The fall was brief. In just a couple of seconds, Jake landed in the middle of the street with a solid thud. The tall grass and weeds protruding from the cracked asphalt of the road did little to cushion the impact. The back of his head smacked against the ground so hard the world briefly went dark before his eyes. For a moment, Jake just lay motionlessly on his back, staring up at the roof of the ten-story building he had fallen from.
To his surprise, he felt almost uninjured. While his back had sustained some minor damage, his body was already tapping into his mana reserves to aid in the healing process. His head ached slightly, but it was bearable. If he’d been human, the fall would’ve resulted in a broken spine and death. However, as a morphus, he not only survived but also avoided breaking any bones in his body.
Hell, he wasn’t even sure if he had any bones at all. Now that he was thinking about it, he realized he had no clue what his mutant body was even made of. Since becoming a morphus, he had never felt his heart beating, leading him to believe he didn’t have one. And now he was starting to think he might not even have any bones in his transformed body either.
He remembered doing a hunt quest where he had to track down and slay an elite walker. He managed to kill the mutant but not before it tore a huge chunk of flesh out of his obsidian-black shoulder. After the fight, he examined the wound. He remembered seeing the cyan-colored magical energy freely flowing from the ragged hole. The wound was huge and deep, but when Jake peered into it, he noticed the absence of bones, muscles, sinews, tendons, or any other usual organic material that one would expect to see in damaged human flesh.
At that moment, he hadn’t dwelled on it, because his primary concern had been the fear of bleeding to death. All he could think about had been letting his body heal itself as soon as possible. Now that he remembered it, he realized his body didn’t seem to have anything inside of it. It seemed to be solid and entirely composed of some hard material like obsidian, infused with mana from within. However, while his body was as solid as stone, at the same time it was very elastic and flexible, enabling him to move swiftly and perform impressive acrobatic feats.
Jake found it strange because while the overall shape of his body was somewhat different from that of a human, he still moved like a regular person, with all his limbs bending at the correct angles. But as he’d noticed earlier, with every skill point assigned to his Body attribute, the shape of his mutant body appeared to change slightly. He could only guess what his body would look like after he allocated more points to that attribute.
All these thoughts raced through his mind in under a second. Before he could give the matter any more thought, he heard someone exclaim, “What the fuck? Did you see that, guys?”
Jake instantly tensed, listening hard.
“Something just dropped from the sky,” the same male voice added.
“I saw it,” another male voice replied.
“Yeah, me too,” somebody else said in an accented voice.
“I think it was a person, guys,” another voice said, this one belonging to a young woman. “They fell from that roof.”
There was a brief pause in their conversation as if all of them took a moment to look at the roof the young woman had mentioned.
“Well, sucks to be them, then,” an older female voice said in a cold tone. “A person can’t survive a fall like that.”
“I think they fell over there,” the first woman said.
“Let’s check the body,” one of the male voices suggested. “Hopefully, it has some cool loot.”
“Guys, this is wrong,” the young woman said.
“Oh, come on, Elena,” the older and colder woman said. “Don’t bring up this shit again. You gotta do whatever it takes to survive in a place . Besides, it’s not the first time we’ve stumbled upon a dead body and looted it. You should’ve gotten used to it a long time ago.”
“It still doesn’t make it right,” the young woman said stubbornly, but there was a hint of uncertainty in her voice now.
Jake heard them move to where he lay in the grass. The weeds bursting from the cracks in the asphalt were at least two feet tall, preventing him from seeing the strangers. But he could hear their careful footsteps, even though they tried to move as quietly as possible. They were sure he was dead, but they still tried not to make much noise, a habit developed after surviving in this dangerous world for a few days now.
Jake sat up. As soon as he did so, a system notification emerged in his mind.
You have just gotten a negative effect: Dazed. You are disoriented and feel vertigo.
Oh fuck. Falling from the ten-story building and banging his head on the asphalt had inflicted more damage on him than he’d initially thought. While he lay on the ground, everything was fine. However, now that he was in a sitting position, the world swam before his eyes a little, making him feel disoriented and dizzy. It was a concerning development.
In his expanded field of vision, he could see the group of survivors nearing his position through the grass. They were on his right, but his large mutant eyes allowed him to see them even without turning his head toward them. With a thought, he pulled up their stats while he studied them from the corner of his expanded field of vision.
Marcus, level 9, armed with a pump-action shotgun. Maria, level 10, armed with dual pistols. Victor, level 11, armed with an assault rifle. Zack, level 10, armed with a similar weapon. A little behind them shuffled a scared-looking young woman. Her name was Elena. She was armed with what looked like a submachine gun. Her level was 8.
All that info flooded into Jake’s mind in less than a second.
From the corner of his eye, he saw the group of survivors freeze when they saw him emerge from the grass.
“What the fuck?” Marcus, who was leading the group, exclaimed. “It’s not a person, it’s a mutant!”
“It’s alive!” somebody else added. “How did it survive that fall?”
The group remained frozen in place, their weapons trained on him. This was a dire situation. He was in no shape to fight.
Wait, he wanted to say to them but couldn’t, having no organs for producing sounds. Very slowly, so as not to spook the survivors, he rose to his feet.
As Jake turned to face them, most of them recoiled at the sight of him from the front. Jake didn’t blame them. Even he’d been startled when he saw his reflection for the first time, even though he had a pretty good idea of what he looked like by then. For a moment, the survivors were silent, studying him. He could sense the fear emanating from them. It was understandable. He was well aware of how terrifying he looked. His large intimidating eyes alone could instill dread in most people.
Because of the Dazed negative effect, Jake felt dizzy and couldn’t think clearly. He knew he needed to find a way to calm the survivors down somehow, but no brilliant ideas came to mind. He could see their index fingers whitening as they tightened around the triggers. He knew the survivors were so tense at the moment they would open fire if he made even the slightest movement.
“That mutant gives me the creeps,” Marcus said, breaking the tense silence.
“Let’s just kill it,” Victor put in.
“No,” Elena said. “It’s not attacking us, guys. Let’s just leave it alone.”
“But what if it pounces on us as soon as we turn our backs?” Maria countered. “No, I agree with Victor. We need to kill it.”
Being on edge, the group spoke rapidly, almost interrupting each other. Jake held up his hands and shook his head, but they were too stressed to notice his gesture.
“That’s right,” Marcus said in a loud voice, silencing the others. “Smoke the freak, guys.”
Elena began to object timidly, “Guys, I think it’s trying to say something to us.” Unfortunately, the rest either didn’t hear the young woman or simply chose to ignore her.
Jake didn’t even consider fleeing. He was a predator now, and the injuries he sustained only made him even more dangerous. His instincts for self-preservation kicked in, and he knew he was going to do whatever was necessary to ensure his survival.
Without hesitation, he charged toward the terrified survivors just as they unleashed a barrage of gunfire upon him.