Chapter Ninety-Five: Friendly Communication

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Monster Summoning Manual.
Status: Active
Monster Roster: 3
Item Vault: 3
Acquired Items: [Ari's Music Box], [The Suspended Cross], [Button]

Button Note: It is stained with the obsession Button carried from its human life and never wears down. When the Button is rubbed three times, the monster dwelling inside appears. Each time the Button is rubbed, a wave of cold attacks you.
[This is an extremely weak monster; but that is precisely the joy of cultivating one!]
[Very weak. Button was tormented by his own kind while in the Sealed House and now harbors resentment toward his master. Affinity: 0]
[At heavy injury level. It is recommended to spend Slaughter Value to restore his wounds.]

In the workshop swallowed by darkness, Fanli did not hurry to leave. Instead, he opened the Grimoire and turned to the page recording Button.

“Too weak, and bullied by a whole bunch of its own kind? Why do I feel oddly sorry for it? As a monster, you no longer have to carry those old sins. Since you still cling to this workshop, I’ll call you Button.”

One could imagine how tiny and timid a zombie this was—already badly hurt and not yet even at the full level of a monster—when it entered a hut stuffed with relics of legend-level rank.
It was like a pickpocket sneaking into a prison and scanning fellow inmates, where even the weakest are gun runners, all of them either condemned to death or life sentences. The pressure, you can imagine.

Perhaps Button had already reached an ice-point in kindness toward Fanli from enduring such torment, and thus Fanli obtained his first summonable with zero affinity.

Fanli gave a tiny nod and whispered to himself:

“Slaughter Value can now be confirmed, much like a soul or a measure of life force. Normal zombies are few because they do not have much energy. Monsters are different: they can perform stranger abilities, and their energy and vitality are naturally much stronger.”

“Could it be said that, like hiring talent, giving enough compensation is what gives them a reason to serve under you? Slaughter Value is the currency, monsters are the employees, and this manual… well, it can be understood as a headhunting firm or an agency.”

“Compared with Ari and the Butcher, summoning Button requires enduring cold. Is it because his strength is weak that the requirements at summoning are weakened as well?”

“Monsters can heal using Slaughter Value. Button is heavily injured, so it will cost a lot of Slaughter Value to restore him.”

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Fanli pondered for a few seconds, then, biting down on his lip, chose to heal Button. Although Button was not yet a monster, even an Abnormality is far stronger than ordinary humans.

Especially the way this one attacks by spitting buttons from his mouth is so rough that it ruins the technique. If all at once, it is like a shotgun blast; imagine if it were one at a time? Fanli had experienced it himself—under a wrapping of blood-thread, an ordinary button could leave shallow dents in a hammer.

If one were to stuff stones or steel nails into the mouth, each thing spat out would have destructive power no weaker than a bullet.
Since long before giving Ari a hammer to increase her damage, Fanli had noticed a pattern: if an item is used well, a monster’s overall power can rise a stage.

With that settled, Fanli no longer hesitated and whispered in his mind, “Heal Button!”
Though prepared, Fanli still winced a little as 20 points of Slaughter Value vanished.

[310/500]

After a short wait, Fanli decided to summon Button and check how well he had recovered. He started to rub the button, and on the first rotation, a chill spread through his whole body.
At that moment he felt as if he stood naked in a draft. Not only his fingers, but his whole body, while rubbing, was shaken by repeated currents of cold.
Still, it remained within what he could bear—nothing like that freezing midwinter wind, carving across the face like a knife.

Fanli gritted his teeth and rubbed three times. Then black mist flashed by, and a figure with its back to him appeared on the floor.
Again the manual showed its wonder: before vanishing, Button had his legs crushed and could only writhe on the ground; now, by some uncanny turn, he stood there fully upright, with no visible trace of grievous wounds.

Button had an unusual obsession with work. That was perhaps why he could keep his mind clear. What people call consciousness, in his case, was more the memory of guarding the workshop, the bench, and his handiwork—and that, precisely, is something a zombie devoted only to killing lacks.

[Obsession can affect zombies and may cause unpredictable changes.]
Fanli took out his notebook and wrote down one crucial sentence.

Button was not friendly to Fanli. He had once been a free creature; as an Abnormality, no zombies bothered him. He guarded his beloved workbench day after day. His life was dull for ordinary people, but for Button, who had lost ninety percent of his wits, it was far more fulfilling than the aimless zombies who only shouted as they wandered through every corner.

He paid Fanli no mind. The moment he appeared, he lowered his head to the ground, picked up buttons, and pushed them into his mouth one by one, in a strange and focused rhythm.

“I do not mind an employee having his hobbies, but being unable to obey instruction is far too poor.”
Fanli moved aside, patted Ari on the head, then nodded forward and mouthed, “Go meet your new coworker.”
Ari lifted her head, showing rings of cold, white teeth; at her feet, she stayed still. In her poor dictionary of words, there was no entry for “coworker.”

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Fanli did not explain. He only shifted his gaze to Button, curled his lip into a faint smile and showed his teeth in a gentle expression: “Hammer him for me!”

“What?”
“Bang!”
“What?”
“Bang-bang!”
“What—”
“Bang!”
“Bang-bang-bang!”

After several minutes, the Button who had once faced away from Fanli now lay supine on the floor, his limbs twitching now and then, with blood-foamed saliva and buttons dropping to the ground from his mouth.
Fanli stepped forward and clearly saw Button’s body shift slightly to the side.
Fanli watched in silence, then suddenly said, “I won’t interfere with your hobby, but you must learn to obey. If you cannot face reality, I’ll have to kill you.”

In the pitch-black workshop, a human threatening a zombie with words felt unreal.
Button lifted his head. His normal-looking eyes turned toward Fanli and revealed a flicker of panic and fear.

[Affinity 80: can be controlled, can be commanded!]
[You have mastered the ability to instill fear!]

After that friendly exchange, Button chose to concede.

“Good. You finally understood my intentions.”
Seeing the rising affinity, Fanli murmured, content.