Mutagen

Day 313 - 8:12 PM - Meiji Seimei Kan, Marunouchi, Chiyoda City, Tokyo

The Meiji Seimei Kan. It was a historical structure built around the end of the Edo Period and was finished in the March of 1934. It was a kind of odd-looking structure styled after Greek Revival Architecture. This historical building survived many important events in Japan's history, including the second World War, where it was taken over by the Allied Powers.

Unfortunately, the apocalypse was not so kind to the amazing historical structure.

Right now, the Meiji Seimei Kan was nothing but a ruined structure. The greek-styled pillars in its facade now littered the broken streets along with most of its walls.

However, pretty much like many ruined structures, some parts of the building managed to remain intact. In the case of Meiji Seimei Kan, a good chunk of the southwest corner of the structure managed to survive the collapse, leaving up to the fifth floor.

And right now, a slight sliver of light was coming from the fifth floor's covered windows.

This historical building within Chiyoda City was where Mark's group took camp ever since they arrived in the area a few days ago.

Mark's group returned before sunset. Since they toured the place for the whole day while digging through ruins and fighting the [Infected], everyone was tired. They all fell asleep after dinner, even Miracle, who did not really need to sleep.

It left Mark to stand guard. Although he let out their golems to do the job, Mark did not leave it entirely to them. And the reason? He wanted to check the items they found within the ruins of Akihabara.

As Mark sat on the floor with different kinds of items in front of him, he looked like an Otaku that had just gotten home, wanting to check his loot after spending a tedious day at a convention.

Unfortunately, despite the few stores they had been to, there was barely anything left intact. Mark only had a handful of undamaged figurines, while about a dozen with an acceptable amount of damage. Worse, there were only five of the figurines Mark liked, as he did not know which anime the others came from.

Even the most anime-addicted Otaku would not remember every anime and character, especially if they were outside their alley.

The group also found some posters. Of course, each of them was damaged. Leaving a printed product in the open almost a year after the apocalypse was definitely a bad idea. Mark still brought a few, though. He chose posters that were a bit washed out but only had damage at the corners and sides.

Among all the times, Mark's favorite find, aside from the Ains Ooal Gown figure, was the set of μ's figurine keychains. The keychains were locked within some sort of special metal case. Due to being buried under the dirt, the case was severely damaged. However, the keychains were left sealed and intact.

Lastly, a few damaged boxes of Gundam model kits. Most of the ones they found had broken contents. However, these model kits were made with the possibility of building and customizing robots from different kits. As such, even if some contents were damaged, the undamaged ones could still be used.

And as Mark took tonight's guard duty, he used this opportunity to organize his loot. He took some figurines out of their crumbling boxes and wiped them clean. He also appraised the damage and began to think of a way to fix them. Of course, restoring the damaged figures would be for another time.

While working, Mark ended up glancing around. He was working on an area outside an intact room, and Mark had a good view of the surroundings.

Who would have thought that Mark would still have the opportunity to fulfill one of his dreams when he was younger? The setting might be different from what he originally envisioned. Nonetheless, he did take a step into the land where the animation medium called "Anime" had originated.

If there were another two dreams accompanying this, it was to either make his own anime or publish his own manga. However, these two were not possible in an apocalyptic world. Thus, Mark was already pretty content with what he had achieved now.

Mark looked at the sky. The moonlight obscured parts of the sky. Nonetheless, the stars still shined bright, while most constellations were different. After all, the Philippines and Japan were on different hemispheres.

Closing his eyes for a bit, Mark remembered their journey after leaving the Mountain Base.

***

Mark's asked Ilia and Chimetrice for a ride. After all, it would be stupid to travel the distance between Japan and the Philippines on the back of Chaflar.

Were there scuffles during the journey? Of course, there were.

In the Spirit Dimension, countries were divided into territories. The territories were separated by a chasm in the ocean and spatial turbulence in the sky. It was to separate magical creations of the past gods and isolate them within suitable territories. This could be the reason why some mythological and legendary creatures from almost every country were different.

With the two dimensions fusing, these dividing factors also carried onto the new world. Without proper methods and strength, traversing country borders would be impossible.

Mark's group did not struggle much, however. Spera's natural talent with space-related abilities far exceeded the strength of the spatial turbulence, allowing her to create a stable portal through the unstable spatial wall.

Another problem was enemy attacks. Aggressive seabirds, literal flying fish, and even underwater snipers, there was quite an amazing variety of enemies within the wide ocean.

Seeing the birds were not that strange. However, a school of flying fish literally flying in the sky was surprising.

The most dangerous oceanic enemy along the way was what Mark named underwater snipers. They seemed to be some specie of mutated or evolved fish. However, they had the ability to shoot projectiles underwater. Most importantly, their projectiles could shoot up to a kilometer in the sky, gaining them the sniper name from Mark.

If Mark's group were flying on Chaflar's back and a school of underwater snipers attacked, the situation would be extremely dangerous. Fortunately, the [Mini Cube] could just shrug off the projectiles. As expected of a vessel that even lower Gods would have a hard time destroying.

And the most annoying problem Mark's group faced on their journey... It was the weather anomalies in the middle of the ocean.

Considering the borders of countries became spatial turbulence, magical chasms, and other strange stuff, it was not that surprising that more strange things could happen. But since the ocean was a vast, open space, more anomalies could appear there, like how tropical storms always start from the ocean.

In the case of Mark's group, they waved through strong air turbulence causing the travel to be extremely uncomfortable. Another was a magnetic lightning storm. Although it did not really affect the [Mini Cube] because of its unique structure, one of Mark's backup laptops got fried. It happened while they were watching a movie to relived boredom.

And the further into the ocean they traveled, the more they encountered the annoying stuff. As such, they had to curb their original path of flying straight from the Philippines to Japan and decided to take a path through the East China Sea. They even flew close to Taiwan before following the islands of Okinawa to reach Japan's main island, Honshu, after several hours of tedious travel.

It then took them several more hours to get to Tokyo's vicinity, where they alighted from the [Mini Cube] and sent it home through the portal. Ilia and Chimetrice were not really that interested in traveling to Japan. And in Mark's mind, it was also better if the two were to stay at the base and protect it while he was gone.

With Chimetrice staying there, Mark would not worry even if the guy called "The Great One" appeared to cause trouble once again.

Following Mark's initial objective as to why he needed to travel overseas, their first stop should be the [Auraboros'] Japan Branch. After all, they should have the guy named Shin, one of the [Inheritors] and Spera's former teammate. Furthermore, they also offered Mark an alliance back when the Chinese Branch caused them trouble. Most importantly, Spera should know where the base of the Japan Branch was, or at least the entrance to the base.

However, Mark decided against it. He would go there, but not immediately.

While one of the reasons was what they had done in the past few days, touring the place and having a fun time, his main reason was he did not trust the words of the envoy they had met before. The envoy was not lying. However, it did not mean that the one that sent the envoy was the same. Thus, storming that place without concrete information would be an idiotic action.

Thus, they were here, finding a good opportunity to gather information.

Mark's eyes turned towards the southeast. He could not see anything but ruins covered in darkness in the immediate vicinity. But far on the horizon, he could see a lighted-up sky.

A sign of a brightly lit place in the middle of the night. With the light emitted, it was not just one building but an entire city.

Mark was not just fooling around in the past few days. He noticed that light on their first night here and went to check alone. As such, he had an inkling of what place that was.

Japan's last line of defense, as they dubbed it. The reclaimed city of Koto.

It was a massive landfill area in Tokyo Bay that was developed into a commercial infrastructure containing many businesses, factories, condominiums, and many other things.

Now, the entire landfill area seemed to have been turned into a giant settlement city composed of several islands.

Unfortunately, Mark had yet to learn of the specifics of the place, and he did not dare wander into the area illegally. Knowing that the world now had many odd things lurking anywhere, it would not be surprising if Koto City had some surveillance mechanism or people capable of detection and stuff. As such, Mark did not want to cause trouble if they had to stay here for a prolonged time.

That was why Mark's group was camping here. Not too close to the vicinity of Koto City but also not that far. He was waiting for the opportunity to enter the place legally while not being too suspicious.

Mark's group could have camped closer to Koto City. It would give them more opportunities for what Mark had in mind. However, it would actually be unnatural.

It was because while Koto City might be a safe place, the entire ruined surroundings around Koto were brimming with [Infected]. Even during today's walk, Mark already lost count of how many [Infected] they killed just around Akihabara. If they camped closer, it would be really suspicious.

Thus, they could only wait.

With those thoughts in mind, Mark continued working on his loot, struggling to wipe stains out of the posters while making sure not to damage them further.

Across the night, some [Infected] stragglers noticed Mark sitting on the exposed side of the building. These were mutated ones that Mark called [Ruin Stalkers]. These [Mutated Infected] had slim bodies, strong ligaments and limbs, and spiky hands and feet. Mark gave them this name due to how they use the city ruins to ambush and attack their prey.

However, while the [Ruin Stalkers] could perfectly use the ruins to their advantage, they struggled to jump and use trees, getting stuck on branches and leaves. Thus, where the prefix "Ruin" came from.

Mark did not even need to move. The Valkyrie-maid Golem, Brynhildr, took care of the [Infected] without problems. Mark had to clean her clothes afterward, though. Bryhildr's maid uniform could easily get stained by blood, after all.

The group continued their current tourist life for another two days. They explored more of Akihabara the next day, getting more loot and stuff.

Ending their tour in Akihabara, they then visited Shibuya the following day. They found the ruins of Hachiko's Memorial Statue on the most famous crossroad in Japan. Lastly, they also explored the ruins of malls around Shibuya while gathering supplies buried in the rubble.

And the next day after their Shibuya our, the opportunity Mark was looking for finally arrived.

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