If the timing was right, Liam thought about cooking right now so he could have a nice meal, but this wasn't a time when he could relax.
He returned to the living room, followed by several zombies carrying various kitchen supplies.
At least the two four-armed zombies could easily carry many items thanks to their large bodies.
Liam checked the bunker again, but it remained tightly sealed.
He couldn't keep worrying about the people inside if they weren't going to open the door.
Perhaps they also didn't trust anyone, preferring to stay inside the bunker even knowing there were people above.
Once outside the house, Liam was a bit surprised by the number of zombies gathered outside.
They were only being blocked by his rat, so they didn't dare to enter.
Upon closer look, most of these zombies were middle-aged women and small children.
"Seems like almost no one survived in this complex," Liam thought.
As he was thinking about that, he was suddenly surprised by the appearance of two young girls in school uniforms — Lisa and Melly.
They had just arrived, cautiously scanning their surroundings.
"How bold of them..."
Liam wanted to scratch his head, not expecting them to be so reckless. As if the zombies and monsters around the school weren't enough, they came here too.
Fortunately, the zombies in this complex were focused on him.
However, the girls soon spotted the large group of zombies surrounding the house.
And the zombies saw them as well.
As if spotting new prey, they roared and charged toward the girls, frightening them.
"Run, quickly!" Lisa shouted, while Melly seemed hesitant whether to run or fight.
"Attack!"
Liam gave the order as he jumped onto his rat's back.
The rat and Alice attacked the zombies from behind, breaking their formation.
"That's Liam!"
Lisa and Melly immediately spotted him.
They had initially wanted to flee but stopped once they saw him.
When Liam attacked, the zombies also stopped going after the two girls.
Alice, wielding the spear she had just received from Liam, rampaged through the horde of zombies, most of which were only Level 1 and 2.
Liam didn't focus on fighting because there was no benefit for him.
Once he was close enough to the two girls, he leapt toward them.
"Why did you come here?" he asked.
"We still want to fight," Melly replied.
"How's the school? Are the zombies and monsters all cleared out? That's impossible, right?" Liam said.
Of course, for him, that was impossible since even if they were all killed, more would come from other places.
"It's gotten difficult over there," Lisa answered. "Joel and Anthony have formed a big group. With the help of that kid named Carlos, they've made it hard for others to kill zombies. Sometimes we fight with everything we've got, only for them to finish off the zombies at the last moment."
"Right, we can't level up if it keeps going like this," Melly added.
Liam frowned upon hearing that, not expecting Joel and Anthony to have gone that far in just a short time since he left.
They clearly had a long-term plan to recruit other students to their side.
"Alright, you can fight here," Liam said while waving his hand, allowing them to battle.
Even though there were many zombies, the area here was much safer thanks to his rat and Alice.
Liam didn't plan on venturing further for now.
He hoped the commotion would attract stronger zombies and monsters so he could fight again.
He climbed onto the roof of a small house, watching everything from there.
When he glanced at his watch, he saw it was almost 10 a.m.
Time really flew by since the sky still wasn't very bright, though the rain had lightened.
"In a few more hours, everyone will receive their third skill," he thought, recalling what the System had promised when it first appeared.
He wondered if his third skill would be of a higher tier or lower. If it was lower than his second skill, all this waiting would feel meaningless.
"Ohh..."
He was then surprised when he saw something large and orange leaping high in the distance. He wondered what kind of creature could jump so high.
As it became clearer, he realized it was an orange cat.
It looked like a typical orange cat except for its massive size, even larger than his black rat.
BANG!
It landed not far from the zombie horde.
Interestingly, the cat even wore a chain collar around its neck, adding to its fierce appearance.
Unlike typical cats, this one didn't seem tame at all. Its body was muscular and full of large muscles.
"Meow!"
The cat let out a loud cry toward Liam and the others.
Its eyes were wild and ferocious.
Just as the cat meowed, Liam noticed that his rat lowered its head, appearing terrified.
(Boss Monster Level 7!)
Liam received the notification.
Right after that, he saw more cat monsters approaching in various colors—black, brown, and white.
They were smaller, only Level 4 and 5.
Their status marked them as regular monsters, but there were more than ten of them.
Without such a big commotion, Liam doubted they would've appeared so easily.
It seemed that this complex had more cats than dogs since he had only encountered one dog monster so far.
"Meow! Meow!"
The cats meowed simultaneously.
Then, they suddenly charged toward the black rat.
Surprisingly, the rat quickly turned around and ran at full speed, even though the orange cat didn't join the chase.
Despite being larger and of a higher level than the other cats, the rat was still terrified.
Liam didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Apparently, the instinctual fear of cats that rats had still lingered even after becoming monsters, and they remained enemies even though they were both monsters now.
"You little brat, die!"
Suddenly, the orange cat shouted and charged toward Liam.
It seemed to recognize who the leader was, so it immediately attacked him rather than chasing after the rat like the others.
Liam, with his fighting spirit ignited, welcomed its approach gladly.
His spear instantly appeared in his hand.