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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.