Leveling Up Wives In The Apocalypse
Mathew survived the entire two weeks of the apocalypse. A great score for someone blessed with brains over the brawn. Yet, even he fell after just fourteen days, giving his all to save the one person he cared for.
But why does a death looks like watching himself from the third person perspective? Is this the purgatory to watch over his own shoulders at the mistakes he made? A punishment for Mathew's sins to repeat those mistakes over and over again?
But wait, what are the three clocks in the corner of his vision, one of which only five minutes away from ticking out?
And most of it all, why does the school looks like it did just a moment before the apocalypse began?
Read Leveling Up Wives In The Apocalypse 1 Ultimate Sacrifice online for free - AllNovelFull
"Go, now!" Mathew whispered.
His wide-open eyes and tense facial muscles screamed urgency.
Yet, he didn't need to hurry anyone off.
Their entire group rushed forward the second he gave the signal. Their entire group…
But Mathew.
For a single second, he stood back.
'System miracle,' he chanted in his thoughts, a look of desperation flashing in his eyes.
'My left lung,' he added, closing his eyes.
This entire interaction took less than a second. And without thought, Mathew picked up the pace and ran after his friends.
[Sacrifice accepted]
The cold voice of the system washed through Mathew's mind.
He felt no pain when his left lung vanished.
His miracle system was fair. Even though half of his lungs just disappeared, his body didn't go into a state of shock.
The miracle that followed would prevent any secondary damage related to his sacrifice.
[Miracle activated] The cold voice of the system rang in Mathew's ears.
A sense of strength filled his flesh.
All the pain and exhaustion of the last two weeks vanished on the spot. His fear gave way to the cold and composed calculation.
He caught up to his group without anyone even noticing his late start.
'Here,' he thought, grabbing up Nadia's hand as he rushed ahead.
"Damn," Mathew cursed under his breath when their group reached the corner. "They are already here," he uttered through his teeth.
The main school's corridor ahead was filled with zombies.
'Judging by the bigger physiques in the crowd,' Mathew took notice, 'there are some evolved ones out there too.'
Their group didn't stop.
The five of them were the last students of the 3G class that survived. Maybe others were hiding in a different part of the school…
But with the entire place overrun by zombies and monsters, there was hardly any way to check that.
"Push through!" Mathew shouted, tightening his fingers over Nadia's wrist.
'No matter what, I will get her out of here,' he thought, steeling his resolve as he gripped his baseball bat.
"KILL!" he shouted a second later when their group crashed right into the crowd of the zombies.
Mathew swung his bat in all directions. His movements appeared frantic but were aimed at just pushing the zombies away instead of putting them down.
The force behind his swings far exceeded the capability of his meager muscles allowing for such a reckless tactic.
'We can make it through,' Mathew thought when the first of his remaining companions got caught. A rotting hand emerged from the crowd and caught the poor man by his throat.
A grab like that easily subdued the athletic classmate of Mathew. Before a second could pass, several mouths rushed to gnaw away at his flesh. In such a crowd, his muscles were of no use.
'No, we will make it through,' Mathew changed the wording of his thoughts, pushing his reinforced self to the limits.
Two other classmates of his died to a single strike of an evolved monster.
Out of the original thirty-three, only five remained after two weeks of the siege. And right now, three of Mathew's friends disappeared as well.
"Just let me go!" Nadia shouted, desperately attempting to free her fist. With her injured leg, she was nothing but a burden for him.
"Shut it!" Mathew barked, too focused on dealing with the zombies to pay Nadia's protests any mind.
A swing to the left. A swing to the right. Sidestep to dodge a projectile. Duck to avoid a slashing grab.
A swing to the left, a swing to the right, sharp pain exploding in his arm when a zombie scratched it.
And then…
The world opened before the two of them.
Mathew's eyes widened as he stumbled for a second. The bright light of the outside nearly blinded him.
Then, before Mathew would lose his momentum, he leaned his body forward and lunged ahead.
"LEAVE ME!" Nadia shouted.
Now that their usual roles have turned, she couldn't handle seeing Mathew do the same thing that she did for him over all those years.
'Just a little bit more,' Mathew thought, ignoring the girl's cry altogether.
The cube of the equipment shed was the light at the end of a tunnel. The one last spot that they could try after the fall of their previous hideout.
Thankfully, the area between the school's main building and the shed was relatively empty.
Their former stronghold fell because zombies and monsters alike would be drawn towards the living beings. Yet, the reason behind the doom of their former keep was also the source of this one in a million opportunity before them.
One last chance at prolonging their lives, even if only for a little. Because at this point, Mathew had no real hopes for surviving.
He just kept on running. And just like that, he burst through the half-open doors of the shed, instantly scanning the area in search of zombies.
'I don't have time for this,' he thought, clenching his teeth as he turned around and pushed the doors shut. He then sacrificed his club to block the doors.
The timer in the right upper corner of his vision was nearing its end.
"Wha…" Nadia uttered a small, shocked shout when Mathew rushed to prop the doors with anything he could find.
Thankfully, no zombie appeared anywhere in the shed while he was busy fortifying the entrance.
'Was it a part of the miracle?' Mathew thought, finishing his task just as the effect of his system boost ran out.
He slumped to the floor in extreme exhaustion, his back sliding down the barricade he had just finished.
"We did it…" Naida muttered, her face frozen in shock. "No." she shook her head and raised her deep, green eyes at Mathew's face.
"You did it."
A bullet of emotions shot through Mathew's heart.
"Thank you," Nadia added, kneeling down and placing her hand on Mathew's cheek.
She then lowered her head and rested her forehead against Matthew's.
"Thank you," she whispered, tears appearing under her closed eyelids.
'She smells insane,' Mathew thought, his consciousness hanging by a thin thread. His eyes went up a little as the girl's scent filled his nostrils.
After a moment of massively increased emotions, this was the natural way for his body to react. After surviving a life and death situation, one would feel the need to root themselves into reality with intimacy.
It was a bare instinct born from the times predating human civilization, supposed to pull the group together in danger.
'Still,' Mathew thought, reaching out and wrapping his arm around the girl's back, pulling her into a light embrace.
'We have close to no food. This place is already surrounded by the zombies,' he thought, looking up at the window situated at the other end of the building.
It was small, high up the wall, and enclosed by metal bars.
'While they can't get in, we can't really get out either,' Mathew thought, his mood worsening by the second.
The equipment shed was the last place where they could run to. Given how the entire school was enclosed by a massive wall, it was surprisingly one of the safest places.
Because right outside of the wall, there was an entire, highly-populated city.
'If the things are so dire within the confines of the school, I don't even want to imagine how it is outside the walls,' Mathew thought, relating a small, silent sigh.
'In other words, we are fucked,' Mathew added in his mind, wrapping his hands a bit tighter around the girl's soft frame.
"We are fucked," Naida whispered right into Mathew's chest in which she buried her face. "Aren't we?" she added, her voice changing into a weird chuckle.
'Is there really nothing more that I can do?' Mathew asked himself, his mind and body alike too tired to think and pay attention to the girl at the same time.
An intense wave of regret exploded in his heart.
He was the single system holder in the entire group of fifteen that created the stronghold within the school two weeks ago.
Every other system holder has long disappeared from the school, enjoying the apocalypse to its fullest.
It was just a matter of bad luck. When Nadia went to look for Mathew right when the apocalypse started, they ended up stranded from the rest of their class. And when they returned, only the mob of this new, changed world was left for them to join.
"No," Mathew suddenly muttered, shocked by an unexpected idea.
'It's so obvious,' he thought, unable to believe in his own stupidity. 'How could I miss it for so long?' he asked himself, only to bite down on his lips.
'No, it's not that,' he thought, raising his face up and locking his blurry sight on the beams on the ceiling.
"Mat?" Naida whispered, the look on her face changing again. A look of worry replaced the distressed amusement formerly present in her eyes.
"There is still one last thing that I can do," Mathew whispered, his face lighting up.
His lips, formerly twisted in a grimace of stress and exhaustion, now relaxed and formed a gentle smile.
"What are you talking about?" Naida leaned her head to the side, unsure of the meaning behind her old friend's words.
"Don't worry," Mathew said, pulling the girl back into his embrace. "Everything will be okay," he added, caressing the back of Nadia's head.
"Huh?" the girl shrugged in surprise before forcing her face up again.
Nadia's eyes widened in shock, while her lips formed an uneasy smile.
"Are we finally going to…" she asked, her expression filling with happiness and sort of relief.
'System miracle,' Mathew thought, closing his eyes in peace.
"…do it?" Nadia asked, her face filling with joy.
'My life.'
[Sacriface accepted]
The ominous voice of his system was the last thing Mathew heard before his vision turned dark.
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"So?" Peter asked, his lips forming a lascivious smile. "Did you bang her?"
Mathew didn't move.
His body was fully frozen in the memory that he saw.
Mathew looked down at his very own self, sitting silently in his own place in the class.
His desk was surrounded from all sides by the perverted trio. They were the menace of all the girls in the school. And for some weird reason, they decided to pick Mathew as the one to share their infamy.
'Why am I seeing this?' Mathew asked himself, trying to look around.
But he couldn't. His vision was stuck in a position and an angle that made the center of his back right in the middle of what he could see.
'Is this the side effect of the miracle?' Mathew thought, trying to rationalize the situation.
And then he spotted it. The one thing that had no right to appear in the vision he saw.
A system's clock.
This time, it consisted of three parts, each of which counted down to some sort of event.
The first one was about to run off, with a single minute left. The second one still had an entire hour, while the last one had two hours left.
'Judging from the time,' Mathew thought, looking at the clock hanging above the class' blackboard. 'The second one is counting to the start of the apocalypse,' he thought.
What was the first and the last one counting towards, though? Mathew had no clue.
"Come on, guys," Mathew's body moved in the exact same way that he did a bit over two weeks ago. "You know it's not like that. We have known each other since forever," he attempted to defend himself. "That's all there is to it, I promise!"
'Oh, how pathetic I was,' Mathew thought, watching his past plight.
The numbers on the first of the clocks continued to tick down.
"You know, I heard about a few, pretty effective ways to get a girl to the bed," Franc, the other of the group, whispered in a conspirational tone.
"That's perfect!" Peter once again took the prim of the bullying. "But if we share it with you…"
The first of the clocks only had ten seconds left.
'Wait, if I recall the events correctly,' Mathew thought, watching how the number continued to tick down with each passing second.
"You will have to share her with us too," Peter finished his unholy idea before licking his lips.
"This is a great chance for you!" Adam, the third of the group, smiled viciously. "With our help, you will be finally able to cast your V-card!" he announced loudly, instantly bringing some stares from the nearby students.
'This fucker,' Mathew thought, tightening his spiritual hands.
Three seconds left.
"So, how will it be?" Peter asked again. "Do you want to take her at the same time with us, or would you rather wait your turn?"
Three things happened at once.
The clock reached the end of its time.
The doors to the class slammed open.
Mathew's vision blurred before changing from a third to a first-person view.
'Huh?" Mathew looked down at his hands.
They lacked all the scars that he earned on the first day of the apocalypse. There was no innate exhaustion embedded deeply into his flesh and bones.
He was just as fresh as he was before the apocalypse.
'I have a body of a weakling,' Mathew thought.
"Decide, you little dipshit!" Adam shouted out loud, annoyed by the lack of reaction from the preferred toy of the group.
"Get away from him, you filth," Naida spoke out from her position by the doors.
"Scram before I will make you," Mathew spoke out, calmly raising his face and looking at Peter's face.
'I only need to waste him for the others to run,' he thought, clenching his hand into a fist.
"You fucking…" Peter squeezed through his teeth when his eyes wandered off, right at Nadia's nearby figure.
The black belt that she loosely kept on her shoulder reminded him of the reason why they never moved beyond words in their bullying.
"You better be grateful to your boyfriend!" Peter sneered, refusing the pleasure of insulting Mathew one last time. "If not for your papa, you would long be just a stain on the…"
Peter didn't finish his words.
Mathew swung his shoulders sideways, burying his fist deep into his obnoxious' classmate's stomach.
"You can insult me all you want," Mathew said in a cold voice, allowing the lifeless Peter to hang over his shoulder. "But include Naida in it, and I will pluck your balls out," he added before shaking his shoulder and throwing the man down on the floor.
"Mat!" Nadia shouted in a sudden panic when Mathew engaged his bully. "Are you okay?" she rushed forward only to grab Mat's arm and look at his face, all worried.
"Everything's okay," Mathew replied, unable to stop a smile from forming on his lips.
'Whether it's just a nice dream or not, I don't care,' he thought, reaching with his hand and placing it on top of the girl's head.
Nadia froze in place, unsure how to react.
'Right,' Mathew suddenly reflected on himself. 'We weren't like that by this time,' he thought, eager to pull his hand away…
But he didn't do it right away. Unable to resist his desire, he rustled the girl's hair before gracing her with a kind smile.
"Huh?" Nadia finally managed to utter a small shout of shock through her lips. Her eyes opened wide, displaying the beautiful, jade-like green of her pupils.
"How about we ditch the class?" Mathew suddenly brought up a proposition.
His eyes involuntarily moved towards the upper right corner of his vision.
'This can't be a system,' he thought, desperately trying to figure out what was going on. 'We only received them after defeating the first zombie, and they didn't even appear in this world yet…' he thought, trying to rationalize the situation.
"Yeah," Mathew refocused his eyes and looked right at Nadia's face. Her long, golden streaks coated her face as if some kind of jewelry.
Mathew couldn't stop a gentle smile from forming on his lips.
"Tell me," Mathew muttered before raising his voice a little. "Would you mind going on a small date with me right now?" he asked.
'There is only one thing that's supposed to happen in an hour,' he thought under the facade that he put on his face. 'And if my guess is correct, then I don't have any time to waste!'
Unaware of Mathew's thoughts, Nadia nearly jumped on the spot.
She was a good student with good attendance and history with the teachers. Being one of the school's athletic champions, she could get away with a lot but rarely used that privilege.
But when she heard Mathew's invitation, her eyes lit up with a shock mixed with excitement.
"Sure thing!" she chirped. Her lips formed a slightly weird smile as if she couldn't handle all the emotions that erupted in her soul.
'And whatever this situation is,' Mathew thought, bringing his hand back and grabbing Nadia's fingers, 'I will protect you. No matter what.'
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'How should I proceed?' Mathew asked himself while pulling Nadia along.
It was something that his former self would never dare to do.
To grab and then hold a hand of a childhood friend? What was this kind of sacrilege? He wouldn't consider himself worthy of such luxury.
But current Mathew was different. The two weeks of the apocalypse he went through changed him drastically.
'There is no time for shyness or hesitation,' he thought, checking the second timer in the corner of his vision.
Roughly fifty minutes remained.
Nadia didn't seem to notice Mathew's mental state. She was too immersed in the joy of ditching lessons with her friend for that.
'Seeing her jump around like that,' Mathew thought, overwhelmed with the challenges that waited ahead. Just gazing at this cheerful joy of his life was enough to lift his spirits.
'Still, I guess there is no other way,' Mathew thought.
He was guilty of never fully growing out of his delusional phase. Ever before the apocalypse, Mathew would imagine himself in different scenarios.
One of which turned out to be a perfect plan for his current situation.
'I will either end up a hero or a mental case,' Mathew thought before releasing a deep breath.
The second he knew what exactly to do, a massive burden disappeared from his back.
The two reached the first and most important point on their journey.
The infirmary.
"I'm sorry," Mathew turned his head to the girl. "Would you mind waiting here for a second?" he asked with a small, slightly uneasy smile.
"Oh," Nadia jumped a little, forced out of her momentary daze. "Sure, no problem," she then replied, smiling from ear to ear.
'She is just too bright,' Mathew thought, turning his eyes away from the glorious sight of Nadia's cheerful expression.
He took a step. And then another.
With every pace he made, he could feel the atmosphere changing.
It wasn't a gift that he received from his former system. It was an instinct that only the survivors could develop. An innate feeling unlocked by those who balanced on the line between life and death.
Mathew reached the doors. Its two wings both had a blurry plane of glass in their middle, allowing one to peek inside. While the image would be distorted, it was still enough for Mathew's purpose.
'It's crowded,' he thought. He then attempted to make out the rough shapes and then count people inside. 'Just like back then,' he thought, backing away from the door.
He then rested his back against the wall. Yet, before his eyes could fully rest, Mathew caught a glimpse of a box.
The treasure of the world that would begin in less than an hour. A cheap box of commodities in the current world.
'No,' Mathew bit his lips. 'Not yet. It's too risky to blow a fuse so early,' he decided, turning his eyes away from the box of medicinal supplies handing on the wall of the infirmary.
He froze in place for a moment. Even though Mathew already knew the exact path he had to take, he still required a moment to sort his thoughts out.
Because what he just saw basically confirmed his worries.
The apocalypse wasn't just a hyperrealistic dream. The clock in the corner of his vision wasn't some kind of illusion or hallucination.
For now, everything checked out.
'I really traveled back in time,' he thought, taking deep breaths to calm himself down.
'The situation calls for the desperate measures,' Mathew thought, closing his eyes.
He then pushed his back against the wall, propelling himself forward and returning to Nadia's side.
"Can I borrow your phone for a bit?" Mathew asked while approaching the girl.
"Sure," Nadia turned her head sideways, giving Mathew a cute look before passing her cell.
"Let's go," Mathew muttered, typing out a relatively short number on the phone.
For a moment, the two of them continued to climb the school's stairs in silence.
Nadia was simply happy to enjoy her time alone with Mathew. Mathew didn't have the luxury to think about anything but his current mission.
They reached the second floor in no time.
"One more stop," Mathew said, patting the girl's shoulder as he went ahead. Yet, after just a few steps, he suddenly stopped.
He then pulled out his wallet and then grabbed a single, thin coin.
'Come out,' he thought, pushing the coin into a small gap between the glass cover of the fire equipment storage box and its frame.
This box quality was just like the rest of the school. Shitty and too cheap to be of any use.
But the fire ax hidden inside was of top quality.
'I remember the guy who took it before,' Mathew thought, recalling a certain bloody scene from the beginnings of the apocalypse.
For some reason, this ax became a blessed weapon.
Just some people would receive systems, some zombies would evolve, certain weapons and items, in general, would also become stronger than ever.
"What are you doing?" Nadia finally noticed a reason for concern and asked.
"Just wait a second," Mathew replied, pulling the weapon out.
It was a sturdy piece of equipment designed to break walls and doors alike.
'And in the near future, it will get some nasty abilities,' Mathew thought before approaching the girl.
This was the one decision that made him freeze before.
Not the idea of blowing the whistle and starting the apocalypse several minutes prior to the world.
It was the decision to reveal everything he knew to this one girl.
She was the one that saved him on many different levels.
'She deserves to know,' Mathew thought.
But this decision forced a moment like the current one to appear.
"Nadia, please," Mathew said in a firm voice. "Do you think I'm crazy?" he asked, looking the girl directly in the eyes.
For a moment, Nadia stared down into Mat's eyes.
She was startled and shocked, for sure, but she didn't outright refuse his request. Instead, she opened her eyes wide and looked for any signs of craziness in Mathew's pupils.
"I don't think so," she muttered a moment later, lowering her eyes.
"That's why I can only ask you for one thing," Mathew said, putting his weapon down on the floor before kneeling down. "For the next hour, I need you to trust me."
"Mathew, what's going on?" Nadia asked. And she used Mat's full name while doing so.
This only indicated how serious the girl became.
"You won't believe me if I explain it with words," Mathew said, shaking his head. "I will explain everything as we go," he promised, only to lower his eyes. "But right now, we are on the clock," he said, his eyes glancing over to the corner of his vision.
"And the time is really running out."
Once again, Nadia simply stared down into Mathew's eyes.
She then raised her hand and placed it on his cheek. Once again, the two of them froze at the moment.
"Fine," Nadia whispered with her soft fingers. She kept looking into Mathew's eyes. "What are we going to do next, then?" she asked in a mesmerizing tone, pulling Mathew's mind into the abyss of her alluring lips.
"We are going to visit the director of the school," Mathew forced himself to reply. He then picked up his ax, smiled cheerfully, and looked at the girl. "Shall we go?"
"Yeah," Nadia nodded her head. "But are you going to tell me why?" she asked.
"Why are we going to the director's office?" Nadia repeated her question a moment later.
Mathew didn't refuse the answer. He just had to take a moment to sort his thoughts out to figure out the simplest way to explain it.
"Right now, I just need another confirmation," he said, forcing himself to look ahead instead of scouting out Nadia's reaction. "Because I wish to be wrong from the very bottom of my heart."
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'How should I do it?' Mathew thought.
He gripped the handle of his weapon tighter, hesitation filling his mind.
'I'm about to turn myself into a terrorist,' he thought blankly as the reality of his plans started to dawn upon him.
'Worst of all, I'm pulling her into all of this,' he thought, glancing over at the girl's face.
She managed to somehow keep her cool despite how weird the situation was.
Her obedient and trusting silence was like a nail right down Mathew's heart.
'But there is no other choice if I'm right!' he protested in his thoughts as they neared the principal's office.
Mathew stopped before the doors.
'Everything that I did so far could still be fixed,' he thought.
An irrational hope appeared in his heart.
'If it's just me going crazy, I can still stop it,' he thought.
The chance that it was nothing but a bad dream still existed…
The tock in the corner of Mathew's vision continued to tick.
Mathew took a deep breath. And then he knocked on the doors before intruding.
"Huh?" the middle-aged man raised his eyes from the newspaper he was reading. "Who are you?" he asked, annoyed by the unannounced visitors.
"Excuse me, sir," Mathew stepped forward, humbly bowing to the man. "I promise, I mean no harm," he added before pulling out the ax from behind his back.
He then took a step forward to the right of the principal's seat.
Mathew swung the weapon…
The ax's blade dug deep into the wood of one of the principal's cabinets.
Mat reached out with his hand into the destroyed piece of furniture.
And there it was.
The same pistol that Mat could recall from his earlier experience.
The gun that gave his group hope back in his apocalyptic memories.
But for now, what was most important, was that the details of Mathew's memories adhered to reality.
This was the confirmation he needed.
Because Mat had never been to the principal's office outside of that time in the apocalypse.
"Once again," Mathew turned his face to the principal.
The man was so shocked he was stuck in a weird pose on his chair.
"I apologize for the inconvenience," Mat bowed his head again as he picked up both the gun and the bullets.
"What the hell is going on?" the principal muttered, glued to his chair.
"I will be calling the police myself," Mathew informed, picking up the phone and showing the screen.
The alarm number was already connecting.
"Mat…" Nadia muttered silently.
Up to this point, she still believed. She still believed that there was a reason behind Mat's actions.
She was simply too stunned to react and too lost in how to react.
"Dispatcher," the voice on the phone rang. "What seems to be the issue?"
This single line suddenly turned the atmosphere even tenser than it was before.
If Mathew's attack at the principal's office and the act of stealing his gun wasn't serious enough, the voice from the phone now elevated it to another level.
By announcing himself to the police, Mathew turned from a hooligan into a terrorist.
"I will burn this whole place down!" he shouted into the phone, moving his head away from the microphone. "A phone?" Mat sounded surprised for a second. "Give me that!" he then shouted again before waiting for a second and ending the call.
"Cough…" Mathew cleared his throat and shook his head. He then looked at the principal and the girl.
"I'm sorry for that little act. Once again, I will surrender myself to the police on the first-moment notice," he said.
For a second, Mathew closed his eyes. He had to collect his thoughts.
"Mat… Please, tell me," Nadia pulled on Mathew's sleeve, desperately trying to gain his attention. "What's going on?" she cried out in a low voice, scared shitless.
She didn't care about his actions or his gun. Nadia was worried about losing her dear friend.
"I still find it hard to believe. But so far, every single thing that I check does check out," Mathew said, lowering his hands on his face and taking a deep breath. "My one and only aim are to bring heavily armed police to a certain point in the school," he explained in a single breath.
The room tensed up even further.
"Wait, the infirmary?" Nadia quickly caught on.
She wasn't one of the top students just for show.
"That's right," Mathew nodded his head only to glance over at the phone's screen.
'Call made two minutes ago…' he thought, calculating everything in his mind. 'I guess we should go, now,' he decided, raising his eyes and looking at the girl.
"Principal, once again, I'm sorry for the entire commotion," I said, lowering my head in apology. "I wish with all my heart for my fears to prove wrong. I won't hurt anyone, and I will pay back for the damage I made," he added before raising his head again.
"But for now, I need to go," Mathew said, grabbing Nadia's hand and pulling her out of the room. "To that end, I hope you will remain in your office," Mat added in a low tone before closing the doors.
"Mat, what the hell is going on?!" Nadia finally took a stance, refusing to just tag along. "What's wrong with the Infirmary?" she asked, pressing the issue she figured out earlier.
"There is a reason why I only looked through the window," Mathew replied, turning his eyes away.
Nadia's face turned white as her eyes widened in terror.
"What's wrong with the infirmary, Mat?" Nadia asked, her eyes tearing up. She then raised her hand and placed it on Mathew's cheek. "What did you do?" she whispered through her tears.
"I didn't do anything," Mathew shook his head and closed his eyes. "But I know something very bad is about to happen in less than an hour," he added, placing his hands on Nadia's back.
For a moment, Mathew simply hugged the girl.
It was a sole refreshing moment of the past two weeks. The one moment of relief.
"What are you going to do next, then?" Nadia asked, wiping the tears off her face as she looked deep into Mathew's eyes.
"I'm going to invite one of them inside," Mathew said, regaining his composure. "I need to have an officer to witness what I believe is about to happen."
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Mathew walked to the bottom floor of the building. Nadia followed silently behind him, unable to form a single cohesive thought.
"What's going on?" she whispered, once again trying to pry the truth from my lips.
"If I tell you now, you won't believe me," Mathew replied, shaking his head. "Soon, you will understand everything. But for now, we need to wait," He explained as best as he could.
'What am I supposed to tell her?' Mathew thought, despairing over the situation.
Any attempt at boldly declaring what was about to come would fester one question.
'How did you know?' Mathew thought, his face turning dark at the mere idea of such a thing.
If he were to become someone believed to be behind the apocalypse…
His life would be short and eventful.
"Are we going to get out of this? Somehow?" Nadia asked as the two of them stopped in the same place they saw at the very beginning. She rested her back against the wall before plummeting down.
"Why can't you just…" Nadia attempted to say something, only for the school to fill with the noise of sirens.
Mathew's plan was quickly coming to fruition.
'Not a second too early,' he thought, pulling out his phone again. Mathew then turned his head to the girl and lowered it in apology. "I will explain everything in a few moments when the police officer arrives," he said before typing the short number.
"Dispatcher," the voice rang through the phone.
"I wish to talk with the negotiator," Mathew announced calmly.
He could hear the sirens. Meaning the police were already there.
And in the current era, the enforcement would do everything to stop a problem like this one.
'I hope so fucking much I'm all wrong,' Mathew thought before steeling himself for what was to come.
For a few moments, the dispatcher turned silent.
Then, the voice changed.
"Here," a voice of a tired, old man appeared on the phone.
'I don't recognize him,' Mathew thought.
Some figures made a name for themselves in the first few days of the apocalypse. But this voice didn't belong to any of them.
"To start it off," the man got tired of waiting and initiated the discussion.
Nadia trembled by Mathew's side, the consequences of her friend's actions finally dawning on her.
"What the hell do you want?" the negotiator asked lazily. "Drop the entire hero pretense and just tell me what do you want," he added after another moment of silence.
"First, I'm extremely sorry for this entire disturbance," Mathew spoke calmly to the phone.
Nadia froze, surprised by the unexpected development. By this point, she appeared to lose all hope in her friend.
"To make sure we are on the same page," Mathew continued, "I didn't hurt anyone. Outside of a single cabinet, I didn't hurt anything at all. And I would be the happiest man in the world to keep it that way," Mathew stated.
"What?" Naida kept silent, too scared to interrupt the call. But the expression on her face was clear.
"But in the off chance that I'm right," Mathew suddenly added, his tone changing a little. The difference even reflected on his face as he closed his eyes in peace. "Then I need one of your men to witness it first hand," Mathew added.
For a moment, the negotiator turned silent.
Then, a faint voice reached out to the two of them through the phone.
"You saw that too?"
Mathew's heart stopped beating for a moment.
'What?' he thought, his eyes opening wide.
He then shook his head and took a deep breath.
"Remember," he said to the phone. "I need one, fully armed man. If nothing happens in twenty minutes, I walk out in cuffs," Mathew spoke to the phone, his face calming down.
"But if I'm right, then you will understand my need for a heavily armed team in this place," Mathew added, a small smile appearing on his lips. "I will be waiting by the infirmary," he threw before cutting the call.
"Is this all…" Naida muttered under her nose, "all necessary?" she asked, raising her eyes despite keeping her face low.
"Oh dear," Mathew whispered as he closed his eyes. "I hope not with all my heart," he added before reaching out and patting Nadia's head. "Whatever will be the case, I will make sure you will be safe," he said, more to himself than to the girl.
"Safe?" Nadia raised her eyes again. "Safe from what?"
The look on her face started to change. As she learned more and more about the situation, she slowly managed to piece together some sort of explanation.
Whether it was right or not, Mathew had no idea… But he could tell that Nadia's mood had changed.
"Just wait for a moment," Mathew smiled in response. "Once the officer arrives, I will explain everything," he said before sharply turning his head to the side.
The sound of footsteps reached Mathew's ears.
'So he is here, already,' he thought, turning his face towards the entrance of the corridor.
The Cherif of the town.
Not in the direct meaning of this world.
This man was just your regular cop. But his disposition and popularity forced this moniker upon him.
'I guess the cowboy's hat did its part in this man's image,' Mathew thought.
"So?" the man asked, his arms crossed over his muscular chest. "What do you need me here for?" he asked, puzzled by Mathew's calm demeanor.
"Twenty minutes of your time," Mathew replied bluntly before gracing the man with his smile. "If nothing happens until then, I will surrender. And if something happens," Mathew stopped, turning his eyes and directing them towards the opposite side of the corridor.
Both his firearm and the fire ax rested against the wall. Each of them is at least two meters away from Mathew.
"Okay?" the man muttered.
The dissonance between his expectations and reality boiled in the policeman's eyes.
"For now, though," Mathew glanced over at Naida before revealing a small, sad smile. "I guess you need to hear what I saw," Mathew muttered under his nose, only to raise his head and look at the officer's face.
"Roughly half an hour ago, I died."
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"Kid, what's your problem?" the officer asked, putting a weird grin on his face.
It was a look of a man who just can't deal with the teenagers.
"Roughly half an hour ago, I died," Mathew repeated his words, looking the man directly in the eyes.
For a moment, the two entered a standoff.
It was a completely random occurrence when their eyes met.
For the next few moments, the two of them simply stared each other down, each more desperate not to blink.
"With all my heart, I hope it was just a bad dream," Mathew said, plummeting down to the ground and resting his face in his hands. "But if it's not, I need to do everything in my power to survive what's about to come," he added in a silent voice.
"So you just want someone to hold your hand and tell you everything will be okay?" the officer asked, an uneasy expression forming on his lips.
'Who is this guy?' Mathew thought, rolling his eyes. 'I know I asked for a Veteran, but still, how could they send someone so clueless…' he despaired.
Since when calling someone out like that was a method of dealing with a potential terrorist?
'Or is it the fact that I let go of my guns that makes him so relaxed?' Mathew thought before shooing all those useless thoughts aside.
'It doesn't matter,' he thought, moving his eyes on Nadia's face.
"In twenty-seven minutes from now, I believe something will happen in that infirmary," Mathew said, finally ready to explain what was going on.
"Did you…" Nadia whispered, her face tense as she thought about something. "See something?" she asked, raising her eyes on Mathew's face.
"I saw a lot," Mathew quickly replied. "And the worst of it all is that I can still see something that I shouldn't see," he added, glancing over to the clock in the corner of his vision.
It continued to tick the time away. One second at a time. But it never stopped.
Nadia turned silent.
She was likely too confused to say something.
"And no," Mathew said, turning his head back towards the officer. "If it's holding hands that I needed, I could just ask my dear friend," he said, nodding his chin towards the girl. "What I need is someone good enough with the gun to cover my back," he added in a half-voice, turning his eyes away.
The officer's face tensed up when he realized the meaning behind those words.
"What's going to happen in twenty-seven minutes?" he asked coldly.
His hand hovered near his holster, where his personal weapon could be seen just as Mathew requested.
"It has nothing to do with me," Mathew raised his hands before slowly turning his face towards the infirmary. "Once again. I died half an hour ago," he put a huge emphasis on those words. "I have no idea how, but I made it back. Back in time?" Mathew suddenly asked, covering his face with his hands.
"So you really need someone to just watch over those doors for a short while?" the officer asked. His voice softened a little. "And then you will be happy, right?" he added.
"I certainly do hope so," Mathew nodded his head, turning his hand towards the doors. "But before everything starts, remember a few things," he suddenly announced.
"First, you won't turn from a single scratch. It takes quite a lot of their body juices to enter your system for you to turn," Mathew said in a tone of someone schooling a youngster about the basics of a craft. "We have an hour once it starts to…"
Mathew hesitated.
'Using kill right now… It wouldn't be the greatest idea,' he noticed.
"To do what?" the officer asked. Even though he appeared to be relaxed, the look in his eyes proved he didn't just let Mathew's words by his ears.
"To clean as many of them," Mathew finished before turning his eyes back towards the nearby doors. "All we had was just a guess," he hesitated for a moment before biting his lips down. "But it seems that the progress during the first hour decides who will receive a system," he then randomly dropped another bomb.
"A system?" the officer repeated the word impassively, clearly confused about the sudden turn of the story.
"Wait, are you telling me…" Nadia suddenly turned energetic.
Her interests aligned her to understand the term in its proper way. But the picture that such term usually invoked…
"Yeah," Mathew nodded his head. "The last time, I got a miracle system," he explained without hiding anything. "Basically, I could offer something in order to invoke a miracle," he said.
"What are you even talking about, guys?" the officer couldn't hold it for long. He couldn't understand the topic, which didn't sit well with his desire to control the situation.
"I'm sorry for the jargon," Mathew turned his eyes towards the man before casting a quick look at the clock.
'It will all start in ten minutes,' he noticed before refocusing his eyes on the man.
"If I'm correct, then in ten minutes, the zombie apocalypse will start," Mathew explained bluntly. "It's just a guess, but the more zombies we destroy," Mat was careful to avoid the wrong word, 'the better system we will receive," he explained as simply as he could.
"A system is basically a cheat," Nadia explained. She was well versed in all sorts of literature. "An overpowered ability that makes one stronger than the others," she elaborated a little before raising her thumb to her lips.
"No, that's not it," she muttered, biting down on her nail. "It's a way for the character to survive the situation. A power-up in a fantasy world," she fixed her own mistake.
"Again, what do you want to do with those zombies?" the officer interrupted the deep explanation of the term.
A relaxed smile on his face… felt weird. As if there was a second meaning behind it.
"Shit," Mathew thought, realizing his mistake.
"Could you perhaps be interested in killing sick citizens and students of this school?" the man asked, openly laying his hand down at the handle of his weapon.
Mathew raised his hands in reply.
"I won't reach for the weapon unless it is too late," he promised, a knowing smile blossoming on his lips.
"And what do you mean by too late?" the officer asked, undoing the strap on the holster.
"Let's see," Mathew smiled, completely relaxed in the situation. "When this corridor will get overrun with zombies, and you will be desperately screaming for reinforcements. Fair enough?" Mathew asked with a smile of a naive child on his face.
"Fair enough," the officer sighed.
He seemed to realize what kind of situation they were talking about.
"Just keep those points in mind," Mathew added, holding back a small giggle. "Also, I hope your radio is working," he added, turning his eyes towards the doors.
"What do you mean by that?" the man asked, interested by the sudden question.
"It would be for the best if the rest of your people prepared to rush to this place," Mathew replied, turning his face towards the man. "The sooner you make the decision, the more time they will have to come and help us contain it," Mathew added before shaking his shoulders.
"And if nothing happens?" the officer asked, unwilling to drop the realistic approach to the topic.
"Then I will surrender, pay back the damage, and openly apologize to every officer that had to stay late in work because of my actions," Mathew replied with a small smirk. "Just kidding. I will most likely go serve my time. That or a mental hospital," he added.
"Mat!" Nadia screamed out a little.
The look of worry on her face made Mathew's heart tremble.
This was the cost of his actions that he didn't foresee.
If it all turned out to be a mere hallucination, a bad dream, and even worse decisions… He would bring Nadia a lot of grief.
'Wait, what?' Mathew suddenly shrugged. 'What am I even thinking about?' he asked himself, puzzled by the sudden nostalgia. 'Between making her sad and having her torn apart by the zombies…' he thought, his entire body tensing up.
Mat glanced over at the clock.
"Two minutes left," Mathew muttered, turning his face towards the officer. "It will be a good moment to ask your men to prepare," he advised.
The officer raised one of his eyebrows.
For a moment, there was only silence.
"Come in," the man finally raised his voice, his radio by his mouth.
"Yeah?" Mathew heard a silent reply on the other side.
"Guys, the matter is handled. No killed or injured," he added before taking a long glance at Mat's determined face.
"Just in case, get ready for a brutal fight in a minute," he added before lowering the radio back on his chest.
"Thank you," Mathew replied, refusing to move his eyes away from the infirmary doors.
The clock reached the breaking point. With all the minutes gone, it could only count the last remaining seconds.
"Nadia," Mathew muttered, turning his head towards the girl.
"Hmm?"
"Whatever happens…" Mat cringed at his own words.
'What, am I in some drama movie for teens now?' he asked himself before rolling his eyes.
"I will keep you safe," he whispered, reaching the peaks of courage he didn't achieve back in the apocalypse.
The seconds ticked down.
"If we get the chance, we should snatch the medkit from the infirmary," Mathew said right as the second clock reached its final second.
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The time ran out.
The clock struck zero.
Mathew's heart beat faster, only to slow down.
Instead of getting excited, his mind turned completely empty, ready to adapt to any and all possible situation from now on.
The time came…
And went away.
The corridor remained as silent as one could imagine.
In the middle of a massive high school, that is.
"Thank God."
A visible wave of relief washed off Mathew's entire self.
He plummeted down on the ground, only supporting his upper body with his arms.
"Is that all this… was about?" the officer asked.
The man still kept his hand on his gun's holster. But he saw Mathew's reactions.
And they were genuine.
"I guess so," Mathew replied with an uneasy smile. But as much as he wanted, he couldn't relax.
Because while the second clock stopped…
The third one hidden in the corner of Mathew's vision continued to tick.
A wave of uneasiness filled Mathew's eyes.
He then shook his head.
"So, do you want to cuff me now?" he asked, relaxing a bit.
'Thank fucking God,' he thought, all the strength leaving his arms.
"Now that I think about it," the officer hesitated for a moment. "You did say that you only destroyed a cabinet, didn't you?"
'Huh?' Mat couldn't understand what the officer was talking about. He understood the words but not the meaning behind the question.
"Yeah, I only did it to confirm if what I saw in my dream adhered to the reality," Mathew explained before releasing a deep sigh.
The entire situation tired him down to no end.
"I guess… This matter didn't really explode in the media yet. But, since there was no real harm attempted, I could put in a good word…" the man scratched his cheek, clearly unsure of how to proceed.
He was a veteran officer of the prevention group. Not someone educated to deal with adolescents.
But Mathew didn't smile. Instead, his face froze.
'Those sounds…' he thought, listening in to the lowest frequency that he could hear.
His eyes opened up wide.
'Now I remember!' he thought, desperately shifting his attention to the girl beside him.
"Can you hear those low sounds?" he asked, grabbing the girl by her shoulders.
It was a very low, barely noticeable beating. A rhythmic sound that one had to really focus on hearing.
Nadia's face turned still for a moment before her pupils widened as she looked at Mathew's face.
"What are those?" she asked, shocked to her wits.
"What are you talking about, guys?" the officer asked, puzzled by the sudden change.
"You won't be able to hear it," Mathew rushed up, alerting the man in the process.
"Don't worry," Mat added, seeing the nervous reaction of the man. "We don't have the time for that, but you can grab any young student in the school right now," Mathew pointed out as his expression sank.
"To do what?" the officer asked, clearly on edge.
"To ask if they hear a low, rhythmic sound beating at the very edge of their consciousness," Mathew explained before focusing his eyes on the infirmary's door.
The relative silence of before was now nowhere to be seen.
In the short moment when Mat's idea occupied their attention, the infirmary turned into a mess.
"What is going on?" the officer started, moving his eyes on the care room's doors.
"It's starting," Mathew replied, his face turning pale. He involuntarily took a step back, only to move his eyes on the girl behind him.
'No,' he thought, challenged by the reality.
With every second, Mat could recall a new harbinger of what was about to come.
The air in the school tensed up. The beating in his ears got louder.
It was exactly the same symptoms that he had experienced two weeks prior.
"Stay behind me at all times," Mathew ordered, shielding the girl with his own body.
'The first few moments will be the worst,' he thought, glancing over at the officer.
It would rest on the policeman's right call for the desperate plan to succeed. And that was a variable Mathew couldn't allow.
"What's going on?" Nadia muttered silently, grabbing herself by her head.
Mathew's heart exploded.
'For her symptoms to appear so strongly…'
His soul broke apart.
She not only would be forced to witness the apocalypse, but she would also turn into an evolved monster herself!
'What the fuck did change?!' Mathew thought, desperate to find a way to change this unfair fate.
'Wait,' he suddenly thought, as a wild idea appeared in his mind.
The doors to the infirmary started to shake, indicating the scale of the hell inside.
"What the fuck is going on?!" the officer screamed out, pulling out his gun.
"Mathew turned his head to the man.
"This is the best moment to call for the backup," he said calmly, looking the officer directly in the eye.
And the man hesitated.
He was a veteran of a police elite squad and a former military as well. And he could recognize the eyes of someone who went through hell and back.
'How the hell could a kid…' he thought, only to glance over towards the doors. 'Something wrong is really going on,' he thought, tightening his grasp over his handgun.
"Guys, come on in," the officer muttered.
He didn't bother turning the radio on. Which meant that his team outside heard every last word.
'Just like expected,' Mathew smiled, reassured by the development.
And then, just like that, it happened.
The doors burst open. And then a single student walked out of place.
He was grabbing his own arm, but even his entire hand couldn't stop the copious amounts of blood that trickled between his fingers.
'Poor guy,' Mathew thought, unable to do anything for the man.
'With how little I know, stepping inside that room was a suicide,' he thought.
The man that walked out wasn't turned yet. Which meant he was likely the first casualty of the apocalypse.
'Poor guy,' Mathew thought, steeling his resolve. 'But a lucky one too,' he added before glancing over at the officer.
"If you want me to grab my weapons, now it's the time," Mathew announced. Even though he wanted to appear cheeky, he couldn't hide the worry on his face.
"There is no need for you to do anything," the man said when the footsteps reached their ears. He fixed his composure and aimed his gun at the door.
"It will take about ten more seconds before he turns," Mathew said without a care in the world. "You should watch it to make up your mind," he added as he turned his eyes to the girl.
"I will save you, don't worry," he said, his worry exploding when he saw Nadia's cloudy eyes.
'It's not good,' Mat bit down on his lips.
'If I managed to save her the last time by obtaining the miracle system, then what can I do now?' he asked himself.
This was the hurdle that he didn't expect.
When he received his miracle system two weeks ago, Mathew wished to reunite with the girl. But, outside of his last wish, this one cost him the most.
And then, just like one would expect from a miracle, Nadia just happened to appear beside him a moment later.
It was this one desperate wish that gave him enough strength to survive. Even if it was for two more weeks.
'At the current rate, she will turn in about an hour,' Mathew thought, helping the girl down as she could no longer stand.
"What wrong with her?" the officer asked, turning his eyes away from the door for a moment.
The rest of the police squad appeared in the corridor, all heavily armed.
'That's a good sigh,' Mathew thought, smiling gently at sight. Then, he turned his face towards the doors.
'It should start about now,' he thought.
Then the wall crumbled.
Pushed by the force of tens of zombies, the entire section of the wall around the infirmary's doors collapsed. And a single second later, the corridor filled with agile zombies.
The rarest kind of this species. Within the two weeks that Mat survived before, they only appeared right at the beginning.
Outside of their speed, they were no different from normal zombies. And in the time he spent hiding with Nadia away in their makeshift fortress, Mathew formulated a guess.
Mat smiled as he walked towards his weapons.
"Remember, guys," he shouted over, noticing the shock in the eyes of the arriving men.
They heard every last word of his through the officer's active radio. So to a degree, they knew what was likely to be the emergency here.
But anticipating something and experiencing it first hand…
"The more you get, the stronger your system should be," Mat said, hiding his gun in his pocket and pulling out the fire ax. "And if we contain them here, we might be able to secure the entire school!"
"What is this guy talking about?" one of the policemen muttered before moving their eyes on the mass of approaching zombies.
They were agile… but within the zombie meaning of this word.
The officers still had some time to decide on the course of action.
"Stop right there!" the man that I requested before suddenly shouted, pointing his gun at the zombies.
Obviously, not a single one listened. Instead, his voice only attracted their attention, making the entire wave rush right at the man.
"Ting!"
Mathew stood too close to the gun. His hearing in his left ear went off instantly.
"Shoot them down," the officer said, commanding his entire unit.
Mathew looked towards the zombies, preparing himself for the massacre.
And then he saw just what made that officer shoot so fast.
The nurse's corpse walked towards them with half of her ribs area gone.
The officer has seen war. And he knew that people without half of their torse couldn't walk up straight.
It was this one sight that made him shoot.
"Leave some for me!" Mathew shouted, rushing into the fray before the rest of the officers could start shooting.
This was the only way to save Nadia from turning.
'If I could save her back then, that means she likely won't turn before the first hour,' Mathew thought, swinging his ax above his neck as he rushed forward. 'That means I need a system capable of saving her!' he thought.
He never learned any facts about what the systems were. It was something that just… appeared. The idea that those who killed zombies in the first hour would receive a system was… a stretch.
A simple attempt at explaining the unknown by mixing the stories up and finding common points.
There was a chance it was all for naught already, completely pointless.
'But I'm not going to give up,' Mathew thought, reaching the corpse of the nurse.
It used to be a lovely and kind woman, although legendary for her singlehood.
And now, even with a bullet in where her heart should be, she continued to walk towards the humans.
The key to fighting zombies lay in, stopping them from reaching you. As long as a human could remain in their top shape, they could easily fight off entire droves of zombies.
Mathew cut the zombie's head away but didn't bother to stomp it down.
Unable to move around, the zombie was now rendered completely useless.
But it was only the beginning.
Matt looked up towards the wave of former students sleazing out of the hole and rushing all towards him.
"Once we thin them out, make sure to take some down in close quarters!" Mathew shouted, raising his weapon above his head. "It's only a guess, but it might help!"
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Mat buried his ax deep into the head of the zombie nearest to him.
'Fuck,' he cursed, desperately pulling at the handle, only to realize it was too late.
His desperate swing aimed at killing the one enemy that threatened him ended up costing Mat his weapon.
"Duck!" the officer shouted, pressing the trigger o his weapon a second later.
There was no sign of hesitation in his movements and actions either. The sight of those half-eaten bodies was enough to turn this calm law enforcer into a merciless veteran.
"Thanks!" I threw in the air, squatting and reaching out for my weapon.
That man's shot gave me just enough time to grab my tool of the massacre.
'There is no end to them,' Mathew thought, raising his eyes at the approaching enemies.
The zombies in the opening wave were surprisingly swift… but still within the scope of what one would expect from a zombie.
There were limits to how fast a half-eaten body could move.
Mat took a glance to update himself on the situation. He then glanced over at Nadia. Following that, a long wrinkle appeared on his forehead.
'Why is she infected?' Mathew asked himself, unable to fully embrace the seriousness of the situation. 'What should I do? Will my system be able to save her?'
A flurry of questions exploded in Mathew's mind.
'No use, there is only one thing I can do right now,' he thought as he raised his eyes on the approaching zombies.
There were two ways of saving Nadia.
'I can either rely on the system or force summon a merchant,' Mat thought, recalling the rules he learned about the apocalypse world in his past life.
'But this isn't going to be easy,' he thought, readying himself for yet another fight.
'Patric, was he?' Mathew thought, glancing at the bloodied face.
A senior from one year up. A vibrant person in the music circle. And now but a headless zombie left to rot away.
Mathew then swung his ax again and then again. The two weeks of intense and constant combat ingrained themselves into his flesh, allowing Mat to proceed relatively calmly.
'At the current rate,' Mat thought, using the opening in the fight to glance over at the girl.
Nadia's forehead was already turning bright pink, coated with fat drops of her sweat. Her breathing was hard, and her eyes half-closed.
Mat then looked over to the clock in the corner of his vision.
'She won't last until the first wave,' he realized, his fingers tightening into fists on their own.
It meant a simple thing.
It didn't matter whether his system could prevent Nadia from turning anymore. Because she would likely succumb to the virus before Mat would receive his system in the first place.
A wave of powerlessness surged through Mat's veins, freezing his body on the spot.
And then, the fire behind his eyes reignited.
'If I can't use the system, then I will force summon this damned merchant!' he decided on the spot, gripping the handle of his weapon tighter.
Whoever was behind this apocalypse sure thought things through.
By killing zombies, one could extract a life's core from their brains. In the world changed by the apocalypse, those cores turned into the unified value for everything.
Or rather, that's what Mat believed would happen if he lasted any further into the post-apocalyptic world. Yet, there was one thing that he knew for sure.
One could forcefully summon a merchant by gathering a hundred of said cores.
In the world of the apocalypse, those who worked hard would receive bountiful rewards.
By exchanging further cores with the merchant, one could obtain basically anything they could desire, all for a fair price.
'I will need about a hundred and fifty,' Mat thought, focusing his eyes on the nearest group of zombies.
But just as he was about to rush it, a series of shots shook the air in the corridor.
The backup force of the anti-terrorists finally joined the battle.
The battle went on quickly from that point on.
Despite being slightly stronger than the normal zombies, they still didn't pose any real danger to a prepared defense. For now, Mathew's group was safe.
"Ugh!" Mathew moaned from exhaustion when he brough his ax down on the head of the last of the zombies.
With several minutes left on the clock, he still had some time to help Nadia out.
But he could only stand his ground, looking down at all the cores that he managed to gather.
With the swift zombies all defeated, new zombies would only appear during the first wave. The first wave would start once Mat's third clock reached its time.
In other words, with all the zombies gone, no more would appear before after Nadia would turn.
And in Mat's palms, there were only ninety-five stones.
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"Is that all of them?" the police officer approached Mat shortly after he finished the job.
"For now, yeah," Mat replied, turning around and ignoring the man.
'There is no way I will waste my time talking with him right now,' Mat thought, falling to his knees by Nadia's side.
He then picked up her delicate fingers, only to feel just how hot she was.
"Are you here?" Mathew asked gently, reaching out and wiping the sweat off the girl's forehead.
Her half-opened eyes appeared to be asleep as if she was no longer aware of her surroundings.
'She is worse than it expected,' Mathew thought, carefully inspecting Nadia's face and eyes.
Without a hundred cores, Mat couldn't summon a merchant. And even if he did, he would have no cores left for the medicine.
"Nadia," Mathew brought his lips closer to the girl's ear, gently pushing her hair out of the way as he whispered. "I need you to hold on for ten more minutes," Mathew said before glancing over at the clock in the corner of his vision.
Only five minutes left before the first wave would truly begin.
"Hey, is that all? Or is something else going to happen?!" the officer from before shouted, forcing Mat out of his daze.
"In five minutes, a small percent of the population will turn into normal zombies," Mat said before turning his eyes back to the girl.
"Nadia, I need you to promise me this," Mathew then whispered right into the girl's ear. "Promise me that you will hold on for ten more minutes," he continued to press the girl.
"How could I refuse," Nadia whispered, using as little air as she could to voice her words. "When you are asking so sweetly?" she muttered, moving her hand around in an attempt to find Mathew's face.
'She is losing her sight already?' Mathew thought, his body tensing up.
The only reason why he tried so hard right now was to keep Nadia safe by his side. But as it turned out, no matter what he would do, it would be all pointless!
Because losing one's sight, was the last symptom before one would turn.
'I don't give a fuck anymore,' Mathew thought, bringing the girl closer in his arms.
"I promise," Nadia muttered, clearly having trouble voicing her thoughts. "I will hold," she added before suddenly sucking on the air as if she was drowning.
Mat couldn't do anything but cuddle Nadia's shaking body in his arms.
The clock reached zero.
The first wave started.
"Man, speak to me!" the police officer attempted to force Mat out of his daze but to no avail.
[System activated]
[Wives Leveling System Awakens]
[Pick Your Wife]
Three windows appeared one by one, right before Mat's eyes.
He then looked around to check on the situation.
No police officer appeared to have any trouble, meaning none of them would turn during the first wave.
And that left Nadia in Mat's arms.
"Nadia, do you hear me?" Mathew probed, once again clearing the girl's forehead from sweat.
He then gulped down his saliva before leaning over the girl's ear, as close as if he wanted to nibble on it.
"Nadia, will you be my wife?" Mathew asked.
But Nadia could no longer speak.
Then, her lips moved a little. No voice came from between them, but they clearly formed two different figures!
[Wife accepted] the System announced in its usual, cold voice.
And then, all the windows disappeared from Mat's vision, forcefully returning him to reality.
'
Mat's eyes instantly moved down to the girl in his arms.
Nadia's temperature fell down, signaling that the sudden appearance of the System worked.
'Thank God,' Math thought, feeling the stable rhythm in which the girl started to breathe.
Whatever his System did, it clearly worked.
'But I doubt this will be all,' Mat thought, caressing Nadia's cheek for a while as he dealt with an overwhelming wave of relief.
'She is so fragile,' Mat thought, gently hugging the girl into his chest.
Normally she would be the one to protect him. Yet, right now, she felt like a small, little puppy when confined to Mat's arms.
'Whatever will happen from now on, I need to protect her,' Mat thought to himself, resting his chin on the top of the girl's head. Keeping her enclosed in his grasp like that was the only medicine for his anxiety-torn heart.
"Listen to me, you little fuck!" the officer finally couldn't hold himself back anymore. He shouted so loud that Mathew had no other choice but to raise his head. "What the hell is going to happen next?!"
Now that his attention was back in reality, Mathew noticed the low, guttural sound coming from the staircase to their back.
The zombies were already nearing this place.
'And she didn't turn,' Mathew thought, looking down at the girl in his arms.
She was sleeping, clearly exhausted to no end by the attack of the virus.
"I can't stop yet," Mathew told himself, laying the girl down on the floor. He then raised his eyes on the officer. "Right now, we need to obtain as many life cores as we can," he said, gathering himself up and taking hold of his ax.
"Those stones you collected before?" the negotiator asked, leaning his head to the side while sending a glance towards the zombies approaching from the side.
"That's right," Mathew nodded his head, fixing his hold over his weapon. "For a hundred, we can summon a merchant. But we need a thousand to establish a fortress," he said, taking a step towards the incoming wave.
Now that Nadia was relatively safe, Mathew no longer needed to hold back. Contrary to that, he had to secure his position as soon as possible.
Only by gaining access to a merchant and farming the cores could Mat hope to establish himself in this new, changed world.
'Whatever it will take, I will do,' Mat thought, locking his eyes on the nearest zombie. 'No matter what, I will keep Nadia safe!'
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'A thousand to establish a fortress… But we need to summon at least three merchants first,' Mathew thought, trying to fight his confusion by organizing his thoughts.
'But that's all a song of the future. For now, we need a merchant,' he thought, reflecting on his own state of mind.
"How long do we have?" the officer asked, raising his hand to stop the rest of the group from approaching.
The scene of the carnage just a few feet away from us was awful enough from a distance. There was no point in forcing those good men to endure this gruesome sight for no reason.
"Several minutes," Mathew replied, only to cast a quick glance into the corner of his vision. "Six minutes to be exact," he then added, making his answer more precise.
"What should we expect?" the man asked, pulling out the mag of his gun and glancing down to check his ammunition.
"And how the heck could I know that?" Mathew asked, opening his eyes wide in a faked shock. "I had my hands full trying to escape those agile ones. I only ended up killing one by accident," he revealed, only to spread his arms wide. "For all I know, this school might be safe now that the agile ones are gone. But it's also possible that the first wave of real zombies will begin soon."
'That's right,' Mathew thought grimly. 'Even by surviving two weeks into the apocalypse, I still know shit,' he thought as he bit down on his lip in frustration.
"Mat?" Nadia muttered softly through her sleep. Her eyelids tightened only to relax as a wide, comfortable smile emerged on her lips.
'I wonder what is she dreaming about,' Mathew thought, bringing his hand up to Nadia's cheek and caressing it gently.
"Anyway, what we need, right now is a merchant," Mathew said as he stood up and looked around. "But we are in a really bad spot to think about it," he added, raising his hand to his face only to bit down on the nail of his thumb.
A momentary grief took over Mathew's face, only for him to shake his head and then look up at the police officers.
"There is one thing that we can do," he stated, only to avert his eyes a moment later. "But I need to ask you first," he added, his voice faltering.
Because Mathew was aware of what was the true meaning of what he was about to ask.
"Do you want to operate with efficiency or morals in mind?" Mathew asked.
'Right now, the support of the armed forces is the best guarantee for safety,' Mathew thought, taking a deep breath. 'Even if their strength fades away against the evolved monsters, they could offer me a kickstart into the economy of the new world,' he thought.
In order to make a living, there was only one path worth pursuing.
And it was collecting the life stones of the zombies and monsters alike only to then trade them away with the merchants.
'I only had the opportunity to visit a merchant once,' Mathew recalled the short memory from his previous life.
Back then, he only had a few stones on himself, courtesy of defending their fortress from the incoming zombies.
With the favorable terrain and a small help from his former system, he managed to collect a small sum.
'To think that this would be one of my worst memories,' Mathew thought, lowering his eyes and taking a five-second period of silence to mourn his idiotic decisions from before.
Back then, he wasted his entire fortune to heal the effects of the last sacrifice. Back then, he gave away all of his potentials to grow just to regain his emotions.
'Sure, it was torture to live without them, but I could just wait, grow more and regain them later,' he thought, unable to forgive himself for the past mistakes.
'But what's important right now is to not make any mistakes down the line,' Mathew thought, raising his eyes and looking at the officer with a sense of urgency burning behind his eyes.
"I don't even want to know what plan you have in store," the negotiator only shook his head, making his mustache jump around as a result. "But I say we go for efficiency," he decided only to rest his free arm on his hip.
His right hand, though, continued to tighten around the handle of the man's gun.
"Alright," Mathew nodded his head only to then proceed to shake it.
"What are you doing?" the policeman asked, weirded out by Math's sudden movements.
"Shaking off all the unnecessary thoughts," Mathew replied, bringing his head back up and then taking a deep breath.
"Let's do it," he added after just a short moment.
There was no time for hesitation.
'It doesn't matter if my actions will turn me into a devil,' Mathew thought, the look in his eyes darkening as he picked up the pace and led the group down the corridor.
The school was relatively small. The object of Mathew's interest was just right ahead.
"I hope you left someone to guard Nadia," Mathew muttered under his nose as he approached the doors.
"Yeah," the middle-aged officer nodded his head in response. "There are two gunmen with her; she will be safe," he explained.
The power balance between those two changed greatly over the course of just the last few minutes.
From the adult and the freaking-out kid to partners who each recognized the other's value.
Mathew, despite not having any military or disciplinary upbringing, could recognize the discipline and prowess of a trained man. On the other hand, the officer could see the same type of determination that he experienced only on the battlefield before.
It was a weird pairing, but one that worked out surprisingly well.
"What is this place?" the officer asked when Mathew led the forward part of the group inside a small room, cramped with big boxes full of electrical equipment.
"It's the school's radio station," Mathew smiled as he approached the desk and picked up the mic haphazardly thrown in the corner by the previous shift of the radio club.
"How was it…" Mathew muttered as he played around with the switches and controls of the system. He would glance once every few moments towards the clock, watching with desperation as it continued to tick down.
"Okay, I'm all set," Mathew purred before turning his eyes towards the officer.
"Go and alert the others. We need to occupy the rooftop and the highest floor of the school," Mathew ordered, only to turn his lips back towards the microphone and press the main switch of the system.
"To all students! Our school will now go through the surprise fire drill!" Mathew announced into the microphone.
In an instant, his voice filled every corner and corridor of the school.
And before he could even make any follow-up, the entire place started to shake when all the students started to move at once.
A fire drill in the exam period was truly a god-sent, a gift that not a single one of them would pass on!
"All students are to calmly assemble in the courtyard of the school and wait for further instructions!" Mathew added only to flick the switch again and throw the microphone away.
"Hey!" the officer shouted, grabbing Mathew's arm as he turned around with the clear intention of leaving the room. "What was that all about?!" he asked, clearly unhappy with Mathew making big moves without consulting them with the police beforehand.
"Controlling those two places is crucial to our survival," Mathew explained with a blank, passive voice. There wasn't even a single emotion in it.
"Why didn't you pull the students just from those two floors then?!" the officer shouted, clearly enraged by Mathew's autonomous actions.
Or rather, not the actions themselves, but the insane burden that would fall on all of them as a result.
"If people will turn randomly, then we can't stop the culling. It will happen, whether everyone is at school or in the courtyard," Mathew shook his arms, a strange, dark spirit appearing in the back of his eyes.
He survived two weeks into the apocalypse. He saw a countless number of students, hot girls, kind and oppressive guys alike… All of them eaten. All of them turned into gory sights.
"What good does amasing them all on the courtyard do, then?!" the officer still protested, unable to agree with Mathew's approach.
"For them?" Mathew asked, nodding his head towards the doors where people were starting to rush towards the exit.
Given how excited they were, it would take a long while before anyone would notice the pile of corpses down the corridor.
"It changes nothing," Mathew revealed without any hesitation.
And most of the students and teachers in this school… simply failed to get a piece of it.
"But it gives us more time to prepare," Mathew finally revealed the true reason behind his actions. "And well, if we only evacuated the top two floors," he then added, a wicked smile appearing on his face as he approached the doors.
"Wouldn't that alert someone, leading to the panic and paralyzing our ability to buy ourselves some time?"
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'Just a little bit more,' Mathew thought.
Drops of sweat trickled down his forehead, the result of him carrying Nadia in his arms.
'We sure do look weird,' Mathew noticed as he passed by yet another group of his schoolmates.
They were all heading down the main corridor towards the school's front yard.
'Just the fact that we are going in the opposite direction is strange,' Mathew thought, only to look around and then hang his head low.
The sight of a huge group of heavily armed policemen was designed to draw attention.
'This could turn into a problem,' Mathew thought. He then bit down on his lip as he continued to push forward. 'Someone will notice there is something wrong; there is no stopping it,' he thought.
Mathew then took a deep breath. The oxygen filled his lungs to the brim, pushing revigorated blood down his veins.
Only two sets of stairs separated them from their objective.
But the last clock in the corner of Mathew's vision continued to tick its last toes.
"How are we standing?" the negotiating officer asked, his face completely still and relaxed.
This man was a veteran, after all.
'He knows better than to panic or gets emotional,' Mathew observed, silently taking a note of the point.
Managing people was a vital point of the young man's plans for the future. One couldn't build a world anew alone, after all.
"Two minutes left," Mathew replied shortly.
There was no need to elaborate. Only one set of stairs remained.
"WOAH!" someone in the crowd shouted. The people remaining on the last level all looked towards the center of the commotion.
'There it is,' Mathew thought, his face darkening.
His fingers tightened around the handle of the firemen's ax he held hidden under his hoodie.
Before the first wave truly began, the most susceptible to the virus would turn. This attack in advance was clearly designed to strike terror and chaos into the public before the main wave of zombie-turning would commence.
'So devious.' Mathew swallowed down his saliva. 'Whoever planned for this to happen was meticulous to the tiniest detail,' he thought.
The order of the things was simply too steady, too organized.
And nothing in nature worked in a straight line.
"We need to hurry up," Mathew shook his head and hurried everyone.
Thankfully, the last floor of the school, the one Mathew was interested in, was generally emptied out.
"No good will come from standing in place," the negotiating officer bit his lips and pushed on ahead.
The last set of stairs separated them from the part of the school Mathew intended to put a claim to.
"What's wrong with her?" someone from the crowd below casually asked, pointing their hand at the girl lying down on the ground.
'It's starting,' Mathew thought, hurrying up over the last set of stairs. Fat beads of sweat trickled down his neck.
He was never athletic, and now he had to go all the way up the school's massive building, all the while carrying Naida in his arms.
'Just a little bit more,' he thought, pushing his tired muscles to their limit.
"Hey, what's with her?" A voice from below reached Mathew's ears just as he passed by the last set of stairs.
"Get the booms," Mathew ordered, not paying any mind to the hierarchic structure of the law enforcement.
The people serving in the anti-terrorist forces had to have wits quick enough to keep them alive. And right now, their senses were tingling all over.
There was something in the air, even without all of Mathew's esoteric warnings.
They all saw and participated in the massacre in the school's underground. And now, the one man who predicted it to happen was hurrying them up.
This wasn't the time for any of those adults to oppose Mat's words.
"Mine the stairs, boys," the leading officer of the strike team gave his order. It was just to formalize what his subordinates had already rushed to do.
"Hey, what are you guys…" someone called them out.
'Fuck, they noticed!' Mathew pushed with the last ounce of his strength, bringing Nadia away from the blast radius.
But the calling-out voice… vanished.
No other sound covered it. This suspicious and accusing voice… simply ceased to be.
"Right ready," one of the policemen reported and turned his head to the leader.
"AAARGH!" a first shout came from the level below.
"Let us!" an urged whisper reached Mathew's ears.
'Isn't he from the year down?' Mathew thought, turning his head around. He recognized the young man instantly.
He was the talk of the school since he got the school's beauty to go out with him.
'Isn't the lucky boy,' Mathew thought, raising his eyebrows in surprise.
And just like one could expect, Lydia, the shy and silent idol of nearly half of the school, was running behind him while holding tightly to her boyfriend's hand.
There was a look of determination on Mathew's junior's face, as opposed to the scared and obedient look deep in Lydia's eyes.
Her long, platinum hair coated the weirdest part about the girl, the one that got the imagination of countless of Mathew's classmates going.
It was her figure.
One could tell, with just a single look, that she was perfectly slim… Yet, her hourglass figure betrayed that all of her parts were exactly as meaty as a man's heart desired.
Behind them followed an athletic man, one of the ball kickers from Mathew's parallel class.
"Left ready," the soldier reported.
"Center ready."
The detonation was all green to go.
"We wait until we see what happens," the leader of the strike squad commenced.
"What's going on?" the trio that luckily got to the upper floor just in the nick of time looked at Mathew in bewilderment.
"You got lucky to notice it," Mathew replied, ignoring the obvious plea for information.
He then tucked Nadia's powerless body into a corner before shielding her with his own chest.
"Ten!" Mathew shouted towards the officers.
The men readied out their guns.
They saw the culling at the bottom floor. And they were ready to fight for their survival.
"If we are successful here, we might be able to sortie out for your families," Mathew suddenly said.
It was a weird idea, one that randomly popped out in his head.
But after thinking through it all, there was a huge chance that some of their close ones would survive.
And right now, what those hardened veterans needed, wasn't a threat.
'What they need is an objective close to their hearts!' Mathew figured it out.
"Five!" he then shouted.
The sounds from the floor below were quickly intensifying.
No one needed Mathew's warning anymore.
The tension filled the air as all the shouting and crying suddenly ceased.
"One!" Mathew's calm voice filled the silent hall of the upmost floor of the school.
And then, all hell broke loose just down the stairs.
"Get ready!" Mathew shouted, raising his hand.
Mining of the staircase didn't mean they were going to just allow a massacre on the floor below.
It was but a necessary preparation for how it would ultimately all go down.
As the shouts and cries intensified, some people finally rushed to seek refuge on the upper floor.
"Go!" Mathew shouted, revealing his trusty weapon and rushing down the stairs.
Between the real apocalypse and the one that Mathew read about in novels, there was one major difference.
People wouldn't die from just a single bite or even a scratch.
The zombies would basically need to gnaw at someone to the point where they would die anyway for them to turn.
That's why, as long as one didn't let the zombies lock them down, their survival was still an option.
On the other hand, those infected at random by the virus itself would stand no chance.
"Run towards the upper floor!" Mathew shouted from the bottom of his lungs, raising his ax above his head.
The first target revealed itself in an instant.
Someone Mathew couldn't even recognize, mostly due to how half of that poor victim's face was gone. And yet, it didn't stop the zombie from lunging at a nearby person.
"Sleep," Mathew muttered softly, driving his blade down with a wide swing.
The crowds all around didn't make his task any easier.
'Thank God I stopped the early wave,' Mathew thought, swinging his hammer again, only to raise his face and look around for his next victims.
The people all around rushed to escape…
But only a portion of them would nail it. The rest of the students and teachers, boys, girls, women, and men alike, all ended up in the claws of the newly turned monsters.
Seeing th3eir clothes, flesh and bones split and cracked open was a truly gruesome sight.
Mathew didn't turn around, but he could feel how shocked the soldiers behind him were.
'No kind of battlefield can prepare one for this kind of sights,' he thought, coldly moving around the place and finishing any zombie that he could find.
Bit by bit, one by one, Mathew cleared the area. Yet, only a small fraction of those who were initially on the floor escaped to the upper floor.
Some of them scattered around; others succumbed to the attack.
'It would be good if we got even twenty people,' Mathew thought, quickly judging the situation.
But there was no time to waste.
They couldn't secure this floor. As such, they had to work swiftly.
"Everyone, it's harvest time," Mathew announced, raising his bloody ax above his head.
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Extracting the life cores from the zombies was pretty simple. With how only a heavy trauma to the head could put an end to them, picking up those small stones that would crystalize out in the center of their brain was a job anyone could do.
That is, as long as they wouldn't cover everything with their vomit first, only to faint later.
"You shouldn't measure everyone with your standards," the police officer said, only to release an exhausted sigh a moment later.
Even only a bit over an hour had passed since the man appeared before Mat for the first time; the events that transpired were so rapid and engaging that the young man felt as if he had known the man for ages.
And here he was, schooling Mathew away after noticing just a small glance followed by a roll of Mat's eyes.
"My standards are the world's standards, now," Mathew rebuked, only to straighten himself up and move over to another corpse.
Thankfully, the crystalization of life's core within one's brain was the first step of the zombie transformation. As such, even those that Mat finished before they could fully turn turned into a harvestable material for him.
Yet, while Mathew continued to look for any positives in the current situation, the few soldiers that helped him to gather the cores…
Their attention was fully focused on keeping themselves sane.
They were all veteran soldiers. They saw the true battle with their very own eyes.
But what was left in the main corridor of the second to last floor was far from anything they could experience on a modern battlefield. In the battle, they would rarely have to dig through the literal brains of the fallen.
"That doesn't mean people will have an easy time adapting," the officer countered, only to turn his face sideways to cast a glance upstairs.
"Why didn't you help us earlier?!" one of the students cried out. From his point of view, Mathew couldn't even tell who it was. "I almost died, you know?!"
Hearing the complaints, Mathew only rolled his eyes before returning to his job.
Dealing with the dissatisfied and distressed fellow students of his wasn't his job.
"You should go and save the others now!" a new, feminine voice entered the cry.
"What the hell are you doing here?! Go and clean the school from those freaks!" someone else joined in as well.
'They are refusing to accept the reality,' Mathew thought, sending a sneaky glance over to the panicky group. 'I didn't really believe something like this could happen back when they described it to me,' he recalled one of the stories he heard back at the fortress in the past.
Apparently, the main reason behind the fall of the first attempt at organized attempt was just that – people were too hesitant to do the one thing that could save them. Too stuck in the old world to accept the change and adapt to it.
It was something that Mathew only heard happened. But now, he was growing increasingly aware he would also be the one who would have to deal with this mess.
"Okay, that's enough," Mathew spat out. He stood up and looked around the place.
'They might dislike it, but they are working like obedient little bees,' he thought, nodding with satisfaction at the effort of the soldiers dedicated to the collection task.
It would be only a matter of a few minutes before they would be done with their task.
And that meant Mathew only had a few more minutes to regain control over the top floors of the school.
"Everyone shut the fuck up," Mathew shouted as soon as he appeared on the stairs.
At first, his words only worked because his voice was loud and generally unexpected.
Then, the law enforcement looked over, ready to deal with another troublemaker… Only to relax and back up when they saw Mathew's face.
Even if he wasn't their leader, Mathew's words already proved to be crucial to their survival.
No one said a word to explain Mathew's importance to his fellow student. Yet, maybe it was due to the atmosphere that surrounded him or maybe his bloodthirsty rampage earlier, but not a single student dared to complain to him.
"First, let's explain a few things," Mathew stated as soon as he reached the end of the stairs. He put his legs parted wide and crossed his arms on his chest. "Loud noises attract zombies," the young man threw out a pretty important piece of information as if it was nothing.
"As such, I advise you lot to shut the hell up," Mathew added, reveling in the newfound position of power. "This is the land that I put a claim to," the young man continued, caring not for how cringy and chunni his words could sound.
"What claim?" someone from the crowd asked, cleverly hiding behind the others just in case this question would bring forth a punishment.
"Here are the stones we gathered," one of the soldiers from the floor below came up and passed a small bag into Mathew's hands.
This particular soldier appeared to be too overwhelmed by the blood on his hands to care about Mathew's little speech.
"Good job, soldier," Mathew replied with the line he heard in some western movie. A small smile appeared on the corners of his lips.
Yet, instead of answering the question that the soldier stopped him from answering, Mathew grabbed the stones and poured them all directly on the floor.
'Damn, it's kinda exciting,' the young man thought, staring at the pile of shiny life cores at his feet.
Mathew then brought his hand forward and hung it in the air, directly above the pile of cores.
"I, Mathew, son of Arthur, do hereby summon a claim merchant," Mathew spoke.
Then, the combined shine of all the life cores suddenly multiplied, only to erect itself as a pillar of light, as high as the roof of the place. And just as rapidly as it appeared, the light condensed into an outline of an androgynous person.
When the radiance fully faded away, instead of the huge chunk of the stones Mathew gathered, there was a hooded figure standing in silence.
'Good thing this formula worked,' Mathew thought, swallowing his saliva.
This was truly a nerve-wracking moment. Depending on whether this formula would work or not, the future of all the people around him would change.
Thankfully, for the first time since the apocalypse started in Mathew's previous life, he could claim to see a ray of hope.
'Summoning a merchant is the one step I never reached back then,' Mathew thought, moving back with his thoughts to the past now gone.
Their fortress gathered ninety-three life cores. A humble amount given the two weeks it took them… But as the apocalypse evolved, those who failed to stay on track would be left forever longing to catch up.
'Once monsters started appearing, hunting expeditions were no longer possible,' Mathew thought, raising his hand as he approached the hooded figure.
There was no face, no legs or hands. There wasn't a body to that figure, just a dark shadow hidden within the confines of the floor-long, grey robe.
Mathew's hand stopped just an inch away from the shadoww coiling underneath the robe.
He then turned his head around to where he left Nadia to rest.
'I will heal you, you understand?' Mathew thought, reaffirming himself in his determination.
He then moved his eyes to the side, to where all the saved schoolmates of his stood.
'Right, I still didn't answer their question,' Mathew thought.
The edges of his mouth curled up, turning his lips into a small smile.
"As of now, I'm the lord of this merchant," Mathew revealed, looking at his colleagues with a serious expression. "I'm also the only one capable of expanding on the merchant's network of this area," he added, sharing the info that he never got to confirm.
'Let's hope that no one tries to call this bluff,' Mathew thought, only for his smile to turn slightly wicked. 'Well, I shouldn't worry too much. The chances of anyone being able to summon another merchant so soon…'
With each passing second, Mathew's smile turned darker and darker.
But his strange position was quickly becoming uncomfortable.
"It's better if you keep that in mind for the future," Mathew threw at his colleagues before turning his eyes back towards the shadowy figure of the grey, claim merchant.
'Now then, show me your wares!' Mathew uttered a completely useless and unnecessary formula in his mind before reaching out and grasping at the darkness coiling underneath the merchant's robe.
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The second Mathew's hand grasped at the darkness, the black shadow suddenly expanded, shielding the young man from the world around him.
Surrounded by the vividly black shadow, Mathew remained calm.
When he visited a merchant before, his heart nearly stopped. But now that he knew what to expect, he managed to keep his calm.
And then, one by one, items started to appear on the screen of said shadow. Like a light thrown into the dark surface, the outline of each item was carved out in the darkness, only for the explanation of the item itself to appear right besides it.
'Just like I expected,' Mathew thought, releasing a heavy sigh.
The items on display were exactly the same as what he saw during his former visit to the merchant. Or rather, the stock of the claim merchant turned out to be even smaller than what the wandering merchant offered back then.
"First off, how many stones do I have?" Mathew muttered, using his voice to help direct his actions.
The young man then bent his knee, leaning down to grab all the remaining cores.
"Roughly twenty, huh?" he muttered.
As disappointing of a number as it was, it also reflected the number of people that Mathew and the police failed to save.
'I have quite the mixed feelings about it, don't I?' Mathew reflected on his own state of mind. He then shook his head, clearing it from the useless doubts and hesitations.
"I would like the basic expansion of the system," Mathew stated, throwing a single stone into the darkness.
Yet, instead of disappearing just like the stones that Mathew used to summon the merchant, the core simply slowed down and came to a complete halt in mid-air.
And then it just dangled in there, suspended in the air as if there was an invisible surface prompting it up.
'This is weird,' Mathew thought, baffled by the lack of reaction from the merchant. 'That's how much I paid back at the wandering one, so why doesn't it work now?'
The basic expansion of the system was a pretty confusing name for the service Mathew attempted to buy.
It was one of the wares that would never be displayed out in the open as, according to the rumors Mathew learned, it was one of the four services that all the merchants provided. Yet, rather than the expansion of the system, it should actually be called the system discovery instead.
"Let's try with two?" Mathew muttered to himself, bringing another life core up and then throwing it forward.
The two cores gently shone as they hovered mid-air, only for their radiance to explosively increase and then disappear along with the physical manifestation of the cores.
'Did it do anything?' Mathew thought, puzzled by the lack of reaction from himself or his surroundings.
But the stones disappeared. And that meant the transaction went through!
"Do you have any items to heal the virus zombification?" Mathew asked, pursuing the most important of his tasks.
Now that he confirmed that the merchant worked more or less the same right now as it did back in his past future, Mathew could move on to the important stuff.
"One hundred and fifty cores," a strange, nearly robotic voice filled the shadowy realm that currently trapped Mathew.
'Damn,' the young man cursed in his thoughts, only to tighten his knuckles. 'One hundred and fifty cores it is, then,' he thought.
A hundred and fifty lives in exchange for healing one.
That was the prize the merchant asked for, turning Nadia back into a human if Mathew's system wouldn't be sufficient to stop the process going on in the girl's body.
'Right, I have yet to even check my system yet,' Mathew thought, looking around the shadowy realm in a hurry.
"Five food packs," Mathew said, picking five more stones before throwing them at the shadows of the realm.
'Transaction completed,' Mathew thought when the stones disappeared. And once the light they created had subsided, five crates, each roughly the size of a personal computer, waited on the floor.
"End the transactions," Mathew spoke.
He had too few stones to get anything of value from this merchant.
Sure, the notes with information that he offered were pretty damn interesting… But each of those pages cost a steep prize of fifty coins.
It wasn't a big prize for learning something new about this changing world… But it was a prize that Mathew couldn't afford right now anyway.
Then, the smoke that trapped Mat in this strange realm suddenly started to move towards the center of the space, all condensing back into the swirling darkness that Mathew initially grasped.
"Hey, are you okay?!" the police officer shouted, his face screaming worry.
"Huh?" Mathew shrugged, surprised by the unexpectedly warm welcome. "What do you mean?" he asked, puzzled by the reaction of this otherwise stoic man.
"Ever since that man appeared…" the officer moved his eyes towards the figure of the merchant. His hand voluntarily moved to the man's holster, resting down on the handle of his pistol. He then moved his eyes back at Mathew's face. "You just stood there and threw the stones up, all for those stones to disappear," he added before taking a closer look at the place where Mathew stood.
"This figure is a merchant," Mathew explained before stepping to the side, allowing others to see the stock of food that he bought for the low price of five lives.
Each of the food crates would provide enough food for a group of five to survive for a day. With five crates of food, there were enough supplies to sustain twenty-five people for a day.
'Not enough,' Mathew thought, looking around the group.
Twenty-five rations would be enough just to feed the students. But adding the law enforcement guys would instantly make their current stock of food… insufficient.
"Counting the stuff we can pillage from the vendors and the warehouse…" Mathew muttered, paying no mind to the people around him.
Then, the young man looked up at the officer.
"I want you to search around the floor for any form of food and supplies," Mathew informed, only for a wrinkle to appear on top of his forehead. "Also, could you station two of your mean on each of the two secondary staircases?"
The main stairway leading to the topmost floor was mined and ready to be demolished. But that didn't mean it was the only way to get on the last floor.
'Even though there are only small chances the zombies would find them, one cannot be too careful,' Mathew thought.
"Will do," the officer nodded his head, likely seeing no point in arguing right now. "But where do we find them?" he then asked before raising his hand and scratching the side of his head.
"Just ask one of the students," Mathew replied and waved his hand, leaving the area near the merchant as he moved towards sleeping Nadia.
"Right now, I don't want anyone to disturb me. Is that understood?" Mathew informed in a voice that wouldn't accept any opposition.
"I guess it's better not to ask what you are going to do to her," the officer commented, only for a small smile to appear on his lips. "Fine, take your time. Just tell me one last thing," he stated, his smile evaporating in an instant. "What should we do if more students come here?"
"Kill the infected, let the others in," Mathew gave his directions. "The more manpower we have, the longer we should be able to survive."
With that said, Mathew didn't allow anyone else to stop him in his march toward his girl. Towards his wife.
And the second Mathew's fingers made contact with Nadia's skin, his vision suddenly blurred, only for a set of three half-transparent windows to appear before his eyes.
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'What the hell are those?!' Mathew riled up when he first saw those three windows. Yet, as the young adult of his time, he could instantly recognize their content.
'What kind of joke is this…' he thought, gazing at the simple text contained by those windows.
[Wife #1]
[Name: Nadia Astra]
[Age: 19]
[Level: 1]
[Race: Half-zombie]
[Class: None]
[Status: Recovering (78%)]
The first window outlined Nadia's basic information.
'Half-zombie?' Mathew thought, his attention instantly drawn to the aspect of Nadia's status that he cared the most about. 'Does that mean she didn't fully turn?' he attempted to figure out the meaning.
'She is recovering. Does that mean she will regain her mind?' Mathew then turned his attention to the last of the information outlined by the main status window of the girl.
Then, the number of Nadia's recovery ticked up by two percent.
"So it goes up at a rather fast pace," Mathew muttered, not even realizing that his thoughts escaped through his lips.
"How is she?"
The negotiating officer approached Mathew's side and looked down at the sleeping girl. His face was filled with worry.
'Does he feel indebted to me and thus project his ideas on Nadia?' Mathew attempted to figure out the source of the man's worry. 'Or is he scared that if something happens to her, I will go rogue?'
Mathew had no means of determining the answer to this question. That's why, rather than wasting time on overthinking things, he simply moved on.
"I don't know yet," the young man said, patting Nadia's head before moving his eyes to the other two windows of her system.
But for now… they were empty.
'Does she need to level up first? Or maybe obtain some sort of class?' Mathew thought.
His experiences from his past walkthrough of the apocalypse made the young man certain about one fact above anything else.
The greatest weapons humans had in this apocalypse, their greatest tool for survival, was the system.
And understanding the system was the very prerequisite to using it properly!
"When will you know?" the officer pressed the topic, clearly unwilling to just let it pass.
"What makes you think that I know?" Mathew replied in an instant, only to shake his head a moment later. "I just hope it will happen sooner than later," he added, raising from his knees.
Mathew then threw one last look at the girl before turning around and approaching the stairs.
For a moment, Mathew looked down at the level below, only to then take a glance into the corner of his vision.
Just like he expected, all three of the clocks disappeared the second their purpose was fulfilled. As such, for the first time since he came back to life, Mathew had nothing leading him.
'Juding by how long has passed since the apocalypse started, everything should be settled by now,' he thought.
Mathew then swallowed his saliva before turning back and looking at the officer.
"Detonate," he ordered, taking a step back to watch the fireworks.
For a moment, the officer hesitated. And then, he silently nodded his head, confirming the validity of Mathew's order.
"Right now, there are only two other paths that zombies can take," Mathew reminded everyone of the fact he brought up earlier. "Once you guys secure them, we should be safe for now."
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The racket caused by the collapsing stairs filled the entire school.
The sound of the explosion turned out to be nowhere as loud as Mathew expected. That was a good thing, as sudden noise was one of the main attractors for the zombies.
But on the other hand, when several hundred pounds worth of concrete fell down and crashed into the floor below, the ruckus turned out to be immense.
'It's bad,' Mathew's attention spiked up in a mere instant.
The main stairs to the floor were gone. The safety of the floor should then be secured…
'If an entire horde comes, not only will they sweep up through all the survivors, but force their way through the side entrances as well,' Mathew could easily imagine the scenario playing out.
During their normal activities, zombies wouldn't do much. They would naturally gravitate towards areas with a high number of living humans, but that effect often took a long time.
The situation changed when a zombie would get agitated, though.
It could be done by alarming it with sounds, attacking it, or allowing it to smell a human's blood. And smell it they could, even from several meters away.
But what was important was that once a single zombie in a congested area would end up agitated…
Mathew swallowed down a gulp of saliva, forcing his imagination to shut the vivid picture out.
He never took part in the defense against the horde. But he caught some rumors about it happening near the school. It was about when one day, almost all of the zombies from the school, for some reason, rushed towards one side of the fenced area.
'Thinking back, if that didn't happen, we would all die a week earlier,' Mathew thought, noticing the mistake he made.
IF the power of each specific zombie was laughable, then the might of the horde was on an entirely different level.
'They said it could be compared to locust swarm,' Mathew recalled, blinking his eyes a few times as he focused on his hearing. 'Eating everything in their way to a degree of collapsing entire buildings,' the young man continued to recall the pieces of the story.
Mathew's mouth twitched, only to turn into a small smile.
The noise caused by the crumbling stairs finally concluded.
And in the sudden silence, Mathew could clearly hear it. The sound of the approaching mass of zombies.
'We don't have much time,' Mathew thought.
He then shook his head, snapping out of his daze. Then, he looked toward the officer.
"I changed my mind," Mathew spat out, turning around and approaching the merchant, now standing near the edge of the broken stairs. "Go and destroy the other stairs as well. Then, throw some explosives outside the windows so that they will explode near the lower floors," Mathew gave a very specific order.
"No way," the policeman only shook his head. "We used all the stuff we brought on the main stairs," he shook his head, refusing Mathew's request for the first time since the man bloodied his hands for the first time. "And I can't allow you to cut all our routes of escape," the man added.
From the tone of the officer's words, it was clear that his decision wouldn't change, no matter what Mathew would say. As such, keeping the negotiations up would only waste time for everyone.
A time everyone was currently in desperate need of.
"You lack explosives?" Mathew raised his eyebrow. He then relaxed his hand only to bring it up in one fell swoop, grasping at the darkness of the merchant's face.
The shadowy realm expanded outwards from the strange figure, enclosing Mathew within its bounds. And just like before, some force projected the images of the items on the shadowy clouds.
"Explosives," Mathew stated, throwing a life core towards the center of the weight of the realm.
The core flashed, exhausting its energy in the process. And when the small star of light vanished, a neat package with three premade demolishing charges appeared in its place.
"I guess I need to use another," Mathew muttered under his nose, giving up on yet another core.
Bit by bit, the small fortune he made during the first two waves continued to melt away. And in the current world, rather than a tool to buy both necessities and luxuries, this new currency became one's bargaining chip with the very death.
For the outsiders, Mat appeared to simply freeze in place as if playing a mime. And then, a short moment later, his consciousness would seemingly return. But what was pretty weird was how his body would twitch during the latter transition, as if Mathew's real body took over the still image cast by some projector in its stead.
And it was during this twitch that the two sets of charges appeared in the young man's hands.
"What the hell…" the officer muttered, taking a step back and nervously raising the barrel of his handgun a little.
"You don't have that many explosives left, you said," Mathew brought the recent words of the man up. "Here," he said, only to throw the two packages towards the man. "Use what you have left as the lure," Mathew ordered, instantly moving forward, not waiting for the officer's complaints.
For a moment, the middle-aged man stood in his place, watching how Mathew approached his girl yet again.
'Should I? Or should I not?' the officer asked himself, only to raise his hand to his face and then cover his eyes for a little.
The events of the recent hours took a toll on everyone, all the more on one of the leaders of the police. He had to both make use of his physical skills but also keep his mind in its peak condition.
The officer then shook his head.
"Fine!" he muttered under his nose as he picked the explosives up.
A sudden racket from one of the floors below reached the now silent hall of the topmost level.
Mathew froze in the place, perfectly aware of what this sound meant. Yet, even with his prior experiences, the next sound took him by surprise.
"ROAR!"
The cry of a monster.
Not an evolved one, a creature that was still within the frame of what the human brain could expect and, to a degree, explain.
But it also meant something far more disastrous. Because back in Mathew's first round against the apocalypse, the evolved monsters wouldn't appear until the second week after it all started.
'There is no way it's something else,' Mathew thought, tightening his hands as he pulled his eyes away from the girl to look towards the demolished stairs.
'But the monsters shouldn't appear for over a week yet!' Mathew attempted to ridicule the truth, refusing to accept it.
He then shook his head and slapped his hands on his cheeks to sober himself up.
'It doesn't matter,' Mathew thought, raising from his knee.
Nadia was still several minutes away from waking up. Only God could know if she would still act like a human by the time she would wake up, which would mostly happen right as the horde would attack their makeshift stronghold.
Mathew couldn't change the facts. He had no magical, out of ordinary power to reshape the fabrics of causality.
If there was a monster here, one could only think about how to deal with it. Ignoring the reality just because it didn't suit one's tastes just wasn't to Mathew's taste.
'I guess we will need to deal with it sooner or later,' Mathew thought, only to hear two dull explosions going off a moment later. 'Good,' he thought, glancing over in the directions the booms went off.
And then, Mathew threw one last look at the girl, still fast asleep. Or rather, instead of looking at Nadia, Mathew glanced at her system.
Because there was one line that he suddenly noticed.
[Level: 1]
It was said that defeating the unevolved monster was just as hard for the system-less, as easy as it was for those who possessed a system. In other words, while a person without a system could still kill it, it was basically the limit of how far an ordinary human could go.
'The problem is,' Mathew thought, gnashing his teeth together. 'I don't really know how to use this damned system!" he complained in his thoughts.
'If I don't know how to use this damned system, what did I pay that merchant for?!' Mathew neared a state where he couldn't hold his sour cry back.
But then he raised his eyes. Then, he moved up only to approach the merchant's shadowy figure for the third time.
"Since we are going to abandon this floor," Mathew said in a clear voice, paying no mind to the survivors eavesdropping on every word that he would say. "I might as well use all those cores up!"
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Mathew grabbed at the shadow of the merchant for the third time.
Now that he had access to the greatest supply of everything in the universe, Mathew decided to use it to its limits.
The dark shadows of the merchant's realm surrounded him, separating him from the rest of the world.
'I wonder how does this really work,' Mat thought, looking around the place. But it was exactly the lack of the answer for this that forced the young man to hurry it up.
"I wish to purchase a second expansion of the system information," Mathew announced.
He had no way of knowing whether others could hear his words. But right now, he had no time to think about potentially revealing too much.
"Five cores." The same voice from before filled the shadowy realm.
'That's cheap,' Mat thought; the meager price of what he asked for stunning the young man.
"Fine," Mathew threw five more cores up in the air.
'I think I gathered a hundred and seventy-three cores,' Mathew calculated, looking down at the remaining cores in his hand. 'Between the cure, the information, food, and explosives, I used a hundred and fifty-nine,' he calculated.
Then, he brought his eyes down and counted the cores still in his possession.
'That leaves me with fourteen,' Mat thought, raising his eyes at the floating robe of the merchant. "How much for the next level of information?"
For but a moment, Mathew could swear that he saw the merchant smirk.
But there was no merchant in this strange, shadowy realm. Nor was there any face on which lips could form a smile.
"Ten cores," announced the cold, metallic voice of the system.
"Deal," Mat threw ten more cores at the shadows, only to watch them disappear in the burst of their inner light.
His body didn't twitch. Mathew didn't feel any strange sensation of something changing whatsoever.
"What about…" Mat smiled a little, ready to ask for the next level.
"Twenty cores," the metallic voice of the realm replied before Mathew could finish his sentence.
"I see," Mat replied, releasing a small sigh as he shook his head. "Then, what kind of weapons can I get for the fourteen cores?"
Mathew's question was given.
The horde was coming. It would be a wave that they wouldn't be able to stop. But, if the push came to shove, Mat's system would be the greatest weapon the survivors had.
That's why he didn't bother asking about weapons before spending all the cores he could on his system first. And now that Mat had reached the limit of the information about his system that he could buy, he simply moved on to the next best investment.
"Weapon of first grade cost five cores," the metallic voice filled Mathew's ears.
"What about the second grade?" Mat asked, despite not knowing what those grades of the weapons could be.
Sure, it appeared to be pretty self-evident… but using the old common sense in this new, changing world was something that Mat was pretty worried about doing.
"…" The merchant didn't respond.
'Huh?' Mathew twitched when a strange sensation appeared in his mind.
It wasn't something that he could experience with any of his senses. But he still somehow felt as if the smirk returned to the faceless merchant's lips.
'What was that?' Mathew thought, stumped by the strange experience.
The young man then shook his head.
'No.' he clasped his hands against his cheeks. 'I have no time for this.'
Mathew raised his at the floating, empty robes of the merchant.
"I want to buy two grade one weapons, two packs of supplies, and two packs of explosives," Mathew listed out the items before throwing the rest of his cores into the air.
A light flashed brightly as the stones turned into small stars, only to subside a moment later.
"What the fuck…" Mathew muttered, only for the shadowy realm around him to disperse.
Yet, right when only a fleeting sense of the merchant's presence remained, Mathew could feel its aura smirking.
'It's not like I can see the smirk, but more like…' Mathew thought, trying to put what he just went through into words.
But before he could do so, the real vanished completely, banishing Mathew out into the real world.
Now that he had no more cores left, his presence was of no worth for the merchant.
And the second Mathew returned to reality; the entire school shook with another scream from a monster approaching from below.
"ROAR!" the cry filled every nook and cranny of the building, instilling a sense of a deep, primal fear into any and all that heard it.
"What the hell is this?!" the officer moaned, sounding as if he no longer had any energy to deal with Mathew's bullshit.
The thing is… Mathew was just as stunned by how the merchant did him in.
'I made a mistake,' Mathew thought, allowing himself a short moment of respite for a small smile. 'I didn't specify what exactly I wanted,' he thought, lowering his head in the admittance to his shameful display.
And right by the merchant's figure, on top of two crates of military supplies and two bags filled with grenades… there was a simple, robust sword….
And a trebuchet-like pendulum mounted right on edge formerly occupied by the staircase.
It was made from a mix of wood and some glistering metal, holding a wheel roughly two meters in diameter right above the floor. The big wheel was then attached to a tiny one, on which a huge, swinging hammer was mounted.
The hammer consisted of two parts. The longer one bore a simple, sharpened tube on its end. And from how it hung down in its resting position, it was clear that its handle could bend pretty smoothly.
On the other end of the wheel was the counterweight. But right between those two-sized gears, there was a rope that connected the entire thing to a simple rotating wheel.
'This feels both futuristic and ancient at the same time,' Mathew thought, baffled by what he could see before his eyes.
The mechanism of the weapon was pretty simple and easy to understand.
By spinning the power wheel of the construction, one would put the main, big gear in motion. The big wheel would then turn the tiny one, which would then swing the hammer.
'Is that an alternating mechanism?' Mathew thought, falling down to his knees when he spotted the detail.
He couldn't exactly tell its details from just a single, short look, but the use of this complicated box of gears and switches could only have a single purpose.
"Why aren't the other stairs blown up yet?!" Mathew barked, ignoring the officer's question.
There wasn't any time for idle discussion now.
"What the hell is going on?!" the officer shouted in response, clearly aware of how the air continued to tense with each passing second.
"We are about to get swarmed," Mathew informed before approaching the bag with the grenades and throwing its opening towards the ground, causing the explosives to trickle across it.
"I need three men. One more to throw with me, two more to keep passing up more of them," Mathew informed as he approached the edge of the former staircase with an explosive in each of his hands. He then turned his head to the back.
"I also need enough guys to spin that wheel, but I trust you can organize that," Mathew added, throwing another order towards the officer before moving his head back in the direction the noise was coming from.
For the next few moments, people rushed about the place. Some followed the orders; others were too frozen in fear to move.
By the time everyone finally took their positions, the noise made by the approaching horde was already pretty loud.
"Mat?" Mathew heard a tiny voice. It barely reached his ears, proving just how weak it was.
But the young man recognized it in an instant. Sadly, he could no longer afford Nadia any attention.
"They are here," he informed calmly, pulling the pins of both of his nades and releasing the handles.
'Five,' Math thought, sensing how everyone on the floor froze.
"When I give a signal, you need to all rush towards the rooftop," Mathew announced. 'Four,' he thought, holding the live grenades like hot potatoes in his hands.
"Mat?" This time, Nadia's voice was clearer, stronger, followed by the sound of hurried footsteps.
"Stay back!" Mathew shouted, not daring to turn his face away. 'Three,' the explosives in the young man's hands seemingly got hotter.
But it was all an illusion. A projection of his mind that grew increasingly aware of the threat.
'Two,' Math thought, swinging his hands to the back.
The noises stopped. And then, the sidewall of the corridor exploded under the pressure of an entire horde of zombies smashing through it.
The undead calamity rushed around, all drawn towards Mathew's position.
'One,' Mat thought, swinging his hands forward and dropping his grenades right in the path of the approaching horde.
Powered by seven athletic men and policemen alike, the pendulum started to swing.
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The two grenades exploded almost at the same time, right when the horde rushed past them.
The explosion shook the entire building.
Even though he was likely the only one who knew what to expect, that didn't make it any less stressful to face thousands of zombies all crammed into the school's corridor below them.
"Free the pendulum!" Mathew shouted when the wave of the zombies pushed those still shocked by the explosion out of the way.
With the stairs demolished, a huge chunk of the floor collapsed, creating something akin to a fall trap.
Under the force of the zombies pushing from behind, the zombies at the front would run towards the former staircase… and either fall down the stairs or directly drop over the edge to the lower floor.
Sure, it would only take to turn around and climb the stairs back to get where they started… But an action like this would require the zombies to be capable of thinking.
'It's gonna take them a while, but they will find a way,' Mathew thought, watching how the group of seven men rotated the power-wheel and swung the pendulum into the crowd of the zombies.
This stationary weapon was made so that the hammer would first gain momentum and then strike right at the height where the head of the zombies would be. What's more, the zombies lucky enough to avoid getting hit in the head would still end up pushed down the hole and forced to move up the floor.
"Pull it back!" Mathew shouted, reaching out with his hand to the back, only for one of fellow students of his to pass him a grenade.
"Throw the nades whenever they are raising the pendulum!" Mathew shouted, moving towards the second phase of his plan.
For now, this was the most effective way to keep thinning out the number of zombies. With the grenades preventing the zombies from stacking in a single place, the pendulum continued to crush several zombies with each swing it took.
'It's far more effective than I expected it to be,' Mathew thought, throwing yet another grenade down the gap and leaning back.
"Mathew!" Nadia shouted, trying to force her voice through the constant noise of the ongoing fight. "What the hell is going on?!" she cried out, clearly in distress.
But who could blame this poor girl for being stressed out if she first succumbed to some strange and insanely rapid disease, only to wake up in the middle of a zombie apocalypse!
"Nadia, I'm sorry, but I can't right now," Mathew said, turning his head to look at the girl.
'As much as I want to just cuddle her and keep her in my arms to calm her down,' Mat thought, moving his eyes towards the girl…
And then, he saw the depth of terror in her eyes.
It wasn't an expression one would make when faced with a horde of zombies. What's more, from her current point of view, Nadia wasn't likely to even have an angle to see the zombies in the first place!
'Is this about her race?' Mathew thought when he noticed the information flashing in the half-transparent windows floating slightly above the girl's head.
According to the only window that had any content, Nadia was no longer a human but a half-zombie.
"What's wrong?" Mathew asked, forgetting about the ongoing battle and focusing all of his attention on the girl. He then brought his hand forward and grabbed Nadia's fingers only to cup them together and then cover Nadia's hands with his own.
"Everything… I can see everyone's hearts pumping, the sounds…" Nadia moaned before falling to her knees. "The entire world is red all around!" Nadia cried out while wrestling her hands free. She then his her face in her palms.
'Is she turning?' Mathew thought, glancing over at the girl's status in panic. And the former "recovering" changed to something else.
[Status: In a shock]
This one line was enough for the young man to somehow calm down. But the noises from right behind his back quickly brought Mat's thoughts back into reality.
"Nadia, I'm here," Mathew whispered into the girl's ear, hoping to reach her in this way. "I need to take care of a few things for now, so can you just sit down and wait for me to come in a moment?"
Instead of sharing Nadia's panic, Mathew decided to put on a perfectly calm but busy front.
"O-okay," Nadia muttered, unsure how to react.
Throughout their entire relationship, she was usually the one to protect and cheer Mathew up. And from how easily Mat managed to subdue her fear, turning her into an obedient little girl, the change was still quite surprising for her.
"Good girl," Mathew purred, rustling Nadia's curly hair.
Mathew stood up and took a deep breath. He then turned his head to the other side, inspecting the progress of the battle.
"So far, so good," Mathew muttered under his nose.
The results were far from satisfactory, but they were better than Mathew's grave predictions.
Even the combination of the explosions and the swinging pendulum had its limits.
Soldiers could throw the grenades only once per swing of the weapon; otherwise, they would risk damaging it.
Because of this short time window, the zombies eventually started to form into waves, quickly building up a disgusting pile of rotting flesh.
Both the explosions and the pendulum would often miss the vitals, turning the zombie into a mesh yet not fully killing them. And as time went on, those broken parts of zombies continued to build up.
'Thank God the hole is quite big,' Mathew thought.
When the explosions went off earlier, the resulting demolition deleted not only the stairs but also quite a bit of floor from the level below. The falling rubble simply blasted past the aged floor, only stopped on the next level.
That's why the zombies not only had to move up but also move forward.
Unable to breach the gap on their own, they could only rely on this build-up of corpses that would eventually bridge it. Yet, it had to grow considerably higher just to account for the changed angle.
After all, for a pile to grow up, it had to rest on some kind of foundation.
But the zombies kept on coming. And there was no telling when this swarm would end.
'The monsters have yet to show up,' Mathew thought, scanning the area as he grabbed one of the grenades before timing it out and throwing it right at the zombies.
A dull sound of the explosion shook several of the bloodied bodies, throwing them around like some rag dolls.
One of the zombies, already only contained within its head and half of its shoulder area nearly managed to land on the upper floor.
'Tsk,' Mathew clicked his tongue when the still active corpse flew right past his feet.
Even if it would take way more than a single scratch for someone to turn, it surely would cause a massive commotion.
And then, something that Mathew initially didn't dare to believe.
Mat's lips formed a smile, only for the young man to shake his head and focus.
The influx of the zombies finally slowed down. One could see that down the corridor; their horde was starting to thin out.
'Right, the school is fenced off,' Mathew thought, relieved by the change. 'And there are only so many students to turn in here,' the young man added, blinking his eyes to refresh his eyes.
It would still take them a long while before the fighting would come to a complete end. But at least they could now see some kind of future ahead!
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'I can see the end of it…' Mathew thought, only to anxiously look towards the staircase, already swarming with zombies.
And a majority of the undead already moved on, naturally swayed to look for other paths.
'It's only a matter of time before…'
Boom!
The dull sound of the explosion shook the building.
"Tsk," Mathew clicked his tongue. 'They got the stairs already.'
In itself, it was just a part of the process. A planned element of Mathew's strategy.
But it also meant that they were all on the clock right now. Because only the main staircase was nice and wide. The two side-stairs were pretty narrow, only serving a supporting role.
In other words, even after demolishing the stairs, it was only a matter of time before they would bridge the gap.
'We are seriously running out of time,' he thought, anxiously tensing his fingers up.
Mat then shook his head and turned around.
"Everyone, get two nades and prepare!" he shouted before turning his head towards the pendulum team. "On my mark, stop the wheel!"
The horde was about to slow down and thin out. But it was only a matter of time before other points would come under attack as well, as the zombies that fell down before would find new ways to access the upper floor.
And then, it would be only a matter of time before they would tear the entire building down.
Mathew grabbed the explosives and moved towards the edge of the floor. He looked down at the flowing horde and took two deep breaths.
"On my mark!" Mat turned his head towards the pendulum group. He then slowly raised his hand up in the air.
"Pull it away after the next swing!" Mat ordered, calculating the time while observing the horde. "Pull the pins!"
For one mercilessly long moment, Mathew observed how the bloody hammer swung for one last time, shoving yet another group of zombies into the fall to the floor below.
"NOW!" Mathew shouted, throwing the live grenades down. And then, he spread his arms to the side, pulling everyone to the back.
Five seconds later, a series of explosions came from the floor below. Their combined strength easily sent some parts of the zombies flying to the floor above.
Thankfully, Mat pushed everyone back far enough and now stood with his trusty ax, ready to do some cleaning.
"You need help?" the officer approached the young man just as he was about to rush ahead and do the job. The man's hand on the holster of his gun clearly indicated his intended form of help.
"I should be okay," Mathew nodded his head with gratitude. "Just watch my back, would you?" he asked with a smile before rushing in.
'This is one of the few moments of rest that we will get now,' Mat thought, leaping forward and bringing the blade of his weapon down on a zombie's head.
He then kicked to his right, knocking the upper half of a torso, only to then swing his leg forward, crushing a severed head with his heel.
There wasn't a single zombie mobile enough for Mathew to be in any danger. One could say that it was a free farm of life cores…
As long as one could limit the corpses of his former friends and schoolmates to just this new world's currency.
No matter what, the greatest weapon of the survivors was Mat's system. And now that Mat could see Nadia's level, there was only one thing he could do to strengthen their strongest force.
"I will be going down," Mathew threw before turning around and grabbing the blade he bought from the merchant.
He had his ax already, but Mat still wanted to test out how the weapons worked in this changing world.
'The system appears to be somewhat RPG-like,' Mathew thought, judging the distance, potential threats, and ways to return to the upper floor.
'Damn, those cracks on the walls…' Mat noticed the signs of wear on the structure of the building.
It wasn't strange at all, given the number of explosives the survivors threw downstairs.
'I guess I will have to watch out for those spots,' Mat made a mental note before turning his eyes towards the officer.
"I need all of your men to protect my back," Mathew announced, only to turn his eyes to the girl.
Nadia still knelt obediently, allowing the events around to just brush past her. Still, in a state of shock, she really needed someone to check on her.
'But there is no time,' Mat thought, biting down on his lips to the point they started oozing blood.
As much as he wanted to go and reassure the girl, he couldn't afford the time for that.
'There is still the problem of the monsters,' Mathew thought, gritting his teeth.
He clearly heard them before. And it only made sense for them to appear during a horde.
Yet, as far as the ongoing battle went, not a single monster made itself known.
"I would love if you could get someone to oversee the girl," Mathew added in a lowered voice, wary of others potentially hearing him. "And organize some guys to either finish off the scraps I will throw at you or catch the cores," Mathew announced now in a normal voice.
He then turned back and approached the edge.
'This is the only window of opportunity that we will get,' Mathew thought.
It was only a matter of time before the horde would threaten the other entrances to the floor. Then it was also a matter of time before monsters would appear.
And against monsters, conventional weapons would prove much less effective.
"Well then, let's go," Mathew muttered to himself. The weapons in his hands bore a certain, reassuring weight to them.
"Mat!" Right before the young man could jump into the fray in hopes of somehow leveling up or at least gathering life cores, Nadia broke free from her shock, only to rush ahead.,
It seemed that she somehow read Mathew's intention to jump down, an intention she instantly associated with danger.
And following her natural instinct to protect him, Nadia ignored the weird state of her body, jumped up, and rushed ahead.
Her face smashed into Mathew's back, only for the girl to wrap her hands around his waist and then fall down to the ground in an attempt to tackle and anchor Mat down.
"What are you doing?!" Nadia screamed out, scolding Mat in the voice of a worried parent that caught their kid in dangerous mischief.
"Nadia?" Mathew shook off his focus for a moment. "Are you okay?" he asked, instantly looking at her status.
The "In a shock" status from before was now replaced by a new one.
[Status: Worried for her love]
Initially, about to just shove the girl away and do his thing, Mat suddenly froze in a place.
It was one thing to have her accept his marriage proposal right as she witnessed the wave of the agile zombies.
'But for me to be her love,' Mat thought, instantly assaulted by his morals.
Learning about Nadia's feelings in this way felt like robbing her of something precious.
But it also made it all the harder for Mat to allow the situation to develop as it was right now!
"Dear, I will be safe," Mat said, patting Nadia's head before decisively pulling her hands apart and freeing himself from her grab. "Just wait for me, for a little, okay?" Mathew asked, smiling gently at the girl.
"I'm done with waiting," Nadia refused without even a second of hesitation. "I feel weird… But I can feel my body got stronger, somehow," she added, raising her hands and looking at her palms.
For a moment, Mathew stood in place, unsure what to do. And then the image of Nadia getting torn apart by the zombies and monsters alike appeared in his head.
"No freaking way," Mat shook his head before bitting down on his lips even harder than before. Because what would follow would hurt him as much as it would hurt the girl.
"Nadia, I'm sorry, but in your state, you would be nothing but a hindrance."
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Mathew's words voiced out and then disappeared, replaced by the constant and everpresent noise of the ongoing battle.
Now that the horde was properly thinned out, the pendulum returned to its usual job, pushing those few zombies remaining down the gap.
"I see…" Nadia muttered. She hung her head down. The hold of her fingers over Mathew's arm weakened.
"For now, I can only say I'm sorry," Mathew whispered, putting some weight on Nadia's shoulders to make her sit down.
'Sorry, but I have to do this,' Mathew thought as he turned around.
The young man didn't stop there. He moved forward, his weapons ready in his hands.
'Well, I don't think I can do it if I hesitate,' Mathew thought, looking over the edge at the swarming river of the zombies.
Even now, after all the explosions and the hammering, some of the zombies still managed to keep swarming the corridor.
'Then let's do it all at once,' Mathew decided.
He closed his eyes and took one long breath. And then, he rushed forward.
With just a few steps, Mathew managed to get enough momentum to make the jump. The gap between the edge of their level and the floor below wasn't big… But for a human, making the jump wasn't an easy feat either.
"Off we…" Mathew hyped himself out as he rushed towards the edge. "GO!" he shouted, knocking himself up.
Mat pulled his knees up, looping over the mass of the zombies that gathered below. And after just a single second, his feet touched the lower floor.
Tssk.
Mathew could hear the plaster crumbling away from the many cracks present in the building's structure. But so far, the floor held on.
'Let's begin,' Mathew thought, fixing the hold of his weapons.
A swing to the right.
Mathew's ax broke right through the skull of a zombie. He then swung his sword, cleanly cleaving another zombie's head out.
Bit by bit, Mathew moved through the floor.
He would finish any zombie that he could afford to, leaving them for harvesting later. Yet, most of the time, he had no other choice but to focus his full attention on warding off the ongoing attacks.
'This is pretty tough,' Mathew thought, grinding his teeth against each other.
It wasn't that each of the zombies was much of a threat. It was their sheer number that made the operation difficult.
"Just…" Mat swung his ax sideways. Yet, as he had no time to turn its blade around, he used the back of the weapon to cave the skull of yet another zombie in. His blade then cut at the arm that reached out for Mat from behind…
The blade got stuck.
Mat wrestled his hand, attempting to free the weapon.
It wouldn't be a disaster if he were to lose it, but it would definitely mark the end of the easiest phase.
Math continued to move forward, dealing with the zombies he encountered on the way.
Step forward. Step backward to dodge. Another step to the back to avoid a group of three undead. A forced lung three paces ahead to escape from the zombies reaching out for his head from the side.
BOOM!
The noise of the shoot rang in Mathew's ears, causing him to waver for a second.
What was supposed to be a support ended up as a hindrance.
'Fuck,' Mat cursed in his thoughts, shaking off the surprise. 'I forgot about that guy,' he thought, glancing over at the officer standing at the edge.
The position of his pistol clearly indicated who was guilty of the distraction.
But now that Mat recalled this part of the strategy, he moved his attention back to the only task that he had.
To advance.
The prime time for harnessing the stones has yet to come. But for it to happen, Mathew had to cull the numbers of the horde even further.
'More,' Mathew thought, swinging both of his weapons sideways.
'More,' Mat called out in his soul when two loud bangs took two zombies off his back.
"More," Mathew muttered, getting into the rhythm of the zombie killing.
"MORE!" the young man groaned when a zombie cleaved at his side, leaving a bloody bruise where its sharp, broken nails cut Mat's stomach open.
'Fuck,' the young man thought, taking a step back and a breath to calm himself down.
'I can't let myself get into the heat,' he thought, gritting his teeth. He then took another retreating step.
It was only a small injury. But it also marked the end of Mathew's forward adventure.
"Kill them all!" Mathew shouted, not even turning back. And then, a barrage of shots fell most of the zombies around. And in the few seconds that followed, the gunshots cleared out all of the zombies remaining in the corridor.
'Now!' Mat raised his eyes on the officer at the edge. But this time, he didn't even need to call for any order.
"Get them stones, now!" the officer shouted, hurrying his people up.
What followed could only be called magnificent.
'Wait, isn't this bad?' Mat thought, a sudden thought making his face freeze. Then, his eyes moved over to the cracks that caught his attention before.
Then, two things happened simultaneously.
First, the police squad landed on the floor. And then, the already exhausted material it was made off… just gave up.
BOOM!
The sound, many times stronger than the explosions before, shook the air within the corridor. And just like this, nearly half of the floor that made up the level broke off and crumbled down.
The rubble crushed onto the floor below, its momentum big enough to shatter the next floor as well.
For two more times, the hellish noise shook everyone that heard it, only for many tons of destroyed concrete to bury the brave police squad.
'Fuck…' Mat cursed under his nose.
It was already a blessing for the building itself to keep on standing. But it didn't lessen the shock of watching those experienced veterans go out all at once.
'Wait,' Mathew raised his eyes, refusing to accept the two things that this changed.
He raised his eyes… but he couldn't see the negotiating officer anywhere over the edge.
Just like the rest of his team, he jumped down to help gather the cores. And now rested somewhere below all the ruble that most of the floors in the building turned into.
But that was something that Mat couldn't influence any longer. Who died was dead. It was a simple truth, but one that turned out to be insanely hard to accept and adapt.
Still, that left Mathew with one problem.
Because all the routes that he intended to take to return to the floor above were now gone.
And to make it all even worse, the screeching scream of a monster suddenly filled the devastated building.
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"Mat!" Naida shouted, kneeling right at the edge.
But with most of the floors collapsing, she couldn't reach him even if she would dare to make the jump.
It was simply outside of the human ability to cover the distance that now separated the two of them.
"You don't know when the zombies will breakthrough!" Mathew shouted, still worried about the secondary staircases.
'Even with the stairs blown up, if the floors didn't collapse there, the zombies could still warm the floor,' he thought, gritting his teeth in rage caused by powerlessness.
"I will find a way back up, but be ready to escape to the roof at any time, now!" Mathew shouted before decisively turning on his heel.
Keeping eye contact with the girl for any longer would likely force the young man to change his mind. After all, if he dared to climb the outer wall of the building, he could still make it back…
'No way,' Mathew gritted his teeth as he moved away, directing his steps to one of the secondary staircases. Still, it wasn't an easy task.
First, Mat approached one of the classrooms located near the structural waypoint of the school.
The entire building was built on the plan of a cross of equally-sized parts. The world's directions aligned with each of the compounds and gave the name to each of the buildings.
The main staircase of the entire building was located in the dead middle of the cross, a designated square area for people to move up and down the building.
Yet, at the end of each compound, there was a set of two secondary staircases.
'Yeah, there is no way,' Mathew thought after checking most of the level and then returning to the edge where the floor collapsed. 'This building is busted,' he thought, looking down the gap only to see the zombies slowly roaming through the rubble.
And since the east side of the campus was no longer possible to traverse, Mathew had no other choice but to reach one of the other wings!
"I guess I have no other choice but to scale the wall," Mathew muttered after taking stock of the situation.
His best bet was to enter the classroom located nearest the devastated staircase. From there, he would stay by the wall and then move to the outside. From there on, he would have to somehow get to the opposite compound, hoping the floor would be in a better state there.
'There is one upside to the floors collapsing,' Mathew thought when he continued to scour the floor. 'Even if only for a moment, zombies aren't there,' Mathew took notice as he bent down near the edge and looked as far as he could towards the insides of the other compounds.
Sadly, the last part that still had the floor was way too far from the main staircase to let Mathew get any intel on the state of the other compounds.
Maybe this choice didn't matter. But there was also a chance that one of the floors allowed easy access to the upper floor, while the other was filled with zombies and impossible to traverse.
"Well, nothing good will come from just standing around," Mathew decided, shaking his head before relaxing the muscles of his neck and allowing the air resistance to stop the movement of his head.
The last time it swung a little before hanging still ended up to the right. And the classroom to the left became Mathew's choice.
Not because the swing of his head had any meaning. It would work the same as if he threw a coin up; Mathew simply had no coin anywhere on himself.
And the only reason why he picked left, the opposite to what his head guided him to, was to demonstrate his defiance towards fate!
"Let's see what I have to deal with," Mathew muttered as he made his way towards the doors of the class.
It had the usual setup, with one door leading directly to the class for all of the students while the other door first led to a small shed for the teacher and only then to the front of the class.
And it just so happened that the convenient class entrance was on the no-floor side of the building, forcing Mathew to carve his way out with the use of his ax and sword.
The main doors to the shed gave up after just a few cuts that isolated its hinges from the rest of the door's panel. Yet, contrary to Mathew's expectations, the door connecting the shed to the class was of better quality.
"Damn," Mathew muttered after tiring himself out a bit, only to see just a few shallow cuts on the frame of the wall.
While it was clearly not reinforced with steel, the kind of plastic and wood used to craft those inner doors somehow turned out to be pretty resistant against simple slashing attacks.
Yet, there was a limit to just how durable those doors could be. And given how Mathew approached them from the inner side, he simply changed his target to the hinges instead.
"Finally," Mathew muttered when the metal bolts finally gave up, putting considerably lesser fight than the door itself.
With this last barrier now out of his way, Mathew stepped into the class, only to notice how most of its floor was gone.
"This isn't going to be easy," the young man admitted out loud, only to secure the ax by putting its handle down behind the collar of his shirt while attaching the blade to his belt.
'The teachers would surely freak out if they were to see me like that,' Mathew thought, a mischievous smile appearing on his lips as he approached and then opened the window up.
Just like he expected, the main structure of the building still stood. But in regards to wall-climbing, there was only a small gutter slightly above the windows…
And no footing whatsoever.
"Nadia would surely freak out if she were to see me," Mathew whispered to himself, putting the image of the girl before his eyes.
The look behind his pupils steeled up, filling with determination.
He already sacrificed his life once to save her. And he wasn't going to do that again. Because this kind of end was pretty sad.
What Mathew wanted to achieve was a peaceful life that he could enjoy with Nadia instead!
And for that end, he had no other choice but to stand on the edge of the building and eye the small, metal pipe that ran along the wall.
"God, I hope it's properly secured in place," Mathew whispered while swallowing a gulp of saliva.
He was on the second-highest level of the school right now, putting him well above fifteen meters above the ground.
The fall from such heigh would surely be unpleasant, although it would likely give Mat pretty short torture before his injuries would claim the young man's life and end his suffering.
But that didn't matter.
The screaming of the monster indicated its presence somewhere amidst the lower floors. And with a monster roaming the school's building, the rooftop would never be safe.
That's why, instead of waiting for it to threaten the survivors, Mathew was determined to bring the fight to the monster instead, dealing with it outside of the worried eyes of his girl.
Or rather, outside of anyone's eyes, as Mathew's actions effectively limited the number of systems that the students of the school could receive.
In other words, while this was the same world that Mathew experienced before his sacrifice, some things have drastically changed.
And the approach to the system was one of those things.
"Well, I guess it's time for me to go," Mathew whispered, encouraging himself. And then, with his eyes locked on the half-pipe running along the wall, Mathew jumped.
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