Much, much better than I expected. This is the first series on MangaDex to which I've given the Masterpiece (10/10) rating. The mangaka's earlier work, Coo's World (Coo no Sekai), too was a good read. Miyori's Forest shows improvement.
The quality of the artwork picked up considerably in this chapter. That's usually a good sign. The happier Ishiguro-sensei is with how it's coming along, the better it is for us, his readers. ?
So, the catgirl from the "prototype" chapter has arrived! Very cool! (That chapter used to be available on Bato.to, but it doesn't seem to be on here, yet.)
Perhaps this late (re)introduction is for the better. It's more organic w.r.t. the plot and character development.
This is superb. It's always a joy to come across mangaka who have "the touch".
This one-shot reminds me of some of Kui Ryoko's short stories (Kui Ryoko is famous for Dungeon Meshi).
Not a spoiler as such: Parts of the opening four chapters have passing similarities to a short story the mangaka did for the anthology 8 Tales of the ZQN. That short story is titled The Place Where the Zombies are. Check it out after you've read these chapters; it's here on MangaDex. You'll see...