Chapter 7

  The bullet Jake had fired hit the mutaer mass, drilling into the creature and staggering it. The monster slowed down for a bit but didn’t fall. It quickly recovered and picked up its pace again, c the distaween them with astonishing speed. Snarling like a feral animal, the monster outstretched its arms forward, the tips of its nasty cws poi Jake.

  His pistol definitely cked stopping prinding his teeth in frustration, Jake readjusted his aim. Holding the handgun in both hands, he popped off a few more shots in quick succession. He was so nervous that a few bullets missed their target pletely. But as the mutant got closer, it became harder to miss it, and all of the several bullets hit home, tearing into the middle of the creature’s torso, causing it to jerk from the impacts. When Jake fired another shot, the mutant suddenly tumbled down to the cracked asphalt just a few yards from him. Its body jerked ond the pletely still.

  He heard his PDA emit a notification sound, but he ig, keeping his pistol trained on the prostrate form of the creature, w if it ying possum or was actually dead. A full minute passed before Jake was finally able to rex a little bit. The monster didn’t show any signs of life, so it should be dead. He lowered his on but still watched the dead mutant for a few more seds before finally holstering his pistol.

  He then looked around to make sure there were no more mutants nearby. He retty sure there weren’t any of them in the immediate viity, because otherwise they would most likely have already verged on the source of the guill, just to be on the safe side, he carefully sed the buildings and alleys oher side of the street. Seeing no bloodthirsty mutants anywhere, Jake breathed a sigh of relief. It was a good thing his Beri pistol wasn’t too loud to attrautants.

  e to think of it, his handgun fired much quieter than the firearms he had practiced with in his past life. The guns he’d fired at shooting ranges were so awfully loud he’d had to wear earmuffs to shield his ears from the thunderous gunshots. But the gunshots of the Beri pistol sounded more like those of a video-game on than a “real” gun. That robably the reason no more mutants had shown up. Jake was sure the city harbored plenty of ex-humans who would have swarmed him from every dire had they heard the gunfire.

  His PDA chimed with a reminder of unread messages. He took out the devid unlocked it with his thumbprint. Gng at the s, he saw two notifications awaiting his attention.

  Enemy killed! +10 XP

  The level of your Pistols skill has gone up from 15 to 16.

  “So my skills level up when in use,” he said to himself. “Good to know.”

  He then switched to the very first tab to check his general stats. He was ied only in one particur line of text.

  XP: 10/100.

  So he o kill nine more ex-human walkers to level up. He then noticed that aab was now unlocked. It was called Battle Log. He tapped on it, and the s dispyed a piece of text describing how the ret battle had been unfolding. Sihe mutant had died before it could have reached and attacked Jake, the battle log tained only one line.

  You have dealt 10 points ur damage to [Level 1 Ex-human Walker] (x5).

  So he had to hit such a creature five times with his current on to kill it. If he had mao pull off a headshot, he could have dealt much more damage to the ex-human mutant. However, as it turned out, hitting a fast-moving walker heading straight for him proved to be a challenging task.

  Why are these creatures called Walkers anyway? he thought. They move so freaking fast. Runners would be a more fitting name for them.

  It reminded Jake of something. Even though he’d been aiming for the creature’s torso, he’d missed a few times, which meant that he’d fired more than five shots. He pocketed his PDA and took the pistol from its holster. He slid the mag out of the grip and ted the remaining rounds. There were nine in the mag and one in the chamber, which meant he’d spent half the magazio eliminate a siant.

  “Dammit”, he muttered. “You gotta bee a better shot, pal.”

  At least he had a few more spare mags on him. Hopefully, his aim would improve and bee steadier when he leveled up his Pistols skill a few more times. After holstering the pistol, Jake g the body of the mutant he’d just killed. In video games he had pyed when he was younger, defeated enemies usually dropped various types of loot. It wasn’t the case with the ex-human mutant, though. Jake took a step closer to the dead body for a better look. It was dressed in ragged clothes and didn’t seem to have anything of use on it. It might have something in its pockets, but he wasn’t keen on toug it.

  Jake then remembered something. He took out his PDA again and sed the creature’s body. A line of text appeared on the s—DEAD EX-HUMAN WALKER: EMPTY. So there was o search the dead mutant’s body to see if it had anything worth taking. His PDA’s siure made cheg bodies for loot so much easier and faster. He was gd that the device had such a useful feature, as he wasn’t willing to rifle through the pockets of the mutant he’d killed. The mere thought of toug a dead body made him sick.

  Jake sulted the map to get his bearings and then stowed his PDA bato the inner pocket of his jacket. After turning around, he tio head for the location of his mission.