In January 2020, the world came to an end.

It's a global pandemic that led to the death of 80% of the human population.

Despair. Tears– and blood dyed the earth.

The dead rose into zombies and evolved, getting stronger with each passing week. Undead and mutated animals had now roamed the world and become its main owner, leaving no place for the weak to survive.

Fortunately, the evolution did not only affect the monsters, but also humans. Some lucky survivors gradually received special powers while some others gained knowledge from the hundreds of alien constructs that came down from the sky scattered all around the world.

"Wait wait wait, what!? Alien!?" asked Viktor, confused.

It was not only Viktor who was in disbelief. The rest of the 20 bunker residents were also shocked to hear such news.

"Yep, they came three to four months after the pandemic spread,"

"I don't get it, is this an alien invasion?"

"That's not it, the top people still have no clue who the aliens are. Still, those constructs have been providing us with weapons and protection against those mutated monsters for us to survive and hopefully return Earth to the way it was before," a thin man with a mustache explained with a sigh.

The man was Anton, Captain Andrei's second-in-command.

"Give the man more drink!"

With Viktor's shout, the hostess quickly poured more of the alcoholic liquid into an empty glass. However, contradicting the words he just shouted, Viktor took the glass and drank the vodka himself.

The Djinn was certainly a crazy enough thing in his life, but now, mutated monsters, aliens, and even superhumans had become the new norm. It was definitely as shocking to him as it was to everyone else.

The hostess quickly filled more empty glasses with vodka for Anton and the five other team members.

"Spasibo! (Thank you!)" the vice captain cheerfully raised his glass into the air and said to Viktor.

Everyone was joyfully drinking to their hearts' content. Everyone except Captain Andrei, who seemed to still be analyzing the situation.

This caused Viktor to feel uneasy.

"Take out the precious blue label!" Viktor ordered while keeping his eyes open, analyzing the condition of his surroundings.

Before the captain decided on something, Viktor stood up from his seat and announced to the celebrating guests.

"We have prepared a feast to honor you all for saving us!"

The feast was a five-course meal opened with Russian borscht soup, then three main courses consisting of smoked salmon, wagyu steak, and pasta, and finished with fruit cakes.

The six guests were overwhelmed by the delicacies served in front of them. Although the situation outside was not as bad as it was once, the last time they ate delicious food felt like an eternity ago.

They all ate the served dishes crazily as if they had not eaten for weeks. Even the calm and serious captain was so engrossed in his meals that his mouth curved into a wide smile as he ate the dishes.

With good food and tasty drinks, the six guests continued telling their stories about the things that happened outside.

Viktor had an interested and attentive expression as he listened to them and even gestured for the hostess to refill their glasses like a good host, but inside, he was actually very anxious. After all, these six people all had the strength to kill him and all the residents of this bunker within minutes.

He became even more irritated when he noticed one of them, a bald man name Gregor was unable to take his eyes off his girlfriend, Eva.

But Viktor must restrain himself. Once again, he checked a certain piece of information in his mind.

[1 hour and 4 minutes left.]

The timer was none other than the amount of drawback time left before he could have his previous stats returned to normal; the real reason why he was trying so hard to entertain these guests.

Viktor did not know what the captain was planning, but even after almost two hours the captain and his team had been here as his guests, not once did they show any signs of reporting or mentioning their mission and their current condition, something that an army should normally do.

If these people were actually a group of rogue soldiers, things could be very dangerous for him.

It was probably nothing more than a paranoid assumption on his part, but whatever it is the captain was planning to do here, he needed to make sure that by the time it all started, his body had turned normal by then.

Of course, in the meantime, Viktor also used this opportunity to gather as much intel about the outside world as possible.

"Anton, please tell me more about this alien construct! Honestly, it's hard for me to believe it... it's just too nonsensical. For you to say such things, I think you're drunk already!" As soon as Viktor found an opening in the conversation, he seized the chance to pry.

"Haha!, let me show you something…"

Anton was not offended by his display of lack of trust and instead took out a simple-looking ring. Before Viktor could ask a word about it, the ring glowed as strange markings appeared on its surface, and suddenly, a dagger appeared out of thin air.

"You believe me now!? Hahaha, this is called a spatial ring. It can hold an item in a dimensional space about a meter square in size. As for this, can you all see this dagger? This is made from a material never seen on earth. Much sharper and more durable than ordinary daggers, it's an alien weapon!" the man proudly explained.

The presentation certainly shocked the bunker residents once again. However, before Viktor could create another diversion, Captain Andrei put down his cutlery. 𝘣𝑒𝑑𝑛𝘰𝑣𝘦𝘭.𝘤𝑜𝑚

He looked Victor in the eyes.

"Honestly… You have some great things going on here. Now that you know what's happening outside, what are you all planning to do?"

Viktor knew it wasn't a simple question at all.. If his intuition served him right, his answer will probably seal his fate.