After 5 hours since the snow stopped, the sun appeared.
The temperature began to rise, though it was still cold.
When it reached around 10 degrees, Theo already started feeling hot.
Used to the extreme cold, 10 degrees felt like he could even dive into a waterfall with a smile on his face.
...
Two days later...
The sun slowly melted the snow.
That day, the temperature hit at least 40 degrees.
'It's fine like this, don't go any higher,' Theo began to fear a possible global warming similar to the seven days of snow.
And because of the high temperature, the snow started melting faster.
...
5 days since it stopped snowing, and Theo could finally go outside.
This time, the snow was completely gone.
As the snow decreased, he also searched the 9th, 8th, and 7th floors.
Besides 20 gallons of water, he also found other useful things, like a pair of binoculars.
From the tenth floor, he looked outside with the binoculars.
[HP: 330/330]
[HP: 320/320]
[HP: 340/340]
[HP: 310/310]
[HP: 400/400]
He saw zombies and... they had gotten stronger.
Looking through the binoculars, he didn't find a single one with less than 300 HP.
'I'm screwed,' he thought.
Although they didn't show special abilities like the Incendiary, the simple fact that they were stronger was already alarming.
Things were worse than he imagined; the snow didn't kill the zombies but instead made them stronger!
...
Back on the thirtieth floor, he was about to observe the outside from a higher spot when something happened.
It started with a shockwave that passed through and made the building tremble.
He caught a glimpse of some weaker buildings collapsing.
*BOOM!*
Then came the deafening sound.
"What the hell is…"
His mind went blank.
He wasn't the only one. That shockwave swept through the entire world.
...
"Hahaha, there's food here~"
Theo woke up hearing a creepy laugh.
When he opened his eyes, he saw a horrific figure floating. It looked like a banshee — thin white hair, wrinkled skin, blood-red eyes surrounded by black stains like obsidian, and the rest of her skin was pale as death.
She wore a tattered black dress, and her hands had long, thin, wrinkled fingers with huge, pointed nails.
[HP: 300/300]
"Is this hell?" he murmured.
But when he noticed the familiar surroundings, he realized he hadn't died from that shockwave. So...
"What the hell are you?" he asked.
Without answering, the 'ghost' lunged toward him with its toothless mouth open, like a black hole, starting to suck something out of him.
He didn't know what it was, but he had a bad feeling about it.
Without hesitation, he pulled the sledgehammer from his inventory.
"Die, you demon!" he shouted, striking diagonally at the head of this terrifying thing.
*CRACK!*
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! H-How can you hit me, how?"
[HP: 218/300]
The creature screamed in pain and frustration, as if Theo's attack shouldn't have been able to hit her.
He saw the creature trying to rise, but he wasn't going to let it. Standing up, he jumped and attacked from below.
*POW!*
A loud sound echoed of metal colliding with something hollow.
[HP: 88/300]
"AHHHHHHH! I'LL EAT YOUR SOUL!!"
The creature charged at him while Theo was still in the air.
Snorting, he stored the sledgehammer in his inventory and grabbed it while his hand was now lowered, slightly tilted back.
"Haah!" Using all his strength, gaining speed as he swung the sledgehammer upward, hitting right in the middle of the creature's chest.
*POW!*
[HP: 1/300]
With a sliver of life left, he saw the creature trying to escape through the ceiling, but would he allow it?
Taking a knife he had stored in his inventory, he threw it toward the creature.
"NO!!!"
With a shrill scream before being hit, the creature that was struck had its HP reduced to 0.
[HP: 0/300]
When he landed on the floor, he thought about cracking open the creature's head to see if it also had a core.
However, in the air, he saw the creature disintegrate into charcoal-colored ashes, and among the ashes, something was glowing.
'A core!'
Even knowing this, he took several steps back.
The creature's ashes fell to the floor, with a good portion landing on the couch.
*Beng, beng, beng...*
The core that fell to the floor bounced a few times before rolling under the couch.
Simply flipping the couch, Theo went and grabbed the core.
[It has been identified that the Host has found a special Level 3 core, 65% pure, would you like to absorb it now [Yes] or [No]?]
"!!!"
Several exclamation points went off in his head.
'If there's a special ability in this core, I'd like to know what it is…' Theo thought, feeling it would be a shame to absorb it and find out it was a really useful ability. If it was something like allowing the user to fly or become intangible…
[Level 3 Ghost Core with ability: [Ghost Summoning (Level 1)] - Description: Allows summoning a weak version of the Ghost with [HP: 50] for a short period of 30 seconds to distract or attack enemies.]
'I could do something like that?' This surprised him greatly. He didn't expect to get such a complete description of the core.
'Was my thought of wanting to know more about this core the trigger?' He tried to guess.
Wanting to test his theory, he put the core in his inventory and took it out again.
When he conveyed the intention of wanting to know more about the core, besides the initial prompt asking if he wanted to absorb the core, the more detailed information about the ability contained in the core appeared again.
'For now, I'll keep this core.'
"Hahahaha"
"Hahaahaha"
"Bahahaha"
Suddenly, he heard three different laughs.
It was the same kind of laugh as the ghost he had killed. It was something that seemed to strike directly at the soul of whoever heard it.
'Wasn't it enough to strengthen the zombies, now there are even ghosts?'
[HP: 166/201]
Seeing that he had lost some health from the previous ghost's attack, he didn't dare lower his guard.
Standing up and staying close to the window to see clearly, he saw a head pass through the floor and look in his direction.
"Found you~!"
[HP: 300/300]
"Ahhh!"
[HP: 299/300]
Letting out a scream, the ghost pulled its head back.
'That was weird…' Theo saw that something had dealt damage to it.
'The sun, maybe? But the other one wasn't affected by the sun, was it?'
What he didn't see was that when the other ghost appeared, there was a large cloud casting a shadow that prevented the sunlight from reaching them, at least not in a way that would harm the ghost.
But this time, the cloud had passed, and a ray of sunlight filtered through the glass, hitting the head of the ghost that had just appeared.
'That ghost's hair burned a little…' Theo thought, recalling the smallest details.
This ghost was a bit different from the other one; it seemed younger but equally horrific.
Thinking of something, he wanted to test it.
Taking a piece of wood, he put the tip in the fire until it caught flame.
With an improvised torch, he passed through the already open door.
"Idiot~!"
Emerging from the floor, the same ghost from before appeared.
Theo pointed the burning wood at the ghost.
"Burn, burn!!"
[HP: 293/300]
The flames on the wood only lightly touched it, but it already dealt considerable damage.
'Indeed, it's as I imagined.' This was good news.
Otherwise, how would he be able to sleep at night?
Well, in the worst-case scenario, he could stay awake at night and sleep during the day on the building's rooftop.
It was still early; he wanted to go out even knowing the zombies had gotten stronger.
But first, he returned to the apartment and placed the wood in the toilet bowl.
Taking the binoculars, he observed the outside.
For the most part, it was the same as what he had seen before, until he saw something in the sky, and as it approached, he could see the HP.
[HP: 1,900/1,900]
[HP: 9/450]
It was a damn Harpy with at least a 5-meter wingspan, holding a zombie in its claw.
'Not only did the zombies get stronger and ghosts appear… It seems the snow caused mutations in animals!'
It was too much information to process.
Until then, only humans turned into zombies. Human survival would drastically decrease if, for example, insects became zombies. Avoiding being bitten by a zombie mosquito would be a huge challenge.
With this change, with possible mutant animals and, in the worst-case scenario, insects too… It would be far beyond going from playing a game on easy mode to switching straight to the hardest mode, something like nightmare mode.
'This really is a tasteless nightmare…'
He was extremely shaken.
And how could he not be?
'Strong! I need to get stronger!'
Only by getting stronger would he not have to fear these creatures.
It wasn't enough to live under the constant torment of the cold; he didn't want to have to cower until a powerful creature found him.
Storing some things in his inventory, like a gallon of water and all the large kitchen knives he had found, he also stored one of the wine bottles.
That done, he took a thicker piece of wood from a bed frame and burned the tip.
When it started to catch fire, he held this piece of wood in his left hand and the sledgehammer in his right.
"Hahahaha"
"Uuuhhhhhhh"
As he descended the dark stairs, Theo could hear the laughter and moans of the ghosts.
Whenever a ghost appeared, he pointed the torch, and the ghost fled.
'It's really useful.'
Even when a ghost with 340 HP appeared, it fled after having the torch pointed at it.