Chapter 4 : Revelation

Nouke drove out of the evacuation center and made it to the shore " Where in the world did she go ? " he tried to track her with and without the system's help but didn't get any results " She was missing for some time maybe she's at the island laboratory "

Nouke searched for a boat and got on to move to the island .

Belle left the system space after assuring Mena that she will only be gone for an hour after teaching her what an hour is ' I might want to talk to Nouke I may have his knowledge but not experience '

Belle took a binocular to see a boat and saw Nouke on it " Seems like he also wants to talk maybe somewhere private " she looked at the now water area as she sat on the boat watching him .

' He must be surprised to see that the island was taken away , did he use his system to find me ? ' Belle guessed watching Nouke arrive closer " Why are you out here ? " " Don't get familiar I know you have something that even I couldn't find in your head "

Nouke anchored his boat " Did you use the system space to store that island ? " " Yeah I'm sure you're capable of this if you had decided to sleep , But I think the stress your holding is keeping you from that "

He sighed and nods along " You wouldn't believe all that stress if you hadn't seen my memory " " You would be recovering much quicker if you even sleep a little " " How about you how come you still made that system even though you just went through my mind ? I'm sure you get tired there "

Belle sighed and stares at him with eyes wide awake " I did but a short nap is all I need to recover it feel's like I was asleep for an eternity but I don't know what that feels like just felt really long and I dreamt of something "

" What ? " " Why don't you sleep and find out ? " " Enough of that I can't okay " Belle sighed and teleported them into the doomsday bunker " Fine then I'll say with the system's blockage we should be able to avoid getting found . "

Belle leans forward to Nouke and whispered as the whole place was shaking " Okay stop I get it " Nouke went to find a couch and sat on it " I can't believe just sharing the information caused this turbulence . " Belle said .

" Looks like we are both teaming up " " I just hope you manage to sleep after this " " Are you hinting to me that that dream was the thing that kept you awake ? " " Yes it's like discovering the fact that there is a god outside our world and we are just made to test a possibility "

Belle places a glass of water for him and sat on a stool " Just to be sure that we learned the same thing . God created the world and also created four knights of apocalypse to destroy it " " And test the earth's capability to fight against the threat and to see if they would bring disaster upon themselves "

" An inventor will learn from their mistakes from their previous creations and so will a mathematician who will make sure they don't get the wrong answer for their solution "

" An artist seeks perfection in their creation not allowing a single imperfect mistake beside it thus will eliminate the mistake that touches there masterpiece , but some artist would like to understand their works so they bought them "

Both of them were reading each other's expressions and confirmed that they both saw the same dream " So how will we find our artist then ? " " We should eliminate his "sponsors" first they take care of them like a greedy man would take care of their money "

Belle frowns " Then where ? " " We want proper transportation best way would be using a jet but seeing as though the city is terrible and we bought probably won't be having any sleep for a while but doesn't look like you will need any "

" Yeah I learn how to pull all-nighters plus I might have that dream again " " Sounds reassuring another dream could get me detected so the only sleep I am getting is one with sleeping pills but my body seems to need so much to be consumed at once for me to sleep "

" So you can sleep " " Yes but you know how my body works it doesn't respond to quick changes " " Then we just look for a way to make you sleep like "you're dead" kind of sleep " " Yeah " Belle injected a syringe at Nouke and he fell asleep .

" At least that syringe is useful " Belle wiped her hands and look at her watch ' Looks like we need to hurry up ' Belle went to the elevator to see Mena sleeping " She needs rest anyways " Belle left a sticky note and wrote plenty of words leaving a manual book and a dictionary .

"Don't worry the turtle shell just needs to be moved , have fun with the books in your bedroom . if you want to go around make sure to read the book so you don't get lost . you can read the dictionary "

Belle left the bedroom and placed the settings of the whole bunker into living quarters and safety mode ' Won't be needing full lockdown for a while ' Belle returned to Nouke sleeping and sighed .

" Night would be a much better place to move " Belle got the syringe and although she can use her biokinesis it might backfire as she falls unconscious while changing it ' I should also look for genetic material to increase my total power '

Belle injected the syringe and quickly squeezed all the fluid before feeling the fluid spread into her body and fell down on the table beside her stool .

...

" We lost contact with all the contacts of the city , the island has mysteriously disappeared from the face of the map " a man sighed at his subordinate's report " And the people who went to search for it ? "

" Last contact lost at this area " " Send people to dive into the deep waters to find the lab the connection is still in place and it seems that the self-destruct system has been destroyed , grant us admin access to the lab or the highest as it may seem that an experiment took control of the lab "

" Yes " " Also bring the sample experimented in the lab they are smart enough to hack our system and even wipe out all the files " he sighs with disappointment .

' I might gain benefits if "they" give me some power it will be useful to obtain immortality too ' " Let me see the files that we last received from the lab "

" Sir that too has been wiped out and the rogue lab has lost contact right after a containent breach " " Investigate the breach and recover any specimens inside . "

" Affirmative we will send out two teams one to investigate the rogue lab and another for the missing lab "

...

a team appeared at the rogue lab and entered to see the scene of Mena's mutation as the flesh was no longer moving one bit .

" Clear " a soldier yelled out as a captain marked the area down " Status report " " Everything going well , permission to use containers to supply the specimens " the captain looked at the status around the room where the failed specimens are kept .

" Granted " they walked in and the whole operation was going smoothly if they had worn hazmat suits .

" Arrrhg " " Soldier down " gunshot was heard over the radio to an external van while the captain calmly asked " Status " " one soldier infected resistance was none " " All specimens procured "

The soldier immediately evacuated the lab entering the vans not knowing a vital information and the trees around were reacting to something they have .

Pollen season is a time of the year when sales of medicine , mask and home products increase due to the allergies of residents around plants . Usually , it is the male gametes that are the pollens but what if it was the female ovule .

Sounds like defying the current understanding of biology but who cares it's an apocalypse there's already the walking dead . The soldier that was shot was dried up and a plant was growing beside it with the roots seeking any liquids catching the soldier's blood on his corpse .

As for the plant ? it was part of Mena's mutation , but the blood part was not necessary . It's just that Mena is a blood type AB so this is more like a blood-accepting instead of blood-sucking .

See it's not something scary plus the body was dead anyways Mena doesn't get an assist kill plus that soldier was already acting weird in the first place . Genetically enhanced soldiers were part of the strengthened mobile forces under the boss .

The one who killed him was hired to do so by poisoning his body to help fake the death . Mena's spawned plant was going to help him with the poison but something inevitable like a gunshot was used to cover his death so now the corpse is now a pot of fertilizer .

You probably dug a grave without a coffin just so your dog could be one with nature and is the plant guilty no it is not . But the killer is " Infected in our van " gunshots were heard as another targeted soldier was poisoned and the assassin quickly shot him to prevent others from figuring it out .

But the corpse quickly became nutrient to the plant which scared the soldiers forcing the nearest soldier to the door to leave the van and shooting the plant but the woods was too fragile it went through killing soldiers causing the plant to grow more .

Much frightened by the situation soldiers decided to call one last call to headquarters announcing a strange plant that grew at the rogue lab . The loud movement of the plant attracted zombies as the soldiers were overwhelmed .

He immediately commited SEPPUKU no he just killed himself too quickly , wonder why a guy like this is in militiary .

The plant signaled the area as many more plants of similar species grew and attracted the zombies around the city with the range limited .

At this time the two woke up inside the system space " What did you inject me ? " Nouke was stuck in his initial fallen position unable to get up only being able to speak .

" I found a useful fluid for rest I duplicated it since actively changing the genes would be dangerous . Like building a stack of cards and gradually falling asleep " " How long have I been asleep ? "

" It's night right now I need to go and check on Mena you should check the cameras for the outside " Belle manage to get up but due to Nouke's extensive insomnia his body was still getting used to waking up .

" Hello ? " Belle look at the room and saw Mena reading the dictionary . Mena recognized her presence " Ah uhm I wrote my name " Belle looked at the paper " Oh can you tell me what your name is ? "

" Mana " ' must be the earpiece ' Belle looked at her ears and sees that it is in healthy condition " Okay Mana be sure to move around in the turtle shell " Belle pats Mana ( This is how you change a characters name when you change your mind )

" I'll be out for a while so you can relax or sleep here I will leave you dinner upstairs " " Okay " Belle leaves Mana in her bedroom with Sunnie .

Belle returns to Nouke who has properly recovered " People are around the island at least where it was supposed to be " " It was about time they realize that an experiment has gone running " Belle took a pistol and a shotgun armed to her back " What about you " " I have years of experience don't expect me to lost "

Belle transported them out of the system space arriving at the shipping boat hidden under the deck . Belle points a thumb at her chest and then pointed up while Nouke did the same and pointed down .

They both split and Belle heard footsteps coming down and kicked a box to the stairs and shot the man as he falls directly to the box she pushes away the box to the side .

She changed her voice and called out " I need back up " a nearby soldier went down and Belle went behind the stairs and shot his head from under as the body fell to the stairs .

She walked upstairs whilst switching her clothes to match the soldier's stature by wearing extra baggage " Where's the enemy ? " a soldier approached " Taken care of we should leave the rest " she kicked the soldiers and shot them with a silencer gun .

' Now for the man at the top ' " Status no enemy spotted for casualties 5 soldiers requesting permission " Belle walks up the stairs where she sees and interupts a man who is receiving the calls from the submarines .

" What are you doing here ? " Belle walked to him despite the shouts full of authority and snapped his neck " Status report " Belle said with a new voice " Nothing has been found " " Keep looking "

Belle looks at the security cameras and then points a gun at another door which seems to be the restroom and shot once she heard someone get out " Hopefully he is dealing with the rest properly "

She shot the head of the body and looks at the clock " 6 o'clock we should leave the city once it is 9 , but to think we only manage to sleep for only two hours " Belle sighed and uses the location she got from the security camera and went to them to kill the rest of the security .

Belle walked to a soldier and simply walked forward and snapped the neck . She threw a flashbang which caused the soldiers to come to the location to see a dead soldier .

They reported the situation to the command room where there was no one to receive ' too bad ' she shot someone in the heart as they fell forward indicating her position " Check the second floor our enemy might be there "

While Nouke pulled a soldier down the floor where Belle got her first kills of the ship and thrust a blade to the heart bringing another soldier to him .

He was outnumbered and had a lower vantage point so he went behind the stairs to force the soldiers to walk down the stairs while injuring their legs through the gap .

Belle was stuck between two shipping containers and jumped up as soldiers were aiming for a sure kill .

They pointed at Belle as she fell expecting her to lost the ability to dodge whilst recovering and fired only after she lowered her body by moving her right leg forward and left backward which make any child trying to show their legs' flexibility surprised

The bullets passed Bell and she tilted her body to the left as she gets up to swiftly turn her right leg and stand to shoot the surprised soldier in the eye and then shot back at the other .

Belle jumped on the shipping container and climbed to the top as she is spotted by soldiers . She jumped making the professional shooters unable to aim properly due to her quick movements .

Her foot landed on the corner of the shipping container and she turned to shoot the other soldiers down . She jumped off the container to end up between a shipping container and the handrails .

" Here !! " Nouke slashed a machete through their necks before they could shoot " That's all " Nouke breathed a sigh of relief " Now we should leave " Nouke pointed at the emergency speed boat at the side .

" Then we should hurry up it would be great right now since the lights are out in the city " Belle took unharmed night-vision goggles from the soldier's decapitated head " I know " Nouke also took another soldier's goggles .

They both put it on whilst hopping on the speed boat , Nouke took care of the navigation while Belle started the motor " Got the direction correct ? " " Yes as long as we head straight on this path we can reach the city . "

The engine starts and then Belle takes a deep breath " It's cold " " We're making a stop at a house " " Why are we making a stop ? " Belle look at Nouke wondering why he wanted to make a stop when he clearly said that they need to hurry under the dark midnight of the apocalypse .

" I left some things there essential for the fight with the artist's sponsors " " Don't you have a system inventory " " It's full " " How did I manage to fit an entire island and the water around it ? " " It requires me to remember everything in my inventory "

Nouke demonstrated by taking a pistol out of the inventory " See I can't exactly remember everything I left inside my inventory I tried to remember some old weapons I made but I can never even remember a single detail " Belle silently watched Nouke continue .

" Say , do you remember how the gun is made ? " " Yeah I made it " " Chemical composition ? " " Yes ? " " Hmm how many bullets ? " " I don't know " Belle snatched the pistol out of Nouke's hand and dropped out the magazine to see it half empty .

" I think I know why now " " What ? " " You just have to know what you want you don't need to specify everything " Belle handed the pistol back to him " Why didn't you just put all of the weapons you made into a shack full of it ? " Nouke looked at Belle .

" I can take out something from my system space I just need to remember that the island since I left it in there " Nouke looked at his pistol with disbelief at the theory amd realized how good of a solution it actually was .

" Oh come on and I thought it was a bad idea to have a whole house to maintain " " It's okay when you were a caveman you didn't have anyone to take care of the house you stored ... But since I got your memories I can help you get back those lost weapons of yours "

Nouke thought about it and sighed " Okay " they got off the boat and ventured back into the ghost town " Let's start with that wooden stick with a stone you made to make an ax ? " " Hmm " Nouke summoned said ax but then a thought hit Belle and she touched the ax before anything could happen , sending it back to system space .

" What was that ? " Nouke could feel something strange about the "ax" he felt it and took a slight glimpse before Belle sent it over to a system space as it was closed in a space preventing the light it can possibly emit trapped inside a box of void .

" Probably the effects of the Apple box , you left it inside for too long its particles were reacting with each other so it ended up like that " Nouke directly took on the effects of touching the super-aged ax as his hand returned to normal " Plus you should probably check on the other items inside your system space that really old rock might turn into something weird . "

Nouke sighed and checked his system space " You're right there is already a nuclear power source in here " " Okay how about we dig through your pile and find something useful " " Okay start " " A spear used to hunt a mammoth and pierced the eye with the blood staining the rock spearhead " " turned to mineral dust "

Belle took out a machete to chop a zombie " Sword of the old dynasty made by some Blacksmith named Lahad " " Rusty due to the lack of maintenance ... And the corpse of Lahad is now a tree ? " Belle looked at the sword to see it really rusty " Even the handle is " the rusty sword looked more like a disfigured stick than a sword .

" Might want to check the woods there are zombies over there " " You must be talking about those fish bait zombies really like ? " " Yeah I'll go to the stop and grab the things inside it " Belle walked to the woods after agreeing to meet up as soon as they finished the business assigned to each other .

Belle already found a branch and used the system to gather data " only hunts the dead and helps the living " she hitched a ride on a branch taking a dead body or zombie and found fruits with star shapes ' It looks like the ones a kid would draw . '

She picked up the fruit and scanned it ' It's edible and nutritious to all the living beings on the planet ' she reaches an area where there were plenty of corpses under the roots of a giant tree and another similar tree in the distance ' That's near the lab '

She walked to see a road that was cut off very clearly with the corpse and moved it ' This road leads closer to the lab , did some people come here ? ' the road between the two trees was like a crooked line that connects two dots .

She walked on the exposed roots and walked to the trunk of the tree and touched it ' Evolution is so amazing and terrifying at the same time ' the tree has the ability to break down the dead bodies like a digestive system ' But why only the dead , with this kind of genome it can possibly eat the living . '

Belle knew that the tree was grown out of something so the possibility of a behavior sticking to it was low since it didn't mutated but was born that way ' Did an experiment escape my eye I was sure I accounted for everything ' Belle touched the tree to see any reaction and only felt getting more strength .

' It's like a save point in a game ' Belle pulls her hand back and looks at the tree ' At least I figured out what was attracting the zombies ' Belle left the tree and then found Nouke " Anything ? " " Just a strange plant that brings the zombies together for nutrients of fruits "

" Not so strange , we should hurry " Nouke climbed on his motor and Belle did so too " You got your things right ? " " Yeah now all we have to do is approach the first mind and get them to talk about the rest " " And be ready to fail to receive the answers we want "

They drove out of the city as Nouke kept track of the first initiator of the apocalypse while Belle followed him " Will we have to make any stops , especially at cities ? " " Do you hate men that much ? " Nouke ask judging Belle's appearance " We are in the apocalypse no laws to protect a citizen here "

" No laws suggest you not to kill , though God might still hate that " Belle narrows her eye and continues the conversation " Ever met the man at the top ? " " Nope but let's say we both met a bigger man in our dreams "

Belle remember that moment when she saw what Nouke had seen , of course you're gonna have to use your imagination to see what she has seen " Ever seen that bigger shot ? " " Can't say that I didn't just see them I fought with them but they're back " Nouke said .

" For what ? Revenge or are they obeying their superiors ? " Belle asked " Probably both but that's why I have been hiding my name for a long time so they don't find me " " How did they fight ? "

" Our artist was very good at painting that the statues they carved became real and attacked me " Nouke recalled the experience he has while knowing that Belle knew about it .

" Sounds like they are good at creating all kinds of art " " They're also great at controlling the art like a frame-to-frame animation " " Sounds like 3d test animation " Belle replied " If that is the case then they wouldn't be able to learn from the mistakes of the two dimension animation "

" Must be why that perfect artist made a lot of sample animations to learn what kind of possible mistakes they can make " Belle continued " And some artists would take that sample animation to improve it . "

" But those artists are contracted to some bigger organization looking for the perfect artist and their perfect animation " there was some personal kind of vibe in here because Belle recalled the damn agencies who wanted her to advertise their beauty products when she was already beautiful ( Make the word "beautiful sound dramatic for coedic tone)

You all probably don't understand what they are saying so let me help you but not telling you what they are actually thinking . They have to keep the conversation's level of information lower than the reality of the conversation .

You can think of the conversation as the mini version of the actual topic . They are essentially talking with a low profile since openly discussing the actual topic of the animations is equivalent to exposure to a superior like saying "poop" instead of "s***" so your parents don't scold you for saying a bad word .

As for how they will be exposed it's the same witht the "bad word logic" from the previous sentence , so they are talking by substituting certain terms into something else " So why do they want that ? " Belle asked " Let's say to make money out of the perfect animation "

" Sounds interesting how many animations were abandoned " " Wouldn't know , there are zombies ahead " on the road ahead were some zombies walking naturally , you know the mobs that walk around in the game that goes on with their own business until you get too close or bother them .

" They are just being attracted by the tree " " That's a good piece of useful information " They both avoided the zombies to make sure they don't obstruct the tree's food supply .

" It's just a powerful decomposer and processor , so it bears organic fruits " " That would make it easy for people to take advantage , once we finish our business we should go back " Nouke said with relief " Are you really planning gather forces ? "

" Power is power and in an apocalypse , it is a good way to avoid the eyes of people , I already have good weapons that I can use against big mutants but I have no manpower yet " he reminded Belle that he stills needs a big force " Who knows what apocalypse will come now that it will be different than before " Nouke indicated before as the previous timeline .

" Are they somewhat related to the novels that people are making , like a zombie apocalypse , AI takeover , alien invasion ? " she asked " Yes they could destroy the whole planet but they will not be able to find me that's why they rested on eliminating doomsday devices that could do their job "

" Sounds like those devices was the reason the universe ended in the previous timeline " Belle said " Plus the one who started it " " Is that you ? " Belle asked " Yes as a last resort , I was lucky to be able to regress the timeline and kept on getting stronger "

" But couldn't do something complicated like an AI ? " Nouke felt insulted due to his inability to learn about an AI " That's hard you know " Nouke replied " Yeah sometimes we know more about the deep space than our own planet's ocean "

" How did you even make a super AI at your shelter ? " " I had experience before I read your memories . " " You made one ? " " Yeah with a little help "

" If that is the case then you can help me crack the code for the next sponsor " Nouke said having relief that Belle is good at programming " You mean the next initiator is an AI ? " " Pretty much the AI manages to slip into my bus so it is searching for me like a rogue agent with similar goals of affiliated agents " " A potential ally " Belle answered .

" Now that you mentioned we could make it our ally but first we have to deal with the first boss then get the next one . And since you're good at programming maybe you can brainwash it to help us " Belle narrows her eyes feeling like she might cross a line " That's the line I can't cross it has too many flaws that I need to watch out for "

They continued driving after a little silence between each other due to the lack of a topic to talk " Since you have some kind of tracker can you tell me how many of the artist's sponsors are coming our way ? " " I still have to include the rest of the initiators don't I ? " Nouke sighed " Probably " " There are eight in total , one on this planet "

" So seven have yet to come ? " " I can't tell the whole thing for reasons ? " Nouke complained thinking about the many restrictions " I get that but those seven that have yet to come , do they include the ones that weren't in before ? " just think of before as the previous timeline this lower profile conversation is dragging me .

... " I didn't account for that " " At least you didn't get the attention of the perfect artist , only those they killed have known about their secret technique to make that perfect " Belle told Nouke " Yeah all I know was about this place's artist and a few important connections "

" What about a rogue artist then ? " " Never heard of one but if we manage to find an animation we should evacuate to that area as soon as possible " " Must be nice to be able to access that area but wouldn't there be a possibility of stumbling at the perfection ? " Belle informed Nouke .

" I would love to avoid that " " Plus we have a bigger problem first " Nouke thought of Belle's ability to make scenarios and answered " We need the system that can help us access the animations first , is that right ? " " And I am assuming that the inventory we use is a less complicated version of that system " Belle replied seeing some similarities between her and Nouke's system functions to the mentioned system to access the animations .

" Yes but maybe a little more special , the system the artist use only accesses existing files by using a search filter while we can create a file so the system we have is literally the closes thing to the system used by the perfectionist artist " Nouke pointed out " But not powerful enough since the files we make is just an empty box to fill up with external data "

Belle said and ate a bar of chocolate whilst driving and Nouke was not feeling so tired " You can use that breathing style " " And miss out on a treat to exercise my body functions ? I think not " " That is good " Nouke said " Keep talking about the system used by the animators in comparison to ours " Belle reminded Nouke to continued .

" Then we can continue with the fact that the system they used is very complicated you can think of the system functioning by filtering the input of the search filter to an existing file or animations ... wait why are you asking me when you have my memories even clearer ? " Nouke had finally realized that Belle has his memories

" Sometimes someone who forgets theorizes much better plus I didn't have the idea of a network connecting to all the sample animations " " It's not really all of the files "

You should keep caution that they won't keep using the same analog since repeating it would be strange if they keep appearing in the "records" where information is gathered .

" There are some files that are no longer connected . This file was disconnected previously but now they want me , especially the time regression I made " Nouke said " To undo mistakes ? " " Yes , but back to the topic the way a file is disconnected is when it is no longer useful to the admin of the network of files or the perfectionist artist . "

" When you say that does it include : Doomsday world , unrecoverable dystopia , a powerful territory-hungry entity ? " " Just think of the filter as stupid but an advantage to us " Nouke clarified the advantage of the disconnection " How so ? " " If by any chance we manage to make a connection to those lost files we can find natural resources or manpower "

Nouke still remembered his goals despite having forgotten the vital information of Belle having his memories . Is this the power of a habit to always remember to brush your teeth ?

" But you want to unlock space travel first after all and you have to do that after defeating the first user of this file or the artist of this animation " " I figured that much " " At least it will be much easier to get to your memories I should check it often your head is like the entire universe's history "

Nouke frowned thinking about his immortality " I feel kinda lucky to have this weird immortality according to pop culture immortality is just avoiding death if I haven't started from a foolish being that only follows their instinct I wonder how crazy I would be when something I worked hard for is destroyed "

Belle frowns looking at Nouke " Just so you know living long isn't that bad , you're just different from people especially with mentality " " Sounds like you're used to being bullied because of difference " Nouke was reminded of Belle's attractive appearance " You're right so I always told myself "They laugh because you're not like them , but I laugh because I'm different" "

" Sounds motivational " Nouke chuckled and Belle sighed as they see a city in the distance of the road " Looks far " Nouke put on a serious expression " Probably enough to continue the important matter " Belle said reminding Nouke to continue .

" That sounds good but once we get there we have to fight them " " Yeah I know so hurry up , reading through your memories feels like having to learn the whole lesson in one reading or should I call it cramming right before the day of exams without knowing anything about the lesson ? "

" You can re-read my memories later so you can catch up " " I was planning to do it without your permission anyways "