Infected

**The Infected** are those affected by the Abola virus whose bodies and consciousness were unable to support the multiple mutations and collapsed into huma- eating creatures. They are the primal antagonist of the series.

## Description

### **Behaviour**

A common trait on all the infected is their desire of human flesh, being instinctively guided to prey on human beings and seeking them in a higher or lower degree. Many of the more evolved types are highly territorial and aggressive enough to fight and kill other high level infected to reaffirm their control over a zone.

### **Evolving**

At the same way that evolved humans, infected can keep mutating, evolving in more monstrous and powerful forms. Nevertheless, only one of every 100 zombies end up evolving into Level 2, and the number of those that reach higher stages keep getting lower.

As they evolve, their appearance and abilities change according the type of mutants they become, developing a more complex intelligence sufficient to proficiently battle their enemies and ambush their prey. hey differ from humans in that the higher their virus concentration becomes, the faster their evolution speed, so they evolve quicker than them since they don't need to raise their immunity. As the virus keep concentrating they also begin to produce cores in their bodies int order to regulate their vital energy. After reaching the higher stages of evolution, some of them develop an ego, regaining a definite sense of self.

## Clasification

### **Level 1**

#### **Common Zombies**

The first stage of all the infected, with the exception of those that touch a Meteorite Fragment, and the most common type. At this level they move only guided by their feral instinct for the flesh, so their moves are clumsy and predictable, they are easily distracted by sounds and movements, and they chase their prey until they've either caught it or they're dead. Moreover, as they just mutated, they are extremely vulnerable since they didn't have the time to develop their bones or skin to protect themselves, so they are easily killed when attacked to the spine or head. However, when commanded by a higher level infected, they can become a force to be reckoned with, even being able to form enormous piles like in the movie World War Z to reach high target.

#### Zombie hordes

* Natural Cause (very random, usually only happens in large cities with huge numbers of infected)
* Human Activity (when the activity is large enough)
* Leader Commanding (can put them in a dormant or berserk state and give them basic orders)

#### **Mature Ones**

Also, known as Advanced Mutated, their strength is slightly lower than an average Level 2, and they like to move in groups. The only way for them to appears is by being converted by a Stage 3 infected. The mere presence of one of them is enough to provoke the mutation. They are brownish red with lines on the skull and pointy ears and rarely drops Damaged Cores. Zuo Tian Cheng states that all the common infected in the world will be converted into Mature Ones in a mere 5 years. They can also be infected by pollen, in which case they become green and their remains turn into **Infected Plants** when they dies.

### **Level 2**

At this level, they have increased strength and speed from Level 1 but are still within the range of human capabilities. The most deadly part is that they learn to sneak attack and call others for help (about 10 for a normal Level 2). They also have incredibly hard bones, especially the skull, which implies that only heavy firearms can hurt them. They also begins to diversify based on their capabilities. First level infected need from one week to a month to evolve to the second level.

* Average Level Two
* Lone Walker
* Parasite
* Hammer Shape
* Black Armor
* Sharp Clawed
* Blood Sucker

### **Level 3**

Almost all Level 3 infected have the capacity to convert common zombies into Mature Ones and their instinct commands them to do so periodically. They begin to gain a sense of territory, and some will chose to lead their troops to hunt other infected and expand their realm. Hordes at Stage 3 are difficult since they begin to learn to dodge, work in groups and support their teammates.

* Blood Brain
* Sharp Claw Build
* Ripper
* Dark Demon

### **Levels 4 or 5**

* Crimson Demon
* Black Sharp-Claw Type
* Fused Lone-Claw
* Rot Devourer
* Plant Matriach

## Special Types

Apart from the common zombies and their evolutions, there are special zombies who only appears after going through an Unstable Mutation. They go from powerful individuals lyto entilyre new species, their only matching point being their ravenous hatred for humanity.

### **Fallen Ones**

**The Fallen Ones** are evolved humans that lost their way along their evolution process as consequence of craving for too much power at once and overusing the virus energy when their immunity is too low to keep in control thof e Abola Virus. They end up losing their consciousness, their body mutates and they cease to be humans to transform into a unique, "deviant" kind of infected.

After becoming a Fallen, the subject still conserve the unique abilities that developed as part of their evolutionary path and get a stage higher, greatly increasing their power. Some of them seem to be able to conserve more intelligence than others, but mainly act through instinct, and in case of talented ones they soon obtain the ability to control lower level infected.

Every Fallen has different appearances that varies with different persons, but in all cas,es they develop many inhuman traits like skin and eyes of different coulors, while some of them completely lost their human appearance.

They are 3 main cases when a person becomes a Fallen :

1. Accumulating energy too quickly while cultivating without letting the immunity catch up (almost happened to Luo Lansha)
2. Activating the spot pattern fully while being low on energy (happened to Han Li)
3. Overdosing on Meteorite Crystals (happened to Zhao Youliang)

Zuo Tian Cheng temporally became a Fallen by eating a Coagulated Meteorite Crystal still, he was able to return to his normal self after entering in contact with another viral sources that created a balance among the energies.

### **Leaders**

A extremely rare kind of infected. The leader are high level mutants who have entered in contact with a Meteorite Fragment and absorbed it inside their bodies, slowly assimilated its power, and transformed it into a Coagulated Meteorite Fragment. This way, they developed new unique forms and abilities. Although some of them develop the ability of control hordes at lower stages, after reaching Stage 4 all of them are able to control zombies at will.

They tend to be territorial and crave more Meteorite Fragments, instinctively going for them even if they don't have complex intelligence. If they can consume more fragments of Abola Meteorites, they can instantly reach their next stage of evolution or gain more intelligence.

Until now, we only encountered the Eyeball Leader and the Colossus Leader.

### **Infected Plants**

Some plants have a low probability of experimenting mutations after absorbing mutated genes from infected. Their presence represents a huge danger, especially when they are gathered in one place. Their threat level matches a horde of hundreds of thousands infected. The reason they are considered so dangerous even though they cannot move is that they can distinguish their prey. It means that they won't attack Evolvers who are stronger than them, and will instead target the weaker ones.

Their stolon tissue is extremely hard, making normal weapons practically useless. Only those who contain viral energy, like Tian Cheng Meteor, Gao Fei Throwing Knives, Luo Lansha Daggers and Pear Tree weapons can affect them. With their incredible vitality, while normal vegetation needs dozens or even hundreds of years to corrode a city, they only need 10 days to reach the same result.

Infected Plants reproduce by infecting other species with their pollen.

The viral energy contained in their spores also have a strong inhibition effect on evolved, and normal humans can get infected just by inhaling it. Nonetheless, since the kernels of the pollen are pretty big, it can't affect peoples wearing tight clothes with a mask. The way they infects other species differs from others viruses since they tend to act more like a parasite, only influencing its host behavior. However, if the host is strong enough (Stage 3) he can revert the mutation .They are only released by Infected Plants and Infected Humans in their last stage.

Infected plants produces n unique substance called Flower Resin while infected contaminated by their pollen produces Green Meteorite Crystals.

* Infected Human
* Infected Zombies
* Night Stalker
* Infected Plant Matriarch
* Millenium Pear Tree

## Trivia

* On the world of *The Last Human*, 80% out of 7.5 billion humans mutated into Infected on 2018 .
* The label ”Stage” and “Level” seem to be fully interchangeable. However, the major of time in the series stage is used to refer to the Evolved and Level to refer to the Infected.
* The infected have also been referred to as “zombies,” “dead”, "mutated", “undeads” and "corpses".