Chapter 139

  Suddenly, Catalina veered her sleek bike around and raced in the opposite dire, rapidly pig up speed. Jake watched her until she vanished into the distance.

  For a moment, he remaiill, thinking. It seemed Catalina was among those sent to hunt him. But she had decided not to get into a fight with him, which was a wise move. How her superiors would respond to her insubordination was an altogether different matter. Not that Jake really cared. It wasn’t his .

  He turned back to look at the age he had caused. Having just used the mae gun made him think of something. He raised his hands to his face. Just before he took hold of the mae gun mounted iruck bed, he had reverted his right smashfist and the cws on his left hand bato normal, human-like hands. He tio look at them, deep in thought.

  Apart from being obsidian-bd textured, his hands didn’t differ frur human hands. This meant he could easily wield firearms. Until the ret fight, he had ruly felt the o arm himself. However, in situations where his enemies held an advantage over him—like during the ret gunfight with the octs of the SUV—he could certainly grab a gun to bahe odds against his enemies.

  While his own ons, like cws, smashfists, and others, were very powerful, he sometimes wished he had sed ones as well. Although his tentacles were quite long, they were primarily desigo sy enemies in close proximity. In most situations, his arsenal was enough to deal with various foes, but he could definitely be from having a le on at his disposal.

  While the System spawned plenty of firearms in this world, it didn’t mean they just y around every er. In critical situations where he needed a on, one might not be within reach. Although he didn’t often find himself in situations where he really needed a gun, the possibility still existed. Maybe it would be wise to grab a firearm from the bandits he had just sin and carry it with him from now on.

  He stepped toward the SUV again and peeked inside, examining the guns scattered throughout the vehicle. As he looked at eae, he summos stats with a thought. Most of the firearms were unon and had various entments, but ruly caught his eye. Besides, there was the issue of ammunition. He would o wear a tactical belt or carry a pact bag to ensure he had enough ammo on him.

  However, the idea of pag a on with a means to carry ammunitio off to him. That’s when he realized something else. After the transformation, his appearance wasn’t the only thing that had ged—his mi and behavior had altered as well. As he had noticed many days before, even his movements were very different now. Also, he hardly ever walked anymore. Instead, he always moved around at a stant brisk jog. When he wao sit, he lowered himself into a croug position, which would have been very unfortable for a regur human but felt perfectly natural for him. He could remain in that position for a very long time without making even the slightest movement.

  His behavior was now more simir to that of an animal than that of a human being. He recalled the time when he o lure a group of four survivors into the building where he was doing a tower-climbing challenge. Approag them from behind, he o find a way to attract their attention without frightening them. So, he leaped onto the roof of a nearby old, rusted vehicle, causing it to creak under his weight. He then lowered himself into his usual croug position, sitting motionless on the car’s roof as he awaited the survivors to notice him. He could just have casually strolled over and pounded his fist on the roof to look more like a normal person, but that thought never even crossed his mind. He was now thinking and ag in ways that set him apart from humans, and it was happening on an instinctive level. It seemed that he just couldn’t ge the way he acted, his behavior, or his mi.

  Anyway, the thought of always carrying a gun and ammunitio alien to him, so he decided not to bother with firearms. After all, he hardly ever found himself in situations where he really needed one. Besides, perhaps ter he would be able to acquire ranged ons of his own. However, if he ever stumbled upon a legendary handgun, he might give the matter some more thought. A handgun of legendary rarity would definitely pack quite a punch, and it wouldn’t be much trouble to carry it. He could just strap it to his thigh and draw it only when he o hit a target beyond the reach of his own ons.

  Ahought crossed his mind. His perfect perception and agility could make him a truly deadly gunslinger. However, even with this capability, he wasn’t going to bother with regur ons. If he were to carry a gun, it would o be a legendary one, or at least an epie. Until he found such a sidearm, he would tio rely on his own ons, which were more than suffit for most situations.

  The bandit in the driver’s seat suddenly let out a gurgling sound, prompting Jake to turn his attention to him. He walked to the front of the vehicle and looked at the dying driver. Surprisingly, the man was still ging to life, despite the ragged hole in his ned missing half his face. The gangster’s only remaining eye stared at him. He tried to say something, but all that came out was a gurgle.

  Jake didn’t bother to finish him off, aware that the driver wouldn’t st much longer anyway. The only reason he had sted this long was likely due to all the skill points he must have ied in his stitution attribute, granting his body a level of strength and resilience far beyond that of people from Earth before the Colpse.

  Sihe driver was still alive, Jake decided to take advantage of the situation. He grabbed the dying gangster by the head and utilized Mind Reader. The Demon’s memories flooded his mind. Having upgraded the ability to Rank II, he could now access several hours of a target’s most ret memories instead of just a few minutes as before. He didn’t learn anything iing from expl the driver’s memories, but it was fi wasn’t the reason he used Mind Reader anyway. He simply wao advahe ability so he could eventually level it up to Rank III.

  After watg as many of the driver’s memories as possible and reag the limit of Mind Reader, he pulled his hand back. Elongating his fingers into talons, he raked them across the driver’s already ravaged neck, pitting him out of his misery. , he opehe rear door and examihe remaining bodies, grabbing them by their heads. One gangster was still alive, though unscious. Jake activated Mind Reader, managing to delve into just a couple of hours of the Demon’s memories before they were swallowed by darkhe bandit had just died. The rest of the gangsters were already dead, so he couldn’t use the ability on them.

  Jake made his way back to the wrecked coffee shop. The two octs of the pickup truck y dead. Most of the replication pods and ex-humans had been wiped out by the gunner’s relentless barrage of fire as he had tried to hit Jake. However, a couple of cos remained intact. Jake quickly took care of the remaining ex-humans before approag one of the two replication pods. He peered inside for a few seds, but nothing happened.

  He tore the co apart with his cws and moved on to the one. He didn’t expect this pod to offer a quest, so he raised his cws to sh out at it. But as he peered inside, a message suddenly appeared in his mind.

  New Mutation Research!

  Objective: Analyze five replication pods that tain ae mutant of the wraith breed.

  Difficulty: Very Hard

  Reward: Morph Disguise (Epic Ability)

  Accept: Y/N

  Jake felt a wave of excitement wash over him. It was always a good thing to receive a mutation research quest and be rewarded with a new ability upon its pletion.

  This mutation research quest was definitely different from all the previous ones he had pleted. First, its difficulty was rated as Very Hard. Instead of having him analyze different types of mutants, this time he o focus exclusively on a particur one—a wraith. Moreover, he had to search for ae version of the mutae versions of mutants were much rarer than regur ones, so it would likely take him quite a long time to plete the quest.

  But it should be totally worth it because the ability he could receive as a reward ic. It was the very first ability of this rarity he had ever received, which made him even more excited. He wasn’t sure how Morph Disguise worked, though. In the sed se of the Geic Development Interface, there was already an ability called Cloak, which allowed him to bee invisible to other living beings. While Morph Disguise sounded somewhat simir to Cloak, suggesting it would let him disguise himself, it should enable him to do so in a very different way.

  Anyway, since Morph Disguise was of Epic rarity, Jake was sure it would turn out to be a very iing and useful ability. With a thought, he accepted the mutation research quest.