Leveling Up Wives In The Apocalypse

'It's starting to get boring,' Mathew thought when the shadows surged all around him.

What used to be a magnificent display of the power that Mathew didn't understand now turned into nothing more than an annoying cutscene the young man couldn't skip.

'If controlling the merchants refers to being the last one to use their service, that should be enough,' Mathew thought right as the merchant's subspace finalized its forming-up process.

Then the shadows of the realm suddenly pulled out, revealing the exact same space that Mathew experienced near the beginning of the apocalypse.

"It didn't change at all, huh?" he muttered as he shook his head, ready to return to the real world right away.

'Wait, is that all there is to it?' Mathew thought, stopping right as he was about to leave. He then raised his head and looked around the place, hoping to find the clues.

Yet, contrary to the second or even third merchant that had some stuff in their subspace, this particular merchant had no wares on display at all.

'If I do recall, I simply needed to call out what I need for it to appear,' Mathew thought.

He experienced it all only a few hours in the past. Yet, the intensity of all the events he went through in the day made it actually challenging to remember such minute details.

"Machine gun!" Mathew shouted.

And nothing happened.

"Oh right, I don't have a single core on me," Mathew muttered, only to shake his head and exit the subspace.

"Nadia, dear, could you go and fetch me five cores?" the young man asked the moment he returned to the real world.

"Do you need to buy something?" the girl asked, leaning her head to the side as her eyes filled to the brim with curiosity.

"I'm just trying to cover all the bases," Mathew announced before putting a small smile on his lips. "I don't really know what control means, but maybe it has something to do with being the last one to purchase anything?" Mathew explained before shaking his head and looking down.

'Maybe announcing that I have no idea what to do in public wasn't the smartest thing to do,' he thought as he threw a glance around the area.

It was only then that Mathew finally noticed a few changes to its interior.

"Damn, girls," he muttered when he noticed a bunch of bleeding corpses hanging outside of the window. And even without paying much attention, Mathew could tell who they were. "That's pretty brutal!"

"Do you have a problem with that?" Daria approached her husband with a blank expression on her face.

Her hands were covered with blood, from the tip of her fingers all the way to her elbows. As such, it didn't take a genius to guess just who dolled out the punishment to the privileged bastards that attempted to rule the floor.

"Not really." Mathew shook his shoulders. He was more than accustomed to the sight of death. The gruesome sights of devastated bodies didn't bother him either. After all, any zombie that was born out of a victim rather than the initial wave would have its body in a pretty terrible shape.

Mathew's words clearly had some sort of influence over the girl as her cold expression melted down.

"What do you need, then?" Daria asked, placing her bloodied hands on her hips as she stared directly at Mathew's face.

"Five cores," Mathew explained while raising his hand to stop Nadia from moving out.

'It will be better if I keep her by my side at all times,' he thought.

They were both tired. All the fighting, struggling, and running around started to take a toll on the young man's flesh, even with all the support his system offered.

'If either of us were to face an enemy with a system alone, things could go south pretty quickly,' the young man thought, already worried about the future.

The options and problems that establishing the fortress brought forth gave the young man peace of mind. With a clear route ahead, he didn't need to worry about what to do.

Yet, the perspective of finishing his current tasks was looming, constantly weighing down on Mathew's mood.

"Give me a moment," Daria replied, forcing Mathew out of his pondering state.

'Huh?' the young man shook a little when he noticed a change that came to the girl's face.

Just a moment ago, she smiled. It was a small smile, but a smile nevertheless. And now that he mentioned the cores...

The girl turned around on her heel and walked away.

'Don't tell me,' Mathew thought, his eyes opening wide when he followed the girl's movements with them.

And there was no denying it. Rather than going towards any of the possible paths to leave the top floor, she directed herself towards the mysterious room that Mathew had heard about before.

'Well, that would explain a lot of things,' Mathew thought as his expression darkened.

There was only a single possible explanation for Daria heading to the mysterious room when requested to organize some cores. Save for the girl sneaking some cores on her in advance, that could only mean there were zombies in there!

'With their numbers and even the guns, those poor bastards wouldn't have any problem dealing with a few zombies,' Mathew thought while sending a glance to the still bleeding bodies by the window. 'And that can only mean they kept those zombies alive and kicking for a reason.'

Mathew didn't show a single sign of surprise. Rather than that, he took a step to the side and hunted for Nadia's hand.

He didn't go anywhere further with that either, opting to just hold her hand for the time being.

"Matty," Nadia raised her eyes on her partner's face, only to then purse her lips and move her eyes away.

"Thank you," Mathew said in a low voice as he squeezed Nadia's hand with his fingers.

"What are you thanking me for?" Nadia asked while keeping her face straight and eyes directed right to the front. "I didn't do or say anything," she pointed out.

"And that's exactly what I'm thanking you for," Mathew turned his face and looked into the girl's eyes. "Thank you for being here for me."