Ex-Human Morphus [A Mutant Evolution Apocalypse LitRPG]
Chapter 188

Chapter 188

Jake spent the rest of the evening looking for mana consumables, doing his best to avoid confrontations with both humans and mutants. There weren’t many mana items to be found, but he knew that it would change when the System performed its usual world refresh at nightfall. He just needed to wait a couple more hours. After the regular world refresh, the mutants killed during the day would be revived, and various loot, including mana items, would materialize throughout the city.

However, contrary to Jake’s expectations, something surprising occurred when night finally fell. At midnight, a system message appeared in his mind.

Your current area is set to be upgraded.

Jake immediately remembered the conversation he had overheard in the control security room between the three sub-bosses. Minh had told Dominic and Patrick that the System would very soon upgrade their city. Jake had thought this would happen in a few days, but as it turned out, the area upgrade was much closer than he anticipated.

For the next hour or so, the System was in the process of upgrading the city. In Jake’s mind lingered a progress bar, indicating how much time was left before completion. During this period, no mutants materialized in the city. The night was eerily quiet.

When the progress bar reached 100%, another system message appeared in his mind.

The area upgrade is complete. The strength of all the mutants has been increased, and new mutant types have been introduced. Good luck, survivor!

Jake was sure this message was also sent to all the survivors on their PDAs. Most of them were currently asleep and unaware of what had just happened. However, in the morning, when they woke up and checked their PDAs, an unpleasant surprise would await them. Unlike survivors, he received system notifications directly in his mind since his Enhanced Intelligence skill had many capabilities similar to those of a survivor’s PDA.

Jake couldn’t help but notice that the System had referred to him as a “survivor.” It still seemed confused about him, unsure whether to classify him as a survivor or a mutant. At times, it labeled him simply as a mutant, especially when it assigned missions to survivors to kill him for some impressive rewards. Yet there were moments, like now, when the System treated him as a typical survivor. It was clear that it was grappling with how to categorize him.

During the next hour or so, mutants began materializing in the city. Despite the System’s claim that new mutant types had been introduced, most of the appearing mutants were walkers. However, when Jake tried to fight one, an unpleasant surprise awaited him. The walker turned out to be much more agile and powerful than its counterparts before the city upgrade.

Sure, it was to be expected, but Jake hadn’t anticipated that regular walkers would become so much stronger. The strength of a single walker was now comparable to that of a chaser—which was the most dangerous ex-human from before the city upgrade—or perhaps even greater! Previously, dealing with chasers hadn’t taken Jake much effort at his current level, but those mutants rarely attacked in groups larger than two or three. Walkers, however, had always been considered the weakest type of mutant, and as such, they tended to attack in large groups, swarming their prey from all directions.

Jake realized that dealing with groups of walkers would be much harder for him now than before, at least until he leveled up several more times. After finally killing the beefed-up walker, he decided to avoid any further fights for the time being, as he still needed to increase his mana reserves. Killing the upgraded walker, though, had given him a hefty chunk of XP, bringing him some joy. At least, he would be able to level up faster now. He was really excited about that.

Mutants continued to respawn for the next hour or so until the process finally stopped. Jake couldn’t help but notice that the System had spawned significantly more mutants during the night than it usually did before. A bunch of walkers lurked around every corner now, and they were much more active to boot. Instead of just standing around or aimlessly moving from spot to spot, they prowled the night streets, tirelessly searching for prey.

The city had definitely become a much more dangerous place—Jake noticed this within minutes of the area upgrade and the completion of the respawning process. There was also more loot available. While most of it was meant for survivors, he was pleased to see that mana consumables were now found more often as well.

Since Jake was unwilling to engage in fights for now, he scaled one of the high-rise buildings and continued to traverse the city by leaping from rooftop to rooftop, searching for mana items, using Mana Vision to locate them. He focused primarily on gathering larger items like crystals and shards, completely ignoring the smaller ones like beads and marbles.

At some point, the sounds of gunfire reached his ears. Initially, he didn’t think much of it. After all, while most survivors rested at night, he sometimes came across groups still active. Los Demonios, in particular, relished the opportunity to ambush regular survivors, locating their hideouts and launching surprise attacks on the unsuspecting.

However, after some time, Jake recognized that the level of activity was far beyond what he usually encountered at night. His sharp hearing detected multiple gunshots coming from different parts of the city. Occasionally, he also caught the sounds of human screams and panicked voices. He wondered what it could mean.

He remembered that before the city upgrade, mutants had never materialized in buildings where survivors took refuge for the night. Had that changed now? Or perhaps, with many more ex-humans respawning at night and being much more active—seemingly always looking for prey—they were now venturing into buildings where survivors had set up their hideouts? Whatever the reason, it was obvious that survivors were no longer safe at night.

By the time dawn arrived, Jake had gathered a significant amount of mana. Before evolving to Stage 3, though, he wanted to explore the city further, curious about what had changed since its upgrade. As the sun climbed above the rooftops, casting a gentle glow over the streets, he resumed his rooftop leaps, eager to make new discoveries.

He noticed that the number of anomalies had certainly increased. Much like the mutants, these anomalies were more dangerous now as well. The good news was that anomalies that had challenges linked to them were now appearing more often. Prior to the city upgrade, he had rarely come across them.

However, he decided not to take on any challenges for now. Before the city upgrade, when challenges were a rare occurrence, he immediately attempted one upon encountering it. But now that challenges were more commonplace, there was no immediate need to take one after finding it.

So he chose to continue focusing on exploring the city for the time being. Besides, it made sense to evolve to the next stage and level up a few times before tackling any challenges, as most of them required him to kill mutants, and he needed to become stronger before engaging in tough fights.

He continued to explore the city, which was now fully awake. Gunfire erupted all around him in the streets below. Jake watched from above as regular survivors tried to fend off beefed-up mutants that charged at them the moment they emerged from their hideouts.

Survivors were now having a really hard time fighting off ex-humans, as even the weakest types, like walkers, were now as strong as the chasers had been before the city upgrade. Watching the events unfold in the streets below, he could feel the palpable panic emanating from the survivors below. Most of them seemed totally unprepared for the drastic changes that had occurred. They were completely unaware that mutants would soon become significantly more powerful because the System hadn’t even bothered to give them any warning about the impending threat.

Jake watched as survivors attempted to fend off groups of walkers, only to be eventually swarmed by them. Some others jumped into their vehicles, desperate to escape, but crashed when a shambler or another powerful mutant suddenly popped up and rammed into them. Those who sought refuge in buildings found themselves chased by mutants inside, and the terrified screams of the human survivors being killed echoed out.

Over the next few hours, Jake witnessed several different groups being slaughtered by the beefed-up ex-humans. A grim realization dawned on him: had he still been human, it most likely wouldn’t have taken long for him to face the same deadly fate following the city upgrade.

While regular survivors struggled to defend themselves against ex-humans, nothing much had seemingly changed for Los Demonios. They continued to roam the overgrown streets in their vehicles, killing ex-humans with their powerful weapons almost as easily as before. Having anticipated the city upgrade, the bandits had worked diligently to prepare, building fortified bases, acquiring powerful weapons, and leveling up as much as possible. For them, the upgrade was expected, and therefore, they were now fully equipped for the new challenges. Regular survivors, on the other hand, were now trapped between the ruthless Los Demonios and the beefed-up ex-humans, with their fate looking increasingly dire.

Jake recalled what Minh had told his two sub-bosses in the security control room about the gang’s home city—it had seemingly been overrun by mutants after the upgrade. This was why the gang had worked tirelessly to build bases and prepare for the upcoming changes in this city. If nothing changed and the regular survivors didn’t find a way to become stronger, it wouldn’t be long before Los Demonios became the last group standing in the city. Right now, Jake saw no path for the regular survivors to turn the tide. They were not only incapable of defeating the beefed-up mutants, but they also couldn’t even properly defend themselves. Without help, they would all be wiped out very soon.

Jake had spent so much time exploring the upgraded city that he didn’t notice the day slipping away, having completely lost track of time. It was only when darkness began to settle over the skyline that he recalled his intention to evolve. However, with the second night following the city upgrade fast approaching, he decided to dedicate one more night to gathering mana.

The streets below became somewhat quieter as night fell. However, terrified screams and the sounds of gunfire still erupted sporadically from various sections of the city whenever a group of roaming mutants breached into the buildings where survivors had taken refuge for the night.

A couple of hours later, Jake realized he could no longer store any more mana in his body. When he crushed a recently found crystal in his hand, mana seeped from the newly formed cracks, but the magical energy didn’t flow toward him as it had before. Instead, it drifted in various directions, gradually dissipating as if dissolving into the air.

When Jake checked his current mana count, he saw that he had 170,000 MP. He recalled wondering some time ago if there was a limit to how much mana his body could hold at once. It seemed there was indeed a limit, and 170,000 MP appeared to be that threshold—for now, at least. He figured this limit would probably increase as he leveled up or improved his attributes.

In the dead of night, Jake stood atop a high-rise building. He opened his fist, letting the empty crystal he had just crushed fall onto the rooftop. Gazing up at the night sky, he decided it was finally time to initiate the process of evolving into the next stage.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.