Due to Lucia's injuries it wasn't recommended that she get up for now so the group met in her room to discuss a very important issue.

Gabriel: Ok people I need to be honest, the infected seem to be evolving faster than I thought. In my previous life at this time I had only found a small number of variants and not even a unique one. Now it seems that each horde has at least a dozen of special infected.

Michi: Could it be because we are in a city? Population density makes it statistically more common to find mutations.

Gabriel: I thought that until we found the Bone Breakers in today's horde. As I remember we still had about a month before we began to see these things but the worst is the amount of them. As I always say the problem isn't the capabilities of the infected but their numbers.

Oscar: Tell that to the unique infected who almost killed us last time.

Michi: Well I have a question, how do you know the exact dates when each type of infected will appear?

Gabriel: That is a good question, mostly my own experience and stories of other survivors that I found in my previous life.

Michi: Well then you haven't done any experiments. You don't have concrete evidence of the dates apart from personal experiences.

Gabriel: Yes. . .

Michi: I'm going to throw a theory and then tell me what you guys think. Let us start from the basis that there is an element of randomness in those infected, as evidence we can take the special crystals such as the one of Yeni or Lucia. Based on that I think that a regular infected has a chance of becoming a variant and this chance is affected by the physiological predispositions of the body. For example, a muscular person has more chances than to become a Brute than a weakling.

Gabriel: So what you are saying is that the evolution of the infected depends on luck and not time ?.

Michi: No, for me it depends on both factors, luck and time. It would be like throwing a 20-sided die until you finally get a 20, some people will get it on the first try and others on the tenth. The problem is that here, having a larger population density, we have much more "people" throwing a die. In summary, it seems that we have a run of bad luck or you had a privileged luck in your previous life.

Gabriel: That would explain a couple of things.

Michi: I repeat this is only a theory, it could calmly be refuted with more evidence. Since it is not feasible to capture hundreds of infected to do a study.

Yeni: So you will stop being a son of a bitch and tell us all the types of infected you know? it's fucking hard to explain their weaknesses in the middle of a fight.

Gabriel: Yes, from now on I will start recording everything I know about the different types of infected. This way we can listen and study that while training or crafting something. It is more practical than writing.

Oscar: We will need more cell phones for that.

Lucia: We can go outside and loot some of the zombies that surround the house.

Gabriel: Ok Michi and Oscar go outside and do that. Lucia when you feel better good go to the communications room to monitor the area. Yeni give me a hand that we have to fix our equipment for the next expedition.

The team was divided into their tasks, and they started working. After a couple of hours in the workshop Yeni and Gabriel took a short break, they finished fixing their equipment but still had other things to do such as making more bolts, acid arrows, etc. Above all this, Gabriel had to record his "audiobook", with so much work pending releasing all the accumulated stress was fundamental.

After 15 minutes in Gabriel's room both survivors were lying in bed looking at the ceiling. The cold winter was already taking over the facilities that only had some temporary electric stoves to fight this threat. Despite everything, they were both covered in sweat and needed a few minutes to recover their stamina.

Yeni: Keep it that way and hopefully you'll reach 5 minutes by the end of the year.

Gabriel: You're too positive.

Yeni: Hey Quick Shot which is the strongest monster you have faced?

Gabriel: Ok fine. . . . Do you remember my friend Fan? as you imagine she died before me. The cause of her death was a gunshot.

Yeni: Holy shit I understand now, the most dangerous enemy are other mutated survivors.

Gabriel: You are wrong there.

Yeni: But if it wasn't another survivor then. . . o no.

Gabriel: Yea . . . .think about that. I think I'm going to take a nap.

Yeni: Fine, I will get something to eat.

Gabriel closed his eyes and had a very particular dream, usually the images of the horrors he experienced besieged these moments of breaks but this time he had something different. A memory that made him feel nostalgic for an event that hasn't happened yet, and he would make sure it never happens.

It was a cold morning on the beaches of Puerto Argentino, Gabriel was patrolling with his reliable sword. The redhead had mutated to the point that his body was semi-transparent and covered with a complex network of pulsating black veins. These were the side effects of the Ghost-type mutations, it was a fairly minor change compared to what some others class had.

Behind him is one of the last bastions of humanity, with the latest news that came to them now they have confirmation that this group was the only humans left in South America. From a distance a person began to approach, another guard on watch to stop the horrors that came out of the sea.

The guard was an Asian woman who seemed to be in her forties and was dressed in a fur coat covered with several jewels. The silver skin embedded with hundreds of precious stones show the biomechanical nature of her body. Her long golden hair seemed made of gold rippled with the icy wind of that beach as the woman approached Gabriel walking slowly.

Fan: Did you hear the news?

Gabriel: Yes, Lujan heaven fell last night. There goes the last cathedral in the world.

Fan: They were idiots, we told them they should leave the continent, but they didn't want to listen to us.

Gabriel: To be fair if they hadn't been religious fanatics I doubt that they could have endured so long.

Fan: At the end of the day they died and this is all that matters. . . . .the boys and I will hit the bar after our round, do you want to come?.

Gabriel: No thanks, I have a Pathfinder session with Oliver and some guys from the laboratory tonight.

Fan: Whatever you say, remember to say “No homo” after you finish.

The redhead laughed a little and then woke up ready to continue with his tasks. He mainly focused on recording and educating the rest of his teammates about the other variants of infected. On the morning of the next day they prepared to continue exterminating hordes of infected and now that the group knew more or less what to expect they feel quite safe.

Today's goal was a parking lot that had a horde of unknown size inside. They couldn't verify exactly how many they were since the infected had moved inside it and therefore the aerial vision didn't help but for that was Michi and the bicycles if they needed to escape. There were two reasons for choosing this objective , it was relatively close to the base and the other hordes were quite far from this isolated group.

Naturally, only Gabriel, Oscar, Michi and Yeni went, and they left Lucia behind. On the road apart from several randoms infected, a pack of around 20 dogs was also found. If this had happened to them a week ago the redhead would be in serious trouble but now they were only a slight nuisance. The fangs of the creatures couldn't even penetrate Gabriel's light armor and thanks to his explosive mutations they were dispatched without problems. After an hour's journey, the quartet finally reached the ground where they would do their daily hunt.

The group entered the building, the simple concrete building was full of dozens of abandoned cars. The gray of the structure contrasted with the colorful color of those machines but the most important detail was how the several floors were divided. There was only one entrance and exit, a fairly wide ramp that facilitates car traffic. It wasn't the best architectural design but luckily that played in favor of the group.

Michi: There are many infected in this place, around 200. We reach the point when is difficult for me to count them all.

Gabriel: How many of them are variants?

Michi: 10 Hunters, 3 Bone Breakers, 10 Brutes, 20 Runners, 5 Vomitors and. . .Only 2 unknown. There is one on this floor and another one upstairs.

Gabriel: Ok people we already know what to do, stay tuned for unknown variants.

At this point everyone knew their role and how to act, but Oscar still had to get used to his unique mutation. Using his special crossbow he could keep the infected at bay without any problem and even one shot a Bone Breaker. That plus the other 10 magazines that he had on his bicycle make him a formidable force, theoretically he alone could clean the whole place. However, what seemed to be a simple task changed when they saw that one of the infected was different from the rest.

This thing was known as a Screamer, similar to the Vomitors this variant didn't seem to be a threat due to its squalid physique. The thorax of this monster was swollen to the point that it was twice as large as an average person but apart from that and its malnourished appearance it wasn't different from an average infected. The problem was the ability of these creatures to scream, their voice could not only stun an average human but also this noise was able to attract the attention of all infected in several hundreds of meters away.

It took Oscar a second to realize what kind of infected and what the danger was. He quickly shot him but it was too late, before he died the creature managed to launch the fraction of a scream. Not enough to invoke each infected in the area but enough to get the attention of all infected in the building.

Yeni: Shit!

Gabriel had to think fast, if they had Lucia they could afford to move several cars to form a fast barricade or even tear down the ramp that connected the building to give them more time. Unfortunately they didn't have that luxury, so they had to find another solution. He quickly recalled the two most important rules of strategic combat against the infected, make a bottleneck and have the advantage of height. However, there was a third option, the redhead didn't like to use it but it was almost always the most effective if you were between a rock and a hard place.

Gabriel: Run!

The group ran out into the street with several runners biting their heels, luckily the Hunters had already been exterminated. Oscar took the opportunity to do one of his acrobatic stunts and climb on top of a lamppost. Michi used his explosive speed to imitate the veteran and place himself in a safe area. Gabriel doing a mixture of his speed and explosive reflexes could get away enough to get into a van to fight more comfortably with his falchion. The problem was Yeni, although the woman was very resistant, her speed was quite bad compared to the rest of the superhumans.

Knowing that she couldn't get away in time, she decided to stand with her shield in the middle of the street and endure the wave of mutants, this hitting the immovable mountain of steel with force.Sadly a shield loses its effectiveness when you are being attacked in a 360 degree angle. They were even starting to stack one on top of the other covering the titan in an avalanche of abominations. She could have kept the line if it weren't for a small detail that no one noticed so far, the other infected that Michi couldn't recognize yet came out as identified on him radar.

According to what Gabriel had told them, this other abomination was similar to a Brute because of the enormous amount of muscles he had but unlike these, his skin was gray with several small holes covering it. Re named by Lucia this type of infected was called Shock Wielder, this type of creature didn't use its dense layer of muscles to fight, all that muscle was an electricity generator. Similar to an electric eel this type of infected could generate an electric shock with the same power as a taser gun if it came into close contact.

It is easy to imagine what happened when this beast touched someone who was wearing armor made almost entirely of metal. While it caused almost no harm, the pain generated was enough to completely immobilize Yeni, making it impossible to defend. If it weren't for its mutations of vitality, regeneration and resistance to damage plus the dense layers of steel that covered her body she would have been shattered in the midst of that tornado of teeth, claws and acid.

Gabriel: Kill that big gray one when you have the chance!

Oscar: I can't get a clear shot !.

Gabriel: Ok, one more fucking time.

Gabriel took a deep breath before activating his trump card, Explosive Mode plus all his other explosive mutations at the same time. During those 6 seconds Gabriel stopped being a human being and became an avatar of carnage. Each infected in that stack was mutilated with surgical precision while Oscar used his crossbow to deal with the Shock Wielder. When the bolt crossed the skull of this creature Gabriel still 2 seconds to continue his unilateral annihilation and when he wanted to realize he was surrounded by a mountain of decapitated corpses.Gabriel was a little sore but nothing worrisome, it seems that the mutations he acquired served to use this tactic without risk his life.

Yeni: Fuck, I hadn't been surrounded by so much meat since high school

Gabriel: If you can do innuendos you can pick the crystals and as you can see. . . We have a lot of work to do.

He said letting out a tired sigh, so much work is already beginning to affect his stamina that was relatively low compared to the rest of his teammates. After two hours they had already collected all the crystals and are heading back to their base.

Now that Gabriel had all those Hell Crystal on hand, he could finally finish his evolution of Stage 1. Every time you level up the amount of crystals to go up to the next one increased a lot and eventually you reach a point where isn't worth it and it was better to give it to other people or just save them. Even the act of absorbing them became extremely difficult due to the huge amount of objects that survivors should ingest. The magic number was 25, after that one could say that one's build was complete.

First he had to maximize his Sleep Efficiency, as the main crafter of the group and the leader sleep wasn't an option. Then upgrading all its explosive mutations and explosive mode would give him an incredible increase in his physical abilities but taking them to very high levels will generate too much collateral damage, so he shouldn't overdo it either. Finally, he needed all the stamina he could to maintain his new abilities, he couldn't maximize like Oscar but it was better than nothing.

Gabriel evolved

Explosive Speed 2: For 6 second you can have extra speed, you can run at 320 km / h. This mutation has 1 minute cooldown.

Explosive Strength 2: For 6 second you can have extra strength, you could lift 400 kilos with ease. This mutation has 1 minute cooldown.

Explosive Agility 2: For 6 second you can have extra agility, your body become so flexible that it almost feel like water.This mutation has 1 minute cooldown.

Explosive Reflexes 2: For 6 second you can have amazing reflexes, your reflexes are like those of a fly.This mutation has 1 minute cooldown.

Explosive mode 2: For 1 minute you can have extra strength, you could lift 400 kilos with ease, run at 320 km / h, your body become so flexible that it almost feel like water and your reflexes are like those of a fly. The mutation has 1 minute cooldown.

Enchant Stamina 3: You have great Stamina! You can run easily run four marathons.

Enchant Stamina 4: You have great Stamina! You can run easily run eight marathons.

Sleep efficiency 2: You only have to sleep 2 hours per day.

Sleep efficiency 3: You don't have to sleep anymore.