33 Beginning Of Evolution

Ryo hurried to the back of the Estate before anyone could move. The girls were a close second to him, trying their best to stay close. Ryo was simply stupidly fast. As he reached the back, he saw some of the people threatening a wolf-looking creature.

When Ryo looked at it closer, it had white fur that looked like that of a husky and it had the same light blue, almost white eyes. The thing about it was that it had big ears that fell on the side of its head and they were black, in contrast to the rest of its fur. It was when looking at it in detail that Ryo recognized who exactly it was.

"Stop threatening him. You are scaring the little boy" Ryo said with complete calmness in his voice, as he stared at the collar the it had. The people around wanted to complain, since the creature in front of them didn't look at all like a little boy. Before anyone could speak, Ryo called the creature. "Zeke, come here boy"

The "monster" immediately ran towards him and, when everyone was getting worried, nuzzled its head against Ryo's hip. Ryo squatted and began petting him while staring at him attentively.

"You've gotten so big little boy!" he said happily while playing with Zeke. The dog, if it could still be called that, stood proudly while raising his head. It was clearly saying something like "Now I'm awesome so praise me more"

"How did this happen?" he asked more to himself than the dog. He didn't expect Zeke to bite his pants and try to take him somewhere. "Ok, ok, I'll follow you, just stop doing that!"

Zeke guided Ryo towards the very back of the Estate, where he found a hole barely big enough for his head. How did he know his head fit? Because inside the hole was the head of a zombie. How it had reached that place? Ryo had no idea. What he did know was that the zombie's head was somehow split open and there was a weird looking substance in it. When Ryo was about to touch it though...

[Host is recommended to wait until the Virus Essence crystallizes before consuming it. That way, the Evolution will be much stronger]

'Is... is this what they meant by the "potential" of the world raising?' Ryo thought as he stared at the liquid. According to what the System had told him, it would at some point crystallize, and that was when it would be ripe for comsumption. How that was supposed to happen or when, Ryo had no idea.

He got up from the head and patted Zeke slowly in the head before promising to reward him for being a good boy. He then looked at everyone present. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He was already seeing how much trouble all of this would bring.

"I don't want a word about this to reach anyone besides those present" Ryo said with a tone of authority. Those outside of his main group immediately got tense, realizing how serious the situation was. It didn't cross their mind for a second to disobey Ryo's order. After all, they were just workers sent to repair the damange in the wall.

Seeing that everyone nodded, someone going as far as doing a military salute, Ryo sighed once again. He looked at Zeke, who still behaved mostly like a puppy, but seemed to be actually smarter. He used <Essence Reading>, the shining of his eyes clearly visible by the darkness carried by the night.

[Name: Zeke

Level: 2

Strength: 17

Agility: 21

Intelligence: 12

Dexterity: 8

Charisma: 12

Skills: <Sneaking (Experienced)> <Tracking (Expert)> <Loyalty>]

Those were, for an animal, stupidly high stats. Intelligence and Desterity being low was normal, but the fact that his Intelligence was at 12 was shocking. That was, after all, a human level of thinking! Besides that, Ryo was happy to know that Zeke had <Loyalty>, since it meant that he wouldn't betray them.

"Let's go inside. We need to talk" Ryo said as he was closely followed by Zeke. The girls quickly followed, with Miku being daring enough to pet the now wolfish dog.

Once everyone was inside their meeting room, Zeke laying beside Ryo, he began explaining his assumption of what had happened.

"This might sound crazy, but I think Zeke evolved after consuming something of a zombie"

Everyone opened their eyes wide. They didn't want to believe it, but there was no other way for Zeke to suddenly turn from the cute puppy into something so... wild looking. It almost looked like Ryo had domesticated a wolf.

"I think it is time to think about why people are turning" he said with seriousness being the only thing present on his face. "We can assume the virus affected many people at one, the first infected"

At those words, Shizuka nodded and intervened. She explained that that was how most viruses spread, existing in a first carrier until someone came into contact with it, effectively getting infected with it.

"Taking Shizuka's words into consideration... the virus doesn't spread only through bites" Ryo explained his theory, which was readily accepted. After all, it was the only thing that made sence. The one who spoke after that was Saya.

"If that is the case though... most people are resistant to the effect the virus has" she said while thiking a bit more. "Which is the reason why most only turn after bitten!"

Ryo smiled when he saw how quickly the girls brain moved. She really was a genius, and she used that big brain of hers to help him as best as she could.

"Exactly. Besides that, we haven't seen any animal infected by it, nor attacked" Ryo said, regaining his seriousness. Once again, he was followed by Saya.

"I remember! Zeke was being avoided by the zombies when you rescued him, but they did attack you!" she yelled, realizing what I was pointing at. Zeke hadn't been attacked by them and animals weren't infected naturally either. That meant the virus only affected humans... but helped other creatured evolve.

Everyone in the table reached the same conclusion at around the same time. Even Shizuka, who was usually oblivious about many things, thought that it only made sense. Ryo turned to her. It was her moment to shine.

"Shizuka, do you know how to do a DNA test?" he asked the bubbly nurse, who was oddly serious currently. "I do... but can we do a blood test too?"

Ryo just smiled. He was extremely happy to have someone who knew how to do these kinds of things. It just happened to be a beautiful woman that was attracted to him.

"Do we have a microscope of enough quality, though?" he asked once he realized his idea wasn't as easy to carry out as he would've liked. Yuriko quickly quenched his worry. "We do. Since Soichiro was rather paranoid, he had the doctors do any and every test here. I will guide you to the laboratorie room. There is an electron microscope there"

After that short conversation took place, we all followed Yuriko to the small laboratorie Soichiro had set-up for when his personal doctor had to run some tests. Shizuka was happy to know she had a place where she could work with ease, since it was a must to have certain tools.

"Zeke, be a good boy while Shizuka gets some of your blood okay?" Ryo told the dog while he took a hair from it and another one from his own clothes. Dog hair tends to get stuck to clothes, much like cats hair. They were just lucky that this one still had the root of the hair.

The procedure didn't take too long, and the result would be out in less than an hour. Shizuka quickly took the strands of hair and placed one of them on the microscope. It was the one taken from Ryo's clothes.

"There is nothing weird here... it looks like regular DNA" she said while looking at it closely. It was just regular DNA. She then changed it out for the new strand of hair and noticed a big difference between them. This one here... there are some neon green dots grabbing on to the regular DNA helix..."

Ryo immediately knew that it was the virus. He thought that, perhaps, he would be able to take it in a small dosis. But the System recommended him to wait until it crystallized. And it hadn't done him bad yet... but he wanted to test it anyways. He was sure that, if he fucked up, he could make a comeback as long as he was alive.

"I see... so Zeke licked the liquid out of the zombies head and the virus made him evolve..." Ryo said as he stroked his chin. "But instead of the virus taking over Zeke, it just got incorporated into his DNA"

Ryo had decided. He would try the liquid himself.

*

Half an hour later, he was tied to a chair with chains in an empty room. It was currently night time and everyone was sleeping. The girls had protested against his idea with nail and teeth, but in the end Ryo told them to believe in their man and they couldn't fight anymore.

Of course, they kept cursing at him while tying him. He knew what he was doing was selfish and insensitive, but he had to do it. Something in him told him to just do it, so he did.

"Ok everyone... this is it. I'll see you tomorrow for sure" he said as Saeko brough the vial with the liquid to his lips. In one gulp, he drank it all. His nose scrunched and his brows furrowed. "Ugh! This tastes like shit!"

Once by one, the girls left, clearly angry at him. He would have to work a ton to make them up for his stupid idea. The last one to leave was Shouko, who didn't want to leave Ryo's side. After all, he was the only person she considered family in that place after hers was lost.

"Baka Ryo... please don't leave me..." she signed to him with tears threatening to leave her eyes. She then ran out of the door and closed it with key.

Ryo was staring at the door with his heart clenching tight.

'Damn... I must survive this at all cost. I can't let that girl cry again' he thought as his body began burning up, the temperature clearly rising, before suddenly lowering until the entire room was cold.

Ryo was suffering through extreme pain.

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Reign, why do you leave ghosts on the dash lines?

Also, the cliffhanger is strong here.