Marcus' eyes flung open at the white ceiling.
He felt like sleeping forever as his body was caught in the fluffy sensation of the bed and brown blanket.
He could remembered how Mei Ling led him to her rented apartment like a shepherd while he followed like a sheep.
The itching and throbbing sensation in Marcus' forehead, right arm, right leg, and chest—his heart region surprisingly— only lasted for a few seconds.
Taking his bath and brushing his teeth first time in three months, Marcus took a whole two hours in the bathroom.
He remembered how his once short black hair had grown long and matted, tangled into knots that no longer resembled anything close to a hairstyle when he gazed at the bathroom mirror.
The face that stared back at him was gaunt and hollow, Marcus' cheeks sunken and his sea-blue eyes rimmed with dark circles.
Night fell before Marcus left the bathroom when he entered it around 5:00 p.m in the evening.
During dinner, Marcus didn't want to eat but Mei Ling forced him, and he accepted, Marcus was so hungry that he ended up eating the whole food in her reserve.
He felt sorry for her but the hunger pang he felt when he tasted food for the past three months was uncontrollable.
So much has happened within the past three months, as Mei Ling explained, the neighborhood where Marcus lived was now Area 3—a numbered area where mutant beasts have formed their colony, a location will be numbered an area once mutant beasts overrun and turn it into a desolate place, they form a hierarchy there and the most powerful become the area boss—this action is called beast inbreak.
For now, there are about seventy-four areas in the whole of Yangdao, with three areas in Heichien with Marcus' street being the third, he heaved a sigh of relief and was somehow thankful that the hospital location hadn't become a numbered area.
The Awakened raid areas, there is the government awakened league which the government created—this one has special privileges, when they are raiding areas, each is assigned at least three soldiers to command and the least pay is ¥350,000 although it is dependent on rank.
Their rank is based on achievement—the grade of the mutant beast they had defeated.
In the whole of Yangdao, there was only one S-rank, and three A-rank, the rest awakened were either C or D-rank, and B-ranks are rare.
The higher the rank, the higher their pay.
There are also the independent ones who banded together to raid areas, these ones get money from the beast grade they defeated and sold to the government.
Drones are sent to investigate numbered areas to find out the grades of mutant beasts so the awakened can know the level of what they want to face if they are going to raid areas.
There are three grades of mutant beasts and they are graded according to their eye colour change.
The S-grade has normal eyes of the particular creature species, the SS-grade has red malevolent glowing eyes, Marcus thought back and remembered the beast hawk that came to his school and the beast bear that attacked him.
'So those were SS-grade'
The SSS-grade has black eyes—they called them eyes of darkness.
They are the most powerful evolved mutant beasts with abilities that can bring a whole nation to ruins.
Although they are rare, Yangdao has none as of recently, but there are rumors that powerful nations like the US, China, and others have at least one at their disposal for military purposes.
These nations didn't suffer a single catastrophe or casualty from mutant beasts because they each possessed their own monster.
Like Madison Walker—the immovable Sovereign of the US—an admitted patient who suffered from schizophrenia.
On the day of the radiation apocalyptic event, Madison Walker was gazing at the ceiling in the hospital room when he saw an SS-grade beast mosquito.
Although the beast mosquito—which was said to tower above twenty feet—had already brought half of the hospital to ruins.
Madison thought it was probably an ordinary mosquito because of his delusion.
He even complained about the hospital's lack of pest control before using his left hand to swipe it away.
The beast mosquito's body blasted into pieces and was said to scatter all over the avenue where the hospital was located.
And Wang Jun of China which was said to use his fist to blast a hole through an SSS-grade beast.
Wang Jun was training in the mountains on the day of the apocalyptic event when an unfortunate mutant beast that evolved around the area came to him.
He used his fist to blast a hole through the beast, the impact sent a shockwave forward which cleared everything in its path including the range of mountains.
These human monsters are SSS-rank Awakened.
Marcus swallowed saliva upon saliva as he listened to Mei Ling the previous night, indeed these people are human monsters of the highest level.
Mei Ling, as a biologist, followed the awakened to raid areas.
Her job was risky, but all she had to do was record data.
Although the dead bodies of the mutant beasts were transported to government research facilities, there was still a need for battle data, such as the beasts' behavior changes, how they responded to aggression, their hierarchy in the areas, and many other data points which couldn't be observed with the dead bodies of the mutant beasts.
As the radiation apocalypse brought nightmares, it also has its advantage, boosting the growth of agriculture in an unprecedented and amazing way, food is now cheap as they are sold ten percent of their previous prices.
The mutant beasts' body parts are also used to craft weapons that the awakened use to defeat other mutant beasts since military-grade weapons didn't work on SS-grade and above beasts and with little effects on S-grade beasts.
Another useful thing is the sparkling gem that could be found in the mutant beast's body, although the source is unknown but the gem is a precious stone and some are more quality than others, the more the quality the more the worth.