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\'I never expected that advancing to the next logical level would bring me this damned nerf,\' he thought, tightening his hands into fists. \'So much for making all our bases more secure…\'

Mathew closed his eyes and brought his chin up, heaving a deep sigh towards the skies.

"Mathew?" Nadia asked in a tiny voice, instantly recognizing that something was wrong.

She uttered her call… only to pull her eyebrows together before lowering both her eyelids and her head while bringing her hand to her chest.

All the girls present on the scene followed suit, with looks of confusion blooming on their faces.

"What just happened?" Nadia muttered, her eyes turning wide as she raised her face and took a closer look at Mathew.

"Quite a fucking lot," Mathew replied, still keeping his head raised and his eyes closed. Yet, rather than elaborating on the point, he turned silent.

"Mathew," Nadia raised her face and voice at the same time, "what the hell happened?!"

Only by hearing his first wife raise her voice did Mathew manage to shake himself free from the chains of his daze.

"A lot happened, but I only understand a small portion of it," he repeated half of what he said before, changing the other half to something with more sense than just a random curse. "But starting with the most important points, my system changed," Mathew announced as he lowered his face and looked a the girls with empty eyes. "In other words, while you all keep both your systems and your stats, you are no longer my wives."

It was as if lightning struck the room. The surprise and confusion that formerly took over the girl\'s face now turned into shock and even disbelief.

"What do you mean by us no longer being your wives?" Carol asked, taking one step closer while a lot of conflicting feelings appeared on her face.

To the side, Nadia bit down on her lips, clearly dissatisfied with Carol being the one to ask this question.

"Exactly what you heard," Mathew replied with a blank look on his face. "My system changed. And while I\'m not privy to know why or how, but the connection of a system that we shared is no longer there. Or in other words…" Mathew turned his eyes to the side, unable to look the girls in their faces, "there is no longer any reason for you all to stick with me."

Nadia\'s face twitched. Those words struck her like a hammer.

She opened her mouth, only for her lips to move in the air without producing a single sound.

A hand appeared on Nadia\'s shoulder. Still too shocked to produce even the tiniest voice, she could only look to the side.

"It\'s okay," Leila whispered softly with her eyes locked on Mathew\'s face. "Let me deal with it. I think I can tell what\'s going on… to a degree."

Leila didn\'t wait for Nadia to give her approval or deny her request. She simply informed Mathew\'s former first wife of what was going to happen before stepping forward.

"Mathew!" Leila shouted in a sharp voice, one that wouldn\'t accept any sort or form of refusal.

The young man didn\'t reply. He only ended up turning his face even further away.

\'God damn it,\' he thought, gritting his teeth as he could only wish to be anywhere else but near any of his former wives at this moment. \'I didn\'t even think about it when I heard the news… but isn\'t this the case?\' he thought.

For the last few days, ever since the apocalypse started, he didn\'t hear a single word of complaint from his former wives about their status or the situation they ended up in.

Sure, as they got used to each other presence, they likely stopped caring about how they were now bound to Mathew as there were no perspectives for this aspect of their life within the apocalypse ever-changing.

But the second Mathew announced the change of reality out loud, he was the first one to realize this problem.

\'Now that their power doesn\'t come from my system, what reasons do they have to stick with me?\' he thought, gritting his teeth. \'Thanks to raising my status due to that shady deal I heard about I\'m currently far stronger than any of them so they shouldn\'t be able to try to stab me in the back to take over the settlement…\'

"MATHEW!" Leila shouted from the bottom of her lungs, infusing her voice with a strange type of mental power, one that didn\'t stem from the system… but from her soul itself.

Mathew nearly jumped, the unknown power behind Leila\'s voice instantly forcing him to fall in line and stand at attention with his eyes directed straight ahead.

"Stop fucking overthinking things and just fucking listen!" Leila ordered in a sharp tone. Yet, rather than lecturing him right away, she simply turned around and looked at Nadia instead.

"Now that you are no longer bound to him, do you wish to leave?" Leila asked.

"Huh?" Nadia nearly jumped when the spotlight of everyone\'s attention moved over to her. "Why… And why would I do that?" she managed to answer after taking a few seconds to gather her wits.

Nadia then shook her head before raising her hands and bringing them down on her cheeks with all the force she could muster.

Slap!

The crisp sound of her fingers slapping her own face filled the room.

Nadia then shook her head again before raising her now clear eyes.

"I think I get it," she then said, her voice returning back to its normal self.

Nadia took a step forward. And then another. And before long, she stood right in front of Mathew while staring at his petrified face.

"Now, I leave him to you," Leila muttered, a hint of slight dissatisfaction flashing through her eyes. Yet, she turned around and walked away nevertheless.

"Mathew, listen to me," Nadia muttered as she brought her hands up and hoisted Mathew\'s head between them. "While I can\'t speak for others," she started only when her touch forced Mathew to lower his eyes and properly look her in the face, "I was never with you because of that system, to begin with."

Nadia took a deep breath while still holding Mathew\'s head between her hands. She then lowered her own chin and closed her eyes for a second before moving her hands down and simply hugging her former husband.

"So please, stop acting as if us abandoning you now was the most natural thing to happen!"