Chapter 122

  Jake tio scale the building wall until he reached the sed floor. To his left was a shattered window. He first grabbed the bottom edge of the window frame with one hand, then with the other. Hanging from the window, he pulled himself up and, with a powerful motion, shoved his body through the opening. He nded on the floor of the room beyond and unched himself into a roll befetting up on his feet.

  Jake quickly sed his surroundings. He found himself in a spacious but mostly empty room. No mutants were in sight, and no sound reached him from the deeper parts of the building. Relieved that he wouldn’t have to fight any mutants, he turned his attention to his wounds.

  The ragged hole in his knee was less severe, and most of the flesh had nearly grown back by that point. The wound in his shoulder was still healing, gradually closing as his flesh regeed. At least his mana was no longer leaking out.

  An idea occurred to him. Back when he was a survivor, he could access a battle log on his PDA to monitor both the damage he inflicted on enemies and the damage he sustained. He’d tempted to access that menu as a mutant. Remembering it now, he decided to give it a try. After all, his Enhanced Intelligence funed like a PDA in so many ways.

  He closed his eyes and gave a mental and to summon a bat log. He wasn’t sure if it would work, so it leasant surprise when a piece of information he’d just requested actually materialized in his mind.

  BattleLog:

  You have been wounded for 17% by Explosive Damage.

  You have been wounded for 8% by Explosive Damage.

  It was remarkable. He could access his BattleLog just as he had on his PDA when he was a regur survivor. He knew he would make good use of this feature whehe need arose.

  He g the information once more. The first bullet that hit him in the left shoulder had inflicted seventeen pert damage, while the sed bullet, which struck his right knee, caused eight pert. Both bullets had exploded, dealing explosive damage. Regur bullets would have dealt signifitly less damage to him. Also, Jake remembered acquiring an upgrade for the Enhanced Regeion skill to develop greater resistao various elemental damage types. Had he not dohat, the two explosive bullets that had wounded him would have dealt much more damage to his body.

  Ahought occurred to him. Could he somehow check his resistances? Was there maybe a specifiu for that? He decided to give it a shot and issued a mental and to summon his resistao his mild surprise, it actually worked: a new piece of information emerged in his mind.

  Elemental Resistances:

  Indiary - 10%

  Cryo - 10%

  Shock - 10%

  Explosive - 10%

  Corrosive - 10%

  Radiation - 10%

  Other Resistances:

  Pierce - 12%

  Poison - 0%

  Mana Bleeding - 7%

  Mind trol - 0%

  Stun - 0%

  Chaos - 0%

  Ethereal - 0%

  It appeared he had always had access to his menu—he simply had tempted to access it before. And sihere was no tutorial on being a mutant, he had never been informed about having the Resistances menu. He had to learn the ropes of being a morphus all by himself, disc hings on the go.

  He returned his attention to the informatioiced that all his elemental resistances were at 10%, clearly due to the upgrade he had acquired for Enhanced Regeioher day. His Pierce resistance was at 12%, while his Mana Bleediaood at 7%. The tter was likely influenced by his Magick attribute, while the former was formed by his Body attribute, along with various skills and upgrades that improved his overall durability and made his body more damage-resistant.

  All the other resistances were currently at zero. The Mind trol and Stuances were pretty much self-expnatory. As for Chaos ahereal resistances, he could only guess what they protected him against. He attempted to call up additional information on them, but nothing happened.

  All these thoughts raced through his mind in mere seds. He was eager to think about each of his resistances more carefully, but he had no time for that. The sudden screech of tires from the street drew his attention as the pickup trueared the building Jake was in, reminding him that at the moment, he had more pressing matters than studying his stats.

  Opening his eyes, he jogged across the vast, empty room toward the windows fag the street. His injured leg still wasn’t fully healed, causing him to move in a staggered, unsteady manner. Slowly, keeping most of his body cealed, he peeked out of one window at the street.

  Below him, he saw the pickup truck turn and pull a few feet into the alley before ing to a stop. The Demon manning the mae gun peered into the narrow alley stretg before the idling vehicle, a perplexed look on his face. Jake was certain that when he dashed into the alley, the pickup truck hadn’t even reached the interse yet, so its two octs couldn’t have seen him e. In spite of that, they knew for sure where exactly he had gone, which meant they had some means of trag him.

  “Where’s that bastard?” the shrowled, hatred dripping from his voice as it echoed through the shattered window Jake stood at.

  These guys seemed to genuinely hate him for some reason. But why? Was it because of the helicopter he’d brought down a few days earlier? But how had they lear was him who destroyed it? Sure, somebody saw him after the helicopter crashed, but those guys weren’t from Los Demonios. Perhaps Catalina had tipped off the rest of the gang about him, but that sario made even less sense. Or maybe Los Demonios had been on his trail even before that i. After all, before he destroyed the helicopter, its two octs had been looking for something—or someohough it was hard to tell if they were looking for him specifically. Ohing was for certain, though: the two bandits in the pickup truck had definitely been looking for him, and they had been at that for a while now. They clearly even had a method of trag his movements.

  Jake couldn’t his head around it. On one hand, he could e up with plenty of expnations for why he was being hunted, but oher hand, without any evideo back up his theories, they were all just specution for now.

  However, he didn’t have the luxury of time to ponder any of that right now, because the shooter suddenly shouted to the driver, “Tell me where the bastard is! What are you waiting for? Check the ser before the freak gets away from us again!”

  Jake knew he was about to be discovered. tions did he have? Well, there obviously were only two: either fight or run. If he ran, the Demons would tio track him down, but he o know why they were hunting him. He really wao uand their motives. The problem was that he wasn’t in the best shape to fight as his wounds weren’t pletely healed yet. Oher hand, he currently had a of surprise w in his favor. So if he chose to attack, he had to do it right now.

  “It’s right here!” the driver shouted suddenly, panic creeping into his voice. He had obviously just checked the ser and pinpointed Jake’s location.

  There was no time to think. Flee ht? Jake made a split-sed decision.