Chapter 101

  Jake stood on the rooftop of a high-rise building, staring at an anomaly positio its ter, h a few feet above the surface. The anomaly resembled a sphere, roughly three to four feet in diameter. While the anomaly was nearly invisible to the naked eye, his Enhanced Senses allowed him to detect it without much trouble. The air within the sphere was ed, revealing the boundaries of the anomaly where the distortion ended. Keeping a safe distance of a few yards from the anomaly, Jake summos description.

  Name: Nudging Force

  Description: Pushes every object that enters its range in the opposite dire.

  Effective range: 3 feet

  Duration: Instantaneous

  Cooldown: None

  Danger Level: 20 (Low)

  The Nudging Force was a nohal, limited-range anomaly. It was nearly harmless. The danger level being described as “20 (Low)” indicated that while the anomaly was capable of causing some invenies pushing force wasn’t sidered lethal or even all that dangerous.

  Jake figured if he came within three feet of the Nudging Force, it might push him with enough force to knock him down, but it wouldn’t result in anything more than that. Out of all the anomalies he’d ever entered as both a survivor and a mutant, this was the most harmless.

  He gave a mental and to check if the Nudging Force had a challeo offer. A new piece of info immediately surfaced in his mind.

  A challenge is avaible!

  See the details: Y/N

  He wondered what it could be. A speed trial? Or aower climb, perhaps? Without further specution, he firmed with a mental “Yes”, prompting the details about the challeo appear in his mind.

  Survival: You o survive several mutant attacks within a designated area.

  Time Limit: 60 minutes

  Number of waves: 10

  Difficulty: Easy, Medium, or Hard

  Reeats: Evolution Stage 1 “Primordial Form”, Level 25, Body 5

  Rewards:

  Easy - 3,000 XP

  Medium - 3,000 XP and a mana crystal

  Hard - 3,000 XP, a mana crystal, and the Enemy Appraisal perk

  Accept: Y/N

  Jake had never done a survival challenge before. The very first challenge he’d received from an anomaly eed trial. Some time ter, he entered an anomaly that offered a tower-climbing challenge. So he’d just learned about a ype of challenge an anomaly could offer. Potentially, there could be other types of challehan just these three.

  Jake returned his attention to the details of the survival challe appeared that he had the freedom to choose the difficulty level. The previous two challenges he’d pleted had set difficulty levels: the speed trial was easy, and the tower climb was hard. This time, he was free to seley difficulty he wanted.

  He remembered pleting the speed trial without much trouble. As for the tower climb, he’d had to resort to trig a group of survivors into assisting him. Without their help, he wouldn’t have been able to finish the challenge on time.

  For a moment, he pondered which difficulty level to choose. As the difficulty increased, the reward got better. He hesitated to choose the easy difficulty level because it was, well, easy and therefore offered only 3,000 XP as a reward. So he was choosiween medium and hard. sidering his previous experieh the tower-climbing challenge, he was ined to choose the medium difficulty level.

  However, the reward for pleting the challenge on hard difficulty was not only 3,000 XP and a mana crystal boasting 5,000 MP but also a perk called Enemy Appraisal. Since he’d never obtained any perks before, he couldn’t help but wonder how they worked.

  The name of the reerk, Enemy Appraisal, indicated that it could provide additional information about his enemies, which could be very useful. Jake really wao get the perk, but he was well aware that if he failed to plete the challenge on time, he would receive no reward at all.

  In the end, he decided to take the risk. However, before accepting the challenge, he wao cheething out. He closed his eyes and, with a sihought, summohe boost menu he’d received as a reward for successfully pleting the tower-climbing challenge.

  Boost menu

  Rank 1:

  Enhanced Regeion

  Duration: 60 min

  Cost: 2,000 MP

  Acquire: Y/N

  Increased Movement Speed

  Duration: 60 min

  Cost: 5,000 MP

  Acquire: Y/N

  Increased Strength

  Duration: 60 min

  Cost: 5,000 MP

  Acquire: Y/N

  Increased Agility

  Duration: 60 min

  Cost: 5,000 MP

  Acquire: Y/N

  Increased XP gain (x2)

  Duration: 60 min

  Cost: 10,000 MP

  Acquire: Y/N

  Rank 2:

  None

  Requirement: Kill 100 ex-human walkers.

  Progress: 100/100

  Unlock: Y/N

  Jake had kind of fotten about the boost menu after the tower climb and only remembered about it now. He figured there hadn’t been much reason to utilize it before. Now was the perfect time to put it to good use, though. The Increased XP Gain (x2) boost was what he wao purchase. It cost a whopping 10,000 MP, but he figured it would be totally worth it.

  He noticed something iing. In the past several days after acquiring the boost menu, he must’ve killed over a hundred walkers because he was now allowed to upgrade the boost menu to Rank 2. He did so with a thought and checked it out again. The upgrade hadn’t added any new boosters, but the old ones were somewhat more powerful now. For the time being, he was only ied in one of them, though.

  Increased XP gain (x3)

  Duration: 90 min

  Cost: 10,000 MP

  Acquire: Y/N

  It had the same mana cost as before, but its duration was now y minutes instead of sixty, and it would now increase all XP he gaihree times instead of two. If he acquired the booster and successfully pleted the challenge, he would gain 9,000 XP instead of 3,000 XP. Additionally, he would receive three times more XP for every mutant killed. He would be able to level up at least two times during the challenge, or maybe even three.

  He currently had about eighteen thousand mana points. If he successfully pleted the survival challenge, he would gain a mana crystal, which would bring him back to approximately twenty-three thousand mana points. With some luck, he might colleough mana during the following night to purchase all the required skills and by m, could have evolved into the stage.

  The only thing he o do to achieve that was plete the challenge on hard difficulty. He was well aware that it was easier said than done. If he failed to plete the challenge in under sixty minutes, not only would he receive no rewards, but spending 10,000 MP would be in vain.

  However, his mind was already made up. Having decided to take the risk, he purchased the booster, opened his eyes, and accepted the challenge. When prompted to select the difficulty, he chose the hard one and prepared for the battle.