Chapter 73

The lifeless bodies of the ex-human mutants he had slain lay scattered across the floor. Jake stood in the same spot for a moment, lost in thought. It had taken him around fifty minutes to finish the seventh floor of the tower climb challenge. Now he had to conquer three more floors, with each subsequent floor getting more difficult than the last and then defeat a boss on the rooftop. Considering the time spent on the last floor, it seemed unlikely that he could clear three more floors and defeat the boss in under two hours. He needed to come up with a plan, and he needed to do so real fast.

A sudden idea crossed his mind. What if he attempted to skip floors eight, nine, and ten altogether? Perhaps he could climb to the roof of a neighboring building and leap across the gap to reach the rooftop of this structure. After all, the ultimate objective of this challenge was to ascend to the top of the tower and confront the mutant boss.

Whether the system would allow such a blatant cheat was anyone’s guess. Jake had serious doubts about the success of this plan. The portals from which mutants emerged only appeared when he advanced to a new floor, and he was certain the same rule applied to the boss. If he attempted to bypass the intermediate floors and head directly to the rooftop, the boss might not even materialize.

Although Jake was fairly confident that this was a likely scenario, he couldn’t be certain. With no better alternatives in mind, it seemed worth attempting, even if he believed it would likely end in failure. As he started crossing the room he was in, the sharp crack of gunshots echoed from the street, causing Jake to freeze for a second. The gunfire continued unabated from the outside. At that moment, a new idea sparked in his mind.

Jake spun around and jogged toward one of the immense floor-to-ceiling windows that ran along the front wall facing the street. The glass was long gone, allowing the wind to gust into the room. He halted at the edge of one of the shattered windows, staring down at the street below. He saw a group of survivors in the middle of the street, discharging their weapons at a gathering of ex-humans—both walkers and leapers—converging upon them from various alleyways and buildings on both sides of the street. The survivors were armed with an assortment of weapons, mostly shotguns and assault rifles. The cacophony of gunfire reverberated through the area, drawing more mutants to the scene.

For a moment, it appeared as if the group was on the brink of being overrun by the ex-humans, facing the grim fate of being torn to shreds. However, as it turned out, they were quite competent, standing back-to-back and firing in multiple directions, effectively covering all angles at once. The barrage of bullets unleashed by the survivors shredded the mutants to pieces long before the vile creatures could close in on them. Within moments, the fight came to a swift end. The ground was littered with the remnants of the fallen mutants they had just slain. The survivors remained vigilant, keeping their weapons trained in different directions for a few more seconds, ready to repel any additional enemies that might appear.

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The team demonstrated proficiency in handling ex-humans, even though the mutants they faced were low-level walkers and leapers. The survivors displayed remarkable organization and coordination. Jake contemplated luring them into the building and tricking them into fighting alongside him, knowing that their experience and cooperation would significantly improve his chances of completing the challenge in time. He was unsure of how to lure the survivors in or whether his plan would even succeed, but he believed it was a risk worth taking. The alternative of bypassing the remaining three floors to reach the rooftop, only to find the boss missing, seemed like a far riskier choice. His new plan was indeed a more favorable option.

No more mutants showed up, and the group of survivors down in the street finally relaxed. They lowered their guns and began to check the dead bodies for loot. With no time to lose, Jake spun around and crossed the room toward the exit. He made it back to the platform and paused for a second, thinking.

He knew for certain that once he stepped onto the platform, it would take him one level up. There was no way to manually operate the platform. It functioned automatically, only moving him up by one level and refusing to ascend further until he completed the current floor. Not being able to use the platform to go down was not a problem for him, as he had other options available to descend.

However, Jake couldn’t help but ponder what would occur when he descended all the way down to the first floor. Would the platform descend with him, or would it stay in its current position? If the platform remained stationary, his plan would fail before even starting. With all the staircases destroyed, the survivors would simply have no means to ascend to the upper floors of the building.

Jake made it to a staircase. Or, more accurately, what used to be a staircase, as most of the steps were missing, making it look like an empty shaft. The door was long gone as well. Jake paused in the opening, peering down the shaft that descended all the way to the first floor. Here and there, pieces of rebar protruded from the walls, providing decent handholds. If he had been human, he would never have dared to attempt to descend the shaft. Being an agile mutant, he was confident he could accomplish it.

He still had swords extended from his wrists. Giving a mental command, he instructed them to retract. It took a couple of seconds for them to morph back into his flesh. He also transformed his claws back into normal-looking hands. Noticing he had only three fingers on his right hand, he pondered whether he would ever be able to grow the two missing fingers that the very first slasher he encountered had cut off. He hoped so. He recalled seeing Enhanced Regeneration in the Genetic Development Interface. However, at that particular moment, Jake couldn’t spare any time to summon the skill store and read the skill’s description.

He also glanced at the deep cut in his shoulder that the first slasher had inflicted on him. The wound had been severe, causing him to leak some of his mana. After the battle had ended, he remained inactive for a while, allowing his body to focus entirely on healing itself. By that point, the cut had nearly closed, and his mana was no longer leaking.

Jake refocused on the shaft before him, taking note of the positioning of a few nearby pieces of rebar protruding from the walls. He calculated the best way to descend in his mind and then jumped down without hesitation.