Ex-Human Morphus [A Mutant Evolution Apocalypse LitRPG]
Chapter 287

Chapter 287

He pushed off the wall, dropping to the ground and landing right on top of one of the ex-humans, sending it sprawling. He stamped down on its head, causing it to burst apart. The nearest mutants shifted their attention from the energy shield to him.

Since there was no longer a point in keeping Cloak up, he deactivated it. In his peripheral vision, he noticed the four humans inside the energy bubble staring at him. Jake chose to ignore them for the moment. With both lower arms transformed into chainsaws, he swiftly plunged into the heart of the mutant swarm.

He swung one of his chainsaws at the nearest walker, cutting deep into its shoulder. He pushed the spinning blade all the way through the mutant’s body, cutting it diagonally in half. Without slowing down, he attacked another ex-human, delivering a powerful slash with one of his weapons. Once it was dead, he immediately charged another, driving his chainsaw through its body and causing the spinning blade to burst from its back in a spray of gore. 

He continued to cut through the mutant ranks, slaying one after another, relying on sweeping strikes as well as precise thrusts. He moved around the energy shield, carving a path through the mutants with broad strokes of his chainsaws. Using sweeping movements, he cut his way through the mutants, slicing off limbs, severing bodies in half, and spraying blood everywhere.

It was a gruesome sight, for sure. The four survivors watched him with wide eyes from within the safety of their energy shield. They had their weapons up, tracking his every movement, but they didn’t open fire on him—not yet, at least.

They knew he was considered their ally, but he could feel their confusion. It was understandable. It wasn’t easy to accept the fact that a seemingly bloodthirsty monster could be intelligent and on their side to boot.

They were right to be wary of him. If he himself wasn’t sure how he viewed them, either as mere prey to hunt or as someone to protect, then they especially should keep their guard around him at all times. 

Just before the energy shield vanished, Jake killed the last of the mutants, severing its body into two uneven pieces. The ground was littered with severed limbs and pieces of flesh, abundantly stained with dark blood.

Even though the four survivors should have been well accustomed to the sight of gore by that point, they all looked shocked by the massacre that had just taken place before their eyes. Two of the humans seemed on the verge of throwing up, desperately fighting to keep it down. 

Multiple enemies killed. +25,750 XP

He killed quite a lot of ex-humans but hadn’t leveled up, so he took a second to check his current experience.

XP: 135,150/165,000

He was getting close to a level-up and wanted to check if any of his current abilities had reached 100% and were ready to be upgraded to the next rank. But before he could do so, he noticed one of the survivors nudging another, asking what the hell they should do about him. 

Jake turned toward the four survivors. Seeing him shift his attention to them made the humans tense up even more. One of them, noticeably more nervous than the others, began to inch the barrel of his assault rifle upward. The woman beside him shook her head and whispered for him to stay calm.

Jake scanned the four humans to learn their names: Jasper, Simon, Clara, and Malik. Simon was the one sweating bullets. There seemed to be no distinct leader among them. The weapons they wielded were top-notch and high-level, capable of doing a number on him should the survivors choose to attack. Whether they could get off a single shot before he reached them was a different question altogether.

Jake remained where he was, unsure of how to proceed with them. Sure, he had killed the mutants, but he did so only to keep the humans for himself. They were his quarry.

However, now that the fight was over, the same doubts he had before resurfaced. It would be extremely easy for him to kill three humans and drag the sole survivor to his lair. After all, he was a monster and a predator. However, he wasn’t completely sure if he should actually go down that path. 

Before he could decide what to do, one of the four humans, Malik, stepped forward, letting go of his assault rifle so it dangled on its sling.

“Thank you for helping us out,” he said. “We were in quite a fix. If it weren’t for you, we’d be dead by now.”

Malik took another step toward Jake, obviously believing he was no threat. If he had any idea of the thoughts racing through Jake’s mind, he would have fled in terror.

Malik took another step toward Jake. As soon as he did so, another human, Jasper, whispered urgently to him from behind, “Malik, what the hell are you doing? Don’t get near it!”

“That’s fine, man,” Malik replied as he glanced over his shoulder. “He’s on our side. Melissa told us about him, remember?”

“Still, we should be careful,” Clara interjected. “We don’t know what’s going on inside its head. That monster did kill a group of people in the past who weren’t part of Los Demonios.”

“According to what I’ve heard, they were the first to attack him,” Malik responded.

“You have no idea what might be going on in its head,” Clara said. “It might be thinking how to best enjoy its meal—you—raw or cooked.”

“He doesn’t need to eat, you silly,” Malik remarked before turning his attention back to Jake. “Don’t mind my friends, please. They’re being rude, but they are not always like this.”

After he said that, he slightly tilted his body to one side, freeing one strap of his rucksack from his shoulder while keeping it secured on the other. He then reached into the rucksack, rummaging through its contents to find what he was looking for. A second later, he retrieved a mana crystal and held it out to Jake.

“You don’t eat, but you do need mana to survive, right?” he said. “Please take this as a token of gratitude for helping us out of our predicament.”

Jake remembered a time when he had stolen a mana item of this rarity from a survivor in the middle of the night. He had been really glad to get his hands on such a valuable mana item. However, a mana crystal with only 5,000 MP was no longer a big deal to him. He could obtain much more MP simply by absorbing a mana cloud. Hell, he could probably get more MP by absorbing the mana contained within these four humans.

Malik was looking at him with trustful eyes and a smile on his lips. As Jake met his eyes, he suddenly snapped out of it, realizing he had nearly committed a terrible act. These survivors were not prey for him to hunt. They were human beings he had seriously contemplated slaughtering in cold blood, intending to use one of them as resources in his lair. 

A sense of dread and fear washed over him. He felt he was regressing. Not long ago, some of his human emotions had returned, allowing him to empathize with others. However, after spending some time alone—first exploring the dungeon, then the upgraded city, and building a lair—he seemed to regress to his previous predatory nature.

And he didn’t like it. He didn’t like it at all. He was aware he would never be human again, but at least, he had to do everything possible to avoid becoming a complete monster. He really needed to achieve some kind of balance between his human and monster sides. 

He remained rooted in place, his hands dangling at his sides. A confused expression crossed Malik’s face. 

“What’s wrong?” he asked. “Why won’t you take it? Is it too little for you? I’m sorry I don’t have any more mana items. But this is the largest one I’ve ever had, by the way.”

Malik stepped even closer. He was now so near the mana crystal in his outstretched hand almost touched Jake’s chest. Suddenly, Jake got angry. He had just been considering slaying three of them and bringing the last to his lair, but Malik was none the wiser, getting so comfortably close to him! Sure, he didn’t know what was going on in his head, but that was beside the point. Come to think of it, it was exactly why he and other humans should be wary of him. Even Jake himself feared himself sometimes, worried about what he might unleash if he didn’t keep his internal desires in check.

“This is for you,” Malik said again. “Your abilities work on mana, right?”

When he took one more step forward, Jake suddenly lunged at him, pushing Malik hard in the chest. Losing his balance, the survivor fell on his butt. 

Don’t freaking trust me so blindly, he wanted to yell at the stupid human but couldn’t.

“What the fuck?” one of the three standing survivors snarled as all three of them pointed their weapons at Jake.

He looked down at Malik who was still seated on the ground, gazing up at him with a what-did-I-do-wrong expression on his face. The mana crystal rested on the ground nearby, having slipped from the survivor’s grip during his fall.

“Don’t you dare touch him!” Clara yelled at Jake, misinterpreting his stare at Malik as an intent to attack. “Or we’ll shoot you!”

Jake looked up at the three survivors pointing their guns at him. They hadn’t fired yet, but he could see their fingers turning white as they tightened around the triggers. He turned away from the humans and sprinted down the road. No shots were fired after him.

Suddenly, three walkers charged at him from the side, seemingly appearing out of nowhere. He wasn’t sure where they had come from, but it didn’t really matter. He extended one hand toward the nearest walker and launched a cinch net at it.

A lump of flesh instantly grew in the middle of his palm before detaching and shooting forward like a missile. It transformed in mid-air into a large cinch net that tightly wrapped around the walker, causing it to collapse to the ground. It took Jake little time and effort to deal with the other two ex-humans.

He then stepped toward the ensnared walker. It writhed on the ground but couldn’t break free, as the cinch net enveloping its body greatly restricted its movements. Jake leaned over, grabbed the walker, and hoisted it onto his shoulders.

The mutant snarled and struggled, but it didn’t cause him much trouble. Turning in the direction of his lair, he resumed running, the weight of the mutant over his shoulders hardly slowing him down. 

“What the hell?” Malik exclaimed from far behind. “Did you guys see that? What did he capture a mutant for?”

“Hell if I know,” another voice responded.