Chapter 101
Jake stood on the rooftop of a high-rise building, staring at an anomaly positioned at its center, hovering a few feet above the surface. The anomaly resembled a sphere, roughly three to four feet in diameter. While the anomaly was nearly invisible to the naked eye, his Enhanced Senses allowed him to detect it without much trouble. The air within the sphere was warped, revealing the boundaries of the anomaly where the distortion ended. Keeping a safe distance of a few yards from the anomaly, Jake summoned its description.
Name: Nudging Force
Description: Pushes every object that enters its range in the opposite direction.
Effective range: 3 feet
Duration: Instantaneous
Cooldown: None
Danger Level: 20 (Low)
The Nudging Force was a non-lethal, limited-range anomaly. It was nearly harmless. The danger level being described as “20 (Low)” indicated that while the anomaly was capable of causing some inconvenience, its pushing force wasn’t considered lethal or even all that dangerous.
Jake figured if he came within three feet of the Nudging Force, it might push him with enough force to knock him down, but it wouldn’t result in anything more than that. Out of all the anomalies he’d ever encountered as both a survivor and a mutant, this was the most harmless.
He gave a mental command to check if the Nudging Force had a challenge to offer. A new piece of info immediately surfaced in his mind.
A challenge is available!
See the details: Y/N
He wondered what it could be. A speed trial? Or another tower climb, perhaps? Without further speculation, he confirmed with a mental “Yes”, prompting the details about the challenge to appear in his mind.
Survival: You need to survive several mutant attacks within a designated area.
Time Limit: 60 minutes
Number of waves: 10
Difficulty: Easy, Medium, or Hard
Recommended Stats: Evolution Stage 1 “Primordial Form”, Level 25, Body 5
Rewards:
Easy - 3,000 XP
Medium - 3,000 XP and a mana crystal
Hard - 3,000 XP, a mana crystal, and the Enemy Appraisal perk
Accept: Y/N
Jake had never done a survival challenge before. The very first challenge he’d received from an anomaly was a speed trial. Some time later, he encountered an anomaly that offered a tower-climbing challenge. So he’d just learned about a new type of challenge an anomaly could offer. Potentially, there could be other types of challenges than just these three.
Jake returned his attention to the details of the survival challenge. It appeared that he had the freedom to choose the difficulty level. The previous two challenges he’d completed had set difficulty levels: the speed trial was easy, and the tower climb was hard. This time, he was free to select any difficulty he wanted.
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He remembered completing the speed trial without much trouble. As for the tower climb, he’d had to resort to tricking a group of survivors into assisting him. Without their help, he wouldn’t have been able to finish the challenge on time.
For a moment, he pondered which difficulty level to choose. As the difficulty increased, the reward got better. He hesitated to choose the easy difficulty level because it was, well, easy and therefore offered only 3,000 XP as a reward. So he was choosing between medium and hard. Considering his previous experience with the tower-climbing challenge, he was inclined to choose the medium difficulty level.
However, the reward for completing the challenge on hard difficulty was not only 3,000 XP and a mana crystal boasting 5,000 MP but also a perk called Enemy Appraisal. Since he’d never obtained any perks before, he couldn’t help but wonder how they worked.
The name of the reward perk, Enemy Appraisal, indicated that it could provide additional information about his enemies, which could be very useful. Jake really wanted to get the perk, but he was well aware that if he failed to complete the challenge on time, he would receive no reward at all.
In the end, he decided to take the risk. However, before accepting the challenge, he wanted to check something out. He closed his eyes and, with a single thought, summoned the boost menu he’d received as a reward for successfully completing the tower-climbing challenge.
Boost menu
Rank 1:
Enhanced Regeneration
Duration: 60 min
Cost: 2,000 MP
Acquire: Y/N
Increased Movement Speed
Duration: 60 min
Cost: 5,000 MP
Acquire: Y/N
Increased Strength
Duration: 60 min
Cost: 5,000 MP
Acquire: Y/N
Increased Agility
Duration: 60 min
Cost: 5,000 MP
Acquire: Y/N
Increased XP gain (x2)
Duration: 60 min
Cost: 10,000 MP
Acquire: Y/N
Rank 2:
None
Requirement: Kill 100 ex-human walkers.
Progress: 100/100
Unlock: Y/N
Jake had kind of forgotten about the boost menu after the tower climb and only remembered about it now. He figured there hadn’t been much reason to utilize it before. Now was the perfect time to put it to good use, though. The Increased XP Gain (x2) boost was what he wanted to purchase. It cost a whopping 10,000 MP, but he figured it would be totally worth it.
He noticed something interesting. In the past several days after acquiring the boost menu, he must’ve killed over a hundred walkers because he was now allowed to upgrade the boost menu to Rank 2. He did so with a thought and checked it out again. The upgrade hadn’t added any new boosters, but the old ones were somewhat more powerful now. For the time being, he was only interested in one of them, though.
Increased XP gain (x3)
Duration: 90 min
Cost: 10,000 MP
Acquire: Y/N
It had the same mana cost as before, but its duration was now ninety minutes instead of sixty, and it would now increase all XP he gained three times instead of two. If he acquired the booster and successfully completed the challenge, he would gain 9,000 XP instead of 3,000 XP. Additionally, he would receive three times more XP for every mutant killed. He would be able to level up at least two times during the challenge, or maybe even three.
He currently had about eighteen thousand mana points. If he successfully completed the survival challenge, he would gain a mana crystal, which would bring him back to approximately twenty-three thousand mana points. With some luck, he might collect enough mana during the following night to purchase all the required skills and by morning, could have evolved into the next stage.
The only thing he needed to do to achieve that was complete the challenge on hard difficulty. He was well aware that it was easier said than done. If he failed to complete the challenge in under sixty minutes, not only would he receive no rewards, but spending 10,000 MP would be in vain.
However, his mind was already made up. Having decided to take the risk, he purchased the booster, opened his eyes, and accepted the challenge. When prompted to select the difficulty, he chose the hard one and prepared for the battle.