NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 23
Chapter 23
Jake parked at the curb, gazing at the ten-story building across the street, the mission’s designated location. Stepping out of the pickup truck, he took a moment to observe the structure. Although it appeared nondescript among the city buildings, he was aware that it harbored numerous ex-human mutants. With his shotgun in hand, he crossed the street and entered the building through the front entrance.
Jake was immediately ambushed by two walkers upon entering the building, but dispatching them posed little challenge. As he progressed through the first floor, he encountered more mutants along the way. Despite spotting the staircase that led to the upper levels, he refrained from ascending, as he needed to clear out all threats on the current floor first. Methodically advancing through the building, he neutralized every mutant in his path until he arrived at the final room. With his shotgun held at the ready, Jake entered the room, prepared for whatever might be lurking inside.
He found himself in a spacious but mostly empty room. There were a couple more mutants inside. They lurched toward him, but before their clawed hands could tear into him, his shotgun thundered twice, dealing with each of the two creatures. He scanned the room for more threats, pointing the shotgun wherever he looked. Spotting no more enemies to kill, he redirected his attention to the center of the room. Hanging from a silky rope attached to the ceiling, there was a large, cocoon-like object that caught his eye. White in color and the size of a full-grown human, it dangled close to the floor, almost touching it. The cable supporting it resembled a robust spider’s silk thread, thick as a rope and seemingly as sturdy as steel.
He took a small step toward the strange cocoon but didn’t dare to get too close to it. He didn’t know what to expect from it. It was the very first time he’d seen such a thing, so he had to exercise caution. Jake peered into the cocoon. The silky white surface was partly transparent, allowing him to see that there was an ex-human mutant inside of it. The creature was motionless, its eyes shut as if in a deep slumber. The pod held transparent liquid, in which the mutant floated.
Though Jake had a pretty good idea about what the cocoon-like object was, he took out his PDA to scan it anyway. REPLICATION POD (LEVEL 1). The device offered no further details on the cocoon. Nevertheless, it was one of the targets he had to find and eliminate within the building.
The mutant inside the pod suddenly jerked. Its eyes snapped open, and its head turned toward him. Jake saw its evil eyes fix on him. The mutant bared its teeth in a fierce snarl and suddenly jerked its body. Jake instinctively leaped back from the cocoon. The mutant raised its clawed hands, pressed them against the inner wall of the pod, and pushed, causing the outer wall of the pod to bulge outward. He anticipated it would tear, but to his surprise, it remained intact. The replication pod proved to be more durable than it appeared.
The mutant inside the cocoon kept struggling to break free but was unable to escape. The mutant appeared too weak, with slow and sluggish movements. Upon observing the creature closely, Jake realized it had been developing inside the pod for some time, but the growth process seemed disproportionate. The mutant’s upper body appeared to be nearly formed, while its legs were still in the process of molding. In contrast to the rest of its body, the legs seemed disproportionately small and underdeveloped. He deduced the replication pods were responsible for creating mutants by growing them from inception to maturity. He figured that once the process was complete, the cocoon would release the fully developed mutant.
Only he wasn’t going to wait for it to happen. He brought up his weapon and pointed it at the replication pod in front of him. As if anticipating his next move, the wicked mutant within the cocoon snarled and clawed at the pod’s interior in a bid to break free. Jake squeezed the trigger. The pellets tore into the pod, ripping it in half. The transparent liquid splattered across the floor, prompting Jake to swiftly jump back to avoid any contact with it. The partially developed mutant and the shredded pieces of the pod flopped onto the wet floor.
The mutant was wounded but still alive. It began to crawl toward him, struggling to find purchase on the wet surface. He finished the creature off with another shot. He then aimed at the remnants of the pod hanging from the ceiling and fired, obliterating what remained.
After the confrontation, Jake checked his PDA for the mission update. It indicated that one replication pod had been destroyed and the first floor was now secured. To complete the main objective, he had to eliminate four more pods. Additionally, to fulfill one of the two secondary objectives, he had to exterminate all the mutants infesting the remaining floors of the building.
He was certain that all the mutants he had previously eliminated would be revived at the start of the next day. The question lingering in his mind was whether the revival process was somehow linked to the replication pods. Perhaps by destroying the remaining cocoons, he could prevent the ex-humans from being recreated again, at least within this building. However, Jake considered the possibility that the system itself was responsible for recreating mutants at the start of each day, similar to respawning items in looted buildings. If this was the case, as he suspected, then the destroyed replication pods would likely be regenerated the following day as well. It was also possible that the replication pods were recreated less frequently, maybe once every few days. However, the only way to uncover the truth behind this mystery was to revisit the building at a later time.
Jake searched the first floor for loot. He found some ammo as well as several mana beads, from which he promptly extracted mana. In one of the rooms, he discovered what appeared to be another mana bead, but it was at least twice as large as the others he had found. Inside the mana bead, mesmerizing bluish magical energy danced and swirled beautifully, casting an enchanting glow around it. He used his PDA to scan and analyze the item. MANA MARBLE: 250 MP (COMMON). With a mental command, he absorbed the magical energy stored within the marble, increasing his mana reserves by 250 points. He dropped the now empty marble, and it shattered into numerous smaller pieces upon contact with the floor.
After exploring the remaining rooms on the first floor and finding no further points of interest, Jake retraced his steps back to the stairs that led to the upper levels of the building.