Chapter 338

Chapter 338

The bandit thrust his grenade launcher around the side of the car. With the bullets zipping toward the SUV nonstop, he couldn’t risk sticking his head out in the open. So he adjusted his aim blindly, pointing in the general direction of the shop where the group of survivors was holed up.

However, before he could fire, Jake reached the bandit, swinging down his arm-sword. The man’s arm got severed from his body, his fingers still gripping the weapon. Shocked, the man looked down at his severed arm that had just dropped to the ground. Jake finished him off with a slash across his throat and turned his attention to the rest of the bandits.

There was no longer a need to maintain his disguise, so he dropped it. One of the bandits panicked and ran out from behind the SUV, only to be immediately mowed down by the relentless hail of bullets. Jake had little trouble dealing with the last of the bandits who had taken cover behind the SUV. After that, he turned his attention to the gunner manning the roof-mounted machine gun.

The survivors hiding in the shop noticed him killing the gunner and stopped firing. They cheered him on, laughter filling the air as they shouted words of encouragement.

With all the bandits now dead, Jake jumped to the ground and gazed at the shop from which the group of survivors began to emerge.

One of them stepped forward, gripping an assault rifle in his hands. He slung it across his shoulders and waved at Jake.

“This was amazing, man,” he exclaimed.

His name was Joe, and he was probably the leader of this small group. Or maybe he was simply brave, or stupid, enough to get this close to Jake. The rest of the team, however, kept their distance, looking at him with a mix of apprehension and awe.

Jake turned to leave, but Joe wasn’t willing to let him go so quickly, though.

“Hey, thanks for the help,” Joe said. “We were a bit in a fix there.”

Jake nodded. He couldn’t wait to get going.

“By the way, it’s great to see you again,” Joe added.

His words made Jake turn his head to look at the man again. He wasn’t sure if they had ever met. The man, however, seemed convinced otherwise.

“I don’t know if you remember me,” Joe said. “I was one of the workers at Base Ryder, as we called it back then.”

Now it made sense. He had liberated Base Ryder but had never really paid much attention to the regular survivors maintaining various machines and contraptions there.

“We’re really grateful for all you did for us,” Joe continued. “You gave us a fighting chance against

Los Demonios

. We’re done trembling in fear, running, and hiding. We’re finally fighting back.”

Jake thought that, from the look of things, they weren’t having much success. Had he not shown up when he did, Joe’s team might have been dead by now.

“Catalina thinks we should stay put and avoid drawing

Los Demonios’

attention,” Joe added. “But luckily, Melissa thinks differently, and we agree with her. What’s the point of having two bases at our disposal if we don’t use them to our full advantage?”

Jake thought that if regular survivors kept attacking

Los Demonios

, Skullface would soon begin to wonder why they had shifted from passive to aggressive behavior. This change could draw unwanted attention, complicating their delicate balance of survival in this dangerous world.

He sensed that such a shift might prompt Skullface to investigate. And when that happened, it would be just a matter of time before he figured out what happened at Base Ryder, and perhaps at Base Catalina as well.

However, he wasn’t going to dictate what survivors should or shouldn’t do. He had liberated two bases, but babysitting regular survivors wasn’t part of his plans. His main, and only, priority was his own survival, not controlling others.

“So, not long ago, Melissa gave us the green light to attack

Los Demonios

,” Joe said, snapping Jake back to reality. He added proudly, “And that’s exactly what happened here.”

Jake couldn’t help but glance at the shop behind Joe and the other survivors, where they had been holed up. Had they attacked the SUV as it passed by? It was clear that their strategy hadn’t gone as smoothly as they had obviously thought it would. He knew that if he hadn’t shown up in time, the bandit with the grenade launcher would have obliterated them all.

“We were just wandering around this area, looking for bandits to kill,” Joe explained. “When we saw the SUV driving by, we opened fire on it. Once we got their attention, we took off, luring them to this shop. It was a trap, you see. The rest of our team was already waiting in there, ready to attack from within.”

Joe made a brief pause, then continued.

“In retrospect, we shouldn’t have all holed up in the same place,” Joe reflected, shaking his head. “We should have taken positions in different rooms across buildings on both sides of the street to attack from all directions. Bottling ourselves up like we did wasn’t very smart. We basically trapped ourselves. But hey, we’re learning from it, evolving, if you will. We won’t make the same mistake next time.”

Jake nodded, waved goodbye to them, and pressed on toward Base Catalina. It didn’t take him long to get there. He executed a mana-infused leap over the perimeter wall and landed inside the base. He noticed that while the turrets tracked his movements, they didn’t open fire.

The survivors in the base visibly tensed, even though they knew he posed no threat to them. Ignoring their wary glances, he approached the fabricator and checked the compartment where built items were stored. It was empty, though.

He heard footsteps behind him and glanced over his shoulder. Catalina, who had just stepped out of HQ, was walking toward him, holding the device he had come to retrieve in her outstretched hand.

“I expected you to come for this much sooner,” she said with a friendly smile on her lips.

Jake took the device from her hand and gave it a quick look-over. It had a cylindrical shape and fit comfortably in his grasp. He pressed the business end of the electrolarynx against his mandible. It was time to see if it worked or if all his efforts from the previous day had been in vain.

“I was busy,” he replied.

Both he and Catalina froze at the words, both obviously taken aback that he had actually managed to produce understandable speech.

The voice emitted by the device sounded unnatural. It lacked any warmth and was cold, electronic, and completely emotionless.

However, Jake wasn’t bothered by that at all. His idea had turned out to be a success, and he was excited about it. After countless hours spent altering his body, knowing it wasn’t in vain and that he had finally found a way to communicate with humans was all that mattered to him.

“So you can talk now,” Catalina remarked, grinning.

“I suppose I can,” Jake replied, the mechanical voice coming straight from the device.