Chapter 293

It was morning now, and the usual human activity was taking place all over the city. As he traversed the overgrown streets, he could hear the sounds of gunfire echoing from various parts of the city. So far, he hadn’t encountered any humans yet, and he hoped it would stay that way. He needed to focus on his task without distractions. 

So, he needed to create two more buildings: the Hive Nexus and the Larvae Chamber. Even though he had initially planned to build the Hive Nexus after the Biomass Processor, he now realized it would be better to build—grow—the Larvae Chamber first.

The reason was that he could currently have only three larvae at once, but with that building, he would presumably be able to store more of them inside. He would then be able to utilize these stored larvae when his current ones were used up for other purposes, such as converting them into structures.

Both buildings cost 500 Biomass each, but before starting to construct them, he first planned to test out the Biomass Processor. Therefore, he only needed to fetch one walker for now. Upon encountering a group of ex-humans, he fired a cinch net at the nearest walker to capture it.

Next, he turned his attention to the rest of the mutants. Taking care of them didn’t require much time or effort. After dealing with the ex-humans, he grabbed the ensnared walker and made his way back to his lair.

It was now time to figure out how the Biomass Processor worked. Carrying the walker, still enveloped in the cinch net, on his shoulders, he stepped to the front section of the oval-shaped structure. The front wall was semi-transparent, allowing him to see the empty chamber inside. Obviously, he needed to put the walker inside the chamber. But how? The structure lacked any visible openings or anything that resembled a door.

Perhaps he could control the structure with telepathic commands, as he did with his larvae. He decided to test it and mentally instructed the Biomass Processor to open. Instantly, the front section split in the middle vertically, and the two halves separated. It resembled two large eyelids parting rather than a double door sliding apart.

Jake shrugged off the walker, grabbing it with his hands and shoving the struggling mutant inside the chamber. The two leaves of the transparent front section immediately slid back together, trapping the unfortunate ex-human inside. The chamber was smaller than the structure itself, forcing the mutant into a fetal position.

The walker thrashed its body violently but could neither tear the cinch net enveloping it nor escape its confinement. The ex-human banged its body this way and that against the inner fleshy walls of the chamber without inflicting any damage. They were definitely much more resilient than they looked, absorbing the walker’s attacks without taking any damage.

Now what? Jake thought. Nothing happened on its own, suggesting the structure required his mental command to be activated. He tried doing so, but to his surprise, nothing happened. What the heck? 

With a thought, he summoned the structure’s stats.

Name: Biomass Processor

Rank: I

Process Biomass: Yes/No

Now that a walker was trapped inside, the structure’s stats revealed a new line. He thought, “Yes.” As soon as he did, the vibrations from the Biomass Processor intensified, and the chamber began to fill with a viscous greenish liquid. Jake summoned the structure’s description again and saw a new piece of information.

The Biomass Processing in Progress

Current Status: 2% Complete

Estimated Time Remaining: 29 minutes, 57 seconds

It was definitely faster than when he accomplished the same using his larvae, even when he utilized all three at once. Out of curiosity, he decided to stay in his lair and watch the process. After the chamber finished filling with the greenish liquid, the cinch net dissolved. However, despite the walker no longer being enveloped, it still couldn’t break free.

For the next thirty minutes, the mutant was being turned into Biomass. It happened with all of its body at once, so it was clear that once the process was complete, nothing would remain of the walker.

At last, it was finished. The greenish liquid drained away, leaving only the pitch-black Biomass that completely filled the chamber. Jake called up the structure’s stats once more.

Name: Biomass Processor

Rank: I

Processed Biomass: 104

Release Biomass: Y/N

Since none of the walker’s flesh went to waste, it yielded a little over 100 Biomass, which was about as much as a walker could produce. Since Jake didn’t have any storage in his lair yet, he decided to keep the Biomass in the Processor for the time being.

He then turned his gaze to one of his larvae and issued a mental command for it to build the Larvae Chamber on the opposite side of the Corruption patch. Moments later, the larva arrived at the designated spot and began to burrow, forming a small mound. Jake decided there was no reason not to create the Hive Nexus at the same time, so he instructed another of the larvae to begin building the structure at some distance from the other two.

He had only one larva left, so he used some of his flesh to create two additional ones.

– 2,000 MP

– 20% HP

After that, he took a moment to look around. At his feet lay two lumps of his flesh, which were gradually transforming into larvae. It would take them about ten minutes to finish their transformation. As for the two mounds where the previous two larvae had burrowed in, each of them needed 500 Biomass to continue growing.

He looked back at the Biomass Processor and gave a mental command to release the processed Biomass. The front section immediately parted, and the pitch-black goo emerged. Rather than flowing like water, it slowly glided like a living mass of dough. Without any command from him, it moved on its own across the Corruption, making its way to the nearest of the two small mounds—the one that was going to be the Larvae Chamber.

Since he could now obtain a full 100 Biomass from each walker, thanks to the Biomass Processor’s efficiency in processing every ounce of flesh, he needed to bring four more walkers for the Larvae Chamber to consume and continue growing and five more for the Hive Nexus. With that plan in mind, he set out.

He spent the whole day tracking down ex-humans and bringing them to his lair. He did his best to avoid any interactions with humans. When he heard the gunfire coming from the direction he was headed, he turned and took another route to avoid encountering any humans. He didn’t need any distractions for now, as finishing his first lair was the top priority on his to-do list.

He also thought it might be a good idea to keep his activities a secret from humans. There were always a lot of rumors about him circulating. While some were far from reality, most were true. When one group learned something new about him, they passed the information to others, spreading it until most people knew about it.

He wanted to keep it a secret that he had been building a lair and might eventually have an army of his own monsters. The longer the humans remained ignorant, the better. If regular survivors learned what he was up to, eventually, Los Demonios would know too, and he needed to avoid that. They were his enemies, so he had to ensure they didn’t catch wind of his activities. 

He had attacked two of their bases so far and planned to go after the rest in due time. Los Demonios would get what was coming to them, but for now, his hands were busy, so his offensive was put on hold for a little while. If he managed to create an army of his own creations and used them against several—if not all—of the Los Demonios bases at once, they wouldn’t be able to properly defend themselves. However, for that plan to succeed and to have the element of surprise working in his favor, he needed to keep his activities a secret.

Since it was now daylight, many humans were around, going about their business. It took him quite a while to catch walkers and bring them to his lair one by one because he had to avoid being seen by the humans and making any contact with them. He fetched walkers one by one, shoving them into the Biomass Processor and releasing the processed Biomass to be consumed by the two growing structures.

By the time the work was done, it was late evening. Jake was back in his lair, examining the two newly grown structures. They looked somewhat similar to the Biomass Processor. The Larvae Chamber was spheroid rather than egg-shaped, while the Hive Nexus was oval but somewhat larger than the other two.

The three structures were positioned on various sides of the patch of Corruption, well spaced apart and set some distance from the Mana Core at the center. Although they all looked very similar, each served a distinctly different purpose. It was time to check out the two newly grown structures.