Chapter 152

  Jake spent the rest of the day and the entire night searg for mana ables, gathering as much mana as possible. He focused solely on this task, refusing to let himself get distracted by anything else, and by m, he had amassed a substantial amount of MP. He collected so much mana he even wondered if there was a limit to how much of this precious energy his body could hold. There should probably be some limit, but so far, he had never reached it, likely because he was always very active, causing his body to e this magical energy at a high rate. Additionally, he occasionally used MP to purchase new skills and abilities.

  He had now enough mana to buy new skills, but he decided to wait until ter in the day. For the moment, he wao stick to his daily routine, so he made his way down to the sewers, where he spent the several hours. He gained some XP, but not enough to level up yet. Afterward, he emerged back to street level and tinued sying mutants for XP. Once he leveled up, he po allocate skill points and use the MP he had gathered ht to acquire new skills and abilities.

  For the wo hours, he cleared one building of mutants after another. However, he noticed it was being more challenging to level up. The mutants he came across were those he had already entered, yielding the same amount of XP, while his requirements grew with each level. This resulted in a noticeably slower leveling pace. To level up more quickly, he o veo a new location or hunt down different types of mutants, but he wasn’t sure where to look.

  At that point, it seemed he had explored the ey, and there were no areas he hadn’t visited by that point. The only exception was the dungeon known as the Maze of Torment, located in the sewers. Unfortunately, he couldn’t access it without a Skeleton Key. Even if he mao find one, he doubted that entering the dungeon would be beneficial, as it was designed for survivors between levels 15 and 20. At level 63, he was far to for that dungeon now and likely wouldn’t gain anything valuable there.

  On the first floor of one of the high-rise buildings, he entered a rare type of ex-human—a bloater. At one point, it ejected a torrent of acid toward him. Jake mao dodge, but a few drops still spshed onto his shoulder. He felt no pain, but his flesh sizzled and smoked for a few seds as the acid dealt some damage to his skin. This reminded him of the urgeo enhance his resistao various types of elemental damage.

  He initially po deal with the weaker ex-humans before fog on the bloater. However, his pns ged when something ued occurred. With a screech of tires, a vehicle rolled to a stop in front of the building. Upon hearing the noise, he gnced over his shoulder. The front of the building was lined with tall windows—none of which had gss at this point—and through them, he saickup truck adorned with red demon skulls painted on its doors and hood, and a mae gun mounted in the bed. The rge on, manned by a bandit, oi the building.

  The deafening roar of the mae gun drowned out the screams of the ex-humans. Instead of targeting Jake, the gunner directed his fire at the bloater. Its huge belly glowed increasingly brighter as bullets tore at it with squelg sounds. Jake uood that the gunner wao make it explode to shower him with acid. However, while he wasn’t far from the bloater when it exploded, he dashed fast enough to avoid getting spshed with acid.

  When the bloater exploded, waves of acid and pulpy pieces of flesh went flying in every dire. Some of the nearby mutants got drenched in the acid, being reduced to little more than mere skeletons in seds. Many of the ex-humans lost i in Jake and sprioward the vehicle. However, none of them was able to make it out of the building, dropping like flies uhe heavy gunfire.

  The gangster in the back of the car thrust the barrel of an assault rifle out the window and opened fire on Jake. While he could easily escape by getting to the upper floors, he didn’t even sider fleeing. If the Demons were so keen oing killed by him, he wasn’t going to disappoint them. When he dashed out of the building and sprioward the vehicle, the gunner yelled “fuck” just as the pickup truck bolted forward. But not before Jake performed a mana-infused jump, nding in the bed. He shed out at the gunner, his cws aimed at the bandit’s exposed throat. The guy stumbled back, clutg his bloodied throat, lost his bance, and fell over the edge to the ground rushih him.

  The gangster in the back of the cab opened fire through the rear window at Jake. The bullets exploded on impact with his chest. The man also used a Push spell on him, causing Jake to fly back over the tailgate of the vehicle and drop to the ground. However, he was quiough to sprout a tentacle and sh out at one of the rear wheels, shredding the tire. The car went into a chaotic swerve, pivoting y degrees before rolling over several times until it finally came to a rest on its roof.

  One of the octs of the vehicle was dead, but the other mao survive by employing a magical shield. The gangster crawled out of the wreckage and got to his feet. Wheiced that Jake was still alive, he gnced around for his on, but it must have bee somewhere ihe vehicle. Rather than searg for it, the bandit decided to flee. Turning around, he darted around the upturned pickup trud sprinted down the road. He must have cast yet another spell to increase his speed because he was running far too fast for a human. But he was still no faster than Jake. He leaped to his feet and gave chase.

  It wasn’t long before he closed the gap between him and his prey. With a powerful leap, he collided with the fleeing gangster, sending him crashing to the ground in the middle of a four-way interse. Jake pnted his foot firmly on the bandit’s back, pinning him down. The human was struggling to rise, but he couldn’t do anything to shake off Jake’s foot pressing down on his back with incredible strength. His victim thrashed his arms and legs wildly, resembling an oversized i in distress. He didn’t use any more magical spells, likely having run out of them by that point.

  Jake was moments away from finishing off the gangster when he caught a flicker of movement out of the er of his eye. He lifted his gaze from the pinned human and turned in the dire of the disturba one of the ers of the interse stood what used to be a diner. Peering through its shattered windows, Jake noticed something uling. Ihe dihere were subtle rhythmients. Although he couldn’t see the full se from where he stood, he could see several naked bodies suspended from the ceiling, swayily in the draft ihe small building.

  The mah Jake tio writhe in futile attempts to escape. In response, Jake momentarily lifted his foot, repositio slightly, and then brought it down with overwhelming forto the back of the man’s head. The impact echoed through the empty interse, and the bandit’s struggles ceased, his skull bursting apart like an overripe melon. Jake quickly sed his surroundings to make sure there were no enemies lurking nearby and then jogged toward the diner. Upon reag the entrance, he halted in the opening, taking irocious se ihe main room.

  The interior was in utter disarray: overturables and broken chairs y strewn across the floor, while shards of gss glinted menagly uhe dim light. However, it was the bodies that domihe space—suspended from the ceiling and swaying slightly. The horrid smell assaulted his enhanced sehe air thick with the acrid st of blood mixed with rust and decay as well as something stale and fotten.

  There were several bodies that were suspended from the ceiling. The bodies were pletely naked and heavily mutited. Whoever those people were, they had been brutally tortured to death. Their bodies had numerous burn marks, various cuts and bruises. They were also missing various body parts. Some of them had some parts of their skin fyed, while others had their faces removed.

  Behind the suspended bodies, on the wall opposite the frorance, a chilling message caught Jake’s eye. It was written in red paint—or worse, the victims’ blood: “DON’T FUCK WITH US.” o the menag phrase icture of a demon skull spttered in the same blood-red hue.

  Even though Jake was as cold as stone, he found himself disturbed by the horrid se before him. The lifeless forms swayily in their grisly suspension tugged at something deep within him, a flicker of humanity that was usually kept buried beh yers of indifferend detat.

  For a few minutes, Jake remained motionless, watg. So far, Los Demonios had been nothing more than a mildly annoying nuisahey attacked him on sight, driven by their notorious reputation and the territory they cimed, but most of the time, their aggression didn’t weigh heavily on him. Occasionally, he would simply give them the slip while other times, he dealt with his attackers without much difficulty.

  While Los Demonios had been nothing more than a nuisao him, they had bee a relentless meur survivors, terrorizing ahey set their eyes on. Jake had sciously steered clear of getting involved, telling himself it wasn’t his fight. However, the horror in front of him peeled back yers of indifference. With each violent enter he witnessed, each desperate plea for help he turned away from, a simmering anger rose within him—one he had chosen to ignore. But this brutal se, with its grotesque dispy and chilling message, stirred that anger into a furious bze. Jake weled the ued feeling e. He thought he had long fotten any humaions, but the horrifying se before him had awakened some of them.

  The oppressive weight of guilt mixed with rage twisted inside him. Fueled by a newfound purpose, he decided it was time to act. The brutality of the se demonstrated the depths of cruelty that Los Demonios were capable of. As much as he tried to stay out of survivors’ business, the uling sight made him rethink his previous more dismissive attitude toward the gang. At that moment, Jake made a silent vow to himself: he would no longer be a bystander. He had to take matters into his own hands, otherwise Los Demonios would tiheir reign of terror unchallehey walked the streets with a sense of invincibility, vihat their strength grahem the right to terrorize others without sequence. But they were wrong. Dead wrong.

  It was settled. He was going to front Los Demonios, tearing their gang apart, piece by piece. They must have a base somewhere, so he was going to find it and burn it to the ground. If they had multiple bases, he would find aroy all of them. He was going to find Skullfad whoever else besides that person was in charge of the gang. Once he found them, he’d kill them all.

  He was going to leave nothing of Los Demonios but a wet pat the ground. He would pursue the gang until nothing remained of it as if it had never existed. He uood that those who decided to join the gang had to it cruel acts to demonstrate their loyalty. Those who deed were assigned menial bor for the gang. So, everyone who wore something red, signifying they were officially accepted into the gang, would bee his legitimate target. His ultimate aim was to eliminate all the leaders of the gang aroy their bases. He didn’t io bother with hunting down every single soldier, but any that stood in his way would be killed as well.

  Jake kept his gaze fixed on the brutal se before him for a while, thinking about Los Demonios and what he was going to do with Skullfad whoever else was in charge of the gang. They referred to themselves as the Demons. It was high time to show them what a true demon looked like and what he was capable of. Los Demonios were on the brink of fag their worst nightmare—one from which they would never awaken.

  Hey guys! Thank you for reading! This chapter s up Act II of the story. I appreciate you stig with it this long! The Act will focus on Jake waging war against Los Demonios—learning about the inner ws of the gang, sabotaging their operations, and ultimately taking down the gang leaders. Hope you're as excited about that as I am! :)

  Merry Christmas! :)