Leveling Up Wives In The Apocalypse



"So I can't expect any sort of instant power-up, huh?" Pavel muttered under his nose. He caressed his chin with his fingers for a few moments before raising his eyes back up.

"That's right," Mathew nodded his head. "They are not a boost to your power. Those seeds just give you the ability to grow your foundation."

'I know that's not a perfect truth, but while we can hardly afford to outfit everyone with even the most basic cores, there is no need to get into the topic of how some more potent ones come with instant perks.'

Mathew took a deep breath before leaning back and resting his back against the wall behind the bench.

It was already a while when the topic of the system seeds began, but there was simply too much information that Mathew had to pass over for the topic to die out rather quickly.

After all, along with all the perks that Pavel secured by displaying the level of his innate ability to lead and organize people, he was going to receive quite a lot of responsibilities.

And the task of filling in all the hunters on the details of the system seeds that Pavel would deem necessary was just one of such responsibilities.

"Now, an important point," Mathew picked up the talking after taking some time to let his brain rest. "It's going to take us a while to get you a system seed."

Pavel at first didn't react to the revelation. Only after he took a few breaths did his head suddenly rock up, revealing his widened stare directed straight into Mathew's face.

"Huh? Why?" he asked, first hints of panic appearing in his eyes. "Did I do something wrong? Is it because of…"

"It's not because of anything that you did," Mathew attempted to calm the man by raising both of his hands and then slowly lowering his palms as if to direct the other party to breathe out. "Or wait, it's precisely because of that, albeit for a different reason than you might expect!"

Sensing that some more interesting part of the conversation finally came up, Mathew stood up from the bench and took a few steps towards the end of the underpass.

Then, the young man took some time to observe how the rest of the hunters were busying themselves dismantling the zombies' skulls to harvest the cores hidden in their brains.

"I wasn't the one to pick up what system seeds all of them will receive," Mathew revealed before slowly turning back to face Pavel once again. "But there is one thing in common that connects all the system seeds that most of them will receive."

Mathew took a step towards the promising officer before putting a small smirk on his face and leaning forward a tiny little bit.

"Do you care to indulge me and put forth a guess?"

Pavel's face tensed up a little.

He scanned Mathew's expression for a while, likely to figure out what sort of vibe he was supposed to aim for.

Was Mathew expecting him to give a clever answer? Maybe it was a task that required him to think outside of the box? Or maybe Mathew was just playing him, while the answer was right before his eyes all the time?

"They are all… the same?" Pavel finally attempted the challenge. His voice, however, clearly betrayed how little confidence he had in his answer.

"Close, but not correct," Mathew revealed. He then straightened his back and retreated from the step that he took before. "First off, they are not all the same. One of them is a bit better since I had to test something out. And secondly, it's not about them being the same."

Mathew turned on his heel once again. He then locked his hands behind his back before staring off into the distance.

There was still some time left before midday… but the temperature was quickly rising. And while it was a blessing that it was still a few weeks before the summer would start, the stench of the rotting flesh was slowly growing unbearable, even for Mathew who stood at the edge of the field of the corpses.

"They are all cheap," Mathew revealed the correct answer after staring off into the distance for quite some time. "Every system seed that we will provide to the hunters only costs fifty cores each," the young man gave out the exact number. "And a good weapon bought from the same store that deals with the cores can cost upwards of a thousand cores."

This was the true degree and the main problem of shopping with the cores.

When it came to outfitting Mathew's group of three to six people, it was still manageable. Sure, the cost of good weapons for everyone quickly added up too often to mind-boggling sums, coupled with how those very cores could be used to permanently improve their own strength…

And even with just so few people in his group, Mathew already struggled to save any cores on all the hunting. From the cores for raising one's status, through the cores to replace the broken and used-up weapons, all the way to the cores necessary for supplies and all…

It was really hard to save some!

And now, Mathew had a task of doing the same… but with more than twenty people? And with all of them requiring both the system seed… but also a weapon?

"It will be impossible for me to grant everyone a good system from the get-go. That's why I tested out and confirmed that systems can be upgraded by a better system seed later on," Mathew explained.

"Is that why you decided to make this unit… quite damn autonomous?" Pavel suddenly asked.

"Excuse me?" Mathew squinted his eyes, taken aback by Pavel's unexpected remark.

"I mean…" Pavel took Mathew's shocked silence for a green light and started to elaborate, "You only take a small cut from whatever we will earn. That wouldn't make sense in a scenario where you provide us with everything… So, it will be up to us to save up the cores to keep our systems and outfits fitting for the challenge, right?"

Mathew's face softened as a huge smile flowered on his lips.

"That's right, but with one caveat," Mathew pointed out before raising his hand, erecting his forefinger, and then swinging it to the sides only to finally point it at Pavel.

"You guys will be autonomous, but you will be the one in charge of two things," Mathew finally moved on to the actual details of how the deal would work in practice. "While I will delegate the right to operate, for the most part, however, you wish, it will be up to you to bring the tax and keep everyone else in line."

Pavel's face darkened a little… only for a small, scheming smile to then replace the ugly grin that momentarily flashed on his lips.

"So, in other words, all the hunters will answer to me and me only, right?" Pavel asked, clearly hoping to get a straightforward declaration directly from Mathew's mouth.

"There is still the topic of how Carol is supposed to lead, but you don't need to worry about it. I will deal with this matter on my own," Mathew pointed out only to then wave his hand as if to dismiss the topic of his wife being the de-jure leader of the hunters. "Yet, for all of that, you need to keep in mind one fact," Mathew then raised his eyes and looked straight into Pavel's face.

"While all the hunters will answer to you, you will answer only to me."

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