Chapter 317
Watching through his spider’s eyes, Jake remained fixated on the unfolding scene.
Removing one hand from the steering wheel, the bandit grabbed hold of the disgusting creature and tried to pull it off. He exerted all his strength, but the arachnid remained attached to his head. The bandit couldn’t even see where the car was going anymore, as the terrifying face of the spider filled all his vision.
The human must have decided that driving blindly was too dangerous, so he stomped on the brakes. Or maybe he did so out of instinct. The car came to a sudden stop, slamming him against the steering wheel with such incredible force two or three ribs cracked in his chest.
He screamed as a sudden pang of pain coursed through his body. Once he opened his mouth, the arachnid launched a glob of acid right into his wide-open mouth. It hit the back of his throat and immediately began to eat away at it. The bandit thrashed around in the driver’s seat as agony raked through his body.
Out of his mind from the pain, he desperately fumbled for the door release, trying to exit the vehicle. As soon as the door swung open, he thudded onto the grassy asphalt. Yet, exiting the car did nothing to alleviate the relentless agony coursing through him. The acid continued to burn through his flesh, but surprisingly, he was still alive.
Screaming in pain, he rolled from side to side, but he was powerless to ease his suffering. The arachnid clung to his face, completely obscuring his line of sight and muffling his cries.
The bandit was dying a terrible death. Obviously, the acid-spitting ten-legged crawler wasn’t going to do anything to put the bandit out of his misery, so Jake sent it a mental command to finish the human off. He didn’t do so out of compassion, of course. No, he simply wanted to bring things to a conclusion a bit faster.
The crawler obeyed. Opening its mouth wide, it drove its fangs into the top of the bandit’s head, easily penetrating the skull and sinking deep into the human’s brain. The bandit’s body jerked one more time and then went completely still. Now that its prey was dead, the spider let go of its head.
After that, Jake ordered his spider to hide in the tall grass and stay put. Once the crawler complied, he severed the vision link and saw the world through his own eyes again. He regained his bearings and sprinted toward the spot where the muscle car had stopped.
It didn’t take him long to arrive. He glanced at the dead body of the bandit, feeling nothing at all. Shifting his attention to the muscle car, he noticed that, aside from the small hole in the ceiling made by his spider, the vehicle was undamaged. That’s when an idea sparked in his mind.
He was aware of the ambush set by Skullface. Having accessed the bandit’s memories, he knew it was located on the top floor of a parking garage northwest of his current position. He also knew a team of heavily armed gang members lay hidden behind the carcasses of long-broken vehicles, waiting for Thilo’s return, either alone or with him.
Jake could easily forget about the ambush and continue with his business. However, before returning to his lair, he really wanted to pay a visit to those waiting for him. There was a surprise party awaiting him on the parking garage’s top level, so how could he just ignore that?
Only instead of merely barging into the parking garage and killing everyone, he wanted to try a little bit of a different approach. Some time ago, he had acquired an ability called Morph Disguise. This ability allowed him to take on the appearance of the last human whose memories he accessed using Mind Reader.
He had never used this ability before, and now was the perfect moment to test it out. Since the bandit named Thilo was the last human he had used Mind Reader on, he could take on his appearance. Under that disguise, he would enter the parking garage where the rest of his team awaited their comrade’s arrival. That’s when the real fun would begin.
Morph Disguise: Rank I (0%) (Upgrades: 5 of 5) (Epic)
Since he had never used it before, its progression bar sat at 0%. However, he had already purchased all five upgrades for the ability. He quickly skimmed their descriptions to refresh his memory.
The first one, which was called Rapid Assumption, significantly decreased the time needed to assume a disguise. The second one, Extended Duration, prolonged the time the disguise remained active, allowing him to maintain his assumed identity for longer periods without needing to remorph.
He had never used Morph Disguise before, so he wasn’t entirely sure how it worked. However, it was clear that the disguise could only be active for a limited amount of time. Sure, he could then apply it again, but it would most likely consume a specific amount of his mana, as all his abilities depended on that magical energy to function.
The third upgrade, Enhanced Detail, supposedly significantly improved the realism of his disguise, adding intricate details such as mannerisms and subtle facial expressions of the person whose identity he assumed. The fourth upgrade, Counter-Detection Shield, was to prevent detection by any means, whether magical or technological.
The fifth—and final—upgrade was Backup Form. It granted him the ability to store a backup disguise, which could be instantly activated if his current disguise was compromised or needed to be changed rapidly.
So Jake gave a mental command to assume Thilo’s appearance. His body began to change subtly. Thanks to Rapid Assumption, the transformation was completed in just a couple of seconds. Jake looked down at himself. Instead of his familiar pitch-black form, he saw that he now wore a dirty gray T-shirt, a brown jacket, a pair of jeans, and combat boots, the exact outfit Thilo had on.
Jake approached the muscle car and leaned in to look in the driver’s side mirror. Sure enough, instead of the terrifying face with jagged teeth and huge, solid blue eyes, he saw Thilo’s face staring back at him with a surprised expression. After being a mutant for so long, Jake found it a bit strange to look like a human once again.
He straightened up. Now that he had assumed Thilo’s appearance, he realized something: he not only looked like him, but he also had some of his memories and knowledge. It would definitely come in handy later on.
He then tried to say something. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. This was understandable. While his outer appearance was that of Thilo, nothing had changed inside. He was still composed of obsidian-like material and stored mana, lacking any human organs for producing sound. That was fine, though.
For the next minute or so, Jake examined his disguise. As it turned out, while it seemed like he wore clothes, he actually did not. He couldn’t slip off his boots or doff his jacket. While his skin and attire looked lifelike and colorful, it was obvious that beneath the colors and textures, these garments were the same material as his body.
All his clothes were attached to his body. While the hem of his jacket flowed freely below his waistband, the rest of the inner side was attached to his back. The same applied to his hands and sleeves. Though they appeared natural, when he looked inside his sleeves, he could see that there was hardly any space, as his arms and the sleeves formed one solid mass.
That was fine, though. His disguise looked incredibly realistic, and his face could even display natural expressions, so nobody would think to look inside his sleeves or underneath the hem of his jacket.
With a mental command, he stored Thilo’s appearance as a Backup Form.
He then glanced at Thilo’s dead body. The chances of it being discovered by anyone from his team were slim to none, as they weren’t supposed to leave the parking garage until they heard back from him. Still, to be on the safe side, he decided to put the body in the trunk of the muscle car.
Once it was done, he slid behind the steering wheel. He ordered the ten-legged crawler to get inside and hide in the footwell on the passenger side, out of sight. Then, he closed the driver’s door and started driving toward the parking lot where Thilo’s team was waiting.
It didn’t take him long to get there. He wasn’t sure how long his disguise would last, so he deactivated it and only assumed Thilo’s appearance again when he spotted the multi-story parking garage in the distance. He began to slow down as he neared the building.
Jake looked up and spotted a person leaning over the parapet, watching the car. Now that Jake wore Thilo’s appearance, he not only looked exactly like him but also possessed fragments of Thilo’s memories and knowledge.
Thanks to that, he realized he needed to give the person on the roof a thumbs-up to indicate that everything was going according to plan. The sign would indicate that the morphus had bought Thilo’s story and was currently inside the muscle car, believing he would soon be accepted into the gang.
If he showed a thumbs-down, it would signal that something was wrong, and Thilo’s team should be ready for anything. And if he didn’t show any signs at all, it would mean that the morphus didn’t buy his story, and Thilo was alone in his car, so the team could relax.
Jake leaned close to the windshield so the person could see him and raised his thumb. The person nodded and then disappeared from sight.
Jake carefully maneuvered the sleek car into the entrance of the multi-story parking garage, the echo of the engine reverberating off the concrete walls as the sound of the tires rolling over the smooth surface filled the air. Most of the spaces were vacant, but some of them were occupied by the rusty remnants of broken-down cars.
Jake navigated the muscle car up the ascending ramp. Taking a sharp right turn, the car climbed higher, the city visible through the narrow openings. He continued to go upward, past levels filled with an assortment of metal remains of vehicles.
Finally, he reached the roof level. Jake slowly drove to the middle of the roof before stopping the vehicle. The top floor was filled with more hulks, lining the guardrail barriers on either side. At the far side of the space, opposite him, stood three vehicles. These ones were fully operational and belonged to Los Demonios, as indicated by the red demon skulls painted on the hoods.
The middle car was a pickup truck equipped with a .50-caliber machine gun, manned by a person. The barrel of the massive weapon was pointed in his direction. Two large SUVs flanked the technical, but he could see that they were empty.
Even though he couldn’t see them, he knew numerous bandits were hidden behind the wrecks lining both sides of the roof level, biding their time for the perfect moment to strike.
As soon as they saw the pitch-black mutant, believed to be in the backseat, concealed by the tinted windows, emerge from the vehicle, they would open fire from all directions.
Jake allowed himself a small smile. The fun was about to begin.