Ex-Human Morphus [A Mutant Evolution Apocalypse LitRPG]
Chapter 139

Chapter 139

Suddenly, Catalina veered her sleek bike around and raced in the opposite direction, rapidly picking up speed. Jake watched her until she vanished into the distance.

For a moment, he remained still, thinking. It seemed Catalina was among those sent to hunt him. But she had decided not to get into a fight with him, which was a wise move. How her superiors would respond to her insubordination was an altogether different matter. Not that Jake really cared. It wasn’t his concern.

He turned back to look at the carnage he had caused. Having just used the machine gun made him think of something. He raised his hands to his face. Just before he took hold of the machine gun mounted in the truck bed, he had reverted his right smashfist and the claws on his left hand back into normal, human-like hands. He continued to look at them, deep in thought.

Apart from being obsidian-black and textured, his hands didn’t differ from regular human hands. This meant he could easily wield firearms. Until the recent fight, he had never truly felt the need to arm himself. However, in situations where his enemies held an advantage over him—like during the recent gunfight with the occupants of the SUV—he could certainly grab a gun to balance the odds against his enemies.

While his own weapons, like claws, smashfists, and others, were very powerful, he sometimes wished he had some ranged ones as well. Although his tentacles were quite long, they were primarily designed to slay enemies in close proximity. In most situations, his arsenal was enough to deal with various foes, but he could definitely benefit from having a long-range weapon at his disposal.

While the System spawned plenty of firearms in this world, it didn’t mean they just lay around every corner. In critical situations where he needed a weapon, one might not be within reach. Although he didn’t often find himself in situations where he really needed a gun, the possibility still existed. Maybe it would be wise to grab a firearm from the bandits he had just slain and carry it with him from now on.

He stepped toward the SUV again and peeked inside, examining the guns scattered throughout the vehicle. As he looked at each one, he summoned its stats with a thought. Most of the firearms were uncommon and had various enchantments, but none truly caught his eye. Besides, there was the issue of ammunition. He would need to wear a tactical belt or carry a compact bag to ensure he had enough ammo on him.

However, the idea of packing a weapon with a means to carry ammunition felt off to him. That’s when he realized something else. After the transformation, his appearance wasn’t the only thing that had changed—his mindset and behavior had altered as well. As he had noticed many days before, even his movements were very different now. Also, he hardly ever walked anymore. Instead, he always moved around at a constant brisk jog. When he wanted to sit, he lowered himself into a crouching position, which would have been very uncomfortable for a regular human but felt perfectly natural for him. He could remain in that position for a very long time without making even the slightest movement.

His behavior was now more similar to that of an animal than that of a human being. He recalled the time when he needed to lure a group of four survivors into the building where he was doing a tower-climbing challenge. Approaching them from behind, he needed to find a way to attract their attention without frightening them. So, he leaped onto the roof of a nearby old, rusted vehicle, causing it to creak under his weight. He then lowered himself into his usual crouching position, sitting motionless on the car’s roof as he awaited the survivors to notice him. He could just have casually strolled over and pounded his fist on the roof to look more like a normal person, but that thought never even crossed his mind. He was now thinking and acting in ways that set him apart from humans, and it was happening on an instinctive level. It seemed that he just couldn’t change the way he acted, his behavior, or his mindset.

Anyway, the thought of always carrying a gun and ammunition felt alien to him, so he decided not to bother with firearms. After all, he hardly ever found himself in situations where he really needed one. Besides, perhaps later he would be able to acquire ranged weapons of his own. However, if he ever stumbled upon a legendary handgun, he might give the matter some more thought. A handgun of legendary rarity would definitely pack quite a punch, and it wouldn’t be much trouble to carry it. He could just strap it to his thigh and draw it only when he needed to hit a target beyond the reach of his own weapons.

Another thought crossed his mind. His perfect perception and agility could make him a truly deadly gunslinger. However, even with this capability, he wasn’t going to bother with regular weapons. If he were to carry a gun, it would need to be a legendary one, or at least an epic one. Until he found such a sidearm, he would continue to rely on his own weapons, which were more than sufficient for most situations.

The bandit in the driver’s seat suddenly let out a gurgling sound, prompting Jake to turn his attention to him. He walked to the front of the vehicle and looked at the dying driver. Surprisingly, the man was still clinging to life, despite the ragged hole in his neck and missing half his face. The gangster’s only remaining eye stared at him. He tried to say something, but all that came out was a gurgle.

Jake didn’t bother to finish him off, aware that the driver wouldn’t last much longer anyway. The only reason he had lasted this long was likely due to all the skill points he must have invested in his Constitution attribute, granting his body a level of strength and resilience far beyond that of people from Earth before the Collapse.

Since the driver was still alive, Jake decided to take advantage of the situation. He grabbed the dying gangster by the head and utilized Mind Reader. The Demon’s memories flooded his mind. Having upgraded the ability to Rank II, he could now access several hours of a target’s most recent memories instead of just a few minutes as before. He didn’t learn anything interesting from exploring the driver’s memories, but it was fine. It wasn’t the reason he used Mind Reader anyway. He simply wanted to advance the ability so he could eventually level it up to Rank III.

After watching as many of the driver’s memories as possible and reaching the limit of Mind Reader, he pulled his hand back. Elongating his fingers into talons, he raked them across the driver’s already ravaged neck, pitting him out of his misery. Next, he opened the rear door and examined the remaining bodies, grabbing them by their heads. One gangster was still alive, though unconscious. Jake activated Mind Reader, managing to delve into just a couple of hours of the Demon’s memories before they were swallowed by darkness—the bandit had just died. The rest of the gangsters were already dead, so he couldn’t use the ability on them.

Jake made his way back to the wrecked coffee shop. The two occupants of the pickup truck lay dead. Most of the replication pods and ex-humans had been wiped out by the gunner’s relentless barrage of fire as he had tried to hit Jake. However, a couple of cocoons remained intact. Jake quickly took care of the remaining ex-humans before approaching one of the two replication pods. He peered inside for a few seconds, but nothing happened.

He tore the cocoon apart with his claws and moved on to the next one. He didn’t expect this pod to offer a quest, so he raised his claws to lash out at it. But as he peered inside, a message suddenly appeared in his mind.

New Mutation Research!

Objective: Analyze five replication pods that contain an elite mutant of the wraith breed.

Difficulty: Very Hard

Reward: Morph Disguise (Epic Ability)

Accept: Y/N

Jake felt a wave of excitement wash over him. It was always a good thing to receive a mutation research quest and be rewarded with a new ability upon its completion.

This mutation research quest was definitely different from all the previous ones he had completed. First, its difficulty was rated as Very Hard. Instead of having him analyze different types of mutants, this time he needed to focus exclusively on a particular one—a wraith. Moreover, he had to search for an elite version of the mutant. Elite versions of mutants were much rarer than regular ones, so it would likely take him quite a long time to complete the quest.

But it should be totally worth it because the ability he could receive as a reward was Epic. It was the very first ability of this rarity he had ever received, which made him even more excited. He wasn’t sure how Morph Disguise worked, though. In the second section of the Genetic Development Interface, there was already an ability called Cloak, which allowed him to become invisible to other living beings. While Morph Disguise sounded somewhat similar to Cloak, suggesting it would let him disguise himself, it should enable him to do so in a very different way.

Anyway, since Morph Disguise was of Epic rarity, Jake was sure it would turn out to be a very interesting and useful ability. With a thought, he accepted the mutation research quest.