In front of his building, Theo invited them to come in.
"There must be ghosts in your building, right?" Will asked.
"Haha." Theo simply laughed and started climbing the stairs.
Not understanding, they followed him.
"It's dark, even so, the ghosts aren't showing up... So, is it really just our building that's haunted?" Sara murmured.
Theo glanced at his shadow. He had a vague idea that his ghost daughter was hiding there.
It was unlikely in his body, but in the shadow, it was possible.
'She must have managed to hide in my shadow because of her new skill.' Theo guessed.
Emily, who felt Theo's gaze, knew she had been found and said: "Daddy, that's unfair~! You only found me because I helped you before, right?"
"Who's there!?"
From Theo's shadow, Emily emerged.
When they saw her, they got into attack positions.
"Don't attack her." Theo warned: "She's with me."
"But, she's a ghost." Will said.
"And?" Theo asked coldly: "What world do we live in? What's so strange about me adopting a little ghost girl?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm daddy's daughter and I'm a ghost, what's your problem with that, huh~?" Emily brought her face close to Will's.
He turned pale with fear and nearly fell if Sara hadn't supported him.
"Hahaha, pathetic~ Daddy didn't even blink when he was surrounded by ghosts, and look at you~" Emily showed no mercy.
Being criticized like that, especially by a little ghost girl, made Will feel extremely humiliated, but Sara pinched his waist, and he restrained himself.
"Alright, I was too stubborn just now, sorry." Will said.
"Hmph, good that you know." Emily stopped paying attention to him and said: "Daddy, I'm going to eat and I'll meet you at home~"
"Okay." Theo agreed.
After walking a bit in silence, Mia couldn't contain her curiosity anymore: "She's a ghost, so... What does she eat?"
"Other ghosts." Theo said: "We're almost there."
"Other ghosts?"
It was quite a revelation.
"Well, that's not uncommon, don't zombies start eating other zombies after reaching a certain level of strength?" Theo asked rhetorically.
"They do?" Esmeralda seemed unaware of this.
"Yes, they do." Sara replied.
"Ohh..."
"Come in." Theo said.
He didn't even need to open the door, since he had broken it down before.
'Maybe I should steal a door and replace this one.' He thought.
"Toilets?" That was one of the things that caught their attention the most upon entering.
But when they saw the wood, they understood.
"That was a good idea to do this." Mia thought out loud.
"It helped during the cold times." Theo said: "Make yourselves at home. I'll go get the cans of sardines."
As Theo left, he heard Will murmur: "So many gallons of water..."
...
He knew he had a lot of gallons of water, but he had no intention of trading them. One thing was the cans of sardines he could buy through the system's store, but water was a luxury item.
In the room he entered, he quickly bought 4,000 cans of sardines for 200 essence.
He grabbed some trash bags and put them all in the bags.
Then, he started carrying them.
When he appeared with the first six bags, he said: "You can take a look. I'll go get the rest."
Without waiting, he turned around and went back to the room.
While Mia was the first to open the bag and pick up a can of sardines.
"It's well-preserved. The expiration date..." She frowned. There was no date written.
"Normally, it can last from 2 to 5 years, so it should be fine, right?" Sara gave her opinion.
"It seems to be in his favor now, weren't you against him before?" Esmeralda asked.
"Before was before, now is now." She replied.
Theo returned with six more bags.
Soon, the room was filled with several black bags full of sardine cans.
There were a total of 80 bags.
"Will we be able to carry all this by ourselves?" They underestimated the value of 4,000 little sardine cans.
"If you can't, you can make more than one trip." Theo replied.
"Well, that's true."
"I'm home~" From the floor, Emily returned.
[HP: 540/540]
"Welcome back." Theo said: "How was it?"
"So-so." She said: "I think that big bird daddy blew up would taste better."
"Can you eat that?" Theo was a bit surprised.
"I don't know." She replied uncertainly: "But how will I know if I don't try~?"
"Haha, yeah, you're right. When I get stronger, I'll catch one for you to try." Theo said.
"I knew daddy was the best~" Emily clapped.
Meanwhile, Mia and the others were speechless, even a bit awkward.
What to say... Emily's voice was sweet and soft. Their conversation was quite harmonious, but...
Just seeing who the sweet little girl's voice belonged to made him start thinking something like: Where am I, who am I?
"I'm here."
"Finally!"
As if they had seen their savior, upon seeing Violet arrive, they almost ran to her.
The situation there was so strange it became uncomfortable.
...
The negotiation process began after each one tried a can.
Theo said: "There are a total of 80 bags, and each contains 50 cans of sardines."
They did a quick check.
Violet handed over a large cloth bag with the 250 cores.
Theo asked: "Did you bring people with you to carry the bags?"
"No, but I found something useful that will help carry everything." Violet replied.
"In that case, I'll help carry." Theo offered his help, and they didn't refuse.
...
When they finally finished, Theo saw that Violet had gotten a covered four-wheel trailer. They quickly placed the bags inside the covered trailer.
It was something normally pulled by cars, but for someone as strong as Violet, pulling something like that was easy.
Indeed, it seemed useful. Theo even thought about getting one, but gave up when he remembered he had the inventory.
**
**
After saying goodbye to them, Theo returned to his apartment.
Now it was just him and Emily again.
Sitting on the couch, looking at the glowing cores in the bag, he felt like laughing out loud.
'It was really a good trade for me.' He thought.
While for them, it would help survive hunger, for him, this would be what would help him get stronger!
After rummaging through, he gave an ironic smile.
'They're all level 1 cores.'
He wasn't complaining. He just thought Violet was clever to give only level 1 cores.
'Well, I never specified what level I wanted.' Theo thought.
If it were him, he would've done the same.
Theo didn't start absorbing the cores. First, he took the generator and turned on the TV and DVD for Emily to watch. However, the remote wasn't working. Even though he thought he was spending too quickly, he grabbed new batteries and replaced them.
'It worked.' He thought, picking up the movie disc.
"Daddy, let me put it in." She asked.
Handing the disc to her, Emily smiled, which was a bit creepy, but Theo was already used to it.
Meanwhile, Emily put the disc in the DVD player.
"You just need to press this button on the remote." Theo showed.
She nodded seriously and took the remote.
After she pressed it and the disc entered the DVD player, the images began to load.
"Now just press this button." Theo showed.
She nodded and pressed it.
When it started, she threw the remote into the air and clapped.
However, noticing what she did wrong, she went and picked up the remote.
Laughing, Theo stepped away and went to the couch.
Taking one core at a time, he wanted to see if there was one with the [Stealth] skill.
On the tenth, he found it.
'Bingo!'
He chose to upgrade the skill.
...
After absorbing another 18 cores, one of which was to upgrade the skill, he found another core with the Stealth skill.
[Awakened skill: [Stealth], upgraded to level 2]
'Haha, it was totally worth it!'
He could feel his synergy with the skill improving greatly.
Without wasting time, he continued.
...
On the twenty-fourth core absorbed, a notification appeared.
[You leveled up!]
He kept using them, but noticed that now he only gained 0.5-1% per level 1 core.
'I used 52 cores, I still have 198 left.'
...
After absorbing another 138 level 1 cores, he stopped while at 99%.
He thought: 'Okay, let's try to get this skill to level 3. I managed to set aside another 22. I hope that's enough.'
Taking the first core, he clicked to absorb it for his skill.
- [Stealth (Level 2 / 6%)]
Seeing this, he smiled and continued absorbing.
[Awakened skill: [Stealth], upgraded to level 3]
It took 17 cores.
He continued using the remaining 5 for the skill.
- [Stealth (Level 3 / 6%)]
With that, he went back to absorbing the cores, and on the third...
[You leveled up!]
════════════
Mission: [The One Who Levels Up] Completed!
Reward: 400 essence.
Bonus objective: [Reach Level 3 with the [Stealth] Skill] Completed!
Reward: 10 Lottery Tickets.
════════════
He made a victory gesture, clenching his fist.
'There are still 38 cores left.' Theo thought about the inventory and, without hesitation, added +1 slot in exchange for 32 level 1 cores.
With that, he had 6 cubic meters.
════════════
Theo Dimas
Race: Human
Age: 20 years
Level 5
Progress to the next level: 0%
[HP: 500/500]
Essence: 1,479
════════════
Awakened skills:
- [Stealth (Level 3 / 6%)]
- [__] (Locked): Unlocks at level 10
════════════
'Mm, it's satisfying to look at.' He thought: 'And, I'm almost at the amount needed to buy the Lightning Manipulation skill.'
He didn't expect to gather it so quickly.
But of course, he couldn't expect that Violet and the others would be willing to trade cores for sardine cans.
'Should I try to negotiate for a generator?'
He immediately dismissed the idea. It was too risky.
The questions that would arise were immeasurable. And a possible headache in the future.
Taking the remaining 6 cores, he absorbed them.
Progress to the next level: 0.6%
'Well, I kind of expected that, but...'
Essence: 1,503
Taking a deep breath, he opened the store.
════════════
[Store]: 1,503 Essence
1: [Winter Clothing Set: S, M, L, and XL]: 1 Essence [x]
2: [Neutralizer]: 100 Essence [x]
3: Skill: [Lightning Manipulation Level 1]: 1,500 Essence [x]
4: 20x [Sardine Can]: 2 Essence [x]
5: Skill: [Amplified Sound Level 1]: 990 Essence [x]
6: 48x [Toilet Paper Roll]: 1 Essence [x]
7: [Apocalypse Energy Generator]: 100 Essence [x]
8:
9:
[Lottery Wheel]: 10 Essence – 10 free
Pending store tickets: 6
════════════
He clicked on 'Lightning Manipulation,' 'buy,' and 'learn.'
"Daddy, daddy!?"
Theo fainted.