"Didn't I say this asshole wouldn't give us anything at all?"
Dilan spat the words as if they tasted bitter, eyeing the imposing bulk of the parked motorhome.
Marcos, who was crouched beside him sorting some boards, sighed.
"I don't think it's a good idea to keep clashing with him," he murmured, casting a cautious glance at the vehicle.
"Haven't you heard the rumor? That Rick turned into a monster and that Daniel was the one who killed him."
Dilan let out a sharp, humorless snort.
"You're too naive. You believe any shit they whisper in your ear."
He tightened his grip around the hammer handle. "But it's a fact that he has a gun. We can gather more dissatisfied people and go talk to Donna."
Marcos pondered for a moment, staring at the other residents working on the lawn with equally tired expressions.
"Yeah. Maybe it's a good idea."
The thought of eating meat was too tempting to resist.
Oblivious to the low-budget mutiny brewing outside, Daniel was reaching the final steps of his own project.
He was leaning over the table, focused on the stone pendant he had bought for twenty coins.
Engraving the Rune there proved more difficult than on paper, not because of the material's hardness, but because of the reduced size of the surface.
The level of precision required made the muscles in his arm gradually stiffen.
When the last stroke connected, the stone emitted a subtle whitish glow before returning to normal.
"Phew," Daniel let out his breath all at once, leaning back in his chair and cracking the vertebrae in his neck.
Opening the store, he spent ten more coins on a sturdy black string. He threaded it through the pendant and turned it into a necklace.
Upon checking his attributes, he noticed the work had cost him forty energy points, ten more than when he created the rune in the notebook.
I only have ten points left.
"System," Daniel called mentally, drumming his fingers on the table. "If I put points into Intelligence, will my Spiritual Energy increase like mana stats in RPGs?"
[Yes. Each added point expands the maximum reserve by 10]
Daniel opened the interface. He still had four unused attribute points. His initial idea was to balance things out: two in speed to maintain his advantage and two in Intelligence.
However, after allocating one, the attribute reached its maximum. Now, he would need to raise all the other attributes to twenty-five before increasing his speed further.
So he directed the remaining three entirely to Intelligence. Immediately, his Spiritual Energy reserve expanded by thirty points.
[Life Level 2: Common Superhuman]
Lifespan: 20/200 years
Strength: 16 / Endurance: 16 / Intelligence: 19 / Speed: 25 (Max)
Spiritual Energy: 40/130 (Recovery: 10 per hour)
The click of the unlocking door cut through the silence. Julie entered the vehicle, brushing dust off her jeans.
"Fatima is outside. She wanted to know if you could pick up Ellis at the clinic."
"No problem," Daniel agreed, storing the necklace in the Inventory as he stood up.
Julie, already used to this kind of weirdness, didn't even react.
She simply opened the door again and waved for Fatima to come in.
"Hey," Daniel greeted her, heading to the driver's seat.
"Didn't Donna say the folks were going to stay in town for a few days?"
Fatima let out a deep sigh.
"Things over there aren't very friendly," she confessed, frustration heavy in her tone.
"People keep giving us dirty looks. And to make it worse, Dale got into a nasty argument over food. It almost turned into a full-on fight if the sheriff hadn't stepped in to break it up."
"That's why Donna decided it'd be better for us to come back to the house."
Julie, who hadn't heard the news yet, frowned.
"Wait. So the tower construction is going to stop?"
"No, not at all," Fatima reassured her. "Actually, with everyone focused here, the idea is to finish the structure even faster."
Julie relaxed her shoulders, murmuring in relief.
The trip to the clinic and back was quick and uneventful.
When they returned to Colony House, Daniel helped Ellis climb down.
The young man limped along with the support of an improvised crutch and, after thanking them for the ride, headed toward the porch with Fatima supporting him, his gaze lingering on the place with a certain melancholy.
Daniel took in the atmosphere growing more crowded as people from town arrived in small groups.
Jade was barking orders like everyone there worked for him. Irritation was obvious on several faces, but clinging to the hope of escaping this place, they kept obeying anyway.
"Daniel!"
Ethan approached with his mother right behind him, shadowing him closely.
"When are you going to teach me how to hunt?"
"I think the lesson can start now," Daniel decided, noticing the boy's excitement.
"I'll keep an eye on him for a while. You can get some rest," he told Tabitha, seeing the dark circles under her eyes.
Tabitha hesitated. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, don't worry about it."
"Alright," she relented with a faint smile. "But stay close to the house, please."
"We will," Julie assured automatically, slipping into the role of assistant babysitter.
Daniel led Ethan to a small patch of soft dirt near the back of the house. Kneeling down, he picked up a few thin flexible branches and a sturdy vine.
"The first step to being a hunter isn't chasing an animal with a weapon," he instructed the two of them. "It's making the environment work for you."
He slowly demonstrated how to cross the sticks, creating the perfect tension in the vine to form a sensitive snare.
Ethan watched attentively, not missing a single movement. When it was the boy's turn to try, Daniel helped both him and Julie with a few pointers.
They were laughing over one of Ethan's failed attempts when the sound of a door slamming caught the trio's attention.
Victor stepped out through the side entrance. With measured steps, he started walking toward the tree line.
"One, two, three..." he muttered, a metal lunchbox swinging in one hand while the other held a crumpled piece of paper. He stopped abruptly, checked the paper, then resumed counting.
Unable to contain his curiosity, Ethan abandoned the unfinished trap and walked toward the man.
Daniel let out an amused sigh before following after him, with Julie right behind.
"What are you doing?" the boy asked, staying at a safe distance.
Victor interrupted his counting and cast Ethan a cautious glance. Then he looked at Daniel and Julie a few feet behind him, his expression tightening before he simply continued walking, ignoring all three of them.
"Are you looking for something?" Ethan insisted, matching the man's pace. "I'm really good at finding things."
Victor finally paused and released an impatient sigh.
"I'm not looking for anything," he replied. "I'm checking."
"Checking what?"
Julie stepped forward, lightly touching her brother's shoulder.
"Ethan, leave him alone. Come finish your trap."
But then he seemed to remember something.
"You've lived here for a really long time, right? Have you ever seen the boy who lives out here?"
Victor froze.
The movement of his hands ceased completely. The sheet of paper trembled between his fingers.
His eyes widened as he stared at Ethan's innocent face.
"What boy?" Victor whispered, a strange expectancy creeping into his voice.
"A boy dressed all in white," Ethan explained, gesturing with his hands. "He's my friend. But I've never seen him inside the house or in town. Only out here."
Victor's breathing quickened.
He hasn't appeared in a long time, the man thought, his mind racing dangerously fast.
Seeing Victor fall into some kind of trance, Ethan turned around.
"Have you seen him too, Daniel?"
Daniel kept his expression perfectly neutral and shook his head.
"No, kid. I've never seen him."
Internally, his mind was already racing. He knew the story of the Boy in White. In the original series, the figure seemed to be trying to help.
The problem was that Daniel distrusted everything in that place.
Sara's "bad voices" had tried to kill people, but he didn't trust the "good voices" either. Even if they had helped so far, they could still have some hidden agenda.
Any supernatural entity needed to be treated as hostile until proven otherwise.
I'll probably be able to see him if he appears again.
After leveling up, he could already see the crows that had once remained invisible.
Still, it wouldn't hurt to make sure. As soon as his spiritual energy recovered, he would carve the rune into his skin and keep the spirit-sight function active.
"There aren't any other kids in this place besides you, Ethan," Julie said firmly, trying to end the subject.
Ethan crossed his arms. "There is too! I saw him!"
"Alright, no fighting," Daniel intervened.
He looked directly at Victor, pretending to ignore the panic the man had shown earlier, and changed the subject even though he already knew what answer was coming.
"What exactly are you measuring out here?"
Victor took half a step back, clutching the lunchbox tighter against his chest. Suspicious at first, but after noticing the curiosity without judgment in Ethan's expression, he finally relented.
"I'm checking to see if the trees moved," he answered quietly.
Ethan's eyes widened. "The trees can move?!"
"I don't know yet." Victor glanced back at the crumpled paper. "I'm checking."
Julie covered her face, rubbing her forehead in disbelief.
"Ethan, come on," she said seriously. "Let's not bother him."
Her instincts screamed that keeping her brother, who already had an absurdly vivid imagination, away from the man talking about trees moving on their own was probably a good idea.
Daniel slipped a hand into his pocket. The dry metallic sound of a lighter snapping open and shut broke the brief silence.
He observed the tree line for a moment, curious, before turning his attention back to Victor.
"That actually sounds interesting," he said casually. "You know what? I've got a measuring tape stored away. I can grab it so we can measure the distance properly."
Julie turned toward him immediately.
"Serious?" she asked incredulously.
Daniel merely shrugged, pocketing the lighter and flashing a small grin.
"Why not?"
Julie let out a resigned sigh as she watched Daniel walk back toward the vehicle.
He didn't take long. Less than two minutes later, he returned holding a yellow construction measuring tape.
The sharp click of the tape unlocking sounded loudly. Daniel stopped beside Victor and pointed the end of the tape toward him.
"Alright then. From where to where?"
Victor blinked several times, staring at the object, then at Daniel's calm face, and finally at Ethan, who was watching everything with excitement.
The man tightened his grip on the lunchbox strap against his chest. The surprise was obvious in every line of his face.
His entire life in that town had taught him to expect mockery, pitying looks, or irritation, especially from newcomers, who usually treated him like the neighborhood lunatic.
But there stood that dangerous young man, the same one who had broken someone's arm without blinking, treating his compulsive measurements without a trace of ridicule.
"F-from the base of the trunk," Victor began, his voice slightly shaky before gradually steadying. "To the wall."
With Ethan helping by holding one end under Julie's supervision, Daniel started stretching the tape toward the wall.
"Ten meters and twenty centimeters exactly," he announced.
Taking a worn pencil from his pocket, Victor quickly scribbled the number onto the crumpled paper in rushed, uneven handwriting. Then he stared at the numbers for a long second.
"Thank you," he murmured. "Thank you for the help."
Before Daniel could answer, he heard raised voices coming from the porch of the house.
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