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“So that’s what happened,” Mathew muttered. He then raised his hand and rubbed his chin as he thought back on Daniel’s report.

The young man then turned his eyes towards the massive woman in question.

‘That would explain why I can’t feel anything from her,’ Mathew thought, giving himself a moment to think before tearing his eyes away from the female ball of fat.

Sure, this woman was of sizeable stature, yet she had this motherly aura, the kind look in the corner of her eyes.

It was something that stood in opposition to the stories of what she did before. And yet, Daniel’s relation to what happened made it all make sense.

“What that thing said is what worries me,” Daniel spoke as he marched a step ahead of Mathew, leading the way. “Call me a conspiracy theorist, but it sure as heck looked like some possession!”

“Are you not aware that there has to be some sort of sentient force behind all of this?” Mathew asked, raising his eyebrows in surprise even though his discussion partner couldn’t see his expression. “I talked about it a lot, didn’t I?”

The young man wasn’t trying to shun the officer, he was genuinely surprised.

“Maybe not when I was around?” Daniel suggested, leaning his head over his shoulder, allowing him to cast a long glance at Mathew’s face.

“That might be…” the young man muttered, lowering his eyes as he thought over the topic. “Well, it doesn’t matter. In general, I believe there is some sort of intellect behind all of this,” Mathew stated as he revealed his arms to the side in a gesture of having nothing to hide.

“And you are not in the mood to explain that line of thought, right?” Daniel then asked, giving Mathew an eye.

‘It’s good to be on the same page,’ Mathew thought and then rolled his eyes.

“That’s right,” the young man replied shortly, cutting the topic. “I’m sorry but I can’t be arsed to repeat all those complicated correlations that made me believe this theory,” Mathew explained before shrugging his shoulders. “Nor you are interested in my explanation, were I in the mood to give it.”

This entire exchange would bring no new information to either party. And despite the cooperation between the two, neither of the men was interested in sharing too much of what they thought.

Its only purpose was to cut the awkward air when the group reunited and marched through the stairs.

“It’s over there,” Daniel said after staying silent while climbing the stairs. He raised his hand and called the moment his foot stepped upon the highest floor of the building.

“Let’s hope this merchant will be useful, then,” Mathew replied. He then resumed his stroll, casually making his way inside the room.

‘So that’s the place,’ the young man thought once he pushed the doors open and took a look inside.

It was clean.

That was the first thing Mathew thought when his eyes scanned the hall. There were roughly forty people inside, all orderly waiting in the far-off part of the place. And yet, not a single one of them dared to make a noise.

“Guys, relax,” Mathew called out as he moved towards the room’s center. “We didn’t come here to bully you,” he informed the group as he reached his destination.

Mathew then pushed one of his hands into his pocket, grabbing at the cores stashed inside. Yet, rather than summoning the merchant right away, he suddenly turned his head around and scanned the faces of the survivors.

“Did any of you kill a zombie in the first few hours of the apocalypse?” Mathew asked, in a calm, composed voice.

The young man kept his eyes on the crowd for a moment, only to then lower them and shake his head.

“I understand if you want to keep your cards to yourself,” Mathew said in a voice just loud enough to reach everyone. “I can also understand if not a single one of you happened to kill a zombie,” the young man added, spreading his hands.

He then took a deep breath and held it in his lungs for a moment.

“I can promise that I will do my best to keep you all fed and safe,” Mathew announced only to raise his head and strike his fist against his chest. “I will work you all to the bone,” Mathew announced while putting a slightly wicked smile on his face.

“So that we can rebuild this world together,” Mathew dropped the last bomb of the erudite arsenal he prepared on his way here.

He then squeezed the core crystal in his pocket while focusing his mind on his wish.

WHOOSH!

There wasn’t any movement of air that would explain the sound that filled the room. And before anyone could even realize what was going on, a hooded figure stood right in front of Mathew.

“Now then, let’s see what’s today’s luck,” Mathew whispered under his nose as he reached out inside the merchant’s hood and grabbed at the darkness hidden within.

The shadows surged forward, coating the young man with the presence of another realm.

‘So that’s how it is,’ Mathew thought and released a small sigh.

This time, the merchant’s realm consisted of a total of six elements.

The first and main one took a form of a huge table. It was in the shape of a circle and capable of comfortably seating at least eight people. Yet, while the sheer size of the table was pretty eye-catching, it was the papers on its top that drew Mathew’s attention.

“I see…?’ he thought, approaching the table and lowering his eyes on the papers for a moment.

‘Judging by my feeling alone, it’s like blueprints for utilities?’ Mathew attempted to guess while analyzing the details on the papers below.

The young man took a while before shaking his head and raising his eyes to inspect the rest of the subrealm.

The second most eye-catching element of the separate dimension lay right below the greatest concentration of the aura that Mathew could detect.

“Development merchant,” was written on a plaquette roughly the size of a man’s arm.

‘So I was right, I guess?’ Mathew thought, turning his eyes back to the table only to finally move them over to the last interesting element of the subspace.

“If that’s not the proof, then I don’t know what is,” Mathew muttered as his recent conversation with Daniel appeared in his mind.

For the nth time, the items that the merchant could offer were displayed on the same type of pedestal.

‘I dabbled in coding far enough to understand the importance of reusing the assets,’ the young man thought, unable to stop a small grin from emerging on his lips.

The four pedestals displayed see-through pictures of four different objects.

‘A crate, an upwards arrow, red cross health package, and… what?’ Mathew attempted to make sense of what he could see.

The first item was pretty self-explanatory. It looked exactly the same as the supplies that Mathew bought at his first merchant back in the school’s compound.

Yet, the second item? An arrow pointing upwards, like a picture taken directly from some graphic program?

‘Maybe it’s some sort of level-up?’ Mathew attempted to guess, only to then shake his head and turn it towards the next pedestal.

The third item turned out to be extremely easy to guess. A cloth box with a red cross on it, one would have to never touch a game in their life to miss the meaning of this picture.

‘Or is it?’ Mathew thought, gritting his teeth. ‘For how vague those merchants like to be, isn’t this bit too damn obvious?’

Mathew shook his head before turning his eyes towards the last pedestal, the only one displaying the item that Mathew couldn’t recognize.

The young man stood in place and continued to analyze the fourth picture. Yet, no matter how much he racked his brains, no results came to be.

“Well, I don’t need to figure it out right away I guess,” Mathew muttered before taking a step back and then taking a look at the entire place. He then pulled out the crystal from his pocket before reaching it out and above the first pedestal.

“I want to purchase three packs,” Mathew announced out loud, more for the sake of formalizing the process rather than because of any need to do so.

The crystal in his hand shone with the usual light, only to become a tiny bit smaller once the wave of light passed and left three crates of supplies in its wake.

“That will be enough for now, then,” Mathew announced before nodding his head towards the plate with the merchant’s name.

The shadows surged past him, returning Mathew back to reality.

“WHOA!”

Several people cried out at once.

‘For them, those crates appeared out of nowhere,’ Mathew thought as he took a closer look at the survivors.

“I will leave those supplies to you,” Mathew announced. “Since I don’t know any of you, this guy will be in charge of distribution and organization of everything,” the young man then added, only to point his hand at the only person he knew in the room.

“Huh?” Robert jumped on the spot, not expecting the spotlight of everyone’s attention to fall on him. “What do you mean?” he then asked, taking a step back as terror appeared on his face.

“Don’t you want us to hurry up and save that girl of yours?” Mathew asked, raising one of his eyebrows in a silent threat.

“I…” Robert attempted to speak, only to end up swallowing his own words and staring blankly at Mathew’s face for a moment. Then, a look of determination exploded in his eyes.

“I will do my best!”