Chapter 573 – Night of Potential (9)

At the central shelter closest to the one Cale was at…

"Fuck!"

Jae Ha-Jung who was taking on the role of supporter at this location was frowning with both of his hands shaking.

The tree trunks coming out of his hands were tightly binding a large iron door.

Baaaaang! Bang!

But the iron door looked ready to break at any moment from the banging.

No, it was already starting to break.

The door had dents here and there and it was starting to bend, slowly causing gaps to appear on the sides.

And beyond the iron door…

"Kihehehe!"

They heard the laughter of an animal that resembled a monkey.

The banging on the iron door became louder every time it laughed.

"Fuck!"

He started to frown.

'It's toying with us!'

The monster was toying with the people who were hiding inside and doing everything they could to resist.

But that was slowly coming to an end.

"Hyung-nim!"

Bae Cheol-Ho, the 'General' at this central shelter, clenched his hand that was holding a piece of paper after hearing Jae Ha-Jung's desperate voice.

It was the information that Park Jin Tae, the leader of the nearby central shelter, had brought him last night.

He had thought that the fearless Park Jin Tae had finally gone crazy after hearing that it was information from one of his shelter's ability users with the power of foresight.

But everything on that paper was true.

The monsters appeared along with the solar eclipse. The weaker Grade 3 monsters came charging in first.

Then, seven taster monsters appeared.

This extremely accurate foresight gave him the chills, but this information allowed them to last until now.

…Yes, until now.

It didn't look as if they could last any longer.

"Ugh."
"Huff, huff!"

There were injured people groaning in pain behind Bae Cheol-Ho.

And in front of him…

Beyond the breaking iron door…

"Kihehehe!"

He could hear the red monkey monster's laugh as the other monsters started to approach.

He could see the Grade 2 monsters getting closer through the only crack on the boarded windows that they had purposely left in order to be able to look out.

The other Grade 1 taster monsters that had been leisurely enjoying the situation from the rear were approaching as well.

This all started to happen once the Steel Feather Hawk disappeared.

"Hyung-nim!"
"General-nim!"

Bae Cheol-Ho could hear people shouting for him from multiple directions.

The veins on the hand clenching the paper looked ready to burst, but he was just looking at the iron door that was on the brink of breaking with a stoic expression.

But he could not do that any longer.

"Hyung-nim! I can't hold on any longer!"

Jae Ha-Jung shouted toward Bae Cheol-Ho while looking as if he was going to cry.

His shaking hands and sweat-drenched body were telling them that he had reached his limits.

Bae Cheol-Ho grabbed his weapon again.

If it was difficult to last inside the building, he needed to at least head outside and lure the monsters away.

Bae Cheol-Ho started to speak.

"…Jae Ha-Jung."

Jae Ha-Jung started to frown as if he knew what was about to happen.

Bae Cheol-Ho and Jae Ha-Jung started to speak at the same time.

"You can sto-"
"Hyung-nim, I will do what I can to hold on a little loon-"

It was at that moment.

{Starting now.}

Everybody inside the building shut up.

It was that voice.

They could not forget the voice that they heard during the solar eclipse. It was the voice that had been providing them with information every hour.

{We will now send the first round of reinforcements.}

Jae Ha-Jung and Bae Cheol-Ho looked toward each other.

Bae Cheol-Ho clenched his fists again.

{Please hold on a little longer.}

The woman continued to speak.

{The first round of reinforcements will take care of all taster monsters.}

Bae Cheol-Ho released his clenched fists.

Jae Ha-Jung started to mumble.

"…What? Is that even possible?"

'Taking care of all taster monsters? How was that possible?'

Everybody had those thoughts.

Bae Cheol-Ho's voice echoed inside the building at that moment.

"Let's hold on a little longer!"

Someone with an arm injury started to shout toward Bae Cheol-Ho.

"General! There's no way that is true-!"
"No matter what, it means that someone is coming to help us!"

The person speaking to Bae Cheol-Ho shut his mouth.

Bae Cheol-Ho looked around.

'We already gave up on running away.'

Some people had tried to give up on the central shelter and run away when the Grade 3 monsters came to attack, but most of them had stayed in the building.

It was because they knew it was hell outside as well.

Bae Cheol-Ho had also convinced them with the information in his hand.

'We can only keep holding on here even if we end up dying.'

They needed to last just one night.

Bae Cheol-Ho made up his mind.

He then walked over to Jae Ha-Jung.

"Jae Ha-Jung! Please keep it up for a little longer!"

Bae Cheol-Ho then moved his hands toward the iron door that was barely being maintained by the tree trunks rather than to his weapon.

Jae Ha-Jung started to frown while watching him.

"…Fuck! I have no choice but to keep it up!"

He put more strength into his shaking hands with an annoyed expression.

"Sigh."
"Hey, let's go."

Other people were shaking their heads but still walked over to the iron door and pushed against it with their hands.

These were the people who were not severely injured.

The other people started to quickly move as well.

"Hey! Go bring that couch and put it by the door!"
"Ask the people on the second floor! See if they have anything else to throw outside! What is up with the kid making the flaming bottles?"
"She's out right now from lack of strength!"
"Haah, shit! Throw whatever we can! We need to prevent as many monsters from getting near here!"

But those noises stopped for a moment.

"Kihehe! Hehe! Kihehehe!"

It was because the monster's laughing started to become louder.

But they quickly snapped out of it.

It was because of the voice echoing in their minds.

'We will now send the first round of reinforcements.'

It should get at least a little better than now if they could hold on for just a bit longer.

That thought was starting to take hold in people's minds.

But they didn't have much time.

As they started to think about how much time must have passed since they heard the voice…

Baaaaang! Bang! Baaaaang!

Jae Ha-Jung could feel his legs slowly starting to lose strength.

"Ugh!"

He didn't even have the strength to grumble anymore.

All he could do was groan.

Someone who watched him struggle asked Bae Cheol-Ho a question.

"When do you think they'll get here? Hopefully they get here quickly!"

Bae Cheol-Ho could not respond to that question. It could not be helped.

'…It'll take them a while.'

He was thinking about the distance between Park Jin Tae's central shelter and this central shelter.

They were pretty close in comparison to most central shelters, but it was still quite the distance.

'It's not just the distance we have to worry about right now.'

They had to get past the monster obstacles to get here.

They said to hold on a little longer, but Bae Cheol-Ho was certain that it would be a long time.

'And if the sun goes down during that time-'

Forget it passing 5 pm as they fought against the monsters to get here, if the sun went down…

'…They might not come.'

Bae Cheol-Ho was thinking about the worst possible scenario.

It was his job to do that.

This was the only thing he could say to the others.

"…They will get here if we keep holding on."

His job was to give them at least a small amount of hope.

But his mind was full of concern about how to get past this difficult situation, as he could not just irresponsibly give them false hope.

'At least the information Park Jin Tae gave us is reliable.'

That information had not lied.

That was why it was the thing he could trust the most right now.

"Hyu, hyung-nim!"

Bae Cheol-Ho then heard the person who was looking out the crack in the window on his behalf shouting in shock.

'Are they already here?!'

Bae Cheol-Ho urgently looked toward the person thinking that the reinforcements had arrived.

"General-nim!"

A scout who was on a higher floor ran down the stairs in shock as he called out to Bae Cheol-Ho.

Bae Cheol-Ho then saw the person who had called him from the window.

"Ah."

Bae Cheol-Ho let out a gasp.

What he saw on the person's face was despair and not joy.

They all then heard the scout who was coming down the stairs.

"T, there's another monster that appeared in the sky! It seems to be a Grade 1 monster based on its size!"

All of their faces filled with despair.

They had been toyed with by the Steel Feather Hawk that was 1.5 times stronger than the other Grade 1 monsters until now.

'There's nobody worth chatting with here.'

The Steel Feather Hawk that had toyed with them left after saying that.

The remaining Grade 1 monsters started to run wild after that and the Grade 2 monsters started charging forward.

But another flying monster in such a situation?!

They couldn't help but become filled with despair.

Bae Cheol-Ho started to speak at that moment.

"…That's not possible."

The information said that only seven Grade 1 monsters would appear right now.

But there was another one?

Was this information wrong?

Bae Cheol-Ho's mind started to go blank.

The person looking out the window continued to speak at that moment.

"T, the monster is heading down! I, it seems to be heading toward us!"

His voice was shaking.

It was full of fear. That fear quickly spread to everybody inside the central shelter.

Bae Cheol-Ho started to frown after realizing this.

"Damn it!"

Bae Cheol-Ho moved his hands away from supporting the door and urgently ran toward the crack in the window.

"Hyung-nim, over there-"

The person at the window pointed in a direction for him.

"…Ho."

Bae Cheol-Ho let out a gasp.

His gasp put even more fear on the faces of the others inside the building.

The person next to Bae Cheol-Ho continued to shout.

"I, it is descending extremely quickly!"

The extremely large monster was descending extremely quickly as he mentioned. It looked as if it wanted to destroy this building.

The person whispered quietly so that only Bae Cheol-Ho could hear.

"Hyung-nim, should we run away? We can't last-"

Bae Cheol-Ho looked up at the sky before barely managing to open his mouth.

"Yes. We will start with the people in the rear."
"Yes, sir. We will move the old and the weak firs-"
"Hold on!"

The person had to stop talking after hearing Bae Cheol-Ho shout.

He looked toward Bae Cheol-Ho in confusion.

"Hyung-nim?"
"…What is that?"

Bae Cheol-Ho moved his face closer to the window instead of looking at the other person.

His gaze was focused on the monster that was descending faster and faster.

He then said a single question.

"…A person?"

Silence filled the building again.

Bae Cheol-Ho started to mumble in disbelief through the silence.

"…There's a person on top of the monster's back?"

What the hell was going on?

Even Jae Ha-Jung looked toward Bae Cheol-Ho in shock.

He then saw and heard something.

He saw that Bae Cheol-Ho's eyes that had been full of despair and disappointment slowly focus again while his voice no longer sounded weak.

Bae Cheol-Ho continued to speak.

"In addition to the monster…!"

He couldn't believe it.

But he could now see the people who had originally been covered by the monster's large body.

There was one person on the monster's back.

Then there were some more people descending behind the monster.

His instinct was telling him something.

"It's the reinforcements!"

People heard a loud groan as soon as he shouted.

Baaaaaang!

"Ugh!"

Jae Ha-Jung groaned and fell on his knees at that moment.

"Dodge!"
"Grab Ha-Jung and retreat!"

The people who were supporting the iron door grabbed Jae Ha-Jung and moved back.

The tree trunks started to break…

And a large hole appeared on the iron door that could not hold out any longer.

"Kihehe! Kihehehe!"

The red monkey monster outside the hole was laughing while looking at them.

Screeeech-

The iron door with the large hole slowly started to crumble.

Boom!

The iron door fell and there was nothing left to protect them.

"…Ah."

Jae Ha-Jung's eyes became blurry as he watched.

"Kihehe! Hehehe!"

The red monkey took a step into the building.

The monkey with red fur and red eyes looked excited. It seemed excited at the fact that it could now kill these people.

'I worked my ass off to hold on!'

Jae Ha-Jung bit down on his lips and it started to bleed.

'No. It couldn't continue like this. This couldn't be it.'

His shaking lips opened as he started to speak.

"N, no-"

It was at that moment.

"Kihehe?"

The monkey looked up at the sky.

Boooom!

The people inside could hear a loud noise as a shadow covered the iron door.

"Kihehe?"

The monkey slowly turned its head after seeing a shadow cover its body.

And then it saw it.

"Grrrrrrrrr!"
"Grrrrrrr!"
"Screeeeeeech!"

The Grade 2 monsters were quickly retreating.

They seemed to be in a hurry.

However, the red monkey could not see that properly.

It was the same for the people inside the central shelter.

"Kiiiiiiiiiii, kiiiiiiiiii-"

The red monkey subconsciously started to curl up.

The monkey's red eyes looked toward the arrogant black eyes looking down at it.

Bae Cheol-Ho started to speak.

"… A tiger."

A black tiger with a lion's mane had landed on the ground and was now looking at the red monkey and the people inside the central shelter with a nonchalant expression.

It was at that moment.

"Mr. Bae Cheol-Ho?"

They could all see a person on the tiger's neck.

Bae Cheol-Ho looked toward that man as well.

A skinny young man started to speak.

"The reinforcements are here."
"Ah."

Bae Cheol-Ho let out a gasp.

He could see Cale who was standing there with a relaxed smile.

Cale patted the Dark Tiger's body with one hand.

"Hyung-nim."

Alberu started to speak with a frown on his face.

"…There's no way, right?"

It wasn't what he was thinking, was it?

Alberu had a small amount of hope.

However, Cale easily ignored that hope.

"Hyung-nim."
"…What is it?"

Unlike Alberu who responded weakly, Cale pointed toward the red monkey and shouted in a refreshing manner.

"Please bite it!"

Alberu lowered his head and mumbled to himself.

"…Damn it."

***

If you find any errors or have suggestions, please feel free to provide feedback.

Thank you for reading!

[Author – Yu Ryeo Han]

[Translator – Anowa]

[Proofreader – Rai_Mayank]