Chapter 26
Jake navigated the ravaged city in his pickup truck. It’d been a few days since he’d pleted the mission at the high-rise building where he’d had to eradicate replication pods and deal with the elite mutant called a whipper on the rooftop. During the st few days, he tio explore the city, fight mutants, and do missions. By this point, he’d gotten the hang of surviving in this dangerous world. He was well-versed in log everything he needed for survival and had honed his skills in fighting mutants.
He was now equipped with the rare assault rifle he had received as a reward for pleting the mission at the high-rise building. Additionally, he carried an unon pump-a shotgun that he had stumbled upon a couple of days before, which was more powerful than the semi-auto shotgun he had previously possessed. In the drop-leg holster on his right hip, he carried an unon heavy-caliber pistol that he had obtained retly. Both the shotgun and the pistol matched his current level. The assault rifle was a couple of levels lower, but sihis on was of rare rarity, it still packed quite a punch.
After surviving for a few days, Jake learhat while items and monsters respaw the beginning of every day, they didn’t always appear in the same pces. There were instances when a house he had previously sged did not replenish with ems the following day. So there was a of randomness at py in this world. As a general rule, ed food and bottled water spawned in venieores, ammo in police stations, healing autoiors in hospitals, gas in repair garages and gas stations, and so on. He marked all these key locations on his map and would visit them whenever his supplies ran low. By now, he had established several caches in different parts of the city where he stashed his provisions.
Jake also discovered several vending maes scattered throughout the city. However, he found the prices of items sold io be unreasonably excessive. Given that he could acquire most items such as ammo or food through sging, He mostly opted to purchase only magical scrolls and mana ables from the vending maes. These items were scard challenging to e by, often spawning iirely random locations uher more on supplies.
He also purchased PDA upgrades from vending maes sihere appeared to be no other means of acquiring them. He found the upgrades to be well worth the cost, as they provided valuable new features for his handheld puter. For example, he had upgraded his PDA to enable him to call in a on supply drop each day and to dispy all types of mutants in his current location.
After purchasing anrade for his PDA yesterday, a ab called Crafting had been unlocked. That was how Jake learhere was a crafting system in this game-like world. Despite this intriguing discovery, he had yet to explore how the crafting system worked in this world because he reoccupied with other pressing tasks. He po delve into crafting ter on, but for now, he was focused on pleting missions to gain XP, earn money, and obtain valuable items and ons.
He also learned a bit more about magic. As he already knew, his mana level didn’t replenish on its own. Instead, he o use ables like mana marbles or shards to replenish it. He also could not acquire magic spells on his own but had to rely on reading magical scrolls, which acted as able items. Each scroll provided him with a spell for a oime use. A good thing was that he had the freedom to postpone using a spell after reading a magical scroll, giving him the option to save it for a ter time. Given this liberty, he opted to read any scrolls he found immediately, rather than carrying them in his rucksack or st them in his hideouts. This approach allowed him to have a wide colle of various spells stored in his mind and ready for use whehe need arose.
So it seemed that one couldn’t bee a pure mage. Despite the existenagi this game-like world, firearms remaihe main means of fighting mutants while magic served as a supplemental tool. While magic was a valuable asset, it was not enough for him to rely solely on it to defeat mutants and navigate the dangers of this world. The very first spell that Jake had found ush. Later on, he came across additional ones, amassing a colle of various spells. With magical scrolls and mana ables being rare and hard to e by, he reserved spellcasting for dire circumstances when there seemed to be no alternative way out of a challenging situation without res to magic.
I few days, Jake had entered several other survivors, with many of these iioing into gunfights. He had realized that trust was a luxury in this wless dog-eat-dog world, where some would not hesitate to murder you only to take your hard-earuff. The act of taking another person’s life no loroubled Jake as he reized that survival required doing whatever was necessary in this ruthless world without any rules or ws, where only the stro prevailed.
He felt pretty calm, despite this gamepocalypse, or whatever the hell it was. It might sound strange, but the end of the world seemed to have a surprisingly soothing effe him. Before the world colpsed, his s had revolved around paying bills, making enough moo cover his expenses, and other mundane worries. In his past life, he’d toiled like a w animal, yet he still struggled to make both ends meet. None of that mattered now. The world seemed to be simpler now, a sense of pead crity amid the turmoil.
Before the Colpse, Jake had no attats—no family, no girlfriend, and no real friends. He didn’t have anything that really mattered to him. As a result, he did not miss his pre-Colpse life at all. Being introverted, he never had the o i with other people much. He had alreferred spending his free time alone and was tent with solitude. That was why he felt rexed and at ease as he drove around the deserted city in his truck. Being alone didn’t bother him in the slightest. He was well aced to it and even found moments of enjoyment in it.
In the past few days, he had pleted several missions that involved straightforward aitive objectives like eliminating mutants, destroying replication pods, and simir tasks. His current mission was to locate and close a magical anomaly within a mall. Having tackled simir missions before, he khe routine and what was required to aplish this objective.
Finally, he reached his destination, pulling into a parking lot of the mall. There were a few rusty carcasses of old vehicles scattered here and there, but when he pulled up o one of the entrao the mall, he spotted a vehicle that seemed to be in w dition. It caused Jake to immediately tense up. The vehicle was a rge white-colored SUV. He peered into the interior for a sed but didn’t see any people within it. The SUV arked he entrao the mall, so whoever the car beloo should be somewhere ihe shopping plex. This was unsurprising to him—based on his ret experiences, he knew rge malls often held valuable resources, attrag other survivors seeking supplies.
Jake exited his pickup truck. Holding his pump-a shotgun at the ready, he approached the white SUV, peering into the interior just to make sure he hadn’t overlooked anything. He firmed that the vehicle erational but unoccupied. Whoever had driven it here was currently in the mall—there was not a hint of doubt about that. He had to be real careful.
As he he entrance, he spotted the lifeless body of a dead survivor lying in a pool of blood. It was a middle-aged man with red hair. Bullet wounds peppered all over his body. Whoever killed him had put lots of bullets into him. Jake took out his PDA to s the body. DEAD SURVIVOR: EMPTY. Whoever killed him must also have looted the body, taking all the valuable items the victim had on him.
Jake then accessed the retly acquired feature on his PDA to gather information about the mutants he might enter ihe mall. The data dispyed on the s revealed plenty of walkers and leapers as well as a couple of shamblers and whippers—all the usual suspects. If the white SUV beloo whoever killed the redhead, then he reasohey should also be somewhere ihe mall. P this, he wondered whether it was the work of a lone individual roup of assaints.
Pocketing his PDA, he tucked the buttstock of his shotgun firmly against his shoulder and stepped into the building.
