Chapter 89 You do not control the merchants

“It already feels familiar in here,” Mathew muttered to himself as the shadows surged forth.

It was truly a wonder how quick the human brain could be to adapt to new experiences or situations. Mathew only visited this place a few times, and he no longer felt weirded out by the shadowy interior of this strange space.

‘I don’t really consider this place weird if I were to be honest with myself,’ Mathew thought as he observed the usual succession of events.

The mist-like shadows surged, veiling him away from the normal world. And as their density increased, the world outside dimmed away.

The space just a hand-reach away now turned into an impenetrable land of shadowy fog.

“You’ve successfully established a seed of fortress in this location,” the merchant announced with its usual voice the moment the space stabilized.

‘Huh?’ Mathew shrugged when nothing followed that sentence.

“Is that it?” he asked, painfully aware of how tricky the merchants liked to be.

For the briefest of moments, Mathew could see a half-transparent face all over the area. A face… that smirked.

Pop!

A set of several screens appeared before Mathew’s eyes. They were pretty similar to the windows displayed by his system. They would be identical… if not for everything besides the rough semblance.

“Pick the location of the fortress core,” Mathew read out the title of the set of three windows that appeared at the very top.

[First merchant]

[Effect: Due to its high elevation, the core set in the first location of choice will give a bonus to detection and system alert for major events in the vincity. Increases the area of influence of the fortress.]

‘Huh?’ Mathew trembled when the meaning behind those words reached his brain. ‘I didn’t expect the places where I summoned the merchants to affect anything,’ he thought.

Mathew’s lips twisted in an unhappy grimace as he had no other choice but to accept the depressing reality.

‘I wonder if that’s what this random smirk was all about,’ Mathew thought before shaking his head and finally approaching the one thing he realized.

‘Isn’t this description practically screaming the game language?’

Mathew’s blood first turned cold, only to start to boil a mere moment later.

Reading the new content presented by the merchant Mathew felt no different than reading a description of an in-game event!

‘Am I in a game or something?’ Mathew had no other choice but to face this question. ‘Is it all an elaborate simulation?’

For a moment, the young man could only ponder while staring motionlessly at the wall of text and images from the merchant.

“Argh,” Mathew released a pained moan before coupling it with an exhausted sigh. “The core idea behind the simulation hypothesis is centered around one’s inability to verify it,” he muttered, ditching his recent worries.

‘There is no way that someone capable of putting me into a game and stealing my memory of the fact not to take precautions,’ the young man thought as he made his decision. ‘Let’s not waste time on these pointless, philosophical questions,’ Mathew lectured himself and raised his hands to his cheeks.

Pac!

His hands stroking his cheeks made a meaty noise. A sign of a proper, sobering self-slap.

‘Let’s move ahead,’ Mathew directed himself as he moved his eyes back to his other options. ‘If I move at my current rate, everyone will be long a meal for zombies before I finish!’

[Upgradeable Merchant]

[Effects: By locating the core of the fortress at the location of the most sophisticated merchant, the host can ensure better quality and quantity of products offered in the fortress-wide shop]

‘That’s theoretically not bad…’ Mathew thought, only to then shake his head. ‘But isn’t it practically just an upgrade to the merchant….’ he hesitated for a bit, ‘merchant that I can upgrade in other means?’

Mathew raised his hand and rubbed his chin. He looked at the description of the second possibility for a long time, worried that he was missing something.

“The first option has two kinds of bonuses,” Mathew muttered under his nose. ‘Maybe whispering stuff like that would spur the merchant to give me some clues?

Mathew could vividly remember the face that he saw just a few moments earlier. And for how sudden and, to a degree, scary experience it was, it still gave the young man a hint.

Whoosh.

‘Huh?’ Mathew froze in place when the experience from before returned. This time, however, the expression on the shadowy face that appeared before his eyes was different.

‘Was it… curiosity?’ Mathew thought as he moved his eyes back on the description. ‘Maybe there is some catch that I’m missing?’ he thought as he started to read everything from the very beginning.

‘It feels like deciphering some kind of secret,’ Mathew thought as he energetically shook his head and blinked his eyes a few times. And then, refusing to give up, he started to read the text all over again.

‘I think I get it.’

Mathew’s eyes twitched.

First, he noticed that both of the secondary bonuses were kept to the end of the description. And then, he noticed another anomaly.

‘Why should I assume that a fortress-wide shop is a default setting?’

The realization struck the young man like a hammer.

‘Being able to buy everything from anywhere around the fortress…’ Mathew thought, imagining the potential uses of such ability.

And then, his lips twisted in an ugly grimace.

‘Wait, isn’t this the worst option possible?’ Mathew thought, his thoughts freezing when he recalled a simple yet extremely important detail he had discovered earlier.

The young man tightened his fists and closed his eyes. He took a few deep breaths, slowly filling his lungs to their brim… And then he released all the air out in a sigh.

Mathew didn’t have any proof for his theory, only a number of coincidences. It was all nothing more but his belief based on his limited observations.

Yet, if his experience in the world of apocalypse taught Mathew anything, it was to trust his instincts.

And on that one point, he could feel his entire body trembling.

‘Let’s check the third option, then,’ Mathew thought as he opened his eyes only to turn them slightly to the right.

[Third merchant]

[Effects: An autonomous area of the compound that has thicker walls than any other part of the school. Its centralized position allows for greater governance of the area. Increases development and upgrades the fortress barrier by a single grade]

‘You can’t be serious now,’ Mathew thought after he took some time to analyze the content. ‘What’s development? What’s the barrier? Why does it have grades instead of levels?’

A flurry of questions stormed Mathews’s mind as soon as he opened it up to think about the problem.

He couldn’t answer any of those… But the fact of them appearing was alone a reason good enough to make his pick.

‘There is no doubt that the third option is the best, but…’ Mathew hesitated.

No good thing comes without a prize. It was one of the few quotes in Mathew’s life that guided him through his turbulent past.

‘If this sounds too good to be true, it’s likely not,” the young man muttered, once again curious to see if he could invoke the merchant’s reaction.

He then raised his eyes on the third option in the search for the hook and bait.

‘It really does sound attractive,’ Mathew thought as he brought his hand up while considering his options.

‘Well, I’m too tired to think about it right now,’ Mathew decided before shaking his head and bringing his hand down.

And then, the few windows that Mathew could see suddenly moved up, just like a phone would scroll up.

‘Warning, establishing the fortress will exterminate all the zombies left inside along with their cores!’

‘Warning, insufficient cores for necessary progress.’

‘Warning…’

Mathew’s hand moved up and down. The text before his eyes moved fast and faster, only allowing the young man to glance through the options.

[Warning, the user does not control all three merchants necessary to establish the fortress!]

The last warning was different from the others as it appeared as an added window by the ‘confirm’ button at the very bottom of the list of options.

“What the hell?” Mathew nearly screamed out. “How? What?” he asked out loud, his lack of understanding pushing him into an abyss of panic.

‘What does it mean I do not control the merchants?’ Mathew asked himself, desperate to find the answer.

‘I’m so damn close,’ he lamented in his insides. ‘Why the hell do more problems need to appear right now?!’ Mathew screamed inwardly out.

And so Mathew used his internal scream to burn through all his annoyance and grief.

‘There is no use whining,’ Mathew thought. Deprived of all the anger, Mathew’s thoughts suddenly calmed down. ‘I just visited one of the three merchants I established. I can return to one of them any time I want, so that leaves me with only one place to check out,’ Mathew thought.

The merchant he established soon after meeting with Leila and Daria. And the merchant that now refused to cooperate in Mathew’s fortress-building plans!

‘Still, that’s weird,’ Mathew thought as he mentally pushed himself out of the merchant.

For a moment, the sights of the space enclosing him reversed, only for Mathew to return to the real world with confusion written all over his face.

‘I no longer control the second merchant. And that means someone else does. But given how only people with the system can interact with merchants…’