“Eh?” the girl shrugged when hearing Mathew’s question.

First, she took a long, deep look at the young man’s face as if trying to assess whether he was serious or just joking. She then glanced over at her naked friend by the side only to avert her eyes as if she was scared by her companion.

“Are you for real?” Leila finally asked, unable to believe Mathew was actually serious.

“What did I say you need to do?” Mathew asked, rolling his eyes.

‘I can’t really blame her,’ he thought, perfectly aware of the thoughts that could travel through Leila’s head. Marrying someone was a big deal. Yet, bringing such an obscure and uncommon topic right in the middle of an apocalypse, after claiming he could give her strength…

“Just accept everything,” Leila replied without much of a thought.

“Then, let’s repeat,” Mathew ordered before taking a deep breath. “Leila, will you be my wife?” his voice befitted the grandiose of the occasion, even if it was all just a blind shot aimed at exploiting his system.

“Yes, I will,” the girl replied obediently, although her voice betrayed how unwilling she was in reality.

‘Did it work?’ Mathew thought, looking around the girl in hopes of seeing the status window appear…

But nothing happened.

“That’s strange,” the young man muttered, lowering his eyes and ignoring the two baffled girls around him. “It worked the last time,” Mathew muttered to himself, trying to figure out what the hell did go wrong.

‘Is it her unwillingness?’ he attempted to guess, refusing to just give up on the spot.

The possibility of gaining another wife was something that Mathew couldn’t ignore. His first attempt at surviving the apocalypse already proved how insanely powerful one’s system could be…

As long as the system owner had a clue how to use it, that is.

‘Back then, the name of the system was self-explanatory,’ Mathew thought, reminiscing the not-so-far-off past. ‘Why can’t this be the same with my current system?’ he then asked himself, raising his eyes towards the ceiling of the shed as if he wanted to somehow reach the heavens with his question.

‘Or wait, maybe it is self-explanatory?’ Mathew suddenly thought, despite already following this line of thought before.

“What does it mean to be someone’s wife?” Mathew voiced out without even realizing that his lips parted open.

“Huh?” Leila’s friend groaned aggressively, unable to take Mathew’s shit any longer. “Fuck you and your wife’s fantasies!” she exclaimed, raising her hand as if to slap Mathew…

Only to then lower it back along her waist when the girl’s eyes fell on the weapons still ready in Mathew’s hands.

“Daria, calm down,” Leila urged her companion, tones of panic appearing in her voice.

‘To them, I must appear like some sort of madman,’ Mathew thought, scanning the room and the two girls inside with his eyes before returning to his analysis of the situation. He then raised his eyes and looked Leila directly into hers.

“What does it mean to be someone’s wife?”

This was the one question that Mathew absolutely had to find the answer to. Back in his original walkthrough of the apocalypse, his system was all about sacrifice. Right now, his system was all about getting wives.

As such, the meaning of being someone’s wife was the obvious solution to Mathew’s current problem!

“Maybe going exclusive?” Daria barked, although she proposed a valid idea.

‘What, are the two of them together or what?’ Mathew thought, surprised by how Leila’s short request managed to calm her friend down nearly instantly.

“I think we can go with that,” Mathew said as he nodded his head before turning his eyes towards still naked Daria. “Are the two of you together or something?”

The air in the room turned so tense that one could hang a damned painting in the middle without the piece of art falling to the ground. It turned into a soup that Mathew had to exert quite a lot of strength to move through.

“Yes,” Leila answered decisively, not letting Daria utter another word of insult towards Mathew.

“Okay,” Mathew nodded his head, unable to be bothered with a silly emotion like a surprise. “Say out loud that you two are breaking up,” Mathew ordered, eager to test this new idea out.

“Daria, we are breaking up,” Leila was quick to follow Mathew’s order despite how ridiculous it was. The look of worry on the girl’s face mixed with a quick glance that she sent towards her companion hinted at the reason why she was so willing to follow Mathew’s orders.

“Okay, then let’s try again,” Mathew said as he nodded his head. “Leila, will you be my wife?”

As the young man posed his question, his hands inadvertently tightened over the handles of his weapons to the point the whites of his bones showed underneath the skin of his knuckles.

‘If that’s not it…’ Mathew thought, feeling inwardly forced to put a time limit on how long he could try to meddle with his system.

Because they were hidden in the shed right now, the roars of the monster from the bottom floor turned into background noise. A background noise that one could barely hear… but that constantly reminded the young man of the time limit set for the entire building.

“I’m willing,” Leila nodded her head with a look of determination behind her eyes.

Mathew looked around the girl again… and then bit his lips to the point they oozed blood.

‘Damn,’ the young man shook his head, sobered up by the sudden bout of pain in his mouth. ‘At this rate, I will eat my lips before achieving anything,’ he complained in his mind, refusing to allow his state of mind influence the morale of the girls.

Whether he would succeed at forcing the system to attach to Leila or not didn’t matter in the long run. If it happened, it would be a great bonus. Yet, as it was something Mathew didn’t plan at all, the failure would simply mean returning to the original plan.

Still, by keeping the morale of the girls high… or at least not any lower than it already was, Mathew could still hope for his attempts to proceed relatively smoothly.

“It still didn’t work,” he whispered, more to himself, to release the pent-up frustration of the constant failures rather than to hint at something to his temporary companions.

‘Maybe it’s all about dedication and honesty?’ Mathew attempted another blind shot. He then raised his eyes at Leila before bitting his lips for the third time in short succession.

“You love your friend, don’t you?” Mathew asked in a small voice as if he was sharing some sort of secret rumor that no other soul could hear.

“I do,” Leila nodded her head without even a hint of hesitation.

Mathew closed his eyes for a moment, only o then opened them and looked directly into Leila’s face.

“Then, if you want me to save her, or actually the two of you, I need you to honestly break up with her and submit yourself to me as my second wife,” Mathew stated, dropping the bomb on the girls.

He didn’t want to do it. Even though he couldn’t really understand how two girls could be into each other, he wasn’t one to judge or even care. Yet, whatever kind of love it was, from the determination in Leila’s eyes alone, Mathew could tell that it was real.

That’s why, despite his request being Mathew’s last attempt at forcing the system to act, he couldn’t help but feel a spear of guilt penetrate his heart the second he uttered his words.

“I’m…” Leila attempted to say something, only for Daira to suddenly rush forward and send a slap right into Mathew’s face.

Clearly aware of what he did, Mathew didn’t even attempt to dodge. Instead, he simply stood up and turned his eyes towards Daria.

“I don’t care what you are planning,” she shouted, grabbing the edge of Mathew’s pants down and pulling them down before the young man could even react. “But you wanted to fuck us, right?” she uttered, still using the moment where Mathew was too shocked to do anything.

She then raised her hands back up and reached out for Mathew’s flaccid manhood. Her fingertips touched the skin of Mathew’s junior, sending an instant snap of electricity up his spine…

And then, Mathew’s vision blurred. And when it returned to its usual state, several windows floated all over both of the girls!