Chapter 96

  With horror in his eyes, the ralized human watched Jake approach him, his fingers still ed around his severely wouhroat. Knowing that the survivor would bleed to death within minutes, Jake saw o deliver the final blow. His priority was to acquire the human’s mana able as soon as possible.

  He crouched down beside the survivor’s rucksad extracted the mana able from it, which turned out to be quite rge.

  Mana Crystal: 5,000 MP (Rare)

  For a moment, Jake was entranced by the mesmerizing danana within the crystal. The bluish mist swirled ihe rge mana able, emitting a soft glow that seeped through the transparent crystal.

  He was incredibly lucky to stumble upon another mana crystal. This particur type of mana able was the rgest he’d ever entered, boasting a whopping 5,000 MP. It marked the sed time he’d e across a mana crystal. The first instance was when he entered a group of survivors who had taken refuge in a building for the night. One of them, a guy named Erick, had a crystal stowed away in his rucksack.

  Twiow, Jake had acquired mana crystals from other survivors, yet he’d never found one himself. He couldn’t help but wonder where survivors came across these crystals. Did they simply stumble upon them by ce? Or perhaps there ecial mission for survivors that awarded them with mana crystals upon pletion? Jake didn’t know for sure, but he remembered hearing Erick say he’d found it by ce.

  Ahought occurred to him. The survivor with the slit throat was at level 17. From his experience of taking a mana crystal from Erick, Jake remembered that a survivor o be at least level 15 to be able to extract magical energy from a mana crystal. sidering the dying human lying beside him was at level 17, Jake wondered why he hadn’t utilized the mana crystal yet. Maybe his level was below 15 when he found the crystal, preventing him from extrag mana? Or was he keeping it intact for some specific purpose?

  Not that it really mattered to Jake. The reason behind the survivor carrying the crystal instead of using it held little i for Jake. Dismissing the matter from his thoughts, he gave the mana crystal in his hand a gentle squeeze, but there was no immediate rea. This particur mana able, being of a higher rarity, was more robust than others. Not that he couldn’t break it. He exerted more pressure, causing the crystal to easily shatter in his hand. The bluish energy immediately floated from the crushed able toward his hand. His body eagerly absorbed the preagical energy, which fueled him with its power.

  Now with an abundanana within him, his body quied the rate at which it healed. The healing booster he had gained upon pleting the tower-climbing challenge remained in effect, further accelerating the healing process. In just a few seds, all of his wounds were pletely healed, including the hole the survivor had bsted open in his chest with his shotgun. Back to full health, Jake felt invigorated. His strength and agility returned, once again making him the most dangerous predator in this world.

  “H–Help,” he heard the dying human croak. “Puh… Ple—”

  Jake g the survivor, surprised to see him still ging to life. He’d expected the man to have bled out by now. However, this world was governed by video-game logic. The survivor must’ve ied heavily in his stitution attribute, granting his body a level of durability far beyond that of an ordinary human.

  “H–help–p. I don’t… wanna—”

  Watg the human bleed and listening to him pleading for help, Jake felt nothing. ions or feelings whatsoever. He didn’t feel any passion toward the dying survivor, nor did he feel any hatred toward his enemy or satisfa upon seeing him defeated.

  The memories of Isra’s words during their dest on the magical ptform, along with his subsequent ptions, remained vivid in Jake’s mind. He knew very well that his inner beast woke up during flicts with humans. To prevent being a full-fledged monster, he’d decided to avoid unnecessary frontations with humans. However, after what Isra had said to him, he’d realized he was already a monster, not only physically, but mentally too. His pathy toward others served as stark evidence of this uling truth.

  That was exactly why he decided to help the survivor. While searg through the survivor’s rucksack, he noticed several healing autoiors inside. Seleg one, he summos description, whidicated that the stim owerful enough to heal severe wounds. Jake wasn’t sure if it could heal the extreme wound on the human’s throat, but he was willing to give it a ce.

  He pressed the autoior’s business end against the side of the human’s ned triggered it, delivering a mix of healing medications into his bloodstream. With the survivor’s fingers still clutg his throat, Jake couldn’t immediately see the stim’s effects. However, a moment ter, he saw the bleeding slow down and then stop altogether. The survivor’s expressihtened, and his breathing eased, indig that the medication was indeed w.

  Despite resg the survivor, Jake didn’t feel aer. Saving a human’s life didn’t bring him any joy or satisfa. He figured his humaions wouldn’t resurface that easily. Maybe he would o do a lot of good deeds before some part of his humanity would return. Or maybe it wouldn’t return at all. For all he knew, he’d been turned into a monster both physically aally food and wouldn’t be able tain any of his humanity anymore. Anyway, he was going to try to bee better, mostly for his own sake rather than anything else.

  Jake rose and picked up the survivor’s PDA. Sihe human had unlocked the device, he could now make use of it. He decided to take a moment to browse the avaible information and see if he could learn anything new or find something useful.

  Out of the er of his eye, he saw the survivor, still lying on his back, cast a suspicious gn his dire. The human had withdrawn his hands from his throat, revealing it had already pletely healed. Suddenly, he rolled to the side toward where his shotgued on the floor. He likely believed his as went unnoticed, but he was mistaken. Jake could see him in his expanded field of vision without even having to turn his head.

  Jake dropped the devid leaped to the side. Grabbing the shotgun and rolling on his back, the survivor poihe on at where Jake had stood a sed before. Only he was no lohere. Jake came rushing at the human from the side. Still lying on his back, the survivor swept his on around toward the threat as fast as he could and squeezed the trigger.

  A fra of a sed before he fired, Jake leaped to the side, having spotted the human’s index finger whiten as it curled tightly around the trigger. The survivor’s face twisted in horror as he realized his now-fully healed enemy could move with much greater speed than before. Before the human could fire aime, Jake wrehe shotgun from his hands and flung it away.

  The survivor lying on the floor looked up at the mutant looming over him, realizing he’d just made a huge mistake.

  “No,” he begged. “Please…”

  There was going to be no mercy from Jake this time. Instead of poung down on the supine form of the survivor, Jake extended a sword from one wrist. The human’s eyes went wide at the sight.

  “Please, nh!”

  Jake swung his on at the survivor. The tip of his bde cut so deeply into his flesh that his head almost got detached from the neck. The survivor lived only for a sed longer before his wide-open eyes gssed over, and his body went stiff.

  For a moment, Jake stood over the dead body, looking down at the survivor he’d just killed. He had let that stupid human live, but he had wasted it. He had nobody but himself to bme for that. Giving the matter no more thought, he retracted his bde and turned away.

  Log the PDA lying on the floor where he’d dropped, Jake stepped toward it. After pig up the device, he resumed reading the survivor’s diary from where he left off.