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But the fight turned out not only far bloodier than Mathew expected but also ended up with a lot more loot.

Sure, most of the cores would come from the corpses of Nadia and Leila\'s making. Still, after a period where no zombies would appear anywhere near the fortress, stumbling upon a horde so early on… was a boon.

\'Some of the hunters ended up dying…\' Mathew\'s lips twitched when a scene from a legendary cartoon appeared in his mind. \'But it\'s a sacrifice I\'m willing to make.\'

"Hurry it up!" Leila shouted, pulling Mathew out of his thoughts. "We don\'t have all day!"

For once, this encouragement wasn\'t directed at the young man.

The survivors of the battle were now walking knee-deep into the pile of corpses, extracting core after core from the fallen zombies.

The hunters were already used to the job after their assistance in the previous missions. The newbies, on the other hand, could only sneak peeks at their seniors while trying to figure out a working system that suited their own approach.

There were only so many ways in which one could open up a corpse\'s skull… all equally as disgusting.

Yet, regardless of how unpleasant the harvest was, it was a necessary activity, the very core - ekhem - of farming cores.

Why else would humans go out and risk their life if not to obtain this universal currency of the apocalypse?

"We should be able to gather around two hundred."

Rather than participating in the harvest himself, Pavel did exactly the same thing that he did back during the battle. He focused on commanding and overseeing the people at the cost of leaving the entire task to them.

And quite surprisingly, no one seemed to be bothered!

"Thanks for the report," Mathew nodded his head in the direction of the promising officer-to-be, before looking over his shoulder, to where Nadia and Leila showed their compassion. "Any idea about the amount over there?"

Pavel turned his head around and cast a seeking glance towards the second field of corpses, left in the wake of Mathew\'s wives.

He then raised his hand and scrubbed the side of his head.

"Honestly, I can\'t even guess," Pavel admitted with a dejected grimace on his face. "Five hundred? A thousand?" he shook his head before shrugging his shoulders. "But I\'m just guessing. I\'ve never cleaned a zombie\'s corpse-yard so I can\'t really say."

\'It\'s better than trying to lick my ass and coming up with an imaginary number,\' Mathew thought before moving his eyes over to some of the newbies.

They had no experience. It was clear in every attempt they made at extracting the cores.

Still, bit by bit, they were getting there.

Their movements grew more certain, assured. Their cuts turned bolder and surprisingly smaller once they started to learn just how much they needed to cut to reach the core.

"Things are moving rather smoothly," Nadia commented. She walked up to Mathew and stood by his side, sweeping the entire area with her eyes.

"They do indeed," Mathew lazily nodded his head.

\'Now that I think about it, why did the horde even appear?\' Mathew thought, finally finding some time to look back at all the doubts he had so far. \'And one made out of basic zombies,\' the young man continued to play around with the puzzle pieces that he had, hoping to chance upon a connection.

"Is it because we used the cores for the upgrades, I wonder," Mathew muttered, hoping that by voicing his doubts, he could make them somehow easier to figure out.

"The horde?" Nadia asked. She took a quick, sideways glance at Mathew\'s face before looking back toward the field of corpses. Then, her eyes moved up the street, past the chokepoint and the bigger of the two corpse fields.

"It just doesn\'t feel right," Mathew said, his face tensing up as his brain started to storm the shit out of the topic. "I mean, this horde is exactly what we needed. An opponent weak enough for the expedition to handle but one that provides us with at least some cores…"

Mathew walked up a pace and kicked away the nearest, headless corpse. He then crushed the skull of the stranded head before leaning down and plucking out the core from the bloody mess.

"But didn\'t we move way past this kind of enemy?" Mathew turned back and flung the core at the girl.

"The last time we encountered those weaklings…" Nadia grabbed the stone with ease and muttered, looking down as she focused on scouring through her memories.

Then, she raised her eyes.

"Wasn\'t it back at that shopping mall?" she suggested while raising her eyes.

"Yeah," Mathew nodded his head before looking around. "Back when we stepped outside of the immediate surroundings of our zone of control," he added before putting on an uneasy grimace.

"Mathew?" Nadia called out, turning around on the spot and focusing her eyes on her husband\'s face. She glanced at the young man for but a second before her face tensed up as well. "What\'s wrong?"

She didn\'t need anything more but just a hint of unease to pick up on Mathew\'s anxiety.

Mathew pressed his lips together into a thin line.

"Carol!"

"Yes!" the girl rose from the pile of corpses several steps ahead.

Now that the fighting part of the expedition was done, she made sure she was allowed before jumping into the job. In fact, it was her example and her tips that allowed most of the newbies to learn how to harvest the zombies in such a short amount of time.

"I need you to take the cores that you\'ve gathered so far and run back to the fortress," Mathew ordered.

\'It\'s just a possibility… but it\'s better to be safe than sorry,\' he thought, making up the last part of his mind.

"There, I want you to pick up two system seeds. Once you are done, I want you to check out the scan of the area."

Carol slightly raised her eyebrows. She took a moment to look at Mathew\'s face, clearly suspecting that something was going on.

Yet, whether or not she decided to believe her gut or not, she rose up and patted the dust and dirt off her clothes.

"I will be right back, then!"