**Two days later, evening, disaster headquarters**

‘So sleepy…’

Homer’s head hung low, with only his hands stopping his forehead from plummeting down and crashing into the table.

A single glance over to the huge clock hanging off the main wall of the room only confirmed the mayor’s guess.

‘That makes up what, fifty hours without sleep?’

The time flew mercilessly. The situation in the city changed with every passing hour if not every damned minute.

In a situation like that, as the highest political authority in the city, Homer was the last person allowed to take a proper rest.

‘I knew things like this would happen when I was sworn in, but to think it would be during my term that things would go to shit like this…’

“Here.”

From the side of the room, Cleo, Homer’s secretary, gently placed down the cup of steaming-hot coffee, close enough for the brew’s heat to radiate out and warm the mayor’s face.

The fragrant smell of the strong, sour drink forced the mayor awake. Yet, as soon as he raised his head, turned it over to the cup, and took a proper whiff of the aroma…

“Electrified coffee?” Homer asked while raising his eyes over to the middle-aged secretary.

“Special times call for special measures,” the woman replied with a stoic look on her face as if she didn’t add the extra flavor of a certain white powder to the coffee of the city’s mayor.

“It’s hard to argue with that,” Homer groaned before grabbing the cup between his hands and bringing its edge over to his lips.

“New development!” One of the mayor’s aides stormed through the doors, causing enough ruckus for Home’s grip to slip, causing a huge chunk of the nearly boiling brew to spill all over his clothes.

“Shit!”

Homer screamed out, pushing the cup away while flailing his hands around in a desperate attempt to pull the hot, wet spots away from his skin.

“Stay still!”

Caring not of the commotion, Cleo held the man down with just one of her hands before pulling on his suit and ripping it into pieces with just her other hand. And before Homer could even look up and focus his sight on the woman’s face, she already turned around, heading for the opposite end of the room.

“I will get you a new uniform, so stay awake and do your job in the meantime.”

Cleo was one of the few residents of the city hall who didn’t need to fear Homer’s authority or position. In a sense, she was here by the designation of the party headquarters.

Despite only bearing the simple job title of a secretary, she was Homer’s adviser, monitor, and actual secretary all at the same time.

Still, it wasn’t Homer that this woman was loyal to. The one and only reason why she always went the extra mile for the man, was because of her loyalty to the actual party, not just its representative out in the sticks, in pretty much the only big city as far east of the country as one could get.

“So?” Homer asked once taking a moment to regather his thoughts.

As unexpected of an event as the spilling of the hot coffee was, it still served to somewhat wake him up.

“What’s the report?” the mayor asked as he grabbed the hot and sticky cup before taking the sip anyway.

In an instant, the hot liquid penetrated his gastric tract, warming the man up from the inside. And while it would take roughly a quarter of an hour for the coffee of the drink to hit, Cleo’s special flavoring was already starting to work its magic on him.

The haze that took over Homer’s mind started to dissipate, giving way to the perfect, unnatural clarity of thoughts.

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“There are three new groups that resisted the military with force, and two additional ones who resisted through civil means. That brings up a total tally to twenty-seven armed resistance groups and eleven peaceful resistance groups.”

‘That can’t be all…’ Homer thought.

Ever since the news about those who managed to visit the portals started to spread, the process of military securing all the portals ground to a near-complete halt.

From just how hard it was to locate the portals that spawned outside popular or open areas, now all sorts of groups of independent citizens started to rise up. And while the number of the groups that resisted the current order was already a source of a major headache, what was far worse, was just how quickly those groups grew.

“For today, we estimate that around sixty percent of the portals are under our control, a further twenty percent is contested, while there are ten percent firmly occupied by separate groups and a further ten percent that we have yet to discover.”

‘And?’

So far, there was nothing within the report that would warrant barging into a mayor’s room the way this aide did.

‘Could it be, he’s just some damn intern? But wouldn’t there be anyone who would stop him from making a hasty call like that?’ The mayor thought as the pleasant warmth started to finally spread out from his stomach, fighting off the extreme exhaustion of the last two days.

The world was turning warmer and brighter than before, nearly to the point it would stop looking real. Yet, despite the obvious high, Homer’s mind was as clear as never before, allowing his thoughts to quickly process all the information he fed his brain with.

“Then, two more portals disappeared at the same time, indicating there were at least two separate groups going around and trying to close them. We are trying to reach out to both the groups, but finding a point of contact proves to be quite difficult.”

‘Finally, some good news…’ Homer closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair right as Cleo returned with a fresh set of clothes.

Even though all of his exhaustion was now gone thanks to the special ingredient in Cleo’s coffee, Homer knew better than to act the part.

‘If the news were to spread that the city’s mayor is using drugs while in the middle of a crisis…’

Still, for there to be two separate groups that continued to clear the portals…

‘Unless it was a mistake on the part of one of those independent groups, then we might have another group of saviors on our hands.’

It took just a single day for people to realize that when everyone left the portals before actually closing them, then while some of the local monsters would regenerate… the lay of the land wouldn’t change at all!

With that in mind, it took just two hours for the military and around twice as long for the public to realize that the portals, while fraught with dangers, also offered riches an average person simply couldn’t imagine.

From monster weapons that scientists from across the world would pay their weight in gold to study and analyze, through various crystals of beauty greater than the gems of the old world, all the way to the monster carcasses that, once again, the scientists of every corner of the world highly coveted.

It took just a single day for portals to turn from a threat into an opportunity. Opportunity so great, that there were more than just a few civilians who were willing to put their life and safety on the line to keep a hold on to it.

“The emergence of further groups is only natural, so you don’t need to keep me informed about it. Right now, we are still in the emergence process, so only bring this topic up again when everyone starts clashing with everyone. That’s when we, the city, will be able to step in and bring back order,” Homer spoke silently as if fighting with all his might not to fall asleep. “If we try to intervene now, all those groups will only unite against us. We need to be the peacemakers, not tyrants.”

Homer took a deep breath before standing up and pulling off the shredded remains of his old suit before allowing Cleo to help him slip into a new piece.

“The portal estimates are of no concern to me. I don’t need to know about those unless there will be some major changes,” Homer continued to give instructions to his aide. “For the savior groups, try your best to contact them to offer all the support that you can. We can’t forget that this is supposed to be an invasion, not the next iteration of a gold rush.”

Homer fixed the edges of his suit by pulling down on them before shaking his head… reaching out for the sticky cup and gulping down the rest of the brew in one go.

“As for the chief of staff, what’s his issue?”

The aide jumped a bit when the mayor went from correcting his attitude to an actual inquiry over the report.

“I was told not to give you any hopes…” the aide bit down on his lips. “Apparently, a police dropper contacted the chief of staff through their contact and requested a meeting with you.”

‘Hmm?’ Homer looked up and slightly raised his eyebrow. ‘And that old prick allowed it just like that?’

“Obviously…” noticing the small changes on the mayor’s face, the aide hurried up to explain, “the old man was against it. So let’s say that the other party… insisted…”

‘This troubled look…’ Homer looked up and scanned his aide’s reluctant face, “and?”

“Ultimately,” the young intern looked up while putting up the most professional smile he could muster, “they announced the time and place for the meeting while passing a short message that’s supposed to make you more inclined to attend the meeting.”

“Time and place?” Homer squinted his eyes, only to reach out when the aide pulled out a small piece of paper before passing it over.

“Everything is in here,” the aide explained while turning his eyes away and even taking a step back as soon as he passed the message over.

Curious, Homer looked down and read the few words this strange group was determined to let him know.

“The meeting will be at the bunker within the disaster headquarters, at 2pm tomorrow. Whether you like it or not, we are coming. It’s up to you whether we will be heralds of good news or envoys of death.”