Every footstep outside was a clear sign of threat that Matthew didn't ignore; the system's warning alone was enough to keep him from acting recklessly.
"It's best to stay hidden, as if I were dead. Although, relatively speaking, I already am," Matthew thought as he closed his eyes as if trying to rest.
Eventually, the footsteps grew distant, but he still preferred to remain hidden until sunrise. Sitting there, he sometimes thought about what had happened to him, though sometimes he returned to the idea of a possible nightmare. That thought vanished as soon as he opened his eyes and found himself still in that dark and terrifying fantasy world.
"The worst part is that now I'm just another part of what's terrifying."
When the dim sunlight streamed through the window, he peered out cautiously and saw no immediate danger, so he took the opportunity to go outside and continue exploring the surroundings.
Matthew patiently checked the buildings he hadn't yet examined.
Upon reaching a building with a basement, he found five shriveled bodies.
"They probably died of starvation, dehydration, or were simply poisoned. It's not like going out into the middle of a zombie-infested city was going to make their lives easy."
Just like in the previous building, he found more dead bodies in several other buildings, all from causes other than zombies.
As the sky darkened, Matthew had tirelessly checked a quarter of the city's buildings and found no survivors, though he did find pamphlets and books with information about the city.
While searching, he saw another F+ rank dog. He devoured it, but this time only his sense of smell improved slightly.
"That means I can still get some upgrades depending on the strengths of the zombies I devour," Matthew thought.
"Although, according to the system, it's my qualities or body parts that get replaced with better ones."
Matthew was about to enter a Gothic-style building, but he stopped at the door.
He felt vibrations coming from the building's basement, used his sense of smell, and detected a pure, nauseating odor.
"There's definitely something in the basement of this building," Matthew thought. Not wanting to be reckless, he looked for another building hundreds of meters away from the one where he had sensed the mysterious threat.
That night he waited all night and didn't hear the flying creature that had appeared the night before.
When day arrived, with no hurry to go out exploring, Matthew read the books and pamphlets he had collected. The reading, while not the most useful, wasn't entirely without purpose. He looked at an old map of the surrounding area, recognized the name of the city—not very helpful at the moment—and was also able to learn about some of the races present in that world. When the sun reached its zenith, he ventured out to continue exploring the rest of the city. Now with a broader understanding of its most important landmarks, he decided to first check places where food might be stored or buildings that could serve as makeshift shelters.
Just like before, he found only dried corpses. In some buildings, he found only moldy food in old sacks or rusty cans.
What surprised him most was the scene he found in the basement of a building, in which an entire family lay hanging from a ceiling, their dried corpses still hanging because they had used chains to hang themselves; there were five bodies, of different ages, something evident when seeing the size of the bodies.
As night approached, in a building's warehouse, Matthew saw the dismembered remains of people inside sacks.
"There's always evil, even in the midst of chaos."
Since night had already fallen, he stayed in that building, waiting patiently once again. But minutes passed, then hours, and the flying creature didn't reappear. "How strange! Was he stalking me that day?" was a question for which he found no immediate answer.
...
As the sun rose, he continued his exploration of the surroundings, keeping a watchful eye on the zombies. He almost instantly dismissed all zombies in rank F and "rank F-", unless their bodies were excessively decomposed. In such cases, he approached to check if they possessed anything useful, like the eyes of the elf zombie, though so far he hadn't found anything of value.
As he continued moving in and out of buildings, time passed. When it was late again, he cautiously continued his exploration, making sure to stay close to the buildings in case the flying creature appeared.
[Feline Zombie: Rank E-]