Immediately, an additional piece of info popped up in his mind. He took a moment to examine it.

Speed Trial: Reach all the waypoints before time runs out.

Time Limit: 10 seconds

Waypoints: 5

Difficulty: Easy

Recommended Stats: Evolution Stage 1 “Primordial Form”, Level 10, Body 3

Reward: 10,000 MP

Accept: Y/N

When his gaze reached the Recommended Stats line, he paused for a second to think. It seemed that challenges like this one were designed specifically for him, distinguishing him from ordinary survivors. When his gaze reached the Reward line, he felt stunned for a second, not quite believing what he was seeing. Ten thousand mana points was quite a substantial reward, surpassing the amount he’d collected during his previous night’s mana hunt. So yeah, the reward was remarkably generous, especially considering the speed trial was supposed to be easy.

Without giving the matter more thought, Jake hastily accepted the challenge as if he were afraid the system could suddenly withdraw its offer. As soon as he accepted, a short message emerged in his mind.

Challenge accepted! The speed trial will begin shortly.

Jake glanced around, not sure what to expect. Nothing had changed inside the ruined diner. The anomaly remained suspended above the roof, emitting a humming sound and filling the air with electric energy. Then another notification was shown to him in his mind.

Waypoints have been set. To initiate the speed trial, go to the designated starting position.

Jake looked around once again and this time, caught a glimpse of some kind of glow coming in from outside through the entrance. He crossed the room and stepped out of the building. In the middle of the street, he saw a shaft of bluish light rising from the road into the sky. Had to be the starting position. Jake began to walk toward it. As soon as he got within one yard of it, he saw another message in his mind.

Get ready! The speed trial is about to begin!

Alright, let’s do this, Jake thought.

A countdown began.

3…

2…

1…

Start!

The bluish shaft of light disappeared. Tensing, Jake glanced around. Almost immediately, he spotted another beacon over one hundred meters farther down the street. While the new shaft of light was far away, it was easily noticeable, extending high into the sky and towering above the surrounding buildings. Unlike the previous one, it was white instead of blue.

Jake wasted no time breaking into a sprint down the street toward the waypoint. He reached the beacon in just a few seconds. Just as he ran through it, the shaft of light vanished, and a notification emerged in his mind.

+10 seconds

Another shaft of white light materialized one hundred yards down the street. While Jake sprinted toward it, he was deep in thought. Reaching a waypoint added ten more seconds to the remaining time. He wondered if there was a way to track the amount of time left.

As soon as he thought that, a piece of info appeared in his mind.

Trial Progression

Waypoints: 1/5

Remaining Time: 13.72 seconds

He quickly looked over the info and dismissed it with a thought. The next shaft of light rose from the middle of a four-way intersection. Drawing closer to it, he spotted a small group of survivors crossing the intersection and heading in his direction. Judging by their behavior, it was evident the group of survivors couldn’t see the shaft of light, despite the fact they were walking right past it. Obviously, the waypoints were visible only to the one undertaking the speed trial.

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While they were unaware of the shaft of light emerging from the center of the intersection, they couldn’t help but notice the obsidian-black mutant running toward them. They froze in place, mesmerized by his intimidating appearance and the incredible speed at which he was closing in on them.

Before the survivors could gather their thoughts, he made it to the center of the intersection. Just before reaching the shaft of light, he slowed his pace slightly, uncertain of where the next waypoint would appear.

+10 seconds

This time, a beacon didn’t materialize ahead of him; instead, the next waypoint appeared on his right. Swiftly turning toward it, he accelerated his pace, keeping an eye on the group of survivors as he raced past them. Startled by his sudden movement, they instinctively recoiled, perhaps fearing he was about to attack them. However, his focus was solely on reaching the next waypoint; he had no intention of fighting them at all. Ignoring the group, he turned away from them and sprinted toward the third waypoint at full speed.

Now that he was moving away from the survivors, they appeared to finally gather their composure. The sharp cracks of gunshots pierced the air as they unleashed a barrage of bullets toward him. The projectiles whizzed past him like enraged hornets, one grazing his shoulder, causing minimal harm. Although he felt no pain, the sensation was still unpleasant. He wanted to turn around and deal with the brash survivors, but he fought back the urge, knowing he had to resist his dark impulses.

“It’s getting away,” one of the survivors yelled to the rest. “Shoot it! Kill it! Don’t stop firing!”

However, as he distanced himself from the survivors, their shots missed him by wider margins. Watching him retreat seemed to embolden the survivors. They likely believed they’d succeeded in scaring him off. Had they known what he was capable of, they would never have dared to do anything that could piss him off and opted to run away while they could instead of provoking him.

It didn’t take him long to reach the third waypoint.

+10 seconds

The next waypoint materialized on his right again, and he turned toward it, maintaining his pace. While the previous waypoints had been roughly equidistant from each other—approximately one hundred meters apart—the next waypoint lay about twice that distance away. Jake checked the trial information while he ran on.

Trial Progression

Waypoints: 3/5

Remaining Time: 21.10 seconds

It’d taken less than ten seconds to reach each of the previous waypoints, so Jake calculated he should reach the fourth waypoint before the time was up. It was a good thing there were no obstacles along his path. The weeds pushing through the cracked asphalt didn’t slow him down in the slightest. The rusted car frames lined the sides of the road, but none obscured his path, allowing him to maintain his top speed.

Finally, he reached the fourth waypoint situated at the center of another intersection.

+10 seconds

Out of the corner of his eye, Jake saw another waypoint, the last one, materialize on his right once more. Swiftly altering his course toward it, he took a second to assess the status of the trial.

Trial Progression

Waypoints: 4/5

Remaining Time: 11.36 seconds

With approximately one hundred meters to cover to reach the final waypoint, Jake anticipated reaching it within seven or eight seconds. Confident in his ability to successfully complete the speed trial, he continued his sprint. As he drew nearer the final waypoint, a realization struck him—he’d completed a full circle and was now back at the diner where the trial had commenced. Notably, the last waypoint shared the same blue hue as the initial starting point.

When he ran through the shaft of bluish light, a notification emerged in his mind.

Trial complete! You have received 10,000 MP.

Only then did Jake slow down, eventually coming to a stop. He felt excited. Although the speed trial hadn’t posed a significant challenge, the reward was pretty amazing. He could now afford to unlock a few more skills from the Genetic Development Interface.

However, he decided it could wait for now because he wanted to check something else first. He turned back toward the diner and entered through the doorway. Upon stepping inside, he heard the familiar hum and felt the floor tremble beneath the soles of his feet. So even before he saw the Electro anomaly through the hole in the roof, he already knew it was still there. Which meant that completing a challenge didn’t neutralize an anomaly.

Positioning himself directly beneath the hole in the ceiling, Jake peered through it at the Electro anomaly. He retrieved its description with a mental command, and the information materialized in his mind. No info on the speed trial appeared, though. He waited a bit longer, thinking there could be a possibility of a time delay in the system’s response. However, nothing happened.

After making sure the anomaly had no other challenges to offer, Jake stepped away from the hole in the roof, deep in thought. So once a challenge associated with an anomaly was completed, it ceased to exist. It couldn’t be repeated, and no new one replaced it. However, Jake decided to revisit the diner tomorrow to see if the speed trial would resurface or if another challenge would replace it after the world underwent its regular system reset.

After leaving the dinner, Jake stood on the sidewalk for a moment, still thinking. His initial plan was to collect mana at night and venture into the sewers to gather XP during the daytime. However, having just completed the speed trial and discovering the existence of challenges linked to anomalies, Jake decided to postpone his sewer exploration for now.

He didn’t know whether challenges were linked to all anomalies or only certain ones. Though he suspected the latter, he didn’t know for sure yet. Anyway, driven by the prospect of finding more challenges to complete, he set out to locate another anomaly.