Jake was clinging to the front of a high-rise building at a two-story height, Adhesive Secretion anchoring him in place, Cloak rendering him invisible. It was a new day. He had recently emerged from the sewers, having leveled up from 73 to 74. He was now just one level away from meeting all the requirements to be able to evolve into Stage 3. After leveling up, he spent four skill points to acquire an additional, fourth upgrade for each of the following skills: Swords, Enhanced Strength, Enhanced Regeneration, and Enhanced Reflexes, all of which he had recently advanced to Rank III.
The upgrade he acquired for Swords extended their length, providing increased reach. The upgrade for Enhanced Strength gave him greater damage resistance, boosting his Pierce resistance by a remarkable 30% to a total of 44%. In his next several battles with ex-humans, he found that weaker mutants like walkers and leapers could no longer inflict any damage on him. Meanwhile, stronger foes like slashers and chasers dealt minimal damage, which healed almost instantly, thanks to the fourth upgrade for Enhanced Regeneration that significantly increased regeneration speed at the cost of more mana. When they managed to hit him, that is, because the fourth upgrade to Enhanced Reflexes made him even more agile in battle than he had been before. While all these upgrades made him more powerful, the necessity to find additional methods of collecting mana only intensified.
That left him with one more skill point to allocate. Jake decided to hold off on using it because he wanted to spend it on Mind Reader to increase its Rank from II to III. Its current progression was stuck at 85%. At its current Rank, each use of Mind Reader progressed it by about 5%, give or take, depending on how deeply into a target’s memories he ventured. Thus, he needed to use Mind Reader three or four times on different targets to advance it to 100%, after which he would be able to upgrade it to Rank III, which could potentially allow him to explore even deeper memories of his targets.
He had to learn the location of Los Demonios’ base, and advancing Mind Reader to the next Rank was the easiest way to accomplish that. Which was why after emerging from the sewers, Jake spent some time looking for Los Demonios. Eventually, he stumbled across a group of them. Their vehicle was positioned in the center of a four-way intersection as the gangsters fired at a swarm of ex-humans emerging from a nearby building. Jake wasted no time sprinting toward the Demons. However, as soon as they spotted him, they immediately forgot about the mutants. The gangsters jumped into their car and took off with a screech of tires, not even bothering to fire at him. They simply wanted to get away from him.
Jake watched them disappear into the distance in amazement. It was the very first time something like that had happened. Previously, every encounter with Los Demonios had ended in an attack against him. He recalled passing a message to Skullface through one of his soldiers. Perhaps, after receiving his message, the gang leader had finally decided to leave Jake alone. It seemed highly unlikely, though. A more plausible explanation was that rumors of his dangerous reputation had spread among the lower ranks of Los Demonios, prompting at least some of them to avoid any confrontations with him to prevent being killed.
That’s why Jake was currently clinging to a building, hidden from sight by Cloak. His plan was to wait for a Demon vehicle to drive by and then push off the wall, performing a mana-infused jump and landing in front of the car or, if he timed it perfectly, even atop its roof. It seemed like a solid plan, but the problem was that he had no idea how long he would have to wait for a Demon car to pass. While there were plenty of Los Demonios around, the city was enormous, so he could be in for quite a wait.
An hour ticked by, and Jake was growing restless. Sitting idle wasn’t his style, even if it was only figuratively speaking. When he wasn’t battling mutants, he was usually collecting mana consumables or searching for various quests and challenges. This hour of inactivity felt like an immense waste of opportunity. There had been a couple of occasions in the past when he had hidden away after suffering severe wounds to allow his body to focus solely on healing. However, remaining in one place and doing absolutely nothing while waiting for a Demon vehicle to pass down this particular street, which might not even happen, felt like a great misuse of his time.
Just when Jake was about to give up, an SUV showed up, its sides and hood adorned with red demon skulls. He got ready. As the vehicle approached his position, he prepared to jump. To his surprise, however, the SUV began to slow down, eventually coming to a halt right in front of him. Jake watched, completely motionless. Nothing happened for a couple of minutes. Then, some of the doors swung open, and four armed gangsters emerged. They gathered in front of the right side of the vehicle, staring at the building’s front wall. Jake clung to the space between two windows on the second-story floor, remaining completely motionless and invisible to the naked eye.
He watched as the gangsters exchanged tense words, their anxiety palpable. One of them, a burly figure with jagged tattoos snaking up his arms, frowned at the PDA in his hand.
“I dunno,” he said, glancing at the others. “According to the scanner, the freak should be right before us.”
“Well, it’s clearly not here,” another gang member replied, staring at the building before him.
“Any idea how far it should be?” another one asked.
“Should be just a few yards in front of us,” came the response from the burly one, irritation creeping into his tone.
“Maybe the scanner is acting up?” someone suggested, scanning the street lit by the morning light with suspicion. “Has that happened before?”
“I don’t think so. It should be working just fine,” the tattooed man insisted, his voice steady.
“Could be inside the building,” the other gangster speculated nervously. Sweat beaded on his forehead.
“Where’s it at now? Still there or moved somewhere? The freak always zips around chaotically at incredible speed.”
The tattooed, burly man glanced at the PDA he held in one hand.
“Nah,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s still in the same spot. The scanner would’ve let us know if the freak moved.”
“Unless it’s acting up,” the wary gangster said again, anxiety creeping in.
“Well, like I said, the scanner seems to be working just fine,” the burly gangster snapped back.
“The freak must be sleeping or something,” another man piped up, his voice low. “I mean, it should sleep sometimes too, right?”
“Come on inside. If the freak is actually sleeping, it’s our chance to get the drop on it. We’ll be the ones to deal with the freak, and Skullface will reward us awesomely.”
“Let’s just be as quiet as possible,” the anxious one warned. “The freak has already taken down plenty of our guys.”
The four gangsters nodded grimly at one another, gripped their weapons tightly, and began their cautious advance toward the building. Jake waited a beat longer, letting them get a little closer, then sprang into action.