I Got Reincarnated as a Zombie Girl

After refreshing herself and drying her face in the bathroom, Sylvia walked toward the luxurious wardrobe that completed the facilities of the Penthouse Suite on the top floor of the Grand Elysium Hotel. She removed the thin, nearly transparent silk pajama that had been brushing softly against her skin and replaced it with something more appropriate for outdoor wear. From within her personal System Storage a virtual spatial space with unlimited capacity and absolute time-stasis effect Sylvia took out an elegant black gown. The gown wrapped the perfect curves of her body extremely well, radiating the aura of a mysterious yet lethal goddess, accentuating the flawless porcelain-white skin that was a remnant of her evolution.

"Come on, Sol, Noir," Sylvia called in a casual tone.

The two dragons disguised as pet cats immediately responded. Sol, the pure Golden Dragon in the form of a softly glowing golden-furred cat, meowed with a bass resonance like a small dragon’s growl. Meanwhile, Noir, the true Black Dragon that had evolved from a Rank 7 Zombie Dragon and whose fur was as pitch-black as the night, leapt lightly to follow its master’s steps.

The three of them left the suite room protected by absolute magical shields and sound-isolation formations, then walked along the thick-carpeted corridor toward the elevator. The magical crystal elevator of the Grand Elysium Hotel, the most elite and expensive lodging in the Holy Capital of Tianhua that resembled an ancient palace carried them downward smoothly without any turbulence. Sylvia observed the magical white-gold carvings on the elevator walls as they glided down toward the main dining area on the fifth floor.

The moment the elevator doors opened, the aroma of spices, freshly roasted meat, and bread just out of the oven immediately swept across Sylvia’s sense of smell. The dining area was extremely spacious, decorated with warmly glowing magic lamps and towering marble pillars. On the long tables covered with silk tablecloths, various luxurious dishes had been neatly arranged. From precisely cooked cuts of high-rank mutated monster meat to exotic fruits that radiated a thin magical aura.

Looking at all this luxury, Sylvia stopped her steps for a moment. An ironic, thin smile formed on her rosy-red lips. The sight of this extraordinarily luxurious buffet triggered a series of philosophical thoughts in her mind. Hmm, it seems it is indeed true those in power will always enjoy life well, while the weak have no choice but to live in misery, Sylvia thought.

She recalled the social structure of the Tianhua Kingdom, which possessed an extraordinarily vast territorial scale, where extreme inequality existed between the elite mage caste and the common people. Up here, in the Upper District that was a gigantic floating land island suspended in the air and pulled by magic chains to the earth pillars, the elites dined like gods. Yet beneath the shadows of this floating island lay the Lower District, a dark and squalid area where millions of commoners and refugees crowded together, struggling merely to survive hunger and disease.

To Sylvia, this was an irrefutable law of nature, especially in a post-apocalyptic world that had undergone dimensional collisions and expansion to a hundred times its original size. In a world where the oceans had turned a dense reddish-black filled with toxic miasma and inhabited by colossal mutant monsters on the level of Pseudo-Rank 7, weakness was the greatest sin. Sylvia herself had once been an ordinary human who died from a zombie bite, before finally crawling upward by consuming mutation after mutation until she reached the peak of the food chain as a Rank 7 Demigod and the absolute Queen of Death. That was why she felt no pity for this world’s system; she simply understood it with extreme clarity.

Dismissing her reverie, Sylvia took a crystal plate from the end of the table. She walked gracefully along the rows of food, ignoring the admiring and lustful stares from several male guests around her who were captivated by her beautiful face and body curves. Sylvia chose her breakfast simply yet nutritiously: several thick, savory-scented meat sausages, two slices of toasted wheat bread, a small bowl of warm soup, and a glass of fresh soy milk.

After her plate was filled, she moved to the meat section. Of course, she did not forget the two city-destroying creatures that continued to trail near her feet. For Sol, who possessed a sacred element, Sylvia took cuts of meat from a light-winged mutant animal roasted medium-rare. As for Noir, who preferred dark and strong things, Sylvia chose a pile of mid-rank bull-monster meat coated in spicy black-pepper sauce. She placed their food on two small silver trays.

"Come on, let’s find a good spot," Sylvia murmured to her two cats.

She walked across the main hall and chose a small round table located in the balcony area of the fifth floor. Because the Grand Elysium Hotel was designed to imitate an ancient palace with an extremely strategic position, this balcony offered a view that pampered the eyes. The morning breeze blew gently, brushing strands of Sylvia’s long hair. From this balcony she could enjoy the view of the Holy Capital while peacefully eating her breakfast.

In the distance she could see crystal skyscraper towers powered by Magic Cores glittering as they reflected the morning sunlight. Floating trains running on transparent light rails appeared crossing the bright sky of the Upper District. Everything looked extremely calm. Sylvia slowly sipped her soy milk, feeling the warm liquid flow down her throat. Beneath her feet, Sol and Noir chewed their high-class monster meat greedily yet without much noise, enjoying the service of the Queen of Death.

That peace lasted for approximately fifteen minutes before the sound of heavy, rough footsteps ruined the morning harmony.

"Hey! Servant! How can you allow dirty animals in this VIP dining area?!"

A man’s voice that was shrill and full of arrogance echoed across the balcony area. Sylvia did not immediately turn. She cut her sausage with a silver knife, slowly placing it into her mouth while chewing elegantly.

Behind her stood a young man dressed in thick silk embroidered with gold thread, a symbol of wealth and the status of a low-ranking noble in the capital. Behind the arrogant youth stood four large-bodied guards wearing light-alloy plate armor and carrying magical weapons. The young man pointed toward Sol and Noir, who were licking residual sauce from their silver trays.

"Look at those two dirty cats! Their fur could get into my food! Drive that woman and her pets out right now!" the young noble shouted while stepping forward toward Sylvia’s table, trying to display his authority. To him, seeing a young woman alone with pets in an elite hotel was an easy target to oppress in order to show off his power.

Noir stopped its licking. Its sharp, lethal purple eyes glittered dangerously. As a true Black Dragon that could level a city in a matter of minutes, being insulted as a "dirty cat" by a human whose power did not even reach Rank 5 was a great humiliation. Sol also turned its head, its golden tail stopping its sway. Yet before the two dragons released their killing auras and turned this breakfast area into a sea of blood, Sylvia slowly set down her fork.

Sylvia turned her head slightly to the side, glancing at the young noble and his four guards from the corner of her eye. She did not release her Authority of Absolute Death at all, nor did she call upon the Chain of Abyss that could erase the existence of high-level enemies. She merely used the tiniest portion of her True Sight as the Queen of Death. Her beautiful, calm eyes suddenly radiated the majesty of an endless abyss of death, regarding the fragile threads of their life fates as though they were cotton.

There was no mana explosion. There was no magic spell chanted. Only a divine pressure restrained to such a degree, yet sufficient to distort the laws of nature around that table for a fraction of a second.

Thud!

The four large-bodied guards instinctively reacted faster than their master. Their survival instincts screamed, warning that the entity in front of them was not human, but a disaster in disguise. The faces of those guards turned deathly pale like corpses. They immediately stepped forward, not to attack, but to position themselves as shields in front of the noble. Yet their legs failed to support their own body weight. The four elite guards fell to their knees, their bodies trembling violently and uncontrollably, cold sweat flooding their foreheads as their breathing grew ragged as though their lungs had just been crushed by supernatural pressure.

The young noble, who had lost the protection of his guards, was struck directly by the residual gaze of Sylvia. His arrogance shattered into pieces in an instant. His eyes bulged wide with absolute horror. His legs lost their strength and he immediately collapsed hard onto the marble floor in a sitting position.

The fresh morning air was suddenly colored by a sharp stench of urine. A yellowish puddle slowly seeped from the crotch of the expensive silk trousers belonging to that noble. He had wet his own pants merely from being glanced at for less than one second. The arrogant man could not even utter a single word; his lips trembled violently while tears of fear streamed freely down his cheeks.

Looking at the disgusting scene before her, Sylvia snorted softly. She withdrew her gaze and put on a disgusted expression. Her appetite was slightly disturbed by the smell of the noble’s urine.

Indeed, people like this are the ones who meet their end the fastest, Sylvia thought while slowly shaking her head. They were blinded by their small status in this Holy Capital of Tianhua surrounded by hexagonal walls hundreds of meters high, feeling that the world centered on them. In truth, no one knew when they would kick an iron plate and offend a party that turned out to be extremely powerful. The power scale of this kingdom was extremely weak; even the peak of human power here was only equivalent to Rank 9, capable merely of leveling a small hill. And they dared pick a fight with a Rank 7 Demigod? How ridiculous.

Sylvia had no intention of dirtying her hands this morning. She reached for a silk tissue on the table, wiped the corner of her clean lips, then regarded the crowd of guards still trembling on the floor.

"Leave," Sylvia said in a flat, cold tone without the slightest emotional emphasis.

Yet that single word sounded like sacred forgiveness to those guards. As if just released from the gallows, the four guards ignored their shame and dignity. With their remaining strength driven by adrenaline and terror, they immediately crawled to their feet, dragged the collar of their still-frozen master’s clothing who remained in a wet state, then fled in panic out of the balcony area as fast as possible. They even collided with a servant’s food trolley in their panic, running away without daring to look back.

After the troublemakers vanished, calm and peace once again descended to envelop the balcony table. Several other guests who noticed the incident chose to turn their faces away, pretending to see nothing, because they knew the woman in the black gown sitting with her two cats was clearly not a figure who could be offended.

Sol and Noir returned to busily cleaning the residual food on their plates, as though the recent incident had been merely cheap entertainment unworthy of the attention of true dragons. Sylvia smiled faintly at her pets’ behavior.

She leaned her back against the soft chair again, raised her glass, and casually sipped the remainder of her soy milk. Her stomach was full, and this bright morning had given her a fairly good mood. Originally, last night she had planned to go out immediately to explore the streets of the Holy Capital of Tianhua, shop for unique materials, or perhaps learn more about local political dynamics.

But after stretching her muscles and feeling the gentle breeze on this balcony, laziness slowly spread through her body.

Later will do, Sylvia thought while giving a small, elegant yawn. Besides, the bureaucratic, administrative, and economic affairs of Nocture were currently being fully handled by Sofia. My poor lover is probably cursing me while signing piles of documents right now. There’s nothing wrong with me, as the Queen of Death, taking a short leave and relaxing for a while, hehe.

Sylvia closed her eyes, allowing the warmth of the morning sun to caress her porcelain face, deciding to spend at least the next hour doing nothing except enjoying the life she had won from the harshness of the world’s apocalypse.