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“All I heard was him saying something about sacrificing his lungs if necessary.”

A single sentence out of Norbert’s ghost mouth was enough to send Mathew’s thoughts into disarray.

At first, all his thoughts ceased as if his very mind refused to acknowledge what he had just heard. This state lasted only for a few seconds, after which all the thoughts that Mathew’s mind held back during the moment of shock came crumbling down.

‘How is this fucking possible?!’ Mathew screamed out while making sure to keep his mouth closed and his voice to himself.

His eyes widened. His hands started to tremble.

“Mat!” Nadia rushed forward, once again grabbing Mathew’s arm… Only to slide down the wall with him when Mahtew’s knees gave up.

“What’s happening?!” Leila freaked out a little when she noticed Mathew’s reactions… to nothing.

From her perspective, as someone who had to keep her eyes open at all times, Mathew just asked some questions and then ended up in a state of borderline panic.

“Judging from your reaction, you know what’s going on,” Daria said in a calm voice as she approached the couple and crouched beside them. “You can take your time, but can you tell us what’s going on?”

Mathew couldn’t open his mouth at all.

His mind was too busy processing a thousand different thoughts every second.

‘Does he know the full extent of how to use it?’

‘If the nature of the system we receive is somehow related to who we are, then how could I fight with someone who is like former me?’

Those and a thousand other questions continued to barrage Mathew’s thoughts, stopping him from using his usual calm reasoning.

Slap!

Seeing that her cuddling didn’t do anything, Nadia sent her hand flying only to bring it down on Mathew’s cheek.

“Auch!” the young man protested when a sudden bout of sharp pain forced him out of his stunned state. He then raised his eyes at the girl with resentment boiling behind his pupils.

Mathew’s eyes quickly cleared up when his instinctual reaction gave way to his rationality. And once his brain started to work like usual, a strange sort of motivation filled Mathew’s veins, pushing nutrients right to the parts of his brain that needed them the most.

“First off, that guy’s system is flat,” Mathew said as he shook his head. He then turned his face to Nadia before nodding. “Thanks for waking me up,” he added before moving his eyes back to the others. “That means, no matter how many zombies you kill, it won’t improve.”

“How…” Leila was the first one to ask the question, even if she cut her voice after uttering a single word.

“How do I know this?” Mathew looked at the girl, only for a smile to appear on his face. “You all know that this is not my first time to live through this apocalypse,” he pointed out. His smile then soured. “And in my first attempt, the sacrifice system was the one I was rocking.”

This time, no one dared to utter a word to disturb the young man.

‘They are all curious,’ Mathew thought, something propelling the corners of his mouth to go up.

“Sacrifice system basically allows you to give up on something about yourself in exchange for fulfilling a wish,” Mathew explained. “It can be something metaphysical like emotions or something physical like parts of your body.”

“It’s a pretty shitty system, then,” Leila cut in and rolled her eyes. “How could it be of any use if actually using it would kill you?” she asked while crossing her hands over her chest while tapping the side of her blade against her shoulder.

“Humans can go with a lot fewer organs than they do have,” Mathew pointed out. “You can live without one lung, one kidney, or what people commonly know, appendix,” Mathew corrected the girl. “Oh, and the system makes sure you won’t die after losing that organ. Don’t ask me how it happens, though. I didn’t really have the option to go to the hospital and check back in my past life.”

“So you used to give up on your organs in your previous time,” Nadia muttered while her hands tightened over Mathew’s arm. “

“So I did,” Mathew nodded his head only to then shake it. He then freed his hand from Nadia’s grasp and used it to prompt himself back to his feet. “But now I also know, more or less, what we can expect from that guy,” he added.

“What should we look out for, then?” Daria asked, remaining the most composed in the entire group throughout the entire event.

“Absolutely everything,” Mathew said as he spread his arms around and then shrugged his shoulders. “While the sacrifice system can’t really grow, its uses are only limited by one’s creativity and how much are they willing or capable of sacrificing,” he pointed out. “The fact that not a single one of us can recall that guy’s name is likely one of that guy’s wishes,” he added and released a small chuckle. “Not like I can find a single valid reason to waste a wish on something like that!”

Mathew couldn’t help himself any longer.

The encounter that he feared over how little did he know about his potential opponent…

Well, it didn’t stop being a potential threat. But now, Mathew could at the very least predict the degree of the potential enemy’s ability.

“He wanted us to forget about him,” Leila suddenly pointed out. Yet, when everyone’s eyes turned on her, she suddenly blushed and averted her eyes to the side. “I mean, his name and the fact that he has a system are the only things that we can remember about him,” she finally gathered the courage to explain her thoughts. “So he just eliminated one of the two things that could make us remember him!”

“That’s a pretty… valid point,” Mathew admitted after taking a moment to swallow the fact that he missed this kind of detail. “And by bringing it further, doesn’t it mean he doesn’t wish for any confrontation?”

This was the perfect opportunity.

‘We want to establish the fortress, not to establish some kind of authoritarian regime,’ Mathew thought, closing his eyes to figure out the best way to go about solving the current issue.

“No fucking way,” Norbert said as soon as Mathew attempted to get some time to think. “Did you already forget that he shot me?” he pointed out as his voice turned darker and darker.

“Can’t you just forgive him this?” Mathew asked with his eyes closed. “I know it might not be easy…” the young man suddenly stopped his words as a certain question appeared in his mind. “Wait, why did he shoot you in the first place?”

For the first time, Norbert didn’t reply right away.

“I’m not going to let you go away without answering this question,” Mathew warned as a feeling of suspicion filled every corner of his soul.

And after a few more moments of waiting, Norbert finally replied.

“I can’t say for sure, but I think I know the reason,” he said before clearing his throat even though he had no throat to clear in the first place. “When I first spotted them through my ghost… that bastard was actually screwing my sister!”