After purchasing the dimensional storage backpack and organizing my thoughts, I waited for Claire and the kids in the lobby. We repeated the same actions of the previous day, but I tried to be even more active, I needed those extra evolution coins, after all.

After another entire day helping the survivors, I obtained the amount of evolution coins necessary to customize the vampire hunter’s crossbow. Now I could create those cartridges of bolts and put them inside the dimensional storage backpack. The crossbow was also now capable of shooting six crossbows per second. I tried to improve a little more, but I didn’t have the evolution coins to add the options to create more powerful bolts.

Fortunately, soon after that, Harry and the others arrived. Although they were a bunch of strangers, the survivors in the hotel welcomed our new allies. Luckily, with that reunion, a few people recognized families and friends among the survivors in the north. That had been heartwarming, and I also felt jealous, but soon I got rid of those feelings.

I saw Charles looking around, and for a brief instant, he recognized me near the statue, but soon he seemed away disinterested.

‘Good, he is doing his part well.’

I also saw my army of assholes, and they didn’t change much, and they also decided to avoid eye-contact. Harry and Sandra with others approached us, and they looked very proud of themselves. I guess they didn’t suffer any losses along the way.

“I presume you guys succeeded,” Claire said. “Nothing happened along the way, right?”

“We faced a few minor problems, thanks to the monsters,” Sandra answered. “But we managed as I said we would.”

Although Claire asked that question, Sandra answered while looking at me. It wasn’t like I had underestimated then, she misunderstood my reasons. I just wanted to go because I wanted to keep my body moving.

“Anyway,” Harry said. “This is the council’s new member; his name is Charles, let’s all get along, okay?”

Charles stepped forward, and then he greeted Claire and me, just like before he only maintained eye contact for a moment. To my surprise, his little sister was talking with Sabrina like they knew each other. Small world, huh. She and Charles' girlfriend still had some bruises on her bodies, but they looked to be recovering at a fast pace. Not only their bodies but also their minds.

“We can talk later,” Sandra declared. “First, we should accommodate our new allies. In three hours the council members will decide our future objectives and missions, I will wait for all of here, don’t be late. Ethan, you will also participate.”

“Why? I’m not a member.”

“Because I want to hear your opinions,” Sandra answered. “Besides, we may give you more tasks.”

I didn't like that conversation, but I didn’t have much choice. I couldn’t put myself above six hundred people, at least not for now; I had to be patient.

Faster than I thought, our new allies accommodate themselves on their new rooms. But Sandra didn’t start the meeting after that job had been finished. Instead, she dined with Charles, his little sister, his girlfriend, and another group of survivors. While they were busy socializing, I created three cartridges of metal bolts and put them inside my backpack. My max MP also increased, so I was grinning. Even though I knew I would receive more troublesome jobs.

We didn’t have a particular place to discuss important things, so we just grabbed a few chairs and put them in the middle of the lobby. It wasn’t like we wanted to keep the content of that conversation as a secret anyways. First, Sandra introduced all of us to Charles again, but then he frowned when he heard I wasn’t a member of the council, he also frowned because I was sitting in the lotus position.

“Don’t worry about him,” Sandra explained. “He is still at that age, so, he refuses to become an official member of this group. But he is very resourceful.”

She was probably just saying that to mess with me; after all, Charles also was only eighteen years old. While she was good at accepting young people on the council based on their contributions, I didn’t think that she should seriously consider their opinions. All of us may have obtained unbelievable powers overnight, but experience and wisdom wasn’t something that we would also get that fast.

“Let’s start with our most immediate concern,” Sandra said with a serious expression. “In four days, maybe less than that, the survivors in the west will attack this place. We should prepare for it, but first, we must organize our forces. I talked with just a few survivors, but I’m fairly certain most of us don’t want to fight against monsters, much less against humans. So, I think we should initially divide the survivors into two groups: fighters and non-fighters. Anyone disagree with this?”

Although it was a bit unnerving, I already knew that we couldn’t force every single person to fight. Besides, if we tried to force them, it would only cause trouble down the road, and those who didn’t want to fight wouldn’t help much anyway. So, I didn’t say anything. No one disagreed either.

“Then, it’s decided,” Sandra said. “After this meeting ends, I will write down the names of those who don’t want to fight and those who are willing to fight. That said, we still should create some rules and tasks for the non-fighters to contribute. Claire, do you have an idea how much evolution coins the survivors who fought alongside you and Ethan obtained?”

“It isn’t an exact number,” Claire answered. “But in an hour, most of them obtained at least five hundred evolution coins.”

“I see,” Sandra said, looking a bit surprised. “But that only happened because you, Ethan, and the kids offered support. So, probably they would obtain half of that amount by themselves.”

“Why do you want to know about this?” Charles asked.

“Because I think we should establish a tax to all survivors,” Sandra explained. “We couldn’t just use all the evolution coins of the fighters, all of us should contribute. And those coins will be used to fortify our defenses.”

“In that case,” Charles said. “I think all survivors should contribute with one hundred evolution coins daily. I’m not proud of that, but in the north, our previous leader made us give him two hundred coins every day. If we use the non-fighters to create ammo and other kinds of projectiles I’m sure they will obtain that much. Besides, it isn’t like we have to spend much evolution coins to create food and other necessary things.”

“Are you sure this is a reasonable amount?” Sandra asked. “If the tax is too higher, we will face serious problems later on.”

“Yes, I think it is,” Charles answered without a hint of hesitation. “And I’m pretty sure no one will complain about using their MP to create projectiles either. At least for now, this is the only thing they can do to keep their minds busy.”

I was also pretty sure of that, with the city full of monsters, the best thing we all could do was to stay in the hotel. Eventually, they could obtain new skills and do other jobs, but that was the best option they had at that moment.

“In that case, is anyone against this?” Sandra asked.

Again, no one opposed that idea. Although the numbers would make the battles easier, it was too inefficient. For example, Claire and I could do a lot more with a steady supply of projectiles. We would still need to reload our weapons, but we would be able to fight for long periods without getting tired. Besides, if a person wasn’t able to kill an enemy with a single arrow, it still could damage the enemies from a safe location. Eventually, those who decided to break their physical limits would have to face enemies, but their chances of survival would increase manifold if they could cause damage at long distance.

“Then, it’s decided,” Sandra said. “But, I will personally hear all the survivors after this meeting, I still want to hear their opinions.”

Sandra decided to play it safe, but she couldn’t help it. A single mistake while managing this place we someone may start a rebellion. It wasn’t like us wouldn’t be able to stop a rebellion, but we would lose too much if we fight against each other.

“The next topic,” Sandra declared. “We should decide how we will divide the fighters. While we have many survivors with surprising and powerful skills, we don’t have many people who can heal wounds or feel the approach of monsters or enemies. So, I thought if we should divide or forces on small groups and determine a leader for that group, or if we should just create an army of similarly trained and equipped soldiers.”

“I think we will need both options,” Rose said. “A few small teams to carry out specific missions will be necessary. But on a battle of massive scale, an army would be more efficient. While the soldiers keep formation, the casualties will be minimal.”

“In that case, we should also talk about this with survivors,” Sarah added. “It will be more easy and efficient to find the members of these teams if they volunteer themselves.”

“You have a point,” Sandra said while looking at the map on the ceiling. “In that case, you two will help me after this meeting. It’ll take a while, but we also have to register every survivor and their skills and make a record or something like it. That will probably help us to manage this place.”

Rose and Sarah nodded, and they began to take notes. Did they saw my notebook or something? No, that was probably the obvious thing to do in a meeting like that.

“Now, about our defenses,” Sandra said while scratching her chin. “We should create some sturdy walls around this hotel. The monsters can’t approach or attack, but other humans can. Although probably it will take a while for us to obtain that much evolution coins. So, for now, I think we should copy that crazy bitch and create some towers and jeeps to kill any enemy which may approach. The survivors who arrived today have some firearms which can be reloaded by MP. But for the sake of efficiency and to make less noise, our main defense weapons should be bows and crossbows. Anyone disagrees or have a better idea?”

At that point in time, that wasn’t much of a meeting; it was more like Sandra deciding everything and hearing our opinions just for the sake of appearances. But she had a lot of experience in stressful situations, and she was the only one who had any real experience in life and death situations among those six hundred survivors. So, it couldn’t be helped.

“Who will stay in those towers and jeeps?”

“Anyone who has decent marksmanship,” Sandra answered. “Until we have a decent front line, you should continue offering your support with Claire and the kids.”

I almost clicked my tongue, but that wasn’t the time or place to do it. So, I just showed a mixed expression of annoyance and boredom. While I already didn’t have a good impression of that woman in the west, I was beginning to hate her. She was responsible for half of my problems. If only we had to worry about monsters, the survivors could eventually get stronger and obtain experience on a safe pace. But with other human causing problems, we couldn’t divide our forces and act that freely. Although the monsters were far more numerous, humans were far smarter. Not only that, monsters couldn’t explode this hotel… but maybe they will be able to do it in a not so distant future.

“I guess this is all we have to discuss for now,” Sandra said. “We will solve other problems as soon as they appear. Go and rest, from tomorrow onward, our days will be even busier.”

The meeting ended sooner than I thought, I had expected they would discuss much more things. However, the hard part wasn’t the meeting; it was putting what we had decided in action. Collect information of the survivors and dividing them between fighters and non-fighters would take more than a few hours. Sandra, Rose, and Sarah even wanted to hear their opinions about our decisions. Their night would be very long.

I really wanted to do another kind of job aside from keeping an eye on the survivors whiles they fight. Something less noisy would be preferable, but after seeing the determined faces of those three while working non-stop through the night, I sighed and decided to forget about my preferences for a while. I also had to do my part to create a good survivors’ camp and not complain much while I'm at it.