Apocalypse God Mode: Unlocked (Cecilia) novel Chapter 136

Chapter 136 What the Dead City Holds

Even if they left Merriton, the mutated rats would not follow them.

But what about the next mutated beast we encounter?

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+5 Pearls

The thought circled in his mind until it landed on a decision. He looked at Randy. “All right. When we get back, we’ll go talk to Timothy together.”

“Okay!”

Randy nodded eagerly.

Not far away, Cillian’s attention had drifted to the off–road vehicle parked beside Timothy’s group. His eyes lingered there, unable to hide the fascination. “They’ve got a lot of guns in that truck…”

The sheer want in his voice was plain.

He was already lost in the fantasy, sharing it with Randy and the others. “Once we join their team, we’ll get to use those too. And when that happens, what’s there to worry about? Mutated rats, zombies; it doesn’t matter. Just open up with a burst and clear the whole pack.”

In this world, everyone wanted to be stronger, even if the strength came from something outside themselves.

Aside from the massive snake that had been split open, a steady stream of mutated rats had surged forward.

Timothy and his two companions replenished their abilities with the rat crystals they’d collected earlier, then methodically wiped out the rest. The haul was an extra 50 or 60 mutated rat crystals.

Cecilia did not join them.

The black blood of the snake covered her from head to toe. Worse still was the stench that clung to her skin like rot baked under summer heat.

Without another thought, she began searching nearby houses, hoping to find a bathroom with a working water heater so she could finally wash the filth off.

Those heaters were common in cheap rental homes.

After checking a couple of places, she found one with water still in the pipes.

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9:02 Mon, Apr 20

Chapter 136 What the Dead City Holds

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5 Pearle

The former occupant had already turned into a zombie.

But the blood coating Cecilia carried such a violent, overwhelming odor that it masked the scent of living flesh entirely.

The zombie showed no reaction when she stepped inside.

It shuffled past her like someone walking in darkness.

“Well…” Cecilia muttered.

She had apparently reached a new level of filth, the kind that made even a zombie lose its appetite.

Not wanting to be interrupted mid–shower, she quickly dispatched the thing before finally stepping under the blessed spray of hot water.

As she scrubbed, she turned the level 4 snake’s crystal over and over in her free hand.

Weird.

A question had been nagging at her for a long time.

Why were all the mutated animal crystals so geometrically perfect?

The rat crystals were smooth ovals, like eggs.

The crystal from the level 4 mutated snake, however, was nearly a perfect sphere, smooth as a glass marble.

But zombie crystals were always irregular, rough, and jagged in the hand.

Is it, she wondered, a matter of complete versus incomplete development?

In her previous life, she had not stayed long at the superbase, and she never had the chance to meet the researchers who specialized in studying zombie crystals.

The answer would probably stay out of reach for a while.

“Unless… Jerome can start running experiments sooner?” she mused.

The thought brought her up short. She gave it serious consideration. If they truly wanted to begin experiments, their next destination could only be Sanctum City.

It was the only place with the equipment needed to work on a zombie cure.

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9:02 Mon, Apr 20

Chapter 136 What the Dead City Holds

83

+5 Pearls

Jerome had mentioned it once in an interview during her previous life. Other researchers had confirmed it as well.

The greatest obstacle to developing a cure has never been the theory, but the equipment.

They’d have to send multiple teams to Sanctum just to retrieve the necessary machines.

It wasn’t just the equipment’s rarity that made it a challenge. It was Sanctum itself. Before the Fall, it had been a sprawling metropolis of over ten million people.

The virus had claimed a tenth of them, turning a million souls into mindless predators.

But in the city’s western district, blessed with a prime coastal location, the first real base for the living had been established. Over a million survivors had carved out a life there.

To survive, they’d had to make a brutal choice.

They drove the zombies toward the eastern, southern, and northern districts.

It was an act of containment that turned those areas into a monstrous breeding ground.

In those early days, even those who’d awakened abilities had no idea how to strengthen them. Their powers were too weak, their impact too small.

They sent out regular cleanup crews, but they could never keep pace with the rate of mutation.

In the end, the western district became nothing more than a feeding ground for the very horrors they’d tried to pen in.

The first great bastion of hope collapsed.

Fewer than ten thousand people made it out alive.

A city packed with over ten million zombies. And within a month, level 4 and level 5 mutated ones would begin appearing.

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