Ex-Human Morphus [A Mutant Evolution Apocalypse LitRPG]

Chapter 267

Catalina was on the edge. She couldn’t tear her gaze away from the monitors lining one of the walls inside HQ’s security room. She stared at the progression bars showing the upgrade statuses of the base’s turrets with such intensity that she hardly blinked.

Just like Skullface said, there were far more various rare resources than there had been before the city upgrade. Still, it took her team some time to scavenge through the city and collect enough materials to upgrade HQ and all four turrets. To accelerate the process of upgrading the base’s HQ and defenses, her team didn’t bring all the resources at once. Instead, they made several trips to various parts of the city, gathering small amounts of resources and bringing them back.

Thanks to that effort, the HQ and one turret were already upgraded to Level 7. The other three turrets were in various stages of completion. The turret situated in the southwest corner of the base was the nearest to finishing: it was about twenty minutes away from being upgraded to Level 7. The other two turrets, however, needed a few more hours before they could be completed.

Catalina knew that while the turrets were upgrading, she couldn’t deactivate them or alter their behavior. For that reason, she kept a close watch on the monitors, her gaze occasionally darting between the progress bars and the feeds from various cameras overlooking the base. She had no idea when exactly the morphus would attack, but it was crucial not to miss that moment.

She was almost certain that the morphus would eventually attack her base. The question was, when exactly would it happen? She had lost contact with Miller some time ago, which could mean one of two things: either he had grown sick and tired of her and decided not to answer her calls, or the morphus had finally emerged from the dungeon and killed Miller and his team.

She was certain it was the latter. After all, even though she knew Miller hated her, he was now her subordinate, so he couldn’t just ignore her, no matter how much he wished to. If her assumption was correct, it meant that the morphus had returned to the outside world, and it was only a matter of time before it got back to this base to finish what it had started before it ventured into the dungeon.

The morphus had infiltrated the base when Miller was still in charge. Now, it must have killed Miller himself and his team. Given all this, it was hard to believe the morphus wouldn’t return. She had almost no doubt that the mutant would eventually come back and attack the base once more. After completing the dungeon, it would likely be much more powerful than before, prompting it to attack while the base remained vulnerable, lacking enough people to defend it.

Since Catalina didn’t want to make the morphus her enemy but wished to ally with it, she planned to deactivate the turrets the moment it attacked the base. She aimed to avoid getting it killed or even seriously wounding it. She needed to do anything in her power to prevent the situation from escalating. For this reason, she remained in the security room, watching the monitors. 

The moment the morphus showed up, she would deactivate the only turret currently active, as well as any others that might finish upgrading to Level 7 by then. Although only one turret was active at the moment, she hesitated to deactivate it right now, fearing that the guards might notice. They would report to her that it wasn’t working, and she would need to provide a convincing explanation for its deactivation, but she wouldn’t be able to offer one, as there was no justification for leaving the base defenseless. 

So to avoid raising any suspicions, she kept the turret active for now. Once the morphus showed up, she would turn it off, but for now, she let the turret serve its purpose.

A few more minutes passed. Nothing had changed, and the morphus had yet to appear. She shifted her gaze to one of the monitors displaying the feed from a base camera. Routine activities unfolded inside the base: workers tended to various machines producing goods while guards kept watch.

In stark contrast to the bustling outside, the interior of the HQ was very quiet. She was the only person in the entire HQ, having sent all the guards outside. Her reasoning was simple: with so few guards remaining, there was little point in having them indoors. Their presence would be far more beneficial outside, bolstering security. The guards gladly accepted the order, as being stationed inside was quite boring, and few enjoyed it.

However, the real reason she sent the guards from HQ outside was strategic. Gathering them all in one visible location would make it much easier and faster for the morphus to slay them all.

Catalina was so engrossed in her musings that she didn’t immediately notice a change on one of the monitors showing the feed from the active turret. When she finally glanced over, she realized the turret had been triggered. It was tracking an invisible target speeding toward the watchtower. Catalina felt her heart race with excitement. It was the morphus! 

The turret opened fire on the threat, and in the next moment, the morphus became visible. It staggered as some bullets struck its armored body, but aside from that, the mutant didn’t sustain any visible injuries—it hardly even slowed down. Then, something strange happened. A cloud of darkness radiated from the morphus, shrouding it from sight.

Despite being technologically advanced, the turret couldn’t see through the strange, supernatural darkness. Having lost track of its target, it ceased fire. Catalina was so mesmerized by the events unfolding on the monitor that, for a moment, she even forgot her intention to deactivate the turret.

In the next moment, not just one but several identical pitch-black mutants emerged from the cloud of supernatural darkness, all moving in different directions. She instantly realized that only one of them was the real morphus, while the rest were mere decoys.

The turret, however, failed to reach the same conclusion. It took aim at one of the decoys moving along the wall and opened fire. The bullets passed right through, yet the turret continued to fire, oblivious to the futility of its efforts.

On one of the other monitors, Catalina saw that the guards inside the base were growing increasingly agitated. They didn’t know what the turret was firing at on the other side of the perimeter wall, but they were getting ready to fight. They pointed their weapons at the gate, prepared to open fire at whatever might crash through. 

The morphus, the real one, suddenly leaped high and clung to the watchtower topped with the turret, which ignored the mutant completely. Instead, it kept firing at the decoy aimlessly running in front of the base. The morphus smashed its huge fist against the turret. To Catalina’s astonishment, the impact triggered a mini explosion that severely damaged the turret, rendering it inoperative.

That’s when she remembered wanting to turn off the turret, but now that it was nonoperational, there was no point in doing so. The morphus punched the turret a few more times, with some punches causing explosions. Suddenly, the turret blew up, sending charred fragments of twisted metal spiraling into the air. After that, the morphus vaulted over the wall and landed in the middle of the compound.

What happened next was brutal and terrifying. One after another, the morphus killed the guards, morphing its hands into an array of various weapons: chainsaws and drills, claws and bladed tentacles, and so on. At one point, it even launched what looked like a harpoon at a guard who tried to escape. Snagging the person, who was screaming in horror, the morphus pulled him toward itself to deliver a fatal blow with a huge fist, reducing its victim’s head to a gory pulp. 

The fight—or the massacre, as it seemed a more appropriate term for what had just occurred—lasted less than a couple of minutes. The ground was now littered with torn pieces of human flesh and was drenched in copious amounts of blood. The workers had scattered to hide wherever they could, but the morphus paid them no mind. It loomed in the center of the base, staring at HQ. Then the mutant began to advance toward it.

Catalina recalled her intention to communicate with the morphus, but terror paralyzed her after what she had just witnessed. On one screen, the mutant was getting closer and closer to HQ. Summoning her courage, she rose from her chair and left the security room. Rather than descending the stairs, she climbed them and emerged onto the roof moments later.

She approached the edge and peered over as the morphus neared HQ. Spotting her standing on the roof, the mutant aimed its left hand, transformed into a harpoon, directly at her.

“Wait!” she yelled in panic, desperately hoping she wasn’t about to share the same horrible fate that had just befallen her men. “I’m not your enemy!”