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"Those are really good terms, assuming you are actually willing to uphold them," Marcus admitted. He then moved his head to and fro with his eyes closed and a small smile on his lips. "But that doesn\'t answer my question," he added, opening his eyes and piercing his sight right into Mathew\'s face.

"I told you what benefits you will receive by taking the deal. I told you what the people that will follow me will obtain. What else do you want to know?" Mathew listed out while infusing some anger in his voice.

"I want to know what you need all those people for," Marcus said with a small smile.

"And why would I tell you that?" Mathew countered right away. Marcus asked his question before, after all, so it didn\'t take a genius to figure out what he really wanted to know. "Even if that might change in the future, as things stand right now, we are not in a cooperative relationship," he pointed out while throwing in some bait for later. "It\'s better for me if you can only guess my needs," he added with a slight shake of his shoulders.

"That\'s fair," Marcus admitted with a sigh. "Still, there are a few more things we need to agree on before we can proceed."

Marcus leaned back on his chair and brought his hands behind his head. In his position, he was just a step away from putting his legs on the table and giving Mathew an amused look.

"First, we have nothing but your word that you will take care of those people. That\'s why I wanted to know what you need them for. But since you don\'t want to reveal it," Marcus\' smile turned deeper, "you will have to agree on my people visiting their loved ones every once in a while."

\'And this isn\'t even all of it,\' Mathew thought, taking Marcus\' earlier statement into account.

"That much is fine," Mathew nodded his head. "But they won\'t be able to join my group if they won\'t do it right away."

"And why is that?" Marcus inquired.

"Because they will be tempted by all the perks my camps have to offer," Mathew revealed without any hesitation. "I have no need for people willing to ditch their group for better benefits."

"Because there might come a time when you won\'t be the one offering the most, right?" Marcus pointed out the possible reason behind Mathew\'s condition.

The young man, however, didn\'t reply out loud. He simply smiled before leaning his head over to the side, letting the other party assume that this was the reason.

"Well, that\'s fine. As long as you can guarantee that we can visit once every…" Marcus took a moment to think, "once every week, then we have the deal."

"That\'s fine with me," Mathew nodded his head. "You will have to announce your arrival in advance, though," he put yet another condition.

"That\'s reasonable…" Marcus muttered.

And then, a silence ensued as the two men silently challenged each other to a contest of stares.

"Aren\'t you guys just agreeing with each other over and over again?" Leila stepped forward and pointed out. "Since you guys said everything that needs to be said, how about we stop wasting time and get on the move instead?"

"Hahaha," Marcus laughed, "you are absolutely right!" he admitted while still shaking with laughter. "Just one last question then, out of pure curiosity this time," he added before moving his eyes from Leila back to Mathew\'s face.

"You said something about things possibly changing in the future. And to my understanding, the only reason why you would need people is to get them to work for you," Marcus stated before turning silent for a moment and allowing a wide smile to appear on his lips right as he leaned his head over his shoulder.

"What kind of cooperation do you imagine the two of us to possibly have in the future?"

Mathew had to forcefully restrain a smile of satisfaction from emerging on his lips.

\'He bit the bait!\' he cheered in his thoughts while putting a mysterious look on his face.

"That solely depends on you. But if I were to describe the difference between our groups, your is combat-oriented while my group focuses more on rebuilding what we lost."

Mathew then put his hands behind his back before turning around and heading toward the doors. Yet, right as he was about to leave the room, he theatrically stopped before looking back over his shoulder. "And when the time comes when we will restart power plants, water supply, and maybe even mass farming," Mathew finally allowed a smile to return to his lips, "I expect you to see you on our doorstep, begging us for cooperation."

Mathew pulled his head back to its natural position before walking out of the room, not waiting for Marcus\' response to yet another of his baits.

"Was that really necessary?" Norbert asked in a low voice once they put some distance between themselves and Marcus\' headquarters. "To taunt him like that right as we agreed to cooperate?"

"Hah," Mathew laughed a little. "Did you already forget what I said before about dealing with smart people?" Mathew asked.

"Confuse them with bullshit," Norbert summarised the latter of the pieces of wisdom Mathew brought up before they headed for the negotiations. "So you have no intention of doing the things you mentioned?"

"And why would I?" Mathew asked, his eyes opening up wide as genuine surprise replaced his amusement from just a moment ago. "It will take us years if not centuries to get rid of the zombies. Most likely, longer than we will live," he pointed out. "And that means, we will have a stable supply of zombie cores for as long as we live. And that alone is enough to replace all the infrastructure I made him think we are aiming to reclaim."

The water supply in the school compound was running even though the water facilities it was connected to were all dead. The same could be said about power, sewage, and even the food supply.

All of those things were taken care of by sacrificing a few cores to the merchants that would in turn provide all those necessities.

\'It\'s almost as if whoever came up with this system wanted to save us from struggling for those basic necessities,\' Mathew thought.

"And the merchant?" Nadia asked as she ran up to Mathew\'s side. "Couldn\'t you just give him a hundred cores more if you were going to give it away anyway?"

"By summoning a merchant, I proved that we know about them. And made him consider just how much we know," Mathew revealed with a smile. "But what\'s even more important, once we take care of all their non-combatants, their group will transform into an independent unit of hunters," the young man explained.

Then, a vile smile emerged on his face, coming from all the schemes that he thought of in advance of the negotiations that just concluded.

"But even such a group will need a place to fall back to. And now that they have two merchants here," Mathew turned his head and looked Nadia right in the eyes, "I basically ensured they won\'t leave that easily."