"No, it's over." The stammerer breathed a sigh of relief, removed the hood of the raincoat from his head, and then looked to the other side.
The other person also took off his hood, revealing the tired face of Doctor Xu.
"This trip alone, just the number of shadow figures we encountered was more than before, and the consumption of the luminous stones was too great. And that monster last night... the official broadcast had assessed it shouldn't have appeared near here...."
This time, when the stammerer had come to borrow grain, she simply took the opportunity to have him accompany her out in exchange for some dried meat and dried mushrooms as payment.
She had thought she was being kind-hearted, but on the way, if not for the stammerer's timely assistance, pulling her aside at crucial moments, she was afraid...
Thinking of this, Doctor Xu's face was overcome with after-fear.
"This time I don't know...."
Bang!!
Suddenly, there was a loud noise.
The wooden door of the house was violently slammed by something.
The impact shook the door, causing flakes of wall plaster to fall off all around.
The door frame trembled violently, clearly loosening.
"What is that!" Doctor Xu's heart was filled with panic. "It's that monster! It has followed us here!! Why!!"
It was the same creature they had encountered the night before at their temporary shelter.
"Hold! On!" The stammerer rushed forward with a quick step, bracing the wooden door with his shoulder.
Bang!
But the next loud impact sent him flying backward once more.
The force of the monster outside was too strong to hold back.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!!
The wooden door was hit repeatedly, and the nails fixing the door frame were being shaken loose, one by one, falling out.
Doctor Xu was in a state of panic, watching the scene unfold, her body stiffened, losing the ability to react.
"It's that... it's that thing... it actually..."
Her son had died in a similar situation
At the time, she and her family had reacted immediately, rushing to brace the door, but the massive impact from outside was something they couldn't withstand.
In less than half a minute, the door was smashed, and her son had run out to draw the monster away in the chaos.
Her husband dragged her away, fleeing the house quickly. Before leaving, she had only seen the shadow of her son being bitten by the monster in the distance.
Boom!!!
Just then, the wooden door shattered instantly, and fragments hurtled toward the stunned Doctor Xu.
She was about to be hit in the head.
Suddenly, the stammerer at her side reached out, grabbed Doctor Xu, and rolled them both to the side.
Whoosh!!
After the door broke, a huge, pitch-black monster charged in with the momentum.
Taking advantage of the moment it hadn't steadied itself, being carried forward by the inertia.
The stammerer picked up Doctor Xu and ran.
She dashed out of the door, running with all her might along the gravel path.
"Where...are we going..." Doctor Xu, who had now snapped back to reality, asked with a trembling voice.
The stammerer's mind raced through possible destinations.
His house's wooden door had been reinforced, yet it couldn't withstand that monster; other houses wouldn't last long either.
What to do?
What to do?
What to do!!?
Sweat, mingled with breathless panting, streamed down the sides of his head.
As he fled the village, the stammerer found himself, unwittingly, in the forest where he and Yu Hong had worked as carpenters during the day.
Realizing this was wrong, he quickly changed direction, heading elsewhere, not wanting to risk attracting the monster to Yu Hong as well.
Even though his physical strength was uncommon, carrying another person while running, especially in the rain, was wearing him down.
What to do??
He racked his brain for a solution, but no matter how much he thought, without the protection of a house, without the blocking of luminous stones, they were no match for the pursuing monster, let alone the constant appearance of shadow figures.
"Yiyi...put me down, if I die, I die, I can't drag you down with me!" Doctor Xu stuttered from his shoulder.
The stammerer remained silent, pressing on, sprinting toward the distance.
Bang!!!
Suddenly, he veered left, changing direction in a sprint.
Beside him, a large tree was hit hard by the black monster following them, making a muffled noise.
The tree swayed, and the trunk was hit with a deep dent, nearly falling over.
*
*
*
Yu Hong put the radio away and took out the batteries, covering them with dry leaves.
This would be the key to obtaining information from the outside world in the future.
So, it must be well preserved.
After doing this, he glanced at the luminous stone, the enhanced pyroxene which still showed a countdown on its surface, although it was very inconspicuous and hard to distinguish without close inspection.
He exhaled, noticing his breath had turned into a mist.
"Has the temperature dropped this much?"
Standing up, he approached the stove, planning to light a fire for warmth. With the chimney leading to the vent above the door, lighting a fire was now safe.
Yet looking at the kindling in the stove, Yu Hong knew that even if he lit it, it wouldn't burn for long.
"Sigh... I wonder when the stammerer will be back.... It would be nice to find coal or something..."
The defensive properties of this side of the cave were much stronger than the stammerer's house.
The doors and windows there were only half as thick, and the material was softer, being old wood that had been used for years.
Now the only things missing were solutions for heating and food.
Once those were solved, this place would be a proper refuge.
Bang!!
Suddenly, Yu Hong thought he heard a faint impact sound outside.
"What was that sound?" he frowned. In this rainy weather, any sound outside had to be from monsters or shadow figures.
He stood up, intending to check outside.
But just as he did, he worried about being spotted by the shadow figures. The appearance of a pale human face suddenly appearing outside the window was quite frightening.
Even with the protection of the enhanced pyroxene, it was normal to be terrified into mental exhaustion.
Thinking this, Yu Hong sat back down.
Bang!
Suddenly, another loud noise erupted.
Yu Hong's complexion changed drastically as he shot up and rushed to the peephole, sliding the cover aside to look out.
What he saw was the sight of Little Stutter and Doctor Xu being chased by that pitch-black monster.
"Fuck!"
The sight of the monstrous creature sent a shiver down Yu Hong's spine.
In the heavy rain, within the forest dozens of meters away, there was a creature resembling a large tick, over two meters tall and four meters long, its body pitch-black,
incessantly pursuing Little Stutter and the other.
Silence.
A pause.
Yu Hong stood at the doorway.
Bang!
He fiercely swung the door open.
"Over here! Come this way!!!" he yelled towards Little Stutter's direction.
His entire body tensed, trembling, his blood coursing furiously through his veins, his face flushed red.
The intense nervousness and fear urged him to quickly shut the door, to prevent the creature from discovering him.
But Little Stutter had saved him before, had helped him too much.
Even in fear, Yu Hong had his own principles, his own code to live by!
Gripping the steel-studded enhanced pyroxene rod beside the door, he struggled to control himself, to not let fear dictate his actions and shut the door.
To not let fear force him to hide.
"Over here!! Yiyi!!"
Yu Hong stepped outside the door, standing in the rain, and bellowed.
"Run this way!!!" he shouted.
He knew that running out in the open, in this ever-darkening environment, meant certain death if the shadow appeared.
Better to hide together and gamble that the reinforced door would withstand the monster's attack.
Just hold on for a while longer; it was daytime now, and as soon as the clouds dispersed, the monster would quickly retreat...
Hearing the shout, Little Stutter and Doctor Xu turned their heads. Not just them, the tick-like monster heard the commotion as well and glanced in their direction.
Seizing the pause, Little Stutter gritted her teeth and turned to run elsewhere.
"Trust me! Yiyi!" Yu Hong's voice came again.
Little Stutter stopped in her tracks, looking back at Yu Hong.
From a distance, she saw the fierce determination on his face.
"Come!!" Yu Hong yelled, reaching out his hand towards her.
Whoosh!
The black creature charged again, the gust of wind it created tossing Little Stutter's hair about, even the rain unable to resist the powerful blast.
Instantly, Doctor Xu was the first to react, grabbing Little Stutter and rushing towards Yu Hong.
Her movement provoked the monster.
The black creature followed closely behind the two, charging towards Yu Hong at the cave entrance.
It was a massive tick-like black creature, like an eight-legged black war machine thundering towards the cave.
Its rhinoceros-like size furiously sprinted, inducing a type of terror completely different from the shadow.
Yu Hong took a step back, standing to the side of the door, watching the approaching monster, his legs trembling wildly.
One month ago, he was just an ordinary person, a regular office worker. One month later, he was facing an utterly unknown and terrifying creature!
Fear.
Intense fear.
Made his body go rigid, almost incapable of moving.
His right hand gripping the door handle was violently shaking, wanting to slam the door shut and lock it.
But Yiyi and the others hadn't arrived yet!
Doctor Xu might as well be forgotten, but Little Stutter was different; she had saved him before, so now...
He had to save her.
Bang!
Yu Hong fiercely slapped his legs with a swift strike.
"Scared of your fucking ass!! Fuck!"
"Stand firm!!"
"You fucking hold steady!!!" he roared inwardly, eyes fixed on Little Stutter and the others drawing closer.
Twenty meters.
Fifteen meters.
Ten meters.
Five meters!
One meter!!
Swoosh!
In an instant, Doctor Xu and Little Stutter rushed through the gate, one after the other.
As they entered, the door banged shut, locked tightly by Yu Hong.
Boom!!!
Less than a second later, a thunderous noise struck the center of the door, causing the entire cave to tremble slightly.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!!
The black creature began to ram the reinforced wooden door frantically.
It seemed enraged, angry that Yu Hong had stolen its prey.
But no matter how it struck, the door merely vibrated, showing no signs of breaking or shaking.
"Huff, huff, huff... What, is this??" Little Stutter collapsed to the ground, turned her head, and saw a door completely different from what she had remembered.
She looked at it with confusion in her eyes.
She remembered that the door she and Yu Hong had made wasn't supposed to look like this, right?
The door before her looked much more upscale and sturdy than the previous one.
"After you left, I went back and improved the door, reinforced the surrounding area," Yu Hong said, noticing her confusion, and also sat down, gasping for breath as he explained.
"..." Little Stutter stared blankly at him, from the wooden door before to the improved heavy wooden door now, the difference was indeed quite...
"Let's not talk about that, help me brace it!" Yu Hong leapt up and rushed over, his shoulder against the back of the door.
Doctor Xu and Little Stutter quickly stood up as well and helped brace the door.
The banging continued, but with the combined strength of the three, the monster outside could no longer budge the wooden door.
The pounding lasted for about a dozen more hits. Once it was clear the door wasn't budging, the creature finally turned and left, soon disappearing into the curtain of rain.