Above the zombie in the middle of the stairs, a notification appeared: [Zombie: Rank F]. Matthew stood before the zombie, its skin grayish from decay, its face riddled with bite marks.
The human zombie didn't even focus its dead eyes on Matthew.
Matthew gave it a weak punch, but the zombie didn't react.
At that moment, Matthew grabbed the zombie's right arm and began to devour it.
Matthew's teeth tore at the putrid blood, then gnawed at the bones. His teeth chipped, but he continued devouring the arm as a putrid, disgusting liquid dripped to the floor.
Minutes passed, and almost an hour later, the system notified him.
[You have devoured an F-rank human zombie arm]
[Regenerating left arm]
[You received: 1 brain]
[When you get 10 brains, the basic shop will open]
At that moment, Matthew's left arm regenerated, but his rank hadn't increased.
Seeing that the system wasn't lying to him, Matthew continued down the stairs, traversing the building until he found a somewhat rusty iron rod. He picked it up and returned to the stairs where the human zombie was.
Matthew plunged the metal rod into the zombie's right eye and used all his strength to reach the zombie's brain.
Shortly after a putrid liquid trickled down the metal rod, the zombie fell dead.
Matthew bent down and began to devour the abdomen and rotten entrails of the zombie he had just killed.
A grotesque and unpleasant scene brought him a large reward, allowing Matthew to regenerate his entrails and abdomen, which had previously been grotesquely ripped open.
[Coins: 2 brains]
[Zombie: Rank F]
His face bloodied and filthy, Matthew left the building where he had lost his humanity.
...
Matthew walked through the dark, silent streets. His zombie body was in better condition, but he still walked with some unsteadiness.
[Coins: 3 brains]
In the end, he decided to eat almost the entire zombie's body. Although he was initially worried about not being able to finish it, this concern was resolved when he realized that his body was sending what he devoured to some unknown place, or perhaps it was his body assimilating the food without wasting anything.
In his hands, he still held the iron bar with which he had killed the other zombie, because he had decided that he would kill any zombie that was easy to kill and that would bring him benefits.
As he walked, dragging the metal bar, night fell. At night, some rotting zombie dogs emerged, stalking the streets.
[Zombie Dog: Rank F]
[Zombie Dog: Rank F-]
[Zombie Dog: Rank F+]
Matthew saw an opportunity. He walked up to the Rank F+ zombie dog. The dog didn't react to Matthew's presence, so in the end, it could only let out a muffled squeal.
Matthew sat on the ground and began to devour the zombie dog. He devoured its paws, then its entrails, its flesh, and everything, even the dog's teeth.
[Host's teeth became stronger]
[Host's sense of smell has improved]
[Host's sense of hearing has improved]
Matthew stood up and continued walking as he saw the final window that read [Zombie: Rank F+].
At that moment, Matthew understood that the fact that the zombies considered him a zombie was a great advantage.
At times, he even thought that the entire ruined city was almost like a store of nutritious food capable of strengthening him.
After devouring the dog, he continued wandering the city in search of new opportunities.
He didn't think about resting because he didn't feel sleepy. He could tell the surroundings were cold, but that didn't seem to bother his zombie body.
He also preferred to stay active so as not to get lost in useless thoughts about the past.
"Now I had to be strong and adapt, only then would I avoid rotting," he repeated to himself as he continued walking, but all the disgusting zombies he saw scattered throughout the city were in the F rank or the F- rank.
...
Matthew continued walking through the city and stopped in the middle of an alley when he saw an elf zombie.
[Elf Zombie: Rank F+]
The elf zombie walked slowly, as if it were just an F- rank zombie.
Even so, Matthew chose not to doubt the system and cautiously approached the elf zombie, which was only wearing a torn shirt and leather pants.
Matthew didn't hesitate to attack when he realized the elf zombie wasn't paying attention to him. However, this time he didn't stab the zombie's eye, because from close range he could see that the elf zombie's eyes looked like those of a living being that hadn't become a zombie.
Stab!
The metal bar Matthew was holding pierced the zombie's left ear and exited through the top of its head. The elf zombie fell to the ground, and Matthew extracted the eyeballs, immediately putting them in his mouth.
The eyeballs burst when bitten and were then swallowed by Matthew.
[You have devoured Zombie Elf eyes]
[The eyes were Rank E]
[Host's sense of sight has been enhanced]
Immediately, Matthew realized that the rest of the zombie elf's body was worthless, because if it was only a Rank F+ zombie with Rank E eyes, it meant the zombie's body was weak or severely deteriorated.
Matthew continued exploring that gloomy city, sometimes entering ruined buildings to see if he could find a decent zombie worth devouring.
While inside one building, he was glad he was going in, because outside he heard the loud flapping of wings from a creature that must have been quite large.