Chapter 73

  The lifeless bodies of the ex-human mutants he had sin y scattered across the floor. Jake stood in the same spot for a moment, lost in thought. It had taken him around fifty mio finish the seventh floor of the tower climb challenge. Now he had to quer three more floors, with each subsequent fletting more difficult tha and the a boss on the rooftop. sidering the time spent o floor, it seemed uhat he could clear three more floors a the boss in uwo hours. He o e up with a pn, and he o do so real fast.

  A sudden idea crossed his mind. What if he attempted to skip floors eight, nine, and ten altogether? Perhaps he could climb to the roof of a neighb building and leap across the gap to reach the rooftop of this structure. After all, the ultimate objective of this challenge was to asd to the top of the tower and front the mutant boss.

  Whether the system would allow such a btant cheat was anyone’s guess. Jake had serious doubts about the success of this pn. The portals from which mutants emerged only appeared when he advao a new floor, and he was certain the same rule applied to the boss. If he attempted to bypass the intermediate floors and head directly to the rooftop, the boss might not even materialize.

  Although Jake was fairly fident that this was a likely sario, he couldn’t be certain. With er alternatives in mind, it seemed worth attempting, even if he believed it would likely end in failure. As he started crossing the room he was in, the sharp crack of gunshots echoed from the street, causing Jake to freeze for a sed. The gunfire tinued unabated from the outside. At that moment, a new idea sparked in his mind.

  Jake spun around and jogged toward one of the immense floor-to-ceiling windows that ran along the front wall fag the street. The gss was long gone, allowing the wind to gust into the room. He halted at the edge of one of the shattered windows, staring down at the street below. He saw a group of survivors in the middle of the street, discharging their ons at a gathering of ex-humans—both walkers and leapers—verging upon them from various alleyways and buildings on both sides of the street. The survivors were armed with an assortment of ons, mostly shotguns and assault rifles. The cacophony of gunfire reverberated through the area, drawing more mutants to the se.

  For a moment, it appeared as if the group was on the brink of being overrun by the ex-humans, fag the grim fate of being torn to shreds. However, as it turned out, they were quite petent, standing back-to-bad firing in multiple dires, effectively c all a ohe barrage of bullets unleashed by the survivors shredded the mutants to pieces long before the vile creatures could close in on them. Within moments, the fight came to a swift end. The ground was littered with the remnants of the fallen mutants they had just sin. The survivors remained vigint, keeping their ons trained in different dires for a few more seds, ready to repel any additional ehat might appear.

  The team demonstrated profi handling ex-humans, even though the mutants they faced were low-level walkers and leapers. The survivors dispyed remarkable anization and coordination. Jake pted luring them into the building and trig them into fighting alongside him, knowing that their experiend cooperation would signifitly improve his ces of pleting the challenge in time. He was unsure of how to lure the survivors in or whether his pn would even succeed, but he believed it was a risk worth taking. The alternative of bypassing the remaining three floors to reach the rooftop, only to find the boss missing, seemed like a far riskier choice. His new pn was indeed a more favorable option.

  No more mutants showed up, and the group of survivors down ireet finally rexed. They lowered their guns and began to check the dead bodies for loot. With no time to lose, Jake spun around and crossed the room toward the exit. He made it back to the ptform and paused for a sed, thinking.

  He knew for certain that once he stepped onto the ptform, it would take him one level up. There was no way to manually operate the ptform. It funed automatically, only moving him up by one level and refusing to asd further until he pleted the current floor. Not being able to use the ptform to go down was not a problem for him, as he had other options avaible to desd.

  However, Jake couldn’t help but ponder what would occur when he desded all the way down to the first floor. Would the ptform desd with him, or would it stay in its current position? If the ptform remaiationary, his pn would fail before even starting. With all the staircases destroyed, the survivors would simply have no means to asd to the upper floors of the building.

  Jake made it to a staircase. Or, more accurately, what used to be a staircase, as most of the steps were missing, making it look like ay shaft. The door was long gone as well. Jake paused in the opening, peering down the shaft that desded all the way to the first floor. Here and there, pieces of rebar protruded from the walls, providi handholds. If he had been human, he would never have dared to attempt to desd the shaft. Being an agile mutant, he was fident he could aplish it.

  He still had swords extended from his wrists. Giving a mental and, he instructed them to retract. It took a couple of seds for them to morph bato his flesh. He also transformed his cws bato normal-looking hands. Notig he had only three fingers on his right hand, he pondered whether he would ever be able to grow the two missing fihat the very first ssher he entered had cut off. He hoped so. He recalled seeing Enhanced Regeion in the Geic Development Interface. However, at that particur moment, Jake couldn’t spare any time to summon the skill store ahe skill’s description.

  He also g the deep cut in his shoulder that the first ssher had inflicted on him. The wound had been severe, causing him to leak some of his mana. After the battle had ended, he remained inactive for a while, allowing his body to focus entirely on healing itself. By that point, the cut had nearly closed, and his mana was no longer leaking.

  Jake refocused on the shaft before him, taking note of the positioning of a few nearby pieces of rebar protruding from the walls. He calcuted the best way to desd in his mind and then jumped down without hesitation.