Jake traversed the streets, illuminated by the gentle morning light. The chilly wind stirred the weeds breaking through the cracks in the asphalt and swayed the vines cascading down the building fronts. The echoes of gunfire resonated from various parts of the city. In this world altered by the system, guns generated much less noise, a stark contrast to when Jake was a human survivor and rarely heard gunfire unless in close proximity. Now, as a mutant, his acute hearing allowed him to easily detect distant gunshots.
As the day progressed, more survivors emerged from their hideouts to begin a new day of scavenging and battling mutants. While they posed little threat to him, Jake planned to avoid confrontations with humans as much as possible. He gained nothing from killing them. Waking up his inner beast was also something he wanted to avoid at all costs. However, as the day unfolded, evading survivors was becoming more challenging.
He sprinted through the streets at impressive speed, covering one block after another, occasionally passing groups of survivors. Most of them simply gaped at him, and by the time they collected themselves, he was already too far away for them to take any action against him. However, out of fear, some of the survivors managed to pop off hurried bursts of fire in his direction. None of their shots hit him, though, as he moved too quickly for them to aim accurately.
He definitely preferred traversing the city by rooftops. After he cleared out the sewers, he planned to stay away from the streets altogether. The last time, it’d taken him a few hours to eliminate all the mutated lifeforms in the sewers. With his newly acquired combat abilities, he expected to accomplish this task more quickly. After that, he intended to climb to the roof of any nearby building and proceed with his exploration of the city, traversing it by the rooftops in search of quests or something else of interest.
At some point, Jake came across the remnants of a small building resembling a diner sitting at a corner of a four-way intersection. Normally, Jake would’ve kept moving forward without sparing another glance at the destruction, but something caught his attention. As he approached the building, he slowed down, turning his head to observe it. A magical anomaly floated a few meters above the ruins of the diner, shimmering and distorting the surrounding air. The anomaly pulsed with eerie, unearthly light, casting strange shadows on the ground around the small structure. Jake came to a halt beside the ruined diner as memories of past encounters with magical anomalies flooded his mind.
He was aware that anomalies were highly dangerous, each possessing a unique ability. Some would draw you in only to fling you away with tremendous force in a random direction, similar to the one named Pulsar that had recently propelled him off the roof. Another anomaly had the capability to break every bone in a fragile human body. There were anomalies that exploded with magical energy, dealing damage to everything within its effective range. Each anomaly was dangerous and had its own ability.
They were also triggered differently. Some would activate upon contact with any object, while others ignored inanimate objects and only reacted to a living creature getting too close. Certain anomalies could be triggered by loud noises, while others remained active constantly, like the Dark Void that had transformed him into a morphus.
It was definitely worth carefully inspecting each anomaly to distinguish between them and understand the dangers they presented. This was why Jake decided to take a moment to study the newly discovered anomaly. He approached the ruined building, his eyes fixed on the anomaly hovering above the roof. He stopped at the shattered entrance to the small structure, taking a moment to examine the ruined interior of the diner. It was a twisted maze of broken furniture and collapsed walls. What had once been a cozy diner was now a jumble of debris and decay.
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Jake tilted his head back, peering at the anomaly through a gaping hole in the ceiling. The magical phenomenon emitted a constant hum, and the air inside the destroyed diner felt electrified, causing a tingling sensation to spread across his skin. He had definitely never encountered such an anomaly before, so Jake ventured into the diner to examine it more closely. Most anomalies were difficult to perceive, with some being entirely invisible and detectable only by the sounds they emitted. However, Jake’s heightened senses allowed him to see and hear the anomaly hovering above the roof more clearly.
Despite having hard soles like those of boots, no debris crunched beneath Jake’s feet. He trod lightly, taking careful and calculated steps that made no sound at all. The only noise within the ruined diner was the hum emanating from the anomaly itself. Its shimmering form cast a strange glow over the wreckage of the interior below. The anomaly seemed to pulsate with malevolent energy, twisting and distorting the air around it in a dizzying display of power.
Jake slowed, not willing to get too close to the anomaly. While he seemed to have no natural predators as a morphus, anomalies were an entirely different matter. Some anomalies were highly dangerous, presenting a significant danger to him even in his mutant form. The air crackled with electrical energy as he took a small step closer, looking up at the anomaly through the gap in the roof. He was now directly below the magical phenomenon. The anomaly was pulsating with an eerie glow, casting shimmering light over the wrecked interior of the diner. He could hear the hum coming from the anomaly and feel the floor beneath his feet tremble as waves of force radiated from the anomaly with each pulsation.
Though he hadn’t summoned its stats yet, Jake had a sense that its danger level was significant. He still wasn’t sure how it was triggered, though. He stood just beneath the gap in the roof, so proximity as the activation factor could be ruled out. Perhaps it responded to loud sounds or physical contact. Jake wasn’t about to do something stupid like hurling objects at it or making noise to test this theory, though. After all, he knew he could learn everything he needed to know about it as soon as he called up its description.
With a mental command, Jake summoned an appraisal of the anomaly, and a flood of information instantly filled his mind.
Name: Electro
Description: Launches lightning energy every which way when triggered. Activates when something hits it or gets within a foot of it.
Duration: 10 seconds
Effective range: 30 yards
Danger Level: 35 (High)
The anomaly was indeed extremely dangerous. Its danger level was 35, surpassing his own level by more than threefold. Another thing came to his mind. A survivor needed to scan an anomaly with their PDA to gather information about it. However, they needed to upgrade their PDA first. Each rank level of a survivor’s PDA corresponded to a specific range of levels for scanning anomalies. For example, level 1 allowed scanning anomalies up to level 10, level 2 extended this to anomalies up to level 20, and so on with each subsequent level of a PDA covering an additional range of ten levels of anomalies.
To scan the Electro anomaly, a survivor’s PDA would need to be upgraded to at least level 3. In contrast, Jake had the ability to appraise any anomaly with just the power of his mind, regardless of its level. This unique advantage made exploration of this altered world significantly easier for Jake. His Enhanced Intelligence skill functioned akin to a PDA, but in some aspects, it even exceeded its capabilities.
While Jake was thinking about all this, he kept staring at the anomaly through the gap in the roof, and another piece of info suddenly popped up in his mind.
A challenge is available!
See the details: Y/N
Jake did a double-take at the anomaly floating above him. As a survivor, he’d never been offered challenges by anomalies before. He wondered why. Maybe only sentient mutants like himself could be given such opportunities? Anyway, it was an unexpected but intriguing surprise that filled him with excitement.
With a thought, he requested more information.