Jake swiftly moved through the night streets at his usual brisk jog. He’d opted not to scale the buildings for two key reasons. First, mana consumables tended to spawn on the first floors of the high-rises, likely because many of the buildings had all their stairs completely destroyed, rendering access to the upper floors for regular survivors nearly impossible. Second, leaping from rooftop to rooftop consumed too much mana, and since he had only a small amount of that precious energy left, he couldn’t afford to waste it carelessly.

As always, at midnight, the system initiated the world refresh. As he jogged through the desolate streets, here and there, he spotted mutants materializing out of thin air. Now and then, enemies appeared right next to him, immediately trying to grab at him with their clawed hands. Jake paid them no mind, however, evading their claws and not slowing down. He was solely focused on his quest for mana, disregarding any other distractions.

He was sure the same process was occurring with loot, although it wasn’t immediately apparent since various items usually appeared inside buildings, abandoned cars, or some other concealed spots. The city was mostly quiet now, with the majority of the survivors having retreated to their shelters for the night. Unlike them, Jake didn’t need to sleep or rest, which worked to his great advantage. While most survivors rested, all the loot in the city belonged to him. Not that he needed most of it. The only thing he was interested in were mana consumables. Their spawn rate was pretty low, but with the majority of survivors having holed up in their dens, he anticipated gathering a substantial amount of mana.

Jake noticed that while the system kept refreshing the world, mutants materialized sporadically at different moments of time instead of appearing all at once at the same moment. About an hour later, the process seemed to be finished as he could no longer spot any mutants popping up anywhere. He continued to explore the night city, venturing into random buildings in search of mana.

Now and then, he came across beads, each providing 100 MP and marbles that offered 250 MP. A couple of times, he found a shard carrying 500 mana points. Jake immediately absorbed the magic energy from every mana consumable he discovered. At some point, he chanced upon a mana chunk. While beads, marbles, and shards were of common rarity, the mana chunk was uncommon, containing 1,000 MP. It was a really good find. Jake had brought his mana to over three thousand by now. Hunting for mana at midnight while most survivors rested had proven to be entirely worthwhile. He intended to dedicate the remainder of the night to looking for mana to collect as much of this magical energy as possible.

He entered another high-rise building and found himself in a vast room that had once served as the lobby of a hotel. Unlike many other buildings he’d explored, this one remained relatively intact, lacking large piles of debris and significant damage to the ceiling and walls. As he stealthily moved through the vast dark room adorned with several columns, he surveyed the area. He noticed that all the stairs leading to the upper floors lay in ruins.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

At first glance, there weren’t any mana consumables anywhere in sight, but to know for sure, he needed to conduct a more thorough search. He almost reached the center of the vast room when he heard a suspicious sound. He froze in his tracks, dropping close to the floor. He quickly looked around and almost immediately identified the source of the sounds. His gaze quickly landed on a group of survivors resting in one of the corners of the room, at the farther wall from the entrance.

Even though it was very dark in the room, with hardly any moonlight filtering in through the windows, Jake’s keen eyesight allowed him to take in all the details at once.

There were four of them: two were tucked in sleeping bags while two others were crouched by the windows, keeping guard. They seemed to be rotating shifts for any potential mutant attacks throughout the night. Their backpacks lined the wall, and the two guards held their weapons close while the two sleeping people had their guns lying on the floor within easy reach.

The sounds that Jake’s acute sense of hearing had picked up were the hushed conversation of the two guards. They spoke in muted tones, being careful not to disturb their sleeping companions. Despite being vigilant, none of them spotted Jake crouching in the center of the vast room. He always moved almost soundlessly, and when he needed to, he could move completely silently. Not knowing what dangers lay within the building, he’d taken precautions to remain as quiet as possible. Their eyes also let them down. They sat facing each other, so at least one of them should be able to see the center of the room in their peripheral vision, yet they failed to see him. Jake’s dark skin blended in with the surrounding darkness perfectly, rendering him practically invisible.

So yeah, the survivors didn’t have the slightest idea that an extremely dangerous predator was studying them at that moment. The two guards had one job, and they had already failed it, allowing him to get into the building and get dangerously close to them. If he chose to, he could dash toward them with minimal noise and reach them within seconds. By the time they eventually spotted him, it would be too late for them to do anything to save themselves. Jake remained where he was, though.

Since the four of them had taken refuge in that building, they had likely searched it. If there were any mana consumables, they had collected them and most likely immediately absorbed the precious magical energy from them. Therefore, there seemed to be no reason to linger in that building any longer.

However, out of curiosity, Jake decided to stay there for a moment. He wanted to know what the two guards were whispering about. Even though they talked to each other very quietly and were at least fifteen yards away from him, his acute sense of hearing allowed him to discern every word they uttered.