Chapter 129

Jake continued to search the city for sleeping survivors. He needed to use Mind Reader just two more times to progress it to 100%. He believed it would be a quick task, but he soon realized that locating survivors who hadn’t taken measures to guard against intruders at night was harder than he had anticipated.

To ensure their safety throughout the night, many groups of survivors took turns standing watch. Not all of them opted for that approach, though. Some set up protective wards or magical traps to prevent enemies from getting the drop on them while they slept. Others created booby traps or makeshift alarm systems to alert them about intruders. On more than one occasion, Jake found shards of glass strewn across the floor just outside a room where a group of survivors had settled down for the night.

However, survivors anticipated uninvited visitors coming from below, not from above. That’s why they set up makeshift traps and alarm systems on the routes coming from below—like on the stairs leading up to their floor—rather than on those leading down to their hiding spots. For this reason, Jake decided to return to the roof level and enter buildings from above.

Still, it was challenging to find approachable survivors. By that point, they had all learned not to take any chances in this lawless world where danger lurked around every corner. As a result, they implemented various protective measures to prevent anyone or anything from approaching them undetected during their sleep.

So, his plan to use Mind Reader on sleeping survivors to advance it to 100% wasn’t as good as it had seemed at first. He was about to give up when he finally came across two approachable survivors. Upon discovering a building devoid of mutants, Jake descended its front wall, scanning the glassless windows, searching for a room where survivors might be resting for the night.

It didn’t take him long to find it. He spotted two survivors nestled in sleeping bags in a small room on the eighth floor. Jake hung from the wall, gripping a crack with one hand while peering inside, looking for any protective measures they might have taken. There were only two survivors taking refuge in the room, and they hadn’t bothered to establish a rotating watch. Additionally, Jake didn’t sense any telltale signs of magical activity in the room, indicating that there were no wards guarding the two survivors.

Jake continued to peer into the room. It had only one door, which was closed and lacked any means to lock it. He noticed several open tin cans suspended from the ceiling, positioned just below the door’s upper edge. If anyone attempted to open the door from the other side, the cans would rattle, waking the survivors inside.

Aside from the tin cans hanging above the door, which was the only entrance to the room aside from the window, Jake didn’t notice any other makeshift alarm systems inside. It was possible the two survivors had set up additional primitive alarms outside in the corridor, such as scattering shards of glass or setting up booby traps. However, inside the room, there were no other security measures. The window lacked any alarm system, probably because the two survivors believed that neither other survivors nor mutants could access the room through it.

Making no noise at all, Jake climbed into the room through the window. The two survivors, a man and a woman, slept in their sleeping bags next to each other, and their weapons rested within easy reach beside them. Jake was surprised to see that the two survivors hardly had any supplies. Unlike most of the survivors he had encountered, this pair seemed poorly equipped. Even during his early days of survival, when he was still human, he had stored more supplies in his hideout than these two had. Aside from the two sleeping bags and one weapon each, they seemingly had nothing else. They even possessed only a single rucksack, which looked almost empty.

The woman was closest to him, and he crouched down beside her. For a brief moment, he examined her face, which was contorted in a troubled expression. Whatever she was dreaming about wasn’t pleasant. Jake reached out, lightly touching her forehead with the tips of his fingers. He feared that this wouldn’t be enough and that he would need to press his entire palm against her head to activate Mind Reader. Fortunately, when he issued the mental command, the ability kicked in without any issues.

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The survivor’s memories surged into his mind. At first, he couldn’t make sense of what he was seeing. She had been asleep for several hours, so what he was witnessing was not her memories but her dreams, making it hard to understand what was happening. Her dreams formed a tangled web of fictional and surreal events intertwined with glimpses of her real memories from the previous day.

After a moment, Jake was able to separate the images in her mind that were pure fantasy from those that represented her true memories. He learned that the previous day, she, the man sleeping beside her, and two other survivors had been ambushed by some of the bandits from the Los Demonios gang. The four of them had tried to escape, but the Demons tracked them to their hideout. Tragically, two of her companions were killed, but she and the male survivor managed to escape.

So they had lost everything, which explained why they currently had so little with them. They were lucky to have escaped with their lives. In her dreams, the woman was reliving the tragic events of the previous day, so it was no wonder she had such a troubled expression on her face as she slept.

Suddenly, she stirred in her sleep, and Jake immediately pulled away from her mind, withdrawing his hand. He stared at the woman, ready to jump to his feet and leap out the window. He had no desire to fight these two humans. They had already been through a lot over the past day. The woman stirred for a few seconds, but fortunately, she didn’t wake up. When she lay still again, Jake checked the status of his ability.

Mind Reader: Rank I (80%) (Upgrades: 4 of 4) (Uncommon)

He needed to use it one more time to advance it to 100%, and it had to be a different person. So he stood up and moved toward the man lying in his sleeping bag next to the woman. Jake crouched beside him and, for a moment, studied his face. He bore a similarly troubled expression. Jake extended his hand to touch the survivor’s forehead. At that moment, he felt like a vampire slipping into people’s homes at night, feeding on the unaware souls as they slept.

The man’s dream resembled the woman’s, blending fictional events with memories of the tragic clash against the Demons, which had cost them two friends and their hideout where all their supplies had been stored. Moments later, Jake withdrew from the survivor’s mind and checked the status of his ability.

Mind Reader: Rank I (100%) (Upgrades: 4 of 4) (Uncommon)

Finally, the ability was at 100%. When he leveled up another time, he would use one of the skill points to upgrade Mind Reader to the next rank.

Just as he stood up, the survivor, whose troubled dreams he had been watching, suddenly opened his eyes. Jake froze as the man seemingly stared directly at him. But a split second later, he realized that while the survivor had opened his eyes, he wasn’t fully awake yet. Without making a sound, Jake leaped back and melted into the shadows of a corner of the room. He remained motionless, completely blending in with the surrounding darkness.

The male survivor blinked a few times, trying to regain his focus. He might have spotted Jake when he just opened his eyes, but at that moment, his mind was still half asleep, and he didn’t realize that what he saw before him was real rather than just remnants of his dreams. Now that he was somewhat awake, the survivor appeared to be thinking more clearly. He sat up and looked around the room with a puzzled look on his face.

With one hand, he reached for the pump-action shotgun lying on the floor to his left. He placed his palm on the weapon but didn’t pick it up. He continued to slowly survey his surroundings. At first, he didn’t recognize the place, which must have looked very different from the hideout where the group usually spent their nights. Then he seemed to finally remember what had happened the day before and where he was.

A devastated expression settled on his face as he slowly surveyed the room. His gaze drifted to the tin cans dangling from the upper edge of the door, as if he were trying to figure out what had disturbed his sleep. Seeing that the cans were still intact and the door was shut, he resumed scanning his surroundings.

Eventually, his gaze settled on the dark corner where Jake stood. He remained completely still. Although it appeared as if the man was looking right at him, Jake knew the male survivor couldn’t actually see him. If he could, his reaction would have been very different.

Having found no threats in the room, the survivor finally managed to relax. He turned his head and looked down at the woman sleeping beside him. For a moment, he watched her with sadness in his eyes. Then he lay back down and closed his eyes once more.

Jake remained still in his corner. He was glad he had managed to stay undetected. He didn’t want to give another person nightmares about him. This couple had already endured a really bad day. He didn’t want to fight them or instill a lasting fear of falling asleep from then on, leaving them anxious that some horrifying black mutant might come to visit them in the night again.

When the male survivor’s breathing steadied, Jake quietly emerged from the corner and moved toward the window. His movements were completely silent. Moments later, he reached the window, climbed through, and vanished into the night.