Chapter 151

  Jake sprioward the vehicle just as the gunner unleashed a hail of guo avoid getting hit, Jake darted to the side as heavy-caliber bullets whizzed past him. They tore into the cracked asphalt, exploding on impad sending ks flying. Jake tio close in on the vehicle, moving in a circle. When the roof-mounted on stopped spitting out bullets, he immediately made a beeline for the vehicle.

  Before the gangster could reload the mae gun, Jake performed a mana-infused jump, nding on the roof of the SUV. Yelping in panic, the guried to slip inside, but Jake grabbed him by the shoulders, the tips of his cws digging deep into the human flesh. Jake pulled him up, elig a scream of pain as he easily dragged his victim out of the vehicle.

  With a powerful yank, Jake tossed the gangster aside, sending him tumbling to the ground with a distinap. Peering over the edge of the vehicle, he saw the man lying motionlessly on the asphalt, his neck at an unnatural angle. He had actally broken the guy’s neck. Falling from such a height shouldn’t have killed the gangster—he had just been unfortunate enough to have a bad fall.

  But that was fine. Jake only needed one of them alive anyway, and there was another person ihe SUV, seated at the steering wheel. The driver must have realized things were not going as smoothly as he and his now-dead panion had hoped, because he suddenly smmed on the accelerator, causing the rge vehicle to bolt forward. Jake was fast enough to hold on to the mae gun mounted on the roof to prevent himself from being thrown off the vehicle.

  As the SUV sped dowreet, Jake g to the roof, Adhesive Secretion holding him in position. He crawled toward the front of the vehicle, resembling a giant i. He then made his way down the slope of the windshield and reached the hood. Ohere, he turo face the driver, who stared back at him with terror in his eyes.

  In an attempt to knock Jake off the hood, the driver smmed on the brakes, bringing the SUV to a sudden, jarring halt. Yet, with both hands a gripping the hood, Jake remained firmly anchored, Adhesive Secretion keeping him securely in pow that the vehicle had stopped, Jake lifted his right hand from the hood, morphing it into a smashfist. Before the driver could accelerate again, Jake swung his massive fist at the windshield. The impact shattered the gss, sending shards raining down on the screaming driver, who raised his arms instinctively to shield his face.

  Reag ihe cab, Jake grabbed the driver by his head and, with a powerful yank, pulled him out of the vehicle. Shoving the gangster aside, he sent him crashing face-first to the grouo the SUV. The driver attempted to get up, but Jake jumped onto his back, pinning him to the asphalt. The man whimpered and squirmed beh him, but he owerless to escape.

  Perched oruggling form of the bandit, Jake searched through his pockets. In one of them, he found what he was looking for—the guy’s PDA. Reag dowook hold of the human’s right hand and pressed his thumb to the s, unlog the device. He then released the bandit’s hand and trated on the PDA for the several minutes.

  Finally, he was done. He put the PDA away and stood up. Rolling the bandit over, Jake grabbed him by the shoulders and roughly sat him up, propping him against the driver’s-side wheel. The man tried to resist, but he owerless against Jake’s inhuman strength. He then sprouted three loacles from his back, causing the bandit to gasp in horror at the sight.

  Before the guy could do anything, Jake nced his tentacles at the gangster, pierg him through both shoulders and through ohigh. The huma out a scream of pain, his eyes wide. Jake leaned in to just a few inches from the man’s fad opened his mouth wide, allowing the terrified human to see rows of his jagged bck teeth. Jake needed his victim to be severely injured and scared out of his wits—and he had aplished that. The bandit trembled untrolbly, fixating on Jake’s rge poieeth, whied just before him. So paralyzed by fear was the human he lost trol a himself.

  “No,” the guy sobbed. “No! Please, no. Oh gosh, no!”

  As he tio stare at the terrified man, Jake picked up the PDA and held it in front of him. However, the bandit didn’t eveo notice it at first. He was shtened he couldn’t dare to look away from Jake’s dreadful face even for a sed. He fully expected the bck teeth to rip into him at any moment. It was only when Jake brought the device closer to the gangster’s face that he finally tore his gaze from Jake’s teeth and g the s.

  The device dispyed the map of the city with three beled pins that Jake had positioned a few minutes earlier. Each pin’s bel tained a short piece of text that he had typed in. With his index finger, Jake poi the first piece of text.

  Let me be or you die.

  Tears blurred the man’s vision, and he had to blink rapidly for two or three seds to clear his eyes. Once he could focus oext, he quickly read it and looked back at Jake with surprise on his face. He then nodded vigorously in response. However, Jake was not do. He poi the sed pin, which tained another piece of text in its bel.

  Shw it 2 ur boss.

  After the gangster finished reading the text, Jake poi the st piece of text.

  Undstnd?

  The gangster read it and looked at Jake once more, eically nodding his head up and down.

  “Yes!” the gangster excimed. “I uand! I’ll show your message to my boss! It was actually him who wanted you dead, not me. The System has given him the mission to kill you, but he keeps assigning it to us, soldiers, instead of taking care of it himself.”

  Jake simply stared at the bandit. The information the human had just shared came as no surprise, as Jake had already figured that out by himself.

  “We call him Skullface,” the bandit added eagerly. “None of us wants to fight you, but he forces our hands. We have no choice! Anyway, I promise I’ll show him what you wrote!”

  The three tentacles detached, and Jake stood up, tossing the PDA into the bandit’s p. For a moment, the human sat on the ground, as if he couldn’t believe he wasn’t about to be brutally killed. Then, he picked up his devid slowly stood, wary of making any sudden movements.

  “ I go now?” he asked timidly, still struggling to believe his luck.

  Jake he bandit immediately swung open the driver’s door and slid behind the steering wheel. In the sed, the vehicle bolted forward, quickly accelerating. Jake watched it disappear into the distance. Los Demonios must have a base somewhere, but he didn’t even sider following the SUV to find out where it was. He was fast, but not nearly as fast as a car. Hiding ihe vehicle aing the bandit take him to the gang’s base, like a Trojan Horse, was also not an option because he hardly had any ma in his body.

  Wheempted to write on Isra’s PDA during the tower-climbing challenge, his Enhanced Intelligence had been at Rank II. However, this skill was now at Rank III, and the difference was noticeable. While he could write much more easily than before, it was still aremely difficult task that required a lot of time, tration, and ridiculous amounts of mana. He had written two very short sentences, but it drained most of his mana.

  He had just a little over a thousand mana points left, which wasn’t much at all. At his current level, he could burn through 1,000 MP in just one hour, even without engaging in strenuous activities. During intense fights, his body could easily deplete those thousand mana points even faster. Plus, with his mana levels critically low, his speed and agility noticeably deteriorated, as the remaining mana was now solely used to sustain basic bodily funs.

  So, he wasn’t in a dition to fight and had to steer clear of any frontations with humans or ex-humans for the time being. He inteo take it easy for the rest of the day and throughout the ing night, fog solely on hiding from enemies while searg for mana ables. With this pled in his mind, Jake set off on his way.