Chapter 562

Flynn’s gaze lowered from Jake’s face to the Aberrant he still held in his right hand.

“That’s… quite an unusual gun you have there, friend,” he said, his eyes lingering on the weapon with open curiosity.

“Yeah,” Jake replied curtly, making no move to raise his gun and give the human a better look at the revolver. He knew there was no way it wouldn’t attract attention. Its pitch-black appearance, combined with the transparent, marble-like cylinder filled with swirling blue magical energy, was hard to miss.

“Where did you get it?” Flynn asked.

“Got it as a reward for completing a unique mission,” Jake replied.

“It’s a very interesting weapon indeed,” Flynn said, his attention still fixed on the Aberrant. He tilted his head slightly, studying the unusual cylinder. “How does it work? Doesn’t seem to be loaded with bullets.”

“Works on mana,” Jake replied. There was no reason to conceal this fact.

Flynn’s eyebrows crept upward. “No joking?”

He even leaned in slightly to get a closer look at the Aberrant. Jake kept it by his side, pointed at the ground, making it clear without saying a word that he wasn’t going to hand it over or hold it up for inspection. The human stopped himself after a moment, though his eyes remained fixed on the strange weapon.

“Yeah, it’s mana inside it alright,” Flynn said as he straightened back up, shifting his gaze to Jake. “How does it work exactly, though? What happens when it runs out of mana? Do you replenish it with mana from mana items somehow?”

“No.”

“Then how? I don’t suppose it replenishes mana on its own?”

“I use mana from my own reserves.”

Flynn stared at him for a moment, as if waiting for Jake to say he was just joking. When Jake said no such thing, he looked at him incredulously.

“Are you pulling my leg?”

“No.”

“But that’s impossible!” Flynn exclaimed. “We can only absorb mana from mana items and then use it to cast spells. That’s all.”

“I know. But this gun actually lets me channel some of my own mana into it when it runs out of juice.”

Flynn still looked dubious. His eyes briefly dropped to the Aberrant again, as if seeing the weapon might somehow help him make sense of what Jake had just told him. He opened his mouth to ask another question, but before he could speak, one of his people called from behind.

“Flynn, we gotta get outta here before more mutants show up.”

The leader of the group looked over his shoulder at the human. The other members of his team were also watching him, some glancing around the ruined street while others simply waited for their leader to give the order to move.

“Yes, Roland, you’re right,” Flynn finally said. “Sorry, I got a little sidetracked getting to know our new friend here. His name is Mark, by the way, in case you missed it.”

For a moment, the humans just stared at him in silence. A few gave him curt nods, while the rest merely eyed him without saying anything. Their expressions ranged from cautious curiosity to outright suspicion.

“I suppose we’re getting back to the safe zone?” Roland then asked, returning his attention to Flynn.

The leader of the team nodded and said, “Yes, I think it’s the best course of…”

Before he could finish his sentence, Jake spoke up. “No, you’re not returning to your safe zone.”

Everybody’s attention immediately snapped back to him.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Roland asked, staring at Jake with a frown.

“Yeah, what do you mean?” somebody else asked.

“And who are you to tell us what to do?” another person said, a bit aggressively.

“I’m taking you to a new place,” Jake said.

“A new place?” somebody asked. “Where? Why?”

“Who said we want to go with you there?” another human asked.

“If you think we’re just going to blindly follow you, you’re gonna get very disappointed, Mark, or whatever your name is.”

A few more humans chimed in, voicing similar objections. Some shook their heads, while others exchanged wary glances. The mood among the group was quickly turning hostile.

Jake just stood where he was, not concerned by the attention he was getting in the slightest.

Before the humans could get too agitated, though, Flynn raised a placating hand.

“Let’s be a little more respectful, everyone,” he said in a calm voice. “It’s not cool to gang up on him like that. That man just saved our lives, for Christ’s sake. Listening to what he has to say is the least we can do for him, don’t you think?”

That quieted down most of the humans. But they still stared at Jake with suspicion and even a bit of hostility, which he found surprising. He was well used to humans treating him with open hostility when he was in his monster form. Which was understandable. He was now in his human disguise, but despite that, he had still managed to gain these people’s mistrust within minutes of making their acquaintance.

He found it really baffling. All he wanted was to help them, yet they were already treating him with such suspicion. He couldn’t quite put his finger on why this was the case. What had he done to make them so wary of him?

It was a bit unpleasant to admit, but while he had been trying hard to preserve what little humanity he had left, it definitely seemed he had become more disconnected from humans than he had previously realized. He no longer understood how the human mind worked. Their emotions and feelings were completely lost on him. Even now, he could see the distrust in these people’s eyes, but he couldn’t understand where it was coming from.

“Mark, tell us what’s on your mind,” Flynn said. “Where do you want to take us?”

“The City Hall.”

His words caused some of the humans to exchange questioning glances. A few looked toward Flynn, apparently waiting to see how he would react.

“Well, Mark, I’m not gonna lie, the City Hall is exactly where we wanted to establish our base at some point,” Flynn said. “That place would’ve been perfect for that. But we never did. City Hall is completely overrun with aether crystals.”

“It’s no longer the case,” Jake countered. “I cleared the entire area around it of all the crystals. It’s completely safe there now. And I can take you there right away.”

His words caused murmurs among the humans. They looked at each other, exchanging surprised glances and asking questions like, “He cleared the City Hall? For real?” and “Can we really go there now?” A few even looked in the direction of the place, as if they could somehow see it from where they stood.

They were clearly experiencing mixed feelings. They were excited by the possibility, but at the same time, they still had their doubts. The idea of establishing their base there was obviously tempting, but trusting a stranger who had appeared out of nowhere was another matter entirely.

“Bullshit,” somebody yelled from the group. Of course, it was Roland, clearly the most vocal person in the group.

“Why should we trust you?”

“I’m just trying to help,” Jake said, baffled at how hard it turned out to be to simply make these humans trust him and let him lead them to safety.

“He’s just trying to help, Roland,” Flynn said to the man, clearly trying to prevent the argument from heating up.

“That guy came out of nowhere, and now he wants us to blindly follow him? No way. We don’t know what’s on his mind.”

Several of the people chimed in, agreeing with the sentiment. Their voices overlapped as they voiced their own concerns, though none of them seemed to have anything more substantial to add.

Flynn raised a placating hand as he said, “No need to get all worked up, Roland. Let’s keep civil and calm, shall we?”

“I’m as calm as a rock,” Roland shot back. “Haven’t even started getting worked up yet.”

“Good. Let’s keep it that way.”

This time, Roland kept silent, though the frown on his face made it clear he wasn’t particularly happy about being told to calm down.

Flynn looked back at Jake and said in a quieter voice, “Look, Mark, we’re really grateful to you for saving us. But Roland has a point there. I mean, we just met you. You claim you cleared City Hall of crystals, but it’s kind of hard to believe. As I said, we’ve been there and seen how bad it was. So it’s kind of hard to even imagine a place completely cleared of them.” He made a brief pause. “Did you really do that?”

“I just dispatched most of the mutants that had your group surrounded,” Jake said. He glanced briefly toward the remains of the mutants around them before looking back at Flynn. “So after seeing me in action, do you really think a bunch of stationary crystals is a problem for me?”

“Fair enough.”

For a moment, they just looked at each other. The sounds of the ruined street seemed to fade into the background as Flynn studied Jake’s expression. Then Flynn’s face assumed a determined expression, as if he had finally reached a decision.

“Are there any other groups you’ve already led there?” he asked. 

“No. You’d be the first.”

“Does that mean you want to find and bring other groups there?”

“Yes. The City Hall is a huge place. Lots of people can survive there together.”

“True.” Flynn nodded slowly. “Why are you doing this, though?”

Jake tilted his head slightly. “Isn’t that what we, humans, want? To stay all together to increase our chances of survival?”

Flynn chuckled. “You kind of make it sound like you yourself aren’t human, only pretending. Maybe you’re actually an android?”

Jake just eyed him in silence. A moment later, Flynn stopped grinning at him.

“It was just a joke,” he said.

“Very funny,” Jake said deadpan.

Flynn gave a small shrug before glancing toward the street ahead of them. “So what’s your plan, Mark? You might’ve cleared the City Hall, but the way there is going to be riddled with aether crystals.”

“Plan’s simple. I take the lead and shoot every crystal cluster from a distance. As for you people, you just follow me and let me do the rest.”

Flynn thought for a second, briefly glancing at the others behind him. Then he nodded.

“Sounds good to me.”

He then turned to his people and addressed them.

“Alright, everyone. Let’s follow Mark. He’s gonna lead us to the City Hall, the exact place where we wanted to establish our base some time ago.”

The humans hesitated for a moment, exchanging glances and quietly murmuring among themselves. It was obvious that some of them were still uncertain, but after a few seconds, they nodded to one another. They seemed to trust their leader’s judgment enough to go along with his decision.

But of course, there was one person who wasn’t easy to deal with.

“What about our friends who fell in battle?” Roland asked, sweeping his arm around the street, indicating the dead bodies strewn across the asphalt. “Are we gonna just leave them lying around like that?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what you’re gonna do,” Jake said matter-of-factly. “Because there’s nothing else you can do for them.”

Sure enough, Roland didn’t like that. His expression immediately hardened, and he spun sharply to face Jake.

“Listen, bud, I don’t know who you are or where you even came from, but if you think I’m just going to leave the bodies of my fallen friends here, you’re dead wrong.”

Jake tilted his head to the side slightly.

“Look around you. Some of your friends have literally been torn apart. So what exactly do you plan to do here? Go around the street, collecting bits and pieces of your dead friends and stuffing them in your rucksack? And then carry all those pieces of dead matter all the way to the City Hall?”

His tone remained completely emotionless as he said all that. Whether it was the words themselves or the detached way Jake pronounced them, but Roland got furious. Slinging his rifle over his shoulder, the human clenched his fists and marched toward Jake, his expression getting angrier with every step.

“You know what, bud? I think you need someone to teach you a lesson. A real good one. Maybe then you’ll learn to show some respect for the dead.”