Chapter 161
As Jake had predicted, the pickup truck had to slow down to navigate through the se of the city marred by giant chasms, giving him a ce to catch up. By the time he reached that area, the truck was maneuvering around the st crack. Beyond it y a clear, undamaged stretch of road. Ohe driver hit that stretch, he could accelerate, and Jake would lose his target.
A thought crossed his mind to reach the pickup trud jump into its bed. However, he quickly realized he wouldn’t be able to navigate through the cracked se of the street before the vehicle finished maneuvering around the st crack. He simply didn’t have enough time for that. Besides, getting too close to the truck was too risky. While the Cloak was still active, it struggled to keep up with his rapid movements, causing visible distortions in the air. Jake wao avoid dete at all costs.
Chasing after the pickup truck wasn’t a great idea either. He wouldn’t be able to keep up for long, and its octs would eventually spot him in the rearview mirror. Additionally, tinuing to run with the Cloak activated would deplete his mana quickly, and if he tur off, he would be even more easily detected. If they noticed him, the octs might get spooked, and he could never find out where the resources were headed.
So, he decided to take a different approach. He executed a Gravity Leap toward the nearby building. Once he reached the peak of the jump, he pressed himself against the wall, his Adhesive Secretion securely anch him in pce. Without wasting a moment, he crawled upward as quickly as he could. Oop the rooftop, he leaned over the edge to survey the streets ten stories below. The pickup truck had already cleared the st crad was now speeding along the open stretch of road. He had to hurry.
He sprinted across the roof, heading in the same dire as the vehicle. He no longer o remain camoufged, so he turned off the Cloak to serve mana. As he reached the edge of the roof, he performed a mana-infused jump toward the building. Upon nding, he tio run along the edge, making sure he kept the pickup tru view.
For several minutes, Jake leaped from one rooftop to another, carefully trailing the pickup trud ensuring he didn’t lose sight of it. Occasionally, the vehicle slowed slightly to navigate turns, which helped him stay somewhat close. However, the distaween them was steadily increasing. Jake was moving as quickly as he could, but the pickup truck tio pull away. After every turn, the vehicle accelerated on the clear stretches of road. He hoped the truck’s destination wouldn’t be too far, because otherwise, he risked losing it entirely.
At one point, the vehicle reached a long stretch of undamaged road. Aside from some grass poking through small cracks in the asphalt, there were no obstrus along the entire length, allowing the pickup truck to accelerate to its top speed. The gap between Jake and the vehicle began to widen by the sed. He realized he would soon lose sight of his target, but there was nothing he could do about it.
Suddenly, a helicopter appeared a few blocks up ahead. It desded until it came to a hover ten to fifteeers over a rge four-way interse. A cable was lowered from the chopper, with a carabi its end hanging just above the ground. The pickup truck slowed as it he interse.
When the vehicle finally came to a stop, the two bandits climbed out and walked over to the truck’s bed. Moving swiftly and with a professionalism that suggested they had dohis many times before, they unstrapped the bundle of pnks from the vehicle and secured it to the dangling cable. Ohey pleted the task, one bandit gnced upward and sigo the pilot. The helicopter quickly started to asd.
When Jake arrived at the building looming over the interse, the helicopter was already fading into the distaransp the lumber. He watched as it became nothing more than a speck against the gray sky, p where it might be headed. Maybe to the main base? Jake instinctively felt that wherever the main base of Los Demonios was, it y beyond the city’s borders. That was fine—he would find it eventually. With the ability to access several days’ worth of a person’s memories, he could learhing he needed about Los Demonios simply by using Mind Reader on the gang members.
He then leaned over the edge of the roof to look at the two bandits standing in the middle of the four-way interse. They were discussing something, occasionally gng at the PDAs in their hands. At first, Jake thought they might be heading back to their base, but it soon became clear they had different pns for now. Intrigued, he tio watch them. Eventually, they climbed bato their car and drove slowly to the building across the street from where Jake ositioned. After parking along the curb, they exited the vehicle and each grabbed a sledgehammer from the back before heading into the building.
Curious about what was going on, Jake decided to iigate. It didn’t take him long to climb down to street level. With the Cloak up, he ehe building the two bandits had just vanished into. To avoid dete, Jake pressed himself against one wall and crawled upward. Once he reached the ceiling, he tio move across it like a giant i, following the sounds the bandits were creating somewhere deeper iheir ruckus made it extremely easy to locate them.
When Jake finally spotted them, he froze, ging to the ceiling. The two bandits were swinging their sledgehammers at an old piece of wooden furniture on the far side of the expansive room, breaking it apart with ease. They created quite a otion, but it didn’t seem to faze them. There were no mutants in the viity, and they were clearly aware of that—they likely sed the building before entering to e was devoid of ex-humans.
Having smashed all the wooden furniture into a heap of rubble, the two bandits took a moment to catch their breath. Then one of them gestured toward a metal et in the er and proposed they break it down as well. The other shook his head arieved a small handheld device from his rucksack. The two engaged in a brief argument, with the one holding the device advog for its use, while the other insisted on saving the energy for ter.
In the end, the bandit with the device proved to be more stubborn than his panion. He approached the er of the room and aimed the business end of the device at the metal et. When he pressed the trigger, a blue beam shot forth from the barrel. He held the trigger down, enveloping the et in the blue glow. Jake watched as the metal et trembled, cracks appearing across its surface. Suddenly, there was a series of loud cracks, and the et broke apart into several jagged pieces. O was dohe bandit released the trigger, and the device stopped emitting the blue beam.
Jake took a moment to examihe devi the bandit’s hand more closely. He could tell it was a magic-powered device that worked on mana. He even spotted a slot for iing a mana able. Clearly, using this device was a much faster and easier way to dismantle an objepared to smashing it with sledgehammers. However, the device worked on mana, and mana ables were hard to e by. This was the reason for the argumeweewo bandits: one wao speed up the resource colle process, while the ed him to serve the magical energy for more urgent use.
After that, the two bandits began colleg the broken pieces of wood aal and hauling them outside. It took them several trips to gather all the debris and load it into the truck’s bed. So, this was how survivathered resources—at least in this case—they systematically dismantled furniture and various objects found throughout the city to salvage the fragments. Ohe truck acked with wood scraps, the bandits drove off in the dire of their base. Jake decided not to follow, as he already knew what would happe: the wooden scraps would be taken to the Sawmill, and then the magic-powered traption would vert them into brand-new pnks.
Jake paused to gather his thoughts. He had previously decided to wait twenty-four hours for the HQ at the Los Demonios base he had retly discovered to upgrade to Level 6. He was genuinely curious about the ges that would occur in the base ohe HQ reached the level. In the meantime, he could tinue his daily routine of hunting for XP and searg for mana.
He was currently at Level 74 and only o level up one more time to meet all the requirements for evolving into Stage 3: “Apex Maion”. Once he leveled up to 75, he would finally be able to transform into the form, being stronger aing access te of new skills and abilities. He estimated it would take him about a day, or perhaps even less, to level up.
After that, he would evolve into the stage. Then, owenty-four hours had passed, he po return to the Los Demonios base he had retly discovered to see what ges occurred after the HQ upgraded to Level 6. After gathering that information, he would decide what to do , likely adhering to his inal pn to unleash chaos on the base. With this in mind, he set off.
