Meeting (1)

Slam!

A person slapped on a stone, circular table. 

A total of thirteen stone chairs surrounded the table, but only eight people sat on the chairs. 

The room was dimly lit.

Only a weak, electrical table lamp shone on at the center of the stone table. 

A dozen pages of documents lay spread around the table. 

"You bastard!" The man who slammed the table pointed at a person across the table. "Who do you think you are?!"

"Of course, I'm the leader of this nation," The man replied. His chubby build indicated he was well-fed. The buttons of the deep red suit he wore barely held on from popping. 

He was the only person in the room that had another person standing behind him. A young adolescent man approaching his twenties. 

"Hmph! Do you think your title of leader amounts to something? The time when the leaders of the nations were something has passed. Now, your title is nothing more than a thing of the past that we held on to for a reminder of those turbulent times. 

The time when decades ago, the countries had immense territories and immense populations. But after the war in 2050, how much of the world population got wiped out? More than 2 billion people died. 

Now, we all live in supermassive cities around the globe while all the heavy weapons are held by the three strongest cities. You merely govern the city for those three strongest cities. You're just a puppet.

Not to mention now, in the end times, you have no power."

Pam! Crackle!

The man slammed on the table again, sparks of electricity flying around his body. "I can kill you anytime I want."

"Really? Why don't you give it a try?" The governor of the city taunted, but everyone in the room could see the sweat on his face, his nervousness. 

Bom! Buzz!

The man slammed his fist against the table. Instantly, a streak of lightning flew out of his fist, traveling across the table at the city governor. 

BOM!

Just an inch before the lightning streak hit the city governor, the lightning streak crushed into something invisible, dissipating. 

The air before the city governor flickered a few times, revealing a barrier before him. 

As the shock from the hit of the lighting streak spread out and dispersed, the barrier turned back invisible. 

The young man behind the governor stood with his hand raised, his face remaining cold.

"Marcus, know your place," The young man threatened. 

"Tch!" Marcus clicked his tongue in annoyance. "You're still hiding behind your son? Have you no shame to be such a coward? While the expedition teams are out, you stay in the base for safety and shiver in fear. Do you think I don't know this side of yours?"

BAM!

A man slammed his fist on the table.

"Enough! Both of you!" 

Crack!

A crack appeared on the stone table. 

Everyone turned their gaze at the man. His eyes flashed red for a second.

He wore a clean military uniform. Despite being in his middle thirties, his handsomeness remained. But one couldn't miss the dark circles under his eyes. 

"Marcus, please refrain from stirring up trouble during the meeting because of your personal beliefs." The man ordered. 

Swoosh!

He glared sharply at the governor.

The city governor shivered involuntarily. 

"Governor, please refrain from lowering yourself to the level of someone like Marcus. You are not acting like your usual self."

The governor's eyes widened for a second but quickly returned to normal. "Yes," He lowered his head slightly, backing down. 

"What!" Marcus jumped out of his seat. "What do you mean lower himself to my level..."

Swoosh!

The man glared sharply at Marcus. 

"Marcus, are my instructions unclear?" 

"N-no, commander. I overstepped myself." Marcus sat down, acknowledging his mistake. 

Under the table, the governor tightly clenched his fists, secretly stealing glances at the commander. 

Marcus might not have understood the true meaning behind the commander's words, but he, as someone who's been in politics for a good part of his life, clearly understood it.

'He's clearly implying that he's dissatisfied with me.' The governor thought. 'When he says to not lower myself to Marcus' level, he implies that I'm not going out with the expedition team to search for resources. And since I'm staying back on safety, I have no right to complain. I'm not on his level.'

The governor gritted his teeth. 'If it was before, I would show them what it means to mess with me.'

While the governor was lost deep in thought, the commander secretly glanced at him. 'Hmph!' He scoffed internally.

'Sighh.' The governor sighed internally. 'But it is indeed true I have no power in the end times. Now, I can only bid my time slowly and wait for Lucian to grow stronger,' He glanced at his son.

"Everyone, it's time to focus on the meeting." The commander started. "Vivian, please," 

Everyone in the room turned their attention to the woman sitting beside the commander. An elegant woman with short red hair holding thick files. 

Vivian pushed her glasses back and started. "Commander, the number of survivors coming to us for shelter keeps increasing. The hallways are overflowing with survivors. We don't have space. 

We are running out of resources. The expedition teams searching for resources can't keep up with the demand."

"Sighh..." The commander let out a troubled sigh, rubbing his temples. "Does anyone have any suggestions?"

"Commander, we can't let them stay here for free." An elderly man voiced his opinion. 

"Commander, we need to prioritize the well-being of our trained soldiers over the civilians. We can't have them exhaust themselves to bring resources for the civilians who sit around and do nothing." A woman spoke. 

The commander thought for a while. No one interrupted him. 

"It sounds reasonable to not have them stay here for free." The commander spoke. 

A hopeful expression appeared on the faces of the people around. 

"Alright, everyone needs to pay 1000 Solars a month if they want to stay here," The commander ordered. 

A deep frown instantly formed on everyone around. 

'He doesn't want to conflict with our opinion, but he also doesn't want to throw anyone out.' Everyone around analyzed. 'Money is worthless now. This is his way of saying he won't be throwing anyone out.'

They could see the commander's intentions, but it didn't mean they agreed. They just didn't want to go against him, as everyone knew how hard he was trying for everyone's good. 

"Commander!" Marcus slammed on the table. "Money is worthless right now. It's just paper for whipping the a.ss. We can't keep everyone around. If they want to stay here. They need to offer at least ten units of food every month. 

And a unit of food will be food enough to last a grown man a day and a bottle of water."

The eyes of everyone in the room widened. 

First, they didn't expect Marcus to defy the commander. And they never expected him to come up with a solution such as units of food. 

Silence took over the room as everyone fell into deep thought.

'Marcus Veldan...' Vivian pushed her glasses back. 'A political extremist and a man driven by mission. An unpredictable man. Unlike the commander, who has taken a vow to protect the ordinary civilians and is just too kind to hurt anyone innocent, Marcus doesn't have that problem. 

He is just an ordinary man who has awakened on his way to the military. He must have been like this before, sacrificing others for the greater good. No, before, he was an ordinary man. This personality of his must have been buried deep down. 

But now that he has awakened and has some power to influence the course of actions, his real personality has come up. Luckily, he respects strength. As long as the commander is here, he should be no problem.'

No one in the room knew what to say.

They agreed with Marcus but didn't want to offend the commander. 

"Why are you not saying anything? We will just be sacrificing a few lives for the greater good. It's not the time to think about the ordinary civilians. We should be focusing on building our strength to combat the invaders!"

Again, no one replied despite agreeing with him. 

The commander opened his mouth, about to say something. 

"This time, I have to agree with Marcus," Vivian pushed her glasses back, interrupting him before he could speak. 

This came as a great shock, a thunder from a clear sky. 

Everyone looked at her. After all, she was the most trusted aide of the commander. 

This took even the commander by surprise. 

"Vivian, you..."

"Commander, out of the thousands of civilians that came to our base, only two were awakened, including Marcus." Vivian analyzed. "As for our soldiers, who frequently go outside to combat, more than half have awakened.

From my observations, those who face mortal dangers seem to awaken. If we keep the civilians to safety, they won't awaken. We'll just be wasting our time and resources.

And as Marcus said, we need to build our forces. We need more awakened humans. The power that the high demon had the day the towers descended is unimaginable. And by his words, he serves a king. His king might be even more powerful. We can't waste time looking after overgrown babies.

Not to mention, with the zombie virus around, if it somehow reaches here, with so many people, it would be a catastrophe."

"Then, we leave those innocent people to die?" The commander frowned.

"Commander, do you have a cure for the zombie virus?" Vivian questioned.

The commander's eyes widened. The question caught him by surprise. He kept silent. He couldn't reply.

"You don't. The zombie virus taking over everything is inevitable. Without a cure, you can't do anything." Vivian said. "What's more, my hypothesis might change everything."

Vivian pushed back her glasses once again before starting her hypothesis.