Chapter 492
Chapter 492
Sure enough, after deactivating the self-destruct function in Owen’s brain chip, Mick then shut down the teleporter in his main base so that the Spartans couldn’t teleport there. But as Jake already knew, that precaution wasn’t really necessary, as the teleporter in the Spartans’ base was destroyed during the battle with the ravagespawn.
Since Mick escaped from the Spartans’ base, he had no knowledge of what happened there next, but Jake could put it together himself. When he sneaked into the tech lab, he’d discovered that nearly everything there had been destroyed. Now he knew exactly what had happened there.
As for the Spartans, they clearly realized Mick had been able to fix the teleporter but had hidden that fact from them, and then he and Owen had used it to escape. So since then, the Spartans had been trying to repair the teleporter, but they hadn’t been able to fully restore it yet.
As for those of the weaponized ravagespawn that managed to survive the battle in the tech lab, they succeeded in escaping from the base and finding their way to the streets above, after which they scattered throughout the city.
As for Mick, his next step was to extract the brain chip from Owen’s head. That was when he learned a couple of unpleasant things.
First, at one point while tinkering with Owen’s brain chip, he must have accidentally damaged it, causing a serious side effect. The chip now interfered with Owen’s connection to the system, preventing him from gaining XP, leveling up, or evolving. But of course, Owen and Mick would learn that detail a bit later, after Owen returned to Dead City and began to fight ravagespawn again.
Another thing Mick learned was that he couldn’t extract the brain chip from Owen’s head without setting off its self-destruct function. While he had deactivated it, making it impossible for the brain chip to be detonated remotely, the function itself hadn’t been removed.
So the chip was still there and could be triggered if an attempt was made to remove it. Since then, Mick had been trying to find a way to remove the chip from Owen’s head but hadn’t been able to achieve that yet. Still, he had a feeling he was getting very close to a solution.
As for the function that allowed the Spartans to receive a live feed from Owen’s eyes, Mick deactivated it without any trouble at all. However, after consulting with Owen, they decided to leave it active most of the time just to taunt the Spartans.
However, whenever Mick transported Owen from his base to Dead City, or vice versa, he deactivated the function to prevent the Spartans from learning where Mick’s base was located. Sure, the Spartans had no way to escape Dead City, and therefore, there was no real danger in them reaching his location. Even so, just to err on the side of caution, Mick preferred to keep his location a secret from his enemies.
Mick continued to study Owen in his base. He was really interested in learning more about him. Not only that, but he also advanced his Inventing skill at an exceptional pace. Tinkering with any unfamiliar types of tech always rewarded him with accelerated advancement of his Fabrication skill.
At some point, he invented two types of tech for Owen: power boots and claws, both of which Jake had already seen in action. While those were quite powerful and useful, they worked on mana, drawing it from Owen’s inner reserves.
Every now and then, Owen lapsed into uncontrollable rage, but Mick learned that after killing a certain number of ravagespawn, Owen’s inner beast seemed to satisfy its bloodlust and relinquish control of the body back to Owen’s human side.
At some point, Mick invented spider-like cybernetic legs for himself, along with a few more interesting cyber-implants. He hoped that one day he would be able to completely replace his body with an artificial one so that he would no longer need to rely on his fragile organic body at all. So far, he hadn’t been able to reach that goal, though he was gradually getting there.
So now Jake knew everything. Sure enough, it had been several months since the Ravage Contamination overtook the city, and since that was quite a long period of time, lots of small details had unfolded that Jake wasn’t aware of.
But there was no point in learning every single little detail about the Spartans, Mick, and Owen. All the major events were now known to him, and that was enough.
There was one detail that bothered him, but he didn’t seem to find anything related to it in Mick’s memories. So the only way to clear that up was to ask Mick directly about it.
At last, he stopped using Mind Reader on Mick. Glancing at the half-man, half-machine figure before him, he said, “I’m done.”
“So you know everything now, eh?” Mick said as he moved around him, his metal spider-like legs making clicking and clanking sounds against the floor.
“The most important events, yes.”
“Good, good.”
“I didn’t dig all that deeply into your memories, though,” Jake said. “So there’s something I want to ask you…”
“That’s interesting,” Mick cut in, as though he hadn’t heard a word Jake had just said. “That’s very interesting, Jake.”
He continued to scuttle around Jake, moving surprisingly quickly on his metal spider-like legs. Numerous servomotors quietly whirred and whined with every step as he moved around him.
“You look almost exactly like Owen did before he evolved into a devastator,” Mick continued. “I’m already aware that you chose the path of the Corruptor, so it seems that a Corruptor’s appearance doesn’t differ all that much from that of a Stage II Morphus. Which makes sense, I guess. After all, unlike Owen, you mostly rely on your creatures in battle, don’t you?”
He circled Jake twice more, studying him from every angle before finally stopping in front of him.
“I watched you and Owen fight the Titan,” Mick said. “In fact, it was me who suggested he invite you to take down a Titan together. I wanted to see you in combat, to learn what abilities you use in battle so I can invent something useful for you later. So I saw all those creatures that aided you in battle. Fascinating, every single one of them. I counted several distinct types, and each had its own set of abilities. Did you create them all yourself?”
“Yes.”
“That’s quite fascinating, indeed,” Mick went on. “Is there any limit to that ability of yours? Any restrictions on the kinds of creatures you can make?”
“Not that I know of. So far, I’ve been able to create everything I’ve envisioned.”
“That’s really amazing! I can’t wait to learn more about your abilities, Jake. And I’d be delighted if you let me watch your process of developing creatures of your own design. I want to…”
Mick was so excited that Jake could tell he would ramble on and on, so he cut him off mid-sentence.
“Hold on,” Jake said. “There’s something that’s bothering me.”
“And I saw you use some abilities of your own,” Mick continued as if Jake hadn’t said anything at all. “During the fight with the Titan, you used things that looked like chainsaws, drills, and several other very interesting powers. Owen never had anything like that. If you don’t mind me asking, where did those abilities come from? Are they part of the Corruptor class?”
“Actually, I received them as a reward for completing a dungeon in my city, one unique ability for each of the five floors.”
“I see, I see. Very interesting. It looks like you’re the only one of your kind who now possesses this set of abilities, eh? You should consider yourself lucky. I can’t wait to explore these abilities of yours to see how I can improve them or invent some new tech for you and Owen based on them.”
Jake was about to speak, but Mick immediately went on.
“In our city, it was one of the factions that sent a group into our dungeon,” he said. “To my knowledge, they never got back, though. And since dungeons are one-use only, once that group was killed, the portal leading to the dungeon disappeared, barring access to it forever. And since each city can have only one dungeon at any given time, Owen never got a chance to enter one and gain any unique abilities. So he only has those that came with the Devastator subclass.”
“I was wondering…”
“And I can’t help but notice that you can speak, Jake,” Mick said. “It’s very interesting! Owen has never been able to learn to speak. He can communicate only through writing, but it’s difficult for him and also comes at a heavy mana cost. So can I ask how you were able to achieve that?”
“One of my abilities allowed me to develop a rudimentary voice box, so between that and the device I’m using, I can speak now.”
“That’s fascinating, Jake! I can’t wait to…”
“Just wait a goddamned minute! Can I ask a question of my own?”
Mick just stared at him silently for a moment. Then a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, and he said, “Sure thing, Jake. I apologize for being so pushy. I tend to ramble a lot when I’m excited. Owen never minded it, though, never interrupted me. Which is understandable, of course. Anyway, what is it that you wanted to ask me?”
“When Catalina’s people entered your city, you got in contact with them,” Jake said. “And they told her that you said you knew who they were and why they had come.”
“I don’t know who Catalina is, but everything else is correct, yes.”
“And when I first encountered Owen and we began to fight, you talked to me through your drone,” Jake continued. “You said something like you’d been waiting to meet me face-to-face for a while and that we had things to discuss, even though we’d never met before. You made it sound like you’d known about me long before I ever arrived in Dead City.”
“Yes. That’s actually true. I’ve known for a long time that people from another city would arrive here by helicopter at some point, and that soon afterward, a mutant similar to Owen but different in many ways would show up as well.”
“How could you possibly have known about that?”
Mick smiled. “Oh, that’s because they told me, Jake.”