite

After finishing his battle against the Elite Special Forces soldiers, Mark made his way towards the Presidential Mansion.

The distance was not that far, and along the way, Mark could detect hundreds of soldiers, both hidden and not.

However, unlike when this commotion began, the regular soldiers did not have any notion to tangle with Mark.

All of these poor soldiers saw how Mark overpowered this country's strongest elite soldiers. Those elite soldiers could defeat regular soldiers even with a numerical disadvantage, not to mention some of them having superhuman abilities.

There was no way these regular soldiers would win against Mark even if they all tried. They all knew that it was a fruitless endeavor even if they tried to do so.

And the most important thing was that these soldiers did not receive any order to fight Mark anymore. The higherups had gone silent all of a sudden.

That was the reason why when Mark passed through, all these soldiers could do was watch. Unlike the police that was given the privilege to move more freely, the soldiers were more or less trained to only follow orders from their superiors. Planning and following it was crucial on battlefields, after all. A single mishap because a single soldier strayed away from the orders could cause the whole plan to collapse. And now that the line of command was frozen, none of them had the intention to move.

However, the frozen line of command was not the greatest factor in the actions of these soldiers. Comparing the side of the current government and the camp of General Perez, these soldiers would rather choose the latter. Did had no positive outlook towards people who only treated them as cannon fodder and tools at their disposal.

Unfortunately, they were soldiers. They could only follow orders from those superior to them in military positions and keep their current status. After all, soldiers had higher stature than refugees in any way in the current situation.

And from today onwards, the status of the current government and General Perez's camp would be reversed. These soldiers would rather not incur the ire of the new ruling by provoking Mark.

Soon, Mark arrived at the Presidential Mansion without any resistance on the way.

Mark stared at the mansion from outside its doors.

"The sure fled fast."

Mark murmured.

When Mark infiltrated the mansion earlier, Mark detected many individuals in a particular room of the Presidential Mansion. It included a few individuals he was rather familiar with. He was quite sure that it would be the center of command of the current government, led by President Derioa.

Now, however...

There were only four people left in that very same room.

Nonetheless, two of those four people were emitting a very different aura than those of humans. And those two were also the two most powerful presences he detected in this settlement.

Mark looked at the central window of the mansion on the second floor. Although the window was tinted, preventing anyone from outside from seeing through it, he was sure that someone was standing there watching him.

Without further ado, Mark entered the mansion and rushed towards that room.

And as Mark arrived in front of that room, the door was opened by someone else.

Knowing that he was being invited inside, Mark stepped in.

"It's quite surprising. You did not even hesitate to enter. It was as if you knew that we did not prepare any trap."

A voice of an old man entered Mark's ears.

Mark glanced around the room. It was a room with only one desk with the central window of the mansion behind it. On that window, a middle-aged man stood, with his back facing Mark.

Aside from that man in front of the window, there was an old gentleman wearing formal clothes at the northeast corner of the room. To the west side, two people stood, staring at Mark. The second one, wearing hooded clothing, seemed to be behaving like an attendant as he stood behind another middle-aged man.

That voice that entered Mark's ear was from the old gentleman at the corner of the room, looking at Mark with great interest.

"It is our loss, isn't it?"

The man by the window, President Deroa, turned around and faced Mark. His face was filled with resignation to the unfavorable outcome of this event.

And to add salt to injury, Mark spoke.

"I could have helped this settlement, turning you into a [Mutator] which you seemed to want for a proper price. I did the same with General Perez in Bay City. Why do you have to antagonize us? Putting me into a wanted list and stuff?"

President Deroa stared at Mark in surprise. He did not really expect Mark to say this. However, Mark did not seem to be lying. And thus, the president who seemed to become older could only sigh.

Mark was not lying. He had a bunch of [Physical Crystals] lying around unused. Most of these had abilities that were rather undesirable for Mark to use on his people, like mutations that give humans permanent animal parts and stuff.

Well, it was just Mark's preference and him having a hoarder mentality to collect stuff. In the current time, no one would bother having those parts as long as it allowed them to survive. It was the same for the president and his allies. They only wanted to become [Mutators] and [Evolvers]. However, their decisions overstepped their bounds.

If it was in exchange for a suitable price, Mark could let go of one or a couple of those crystals.

And with that sigh, Mark continued.

"Greed, isn't it?"

President Deroa let out another sigh.

"I guess we really are blinded by greed. Fear of dying from the [Infected]. Having our position jeopardized. And the stress to keep this place running. We didn't think things properly and lost miserably."

Then, the president looked at Mark.

"I sacrificed a lot of things to get into this position, whether it be monetary wealth or other important things. Don't you think I would be able to let go of this position easily? I, no, we wanted to use your power to solidify our position even during the apocalypse. Who would not think so? Especially when there is some general who could jeopardize it?"

"You could have done the same as him, you know that, right?"

Mark asked.

"It seemed that you didn't know." President Deroa shook his head. "Perez is a natural-born leader, adored by the people. Even without his personality, he is someone naturally loved by those around him. And his personal ideals, putting others' lives before his, multiplied that natural talent. It is not something that most of us politicians have. Why do you think that we had to spend millions on propaganda and empty promises to just get the people to put us into this position?"

President Deroa took a deep breath.

"But it all doesn't matter now. It's our loss. I'll have to vacate this position."

"Isn't it late for that? You should have vacated it before all of this." Mark tilted his head with a frown. "Now that you ordered people to attack me and kidnap important people to me, you should know that I'm here to kill you and all those in cahoots with you."

"I know."

President Deroa nodded before turning to the old gentleman standing in the corner of the room.

"My apologies, but I would rather have you refrain from killing the Sir. Deroa."

The old gentleman said as he stepped forward.

"And who you are you anyway?"

Mark asked with a frown. It already became a policy for Mark to kill whoever attacked him first. The Elite Soldiers were just lucky since they were ordered by someone else. Furthermore, their strength was needed by this settlement.

As for the president his allies, who were the mastermind, there was no point in keeping them alive. The settlement should be able to function with or without them.

"Oh, where are my manners." The old gentleman said carefreely. "I am Subsinctus. Most people call me "The Shifter" or just Shifter."

Hearing the name, along with this old man's powerful presence, Mark understood who this guy was.

"A Latin name. An agent of the CNC, correct?"

Mark voiced out.

The four people in the room were surprised. None of them expected Mark to know of this underworld business organization, not to mention pointing out the old gentleman as one.

"Well... This is an unexpected development." The old gentleman, Subsinctus, gazed at Mark in surprise. "Are you someone with a hidden background to know of us?"

This was the right question. All over the world, only those with a high position, power, wealth, or fame knew of the Crystallus Notitia Coetus. Even among the other smaller underworld organizations, only a few knew of the CNC.

Yet Mark here knew of them.

"I'm just a regular person, no, a Demon, now," Mark replied truthfully. There was harm revealing this much. "But I just happened to have my own contracted agent."

Mark took out the feather that Val Flora gave him to show proof. And here, even the calm-looking Subsinctus looked like he swallowed a bug.

"Now, this is awkward," Subsinctus said. "We planned of proposing a contract with you in exchange for keeping Sir. Deroa's life. But since you are in contract with someone else, this card we had in our hands had been rendered useless."

This made Mark confused. A contract with the CNC was very valuable. Even more valuable than a person's life. Yet, Subsinctus wanted to give Mark a contract for the president's life?

"If you are confused, allow me to explain," Subsinctus spoke. "Each country around the world had an agent assigned to them. Here, I am the agent of the CNC in charge of this country. However, the only person that could give the agents requests and transactions are the leaders of the country. In this country's case, the president. That contract could only be renewed after every presidential election, approximately every six years."

Subsinctus turned to President Deroa.

"Currently, Sir Deroa is my contractee. That will last until the next four years, whether he is dead or alive. Business-wise, that will be unfavorable to me and this country as the transaction will be frozen. You should know that in business, such a thing is very detrimental. More importantly, the one supplying materials to this settlement is me, and the only person that could procure the materials by request is Sir. Deroa."

"Can't I just ask my agent to do that?"

Mark asked.

Subsinctus turned to Mark.

"While I have no idea who is your agent, but I believe that they would not be able to provide things at the scale of a country's agent. Us agents had our designations and specialties within the organization if your agent did not explain it to you. Furthermore, establishing another route to transport materials is not easy as you are thinking, especially now."

Mark could only fall onto a pondering silence, looking at President Deroa.

"Then, you are saying that he will become the bridge between General Perez and you as long as I leave him alive?"

"It is not like we have any other choice in the matter," Subsinctus replied. "Even if he already lost and would be stepping down, he is still my current contractor. Our organization's contracts are absolute."

Mark frowned. It looked like that this old gentleman was keen on protecting President Deroa because of the contract. It would also be a bad thing for the settlement if the supplies were cut off because of this.

"What a blunder," Mark murmured as he turned to President Deroa. "So, he's the only one needed to live, correct? Then, I'm free to kill the others."

Everyone in the room could feel Mark's bloodlust.

"You better keep your word. Now, step down and become a nobody." Mark said to President Deroa flatly. "From now on, this settlement is led by General Perez. Be sure to support him fully. You're only keeping your neck because of this."

And here, Mark turned around and left the room immediately.

"Wait!"

The other middle-aged man tried to catch up to Mark as he went out. However, he saw nothing but an empty hallway outside.

"Tch. I've been ignored."

The middle-aged man, Chairman Pedro Kakahuyan, clicked his tongue.

"Looks like he didn't see you even as an ant."

The hooded man, Crowell, jeered at his contractor.

Looking annoyed at Crowell, the Chairman reentered the room.

"It's good that I refrained from jumping into the bandwagon, am I right, Mr. President?" The Chairman spoke to President Deroa. "No, it should be Mr. Ex-President now."

"Haah..." Roderick Deroa slumped into his chair. "Stop it. I'm not even in the mood to argue with you anymore. I did my best to send away the Marcoses and succeeded there. In the end, I still lost. Just now, I'm already ready to give up on living. Luckily, he decided to let me live."

"You people overdid it." The Chairman said. "By the looks of it, it would have been fine for a while. But you and those greedy f*cks just had to kidnap people. You all are at fault for your loss."

And here, blood spilled all over the [Safezone]. Those allies of Ex-president Dero that fled were all found dead afterward. Among those who plotted the kidnapping, only two managed to survive.