Chapter 353
Jake was getting closer and closer to his destination.
As he maneuvered through the city, he occasionally encountered various groups of humans. Each time a group of bandits spotted him, they immediately raced away in their vehicles, a sight Jake had long since grown accustomed to.
He didn’t bother to chase after them. Let them run. Now that he was targeting their bases, they would soon have no homes to return to and nowhere left to hide.
Sure, if they ditched their vehicles and discarded the various red fabrics they wore like scarves or bandanas, they could easily blend in with regular survivors and pretend to be one of them. The survivors would likely never discover their true identities.
That was fine, though. Once Los Demonios was completely wiped out and all their bases, including the main one, were destroyed, those small groups of bandits that managed to escape the massacre would no longer matter, as there would be no reinforcements to back them up.
Those stragglers would become just regular survivors, trying to hide their dark past. Depending on how well they could lie, they might successfully blend in with various groups of regular survivors.
However, they wouldn’t be able to fool Jake. His Mind Reader ability allowed him to access months’ worth of memories from anyone he used it on, making it easy for him to track down the remaining members of Los Demonios
.All he would need to do was use his ability on every survivor he encountered. Or perhaps he wouldn’t bother locating the stragglers at all. After all, once the bandit organization was gone, those stragglers wouldn’t pose a threat to anyone anymore, and chasing them down would just be a waste of time.
As Jake navigated through the city, with his pack of monstrous minions in tow, he occasionally witnessed scenes of regular survivors clashing with Los Demonios. Not long ago, the latter had been a force to be reckoned with, but now the tables had turned.
As Jake actively fought the bandit organization, destroying their bases one after another, the situation in the streets changed dramatically. With each base Jake took down, the regular survivors gained more and more of the upper hand.
They no longer cowered in fear of Los Demonios, actively fighting back instead. While they refrained from launching direct attacks on the bandits’ bases, they did target wandering patrols that coursed through the city in search of resources.
Before Jake declared full-scale war on Los Demonios, the bandits frequently roamed the streets, hunting for survivors to capture and exploit as slave labor. Although the bandits still patrolled the streets, their purpose for searching had changed dramatically.
Instead of capturing survivors, they were now busy scavenging, searching the city for various resources. Rumors of Jake obliterating one base after another circulated throughout the organization. Each group of bandits stationed at different bases knew it was only a matter of time before Jake launched an attack on their home base, motivating them to prepare for the inevitable assault.
Unfortunately for them, regular survivors weren’t going to let the bandits do as they pleased anymore. Various high-level weapons and equipment were manufactured at Base Catalina and Base Melissa and distributed among the regular survivors so they could confront the wandering patrols of Los Demonios.
From what Jake witnessed, it was clear that the bandits no longer had the advantage over the regular survivors, as they were routinely being taken down.
From time to time, Jake encountered groups of regular survivors as well. He recalled how, in the past, they would greet him enthusiastically in the streets, cheering him on during his fights against Los Demonios.
Now, however, the atmosphere had changed dramatically. Although they recognized that he was on their side and working tirelessly to dismantle the bandit organization, they were obviously terrified of him now.
The reason for their fear was the swarm of enormous arachnids and winged monsters that followed him everywhere. Jake no longer tried to keep his creatures a secret, as there was no point in doing so anymore.
Having established a massive lair in a ten-story building, complete with a constant supply of resources and monsters at his command, he no longer worried about anyone discovering his activities. His main lair was well fortified, and even if a group of humans accidentally discovered it, they would stand no chance of destroying it.
So the regular survivors always moved out of the way when Jake passed by, accompanied by his swarm of monsters. It was obvious that they couldn’t help but wonder whether Jake was truly on their side. Sure, they were temporary allies for now, but what would happen once Los Demonios was eliminated was anyone’s guess.
After reading the minds of many survivors, Jake had come to realize that they feared he might turn on them at some point. He learned that Catalina and Melissa were already plotting against him, intending to launch an attack on him and his army of monsters once Los Demonios had been eliminated. They feared that he could evolve into an even more dangerous threat than the bandit organization in the future.
He wasn’t bothered by it. If they ever took actual action against him, he would fight back with everything he had, and they would never see it coming. For now, though, he set those concerns aside and concentrated on the task before him.
Finally, he reached his destination. He halted at a distance from the base he was preparing to attack. It was fortified with tall concrete walls and guard towers at each corner, outfitted with auto turrets that had already taken aim at him and his army of monsters behind.
He had been detected, but that was fine. The days when he silently sneaked into bandit bases to wreak havoc from within were long over. Now, he attacked the bases openly, sometimes without even personally participating, entirely relying on his minions to get the job done.
Sure, some of his creatures inevitably died during the attacks, but that was fine, as he could always replenish his ranks without much trouble. His main lair always maintained a constant supply of biomass he could use to create more minions.
Since the System didn’t limit the number of monsters he could produce, he could build as large an army as he desired. Managatherers and arachnoxes tirelessly worked to ensure a steady supply of mana and biomass, so he always had ample resources available.
Remaining in his position, he mentally commanded his fearsome creatures to launch an assault on the base.