Chapter 5 : First sponsor

Nouke stored their ride in his storage respectively gazing at the city lights very early in the morning " This is where we kill the first sponsor ? " too many ears and eyes were watching as they continued to speak using substitutes .

" Yes we should hurry with this if we want to avoid the destruction of this planet , already half its life has been decimated " " So you chose this planet since you know this is where the weakest was around ? "

" Careful now , weakest doesn't mean easy " Nouke warned " I know that's why you bought that superweapon you stored " Belle replied as they walked into the city acting as soldiers .

" This sponsor should still be human " Nouke said " Human only means weak but smart , they know what to do especially when they have many successful investments " " How sure are you they have success ? "

" There are plenty of successes overshadowed by the bigger successes and we want to avoid the worst-case scenario we can survive " Belle replied " But where would they hide the successful investments surely he doesn't use a bank but passes it through cash and property "

" Physical money would help them do you think we would be able to take the cash and burn it ? " Belle asked " I don't think so " they walk to see a building where people are working to eat .

' How unfortunate ' Nouke and Belle knew what those food are and proceeded to go to the building where there were people distributing the food . They narrowed their eyes and pointed at the distributors .

Gunshots were heard as they avoided the beggars killing the distributors while the beggars ducked on the floor . bang bang in the room the first sponsor heard it " You should take care of your people there's already some killing for food "

" Haha it doesn't matter the food is infected anyways , so can I get what you promised ? " the sponsor asked the artist " As per agreement make sure you get rid of that vermin " " I'll need plenty of resources to do that "

The artist left and the sponsor changes his attitude " Humph as long as I have this I won't even have to do waste money , but since that man got in my way he will pay " he smiles looking at the container with glowing fluid and injects himself .

" Humans are really foolish " and we are at the part where the boss starts to struggle to control the syringe's effect , his flesh bulges and colors " Hey , the artist left " Nouke alerted Belle on their way to the stairs .

Belle turned to the side and leaped out of the building through a window " WHAT are you doing " Nouke followed and fell to see that Belle was climbing " Oh no " he gripped the window frame of a lower floor and watched as the highest floor exploded from a mass of flesh .

" Isn't it too early for a mutant like this " Belle let gravity do the work and fell " We're going down the top has too little ground " she told Nouke " I know I was wondering why you went up " " I was planning to kill him quickly , didn't expect the sponsor to explode "

They landed on the ground which was relatively short considering how little time they had to walk up the stairs " So how do we use the super weapon ? " " I'll leave that to you after I'm done with my part , can't elaborate since the mutant might be smart "

Nouke held a polearm and Belle readied a claymore a big sword to fight with something big . Like a boss entering the area the giant sack of flesh fell on the town square where the statue was destroyed .

" It's making quite a distance " Bele commented flinging the claymore to her back " When did you have the time to make that ? " " I'm freer than you think " the giant sack of meat was making regenerating more biomass for support .

" There are people at the back " Nouke said " Good thing our moral aligns " Belle swing the claymore to her left shoulder gripping the bottom with her right hand and her left hand holds the handle near the guard " We can't be hasty the moment we attack the people at the back might die . "

They can hear the terrified screams of people at the back and the sound of running " This boss might force us to go to a position where we have to deal with a hostage situation , so no hesitation okay "

Belle nodded and readied her claymore as the first move was the boss letting out a shout to assert its position " habits truly die-hard " Nouke said referring to his previous battle with the sponsor .

They waited for the sponsor to reach a certain form with no skin but only muscle fibers around some bones revealed to them the speed of regeneration slowing down was taken as a sign that it was slowly reaching its stable form with the center meat sack and tendrils stretching out .

Belle swung her claymore out of her shoulder holding it to her left " Watch out for the victims at the back "

" I know now why don't I put on some music " Belle actually did what she said putting on some music " If that's your plan , I'll aim for the eyes first " Nouke jumped on a giant meat tendril that went his way .

Belle raised her claymore as if ready to hit a bat and swung it to stab through the tendril . She stayed in her position to avoid getting pushed further since that was the goal of the monster to try and take advantage of the people .

She kept pulling from her right hand from the bottom of the handle so the claymore doesn't tip to the tendrils side like a seesaw falling to the side of the heavier object .

Her music was still easy to hear blasting at the highest volume and Nouke looked at the monster as their eyes pointed at him ' Can't waste the energy ' he continued to run on the tendril like a treadmill at the highest setting .

He outruns the tendril going closer to the giant meat sack full of eyes and saw that the tendril going to split from the main body and jump out as the eyes followed him " Keep your eyes on me " he threw the polearm through the biggest eye and took some daggers from his inventory .

The cut section of the tendril reaches Belle allowing her a quick but hasty break ' They should be far enough ' Belle carried her claymore blasting the music even louder ' Another one '

She pierced the ground with her claymore at a 45-degree angle to push the flat of her blade on the tendril with enough strength for its original path to turn away by 90 degrees to a nearby building slamming right on it .

The debris was about to fall to a crouching girl " Tsk " she dropped her music player on the ground and sprinted to the girl flinging herself out of the ground and taking the girl out " Ran away " she immediately for the stairs .

Nouke cut through the last eye and threw a flash bang up as it caused a big light and sound and retreated to the back where Belle left her claymore . Nouke blinded the monster so it had to rely on its hearing but that was disrupted slighty .

Though for a moment it heard the music and thought there was something , Nouke on the other hand did not see through Belle's plan as a tendril hit him pushing him to the claymore stucked to the ground .

Belle ran to the top hearing a flash bang saw the tendrils push Nouke through a window . Knowing that he was immortal she didn't concern herself with him running as quickly as possible through the stairs .

Knowing that the monster was regenerating like in Nouke's memories she got to the roof in less than a minute to see some tendrils reaching to pull the polearm superweapon Nouke ' He said there should be a lever to start the charge '

Belle understood the part why and messed with her genetics using one of the ones Nouke encountered as nearby batteries lose their charge that gathered around Belle's hand .

' No wonder he needs me to do it ' electricity crackled on her palm and she pulled a shotgun on her left shooting the nearest tendril to the polearm realizing the threat Belle poses , the monster sent all the tendrils to the sound of the shotgun .

Making that mistake would lead to death as it relied on the sounds Belle was making but starts to rely on touch when Belle jumps on its tendrils . She tilted her head to dodge one and another jump to avoid the monster from shaking her off .

She duck as another tendril tries to swipe her and sprinted at a faster pace . Nouke was watching pulling the other half of his body back while shooting the tendrils from catching him . He didn't like how his blood is actually part of his immortality.

So getting soaked in a blood puddle is like getting your lifespan stretched ' Hurry up ' the tendrils dipped on his blood as the effect coursed through the monster right before Belle could touch the lever of the superweapon .

The muscle fibers she stepped on pushed her out of the way before she could even touch the polearm's lever " The hell ? " Belle ignored the fact that she needed to save the electricity and used her right to gain friction by holding on to the tendrils and burning it with electricity .

Belle landed back on the ground and retreated back to Nouke " What is that ? " " Didn't you already know about my immortality " " I'm getting the feeling that I'll keep telling you that cramming doesn't help remember every detail "

" Forget it the monster took the puddle of my blood think of it as a potent energy drink " " At least it didn't have any potential effect of growing " " It would if they drink a lot " " That's so , the girl should be far from a distance now "

Nouke walked forward to take the claymore " I'll get close this time " Belle said as they looked at the spear still impaled on the eye " At least that design didn't fail me " Nouke said " Was wondering why it looked like that "

Nouke made sure that the design of the polearm spearhead was able to stay impaled even if the wounds were regenerating " There's a utility pole still intact I'll head there to get the electricity required . " Belle got a glove and Nouke readied to attract all the attention blasting the music even louder .

Holding the claymore in his hand he swung the giant sword around to get used to the weight and watched tendrils fly to him . He swung it up filling the hard muscles barely able to deflect the trajectory .

" Tsk looks like I have to fight harder " more tendrils attacked him and he swung the heavy claymore to deflect it with enough momentum . Belle climbed to the utility pole and pried open a metal box and grabbed the wires draining out all the energy and brought them to her glove .

She pulled her hand out allowed the gloves to be powered with electricity and dropped from the pole . She ran to the spear stuck in the monster's eyes " OVER HERE !!! " Nouke yelled to get the monster's attention .

Belle got an advantage to reach the polearm and spotted the lever . She reached out and jump to avoid a thin tendril that swung under her .

She landed on the monster and looked at the set of thinner tendrils ' I knew that wasn't going to be easy ' she hit her right with electricity to her left palm and equalized the electricity . She sprinted again as the tendrils attacked her from feeling its fibers .

She dodged them and used her left hand to grab the tendrils as the electricity went through the nerves ' Final push ' she huffed a quick big breathe and aimed her right arm to grab the handle and thrust the spear even deeper channeling the remaining electricity as the excess flew out through the ends of the tendrils .

Nouke panted and fell on the floor using the claymore to keep his body up watching Belle holding on to the spear as it impaled deeper into the eye " Damn this is harder than I thought " Nouke checked the life signals to see that every cell was fried .

" Good job " Nouke made a sandwich appear and took a bite " Thanks what sandwich is that one from space ? " Belle joked and did the same drinking some coffee with the sandwich .

" How far are those people I don't want to be the center of attention " Belle nudged and remembered that there were a few rooms in the lab that were clean and sent the corpse there .

" So I got rid of the mutant " Belle stretched her body feeling satisfied " Where to next " Nouke was still panting but it was much lighter now .

" The next sponsor is still far we have time to rest and prepare " Nouke managed to answer with the little breath he still has " More super weapons ? " Belle asked and he nodded " It would be best to be safe than sorry , can we treat the bunker as a base I'll give you access to my system space "

" Sounds great , do you remember all of them " he obviously shook his head " May as well get you a nap for a while " Belle sent both of them to the bunker and looked at the clean floor " Wonder how Mana is sleeping " Belle didn't mind much since she heard a tweet from Sunnie .

" Morning " Belle said and Mana replied back " Morning " because she was just mimicking actions like any child would " Isn't she a mutant ? " " Yep one that didn't hate everyone " Belle got up and went to the bathroom to get changed and to the kitchen to take some cans and bread inside a fridge .

She prepared breakfast and Nouke went to clean himself in the bathroom . Mana sat on the chair looking at Belle " What does outside look like ? " " It looks bad people bullying each other , but don't worry there are some who can be your friends " Belle walked with three plates and sat opposite to Mana .

" Can I see more friends ? " Belle peeked at the location where she placed a pin to allow quick movement " Okay , don't do anything scary like uh " Belle wondered how to show Mana scary without having to deal with her trauma and made a boring sketch of a monster " Like this "

Mana didn't understand but just used it as a reference with the branches on her head still growing , Belle made a portal in a form of a door and opened it to show the forest made from Mana's mutation " Enjoy " Belle rubbed her hair to put a shield on her .

Mana was amazed at the beautiful forest and thanks to time the corpse were decomposed so nothing tarnished the beautiful scenery unless you see the people who were greedily hoarding the fruits .

Mana didn't understand but when she saw that there were some people who were weak she could understand it due to her mutation and walked over the line " Ahh a monster ? " she only knew much about scary but not monster .

Someone pointed a gun at her probably a soldier but that's not important and they shot her branches . Too bad they were too hard but the force made Mana tumble " Owchie " she rubbed her back and her branches looking at the fearful faces .

She didn't recognize the expression and some branches stretched from the trees to pick her up . While the soldiers ran to report about Mana , Nouke appeared and swiftly also quietly killed them .

" Hey , I'm going to kill a few government agents around here and destroy their information network the other sponsor might catch this or even worse the artist " Nouke told Belle so they can keep track of the movements they both make .

" Mana's appearance is strange mixing the apocalypse mood here then you get that , there might be some bad people who are willing to sponsor the artist " Belle looks at the room where she contained the dead corpse of the monster she defeated .

" I'm still trying to organize the mutant's gene code it looks more complicated than I thought and looks like your blood is permanent steroids to the evolution factor , might want to examine that "

Nouke looked at the roots planning to hide the bodies and called back " Can I leave it to you ? " " Sure but I need you here your body dematerializes when it is not connected to you " " I know that , makes it easier for clean up though " " Okay I'll just look into your blood any anything you want me to check on it "

Nouke closed the call and watched Mana offer the fruits to the line as someone tried to take advantage of Mana ' Can't have the kid have bad memories ' Nouke shot the man with a bullet with an injection to send him out to die without Mana realizing it .

" Was that a silent shot what is going on out there ? " " Someone tried to kill your kid " " She's not my adoptive child I'm just taking care of her at a point between a child and a pet " " Still mutual , you should research her too , she might be useful for any organic life later on "

" I was planning to just wait to check yours since you manage to bring your immortality through time it might not be a biological sense anymore if that was the case , it could be connected to yourself as in not including your body . " Belle replied and Nouke looked at his palm and made a cut to see it heal back .

" You might be right it could be related to the soul , mind or self " " You really believe in that at this era but I wouldn't deny those possibilities considering you are still the same person after going into the past and arriving at another body with your memories intact . "

Belle stared at the monster to extract whatever thing turned the first sponsor into this as well as Nouke's blood since she wants the sources to be pure only , so extracting Nouke's blood effect is the first she must do " Can you send me a sample of your blood that will last long for a few hours the least ? I need it as reference "

" Okay I'll send you enough to last for two hours it will be the size of a basketball " Nouke cut his palm and blended the amount on a container while watching Mana giving the fruits that kept growing on the tree " By the way have you seen the effects of the fruit we don't want them to eat something that will make them turn against us ? "

" Don't worry the fruits are mostly based on what she ate . The lab injected serum on her so I doubt she can make that having not tasted it but keep watch while you're there we'll switch guard once I'm done getting it . I already have the data I just need a way to remove out your blood's effect " " Then I'll be sending the blood your way "

" Thanks " Belle received the blood quickly and closed the call " If I want to factor the evolution tree I need to see which branch the serum wanted to go to " Belle used a sample and dripped a little blood while a screen beside her was analyzing the genetic code .

She watched the upgrades to some factors such as the muscles , nerves , senses and etc . She took note of the upgraded factors and spotted some small changes ' I found the factors that wanted to evolve and looking at the distribution it looks like each has a certain percentage of needs . '

She listed the percentage with accuracy and added them all to find the total as 100% exactly ' Got the right distribution I just need to reverse the effects but the amount is still unidentifiable , especially the ratio '

She looked at the numbers of how much the blood affected the gene code ' I have the ratio and the numbers of the total , now I just have to start a demo ' she took another sample as the base using it as the base while the sample she gave Nouke's blood was turned to a line graph to match the data she collected after giving the sample blood .

' Now set a system to lower the base according to the ratio and the constant which is multiplied by the ratio that equals the total evolution . Using the base , ratio of evolution of the factors and the blood constant and finally to get the amount of blood used '

She used the equation she just invented to draw another crooked line lower than the base " Perfect , I got the amount of blood " Belle called Nouke again " Hello I got the results " she told him the amount of blood he losed " It should be the approximate value "

" Good now that confirms my theory , I'll extract your blood and see what other changes are in your blood then I'll proceed to get the serum but we will have to go out and get the DNA data of the first sponsor before "

" Should be possible I'll locate the location of their blood , I heard from some news that first sponsor killed their parents for no reason but that's what the black market said "

" Must be for the future so they don't get their genetics mixed up when receiving others' blood to avoid bad mutations . " " Sounds like a lead we should look for a personal blood bank but it's too far for comfort the kid is still enjoying her time and we can't let them hear about this . "

" We could look into their DNA data that the first sponsor had taken advantage of the economy before and made the labs what's worst is if the AI you talked about finds the lab they might just destroy this world . So you should disconnect whatever end of the world device was connected to the labs "

" I will , in the meantime , is there any difference in my blood " Belle looked at the blood and the weighing scale " I guess not much considering how it looks like it's decreasing " " Then as for the DNA I got it looks like the sponsor saved it for some strange reasons " Nouke said looking at the data he obtained .

" I already decoded it thoroughly so you can get the accurate gene code of the first sponsor " Nouke sent the USB her way allowing Belle to reference it and extract the serum putting it inside a handheld syringe " I got it I'll head out and try to recover some of your memories "

Belle stores the serum in the system space and leaves sitting beside Nouke . Time froze in there and it's less costly since it needed the energy to allow time to move forward " By the way will we be able to find the energy that moves time forward ? "

" We can but it will be hard I still haven't made a machine for it yet I barely manage to connect the time outside through a portal that allows the time outside to move the time inside " Nouke could remember some of his memories and Belle pulled back her hand from his head " I'll go to my system space and take care of the problem as well as the superweapons .

Nouke gave Belle similar to what she gave him so they can speak between the system space and out of it .

Nouke entered his super lab and familiarized himself through memories' Been a while since I have seen this place , remembering my memories help me cut some connections to the forgotten items freezing their time till I need them '

" Hello , I'm in , anything that needs to be research ? " " How about the program of the labs now that the first sponsor is dead we have to deal with that so we don't get a disadvantage I'll send you a laptop connected to it and put a pin in this location it will be much useful later on " Belle looked at Mana guarding her life in case a government affiliate finds her .

' What a sad thing to grow in a horrible world like this ' she watched her give fruits but shook her head ' Still for someone who can't hate anything , she'll be fine in a world like this . Doomed to end unless we manage to cut off the connection from that artist ' Belle looks up at the sky as if the artist was the god of this world .

' But even a god is able to fall to the low ranks when there was a higher rank , guess that makes it harder ' Belle looks at the people eating the fruits and appraised each of them ' Apples , pears , banana , orange and some vegetables . So far the tree only makes basic consumables without genetic mutations . That lab must've lacked funds to limit only to syringes '

Nouke looked at the wide network he displayed with the system and traced the projects' programs ' It's connected to a few military nuclear weapons as well presidential houses to scout for research information as well as a few spies inside the government , the artist must've taken over the first sponsor's place . '

Nouke checked the most recent communications ignoring the ones related to the military reporting about zombie hordes and traced the most recently elected positions ' One of the most recent could be the artist or another sponsor '

Another holographic screen floated to his side showing the location of the artist in a red dot ' Hmm then I'll check this computer out ' he pointed at a cube representing the computer that was close to the location and saw the artist's human vessel .

He used the mic to eavesdrop on the conversation " Sir we have lost communications to this area " their human vessel took the report looking at it with a frown ' So you decided to take on an old friend , but that won't work on me I stop thinking about all of them ' " Send more people over there only god knows what kind of mutant is in that forest "

Nouke called Belle to warn her " You need to wipe out the people's memory the artist is in the government and is after her " " I see then it must have a human form is it planning something ? " " Don't know it looks like an old friend of mine " Nouke replied looking at the human vessel the artist created .

" Is there someone who is likely to fall victim to this human vessel's look ? " Nouke starts to think of the time of the human vessel and realizes that there was plenty of his old friend having a connection " They do , looks like they are trying to use that form as a bait to tempt them "

" If so then they have to be able to trace back who came through the previous timeline wanna figure that out ? " Belle asked " That will be hard what I reversed was the time of every physical matter and that includes a little in the mental part . My best bet is my blood and my connection to any physical matter "

Thinking a little Belle made a theory " Do you think that if you made yourself a mechanical heart it will be considered as part of your body ? " Nouke thinks for a while and assumed that maybe his immortality is not entirely linked to a biological body .

" That theory is possible to be true " " Then I'll bring back Mana you take care of that theory or work on the 6 projects " Belle closed the call and walked to Mana " Mana did you make any friends ? " she shook her head and Belle smiles " Okay is Sunnie with you ? "

Mana points at her branches " Then let's go home I have some games for you to play and some books for you to read " Belle summons a door and Mana took that as a door to the turtle shell .

Belle turned to the crowd and wiped their memories in a flash and walked to the tree ' Let's look for the brain shall we ' Belle used the tree's root network where the trees would trade resources and even information of surrounding pest .

And got to the center where the brain lies . It's not a fleshy one just a giant seed growing ' I'll take you out ' all the trees where attached to it and she used it to change the genetic code to the normal fruits and left the function of decomposition and quick fruit bearing .

She takes the giant seed to the room where the dead corpse of the first sponsor was " Here you can eat that and I'll figure out where to plant you leaving you outside could be bad " Belle looks at the tree and decided to check something ' If it is connected to Mana then she should have learned something from it . '

She used the system to teleport beside a door and walked inside to see Mana trying to read a book " Ahh uhm " she looked at the book and turned with her hand up " Hallow " " Hi " Mana widens her mouth due to excitement " Mana , did the tree talk to you ? " Mana looked at her and tilted her head .

" It did it kept saying "I came from the future" but Mana doesn't understand " ' Does she forgot to use I ? But the future they should know about the immortal ' " Okay did they say anything else " " They said a lot of things but Mana only remembers the tree saying "I came from the future" "

Belle nods and walks to the door again and returns to the seed of the forest " So Mr. Tree what was it that you said about coming from the future ? " Belle could sense the change in the plain mood ' What else do you know ? " the voice asked in her head and she produced a picture of Nouke .

" I should be the one asking you " Belle pushed the picture forward and the tree asked ' That's a blank paper " Belle flipped to the other side and hit her head with her palm " Right do you know a certain immortal who never dies ? "

' It's you ?!?! " ' No it isn't ' " Don't yell at my head will yah tell me which one are you I only had so little information from that small girl with branches for a head "

' You sound different " " What do you think idiot time changes someone but I never forgot about you . " ' But he did ' Belle takes some water to keep herself hydrated from all the talk ' I can't believe you're here forgive me for not remembering your name but where are we or when are we ? "

" Doesn't matter what matters is that a lot of big guys are back with us and I somehow lost some of my memories " ' Oh I remember everything , well the most important parts nothing seems missing though " " Good then tell me what you know " Belle was going to figure out which friend of Nouke this person was according to what they will say .

She looked at it using a lie detector system that Nouke encountered with a person who was his ally because they could tell the truth ' Well for one I think the doomsday device was going to be activated on the day of apocalypse you know the one with nuclear bombs but it looks like it didn't happen "

Belle nodded ' Then there was a hidden doomsday device deep under the earth the only connection to it was a bomb . ' this triggered some of Nouke's memories that Belle didn't pay attention to due to the current tension " I see then I'll be back for a while "