Chapter 14 - Newfound Strength
"Luna, keep an eye on the stairs and let me know when they're coming up," Cyanide ordered before immediately turning around and heading for the office room from before.
"I wish I could, but unfortunately, this new form does not come with portable capabilities," Luna replied with a sigh. "I'm stuck to your body, Cyanide."
"Hm. I'll have to fix that soon," Cyanide muttered under his breath before placing both of hands on the couch and — surprisingly enough — lifted it. Although it was difficult, he did it.
"… Huh. This is about 25% my original strength."
"And with only 4 CP spent into the stat," Luna added with a wink. "Humans can go beyond their natural limits in this world, Cyanide. You definitely won't be bored here — not for a good while, at least."
"… Hmph."
With a snort, Cyanide ran out of the office, couch heaved on top of his shoulders. Making a left, he reached the stairwell and pushed open the door with his other hand to reveal four mutants crawling their way up the steps, just as Luna had described.
"Down… you… go."
Cyanide set the couch down on the floor and gave it a good kick forward, sending it sliding down the staircase.
"GRRAH-!" The four mutants groaned as the heavy couch's momentum rolled over their bodies and sent them piling into one another like a stack of dominoes, until they hit the back wall of the stairwell. The couch came to a stop, the four mutants beneath it.
No sounds or motions were heard or seen for several seconds, but Cyanide knew better and kept his gaze fixed on the couch. Being made out of machinery on the inside, there's no way a mere couch could crush these mutants. And just as expected…
"Grrr…"
"Ragh…"
A hand, lined with dried blood and with mutated metal nails as long and sharp as needles, tore through the couch, followed by another. Slowly, the couch was lifted up, and tilted over. The four mutants were now free once more, completely undamaged. Though… the one who broke them free seemed to be incapable of getting his arms free of the couch.
In response to this, however, Cyanide's expression had no change. This was all within his expectations — he had planned for them to tear through the couch like this since the beginning.
"… They're really stupid, aren't they?" Luna laughed slightly, knowing what Cyanide had in mind.
Calmly, he pulled out a box of matches from his cloak pocket — something he had found while searching all the different floors so far, then lit one of them up by scraping it against the side of the box.
"… Enjoy."
Saying this, he tossed the match towards the four mutants, landing it directly on the spot where the couch had been torn open. Normally, the leather covering the surface of the couch like this was not easily flammable and a simple match would never do the trick, but if it had been tore open to reveal the foam inside, that was a different question.
Cyanide had planned this all along, and watched with contempt as the mutants' bodies began burning.
"GRRRRAHHHH!"
"SKREEEE!"
"ARGHHHHHH!"
Even then, however, Cyanide did not move. To him, this was an experiment. He didn't know too much about these mutants yet, and none of the information he had found so far mentioned them at all. He was certain that Doctor Finch would have some info on them, since he had experimented on one in that lab upstairs, but those files were most likely locked in a computer or cabinet that he couldn't pry open. Yet, anyway.
Because of this, he was now conducting various tests on them to see what they were weak to. Fire could theoretically burn away their outer layer of flesh and harm the machinery and wires inside, but they could be heat resistant ones that are able to withstand extremely high temperatures.
Turns out, he had jinxed it.
The mutants, now on fire, screamed in rage as they crawled up the stairs, slowly yet threateningly.
"… So fire doesn't work on them, huh? In that case…"
Cyanide turned around and ran into a room he had discovered earlier — a washroom. There, he used the large water bottle that had been in the laboratory and filled it up completely, then returned to the staircase where the burning zombies had now crawled up.
"If fire doesn't work on you… how about this?"
Cyanide launched the large flask of water directly at the first zombie, hitting its face head-on and spilling the water all over it along with its companions. This time, however, the mutants did not scream.
Instead, they merely collapsed and fell over, the water having entered their electrical systems and created a short circuit, causing them to malfunction. All four mutants lay sprawled over the stairs, paralyzed but not dead. Their bodies leaked electricity from them, making it dangerous to go close.
"Looks like the combination of fire and water is effective," Luna remarked from the side. "Interesting, since those two things usually don't go well together."
"So it seems," Cyanide agreed. "The fire burns away their outer flesh covering, allowing the water to enter their interior system and damage it from the inside. The flesh is resistant to water, while the wires are resistant to fire — but the opposite does not apply."
"Whoever made these cyborg-like things… really need to work on their fool-proofing."
"I was assuming you would know, but I guess not even the A.R.S.A. knew anything about this world, huh?"
"Yes, regrettably," Luna said with a disappointed sigh. "The knowledge you left me with only contained information regarding the various tools a player — or rather, a Survivor — have at their disposal."
"It's fine." Cyanide turned away and brushed past the mutants' paralyzed bodies, then headed downstairs. "For now, I'll keep looking for a weapon — and I'll need to do it before those four start moving again."
He had hoped to finish them off, but he simply couldn't do so without a weapon of some sort. As seen from the couch, crushing them wouldn't work, and neither will more fire/water. The only thing he could do now was skip past them, find a weapon, then come back to finish them later.
As he walked, a new notification popped up on his screen.
[Achievement Complete: Sinful Mercy]