Building his matchbox house didn't take Steven very long.
By skipping all the unnecessary rooms that he probably wouldn't even use, the whole process became much simpler.
And just like that, Steven had plenty of time left over to explore his surroundings and get a better understanding of his current situation.
At first glance, there was nothing but an endless expanse of snow stretching as far as the eye could see.
Still, that didn't mean he was just going to sleep the day away.
At the very least, he needed to light up his map and get a sense of his environment.
After all, he was still within Ursus' borders.
As long as the conditions weren't so extreme that survival was impossible, Steven figured he should at least have a chance of finding some locals.
After all, never underestimate humanity's ability to survive in desperate conditions.
As long as they were alive, people would always blast their own way forward.
Just like the eskimos from his first world—
Even though they lived in a similarly endless frozen tundra, some might go their entire lives without eating cooked food, yet they still managed to survive in such a harsh environment.
With that in mind, Steven tidied up his admittedly crude little home.
Once he made sure he had all his essentials, he tightened the straps of his leather armor and stepped away from the warmth of his campfire—putting it out on the way out.
Closing the iron door behind him, Steven figured that, even though his house was basically empty, he still wouldn't want strangers poking around in it.
That was just personal space, plain and simple.
With everything ready, Steven casually picked a direction and started walking.
With a bed and a minimap marker, he wasn't worried about losing his way home.
That said—
A guy wearing a full fur outfit, topped off with a glowing pumpkin head, wandering across a vast white tundra…
Yeah, that was way too eye-catching.
He looked like something straight out of a cryptid legend.
Not that Steven himself realized this.
As he wandered aimlessly across the hard, frozen ground, now free from the cold's bite, he glanced up at the sun and sighed in relief.
At least the weather was decent.
If he had to map out his surroundings while trekking through a blizzard, there was no way in hell he'd be willing to do it.
I mean, who in their right mind would go running around in a godforsaken place like this under horrible weather conditions?
The only thing annoying him was that he'd been walking for over half an hour, and not only had he seen no signs of human activity, but even wildlife seemed weirdly scarce.
Everywhere he looked, there was just an endless suffocating white.
"…Did I pick the wrong direction?
Even if this is some deserted borderland, it shouldn't be this quiet, right?
Or maybe… does this world just not have wild animals?"
Muttering to himself, Steven was about to switch directions when a scent hit his nose.
Something that didn't belong in this pristine frozen landscape.
His nose twitched twice as he confirmed that the scent wasn't his imagination.
It was real—coming from somewhere up ahead, hidden beneath the snow-covered forest.
'Finally.'
Steven's lips curled into a grin.
It's the smell of blood.
And where there's blood, there's at least some form of life.
Or, at the very least—traces of it.
Following the scent of blood, Steven silently slipped into the unnervingly quiet forest.
The closer he got to the source of the scent, the more chaotic the scene became.
Broken branches and frantic footprints scattered across the ground confirmed his suspicions.
But there was something unexpected—
Aside from human shoe prints, there was also a set of large, bear-like paw prints pressed deep into the snow.
In other words, someone up ahead had the misfortune of getting attacked by a bear?
Steven stroked his chin.
That wasn't particularly surprising.
What did strike him as odd, though, is the fact that the tracks told a different story.
The bear's footprints led ahead, while the human tracks were in pursuit.
That was strange.
Sure, when Outcast and the others described Ursus, Steven already got the feeling that this country's real-world inspiration might be Russia…
But still, it's not like they'd be so hardcore that people hunted grizzlies for fun, treating them like oversized hamsters, right?
Frowning in confusion, Steven pressed forward.
He knew that once he reached the place where the blood scent was strongest, he'd get his answer.
Pushing through a brittle thicket of dead trees, clearly snapped by some force, Steven finally laid eyes on what he was looking for.
—A grizzly bear's corpse, its chest cavity hollowed out, its organs completely missing.
Judging from the chaotic scene around it, this bear must have fought desperately but failed to escape.
And the one responsible?
Long gone.
Steven crouched down, running a hand across the frozen bloodstains.
It was hard to tell how long ago the killer had left, but one thing was certain—
This didn't happen recently.
His gaze fell on the bear's mutilated torso.
Just what kind of being could do something like this?
There were no weapon marks, only claw wounds from the bear itself—meaning the killer likely took it down in a single blow.
That wasn't normal.
If this had been a hunter from the tundra, they wouldn't have wasted the bear's flesh and hide.
Compared to organs, the meat and fur were far more valuable for survival.
But this scene?
This was more like a predator's kill.
After all, organs contain the most nutrients and energy—the best part for sustaining life in harsh conditions.
But a human, hunting a grizzly bear?
And the lack of any fire pit nearby meant they had eaten the organs raw.
This wasn't human behavior.
No, it was something human-shaped, but not human at all.
Steven sighed, shaking his head.
"Such a waste of good bear meat."
Though curious, he didn't dwell on it.
If there really was some strange monster nearby, then sooner or later, he'd run into it.
For now, he was just happy that this little outing had netted him a whole bear's worth of meat.
He'd had plenty of beef, pork, and lamb before, but bear?
Now that was something he hadn't tasted much of.
After all, in vanilla Minecraft, bears don't even drop meat.
At least this trip wasn't a total waste—
That was Steven's thought as he reached for the grizzly bear's corpse, intending to store it in his inventory.
But then, the unexpected happened.
The moment his fingers neared the bear's paw, a tear suddenly split open across the flesh.
Instead of blood, something far worse emerged.
A single, crimson eye—eerily human-like—blinked back at him from within the wound.
Steven's hand recoiled instinctively, his expression twisting in disgust.
But the mutation wasn't done yet.
The instant that grotesque eye opened, the sound of tearing flesh filled the silent forest.
Within seconds, the once-intact bear corpse was covered in these unnerving, staring eyes.
They all locked onto him in unison.
The feeling of being watched by countless gazes made Steven's skin crawl.
It was just too revolting.
And as he struggled to suppress his growing discomfort, the horror escalated—
The bear's exposed ribcage began to twist and reform, morphing into grotesque, blood-soaked arms that replaced its missing limbs.
With those twisted appendages, the creature slowly rose from the ground.
Steven raised an eyebrow.
"The hell is this? A live-action body horror scene?"
This was the kind of sickening spectacle you'd only expect to see in some extreme R-18 horror flick.
Honestly, he was just trying to eat, but now, his appetite was ruined.
Just moments ago, he'd been thinking about how to cook the bear meat…
Now?
Yeah, not happening.
Even if someone offered it to him for free, he wouldn't touch it.
But the abomination didn't care about Steven's opinions.
Having adjusted to its new, grotesque form, it suddenly lunged forward far faster than anything that size should move.
Its maw remained shut, but from within its exposed chest cavity, slender, writhing tendrils lashed outward like grasping fingers.
For most people, such a horrifying sight would be paralyzing, yhey'd freeze up in sheer terror and end up dead before they could react.
But Steven?
He wasn't just some helpless scholar with no combat ability.
Nor was this the first time he'd seen something so grotesque.
Back when he'd faced parasitic infections on Parasites Mod, he'd already dealt with far worse—
Like that decapitated cow head that somehow sprouted legs and scuttled after him like a spider.
So, an eye-covered, mutating corpse-monster?
Yeah, not exactly nightmare fuel.
Especially when it had a visible health bar over its head.
How scary could it really be?
With a flash of cold steel, Steven unsheathed his blade—
The legendary [Yamato].
A single arc of dazzling light split through the air, and in the next instant, the nightmarish creature collapsed into a heap of neatly sliced meat behind him.
Sliding his blade back into its sheath, Steven sighed.
"Creepy, sure. But weak as hell."
<+>
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