Chapter 37

Chapter 37: Chapter 37

"I have my moments."

He chuckled quietly before looking at her. "And you’re still going to accept the money?"

Ingrid stared at him as though he had just asked the most ridiculous question she had ever heard. "Of course I’m accepting it. Why wouldn’t I?" she asked. "You might be preparing for the end of the world, but I still need money. I have no reason to throw away thirty thousand gold coins just because you think they might become useless later."

Ingrid pointed at him with a grin. "And since you’ve already admitted that you’re willing to spend a lot of money, shouldn’t you increase the price? You can pay me more than the thirty thousand, I’ll accept it gladly."

His laughter became louder. "You truly like money."

Ingrid shrugged. "Who doesn’t?"

Lysander, who had been quietly counting the coins, finally closed the last pouch and looked at her. "All three contain ten thousand gold coins each," he said. "The full amount is thirty thousand."

Ingrid smiled brightly. "See? I like money, but I’m not greedy enough to steal it."

The man shook his head, still amused, before his expression gradually became serious again. "There’s something else you should understand before you leave," he said. "I truly don’t want innocent people to die. There are children here, families, elderly people, and people who have done nothing wrong. But if I allow the situation to continue, the zombies may spread beyond this village. If destroying one village prevents the infection from spreading to thousands of others, then I have no choice. Sometimes it’s better to sacrifice one place than allow the entire region to fall."

Ingrid’s smile disappeared. "How do you know?"

The man frowned. "What?"

"How do you know the problem is only inside this village?" Ingrid asked. "You’ve seen zombies outside the walls. Your scouts have seen them coordinating. You’ve already admitted that some of them can hide among normal people, and you don’t even know how many there are. So what makes you think destroying this village will solve anything?"

Ingrid stepped closer to him. "What if the zombies have already gotten outside?" she asked. "What if some of those smarter zombies escaped before you discovered them? What if they’re already hiding in another village, another city, or somewhere far beyond this wall? You could destroy everyone here tomorrow and still have the same problem somewhere else."

She looked toward the window. "You should worry about yourself too. You’ve already made up your mind to destroy this village, so if that’s really what you want to do, then go ahead. But I won’t stand here and pretend that every person inside this wall deserves to die just because you don’t know how to solve the problem. Try to destroy the village, but I’ll do my best to save people. I might not be able to save them all, but if I can save a few, that’s okay with me."

The man’s expression became complicated, but Ingrid had already turned away. "Lysander, we’re leaving."

He nodded and followed her toward the door. As they walked downstairs, Ingrid’s expression became thoughtful.

"We also need to buy supplies," she said.

Lysander glanced at her. "How much?"

"A lot of supplies."

He raised an eyebrow and Ingrid looked back at him. "We’re leaving soon, and I have no idea when we’ll find another proper market. I don’t want to walk away from a place like this and then realize two days later that we’re out of food."

"What do you want to buy?"

"Everything that can be useful to us." That answer made Lysander sigh but Ingrid had already started walking towards the market. So he just followed beside her with a slightly troubled expression. She knew she was buying far more than two people normally needed, but after everything she had heard inside the merchant guild, she could not bring herself to take the situation lightly anymore. If she and Lysander were really going to leave soon, she wanted enough supplies to survive without depending on another village or town; she had no idea what they would find once they crossed that enormous wall.

The market was still crowded when they arrived, although Ingrid noticed that the atmosphere was different from when she had first entered the village. People were still buying and selling things, but there was a strange tension underneath everything, as though everyone was trying to continue living normally while quietly worrying about what might happen next. Several merchants looked toward the giant wall whenever they heard a loud noise from outside, and some people were carrying more supplies than they could comfortably hold.

She stopped for a moment before inwardly calling out to Lorna. ’Lorna, can I upgrade my Storage Space?’

’ Of course. Your current Pocket Level is Level 3 which can only hold 500kg of items and right now, you only have around 350kg space left. According to your System Level, you can only upgrade to Level 6 which will allow your Space Pocket to have a holding space of 1500kg but you have to spend 1000 points to increase the level. Should I go ahead with the level up?’

’Yes.’ With the amount of things she wanted to buy, the space pocket won’t accept it at this level.

{ DING! }

{STORAGE SPACE LEVEL 3 - 6 UNLOCKED.}

{ TOTAL REMAINING POINTS - 9670 POINTS. }

Ingrid nodded in satisfaction and continued walking toward the nearest grain shop with Lysander following closely behind her, and the moment the shopkeeper noticed them, he smiled politely.

"Welcome. What can I get for you?" the shopkeeper asked, gesturing toward the large sacks arranged around his stall. "I have rice, flour, beans, cornmeal, wheat, salt, sugar, and several other grains, so if you’re looking for something specific, just tell me and I’ll see what I have."

Ingrid looked over the sacks carefully before answering. "I want one hundred kilograms of rice, fifty kilograms of flour, thirty kilograms of beans, thirty kilograms of cornmeal, ten kilograms of salt, and ten kilograms of sugar."

The shopkeeper’s smile slowly disappeared as he stared at her. "Did you say one hundred kilograms of rice?"