Sitting around a round table, one could see John with his arms crossed waiting for the other survivors, Daniel with his face buried on the table, and Mia holding Arthur in her arms. Now and then, one would be able to hear Daniel sighing, and that was starting to get on the nerves of his father.

"Sorry for the wait," Tristan said while entering the room alongside Natalia.

"No worries, we just got here," Daniel said.

"You look a bit down, Daniel," Tristan said. "Are you having a hard time popping on your new home? I can understand that."

"The hell are you talking about in a place like this?" Natalia asked and then kicked her little brother's left leg.

"Hahaha, it wasn't that, Tristan," Daniel forced a smile. "It is about Ryan… more than one has already passed since all this started, and he still treating me like the dirt underneath his shoes."

"Well…" Tristan hesitated since he had no idea what to say.

"He acts like that because you are too nice all the time," Anna said while entering the room alongside Cole and Carter. "You aren't a high school girl. Stop spoiling him."

"I am not particularly nice. I just talk to him the way I used to," Daniel said. "I just hoped that by doing so, things would become a little like they were in the past… I guess I was wrong."

"You can't give up now, Daniel," Cole said. "You three are probably the only like Ryan has to the life he once had. Without that, he will become just another battle-hardened survivor. Although with the world in this state, everyone needs to toughen up a little, we can't let ourselves become cold-blood machines."

Daniel knew that Cole was right. Still, that was easier said than done. While he and Mia were one of the two that were two important pieces to Ryan's past, they were two pieces that caused a lot of pain to him. Enduring his harsh words were the things he had to endure, they were his punishment, but Daniel was getting tired of being treated like that by the person he always considered his brother.

After a while, Angela, Holland, Hugo, and Mark entered the room. Finally, the meeting that Mark had planned could start. Although he wanted to make Alissa and Ryan join them, he knew that those two were too much of a loose cannon for them to accept such things as strategic meetings and whatnot.

"Thank you for coming," Mark said. "I already talked with all of you about the things I plan to do alongside all of you, but I believe we should talk about this in more detail now."

"Rescuing survivors is our number one priority, right?" John asked. "What will be our other goals?"

"Strengthening our forces and adapting to the nature of this new world," Mark replied. "In that regard, I believe all of you are ahead of the soldiers we have in this base. We are trying to make them obtain their classes as fast as possible, but… given our numbers and the limitations of a fight against the bosses, this will take a while. So, the gap between you and us will only increase over time. With that in mind, I would ask all of you to choose a few of the people on our side and train them as much as possible."

"While I think that such a first step is necessary, shouldn't we think of gathering other resources as well?" Cole asked. "If we keep finding survivors, we will eventually run of them, and with the world in such state, it will be hard to produce food or even get enough clean water."

"This base has an excellent system to obtain clean water, just enough for twenty thousand people daily, so that isn't a problem," Mark said. "As for resources like food, I believe that from now on, we will have to adapt to this environment. People have super strength and magic powers, so that will help us in that regard."

"I see… it makes sense," Tristan nodded. "A single person with enough mana can do just well the work of a heavy machine used for agriculture. Still, to reach that level, it will take a few weeks, maybe months."

"Indianapolis is under our control, and not all of the places where we can obtain food have been destroyed, so that isn't a problem," Natalia added. "Before such a thing can become a problem, the survivors will be ready to use their skills for that."

"Won't that be a waste?" Holland asked. "While I recognize that we can't fight with an empty stomach, it would be more convenient to use all of our forces to wipe out the monsters."

"How do you plan to make them reach all parts of our country that are dominated by monsters? Are you stupid?" Angela asked. "The only thing we can do is to bring more survivors to our side slowly, and then when we are strong enough, take our country back from the dragons."

"That is our ultimate plan," Mark said. "However, we must be aware that we can't do that. At least not without taking some serious risks. I heard that Ryan and Alissa could take a few dragons on their own, but their circumstances are a bit different from others. While Alissa somehow gained the favor of a dragon, Ryan almost died several times to obtain his current strength. With the world in such a state, we can't take any risks. Also, honestly speaking, I think it will be best for all of us if we increase our strength equally. It is regrettable, but with power, humans can become arrogant. Those two didn't reach the other extreme, but the fact that they are uncooperative is also a problem."

Daniel didn't like to hear that, but since it was a fact, he couldn't just say that Mark was wrong. As for Mia, she just looked at Arthur, wondering if just focusing on their strength as a group would be the real solution to their many problems.