Leveling Up Wives In The Apocalypse

"It may sound too cowardly, but I think we should stick together," Leila was the first one to respond to Mathew's call. "I know that it's not like me to be this careful, but I think we should cut all the potential risks."

'This really isn't like her,' Mathew thought, squinting his eyes a little. 'But… why?'

There always had to be a reason for a sudden and unexpected change. Just like in physic a body in motion would stay in motion unless a new force were to act upon it, the same could be said about people's temperament.

'The only thing that changed…' Mathew thought before slowly lowering his eyelids. 'Daria, isn't it?'

"I don't mean to disregard your point. In fact, I do agree with it," Nadia said.

Due to her being late to speak up first, she now faced a reality where she could no longer bring up the points that Leila did.

In theory, it was fine to have the same opinion. But given how it was the first time for Mathew to explicitly ask them for ideas, Nadia's reluctance to just repeat Leila's words was visible all over her face.

"But I think we should ask ourselves first whether or not going together is actually going to decrease the risks," Nadia pointed out.

'Oho?' Mathew's eyes twitched a little as he watched the mental duel with quite a bit of interest. 'You managed to turn Leila's words around… but that was the easy part. Can you now back it up with sound logic?'

"We have the benefit of a surprise attack," Nadia pointed out after a moment of silence. "That means, wherever we will execute our first attack, we will likely meet a lot less resistance," she pointed out.

'That's right,' Mathew thought, nodding his head along the girl's words.

"That's why I believe staying together might not be the most optimal route," Nadia finalized her claim, both her posture and her voice gaining confidence with every word she said. "Because if we split up, we will have the bonus of advantage while striking both of the evolved zombies simultaneously. If we attack together, however," Nadia put on a short pause before gracing Leila with a small, sympathetic smile, "we will end up alerting the one that we choose to attack second."

"Norbert?" Mathew called out.

"Huh?" the former police officer twitched. "What's up?"

"What do you think we should do?" Mathew asked with a shrewd smile.

"Huh? Me?" Norbert took air into his mouth before backing off a single step and raising both of his hands with their palms directed outwards. "Don't drag me into this!" he cried out, desperately seeking a way out of the unexpected trap.

"You have the most experience in real battles and you are the only one with any background in tactics," Mathew pointed out. "I'm not asking you to judge which of the two ideas is better. I'm asking for some ideas of your own."

"You damn brat…" Norbert muttered under his nose before glancing over at the girls.

They both had the same, expecting look in their eyes, both eager to have their proposal backed up by him.

It was also sure that backing up one girl would buy some of her favor at the cost of irritating the other. And what Norbert learned from over twenty years of his life experience…

Bad experiences stuck around people's minds longer and tighter than good ones!

"Listen here," Norbert said while releasing a long sigh. "This is a situation… that a proper tactician wouldn't allow to happen in the first place," he said. "So if you want me to know what I would do now…" he hesitated for a short moment, "I can only say that I would let us end up in this situation, to begin with."

"I don't think we are in some sort of a deep shit, though," Mathew protested, genuinely taken aback by the intensity of Norbert's denial.

"And that's exactly my point," Norbert replied with a triumphant look on his face. "We are in a world and circumstances where my knowledge and experiences do not apply."

Norbert leaned his head to the back before covering his face with his hand.

"If you were stranded in an enemy territory, surrounded by an enemy militia that would never give up chasing you, with only a few elite brothers to help you out…" Norbert put on a short pause on his story. He then pulled his hand out of his face and slowly brought his head back to its normal position.

"In that kind of scenario, the only tactics you would be concerned with would be about how your unit could commit suicide while inflicting the least amount of pain on each other."

"I see…" Mathew muttered. He lowered his head in apology. "I'm sorry, you are right. It wasn't wrong of me to ask you while forcing a position of an expert on you at the same time."

Mathew shook his head before raising it back and looking at the girls.

"Now, do you want to hear what I think about the situation?" he asked.

There were still some hints of tension caused by the light clash with Norbert visible on Mathew's face, but the blush of the positive mood already started to inch its way to Mathew's cheeks.

Neither Nadia nor Leila bothered to answer. They both simply stood where they were, one with her hands along her waist and the other with her arms crossed over her chest.

Norbert, happy that he escaped the guillotine of risking the wrath of either of the girl, didn't dare to make even the smallest noise.

As such, only the slight moves that the two guests of the group made filled the air.

"I believe you are both wrong," Mathew said, to the surprise of everyone on the roof. "I'm not saying that being careful is a bad thing, but we need to consider the time, the effort, Daria's near return, and potential dangers back at the camp…"

Mathew shook his head after listing only a few out of a long list of things that he kept thinking about ever since the group made the first step outside of the safety of the school's barrier.

"All of those," Mathew pointed his hand down towards the street, "are the weakest zombies that we've encountered so far. Weaker even than the ones we dealt with at our second camp," Mathew said, intentionally omitting the usual names he would use to refer to the locations they occupied.

After all, there were only so many media buildings and schools in the city, and he still wasn't ready to trust the guests with this kind of vital information.

"Those are all basic zombies," Mathew kind of repeated himself before shaking his head, as if in shame. "To be perfectly honest, just standing here and planning the attack makes me feel like a darn bully!"

The girls turned their heads and looked at each other. The same expression of shock and realization appeared on their faces.

'It seems that me asking them made the two of them overthink stuff,' Mathew thought, taking a deep breath.

"Well then, let's put it this way," he stated. "Whoever will kill more zombies once we start the hunt, will get the upgrade of their weapon prioritized," Mathew announced.

The girls' faces turned still. For a fraction of a second, they digested the information.

"Stop!" Mathew called out before the girls could bolt out to the outside. 'I guess they understand the value of an upgrade,' Mathew thought, feeling a wave of relief washing over his body.

"We need to start the challenge with the evolved ones," he said. "You know, just to not be careless," he added with a wink.

And then, Mathew turned his head around and looked at the guests stuck by the side of the entrance to the roof.

"And for the record," Mathew smiled, "my group lays claim to the cores of all the zombies we conquer in the coming battle."