Chapter 185
The two guards approached the inactive ammo-produg mae. For a moment, they just stared at it, trying to uand why it had stopped w. It didn’t take long for them to figure it out. When one of the guards checked the slot where the mana crystal should have been, he found it empty. A few uards soon arrived to see what was happening. They gathered around the dormant traption, versing among themselves. Nearby workers who noticed the guards’ activity visibly grew tense.
Jake kept watg, having lowered himself into a croug position at the edge of the roof. He gripped the edge with his hands, staring down at the base ten stories below, remaining pletely still. He wasn’t worried that a sudden gust of wind might knock him off, because he knew Adhesive Secretion could be activated at a moment’s notice, securely anch himself if he sun was setting, casting an e glow over the city, but the workers tiheir tasks, showing no signs of ing up for the day. As Johnny had told him, they were forced to toil endlessly. Jake wondered when they would finally be allowed to call it a day.
The guards gathered around the dormant ammo-produg mae spoke among themselves, some gestig animatedly. Their raised voices carried through the air, allowing Jake to cate of their words with ease, despite the dista was clear that the guards were very angry, and not just because the mae had stopped produg ammo. Their frustration also stemmed from the fact that none of them had even noticed the mana crystal being taken from the mae. They all khat Miller wouldn’t be pleased about that. The prospect of fag their leader’s fury when he learned what had happened in his absence filled them with primal fear.
The guards khey had to find out who had stolen the mana crystal before Miller returned. One of them called out to a nearby worker, waving him over. The worker clearly wasn’t happy about having to approach the gathering of guards, who were in a foul mood. However, he had no choice but to obey, so he began trudging toward them. The guard who had called him over yelled for him to pick up the pace. The worker quied his steps, visibly trembling as he reached the inactive mae. He was immediately fnked by two guards oher side.
The worker shook his head vigorously when one of the guards posed a questiouring toward the dormant mae. Anuard spoke up, prompting the worker to g the mae again. He quickly replied, shaking his head again. The guards tiheir interrogation, and each question was met with anative reply. It was clear what kind of questions they were asking and what answers he roviding. Did you steal the mana crystal from this mae? No, I didn’t. Have you seen who did it? No, I haven’t.
Out of frustration, one of the guards suddenly raised his on and struck the worker with the buttstock, causing the poor man to drop to his khe other one quickly followed suit, raising his assault rifle and bringing it down on the worker’s head. The butt of the on ected with the back of the worker’s skull, and the man colpsed to the ground. The two guards set about beating him with the butts of their ons as the man tried to shield his head with his arms as best as he could.
Jake averted his gaze from the brutal se to s the base for Johnny. He saw him oher side of the base. He had been ily watg the guards gathered around the dormant ammo-produg mae. He was ing his neck, obviously uo see all the details from where he stood. However, as soon as he realized one of the workers was beien, he burst into a run across the base toward the otion. Some of the guards immediately poiheir ons at him when they noticed him running toward them. Johnny skidded to a sudden stop, raising his hands high in the air.
From his vantage point on the roof of the ten-story building, Jake suddenly noticed a vehicle appear oretch of road leading to the bandit base. He kept it in his peripheral vision as he focused on the se unfolding within the pound’s perimeter walls.
Several guards yelled at Johnny, keeping their ons poi him while he shouted back, “It was me! It was me!” The guards tinued yelling at him, and in the cacophony of hey created, it took them a couple of seds to process what he was trying to vey. Ohey realized it was him who had taken the mana crystal, the two guards finally stopped beating the worker and turo face Johnny. One of them yelled for him to keep his hands raised as two of them approached.
They begaioning him, and he quickly responded, but sihey were no longer yelling, Jake couldn’t hear any words anymore. It retty obvious that Johnny was g to be the one who had taken the mana crystal when no one was watg. At some point, he poi the rge tent where he and Jake had been hiding not long ago. The two guards g the tent and then looked at each other, exging a few phrases. One of them then headed for the tent while the uard stayed with Johnny. Meanwhile, the remaining guards lingered he dormant mae, ign the beaten worker who y on the ground, writhing and c. No one among the guards offered him any help, having seemingly fotten about his presence for the moment.
In his peripheral vision, Jake could see that the vehicle was still driving down the road, gradually approag the bandit base. It was clearly headed for the pound. However, it was still far away, so the octs of the base weren’t aware of it yet.
It wasn’t long before the guard emerged from the tent, holding the empty crystal in one hand, his rifle slung over one shoulder now. He returo where Johnny and the uard stood and asked a question, nodding at the crystal. Johnny g it and nodded in respohe uard briefly looked at the empty crystal and then shifted his gaze back to Johnny.
Jake khat the crystal had small cracks in it, which had formed when he gripped it in one hand to extract mana from it. However, he had applied just enough pressure to extract the mana without causing any visible damage to the crystal. So the resultant cracks were very small, almost unnoticeable, making the crystal appear intact. This was important because, as Jake knew from experience, mana ables were nearly iructible. While he could easily break them to extract mana, regur survivors couldn’t so much as leave a scrat them. Jake had made sure not to leave any easily noticeable damage on the crystal, and judging by the rea of the two guards, they indeed failed to notice the small cracks marring the crystal’s surface.
The vehicle that roag the bandit base was now close enough for Jake to dis the details. It ickup truck, and he instantly reized it as the one Miller had driven away in. So the leader of the base was finally returning. However, the truck was still far off from the base, and its octs were unaware that their leader was on his way back.
Jake returned his attention to the two guards questioning Johnny. One of them suddenly pulled what looked like a sidearm from inside his jacket and poi at Johnny. However, as it turned out, it was no on at all. When the guard pressed the trigger, bluish energy flowed from Johnny toward the guard who was using the devi him. Jake knew what was happening—the guard was extrag the mana stored inside Johnny and transferring the magical energy into his own body. Jake couldn’t help but feel jealous. He wished he had a simir ability. His Mana Vision perk allowed him to detect mana ables as well as various mana sources like mana clouds or mana stored within human beings. However, the perk didn’t allow him to absorb mana clouds or extract mana from humans. He likely needed a special skill or perk for that, which he currently didn’t have.
Jake remembered Johnny telling him that he had about a thousand mana points within him. If discovered, he was going to cim that this was the amount he had extracted from the stolen mana crystal. Sihere was no way to gauge how much mana a person held in their body, Johnny had said the guards wouldn’t be able to tell if he was lying or not.
However, watg the guard siphon mana from him using a special device, Johnny appeared uneasy. He was attempting to maintain a fa?ade of ess, but to Jake, it was obvious that Johnny was nervous and trying hard to ceal it. It was clear that Johnny was pletely unaware there were devices that could siphon mana from within people. It must be some advaeology avaible only fh-level survivors.
Ohe guard extracted and absorbed all the mana from Johnny, he stored the device aulled out his PDA. He g the s, probably cheg how much mana he had just taken from Johnny. Then he looked up and asked Johnny a question. Johnny replied, trying to appear calm, even though Jake could see he was nervous. The guard checked his PDA again, then gave a nod to his partner. He put the device away and asked another question. For a moment, Johnny spoke, nodding toward the dormant mae a few times.
Jake realized that while the device allowed the guard to extract mana from Johnny, it hadn’t provided any information about how much was actually stored inside him. The guard had probably asked Johnny how much mana he had taken from the crystal, and upon Johnny stating that it was about ohousand, the guard checked his s to verify that he had indeed received that amount. Right now, Johnny was likely expining that the mae had been in use for a while, ating for the fact that only a thousand mana points were left in the crystal.
The guards finally appeared to rex. They had identified who had taken the crystal from the ammo-produg mae, and everything Johnny had told them so far seemed to align with the facts. To them, he seemed truthful. Now, when the leader of the base showed up, they at least wouldn’t look like plete idiots, who allowed their workers to steal mana ables from the maes right uheir noses.
However, they still didn’t know why Johnny had stolen the crystal in the first pce. What was he pnning to do with the mana he had siphoned from it? To what end did he risk everything to take the mana able? Also, did he seriously think he was going to get away with it? Did he really assume the guards were too o notice that the mae had stopped produg ammo? Or did he think he could avoid getting caught altogether?
The moment they started asking these kinds of questions, Johnny visibly tensed. It was clear he hadn’t prepared for this line of questioning and had no possible expnation ready. Seeing that he was uo provide a clear ahe two guards grew angry again. One of them grabbed Johnny by the shoulder and shoved him in the dire of HQ. Relutly, he began to walk toward it. Jake khey wouldn’t leave him alone. While they believed Johnny had taken the mana crystal from the mae and absorbed the remaining mana, they didn’t know why he had do. Jake was sure they were likely going to torture him to learhing there was to know aract the whole truth from him.
Miller’s pickup truck tinued driving toward the bandit base. It was very close to the pound now, but Jake kept his gaze owo guards esc Johnny to HQ for further questioning. He remembered seeing a strange expression in Johnny’s eyes when he promised to save his girlfriend. At that moment, Jake had thought that now that Johnny had something to believe in, he might do something reckless and stupid. Watg Johnny’s body nguage as he was sandwiched betweewo guards leading him toward HQ, Jake realized this was the exaent when Johnny was about to do something reckless.
