Leveling Up Wives In The Apocalypse

'This can't be right, right?' Mathew asked himself as he unknowingly stepped towards the vessel. He then reached out…

And to his surprise, a window appeared just like those few times that he bought something else in this new kind of shop.

[Basic Planetary Fighter]

The name was enough to convince Mathew his guess about the vehicle wasn't wrong. After all, the name that would be used for air-bound vehicles would be atmospheric, not planetary!

'I guess it can't traverse through deep space all on its own, only capable of sticking in relative proximity of the planet,' Mathew quickly deduced.

The entirety of his system appeared to be loosely constructed upon the rules plagiarized from all the kinds of novels and games he played in the past. And by following that logic, one had to either buy a mother-ship to transport such a fighter to other planets or just build it on a different planet, to begin with.

'And its prize is…' Mathew thought, ignoring the whole greyed-out part of the window as he looked to the bottom part.

And to his surprise, the prize wasn't even as great as he initially expected it to be!

'Only fifty million cores?' Mathew thought, baffled by what he found out. 'Doesn't that mean, then in a few years…'

Mathew shook his head and swiped his hand away, closing the pop-up window about the vessel. He then decisively turned around and walked back the way he came.

Contrary to his hopes, there was no way to access the other valleys from their other end. If he wanted to check other types of purchasable, he had to start from the very beginning every time he wanted to switch valleys.

'I can't allow myself to get distracted with such a far-off goal,' Mathew thought, squinting his eyes as he fought with the geeky nature that nearly forced him to lick the greyed vehicle all over. 'It's reassuring to know that even if the zombies will become too much to handle, there is a way to escape from them forever,' Mathew thought.

That was likely the meaning behind the greyed-out object appearing in the alley.

It wasn't there to coax Mathew into hoarding all the cores he could find.

It was there to give him hope that even if the earth will end up lost to the hordes of high-leveled zombies and evolved monsters, there will still be a place beyond their reach.

"Now then," Mathew muttered once he reached the finish line of his short jog and turned the corner before stepping at the entrance of the next alley.

It was the part of the new shop with the system seeds.

And after much consideration, Mathew stepped inside.

Contrary to the weapon's alley, there were no products on display. Instead, the shelves were filled with small, stone tables with a single piece of paper resting on them.

'A daily wish system, low-luck gacha system, basic swordmaster system, basic archery system…' Mathew scanned out the first few papers right at the entrance of the alley.

Then, curious to see what would happen, Mathew picked up the nearest paper from the tablet boasting the name of 'pride system'.

[For every action that is taken as an act of arrogance or excessive pride by others, the host will receive points. Points might be used to increase the host's level.]

[Prize: 500 cores]

[Grade: Subpar]

'How the hell is that supposed to work?' Mathew opened up his eyes wide, stunned by his findings.

'All this time I thought all the systems would work around the energy from the cores in one way or another…' he thought before gulping his saliva down. 'But is that really the case?' he asked himself as he stared down at the piece of paper in his hand.

Mathew then carefully placed the paper back on its pedestal before moving on.

And before long, the items on the shelves changed.

Now, they were no longer pieces of cheap paper on stone pedestals. Now, the system seeds were contained on a parchment displayed on a simple, wooden rack.

[Assasin System: For every silent takedown of a zombie, you will receive as many points as the zombie core is worth. The host might use those points to upgrade his statistics and purchase class abilities]

[Prize: 1500 cores]

[Grade: low]

'So the visuals of the system seeds change along with their grade, huh?' Mathew thought.

Even though he knew he would have to go back and go through all the systems one by one just in case there was one that allowed Mathew some more ungodly exploits, the young man still put this task for later.

'The time might flow differently in this subspace but it doesn't mean I won't get tired or bored,' he thought to himself as he picked up his pace and started to run along the alley.

The items on the shelves continued to change bit by bit.

From the parchment to the perfectly white paper like the one Mathew would use in a printer before the apocalypse. From the wooden racks to wooden pedestals.

Mathew ended up only making a single stop when he noticed that the material of the paper remained the same while the type of the display changed.

Then, he discovered that besides the standard subpar, low, middling, advanced, high, high advanced, and superior grades, there were also half-grades for systems that were theoretically within their lower grade, but their benefits couldn't be classified any lower than the higher of the two grades they were assigned to.

Yet, once reaching the very end of the alley, Mathew discovered that there was one more rank to the system seeds. A quick look at the one he randomly picked revealed both its name and its price. But it also revealed something that Mathew didn't really expect.

[World Dominator System]

[Allows the host to gain points by gathering subjects and fulfilling their needs. Points can be used to raise host statistics, raise officers' statistics, and purchase special abilities and services. Special grade allows upgrading the system to gain access to more of its benefits.]

[Prize: 730 631 000 cores]

[Grade: Evolutionary]

A chill traveled down his spine.

'But doesn't this system appears to work pretty much the same as mine?'

Mathew asked himself. Yet, there was one more point that flashed in his brain.

'A system seed that costs nearly as much as fifteen planetary fighters,' Mathew thought, gulping his saliva down when the same point that he experienced at the end of the weapon's alley ended up nailed to his head again.

Back when he sold his weapon and had all his wealth amount to around twenty-two thousand cores, Mathew thought this entire shop was for him to play around with and splurge.

But the cost of this single system, just like the cost of the planetary fighters, proved him wrong.

In this merchant's subspace, Mathew wasn't nouveau riche. He was just a beggar who found some money dropped on the street instead! 𝐟𝗿𝚎𝐞𝓌e𝒃𝑛𝒐ѵ𝒆𝑙.c𝚘𝓶

"I have a question," Mathew suddenly said out loud with a tense look on his face.

? He then gulped his saliva down, not sure if he was actually ready to learn the answer to what was on his mind.

"First, what's the grade of my system?" he asked out loud, with little to no hope of receiving a proper answer. "And secondly, for how much I could potentially sell it?"