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\'That would normally be the case…\' Mathew thought, taking a closer look at the man.

He was nearing his forties and was pretty well-built, indicating he was either properly trained or simply worked in some sort of a physical field. Yet, despite having clear predispositions for the old-type of soldier…

\'I can\'t feel anything,\' Mathew thought.

There wasn\'t even a hint of mana interfering with the man\'s body. And while it didn\'t necessarily mean he didn\'t have any system of sorts…

"That\'s strange," Mathew muttered, pressing his lips together. \'Were my assumptions about what one needs to do to receive a system… wrong?\'

Just like with all the knowledge Mathew had about the apocalypse-related stuff, it was all assumptions, not truths. And while, to a degree, things worked as he expected, he wasn\'t going to ignore the facts when he was faced with them!

"Maybe you were late to the apocalypse?" Mathew suggested, presenting the very first option that came to his mind which would explain the situation. "I mean, maybe the zombies you killed came only an hour after the apocalypse started?"

"I guess…" the man muttered, clearly dejected by Mathew\'s explanation. "I can recall hearing all sorts of shouts before I actually encountered a zombie. In fact, it took me quite a while to finally find out what was going on."

The man\'s face darkened once he touched upon his memories of the early hours of the apocalypse. It darkened far beyond what he presented when he realized that he likely didn\'t have a system.

\'Well, in a world like this, every man has a story of their own,\' Mathew thought, taking a deep breath to calm himself down.

"Eh…" the kid that Mathew brought up before stepped forth, passing right by all the other members of his group that were so keen on keeping him safely in the back.

\'Wait,\' Mathew froze for a second. \'Why would they keep him in the back?\' he asked himself, looking at the approaching kid. \'No, why would they bring him out for a scavenging mission in the first place?\'

Just like it was the case with Mathew\'s own group, every member that came along had to provide something of value great enough to the team to excuse depriving the school of their abilities.

Nadia, Leila, and Daria all came because they were super strong. Norbert came with them due to his ability while Mathew was the one leading the expedition.

Yet…

In the other group, Mathew could find a purpose for everyone… but the three kids at the back!

"Now that the cat is out of the back, there is no use hiding it anymore," the kid said once he stood right in front of Mathew. He then raised his hand to the level of his chest. "I have the power of telekinesis," he revealed.

The mana swirled around the boy. And then, one of the smaller tools scattered around suddenly flew up and ended up landing in the kid\'s hand.

\'That\'s… quite useful,\' Mathew thought, doing his utmost to stop a smirk from surfacing on his face. \'But how is that any different from my mind\'s flesh?\'

"So that\'s how!" the twenty-ish man suddenly exclaimed with his eyes wide open.

"Now I get it…" the leader of the group then added in half-voice while throwing a furious… but quite a complex stare at the kid.

\'His fury I can understand. No one would want to learn that someone hid this kind of ability away,\' Mathew thought, imagining himself in a similar scenario for just a second. \'But where are all the other emotions coming from?\' he asked himself, unable to stop his curiosity.

Mathew then shrugged his shoulders, giving up on digging into the topic.

"But…" the kid then said, ignoring all the stares from his own team as he turned his head to Mathew. "I don\'t recall killing even a single zombie early on," he revealed with a straight face. "I only did so several hours after I went into hiding," he added.

"Huh?" Mathew only released a small moan of surprise, taken aback by the revelation.

\'Right as I came up with a way to justify the other guy not having a system… he drops a bomb like that?\'

A wave of exhaustion washed off Mathew\'s mind. Reconciling his beliefs and the stuff he just learned came at an extreme mental cost. He had to somehow connect all the dots into a picture different than what he already painted in his mind.

Or in other words, he had to take the equation he already solved, add another element to it, and come up with an actually different result than before!

"Can you recall anything strange happening around the time you received this ability?" Mathew asked, hoping for some more information that would ease his task.

"Now that you mention it…" the kid turned silent as he lowered his head on his hand and rubbed his chin. "I can\'t really tell," he then said, spreading out his arms in a gesture of helplessness.

"The zombie you killed before receiving this ability…" Mathew muttered.

Then, a flash of inspiration struck him.

"The zombie you killed before you got your ability," he repeated himself in a more confident voice this time. "Was it unusually fast?"

"Like… a sprinter?" A look of uncertainty appeared on the kid\'s face.

"No," Mathew said, shaking his head. "More like…" he hesitated for a second, recalling the memories of the very first hour of the apocalypse. "More like a jogger."

"Ah!" the kid\'s face brightened up. "There were two like that!" he said with huge enthusiasm. "I can remember because they gave me quite the scare!"

\'So that\'s how it is…\' Mathew thought.

For but a second, a wave of excitement washed over his soul. He found the error that was bugging out his logic. Yet, at the same time…

His soul descended into a pit of complete darkness.

\'Does that mean it wasn\'t the zombies killed in the first hour, but the killing of zombies from the very first wave that appeared?\'

Something clicked deep at the bottom of Mathew\'s soul. As if this singular thought was a key towards some sort of a locked area of his soul.

[System seed (ranks 1-6) are now available at merchants\' stores]

A system message quickly followed, causing Mathew\'s entire self to freeze.

"Mathew!" the young man heard Nadia\'s desperate voice calling him. The voice broke through the barrier of an absolute shock that clouded his mind, bringing him back to a conscious state.

"Huh?" he muttered, struggling to shake off the confusion.

"Mathew!" Nadia called out again, despite having her lips right by Mathew\'s face. "What happened? Are you okay?!"

"Ah… I am…" Mathew muttered, before closing his eyes and opening them back up a few times in quick succession. He then shook his head. "Yeah, I\'m okay," he muttered, shaking his head once again before raising his eyes.

"What happened?" Nadia asked, still unconvinced about the young man\'s state.

"I just…" Mathew opened his mouth, only to stop his words from coming out. He then cast a quick glance around, pulling his lips together and shaking his head. "No, I will tell you later," he added, accepting the hand Nadia offered to help himself up.

\'Just when did I fall down on my ass?\' Mathew asked himself as he stood up./

"Be it as it may," the leader of the group interjected, "We need to go and help our people, so I implore you to let us go," he said, looking straight into Mathew\'s face.

The young man… smiled.

"With your strength, you will be going straight to your deaths," he stated, not holding back at all. "So, how about making a deal?" he suggested with his smile only widening. "If you promise to convince your people to join my group, we will go and save them from the horde," he suggested.

Mathew then stood properly on his own and let go of Nadia\'s hand. He then leaned his head over his shoulder. His mouth twitched a little as he looked at the leader of the other group.

"That doesn\'t sound like that much of a bad deal, does it?"