Chapter 131

  The moment the challenge began, a bluish, semi-transparent wall appeared, enclosing the rooftop. Standing a few feet tall, the wall fhe rooftop on all sides. Jake khat it wasn’t real and that it was visible only to him, marking the boundaries of the Wave Survival challenge.

  He knew he could pass through the bluish wall, and if that happened for any reason, it would mean falling off the roof and tumbling all the way down to the street. He would surely survive the fall, but whether he could get back up before the thirty-sed tdown reached zero was anybody’s guess.

  The rooftop was about to bee an arena where he would have to battle through ten waves of mutants. Sure enough, the Electro was still h above the ter of the rooftop. Jake had hoped the challenge would take pewhere else, but no such luck. He would have to take on the challenge right o the dangerous anomaly.

  In the sed, vertical rift gates began to tear open in the air just above the surface of the roof. The first group of ex-humans started to crawl out of the fully formed portals. Fortunately, none of them materialized anywhere he ter of the roof, where the Electro ositioned. So far, all the mutants that crawled from the portals were low-level walkers.

  Jake checked his current XP t.

  XP: 235/5375

  The first ex-human fully emerged from a portal, emitting a pierg shriek. Jake immediately sprang into a, wheeling toward it and breaking into a run while morphing his hands into cws. Before the walker could raise its own deadly cws, Jake sshed at the mutant’s throat with his talons, plunging deep into the meat, easily slig through muscle and cartige. Dark blood poured from the torn flesh, and the walker colpsed, dead.

  A system notification fshed through his mind.

  Wave 1 has started!

  Targets killed: 1 of 25

  Jake quickly sed his surroundings. A dozen or so walkers were closing in on him from various dires, and more ex-humans tio crawl from the rift gates. The portals were likely to remain open until all the mutants from the first wave were released.

  He cast a quice at the Electro. The anomaly was retively small, only a few feet wide, and it hovered a few meters above the roof’s surface. The Electro resembled a ed spheroid, bending light and space around it. The anomaly motionlessly floated in the air and was barely visible. While he himself could see it easily thanks to his Enhanced Senses, fur humans, it would be nearly impossible to spot it.

  Some of the walkers passed directly beh the anomaly without setting it off. From its description, he had learhat it would activate if a living being came within a foot of it, but none of the mutants were tall enough to get that close.

  Also, acc to its description, another way ter the Electro was by disturbing it, but Jake wasn’t quite sure what that meant. Throwing objects at the anomaly would certainly cause a disturbance. However, the mutants were uo hurl anything at it, especially without any reason. Besides, there were even no objects on the roof to throw.

  Ahought crossed his mind: could loud sounds disturb it? As more ex-humans emerged onto the roof, the hey made grew louder, their bined sharp shrieks pierg the air, blending into a pierg cacophony. As the cmrew louder, the anomaly appeared to pulsate slightly harder, but not by much.

  Therefore, under current circumstances, it seemed that the Electro wasn’t going to activate. It could be set off if a living being came within a foot of it, but it had to be several meters tall—none of the ex-humans he had faced before were anywhere hat size. Disturbing the anomaly by throwing objects was also an option, but her Jake nor his enemies would likely do that. So, it appeared that his earlier about actally setting off the Electr the Wave Survival challenge was unfounded.

  Jake sshed his cws across a walker’s throat. Yet another ex-human lu him with a cwed hand, but he brushed it aside with one hand while using the talons on his other hand to strike back, tearing a piece of flesh out of its throat. Jake had a couple of other ons at his disposal—swords and smashfists—but he didn’t feel the o use them at the moment. His cws were more than suffit for handling low-level walkers and leapers.

  At one point, he sprouted three bded tentacles from his back. Though there was neo use them, he enjoyed occasionally bringing them into py. Besides, he waress and level them up to the rank. Even during the fight, Jake maintained perfect trol over all three tentacles at once. Evehey were behind him, in his blind spot, he was always aware of their exact positions and could easily direct them wherever he wished.

  While fighting three walkers in front of him at once, Jake used one of the bded tentacles to ssh across the throat of another ex-human fnking him on the right. He whipped the sed tentacle through the air toward a leaper that was about to pou him. The pointed bde at the tip of the tentacle stabbed the leaper into an eye, going deep enough to reach its brain. With the third bded tentacle, Jake cut open another walker, sshing its torso from the crotch to the bottom edge of the sternum, disemboweling the creature.

  Ex-humans surrounded him from several dires, but he deftly avoided their strikes without taking a hit. His cws, oher hand, always found their marks with ease. Most of the ex-humans attag him were walkers, but there were several leapers among them as well.

  It didn’t take him long to deal with all the targets of the first wave.

  Multiple enemies killed! +825 XP

  Wave 1 plete!

  Wave 2 will initiate in 5 seds.

  Jake took a sed to check his current experience t.

  XP: 1060/5375

  Since all the ex-humans he had just defeated were low-level walkers and leapers, he hadn’t gained much experience, even with the active Increased XP booster.

  He then checked the status of the challenge.

  Wave Survival

  Waves: 1 of 10

  Remaining time: 54 min 23 sec

  He breezed through the first wave in just a few minutes. However, it was obvious that the difficulty would ramp up with each subsequent wave, and probably at an expoial rate.

  The Electro anomaly remained dormant in the same position, motionlessly h several meters above the ter of the roof. It hadn’t been activated even once, and it seemed uo do so, which was a relief. He had no desire to dodge multiple bolts of electricity while fending off waves of ex-humans.

  What had him ed, however, were the sleek, futuristic helicopters cirg overhead. He could only spot two in the distance, and they were currently too far away. Yet, there was a ce that they might e closer to his position at some point. If they interfered with his progress on the Wave Survival challenge and prevented him from pleting it, he would be so freaking pissed.

  Then the sed wave started, and Jake shifted his attention to a fresh bunutants emerging from the newly formed rift gates.