Chapter 301

Jake landed in the middle of the street, bending his knees. The drop from the ten-story building didn’t hurt him at all. The asphalt cracked beneath him as he landed. As he rose from his crouch, he remembered he had an ability called Ground Strike in the third section of the Genetic Development Interface.

When learned, this ability would let him inflict damage proportional to his jump height—the higher the jump, the greater the damage upon landing. Ground Strike, combined with Gravity Leap and his grappling hook to help him climb higher and maneuver through the air would definitely provide him with significant tactical advantages in combat.

He couldn’t acquire Ground Strike just yet, but he would at some point. Putting these thoughts aside, Jake looked around to orient himself. He then closed his eyes and employed Mana Vision. His lair lay due west of his current position, but sadly, there were no mana clouds in that direction.

It was unfortunate, considering that mana clouds generally held significantly more mana than crystals, making them the quickest method to replenish his reserves. Nevertheless, he chose to head directly for his lair rather than search for mana clouds. They were quite rare, but unlike mana consumables, he could only detect them when he was fairly close. The silver lining was that he seemed to be the sole being capable of sensing and absorbing these clouds—at least, for the time being. 

So not detecting any in the direction of his lair didn’t necessarily mean there were none. Jake opened his eyes and began to head toward his lair. If luck was not on his side and he encountered no mana clouds along the way, he might siphon some from a group of survivors, though that was also hit or miss. Humans could contain much more mana than crystals, but they didn’t always have mana within them.

Jake continued to move toward his lair, maintaining his usual brisk jog and hardly making a sound. He was mindful of his surroundings, paying close attention to everything going on around him. It was the middle of the day, so there were plenty of humans around. Although he hadn’t encountered any yet, he could hear the sounds of gunfire coming from various directions.

He was getting increasingly closer to his lair. Occasionally, he halted momentarily to use Mana Vision to look for mana clouds. When he stopped and activated the perk one more time, he finally detected one. There were still none directly in his path, but when he turned his head from side to side, he located a mana cloud to his left. Committing its position to memory, he opened his eyes and began to move toward the discovered mana cloud.

It didn’t take him long to get there. Since mana clouds were invisible, he used Mana Vision again to pinpoint the exact position of the mana cloud. It hovered right above the middle of the road. Jake stepped into it and absorbed the cloud from within with the Mana Absorption perk.

+50,000 MP

Jake then checked how much mana he now had.

MP: 335,278/340,000

He had filled his reserves almost to capacity, which was great. He continued to move in the direction of his lair. Now that he had replenished his mana, there was no point in looking for humans to absorb mana from, so he made sure to avoid them. A couple of times, he heard gunfire directly ahead, forcing him to take detours to steer clear of survivors.

Since he was getting real close to his lair, he decided to grab a walker, as building new structures would require some Biomass. He concentrated on his hearing and picked up the sound of shuffling feet coming from the building on his right. He entered the high-rise and spotted a group of low-level ex-humans roaming around what had once been a spacious lobby.

Dealing with them posed little challenge for Jake. He made sure to catch one of the walkers, enveloping the mutant in a cinch net. After the fight concluded, he hoisted the captured ex-human over his shoulder and made his way out of the building. Turning in the right direction, he continued on his journey to the lair.

At some point, he reached a four-way intersection where he needed to turn right. Just as he turned in that direction, he saw a large pickup truck racing toward him. A machine gun was mounted in the bed, operated by a human. The red skull painted on the hood of the vehicle indicated it belonged to the members of Los Demonios.

Pausing in the middle of the intersection, Jake watched the pickup truck approach him. The vehicle barreled toward him at high speed, as if its occupants were chasing someone. Jake couldn’t help but wonder if it was him they were searching for.

He remembered that the last several groups of Los Demonios he had encountered had tried to get away from him rather than engage. Jake wondered if that had changed and the gang was back to hunting him down. The regular members of the gang likely weren’t willing to fight him anymore, but it didn’t really matter. As long as the gang leaders—Skullface in particular—ordered them to hunt him, they had no choice but to obey.

The pickup truck screeched to a stop some distance from Jake, snapping him from his thoughts. The driver and the gunner—the only occupants of the vehicle—both stared at him. Judging by their expressions, they hadn’t expected to encounter him. So they hadn’t been looking for him after all. It was obvious they weren’t happy to have randomly run into him. They weren’t happy to have crossed paths with him at all. 

Jake dropped the captured walker to the ground. The bandits’ eyes shifted from him to look at the ex-human tightly wrapped in the cinch net, seemingly only now noticing the captured mutant. Perplexed looks crossed their faces as the two bandits obviously wondered what he needed the mutant for. They then looked back at him.

Jake hadn’t been planning to hunt for the members of Los Demonios for at least several more days, but now that these two unfortunate bandits had run into him, he couldn’t just let them go. He was unwilling to leave any witnesses to what he was up to. He needed to keep his activities secret. The longer the leaders of Los Demonios remained unaware of him building a lair, the better.

The bandit in the pickup truck’s bed kept his machine gun trained on him, seemingly ready to open fire. But he never did. Instead, he yelled for the driver to turn around and get them the hell out of there. The driver was all too glad to obey, quickly executing a tight U-turn to head back in the direction the two of them had just come from.

Only Jake wasn’t willing to let them escape. He took off after the fleeing vehicle, sprinting at his top speed. He couldn’t outrun a speeding car, but the pickup truck hadn’t yet picked up enough speed to give him the slip. Jake pressed on, quickly closing in on his prey. He wasn’t going to let them escape, that was for damn sure.

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Hey guys. I'd like to take a moment to give a shoutout to Destiny Among the Stars (Sci-fi + LitRPG + Adventure) by oc_wanderer

https://www.NovelBin.com/series/1695653/destiny-among-the-stars--scifi--litrpg--adventure/