The news about the survivors in the east shocked almost everyone in the hotel, although I was also surprised, I felt more depressed. I mean, the people in the north were using fellow humans as baits and batteries, while a woman in the east established a reverse-harem. Not only that, she didn’t let a single woman or child enter that hotel. According to Sarah, not all men in that place were good-looking, but only the handsome ones could stay near her.

“Seriously, I’m shocked. How could such a stupid person be alive and command an army of nine hundred men?”

I didn’t want to ask that out loud, but I asked it. That woman was even worse than the guys in the north. Since I still didn’t have the MP to keep myself invisible for a long time, that situation troubled me. However, I didn’t have any intention to get involved with her. In many ways, she was too troublesome.

“Are you serious?” Sandra asked astonished.

Sandra was even more speechless than I thought she would be. She wasn’t naïve like the others, but she was a bit idealistic. She was having a hard time trying to believe in our report because she didn’t expect such behavior. But what really troubled me was that woman unknown strength. She was powerful enough to command so many men, and she didn’t even look afraid of being attacked by them. She fought like hell and got immensely strong, or she obtained some crazy skills.

But since I didn’t have to worry about her, at least for the time being, I decided to leave the others and create the forest guardian’s cape. The cape looked a bit old, and the green wasn’t like I had seen on the hologram, but after I equipped, I noticed that the cape covered almost my entire body, the lower half of my legs still could be seen. However, it didn’t hinder my movement since it was light. I could easily pick and aim with any of my crossbows.

‘Well, time to test it.’

When I turned around, I saw Claire, Rose and Sarah looking at me like I was a dubious person. It seemed that I looked like a possible criminal.

“You look very shady with this cape,” Claire said while frowning. “Are you feeling cold or something?”

“No, I’m not. This is my new equipment.”

“What this cape can do?” Sarah asked.

Since it was better to show than explain, I activated the cape’s effect, slowly my body disappeared. To my surprise, I could see a red dot disappearing in the map on the ceiling; it was more useful than I thought.

“Why in the hell you created such a thing?” Claire asked with her face red of anger.

That surprised me, why would Claire react like that? Rose was looking at me suspiciously; rather, she was trying to look at me. On the other hand, Sarah hides herself behind Harry, and he seemed very excited. Like he wanted to test it too… oh, I see.

“Do you guys really think that I would become invisible to peek on you guys? Don’t get carried away. I created this to give me the chance to attack the monsters from behind. Seriously, who can you guys be so full of yourselves?”

“Really?” Claire asked with suspicion in her eyes. “I don’t believe it.”

“Whatever, I don’t have time to waste with this kind of conversation, and I also don’t owe any of you explanations for my actions.”

Since it was a good chance, I decided to pass near them very slowly. And like I expected, only Claire noticed and she accompanied my movements, even though she couldn’t see me.

“Why are you walking so carefully?” Claire asked, showing a questioning face.

“Just testing if I can really move without being noticed, I need some training, I guess.”

Claire still had some few things to say, but I just ignored her, and I left the hotel. Although the monsters couldn’t see me, they could find me by looking at the snow or by the smell. It was snowing non-stop since yesterday, so, I couldn’t run, but I didn’t intend to do it anyway. I was invisible, but I also couldn’t make any noise or make any sudden movements. I had to become one with the environment to surprise the monsters. Although I intended to do that, a cold breeze made me tremble.

‘So cold!’

While trying to ignore the cold, I began to walk, searching for monsters. Thanks to the radar, I could easily find isolated monsters and follow them from behind. Also, with the skill effective range, I wouldn’t be ambushed. Because of that, I didn’t rush. But my MP was slowly decreasing, so I began to drink some lemonade.

The first monster that I found was a mutant arctic fox; the creature was trying to pick up the smell of something, wandering for a side of the streets to the other. Since the wind was coming from the direction of the beast, I could approach without being noticed. But just to be sure, I stopped when I was fifty meters away from the monster. My target was walking slowly, so that distance was good enough for me.

‘Alright, from now on, I have to always hit the nape, the neck or the back of the head. I have to get used to it.’

Maybe even that wouldn’t be enough to kill monsters like the mutant polar bear, but it was my best option. A few weeks had passed since I had the chance to aim at the monsters carefully, but I never forgot the actions that I should take to shot a perfect shot. The target was small, but after three seconds, my aim was already above the creature’s nape. And without hesitation, I shot.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

For a second, the effect of the cape disappeared, but nothing or no one saw me for that brief moment. The bolt pierced the creature’s neck, but thanks to white fur, the bolt didn’t cause a lot of damage, not even made the beast fell on the ground. But after two seconds, the bolt exploded, and the creature fell, a half-destroyed head flew to a direction and the body to the other.

You have obtained 100 Evolution Orbs.

You have obtained 100 Evolution Coins.

To my surprise, the wind and the knee-deep snow muffled the sound of the explosion. I doubted that anyone or anything more than three hundred meters away could have heard the noise. But I didn’t move just to be sure and waited for a few seconds to see if any enemy would appear in the radar. Nothing happened, so I began to walk again while recovering my MP.

After a few more battles against hares, foxes, and lemmings. I finally found a mutant polar bear; the monster seemed to be moving around with no objectives in mind. It didn’t try to pick the smell of a target, and it wasn’t showing interest in the buildings either.

‘I wonder for how long these creatures can live without food.’

Well, even though I could find an answer to that question, nothing would change. The monsters had to die, and I needed the evolution coins. So I aimed at the monsters nape with the metal crossbow. But soon, I changed my mind when I saw the creature turning left in the next intersection. The beast wasn’t moving around aimlessly… the mutant polar bear was walking with a clear destination in mind.

My curiosity got the better of me, so I began to follow the mutant polar bear. Maybe I was wasting time, but I could obtain a new piece of information by doing that. I could kill any monsters at any moment as long as I had MP. I could obtain many evolution orbs and coins. But that wasn’t enough, to survive, knowledge was also necessary. If I could understand more of the monster’s behavior, I could use it against them.

My stomach was almost full of lemonade, so I didn’t have much time left, but the mutant polar bear didn’t walk a long distance. The monster stopped in front of a beehive covered with snow. And to my surprise, the beast didn’t attack. I could see the presence of many mutant bees thanks to the radar, but the monsters inside of it didn’t react with the presence of the mutant polar bear.

For a few seconds, nothing happened. But when I was about to give up, I saw something falling behind the beehive, the mutant polar bear picked up and ate.

‘What the hell…’

I couldn’t see from my position, but there was probably a hole behind the beehive. But more importantly than that, the bees were probably feeding all the mutant polar bears. I could wait for years, but even without eating humans, the monsters wouldn’t die from hunger.

That surprised me a lot, so I returned to the hotel without even killing the beast. As soon as I opened the hotel’s door, I cancelled the effect of the cape, thanks to it, Claire and Harry noticed that I had returned. Since they were close to the entrance door, it seemed like they were waiting for me. Seriously, why didn’t they try to do something less useless? But to my surprise, they understood that I wasn’t in the mood for talking.

‘I have to verify if that is really true.’

I headed to the statue and immediately accessed the creation menu. If that really could create anything, then confirm that fact would be easy.

‘Let’s see… I want to create the mutant bees’ honey.’

A hologram appeared in front of me, and it showed a brown object and it looked very similar to the one I saw the mutant bear pick up.

Mutant bee’s Honey: a delicious dessert made by the mutant bees. It’s the favorite food of many bears, and it’s highly nutritious. It can restore your HP, MP, and STA by 30 points.

Price: 150 Evolution Coins.

That was terrible news, but at least we also could eat the honey. We just have to be brave enough to attack a beehive protected by hundreds of mutant bees. Well, there’s a fine line between bravery and foolishness.

‘If the mutant bear can eat that kind of food, then the other monsters can also eat it, or they feed themselves with something else. Since the vegetation grew so fast, they are probably are eating some plants.’

It would be hard to find thanks to the snow, but it wouldn’t be impossible to find those plants. I wondered if I could analyze them, maybe it would be useful.

‘Just fighting isn’t enough; I also have to learn more about the changes in the world. Maybe I won’t find any explanation, but knowledge is power.’

It would be hard for me since I wasn't smart, but that was the best thing that I could do. At least for now, after all, I still didn’t have the MP necessary to fight and keep myself invisible for hours.

“It seems that you made some discoveries,” Claire said. “Do you intend to share it with us?”

I shared that information with Claire and Harry, and like me, they felt worried. But soon they recovered themselves from the surprise; the odds were against us, to begin with, another problem or two wouldn’t change much. Besides, we now had another good reason to explode the beehives. Maybe it was time to equip the truck with a flamethrower or something that would do the trick.

“Anyway,” Harry said while massaging his forehead. “We already decided what will be our next plan of action.”

“Really? So, what you guys decided?”

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting anything good. But I had to rest a little to recover my MP, so I decided to listen.

“We decided to negotiate with the survivors in the north,” Harry answered. “We won’t negotiate with the survivors in the west, that’s out of the question. But we think we will be able to reach an agreement with the north.”

I could understand why they didn’t want to ally with the woman leading the survivors’ camp in the west. Because of her actions, probably a lot of children and women died. On the other hand, it looked like a bad idea to negotiate with the north.

“What will you guys do if they refuse to negotiate?”

“We will fight,” Harry said, looking very determined. “To save as many persons as possible, we will fight and sacrifice a few to save the majority.”

Harry didn’t hesitate while saying those words. It seemed that he was ready to kill again. But Claire didn’t look to approve that idea. Was she the only one who disagreed?

“Well, good luck with that. I’ll keep hunting the monsters and looking for useful information; I think I’m pretty good at doing that kind of thing. If I discover anything, I’ll share with you guys.”

Maybe I had been a bit too straight forward because Harry looked speechless. Claire looked like she wanted to say something, but she didn’t say so I just left them behind. I thought that she would get angry, but she looked more conflicted about something. But since it wasn’t my problem, soon I forgot about it.