Mat buried his ax deep into the head of the zombie nearest to him.

‘Fuck,’ he cursed, desperately pulling at the handle, only to realize it was too late.

His desperate swing aimed at killing the one enemy that threatened him ended up costing Mat his weapon.

“Duck!” the officer shouted, pressing the trigger o his weapon a second later.

There was no sign of hesitation in his movements and actions either. The sight of those half-eaten bodies was enough to turn this calm law enforcer into a merciless veteran.

“Thanks!” I threw in the air, squatting and reaching out for my weapon.

That man’s shot gave me just enough time to grab my tool of the massacre.

‘There is no end to them,’ Mathew thought, raising his eyes at the approaching enemies.

The zombies in the opening wave were surprisingly swift… but still within the scope of what one would expect from a zombie.

There were limits to how fast a half-eaten body could move.

Mat took a glance to update himself on the situation. He then glanced over at Nadia. Following that, a long wrinkle appeared on his forehead.

‘Why is she infected?’ Mathew asked himself, unable to fully embrace the seriousness of the situation. ‘What should I do? Will my system be able to save her?’

A flurry of questions exploded in Mathew’s mind.

‘No use, there is only one thing I can do right now,’ he thought as he raised his eyes on the approaching zombies.

There were two ways of saving Nadia.

‘I can either rely on the system or force summon a merchant,’ Mat thought, recalling the rules he learned about the apocalypse world in his past life.

‘But this isn’t going to be easy,’ he thought, readying himself for yet another fight.

‘Patric, was he?’ Mathew thought, glancing at the bloodied face.

A senior from one year up. A vibrant person in the music circle. And now but a headless zombie left to rot away.

Mathew then swung his ax again and then again. The two weeks of intense and constant combat ingrained themselves into his flesh, allowing Mat to proceed relatively calmly.

‘At the current rate,’ Mat thought, using the opening in the fight to glance over at the girl.

Nadia’s forehead was already turning bright pink, coated with fat drops of her sweat. Her breathing was hard, and her eyes half-closed.

Mat then looked over to the clock in the corner of his vision.

‘She won’t last until the first wave,’ he realized, his fingers tightening into fists on their own.

It meant a simple thing.

It didn’t matter whether his system could prevent Nadia from turning anymore. Because she would likely succumb to the virus before Mat would receive his system in the first place.

A wave of powerlessness surged through Mat’s veins, freezing his body on the spot.

And then, the fire behind his eyes reignited.

‘If I can’t use the system, then I will force summon this damned merchant!’ he decided on the spot, gripping the handle of his weapon tighter.

Whoever was behind this apocalypse sure thought things through.

By killing zombies, one could extract a life’s core from their brains. In the world changed by the apocalypse, those cores turned into the unified value for everything.

Or rather, that’s what Mat believed would happen if he lasted any further into the post-apocalyptic world. Yet, there was one thing that he knew for sure.

One could forcefully summon a merchant by gathering a hundred of said cores.

In the world of the apocalypse, those who worked hard would receive bountiful rewards.

By exchanging further cores with the merchant, one could obtain basically anything they could desire, all for a fair price.

‘I will need about a hundred and fifty,’ Mat thought, focusing his eyes on the nearest group of zombies.

But just as he was about to rush it, a series of shots shook the air in the corridor.

The backup force of the anti-terrorists finally joined the battle.

The battle went on quickly from that point on.

Despite being slightly stronger than the normal zombies, they still didn’t pose any real danger to a prepared defense. For now, Mathew’s group was safe.

“Ugh!” Mathew moaned from exhaustion when he brough his ax down on the head of the last of the zombies.

With several minutes left on the clock, he still had some time to help Nadia out.

But he could only stand his ground, looking down at all the cores that he managed to gather.

With the swift zombies all defeated, new zombies would only appear during the first wave. The first wave would start once Mat’s third clock reached its time.

In other words, with all the zombies gone, no more would appear before after Nadia would turn.

And in Mat’s palms, there were only ninety-five stones.