Amber Fury

Amber walked out of the Mutant Association's tent, despondence and weariness gnawing at his heart. The test had come out—it was another failure, and he was deemed an ordinary human.

Five times he had gone to an MA outpost to undergo the Mutation Test, and five times he'd had to leave in disappointment. It was common knowledge that the more times someone consumed the Awakening Liquid to stimulate their mutation and failed, the less their chances of ever becoming a Mutant.

Amber's five times was considered already at the red line. If he were to try one more time and still showed no sign of mutating, he would only be able to tread the other path—becoming a zombie.

This wasn't a real path, of course. Mutants and Zombies were each at one side of a spectrum. They were like the two sides of a coin, fire and water, or two parallel lines that would never be able to meet and reconcile.

In this apocalypse world, the zombies represented the negative aspect of the K-Virus, while mutants had come about because of Evolution's interference. No one knew whether Evolution was an entity or a concept, but one thing was for sure: without it, the world would have long been run over by the K-Virus, turning all living things into the walking dead.

As he walked on the dirt path flanked by rows of tents, Amber could see the hustle and bustle of the camp. Groups of people would pass by him from time to time, carrying with them cold weapons that glinted with unnatural light.

Amber would experience a tingle every time that happened, a mixture of fear, longing, anxiety and various emotions stewing in the cauldron of his heart. They were all mutants, humans blessed by Evolution and who possessed Evolution Index.

This Evolution Index was something that Amber lacked, which was the cause of his inability to undergo mutation.

After each group of mutants passed him, Amber would allow his eyes to linger on their backs. He marveled at their attire and equipment, which had also undergone mutation by virtue of Evolution.

They would have varying degrees of effects and powers similar to those possessed by the mutants. However, Amber could only admire how fantastical they looked as of now. Their appearance truly brought forth an element of fantasy that tugged at his heartstrings.

Sighing, Amber forced himself to face his new reality—though, it wasn't entirely new. He'd long known that this future was what seemed to suit him best, according to cruel fate.

It wasn't like he lost something that should have been his. There were much more ordinary people than mutants, the ratio being a despairing one in a thousand. What made that comparison worse was that the population of humanity was at its lowest—at the brink of extinction, even.

In this MA outpost, there were barely a few thousand people. Of course, this didn't mean that the number of mutants were in the single digit. Mutants would congregate wherever the MA set up an outpost. There were a few hundred of them available to serve the MA and receive protection in return.

Ordinary humans in MA outposts were the workforce that kept operations running.