Chapter 60

  Jake swiftly moved through the night streets at his usual brisk jog. He’d opted not to scale the buildings for two key reasons. First, mana ables teo spawn on the first floors of the high-rises, likely because many of the buildings had all their stairs pletely destroyed, rendering access to the upper floors fur survivors nearly impossible. Sed, leaping from rooftop to rooftop ed too much mana, and since he had only a small amount of that precious energy left, he couldn’t afford to waste it carelessly.

  As always, at midnight, the system initiated the world refresh. As he jogged through the desote streets, here and there, he spotted mutants materializing out of thin air. Now and then, enemies appeared right o him, immediately trying to grab at him with their cwed hands. Jake paid them no mind, however, evading their cws and not slowing down. He was solely focused on his quest for mana, disregarding any other distras.

  He was sure the same process was with loot, although it wasn’t immediately apparent since various items usually appeared inside buildings, abandoned cars, or some other cealed spots. The city was mostly quiet now, with the majority of the survivors havireated to their shelters for the night. Uhem, Jake didn’t o sleep or rest, which worked to his great advantage. While most survivors rested, all the loot iy beloo him. Not that he needed most of it. The only thing he was ied in were mana ables. Their spawn rate retty low, but with the majority of survivors having holed up in their dens, he anticipated gathering a substantial amount of mana.

  Jake noticed that while the system kept refreshing the world, mutants materialized sporadically at different moments of time instead of appearing all at o the same moment. About an hour ter, the process seemed to be finished as he could no longer spot any mutants popping up anywhere. He tio explore the night city, venturing into random buildings in searana.

  Now and then, he came across beads, each providing 100 MP and marbles that offered 250 MP. A couple of times, he found a shard carrying 500 mana points. Jake immediately absorbed the magiergy from every mana able he discovered. At some point, he ced upon a mana k. While beads, marbles, and shards were of on rarity, the mana k was unon, taining 1,000 MP. It was a really good find. Jake had brought his mana to over three thousand by now. Hunting for mana at midnight while most survivors rested had proven to be entirely worthwhile. He inteo dedicate the remainder of the night to looking for mana to collect as much of this magical energy as possible.

  He entered anh-rise building and found himself in a vast room that had once served as the lobby of a hotel. Unlike many other buildings he’d explored, this one remained retively intact, g rge piles of debris and signifit damage to the ceiling and walls. As he stealthily moved through the vast dark room adorned with several ns, he surveyed the area. He noticed that all the stairs leading to the upper floors y in ruins.

  At first ghere weren’t any mana ables anywhere in sight, but to know for sure, he o duct a more thh search. He almost reached the ter of the vast room when he heard a suspicious sound. He froze in his tracks, dropping close to the floor. He quickly looked around and almost immediately identified the source of the sounds. His gaze quickly nded on a group of survivors resting in one of the ers of the room, at the farther wall from the entrance.

  Even though it was very dark in the room, with hardly any moonlight filtering in through the windows, Jake’s keen eyesight allowed him to take in all the details at once.

  There were four of them: two were tucked in sleeping bags while two others were crouched by the windows, keeping guard. They seemed to be rotating shifts for any potential mutant attacks throughout the night. Their backpacks lihe wall, and the two guards held their ons close while the two sleeping people had their guns lying on the floor within easy reach.

  The sounds that Jake’s acute sense of hearing had picked up were the hushed versation of the two guards. They spoke in muted tones, being careful not to disturb their sleeping panions. Despite being vigint, none of them spotted Jake croug in the ter of the vast room. He always moved almost soundlessly, and when he o, he could move pletely silently. Not knowing what dangers y within the building, he’d takeions to remain as quiet as possible. Their eyes also let them down. They sat fag each other, so at least one of them should be able to see the ter of the room in their peripheral visiohey failed to see him. Jake’s dark skin blended in with the surrounding darkness perfectly, rendering him practically invisible.

  So yeah, the survivors didn’t have the slightest idea that aremely dangerous predator was studying them at that moment. The two guards had one job, and they had already failed it, allowing him to get into the building a dangerously close to them. If he chose to, he could dash toward them with minimal noise and reach them within seds. By the time they eventually spotted him, it would be too te for them to do anything to save themselves. Jake remained where he was, though.

  Sihe four of them had taken refuge in that building, they had likely searched it. If there were any mana ables, they had collected them and most likely immediately absorbed the preagical energy from them. Therefore, there seemed to be no reason to linger in that building any longer.

  However, out of curiosity, Jake decided to stay there for a moment. He wao know what the two guards were whispering about. Even though they talked to each other very quietly and were at least fifteen yards away from him, his acute sense of hearing allowed him to dis every word they uttered.