Chapter 120

  Jake spent the rest of the night searg for mana. During the m, he hunted mutants in the sewers. Once he cleared out the underground tunnels, he returo street level to look for anomalies, eager to find some challeo tackle. He fronted every group of ex-humans he entered, earning some XP. The rain from the previous night had finally stopped, and the sun broke through the clouds, casting a soft light over the streets and sparkling off the puddles left by the downpour.

  As Jake roamed the city, battling ex-humans and searg for anomalies, his mind drifted back to the events of the previous night. He remembered watg a woman named Catalina, who was riding a motorcycle, and her panions in two pickup trucks chase and capture a group of survivors. This wasn’t the first time he’d witnessed Los Demonios un ambush against fellow survivors.

  However, their attacks weren’t motivated by the desire to rob other survivors. Los Demonios had access to high-quality equipment as well as top-notch ons and vehicles—far more than most. They eveed helicopters. The chopper Jake had brought dowly was just one of many in the gang’s possession. Over the past few days, he’d spotted simir-looking helicopters flying over the city on multiple occasions. Many of the vehicles in their possession had a futuristic design, like Catalina’s bike and the chopper he’d brought down.

  Clearly, the Demons didn’t ck resources. They ambushed and attacked other survivors not because they wao rob them, but rather because they aimed to take hostages. For some reason, they were colleg people, and they hem alive. Even though Jake had long since decided not to get involved in human affairs, he found himself p the meaning behind it all. Where did Los Demonios acquire their high-quality equipment and vehicles? Why did they relentlessly keep capturing other survivors? What was their purpose? Were they f the captives to work for the gang? It seemed that Los Demonios grew stronger with each passing day. While it didn’t bother him personally, for other survivors, it surely posed a big problem.

  While p this, Jake kept wandering around the city, killing all the ex-humans he entered to farm XP. He ventured into a high-rise building and cleared it of all mutants from the top floor down to the first, before returning to the roof and leaping to another building. He was currently on the first floor of yet another building, having cleared all the upper floors of mutants. He was surrounded by a group of walkers and leapers, with a massive shambler looming behind them. Jake had his hands morphed into smashfists. While he preferred using cws or swords in battle, he occasionally switched to smashfists to practid improve this ability.

  Just as a walker lurched toward him, Jake threw his right smashfist at the mutant. It hammered into the ex-human’s lower jaw, shattering it. Blood and brokeh flew from the mutant’s ruined mouth, leaving the walker stunned for a moment. While the first ex-human was out of it, Jake shifted his attention to another mutant. His huge fist the bottom of its ribcage, its ribs colpsing inward with a siing snapping sound. He theurned his attention to the first walker. His smashfist caught it beh what remained of its lower jaw and tore its head free from its neck. Its head went boung across the floor as a geyser of blood sprayed from the stub of its neck. Both mutants were dead within three seds.

  While Jake preferred his cws, he couldn’t deny that his smashfists were extremely powerful, especially in bination with his Body attribute being at 32 and the retly acquired sed upgrade for his Enharength, which greatly increased his pung power.

  There were several more mutants attag him from several dires. He punched one of them, knog the mutant from its feet. Jake brought one of his balled-up smashfists downward onto its head, smashing it open like an overripe melon.

  He immediately turoward another mutant just as it shed out at him with its cws. Jake blocked the attack with his massive fists. The mutant’s cws scraped against them, inflig minimal damage to his rough, textured skihen threunch with blinding speed, his fist plunging into and through the ter of the mutant’s body, emerging through its ba an explosion of gore. Jake pulled his ched smashfist free of the ex-human’s body, letting it topple to the ground.

  Suddenly, the shambler reached him, shoving aside two walkers that stood in its way. The massive mutant swung its enormous arm at Jake, but he ducked just in time, and it passed harmlessly over his head. Without wasting a moment, Jake retaliated with a punch to the shambler’s stomach. His smashfist easily broke through the shambler’s protective anic yer. When his fist pulled out of the mutant’s body, coils of squashed iines came out, flopping onto the ground. Jake immediately attacked again, his massive smashfist sweeping through the air to make tact with the shambler’s skull. Despite the protective yer c it, the mutant’s head exploded from the brutal force of the impact. With a tremendous thud, the huge mutant colpsed to the floor. Just like that, the shambler was dealt with.

  Jake quickly spun around, surveying his surroundings. A handful of weak walkers and leapers were still alive. It didn’t take him long to kill the remaining ex-humans.

  Multiple enemies killed. +435 XP

  Immediately, another notification fshed through his mind.

  You have gained enough XP to level up. Your level went up from 38 to 39. You have gained 5 SP.

  As he’d intended, Jake spent three points to unlock all three upgrades for the bat ability he was currently using.

  Ability: Smashfists

  Upgrade Options:

  1 - Increase the impact strength to shatter tougher materials.

  2 - Enhahe blog capability to absorb and defleing strikes.

  3 - Signifitly reduce the transformation time to morph hands into smashfists.

  He then checked the upgrades for Bded Tentacles. He’d already acquired one upgrade for this ability to reduce the time o grow tentacles, so there were two more avaible.

  Ability: Bded Tentacles

  Upgrade Options (on):

  1 - Increase the number of tentacles that be sprouted at the same time to three. Cost: 1 SP

  2 - Increase the length of tentacles by several feet for increased reach. Cost: 1 SP

  3 - Signifitly reduce the time o grow tentacles. Cost: Already Owned

  He used the remaining two skill points to acquire the first two upgrades as well.

  The ime he leveled up, he po acquire all frades for Mind Reader. He would likely use his st skill point to obtain the fourth upgrade for Cws to extend their reach. However, he then recalled that he actually didn’t want to increase their length, because he was tent with their current reach. When he needed greater reach, he could always switch to his swords instead. So he would probably allocate the fifth skill point to something else. He would decide wheime came.

  After that, he opened his eyes, and all the information disappeared. He looked around once more. There were no ex-huma in the building, so he transformed his smashfists bato normal hands. Now, it was time to head back to the rooftop. However, instead of returning to the staircase, he thought of something else. Staircases were for humans. Maybe he could scale the building’s wall to reach the roof instead? He knew his cws weren’t very suitable for that, but perhaps his enhanced agility and excellent acrobatic skills would assist him. He decided to give it a shot.

  As soon as he left the building, he looked around. Some of the shorter buildings had vines casg down their walls. Jake knew he wouldn’t have any trouble sg a wall covered in vines, but he wao find a tall building that wasn’t covered iation. Even a “naked” building wall should offer plenty of handholds, like window frames, ices, and other features, for him to grab onto. His enhanced agility and impressive acrobatic abilities should allow him to scale any building wall, but since he’d never actually attempted it before, he wao try it.

  Jake jogged dowreet, sing for the perfect building. Soon, he arrived at a four-way interse and heard a strange humming sound. He paused, taking a moment to look around. At one er, he spotted a half-destroyed oory diner, with an anomaly h above its roof, emitting a low hum. Intrigued, Jake decided to check it out and see if it had a challenge for him to tackle. His search for a building to climb could wait a little.

  o the demolished diood a multi-story building, with long vines casg down its front wall. Jake jogged over to the building, grabbed hold of a vine, and began to climb. He reached the height of the sed floor and was about to jump down onto the diner’s roof when he suddenly heard the rumble of a powerful vehicle.

  Jake looked around and saickup moving toward him, quickly closing in on his position. A mae gun was mounted in the bed, manned by a person ging to it for dear life. Within seds, the pickup truck reached the interse. The vehicle moved so fast Jake was sure it would shoot past him without its octs even notig him. However, the truck came to a sudden stop, its tires screeg in protest, halting not far from his location.

  Jake noticed the driver, a man with a red scarf ed around his neck, staring at him through the windshield.

  “There it is!” the driver excimed, his voice easily reag Jake through the rolled-down window. “It’s the freak!”

  The persoing the mae gun also wore a red scarf around his neck. He aimed the on at Jake and snarled, “Finally found you, you sonofabitch. You made us search the whole city for you. Now you’ll die, motherfucker.”

  The hell? Jake thought. Why had these guys, who obviously beloo Los Demonios, been looking for him? However, before he could give the matter any more thought, the Demon manning the mae gun unleashed a volley of bullets in his dire.

  The guy aimed a bit too high, though, and the heavy-caliber bullets he fired struck the vine Jake was gripping above him. The vine snapped, sending Jake tumbling down onto the sidewalk.