Private David Nielsen worked the new muscles on his back as he flapped his wings and landed on the rooftop of an apartment building. He carefully scouted the surrounding skies of downtown Toronto for any hostile flyers.

"I've spotted a possible flock of Whiskey Deltas up here, standby..." David spoke into his radio and then brought out a canister of pepper spray as a group of pigeons flew near. Shooting at flyers in a populated urban environment was tricky. The pigeons passed by and ignored him. "Negative, they're just birds."

After he was thoroughly examined and cleared for release as a result of coming in contact with the alien pod, he was taken off the reconnaissance duty he had been on and put in a platoon. It was now deemed too dangerous to fly too far on his own, and even their pilots had to be careful in their aircraft after they received reports of a few aircraft being taken down by zombie birds of all things.

These things were becoming more and more threatening.

David looked down to see his fellow soldiers clearing the streets. They fired at the zombies from the safety of their vehicles and cleared the vehicles from the streets before slowly advancing. Because they were short on numbers, the police followed behind them to watch their backs and to escort a convoy of trucks transporting the supplies and personnel they would need.

David spotted a few people rushing out from the apartment across the street. The police intercepted them and eventually placated the distressed citizens, telling them to stay inside.

Scenes like this occurred throughout their trip and greatly slowed down their progress towards their objective—Green Water.

Like all the other wastewater treatment plants servicing the city, Green Water was in the south, on the waterfront along the coast of Lake Ontario, which forced them to cut through the entire metropolis to make the trek.

Their original objective had been to join another platoon to take another wastewater treatment plant that was closer to the hospital they had recently secured nearby, but a few days ago they were informed that their satellites spotted all the zombies at this particular plant had been cleared out. It seemed that a group of civilians had taken matters into their own hands.

This piece of news didn't surprise David too much, since he had heard similar stories occurring all over the province. If anything, this would save them a lot of time.

The people at the top disliked it when civilians did things like this because the civilians sometimes made a mess of things and people could lose their lives. They were also afraid of another Nirvana situation if too many people gathered together.

David took off into the air as the convoy began moving once again.

He would like to meet the brave group that had the guts to do something in times like this. They seemed like the type of people he would get along with.

"Sir, we've finished decoding the message from the distress frequency." A young man walked into an office and placed a document on the Colonel's desk. The Colonel picked up the document. "It's intel on Nirvana and Joseph Giles."

"Did you track down where the message originated from?" The Colonel asked.

"Yes, but the radio station the broadcast was sent from was empty when we sent someone to check on it."

"What about our personnel?"

"All the ones operating around the city have been accounted for."

"If they're not one of ours, how did they know of a cipher that the DND just recently came up with..." The Colonel wondered.

"Maybe someone from another base?" The young man guessed.

"I'll bring it up with the Major next time I talk to him."

"Then are we going to do anything about Nirvana?"

"What can we do?" The Colonel shrugged. "We've got our hands full at the moment."

"We're just going to leave a large militia like that alone?" The young man asked incredulously.

"They'll naturally disperse once order is restored to the city. The Americans have already finished taking out their trash, and they'll be sending up some help soon."

"That's good news!"

The Colonel shook his head. "They're not sending as many soldiers as we would've liked. Despite all their firearms...or perhaps because of all their firearms, there's a lot more dissent down there." He said as he gestured to his window at the people protesting outside the base. "Is there anything else?"

"Yes, sir." The young man said, placing a stack of documents on the table. "Concerning the virus, there's been a new discovery. As previously hypothesized, all the people suffering from symptoms did so because they were undergoing mutations caused by the virus. They've determined that the symptoms someone experiences depends on the type of mutation they are undergoing."

The Colonel flipped through the documents as the young man explained.

"If the person experiences hunger, it's because they're undergoing physical changes and their body needs the nourishment to aid the changes. If the person catches a fever, there may be changes going on inside the body. And if the person falls into a coma, it's because the changes are massive enough that the body cannot handle staying conscious. It also occurs when the mutation causes the brain to rewire itself."

"Incredible..." The Colonel muttered in awe. "To cause the brain to actually rewire itself."

The power in the room suddenly went out.

"Are those damn rodents chewing through the power lines again?" The Colonel spat in annoyance. "I thought we've already reinforced everything around here."

The two of them left the room and found people scrambling around outside.

"What happened?" He grabbed one of the soldiers running around.

"There's a rat on the loose, sir. They're trying to catch it."

"Again?"

"It's different this time, sir. It's like what we've heard happened in Ottawa with the fish shutting down all the boats. Anywhere this rat goes, all the electronics in its vicinity are fried. It's like a walking EMP."

"Dear god almighty..."

Will woke up in his bedroom feeling energetic. Compared to his first evolution, this second one brought about instantly noticeable changes. His entire body was surging with power, and his senses felt much keener.

Now we have a real Category 1.

Although his grandpa had the stats of a Category 1, he hadn't experienced his second evolution yet.

He suddenly heard the sounds of Karen sparring with Donny and Monica in the yard outside.

The fact that they're doing outside means Karen must have evolved while I was asleep. Will mused as he sat up and pulled the IV drip off of him. He walked over to the window, opening it up, and leaped down into the yard from the second floor, feeling no discomfort at all from the impact.

"You're finally awake?!" Karen was the first to notice and stopped. She was dressed in a t-shirt and yoga pants, which proved to Will that she had evolved, since she wasn't worried about being bitten by anything.

"Good to see you, bro." Donny walked up and patted Will on the shoulder.

"It's good to see you too." Monica said.

"How long was I out for?" Will asked.

"You slept for an entire week."

A week? The last time he evolved to Cat-1, it only took him half that time.

"I was 'reborn' in that time." Karen said as she expertly twirled her wooden staff around herself like a martial artist.

"Show off." Donny commented on the side. He leaned in close to Will and whispered. "Warrior bloodline: Viking edition. Her mom's family is from Norway."

"Alright, you can continue with your sparring. I'll take a seat here."

If it took me a week, did I awaken dad's bloodline this time? Will thought to himself as he down on the porch.

When someone was undergoing their second evolution to reach Category 1, they had a chance to manifest a dormant bloodline depending on how potent it was. Will hadn't been able to do so in his other life.

As for the blood transfusion, he hadn't done it this time because unevolved blood wouldn't work with his evolved body anymore.

He watched intently as Karen expertly defended blows from both Donny's wooden club and Monica's wooden staff. She had shown massive improvement since before he had fallen into a coma. Will felt some changes as he watched them, he could easily grasp their movements but he wasn't picking up anything that his dad had described to him about his Bloodline ability in his former life.

He stood up and walked over to where they were sparring. They all paused when he neared them and gave him a questioning look.

"Try to hit me." He said to Karen.

She exchanged confused glances with the other two before responding. "Okay?"

She threw a horizontal swing at Will but he could clearly see it coming and quickly dodged it. Seeing that he effortlessly stepped out of the way, Karen put more effort into her next swing, but he nimbly dodged it as well. This went on for a few exchanges before Will called for her to stop.

"What's up?" Karen asked, still unsatisfied at being unable to land a hit on Will. "What happened to you?"

"I'm not sure..." Will rushed over to where his room was.

"Hey, where are you going?" Karen called out.

Bending his knees, he jumped from the ground level all the way up to the second floor window.

"Did he just? Did you guys see that?"

Will smiled as he entered his room, he was already getting used to the feeling of being a Category 1 again.

He quickly found his phone connected to the charger and unplugged it before opening up the health app.

Name: Will Age: 18 Class: Error with stats. Recalibration required. Strength: 23 ➜ 30 Dexterity; 29 ➜ 44 Endurance: 22 ➜ 30 Intelligence: 0 Charisma: 8

Will ignored the useless information once again, the app wasn't designed to have stats this high at this point and had trouble displaying his gimmick "class".

His stats—which he had worked hard on raising for the past month, had all reached 30, which was generally the baseline for most Category 1s.

What surprised him once again was his abnormally high [Dexterity]. He had gotten a whole 15 point boost. It increased by 50%.

With this much dex, I must have awakened a second Bloodline ability...

At this point, he suspected that his dad's bloodline had mutated somehow with Adrian's bloodline and became an enhanced [Dexterity].

Whether it was a downgrade, a sidegrade, or an upgrade, Will didn't know.

I wonder how dad is doing.

In Hong Kong, where the buildings were very numerous and compact, going outside was currently very dangerous, especially the streets. But with how densely populated the city was, the people had to go outside in order to gather supplies. The denizens of this city adapted to these dangers and came up with a way to move around.

"Catch him!"

"He went that way!"

On the rooftops, Hon Lee was currently running from building to building, crossing the makeshift bridges made of any material found lying around—wood, metal, bamboo.

He had been on an information run when the local gangsters in the area confronted him. They had somehow found out that he had a stockpile of supplies and were chasing him to find out where his family was holed up.

"Over here!"

A younger man suddenly blocked the path before him and assumed a fighting stance. The man's movements were reflected in Hon's eyes, and he perfectly copied the man's stance as if it was an instinct.

"Listen, there's no need for any of this." Hon said.

The man suddenly bounded towards Hon and threw a kick, only to be met with by the exact same kick from Hon. The man backed up and shook his leg in pain with a hiss before running up and throwing a punch for Hon to match it with his own. Because Hon was evolved, and wearing the armor his son had apparently sent to his nephew, he had the edge as they exchanged quick and mirrored attacks, Hon matching the man blow for blow each time.

"Hey! If you're a martial artist, why are you wearing so much armor?!" The man backed up pointed at Hon angrily as he kneaded his other fist against his shirt in pain.

"I'm not-" Hon tried to reply but the man threw another kick, attempting to use the conversation to catch Hon by surprise, but Hon reacted quickly.

The man soon grew frustrated and made a mistake, allowing Hon to trip him and run away.

Mimicking the same movements he had seen a couple of athletic young men execute the other day, Hon leapt off one of the makeshift bridges and landed on the ledge of the building. He leapt again and grabbed onto the railing of the overpass underneath him before smoothly swinging himself up and flipping over the rail as if he had practiced the move his entire life.

"Where did he go?!"

"Down there!"

"He's getting away!"

One of the bolder men took a chance and jumped after Hon, but he lost his balance on the ledge and slipped. Luckily, his arms caught at the last second, and he hung there on the side of the building for dear life.

"Help!"

Hon easily lost the men chasing him afterwards.