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"Can you afford its price?"

Mathew\'s question was simple only to someone who didn\'t put any thought into it. And yet, most of Peter\'s men didn\'t appear to lower themselves over the complex ploy hidden beneath it.

Some got shocked by the mere existence of the cure that they couldn\'t even think about the question of its price.

Others instantly turned angry seeing how Mathew expected something in return for literally saving someone else\'s life.

And from the entire crowd, with the exception of Mathew\'s people who were in the know, only Peter and two of his officers appeared to realize the true depth of Mathew\'s question.

"You just killed one of my men," Peter pointed out after taking some time to think over the situation. "I don\'t think you are in the position to request anything right now."

\'Is this the angle you want to take?\' Mathew thought, squinting his eyes a tiny little bit.

Then, the young man put a small, cheeky smile on his face.

"If you want for me and my people to leave, just say the word," he informed. "I\'m here only due to convenience. And there is a very precise number of cores that describe the value of having you agree to my terms."

Mathew didn\'t utter a single lie.

There were only three reasons why he picked Peter\'s base for the potential third fortress. And two of those reasons could be boiled up to nothing more but convenience.

First, came the fact that there were already two merchants at this place, one that Mathew summoned himself and the other one that he expected Peter summoned on his own. With that, the cost of raising the fortress would decrease by two hundred cores as opposed to setting it up in another place.

Two hundred cores wasn\'t a small number. Counting only the evolved mob zombies, harvesting that much required taking down forty of them.

But, at the same time, this number wasn\'t all that great to seriously influence Mathew\'s decision to pick Peter\'s base.

The other two reasons were as follows.

First, this place had people that already interacted with Mathew\'s group. In other words, it was easier to get them to cooperate than to look for another group that could provide the manpower necessary to staff the third fortress.

And lastly came the fact that it was already an established base. And as opposed to the initial idea behind Mathew\'s expedition which was supposed to aim for the castle ruins on the town\'s outskirts, it saved the young man the effort necessary to set up the structure of the fortress.

"I never intended to ask you to leave," Peter replied after taking some more time to think.

And the reason behind his response was as obvious as it could get.

Now that Mathew flaunted the existence of the cure not only to him but also to his men, some of which were infected, Peter had no other choice but to swallow the bait whole, line and fishing rod included.

"But I still believe it\'s not okay for you to ask for something in return when you already took something from us without a care in the world!" Peter tried another angle, clearly set on negotiating as hard as he could.

Even if he didn\'t know Mathew\'s exact plans, he wasn\'t stupid. And he had to figure out that there was some sort of meaning not only behind Mathew delegating his own wife to come and help but then coming in person with a cure conveniently at hand!

\'Now that I think about it, it kinda looks like I created this problem in the first place just to have the benefit of being able to solve it,\' Mathew noticed, gulping down his saliva as he hoped Peter wouldn\'t notice this potential connection.

"Well, if you put it that way, who am I to refuse?" Mathew, worried that Peter could get suspicious of the coincidence, decided to go for another push. "A life for a life, then," he said, before pulling out one vial from the set and passing it towards Peter. "Rather than arguing over the fact that this guy not only insulted my woman but also attempted to point his gun at me, let me offer you peace with this vial."

On the outside, Mathew just made a massive concession. He offered a cure to the damn zombie virus over the killing of someone who stepped over the line of what would be allowed in this lawless, apocalyptic world.

But in reality, what Mathew offered wasn\'t the cure.

It was poison.

A poison that could cure one\'s virus, but would poison the integrity of Peter\'s entire group. Because now that he had his hand on a single cure…

Who would Peter offer it to?

Peter reached out, grabbing the vial the second Mathew made it clear he was actually willing to pass it over for free. He grabbed the glass and pulled his hand back, only for his face to turn stale the moment Mathew\'s fingers let go of the cure.

\'So he noticed,\' Mathew thought, stopping a grin from appearing on his lips.

"Now then," Mathew now smiled openly, ready to crank the pressure up, "unless you are willing to play favorites with who you will offer this cure, how about we go back to talking about the price of the rest of them?" Mathew asked, reaching out with his hand toward Nadia.

The girl didn\'t need even a single word of explanation. While it would be way too much to say she could read Mathew\'s thoughts, she was more than empathetic enough to figure out what he was playing at.

As such, without uttering a single word, she smiled as she pulled out another set of cures before passing it over to Mathew\'s outstretched hand.

"From what I remember, you only need seven…" Mathew hesitated as he glanced over at the headless corpse still splurting blood at his feet, "six cures," he stated after fixing the count. "Counting the ones you already have, you only need five. And here, I\'m willing to offer you nine of them."

Peter\'s back was against the wall. His expression was stale, his lips pressed together in voiceless anger.

"What do you want, then?" Peter asked as he tightened his grip over the vial nearly to the point where he would simply smash it into pieces.

"It\'s quite simple." Mathew\'s smile turned even brighter. "We will summon a third merchant here. Then, we will transform this base of yours into a fortress. After that…"

Mathew stopped his words when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

He turned his head to the side, only to see Nadia shaking her head to the side.

The girl then used the moment of silence to step forward.

"You guys will have to follow our commands if the need for that arises. There is a chance we will also make you do stuff that will be in the interest of all three bases rather than your own," she explained the situation.

\'Why did she stop me?\' Mathew asked himself, raising his eyebrows as he watched the girl explain the situation to Peter\'s group. \'I was about to say the same!\'

"All in all, once we are done doing our stuff, we will generally leave you to your own devices, unless something big happens," Nadia finished with a shake of her shoulders.

"Wait, that\'s all?" Peter asked, shocked beyond his belief. "To that, I can easily agree, but..." he hesitated for a moment, unsure whether he should voice his doubts or not. "If it was that simple, then what was this entire drama for?" he nearly freaked out.

This time, Mathew didn\'t allow the girl to explain his thoughts to him, mostly because of the worry that Nadia somehow ended up misinterpreting them.

"I had to make you accept our terms before hearing how good they are," Mathew said as he gently tucked Nadia\'s arm to pull her back before stepping forward himself. "Otherwise, you wouldn\'t understand just how gracious they are."