Leveling Up Wives In The Apocalypse

"Whoever was responsible for figuring out this layout… really has something wrong with their heads,' Mathew thought as he pried his eyes open and allowed the sight of the changed merchant's space to seep into his eyes.

The last time when he used it this place consisted of several different shelves with various items stacked on each of them. And for the customer's convenience, each shelf held a different set of items so that one wouldn't look for supplies in the area designed for weapons.

But now, those shelves were all gone, reduced to atoms. And they were replaced with what looked like one of the massive warehouses Mathew used to work part-time at.

'I wonder if it's possible to find a pallet truck anywhere here,' Mathew thought as he took a first step between the massive shelves that rose thrice his height to the undefined sky.

Sadly, Mathew didn't see any of the electric pallet carriers that he used to ride on. Yet, what he soon found out, was that by simply picking a box of any weight, he could make it float behind him while he looked around for other items to buy.

'Okay, now that the logistics are out of the way, let's start with what's actually important,' Mathew decided.

The number of items that Mathew could buy went from several hundred different items at most to several million at the very least.

There was also the size variety for different packages.

When it came to cheaper items, Mathew was free to stack them in one of the empty boxes. And once the value of the box would reach a certain, hidden value, it would suddenly appear impossible to stuff anything else in it.

And just for convenience's sake, if Mathew wanted to double the particular package he made, all he needed was to think about it for a second box to appear.

Yet, rather than going around and picking various sweets to treat his girls, Mathew approached the very center of the shadowy realm.

'If I want to shop, first, I need to make money,' he thought, carrying all of the weapons he took from the girls to the massive, swimming-pool-sized altar in the very middle of the area.

"I wish to sell those weapons," Mathew said out loud as he threw the used-up blades onto the altar.

There was no sound to indicate something was going on. No visuals changed either… But Mathew could somehow tell that whatever was responsible for the logic of this subspace was currently busy calculating the prize he would get for the weapons.

"Total prize for the items: twenty-two thousand, forty-four cores," the cold, emotionless voice of the system announced.

'That's quite a lot… less than I expected,' Mathew thought.

Just for a single saber and back at the single merchant he controlled at Marcus' base, he could get nearly seven thousand cores. And right now, he wanted to trade three sabers like that at once along with the machetee that Leila used for quite a lot longer!

'Maybe it's because of the wear and tear?' Mathew guessed.

In theory, changing the items around to see whether he could earn more by selling them separately would be a natural way to move along… But Mathew didn't do it.

"I accept the trade," he said instead, watching with a pained heart as the weapons he used for quite some time now vanished into nothingness.

Mathew didn't bother bartering for one simple reason. The merchants already proved to react to how he treated them. And if he as much as attempted to maximize his profits, he feared he would see a sharp increase in the prize of every last item the shop had to offer.

'And now, adding all the cores I have left in the storage, I should have around twenty-five thousand,' Mathew made a quick and rough estimate.

Sure, he could simply check his storage… But since he could give himself a rough guess, why waste time on such a formality when there was this entire space filled with different items for him to check out?

Mathew threw himself into the rush of shopping.

The first hallway of the new wholesale merchant consisted only of food. He could find entire boxes worth of all sorts of fruits, smaller boxes filled with a selection of spices, and boxes worth of tea. In one spot, he saw all kinds of coffee, from raw beans, through cooker and then burned beans, all the way through instant coffee of every brand and selection Mathew could think off… All the way to the fancy express capsules for the modern coffee-making machines and even some small orbs that he couldn't recognize at all.

The selection for every item was massive as if Mathew unlocked the full list of every possible type of product and every possible iteration of it.

The first row of the shelves gave Mathew the opportunity to sharply increase the morale of everyone within the group and provide them with a semblace of normal life.

But ultimately, Mathew couldn't care all that much about food. An increased variety of items simply made the process of cooking for everyone all that easier to optimize.

The second row of shelves consisted of all sorts of tools, nails, power tools, and even some sort of building blocks.

On their own, those building blocks deserved a separate mention. When Mathew approached what looked like a cube of solid wood, a small scene played out before his eyes.

He saw a faceless character be born out of the shadow. Then, said character picked up the wooden cube and threw it on the floor. A poof of smoke exploded out of the cube later, and Mathew could see the same faceless figure dancing atop a huge pile of planks and wooden blocks.

There were all sorts of other materials within the shopping alley, allowing a wide selection of materials that one would want to use for construction.

There were at least twenty different alleys within the new shadow realm. But it was the third, the fourth, and the fifth of them that caught Mathew's attention.

The third row was as simple as it could get. It housed almost every type of weapon that the human mind ever conceived. From swords of every shape, form, and size, to obsolete weapons like curved swords used by Romans during one of their easter incursions against a tribe with a particular type of helmet. Off in the distance, Mathew could even see the front part of a damn helicopter sticking out into the alleyway!

Considering how he sold all of his weapons, this should be the alley that caught Mathew's entire interest… but as soon as he took a peak at the next one, his attention shifted.

The fourth valley housed nothing but strange pieces of paper, all nailed right at Mathew's eye level.

And every piece of paper detailed what sort of service it could provide. There were deeds for the reconstruction of the broken parts of the school. There were deeds for artificial service providers and deeds for automated defensive force.

Deeds of all kinds and sorts filled the valley, each more interesting than the previous one.

Pushed by nothing but sheer curiosity, Mathew took a look towards the fifth alley…

Only for the importance of the previous alleys to vanish into nothingness.

Because just like in the fourth alley, the fifth one was filled with pieces of paper rather than items. What was important, however…

Was how all of those papers detailed different types of system seeds that Mathew could now purchase!"