Chapter 67

  Immediately, an additional piece of info popped up in his mind. He took a moment to exami.

  Speed Trial: Reach all the oints before time runs out.

  Time Limit: 10 seds

  oints: 5

  Difficulty: Easy

  Reeats: Evolution Stage 1 “Primordial Form”, Level 10, Body 3

  Reward: 10,000 MP

  Accept: Y/N

  When his gaze reached the Reeats line, he paused for a sed to think. It seemed that challenges like this one were designed specifically for him, distinguishing him from ordinary survivors. When his gaze reached the Reward line, he felt stunned for a sed, not quite believing what he was seeing. Ten thousand mana points was quite a substantial reward, surpassing the amount he’d collected during his previous night’s mana hunt. So yeah, the reward was remarkably generous, especially sidering the speed trial was supposed to be easy.

  Without giving the matter more thought, Jake hastily accepted the challenge as if he were afraid the system could suddenly withdraw its offer. As soon as he accepted, a short message emerged in his mind.

  Challenge accepted! The speed trial will begin shortly.

  Jake gnced around, not sure what to expeothing had ged ihe ruined dihe anomaly remained suspended above the roof, emitting a humming sound and filling the air with electriergy. Then another notification was shown to him in his mind.

  oints have beeo initiate the speed trial, go to the desigarting position.

  Jake looked around once again and this time, caught a glimpse of some kind of glow ing in from outside through the entrance. He crossed the room and stepped out of the building. In the middle of the street, he saw a shaft of bluish light rising from the road into the sky. Had to be the starting position. Jake began to walk toward it. As soon as he got within one yard of it, he saw another message in his mind.

  Get ready! The speed trial is about to begin!

  Alright, let’s do this, Jake thought.

  A tdown began.

  3…

  2…

  1…

  Start!

  The bluish shaft of light disappeared. Tensing, Jake gnced around. Almost immediately, he spotted another bea over one hundred meters farther dowreet. While the new shaft of light was far away, it was easily noticeable, extending high into the sky and t above the surrounding buildings. Uhe previous o was white instead of blue.

  Jake wasted no time breaking into a sprint dowreet toward the oint. He reached the bea in just a few seds. Just as he ran through it, the shaft of light vanished, and a notifierged in his mind.

  +10 seds

  Another shaft of white light materialized one hundred yards dowreet. While Jake sprioward it, he was deep in thought. Reag a oint added ten more seds to the remaining time. He wondered if there was a way to track the amount of time left.

  As soon as he thought that, a piece of info appeared in his mind.

  Trial Progression

  oints: 1/5

  Remaining Time: 13.72 seds

  He quickly looked over the info and dismissed it with a thought. The shaft of light rose from the middle of a four-way interse. Drawing closer to it, he spotted a small group of survivors crossing the interse and heading in his dire. Judging by their behavior, it was evident the group of survivors couldn’t see the shaft of light, despite the fact they were walking right past it. Obviously, the oints were visible only to the one uaking the speed trial.

  While they were unaware of the shaft of light emerging from the ter of the interse, they couldn’t help but notice the obsidian-bck mutant running toward them. They froze in pce, mesmerized by his intimidating appearand the incredible speed at which he was closing in on them.

  Before the survivors could gather their thoughts, he made it to the ter of the interse. Just before reag the shaft of light, he slowed his pace slightly, uain of where the oint would appear.

  +10 seds

  This time, a bea didn’t materialize ahead of him; instead, the oint appeared on his right. Swiftly turning toward it, he accelerated his pace, keeping an eye on the group of survivors as he raced past them. Startled by his sudden movement, they instinctively recoiled, perhaps fearing he was about to attack them. However, his focus was solely on reag the oint; he had no iion of fighting them at all. Ign the group, he turned away from them and sprioward the third oint at full speed.

  Now that he was moving away from the survivors, they appeared to finally gather their posure. The sharp cracks of gunshots pierced the air as they unleashed a barrage of bullets toward him. The projectiles whizzed past him like enraged hors, one grazing his shoulder, causing minimal harm. Although he felt no pain, the sensation was still unpleasant. He wao turn around and deal with the brash survivors, but he fought back the urge, knowing he had to resist his dark impulses.

  “It’s getting away,” one of the survivors yelled to the rest. “Shoot it! Kill it! Don’t stop firing!”

  However, as he distanced himself from the survivors, their shots missed him by wider margins. Watg him retreat seemed to embolden the survivors. They likely believed they’d succeeded in sg him off. Had they known what he was capable of, they would never have dared to do anything that could piss him off and opted to run away while they could instead of provoking him.

  It didn’t take him long to reach the third oint.

  +10 seds

  The oint materialized on his right again, auroward it, maintaining his pace. While the previous oints had been roughly equidistant from each other—approximately one hundred meters apart—the oint y about twice that distance away. Jake checked the trial information while he ran on.

  Trial Progression

  oints: 3/5

  Remaining Time: 21.10 seds

  It’d takehan ten seds to reach each of the previous oints, so Jake calcuted he should reach the fourth oint before the time . It was a good thing there were no obstacles along his path. The weeds pushing through the cracked asphalt didn’t slow him down in the slightest. The rusted car frames lihe sides of the road, but none obscured his path, allowing him to maintain his top speed.

  Finally, he reached the fourth oint situated at the ter of another interse.

  +10 seds

  Out of the er of his eye, Jake saw another oint, the st one, materialize on his right once more. Swiftly altering his course toward it, he took a sed to assess the status of the trial.

  Trial Progression

  oints: 4/5

  Remaining Time: 11.36 seds

  With approximately one hundred meters to cover to reach the final oint, Jake anticipated reag it within seven ht seds. fident in his ability to successfully plete the speed trial, he tinued his sprint. As he drew he final oint, a realization struck him—he’d pleted a full circle and was now back at the diner where the trial had enced. Notably, the st oint shared the same blue hue as the initial starting point.

  When he ran through the shaft of bluish light, a notifierged in his mind.

  Trial plete! You have received 10,000 MP.

  Only then did Jake slow dowually ing to a stop. He felt excited. Although the speed trial hadn’t posed a signifit challehe reward retty amazing. He could now afford to unlock a few more skills from the Geic Development Interface.

  However, he decided it could wait for now because he wao cheething else first. He turned back toward the diner aered through the doorway. Upon stepping inside, he heard the familiar hum ahe floor tremble beh the soles of his feet. So even before he saw the Electro anomaly through the hole in the roof, he already k was still there. Which meant that pleting a challenge didn’t ralize an anomaly.

  Positioning himself directly beh the hole in the ceiling, Jake peered through it at the Electro anomaly. He retrieved its description with a mental and, and the information materialized in his mind. No info on the speed trial appeared, though. He waited a bit lohinking there could be a possibility of a time dey in the system’s response. However, nothing happened.

  After making sure the anomaly had no other challeo offer, Jake stepped away from the hole in the roof, deep in thought. So once a challenge associated with an anomaly was pleted, it ceased to exist. It couldn’t be repeated, and no new one repced it. However, Jake decided to revisit the diomorrow to see if the speed trial would resurface or if another challenge would repce it after the world underwent its regur system reset.

  After leaving the dinner, Jake stood on the sidewalk for a moment, still thinking. His initial pn was to collect mana at night aure into the sewers to gather XP during the daytime. However, having just pleted the speed trial and disc the existence of challenges lio anomalies, Jake decided to postpone his sewer exploration for now.

  He didn’t know whether challenges were lio all anomalies or only certaihough he suspected the tter, he didn’t know for sure yet. Anyway, driven by the prospect of finding more challeo plete, he set out to locate another anomaly.