Chapter 102

  Portals began materializing all around him, each h about a foot above the rooftop. Jake did a quick s to assess the number of mystical rifts unfurling around him. To his surprise, there were far more rift gates tearing open than he’d anticipated, and more tio appear.

  He also noticed a bluish, semi-transparent barrier surrounding the roof on all sides. Jake figured the barrier marked the boundaries of the challenge. He had to stay within this area. If he were to leap to another building, the transparent barrier likely wouldn’t stop him physically, but the challenge would fail.

  From some of the portals, mutants were already crawling out. Each of the ex-humans emerging from the portals was a walker, but Jake was aware that more dangerous mutants would appear ter on.

  Wave 1 has started!

  Targets killed: 0 out of 25

  Jake charged at the walker that was the first to fully climb out of a portal. With a quid powerful swipe of his cws, he severed the mutant’s head, sending it flying to the side. Before it even dropped to the floor, Jake was already dealing with another walker.

  While he was greatly outnumbered, it didn’t take him much effort to defeat all the mutants. They were all walkers, posing little dao him. To him, they were slow and weak, and even their numbers provided little advao them.

  Multiple enemies killed! +750 XP

  Wave 1 plete!

  Wave 2 will begin in 59 seds.

  Jake quickly looked around. Not a siant remained alive. The mutited bodies of the walkers he’d sin were scattered across the rooftop, slowly vanishing as if melting into the air. He quickly accessed his current experience bar.

  XP: 805/3250

  Not bad. For defeating the group of walkers, he’d received three times more XP than usual. He would surely be able to level up several times during the challehe expensive XP booster he’d acquired a few minutes earlier was definitely worth the cost.

  He summohe status of the challenge, and the info instantly materialized in his head.

  Survival Challenge

  Waves: 1/10

  Remaining Time: 54 minutes, 27 seds

  New portals began to materialize all around him. Some of the mutants emerging from them were walkers, while others were leapers. The number of enemies in this wave was slightly higher than in the first wave. Not that it mattered. He charged at the new group of mutants, fident that he would kill them all just as easily as the previous group.

  Jake sailed through the several waves. At some point, he leveled up to 26, gaining a skill point to allocate. When the wave he engaged in at that moment ended, he quickly accessed his stats and allocated the skill point to Mind, increasing it to 5. The wo would go into Body.

  At some point, more powerful enemies began to materialize—shamblers and whippers. Jake dealt with all the weaker mutants first—walkers and leapers—before turning his full attention to the stronger foes. He was stantly moving, never lingering in one spot for more than a sed. He took care of the weaker ex-humans as he moved, running past them and sshing their throats with his cws.

  When it was time to face a shambler or whipper, he focused his full attention on these mutants. The anic growth c their bodies could quickly heal the wounds he inflicted ohat hen he chose tet a shambler or whipper, he couldn’t afford to get distracted. Once he began sshing at the selected mutant, he unleashed a relentless onsught of brutal swings, making sure the anic growth couldn’t heal their wounds fast enough, tinuing to attack his enemy until it was dead.

  Shamblers and whippers were powerful but rather slow. However, every so often, the shamblers would charge at him with remarkable speed. As for the whippers, although they moved slowly, they could swiftly sh out with their tentacles. Dodging these attacks was not alossible, and when a tentacle struck him, while not causing signifit damage, the blow stunned him for a sed. For that reason, when Jake spotted a whipper, he made it a priority to sever its tentacle as quickly as possible to prevent potential plications.

  Other than that, the tougher mutants didn’t trouble him much. However, there was a time when a shambler charged at him, but he noticed it a bit too te. The powerful mutant collided with him like a freight train, sending him flying backward. He then found himself propelling through an open door and tumbling dowaircase. When the impact against the wall brought his momentum to a sudden halt, Jake instantly sprang to his feet.

  He found himself standing on a half-nding. A shrill cry from above prompted him to look up the steps. He saw a leaper appear in the doorway. It instantaneously leaped toward him, s through the air with the speed of a released spring. Jake instinctively jumped to the side and desded a few steps down the flight of stairs. As he did so, a system message fshed through his mind.

  Please return to the designated area, or the challenge will be sidered a failure.

  After that, a tdown starting from ten began. So desding the first flight of stairs to the first half-nding was fine, but he wasn’t allowed to go any further down. Jake leaped back up to the half-nding, and the tdown immediately ceased. It took him no more than a sed to deal with the leaper with one quick, powerful swipe of his cws. Havi with the mutant, he immediately returo the rooftop.

  From then on, he made sure not to let shamblers collide with him anymore. If one of them mao push him off the roof, causing him to plummet ten stories down to the street, he would fail the challenge since he wouldn’t be able to make it back to the rooftop within ten seds.

  Ier waves, sshers began to materialize. They were armed with long and sharp bony appendages. Upon spotting them, he extended bdes from his wrists. The sshers were really fast, and Jake had had a hard time when he entered this type of mutant for the very first time. However, now that he had Enhanced Reflexes, his ability to dodge enemy attacks was greatly improved. Once he dealt with the sshers, he switched back to his cws and shifted his attention to other mutants.

  Finally, he reached the tenth and final wave. During the brief respite, he checked the status of the challeo see how much time remained.

  Survival Challenge

  Waves: 9/10

  Remaining Time: 6 minutes, 38 seds

  Just a few minutes were left. He would have to give it his best to plete the challenge on time. After a few more seds, vertical tears began to rip open. Si was the final wave, Jake expected to face quite a lot of mutants. To his surprise, only three portals appeared, each releasing a siant.

  Wave 10 has started!

  Targets killed: 0 out of 3

  Despite it being the final wave, he found himself up against just three mutants. However, as soon as he g them, Jake quickly realized why the enemy t was so low for this wave—all three new mutants were chasers!