chapter 60

Never Changed My Minds

“Dana!!!”

Lucius sought out Alex’s voice and walked into a white laboratory.

A corpse. As soon as he walked into this lab, Lucius sensed the smell of death. The bodies on the floor were scientists in white coats, but they weren’t the only Alex had killed. Rather, they were killed by their experiment…

Dana…

So it seemed that Alex had arrived too late, as Dana was now tearing at Alex’s arm, but Alex didn’t resist and reached out to grab her. Her once brown human eyes had turned into a violet crimson, blood dripped from the corner of her mouth. Blood spilled out of Alex’s torn hand, but he didn’t push her away.

Lucius glanced at Su Lei.

“I’m…going to wait somewhere else.” Su Lei couldn’t seem to take the darkness of the New Federation of China any longer, and he headed off in another direction.

But Lucius walked into the room.

“Alex, calm down!”

“But, Dana…”

“She didn’t turn into a zombie!” Lucius pointed at Dana, “Alex, take a closer look at your sister. She still had the same genes as you. Didn’t you still retain your sanity after being infected with the Black Light virus?”

“She… didn’t turn into a zombie?” Alex endured the pain of his arm being torn by Dana and stared intently at Dana’s rabidly glowing eyes.

Those were how a zombie behaved, extremely aggressive. When Alex entered the room, Dana was seen gnawing on human flesh. Didn’t that what make you a zombie?

Wait… Alex stared into her eyes and saw glistening liquid spilling out of Dana’s frenzied eyes.

It’s…tears?

Dana was crying…

“What the hell is going on here?” Alex questioned Lucius.

It was indeed tears, and the fact that Dana was crying meant that she retained her human sanity. Still, her movements and actions were no different from a zombie.

“A great blessing in disguise.” Lucius scanned the scientist’s corpse on the floor whose insides had all been eaten up, “These guys injected the Black Light virus into your sister’s body. But your sister is still alive because she has the same adaptable genes as you. She’s still Dana, the sister you knew, but driven by a desire. The same desire as the zombies. “

“That’s why she was feeding on human flesh and blood. She needs to cease her starvation.”

“The same as me?” Alex looked at Dana, the pain in his arm made it all feel real. As if he had made up his mind about something, he slapped his hand heavily on Dana’s neck, instantly knocking her out. Losing her consciousness, Dana fell into Alex’s arms.

“You know how to disarm this virus, right? Lucius! From the Black Watch’s memory, they said you are the spreader of this virus!” Alex stood up and grabbed Lucius’ collar. “Tell me! How to save Dana!!!”

“She can’t be cured.” Lucius looked at Alex with regret in his eyes, “Once infected by the Black Light Virus, they are forever rooted in the infected body. There is no way to divide them, you, yourself, should know better than me, Alex.”

“You!” Alex raised his fist…trying to throw his punch at Lucius… But…

“So what if she’s cured?! Do you think the world will accept both of you? Alex! You’ve absorbed the memories of the Black Watch! By now, you should know what kind of existence you are to the New Federation! Do you think your sister will ever be able to live as a normal person again?”

“!”

Alex’s movements stopped abruptly, and he released Lucius’s collar and took a few steps back.

Indeed, among the memories of those Black Watch inside his body, Alex was now wanted no less than Lucius. What’s more, they knew Dana’s whereabouts.

Even if she returned as an ordinary human. Would it be possible for her to go back to her normal life?

“But I don’t want to see Dana turn into a monster like me!”

Alex carried Dana, unsure where to go from here.

“A monster like you? What kind of monster? A mindless zombie that only knows how to gnaw on human flesh and blood? Monsters who only know how to kill?”

Lucius tidied up his collar. Alex was really strong…

“Exactly! I’ve become a monster that is constantly killing humans. After being infected by the Black Light virus, isn’t that the only thing I can do? Turning into a mindless zombie.”

“Heh…” but the only thing that answered Alex was a malicious snicker from Lucius.

Lucius reached out his hand and grabbed Yuri, who had been hiding behind him all the time.

“Oh… Master, please no… He’s so scary.” After Yuri was pushed in front of Alex, he covered his head and kept backing away. But Lucius held Yuri’s shoulder so he couldn’t go anywhere.

Alex looked at Lucius in confusion, not knowing what Lucius wanted to do by suddenly bringing out a terrified little girl. But…

“This child was also infected.” Lucius’s words, however, shocked Alex.

“He cried, he felt fear, he laughed. He had a mind of his own. Do you think being infected by the Black Light virus could only turn into a mindless zombie?”

“But…why?” Alex did sense that the weak-looking little girl in front of him was just like him.

“Those zombies are just losers!” Lucius pressed Yuri’s shoulder, “The Blacklight virus wasn’t originally invented as a virus. Rather, an agent that would allow humans to evolve. Those zombies were failures that couldn’t evolve. But you, Alex Mercer, you are a successful person. The only successful human who could evolve after the Black Light virus.”

The system displayed Alex at a level-5 lifeform. That meant, he possessed no less than an A-ranked Esper’s power. Maybe his destructive power wasn’t as strong as an A-ranked Esper. But Alex was the same as Lucius. He couldn’t die. No, Alex had far exceeded the concept of life and death as he had transformed into the prototype of the virus.

“Your sister has the same genes as you.” Lucius looked at Dana, who was sleeping in Alex’s arms, “She just needs a little time to de-transform herself. Soon, she’ll become a more powerful being than an ordinary human…”

“The same genes as me.”

Alex was now certain that his body was filled with the Black Light virus. But even so, he still retained his human sanity and intelligence as Alex Mercer, and that was enough for him.

“Dana isn’t dead, she’s with you now. One day, she’ll regain her senses back, but never return to a normal human again.” Lucius was telling the truth, the Black Light virus was essentially developed to make humans stronger in the first place. People turning into zombies was an unexpected evolution they couldn’t prevent.

“The New Federation of China doesn’t allow us to exist.”

Alex remembered the memories in his mind, the human memories. Either the fear of the Black Light virus or the hatred and horror the Black Light virus had spread.

“No, even the entire human race doesn’t allow us to exist.”

“Then, we destroy them!” Lucius’ resolute tones spoke out, “Humans hate us, we have no room to survive in this world filled by humans. So we’ll have to fight for it ourselves!”

“……..”

Alex was silent for a moment as he took a look at Yuri, who was already crying and trying to hide behind Lucius again. And then at the bodies on the floor, who had lost most of their internal organs, turned into zombies crawling on the ground. He crushed the brain from one of the zombies with a kick. Bloodstained his body again. He tightly held Dana in his arms.

“I hate you, Lucius… You’re the one who caused this mess, the one who made me this way!” Alex walked up to Lucius and looked straight at him, emitting an explicit murderous aura. Yuri, who was hiding behind Lucius, trembled uncontrollably.

“So?” Lucius replied calmly to Alex.

“But…I hate the guys who made Dana this way even more…” With another kick, Alex crushed a zombie on the ground that was crawling towards him.

“I’ll work with you! You’re the only one I can work with! I just want Dana to live a normal life! Don’t let her become like me, Lucius!” One of Alex’s hands turned into a claw, resting on Lucius’ neck. “If you forget your original purpose and destroy humans simply out of revenge, I will kill you with my own hands.”

After saying everything, Alex held the unconscious Dana in his arms and headed out of the base.

“Forgetting… my original purpose?” Lucius looked at Alex’s back and muttered to himself, “I never meant to do any of these for my own survival in the first place. It doesn’t matter what I’ve become anyway. It’s all for someone I love…”

Lucius’s hand stroked the pendant hanging on his chest, which was usually stored in the system inventory. Because it’s the only thing he had left from her sister.

“We’re a bit similar… Alex…”

“Ooooh… Master Lucius, he’s so scary…” Yuri cried out of fear.

Really. How come a level 4 infected life could act this cowardly?

“It’s fine, we’ll be teammates fighting together from now on.” Lucius comforted Yuri.

Soon after, Lucius walked out of the experiment base with Yuri. Just when he stepped out of the base, he felt a cold air blowing on his cheek.

“Master…” Arthas held the Frostmourne.

Behind her, the world had been turned into a snowy and icy field, the aftermath of a battle. A headless corpse fell to the ground. Did she decapacitate an Esper?

“…”

Alex stood silent against the wall with Dana in his arms. Su Lei had come out earlier, sitting on the side, playing with fire in his hand to keep him warm.

After Lucius walked out, everyone focused their attention on him. He walked forward, step by step. Looking at the sky that started snowing. The scent of death was thick in the air, he cracked open his mouth and stared at everyone with his scarlet eyes and said.

“Gentlemen, it’s time for war!”

All the chess pieces are in place.

And now, the war has begun.