Chapter 94

His situation was alarming. He still had the healing booster he’d acquired after completing the tower-climbing challenge, and as a result, his mana was being consumed at an accelerated rate. By his calculations, by the time his body fully healed itself, he would have had no mana left, which would ultimately lead to his death. The irony was not lost on him—his body would be completely recovered by the end of the healing process, but he would still die from mana depletion caused by the regenerative ability of his body.

Since it had never happened to him before, Jake didn’t know what would happen when all his mana was depleted. Would he die instantly from mana depletion, or would his HP be gradually decreasing instead? If it was the latter, he might have some additional time to rescue himself. In any case, allowing his mana levels to go down all the way to zero was extremely dangerous. Even if it didn’t lead to his immediate death, he had to avoid depleting all his remaining mana at all costs.

Fortunately, that terrifying scenario never happened because as he had predicted, a safeguard mechanism within his body kicked in when his mana levels plummeted dangerously low. Since his wounds had not completely healed, Jake continued to lose mana, but at a reduced rate. This was due to his body ceasing its healing efforts, preserving the remaining mana solely for essential functions.

Knowing he had to replenish his mana, he searched the abandoned buildings for any mana consumables. He managed to find a few mana beads, each holding 100 MP. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing. After extracting the precious energy from the beads, he checked his mana count again. By his calculation, he would have some mana remaining after his body had finished restoring itself. Good. Jake hid in one of the darkest corners of the room in the building he was currently in and went completely still.

For some time, he remained in the same spot, making no movements at all, like a statue, to avoid wasting additional amounts of mana and to let his body solely focus on the healing process. The room he was in had once served as a lobby. It was expansive but mostly empty. The evening was descending, enveloping the vast room in deep shadows.

Jake wasn’t alone there. He could see and hear several ex-humans shuffling around the room aimlessly, but they never noticed him. When Jake moved, he hardly made any noise, and when he needed to, he could be completely silent. Positioned in a dark corner of the room, he merged seamlessly with the surrounding shadows, rendering himself invisible to the naked eye. The ex-humans continued to wander around, oblivious to the deadly obsidian-black predator lurking in one of the dark corners.

Once the healing process was finished, Jake planned to eliminate the ex-humans. Despite having only about two hundred MP left, which would slow down all his movements, making him more vulnerable, he believed he could handle the group of low-level walkers without much difficulty. His next goal would be to resume his search for mana. However, his plans were set to shift when an unexpected event occurred.

The thunder of a gunshot echoed from the street. It was the unmistakable sound of a powerful shotgun being discharged. Almost immediately, a second shot followed, closer this time. Jake remained motionless in the dark corner of the room, listening intently to the gunshots reverberating from the nearby streets.

It seemed that a few of the ex-humans also heard the distant sounds of shotgun blasts. Every time a gunshot rang out, they turned their heads this way and that, as if not quite comprehending what it was or where it came from. Most of them didn’t pay attention to the sounds of gunshots at all, either failing to hear them or simply thinking they were too far away to be concerned about. Jake’s hearing was much better than theirs. As he already knew, thanks to his Enhanced Senses, distant sounds seemed much closer to him than they actually were.

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The sounds of gunfire suddenly stopped. The shooter must have resolved whatever conflict they were in or moved too far away for Jake to hear. However, as it turned out a few minutes later, he was mistaken. A male survivor armed with a pump-action shotgun, the likely person who had been firing moments before, appeared in the doorway and scanned the semi-darkness of the vast room. The survivor stood at the doorway, allowing his eyes to adjust to the lighting difference. He noticed several walkers shuffling around in the room’s depths but failed to spot Jake.

Before entering, the survivor crouched down, removing his rucksack. Upon opening the flap, a bluish glow emanated from within. A mana consumable was nestled inside, and judging by the brightness of the light it emitted, it was quite large. Probably, it was a mana chunk containing 1,000 MP or maybe even a mana crystal holding a whooping 5,000 MP. Survivors usually extracted magical energy from mana consumables immediately upon discovery. Jake could only guess at the reason the survivor hadn’t done so yet. Maybe he hadn’t met the level requirement for consuming this particular mana consumable yet. Not that Jake really cared. At that moment, all he could think about was the large mana consumable stored in the survivor’s backpack. With his mana level plummeting to less than 200 MP, Jake knew he had to replenish it no matter what.

The survivor grabbed handfuls of spare shells from his rucksack and shoved them into his jacket pockets. He kept glancing at the ex-humans to make sure they didn’t get the drop on him while he was occupied. After stuffing his pockets with the shells, he put his rucksack on and retrieved his shotgun from the floor where he had placed it moments earlier. Rising to his feet, he brought up his weapon, tucking it against his shoulder, and started walking toward the center of the room.

The ex-humans attacked from different directions, but the seasoned survivor skillfully eliminated them one by one. Jake bode his time. While the survivor was dealing with the mutants, he remained vigilant, his reflexes sharp. This was why Jake chose to wait until the survivor took care of the walkers. Once the human was done with them, he would relax and unwittingly lower his guard, thinking he was alone and safe. That would be Jake’s cue to make a move.

Finally, all the walkers were taken care of. The survivor glanced around, a visible expression of disappointment on his face. Continuing to search for more threats to eliminate, his gaze settled on the dark corner of the room where Jake stood motionlessly. It appeared for a brief moment that he detected Jake’s presence, but then he looked away, lowering his pump-action shotgun.

When the survivor retrieved his PDA and unlocked it to check something, Jake felt a surge of excitement. He lacked the ability to unlock survivors’ handheld computers. Once he dealt with the human and extracted the magical energy from his large mana consumable, Jake would have the opportunity to utilize the unlocked device. Perhaps he would uncover valuable information, such as markers indicating the locations of the survivor’s hidden stashes where additional mana consumables could be found.

The human stood half-turned toward Jake, so he knew the survivor would be able to spot him out of the corner of his eye when he burst out from his hiding spot in the dark corner. Moreover, the human stood farther away from him than he would have preferred. Jake was left with no choice but to accept the situation as it was. Despite the less-than-ideal circumstances, he was determined to attack the survivor.

The human, now completely relaxed and unaware of the impending danger, believed he was alone in the room. Although the conditions weren’t entirely in Jake’s favor, the element of surprise was on his side. He couldn’t let an opportunity to get the drop on the survivor slip between his fingers. So he took a moment to compose himself and then stepped from the shadowed corner of the room.