Nile patted the two animals' heads. He then waved his hands in the air after seeing some bruises and small cuts around their body. Three lollipops that come with three different flavors materialized on Nile's hand. He gave the two to his animals and the other one ended up in his mouth.

"Let's go!" Nile said as he sheathed the Katana to its sheathe on his back.

Nile then felt that something was missing. He tried his best to recall what it is, unfortunately, it seems that his scatterbrain side won this time.

Nile hops on the back of Croco as he prepares to leave.

Just when Maximo took his third steps, Nile suddenly heard a muffled voice far from him.

The battle had ended and the surroundings returned to its silent self. Although it was just faint for others, for Nile who already has a 14.99 Constitution, he heard the muffled voice clearly.

"Someone's pretending to be dead, eh?" Nile said as he unsheathed the Katana again.

He pulled the reins, urging Maximo to turn back so that they could inspect where the person pretending to be dead was hiding.

Like a dog, Maximo sniffed everybody he encountered. Croco doesn't have that kind of time, so instead of checking if they were still alive, he just cut their heads directly to kill them.

"Aurkk-!"

Suddenly, the muffled voice sounded again, but this time, it was cut short as Croco's blade had already cut the man's neck before even knowing he was still alive.

Nile clicked his tongue and as he was about to instruct Maximo to turn around, he noticed something in the corner of his eyes.

It was a man embedded into a tree.

Nile slapped his forehead as he just recalled what was missing. It was the Kriegsmesser of Agony.

Nile urged Maximo to get closer to the man. He no longer cared about the man but the Kriegsmesser was important and he wanted to retrieve it.

As they got closer to the man, his present state was also presented to them.

The man opened his eyes, it was as if he was screaming but no voice would come out of his mouth. His pants were wet from his own piss and the ground under him was littered with foul fluids.

It looks like the pain was really too much for him that he even vomited due to it. While still atop Maximo, Nile pulled the Kriegsmesser of Agony away from the man's shoulder.

The man's body fell to the ground, he was now bathed on his own puke.

It was true that Nile also wanted to torture the man for slandering him, but seeing his state, he no longer have the desire to do so. It's not that he took pity on him, it's just that he doesn't want to torture a man that was bathed with his own piss and vomit.

Nile shook his head and before he sheathed the Kriegsmesser, he gave the man a stab to the head.

"Let's go!" Nile uttered.

Passing by dozens of human bodies, if it was before, Nile would surely freak out. However, after coming to this zombie world, seeing something like that had already been a normal occurrence to him.

Guilt?

No need to feel that way. They were the ones who wanted to kill him in the first place. It's just self-defense.

If he is not strong enough, then he and his pets would be the one lying on the cold ground right now.

"Kill those who wanted you harm! No mercy!"

That line had already become Nile's motto.

After a few minutes, Nile arrived at the collapsed tree from before. Behind this tree would be the house the women used as their temporary base.

At first, Nile wanted to buy a snake hide on the System Store to help Croco's evolution. Fortunately, at the intersection going towards this place, they found a lot of dead animal's mutated body and a huge snake was among them. Nile skinned the snake and stored the mutated hide of that snake inside the storage space. At least, he would not need to buy it anymore. Not that Apocalypse Points still matters to him.

Nile gets off Maximo and opens the thick leaves in front of him. The house was then presented to his eyes.

'Fortunately,' Nile thought.

He worried that the house would become rubble after being run by the enormous mutated animals.

His worry is not one without a basis. After all, due to the incident earlier, the houses of the Village of Kawayan had already become ruins. If it was ruined by the trees before, then this time, it is even more ruined. One could say that there's no longer any village houses standing upright in this village.

'Maybe this one is the last?' Nile thought.

Nile and his two pets walked side by side towards the houses. Nile inspected the place more thoroughly and he found out that there are four more rooms on the second floor.

Nile wanted to make their evolution as safe as possible, so before he initiated the process, he first littered some traps around the houses as the first line of defense.

He also bought some lawn mowers that will automatically start if they sense some zombies nearby. The lawnmowers are not that expensive so Nile bought a total of six and scattered them around the house.

Now that the defense was ready, Nile returned inside the house to initiate the evolution process.

He chose the four rooms upstairs, besides from the fact that it was cleaner, it's spacious as well.

He gives the two animals a room each for their evolution. He doesn't know what will happen during the process and he will also be busy during that time, so it's better to separate them with room lest they disturbed each other.

First, he withdrew the mutated snake's hide and gave it to Croco. Croco accepted the snake's hide and instantly, he started to gobble it up, thus initiating his evolution process.

Nile then closed the door before going towards the other room where Maximo is.

Maximo needs the sledgehammer as the item for his evolution. Nile shook his head as it seems that Maximo already knew from the start that it's the requirements for his evolution.

"So that's why he isn't willing to part with it!"

Maximo could have already started his evolution as the sledgehammer was with him all the time. However, he purposely waited for Nile to gain permission.

Nile smiled and nodded his head towards Maximo. He then left the room and closed the door tightly.

Nile then walked towards the room at the center, the room he chose for his evolution spot.

"Phew!"

Nile closed the door and lay down on the bed. The swords along with their scabbard had already been stored inside the Storage Space. Nile was afraid that they might cause him trouble during the evolution.

He recalled the last time he upgraded. It was so painful and he couldn't help but roll around at that time.

Nile just hopes that the System's words were true and it won't be as painful as the first one.

Nile took a deep breath and after his beating heart calmed down, he said eagerly, "Start the upgrade, System."