After concluding his conversation with Catalina, Jake refocused his thoughts on the task at hand. What Catalina had told him about the Ravage contamination quickly taking over the city was troubling, but it was a matter to address at a later time.

His primary goal at the moment was to deal with Skullface and obliterate his main base. Jake didn't know what to expect from the base, but it was clear it would be heavily protected. That was why he had decided to infiltrate it silently instead of charging in headfirst as he usually did. However, there was a little problem with that.

He knew his disguise as the pilot named Omar wouldn't hold for long. After all, Skullface had the mission to track him down, so the System always showed Jake's exact location. But that was fine. His main goal was to gain access to the main base, and once there, he wouldn't need to maintain his disguise anymore.

However, he wasn't sure if he would be allowed to enter. After all, as he neared the base, it would only take Skullface a single glance at the scanner on his PDA to realize that the morphus must be in the approaching helicopter. What Skullface would do next was hard to predict. Would he order the helicopter to be shot down? Or would he gamble and let it land, intending to deal with Jake inside the base?

Jake guessed it depended on how confident Skullface was in his ability to deal with the morphus inside the base and how much he valued the helicopter. Although Skullface clearly didn't care much about his people, he clearly valued the helicopters, which had required considerable resources to build. Otherwise, he likely wouldn't have ordered the pilots to return to base as soon as he learned that Jake was destroying one secondary base after another.

Skullface clearly wanted to save as many of his helicopters as possible. So Jake figured he had a decent chance of being allowed to enter the base. However, he knew that once inside, it would be just a matter of time before he was discovered, so he would need to act quickly. It wouldn't take long for the gang leader to realize the morphus wasn't in the helicopter. Sure, it might confuse Skullface for a moment, but thanks to his scanner showing Jake's exact position, Skullface would figure out what was happening quickly enough.

However, if Skullface decided to destroy the helicopter after all, Jake knew he would need to make his own entrance. That was fine, though. He was confident he could survive the helicopter crash, just as he was sure his abilities would help him breach the main base.

For Jake, it didn't really matter which of the two scenarios unfolded. Yes, he would prefer to be allowed to enter the base, as it would make his mission a little easier, but even if he wasn't permitted entry and the helicopter was ordered to be taken down, Jake believed he would still find a way inside. It would just take a little more time and effort.

If his helicopter was allowed to enter the base rather than being destroyed on sight, Jake needed to uphold his identity as the pilot. However, since he couldn't speak without a special device, he needed to figure out a way around that.

After giving it some thought, an idea came to mind. He assumed the identity of the pilot and spent some time transforming his appearance. Once he was done, he activated the feed from an internal camera pointed at him on the main dashboard screen and examined his reflection.

Upon the first glance at him, anyone would assume he had sustained heavy damage to his throat. It looked healed, as if the injury had occurred some time ago or had been treated with stims, but it was heavily scarred. It appeared convincing, so Jake saved this updated identity of the pilot as a backup form before shedding his disguise to conserve his mana reserves.

It was time to jot down a note for whoever would meet him at the main base. The helicopter continued flying to its destination on autopilot, allowing him to take a break from manual control. He retrieved the pilot's PDA and opened the notepad app.

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After spending some time crafting his message, he read it back: "Taken hostage by Rex after visiting his base. Held me captive at HQ. Warned him he'd be in serious trouble if he didn't let me go, but he wouldn't listen. Then the base was attacked by the morphus. As it thrashed through HQ and killed Rex's people, I managed to escape. The helicopter was still intact, so I jumped in and immediately set a course for the main base. Took a hit to my throat during the attack, though. Managed to heal it with stims on my way back to the base. Wound healed, but I can't speak at all now."

Jake had no idea how quickly he would be exposed or how long his disguise would hold up. It was possible that Skullface would catch on immediately, leaving him no opportunity to convey the message. However, if Skullface somehow failed to realize that Jake wasn't actually the pilot he was impersonating, having that message on hand would certainly come in handy.

The message he wrote was quite a lengthy message. While Jake no longer struggled with writing text as much as before, it was still quite a challenge for him. Also, even though his body processed mana more efficiently than it used to, writing such a lengthy note still drained a significant amount of his mana, which was a cause for concern.

He knew that to successfully take down the main base, he would need to have as much mana as possible, especially since it would likely be heavily protected both outside and inside. However, depleting a good portion of his mana reserves didn't trouble him too much. He had several mana crystals stashed away in his inventory.

Ever since he unlocked an inner inventory in the dungeon called the Maze of Torment, he always kept a variety of useful items in it, like mana consumables or gems that could imbue his attacks with elemental damage or provide protection against such damage.

In addition to dealing with Skullface and destroying his base, Jake also planned to free the captured survivors who were forced to labor for the gang. He knew they had been toiling in the mines beneath the main base under extremely harsh conditions, often facing attacks from the oversized bugs that lived deep underground. So freeing those people was also a crucial part of his mission.

He knew that since the captured survivors toiling in the mines were extracting mana consumables from the rock, there would undoubtedly be plenty of mana items stashed somewhere in the main base that he could appropriate if the mana crystals in his inventory weren't enough for his needs. So yeah, he didn't have to worry about running low on mana while in the main base.

Having prepared everything he needed, he focused on piloting the helicopter. A couple of hours later, he spotted a large chasm ahead, about three hundred yards wide. This was his destination. From the pilot's memories, he knew that the main base lay deep within the chasm.

He took manual control of the helicopter, steering it toward the chasm while gradually closing the distance. Finally, he reached it, hovering right above the chasm.

The floor of the bubble canopy beneath him was transparent, allowing him to see what lay below. Sunlight streamed into the chasm, but as it descended deeper, it faded, and the depths of the chasm were enveloped in complete, impenetrable darkness.

However, Jake's exceptional sight allowed him to see what lay at the bottom of the chasm. He could make out the flat, rocky floor, which didn't appear suspicious at all. It looked like a natural rocky surface, and if someone were to use a special vision device, like night vision goggles, to examine the chasm from above, similar to what he was doing now, they wouldn't suspect anything unusual.

They would assume it was just a natural chasm formed during the catastrophic event known as the Collapse, when the System had been transforming Earth into an unrecognizable world. However, Jake knew this was precisely where the Los Demonios main base was located, so he began slowly descending into the chasm.

As he descended deeper, the sunlight diminished, leaving him enveloped in increasing darkness. Jake continued his slow descent, carefully looking around and studying the rocky walls of the chasm. He knew exactly what was about to happen and patiently waited for it.

When he was about halfway down the chasm, multiple fake sections of the walls opened up, revealing powerful turrets that had previously been concealed in hidden compartments. All at once, they turned their barrels to aim at his helicopter.

Finally, Jake thought, a small smile forming on his lips.

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