Matthew knelt before the zombie woman.
"Can you speak more coherently?"
"Live...live...live...live..."
Matthew felt interest in the zombie woman, for a moment he thought about making her one of his servants.
In the end, he felt it was too simple for a raw talent like her.
Matthew crafted a sword from bones.
She handed the bite-ridden rat to Matthew, still repeating, "Live...live...live...live...live"
Matthew severed his own left arm and offered it to the zombie woman. He then took the rat's remains and devoured them in front of her.
"If you want to live, devour the zombies and then find me."
Matthew climbed the ladder again.
At that moment, Matthew's arm regenerated.
...
In that darkness, the zombie woman saw Matthew's arm, and whether it was intuition or she understood Matthew's words, she devoured the "arm" bite by bite.
...
A few days later, in the afternoon, when it was raining heavily, Matthew left that basement-like place. He wanted to take advantage of the fact that he could blend in with the sound of the rain. Besides, his two dogs were still relatively alive and still hidden. Matthew had the dogs move stealthily toward the city center. The sight before him left him somewhat surprised.
...
For no apparent reason, different zombies fought to the death, inflicting grievous wounds on each other with their teeth, hands, claws, weapons, or whatever they could find, depending on their rank.
When a zombie died, the victorious one headed toward a massive building with an enormous semi-spherical dome that resembled a Renaissance-style basilica.
"Just the sight alone would send shivers down anyone's spine," thought Matthew, who, unlike his dogs, went to the outer edge of the city to survey the perimeter.
And just as Matthew expected, escape wouldn't be easy.
There were two types of zombies on the city's outskirts.
The B-level butcher zombies, who no longer dragged steel carts.
Enormous bat-like zombies that perched like vigilant gargoyles atop the less dilapidated buildings.
[Vampire Zombie: Rank B]
[Vampire Zombie: Rank B]
[Vampire Zombie: Rank B+]
Those henchmen allowed Matthew to confirm that the zombie in that basilica-like building had to be at least an A-rank or higher.
"It would be stupid to try to control any zombie in this city, especially those that went to the city center voluntarily.
...
"I think the best thing is to remain hidden until I can buy another 'monster pill,' after which I'll try to escape this city. No, maybe if I wait two months, I can... no, that would be too greedy."
In the end, Matthew and his dogs entered different buildings and didn't come out again for a while.
...
Several days later.
[Secondary Frankenstein System]
[Zombie: Rank E-]
"What...what's happening?" the female voice asked.
[You have received the primary host's goodwill]
[The primary host's wish is that you develop your abilities]
[Devour zombies to grow and replace your body parts with better ones]
She tried to remember her past, but she could barely recall it—a very broad fog due to the time she had spent as a low-rank zombie. Despite this, she vaguely remembered the zombie who had helped her. She didn't know if it was a good thing or not, but she was grateful to him for giving her the chance to continue living and to regain a part of her consciousness, even if her body didn't feel moved. At least, that's how her mind felt.
At that moment, some rats walked around, and she felt a strong urge to devour them.
[Secondary system advises escaping the city]
...
It was night, and some zombies were beginning to enter the city. The night sky was clear, unlike other days.
"I have six seconds. I have four brains left," Matthew concluded, remaining hidden inside a building. He had been observant and noticed that the zombies seemed to enter the city every nine days, so he chose that day as the right moment to escape.
Matthew positioned his zombie dogs while he used his low-level energy perception to detect the zombies entering the city. He was waiting for the moment when the largest possible number of zombies entered so he could launch a surprise attack and successfully escape.