"Captain!"

​The ten students rushed frantically towards the group, their boots kicking up dust as they finally breached the safety of the underground parking lot, stopping abruptly before Eve. They were out of breath but largely uninjured, a stark contrast to the brutal battles Eve’s squad had just endured.

​"It’s good you guys are still alive... Who are these people?" Eve asked, her grip tightening instinctively on her sword. She gestured sharply to the twenty heavily armed soldiers fanning out defensively behind her students. They moved with strict tactical precision, scanning the shadows with thermal optics mounted on their helmets. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

​"Oh." A guy from the rescued group turned around to face the armed unit, gesturing to the man at the front.

​"This here is Captain Justin, he’s the Captain of these men." The guy explained, the relief in his voice palpable.

​Eve nodded carefully, her eyes assessing the threat level. She turned her attention to Captain Justin, who confidently stepped forward. With a mechanical click, he reached up and removed the heavy military helmet on his head, revealing short, neatly trimmed black hair and sharp green eyes that immediately began assessing the underground battlefield.

​"I am Captain Justin, Captain of the red fire platoon." Justin said, giving a small, respectful bow that was more a formal nod than a subservient gesture.

​As he rose from the bow, his green eyes locked onto Eve, his mind rapidly processing the reality of the girl standing amidst the rubble.

​’This girl is no older than 25, and she is already a captain... Although it’s common in the past, it’s not anymore... More than 90% youngsters under the age of 30 went to Galaxy, and she is a captain, it shows she must have gotten some achievement, or she is very powerful.’ He moved his gaze deliberately past her, taking in the massive, pulverized stones scattered all over the place—the sheer volume of remains from the heavily armored golems they had just fought.

​’They are all soldier level monsters, and one captain level. They killed so many... Not bad.’ He slowly nodded his head, a newfound layer of respect settling in his posture.

​Meanwhile, Eve was also lost in thought, her Galaxy Fall interface passively scanning the newcomers and returning absolute zero spirit energy signatures.

’The military, how are they even surviving in such a city?’ She stared intensely at the highly advanced, bulky rifle in Justin’s hand. The barrel had strange, glowing metallic inlays that completely defied standard Earth ballistic design.

​’Who created such a weapon? Can it kill the monsters? And he doesn’t even have a single spirit energy in him? He’s still an ordinary person... Well, for now, I should build a good relationship between us... I don’t know what will happen ahead.’ She firmly nodded her head, making the pragmatic decision to secure a local alliance. In a world completely drained of spirit energy, finding established survivors was a strategic goldmine.

​"There is no need to bow Captain Justin, we are both Captains." She said, forcefully relaxing her defensive posture and giving a small, diplomatic smile, and continued:

​"If I may ask, did you help my teammates get here?"

​Justin nodded his head, a hint of professional pride in his demeanor, and twirled his index finger over his head in a tight circle to signal his men to hold formation. "We not only did that, but we also helped get rid of the monsters attacking them."

​At his unspoken command, ten muscular soldiers stepped forward in unison. The heavy clanking of their gear echoed as they brought down the thick tactical bags they were carrying, unzipped them, and pulled out ten heavy-duty, filter-equipped gas masks.

​"Captain---" One of the soldiers began respectfully, trying to address Eve.

​"Eve." Eve stated calmly.

​"Captain Eve, these are protection masks, I am sure you already noticed the ash air." He said, gesturing his gloved hand outside the dark ramp of the parking lot, where the thick, gray apocalyptic smog continued to block out the sun. Eve nodded her head, having already felt the strangeness of the gas.

​"It’s poisonous."

​".....?!"

​His blunt words instantly stunned the students. They looked at one another in pure shock, their faces draining of color, then frantically at their bodies and clothing, realizing they had all been heavily inhaling it since the planetary drop. This wasn’t just a simple environmental debuff in a game; it was a lethal biological hazard.

​Noticing their horrified expressions and the sudden spike of panic in the group, Justin quickly opened his mouth to clarify the Earth’s new grim reality:

​"Don’t worry... If you inhale the ashes continuously for one week, you will turn into zombies, but if it’s lower than one week, nothing will happen to you... You just need a place which has fresh air, and you’ll recover." He explained, his tone even, clearly accustomed to delivering this grim briefing to survivors.

​Eve deeply thought about his words, her mind instantly categorizing the threat as a slow-acting, environmental status effect. She nodded her head in understanding. "Are these the only masks with you?" She asked, her gaze sweeping over the platoon. They were clearly a well-supplied scouting unit; there had to be more than just the ten masks pulled from the bags.

​"Well... Our Commander in chief sent us to rescue survivors in New York University... So we brought limited amount of gas masks." He answered with a soft, regretful sigh.

​’If I’d known we will meet you guys, I won’t have brought more. The report says they are ten survivors in the school... But just to be safe, I took extra ten, although it can’t help them all, it shows our sincerity.’ He thought, silently cursing military logistics.

​One of his squad lieutenants stepped up beside Justin, nervously checking a handheld radar device. "Captain, I say we should head back... You heard the huge explosion from that direction, the beasts’ roars and explosion, even lightnings... We don’t have weapons to kill such monsters, they must be Captain levels or higher."

​"Captain levels?" Eve was completely confused by the strange rankings the people on Earth had come up with. It completely deviated from the Star, Level, and Boss tiers established by the Galaxy Fall System.

​"It’s complicated, it will be better to meet our commander in chief, she will explain everything to you." Justin said with a small, reassuring smile, trying to bridge the gap between their two heavily altered worlds.

​’With his expression, he should be in his early thirties... Oh, well.’ Eve analyzed, filing the detail away. She turned away from him and gestured with her finger to her vanguard.

​"Take the Masks, and give it to the weakest in our group... The rest of you can stay for some days without the masks..." She said with unwavering authority. Resource management was critical, and the higher-level combatants possessed greater physical resistance to the zombie-mutation effect. She then turned back to Justin:

​"I would like to see your commander in chief, would that be possible?" She asked, formally requesting an audience with the human resistance force.

​"Of course!! She will also like to see anyone from Galaxy Fall!" Justin said with a bright, genuine smile, clearly seeing the immensely powerful returnees as humanity’s absolute best chance for reclamation.

​BOOOM!!

GEAAAAA!!

​The violent crash of shattered concrete tore through the conversation. Everyone instantly turned their heads to the entrance ramp, watching as a horde of heavily mutated, green-skinned goblins violently shattered the makeshift barricade of wrecked cars, swarming aggressively into the dark parking lot.

​"Captain Eve, please leave these to us... They’re just soldier level monsters." Justin commanded, his voice dropping into a hard, authoritative combat tone.

​The exhausted students eagerly nodded, more than willing to save their rapidly depleting energy, and swiftly moved backwards towards Eve, standing in a tight defensive formation, while the twenty soldiers fearlessly moved forward towards the screeching goblins.

​"They’re soldiers level monsters, so no need for evolution stones... Just aim and fire." Justin instructed his platoon, his words revealing a stunning truth: humanity had somehow learned to harness evolution stones to fuel their weapons against high-tier threats.

​"Yes!!"

​The soldiers yelled in perfect unison. They stood shoulder-to-shoulder in one straight, disciplined line, the laser sights of their advanced rifles cutting through the gloom as they took aim at the violently charging monsters.