Adam's cold shotgun was aimed at Biscuits; tragic expressions surfaced on her face: fright, disbelief, and the inability to process the shock.
"NO! COMMANDER! WAIT!"
Elena wanted to stop him; she had a few milliseconds to act, but Adam's finger was already squeezing the trigger.
BANG!
Thousands of pellets sprayed from the gun's blast, ripping skin, searing flesh, splintering bones, and sundering her with 600 Joules of raw violence.
Biscuits hit the ground with a strong thud, but Adam was hardly satisfied.
BANG!
Another blast tore through the fallen corpse, cruel and pointless. The corpse shivered and became still once again.
BANG!
With the last blast, Elena could finally reach Adam, push his shotgun up, then rip it from his hands.
"COMMANDER!"
She couldn't believe it.
The man who just spoke of pure ideals, of humanity sticking together, of the Solarium being his choice.
Such cruelty!
"Sergeant! Commander!"
"WHOA! What was that?"
"Holy shit! The fuck, Adam!"
The team, alerted by the gunfire, immediately appeared, rushing towards the sound, guns in hand and ready to rescue. But as they arrived at the scene, they saw Adam's doing, Elena's fury, and Biscuits's motionless corpse.
However, the intensity of the scene was instantly frozen when a familiar face appeared—that, of course, was Biscuits's.
"Commander… You… You could've just told me you disliked me that much!"
All eyes turned to see Biscuits, who was standing naturally in the middle of the team, surrounded by two men on each side.
"Nonsense!" Adam replied as he calmly retrieved his shotgun from the frozen Sergeant's hands. "Someone who cooks as well as you makes us basically besties."
Adam felt humored, but the shocking situation they had just experienced needed a lot of explanation.
"What is that?" Kave asked, looking at the corpse of what looked like Biscuits.
"I've heard rumors about such things," Adam said, holding up his torchlight. "Others called them 'Doppelgangers' before."
——————————
[ Mimicker ] < Medium Dark Host >
A developed Dark Host that seamlessly assimilates into its environment or assumes the appearances of others. Its malleable protrusions and acute sensory capabilities allow it to replicate a target's appearance, vocalizations, and behavioral patterns to achieve a convincing level of authenticity. It subtly isolates, lures, and dispatches targets individually; however, its capacity for direct combat is lacking.
Shapeshifter — The Mimicker can reshape its body, enlarge, and reduce it, to take the appearance of a target.
Seamless Stalker — When motionless and blending with its surroundings, it is almost impossible to find a Mimicker.
——————————
"Now would you look at that!" Adam raised a brow as soon as the information pop-up appeared to him.
Kave also had his pop-up message appear, which he used to explain things to others. As for Adam, he approached Sergeant Elena.
"Sorry about the kick," he said awkwardly.
"Not at all, sir. You saved me," Sergeant Elena replied, recovering quickly from what she had just experienced before asking, "How did you know?"
"I have this sixth sense for my summons… if you can call it that," Adam replied casually.
"That's handy."
Elena awkwardly nodded before looking at the monster, whose appearance started to slowly morph back into its original monstrous shape, its polymorphic protrusions getting loose by the second, exposing a worm-like body with strange-looking legs and long-clawed arms.
The emergence of such a monster meant that the threat level of this location had risen significantly. Adam and Elena gathered the team to discuss strategy further and share information.
They knew the place was overrun with Gobzkin, but the Dark Hosts were aggressively gaining ground and acting organized, forcing the Gobzkin to fight them outside the shopping center and at the Gigiant corpse location. To Adam, it meant that there was an influx of higher-tier monsters in the ranks of the Hosts, such as the Face Fiends and the Mimickers.
"We had covered a small section around this place and had discovered some Gobzkin activity. According to Citizen Kave, they should head further west to find canned food," Corporal Sharp reported.
"Why didn't you split the team to gather more intel?" Sergeant Elena asked.
"It was…" Sharp wanted to explain, but he hesitated and pointed at Kave. "Citizen Kave insisted they not do that."
Sergeant Elena turned to Kave with a stern look on her face.
"Citizen Kave, are you giving commands to my troops now?" She asked with a dry tone.
Rather than being overwhelmed by Elena's presence, Kave's reply was rather confident:
"With all due respect, horror movies have taught me one thing and one thing only: never split up… ever."
Elena raised a brow and turned to Adam, who was in total agreement with Kave, even exchanging a high-five with him and congratulating him:
"No notes, bro. Peak survival instincts!"
"Well, it would extend their stay here if they didn't widen their search radius," Sergeant Elena conceded, especially given the existence of monsters that can mimic appearances.
The formation was adjusted for two columns and one man in the lead, obviously Sharp, who switched to a regular firearm he had brought from base. The group moved around carefully, covered every possible corner, and continued around the wrecked shopping center.
There was indeed no limit to the savagery of the Gobzkin, who had really set themselves up in such a place, building fortifications out of the shelves, carts, and anything they could get their hands on. Still, the worst trait about Gobzkins was their fixation on eating everything, a commonality they shared with the Dark Hosts, yet each in their own sick and twisted style.
The Gobzkins had many of their victims hanging from their towers and fortifications like meat slabs, limbs torn apart while the victims were alive, eaten, and celebrated in a savage manner.
Adam told stories to the team about his encounters with Gobzkin camps the past few months, and this camp was no different; the cruelty of the green man-eaters extended to extreme forms of torture, as if they were developing a taste for human suffering.
Those who were captured alive would usually be beaten, cut limb from limb with brutal, dull tools, and in recent months, the Gobzkin developed a penchant for skinning and scalping humans like trophies.
The remains of such victims were seen all over, with mostly skeletal remains hanging from fortifications.
Adam wanted to avoid such camps, as getting involved was unnecessary, but the eerie quietness in the surroundings of the makeshift fortress made the whole group curious about what was going on inside. Finally, Elena decided to send Sharp to spy inside through the cracks, and his report was somewhat shocking.
"A whole lot of dead Gobzkin," was what he said.
With that report, the group decided to remove a few of the stacked shelves and opened a way into the fortification, breaking any savage totem or effigy as they ran into them. Just as Sharp reported, there were indeed a few dozen dead Gobs lying about.
The fortification they made was circular, and in the center of it all, they had some wooden stalls and tree trunks gathered around, forming a bonfire. It seemed this was a social hub for the Gobzkin.
As for the corpses, they were all killed by claw marks, shredded to pieces, their green blood sprayed about. Adam was rejoicing when he saw even the Goblin spawns killed and chewed aside.
"What should we do, sir?" Elena asked, knowing that Adam had more understanding of these kinds of creatures.
"This is probably the work of Mimickers. There was no resistance or signs of the Gobs running to their weapons. They were infiltrated and slaughtered," Adam replied.
"What should we do then?" Kave asked.
A mean smile formed on Adam's face as he simply put aside his shotgun and switched to his Glock pistol. He then aimed at a nearby Gob and shot the corpse once.
BANG!
The Gob's corpse quivered, but nothing happened. Adam switched to another target and…
BANG!
SCREEEEECH!
"Here you are!"
His bullet tore through the Gob that was pretending to be dead. However, this wasn't even a Gob, as its body quivered and twisted in strange ways before trying to stand.
PEW! PEW! PEW!
Blazer fire shot into the Mimicker and tore through its soft flesh, which started to splatter around with every heated bolt, staining the area around it with black bodily fluids, before the Host dropped dead.
Adam then aimed at another Gob and shot…
BANG!
SCREECH!
… this too turned out to be a Mimicker, which the Men-at-Arms turned into a steaming piece of Swiss cheese.
The situation repeated, and Adam emptied two magazines as he checked every fallen Gob, killing over five Mimickers in this scene alone.
≪ You have gained 2 EXP! ≫
"Nice work. Moving out!"
With the Gobzkin settlement inside the shopping center wiped out, and most of the Host Mimickers eliminated, the place was now ripe for the looting, offering food, tools, tech pieces, such as computer parts, screens, and digital products. But the thing that Adam and Kave were anticipating more than anything was the hobby section, where they were expecting to find some Wartopia products.
Each member of the seven took a shopping cart, and the shopping spree began.
✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧
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