Mathew walked through the school's corridors in silence.
He fixed his clothes to the bare minimum that wouldn't break the moral code of the world a week prior, unable to be bothered to do even the tiniest bit more to fix his attire.
He didn't wait for his girls to join him either, even though he had no doubts they would be eager to do so, especially after the recent heated fight.
And yet, he still walked forth, unable to focus on any of the details of the classrooms he was passing.
'At least they already cleaned the corridors up,' he thought after several moments, unable to think about anything else but what was right before his eyes.
Mathew then closed his eyes and allowed the memory of how the corridor looked to guide his steps forward.
'Why do I feel like that?' he asked himself once his foot struck the concrete step, making him start raising his feet so that he could climb the stairs.
'Why do I feel like a complete filth?'
Mathew knew the answer to those questions. He could answer them without even thinking about the right response.
But knowing something by heart and accepting it with his mind... were two entirely different things.
'I guess the lack of morals is catching up to me,' he then thought, only to open the doors to the one and only washroom in the entire school.
Mathew then ripped his clothes off before barging into the shower area, moving underneath one of the showerheads before twisting the knob of the shower off.
The rain of icy-cold water that followed made him twitch... But after the initial shock, Mathew quickly got used to the initially unpleasant sensation.
'Doing it with Nadia was awesome. Doing it with Leila and Daria... it initially felt wrong, but I got used to it.'
He recounted the steps that he took in terms of going through the process initiated by his wives system.
'ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴠɪsɪᴛ Novel(B) in.ᴄᴏᴍ ᴛᴏ ᴇxᴘᴇʀɪᴇɴᴄᴇ ꜰᴀsᴛᴇʀ ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ sᴘᴇᴇᴅ.',
'Double-teaming on Carol felt... It was nice but weird at the same time.'
A rain of cold drops of water continued to strike down at Mathew's naked flesh.
Yet, with all the improvements to his system, he could no longer feel bothered or shocked by it.
"Haaa...." Mathew sighed as he shook his head sideways before reaching out and turning the shower's knob.
Since using the icy-cold water to push his unpleasant thoughts aside didn't work anymore, there was no use subjecting him to this tiny torture anymore.
"With all that in mind, why doing that policewoman, even though it was necessary, made me feel like it?"
Mathew voiced his mental struggle out loud. Yet, the only answer he received was the rhythmic tap, tap, tap of the water that formed into small streams on his body only to fall down and strike the ground in the form of fat water droplets.
'It made me feel so disgusted with myself that I can't even enjoy all the perks,' he thought, glancing over at the system hiding in the corner of his vision.
There was a new status window depicting the powers of his new, fifth wife. Yet, besides that particular addition, there were several more messages and windows that he never saw before.
[You reached the necessary number of wives for your system's level to advance!]
[Please, focus on the attachment to see the full list of all the benefits!]
Mathew glanced at the message at the very top of his vision, only for it to expand and present him with a list of perks that he, just an hour ago, would fuck the devil himself to get.
[System advancement perks:
decreased the power level necessary to advance levels by killing the zombies by 20%
decreased the cost of all-around leveling by 20%
Raising one's stats now allows granting the same amount of stats to a wife of your choosing
'This chapter is updated by N(o)V(e)lB(i)n.',
20% of the wives' attributes will contribute to the host stats
Adding a progress bar to the leveling of each wife
The host can now pick his own class
The host can now pick the classes for his wives]
Some of the bonuses Mathew could only roll his eyes over.
'Decreasing the cost of leveling by twenty percent... It sure does help, but it's just a drop in the ocean given how costly it is after just the initial levels,' he thought. 'Same with leveling up by killing zombies. It's nice that it's faster now, but it was already slow and it will only get slower as we all grow stronger.'
Other perks of the system advancement were confusing.
'Raising one's stat now allows granting the same stats to one of my wives? Isn't it what I was doing since the very beginning?' Mathew thought, closing his eyes as he attempted to analyze the situation. 'Or maybe now the efficiency of doing so is doubled, now that it's an official feature rather than just an exploit?'
There were things that couldn't be called anything else but convenience changes, the level progress bar being the top example of it.
All in all, there was only one system perk that Mathew could full-heartedly enjoy. And it was the fact that from now on, all the statistics of his wives would be added to his own.
'Is this why I got so thoughtful as soon as I claimed Beatrice as a wife?' Mathew thought, only to glance over at his own status window.
And sure enough, all his stats around the board exploded to numbers he never expected to see.
'I guess I could go and smash right through the horde all on my own,' he thought, blinking his eyes a few times as even looking straight as his increased stat wasn't enough for him to accept such an increase.
'Just my vitality alone went from around a hundred to over four hundred fifty,' Mathew thought, shaking his head only to then release a deep sigh.
'Maybe it's the increase in my mind that caused me to be so moody?' Mathew then attempted to guess, only to then shake his head again before dropping the topic.
'All in all, it's great... but why don't I feel like my power increased by leaps and bounds?' he then asked, only to close his eyes again, focusing on the drops of now hot water crashing into his head...
And on the sound of the shower room doors opening only to be replaced by the wet tapping of the three of his girls stepping over the wet floor as they approached him.