Cash leapt down from the roof of their little house in the slums as soon as he heard his brother walk into the yard. His eyes shone expectantly, scanning his brother until they finally landed on the suitcase in his hands.
"Is that it, he asked", his hand trembling slightly.
His brother, Coin, a blue eyed young man who had blond hair tied back in a ponytail, nodded at his question.
Cash visibly lit up with excitement. Impatiently, he asked, "When do we do it?"
"Right after we sync with our terminals.", Coin replied, a bit robotically. Unlike Cash, whose excitement was written all over his face, Coin showed no visible reaction. His face was blank, borderline emotionless.
He took out two terminals from his pocket, and tossed one to Cash.
"Here's yours. Be quick!"
Cash caught the terminal, sort of a wristwatch with a fairly large screen, and strapped it to his wrist. For a moment, he stroked it fondly, admiring its ruggedly black casing. Coin quickly drew him out of his reverie.
"Sync up quickly." We don't have much time left. The Woodland's will be moving out in a month's time. We have to quickly get a hit on them before moving day."
Cash, upon hearing his brother's words, booted up his unit and proceeded with the whole gene registration procedure. After he was done, his interface read
Name: Cash
Mutation: Dormant
Affiliation: Cash Corporate
Contamination: 0%
Corruption: 5%
That was it. Nothing else.
"I personally overwrote all protocols on it." Coin continued. "The terminals are fully remote and wont be transmitting any data to the Organization." Coin's voice was unusually cold. Cash paid it no heed.
"Let's head inside. It's time for our mutation"
In this world of death, beasts and fog, mutants were the only people who stood at the top of humanity's food chain. Only by undergoing gene altering mutations had humans been able to survive this dystopia.
Mutation, however, didn't come easy. Mutation serums were so costly that the average slum dweller would not be able to foot even ten percent of the bill in his entire life.
But here they were with not just one serum, but two.
Cash had no idea how Coin had gotten his hands on those serums and quite frankly, he didn't care to ask. He trusted Coin to tell him when the time was right. And that was it.
Once they got inside the tiny house, Coin opened the suitcase and revealed the two serums.
Then, glancing at Cash, he said, "You go first".
Cash grinned, "Obviously..", before stretching out his right arm and rolling up his sleeve. Then, he watched as Coin stabbed him with the serum, his gray eyes sparkling curiously.
After, Coin proceeded to inject himself as well, then, glanced at Cash, who was curiously observing his arm, trying to see if there were any changes, and said; "Now, we wait."
The words had barely left his mouth when Cash fell to the ground, unconscious and twitching. Coin had a few seconds to observe Cash before he fell unconscious as well.
Mutation compete!
Mutant path: Physique
Time taken: Three hundred and ninety eight hours!
Grade: Special Grade!
Mutation: Unregistered!
Cash woke up to the Ai voice from his terminal ringing in his ears. He looked around and realized he was lying in his bed. As his consciousness gradually stirred, he was struck with a deep feeling of hollowness, causing him to feel momentarily displaced.
"You're finally up" Coin walked into the room with an apron on holding a plate. He handed a plate of food to Cash, instructing him to eat.
"You've been out for approximately two weeks" He stated, glancing at Cash curiously. "If our terminals weren't remote, protectors would be surrounding our house at this very moment"
He showed Cash the interface of his terminal.
Name: Coin
Mutation: Unregistered Physique Based
Grade: Special Grade
Rank: Tier 1 (Ordinary)
Affiliation: Cash Corporate
Contamination: 100%
Corruption: 25%
"I'm special grade as well. Nothing as extreme as you though. I was fully conscious in about ninety-six hours, qualifying for special grade as well."
Mutations were classified into grades based on one metric, time taken to initially mutate. The very first mutations were always important to every single mutant because the time taken to mutate typically informed the uniqueness and rarity of a person's mutation. The highest ever recorded in the official database was twenty six hours. At that time, officials had been so impressed that they had awarded the fellow the title of 'Extreme Special Grade Mutant'
However, comparing that to the mutation period of Coin was like comparing a baby to a grown adult. Comparing it to that of Cash however, was borderline insanity.
Cash sat up in shock when he heard his mutation period.
"Impossible", he muttered, turning on the screen of his terminal. Coin stood on the side, glancing at him calmly, clearly unfazed.
Name: Cash
Mutation: Unregistered Physique Based
Grade: Special Grade
Rank: Tier 1 (Ordinary)
Affiliation: Cash Corporate
Contamination: 0%
Corruption: 0%
Cash's shocked expression intensified immediately he looked at his terminal. It was so severe that it prompted Coin, who was standing at the side, to look over curiously.
The moment he did, his stoic mask cracked and a look of shock slowly etched itself on his face, his eyes widening in the process.
"Zero percent contamination", he stuttered, "Impossible." Cash looked over with an equally stunned expression.
"That was exactly what I was thinking. He muttered.
For context, zero percent contamination right after drinking a serum was outright impossible. It had never happened and was never supposed to happen. Reason was simple actually. Once a person used a serum, his body was flooded with a gene altering virus that forcefully sought out the body's dormant mutant gene and forcefully evolved it, making it a dominant one.
After that, the virus broke down and its residue was left in the mutant's body. That was contamination. So, every single mutant always had a contamination level of a hundred percent right after using a serum. Over time, the residue of the virus would gradually fade away, reducing the mutant's contamination level. Once a mutant's contamination level was twenty percent or lower, the mutant could now use another serum to advance in rank.
So zero percent, right after using a serum, was an impossible statistic.
"This...…this means…." Coin's eyes radiated an intense neon blue.