[POV – Third Person]
The next morning.
[HP: 570/570]
Looking at Emily, he thought: 'At this rate, she'll eat all the ghosts in this building.'
That's why he thought: 'If I'm not mistaken, near the building where Violet, Mia, and the others are, there are two 'twin' 10-story buildings.'
Picking up the binoculars, he could see the buildings. They were among the few that hadn't collapsed.
'I'll take Emily there.' He thought: 'If it's another building, she can eat all the ghosts.'
After a simple breakfast, a roasted rabbit with potatoes that he shared with Emily, Theo went down to the ground floor.
"Emily, we're almost outside." Theo warned.
"Alright~" She dove into his shadow.
...
After leaving the building, Theo began to walk slowly.
Minutes later, he saw some zombies, seven in total, the strongest among them with 390 HP.
After considering for a bit, he prepared himself. Entering stealth mode, he saw more lines on the ground this time, four in total.
The green ones were the quietest, the red ones had something that would make more noise and had more obstacles, the black ones were the second quietest path, and the white ones were the second noisiest.
Walking along the green lines while his presence practically vanished, Theo stopped in front of the zombies.
First of all, they only had the sense of hearing, so even without hiding, just the fact that he managed to approach silently meant he wasn't noticed.
Theo wanted to test something. He grabbed the nape of a female zombie with force.
"Grrrrrrahhhhh!"
The sounds she made were a terrifying growl straight out of a horror movie.
"Grrrrrrrahhhh!"
"Grrraaahhhhhh!"
The other zombies turned toward her and then attacked.
Jumping back, keeping his distance from the zombies while holding one by the nape, he realized he couldn't steal the zombie's core even by touching it.
'So, it's really just by killing.' He thought and turned his Mana into lightning.
[HP: 310/335]
Even though he only created a bit of lightning, it was enough to deal considerable damage to the zombie.
Meanwhile, the zombies reached him again. Smiling slightly, he raised his free hand in the air and made the sledgehammer appear.
He waited until he was well within the sledgehammer's range and then attacked using about 30% of his strength.
*POW!*
*CRACK!*
[HP: 48/340]
The zombie's health was almost reduced to 0 with a single blow.
Returning the sledgehammer to his inventory, Theo grabbed a kitchen knife and threw it at the zombie's head while, with the hand holding the zombie, he increased the lightning's intensity.
[HP: 11/340]
[HP: 146/335]
Tightening his grip at the same time, he continued using lightning.
At the same time, he jumped, dodging the claws of one and, on purpose, made the zombies step on the fallen zombie.
When the third one stepped over the fallen zombie, the HP of the zombie on the ground dropped to 0.
"Daddy, zombies are so dumb~" Emily's voice reached him with a tone of laughter.
Theo didn't disagree.
And, with his free hand extended in the air once more, he followed the same attack pattern, but this time with 40% of his strength.
The moment the sledgehammer appeared, his hand came down like a lever.
*POW!*
*CRACK!*
[HP: 0/360]
"HEADSHOT ~!"
'Does she want to be my narrator?' Theo thought, finding it interesting.
This only made his life's scenario feel even more like a game.
In his hand, the zombie caught fire.
He quickly let go and stepped back.
[HP: 3/335... 0/335]
"Double Kill~!"
The fire on the zombie started from the cloth clothing it was wearing and spread very quickly, like an inflammable product.
In his free hand, he made a large cleaver appear.
The silver blade gleamed in the sunlight.
With immense strength, Theo slashed horizontally toward the neck of the nearest zombie.
*Whoosh!*
A clean cut with no resistance.
"Tri... Triple Kill~!!"
The zombie's head separated from its body and was launched upward by the blood from the torso.
Theo jumped back and entered stealth mode, deceiving the zombies by staying behind them.
He returned the sledgehammer to his inventory and grabbed another cleaver.
With his arms crossed in an X, he sliced the heads off two other zombies at the same time.
*Whoosh!*
It was quick and precise, leaving only the strongest zombie alive.
"Ultrakill~!"
He returned the cleavers to his inventory while retreating without making a sound.
The sound of the *Thud!* from the heads and bodies of the zombies hitting the ground drew the attention of the surviving zombie, not to mention Emily's voice.
While Theo, who had already anticipated this, appeared behind it and grabbed it by the neck with lightning crackling in his hand.
"Grrrrrahhhhhhhhhh!"
The zombie struggled and struggled, but Theo simply slammed it into the ground.
*BANG!*
[HP: 333/390]
Not satisfied, he kept smashing the zombie into the ground with more force.
*DUM!*
[HP: 121/390]
This time the damage was greater.
*DUM!*
[HP: 0/390]
"Monster Kill~! Daddy's terrifying~~"
"Having fun?" Theo asked.
"Lots~" She replied from his shadow.
"That's good," Theo responded.
Suddenly, a 'yellow lightning bolt' shot toward him, or more precisely, toward the head he had decapitated.
With sharp claws like a hawk's, a kind of yellow bird became visible, round and the size of a soccer ball.
[HP: 233/410]
Theo's eyes narrowed.
Entering stealth mode, he dashed and appeared beside the bird with his arm extended, then the sledgehammer appeared, and he attacked.
*Whoosh!*
*POW!*
*Bang!*
The bird didn't stand a chance. Before it could take flight with its head, Theo struck its fat body and sent it crashing into the wall.
[HP: 24/410]
'I'm surprised it didn't die from that, but…'
He grabbed a knife from his inventory and threw it.
*Whoosh!*
The thrown knife hit the yellow bird.
[HP: 0/410]
Thinking of something, Theo touched the heads of the decapitated zombies, sending them to his inventory, then went to the other zombies and sent them to his inventory, along with the fat yellow bird. However, for the zombie that was on fire, he cut off its head with the cleaver and kept stomping on it until the fire was out, then sent it to his inventory.
'By the way, this bird must be a mutant bird… Can I eat its meat?'
Suddenly, Emily started humming from his shadow: "A little bird went for a stroll, beyond the mountains to hunt~ The mommy cried: chirp~ chirp~, chirp~ chirp~ But the little bird didn't return~"
"…"
…
After walking a bit more, Theo encountered zombies, several of them in fact, but… Huh, it was a familiar scene.
More than 50 zombies, all with signs of having their heads split open by knives.
'It must have been Violet's group,' Theo thought. 'Did she manage to get cars that were working?'
Well, even if they weren't working, she had capable people by her side who could fix and make them work.
The reason he believed they were using vehicles was because he saw tire marks on the corpses.
Moreover, before, they didn't split open the heads of all the zombies, but he saw that all of them had been opened this time.
'Well, they must have noticed that, unlike before, the zombies weren't just strengthened, but they've all developed cores now.'
'If they keep up this pace, they'll end up killing all the zombies in this area,' Theo thought. 'I'll have to move to another city when that happens, or should I go out at night and hunt ghosts?'
At night, the number of ghosts wandering around was simply enormous.
*RRRRRRRMMMM!*
'Huh?' A familiar sound.
It wasn't the same as Violet's motorcycle, but it was definitely a powerful bike.