[3rd POV]
"Solomon Grundy, born on a Monday!"
'Did Solomon Grundy really born on a Monday? No one knew.'
The only thing Tony could be sure of was that he died in the nineteenth century or, more precisely, in 1894.
It had been over a hundred years since his body was dumped in the swamp. Now, this monster came back to life from the swamp, but with a new name.
"Solomon Grundy, born on a Monday!"
He sang the old nursery rhyme he remembered from when he was a kid.
He imagined himself as Solomon Grundy from the story because that was the only name he could think of from his few memories left.
Solomon Grundy's pale, corpse-like body wore tattered, filthy clothes that gave off a foul stench with powerful muscles beneath his skin, with blue veins standing out clearly.
A terrifying, living, dead monster had come to life.
After watching the nearly three-meter-tall behemoth charge through the sewer, Tony's heart pounded wildly.
The half-ton monster's footsteps made a roaring noise like a speeding truck, and it was running right toward him.
"I'm stumbling and rushing toward you~"
That familiar tune involuntarily echoed in Tony's mind.
"Damn it, now is not the time to be singing!"
He immediately started frantically searching through the store. When he found the "Rapid Life Recovery" item, Tony quickly chose to use it on Solomon.
[Warning: The person's life form is too special. The Rapid Health Regeneration can only restore them to a normal state for a limited time.]
[Effect: The duration on the current target is twenty-four hours.]
[Confirm?]
'What a joke!'
'This twenty-four hours and ten thousand asset points? Why not just go rob me instead?'
'And what does "restore to normal" even mean? Do they mean a corpse state? Then how would he eat a hamburger? Am I supposed to shove food into a corpse's mouth?'
He had no choice but to look for other methods.
Grundy possessed superhuman strength, endurance, and immortality—immune to weapons and capable of rapid self-healing—maybe superhuman powers, or even more than that.
Tony could die in one punch and had no chance to load on the save point.
'What should I do? Is there anything that can stop Solomon or something that can make him temporarily give up his hostility toward me?'
Solomon's footsteps grew louder and closer. In just a few seconds, he had already stepped into the light of the glowing jack-o'-lanterns.
'Damn it, hurry up! Hurry up!'
He frantically sifted through his search results and suddenly spotted an item with his eyes lit up instantly.
[Halloween Pumpkin Head]
[Price: $200]
[Description: The user can use a homemade carved pumpkin to buy this item. The quality of the pumpkin carving improves the effect of this item.]
Tony immediately clicked to purchase it.
The jack-o-lantern he originally received from the system suddenly flashed brightly, and it lit up abruptly.
He remembered that anything bought from the system store could be stored inside it too and this jack o lantern was something he bought earlier, but he had carved it into a mask.
Surprisingly, even though it looked super ugly, the system still counted it as a system item and could be stored directly.
After Tony bought the "Halloween Pumpkin Head," the name of the pumpkin mask item immediately changed.
Originally, it was called "Pumpkin" when he bought it. After carving it, its name became "Ugly Pumpkin Head." And now, its name was "Insanely Ugly Pumpkin Head."
The word ugly was definitely there to stay.
Solomon had been charging right at the intruder who entered his territory, but he suddenly saw him turn his head around just as he was about to slam into him.
Suddenly, Solomon saw a grotesque and terrifying ugly pumpkin monster emitting a ghostly, sinister grin directly at the charging Grundy.
It turned out that the person holding the jack-o-lantern had no facial features, not even a head—just a few hollow jack-o-lanterns with empty holes for eyes, nose, and mouth.
An eerie light shone from those empty holes, staring intently at Grundy, and the face on the jack-o-lantern looked alive.
That huge pumpkin mouth stretched into a wide grin, and the round eyes squinted slightly as if mocking Grundy for stumbling right into its trap.
"No head! No head! Pumpkin Man!"
He didn't really remember much anymore with most of his memory, and his reason and intelligence had slipped away with them.
Solomon's IQ was almost equal to a kid.
He didn't understand what was good or bad, and people couldn't really talk to him to persuade him with complex logic or reasoning, but today, his luck wasn't great.
Today, Grundy ran into someone who was really good at bullying little kids, and that someone was Tony.
"Grundy! Grundy! Solomon Grundy!"
The Pumpkin Man's voice was eerie and terrifying, just like the scary monsters in fairy tales that eat children.
He walked slowly toward Grundy while holding the glowing jack-o-lantern. The light inside the jack-o-lantern suddenly turned a ghostly green as if burning with a ghostly flame.
"Born on a Monday,
Christened on Tuesday."
"No! No! Grundy doesn't want it! Pumpkin Man, stay away!"
"Married on Wednesday,
Took ill on Thursday,"
The Pumpkin Man's voice grew louder, almost deafening, and the fear instantly filled Grundy's heart.
He watched The Pumpkin Man steadily approach him, eyes wide open, trembling all over, and his body stiffened as he turned his head, trying to run away.
"Grew worse on Friday,
Died on Saturday,"
"Thump"
"Thump"
"Thump"
Grundy turned around and ran as fast as he could away from the scary Pumpkin Man behind him.
Right now, all he wanted was to escape that creepy green glow and the spooky voice chanting his name.
"Buried on Sunday.
This is the end
Of Solomon Grundy."
"Solomon Grundy!
Buried on Sunday.
This is the end
Of Solomon Grundy."
"Nooooo—!"
"Bang!"
The ear made his legs, already as stiff and numb as a zombie's, freeze even more.
Grundy tripped and fell flat on the ground.
When he turned his head to look again, the Pumpkin Man holding the lantern was already right in front of him.
Grundy trembled and shut his eyes tightly, curling up, but there was no bloodthirsty pumpkin mouth coming at him.
"...Huh?"
After opening his eyes, Solomon saw the Pumpkin Man simply placed a bag on the ground.
A tempting aroma drifted out of it, and it smelled way better than rats or trash!
"Solomon Grundy… Happy Halloween."
...
150 Power Stones = 1 Extra Chapter
250 Power Stones = 1 Extra Chapter
450 Power Stones = 1 Extra Chapter
1000 Power Stones = 2 Extra Chapters
2000 Power Stones = 3 Extra Chapters