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Chapter 20: Newbie Party

"Yea!"

"Ooohhh!"

"Well said Mr. Sung!"

Several other members of the group take off their hardhats at his moving words. Jeanice and Mr. Zhang lower their heads in shame. However, the fear is already deep in them. I know what their answer will be before the cheering stops.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Sung. But look at these bloodstains. We've already lost Mitch and Sean. I've had enough. I'll be going. Jeanice and I will stick together. If anyone else wants to come, we'll be by the entrance to the city." Mr. Zhang sighs deeply and raises his hand in farewell. As he turns to go, Jeanice quickly follows with a regretful glance backwards. The mood becomes heavy as the group grows smaller. Now there are only twelve people left, not including me and Yin. Our combat strength is deceasing. Well, no that's not accurate because though these people don't understand yet, their rapid increase in levels is very powerful. But the absence of two people in such a small group is hard to miss.

"That's unfortunate." I stare at the two as they pass by. "Not a smart move."

"Mr. Hei?" Penelope glances my way but I don't respond. My thoughts are still on the killing intent I sensed before heading into the city. Something's out there, most likely behind us. Hoping to survive this catastrophe by being passive and waiting for it to pass is simply a fool's dream. It's bad luck for them. They're hoping the rain will stop falling when they should be shoring up the dam. Unfortunately, this is no mere storm.

It's a hurricane.

"What's that!" Yin hastily stops the group with a quiet cry. Everyone falls silent, not that there was much chit chat going on anyways. Mr. Sung peers ahead in-between two tottering apartment buildings which look like they might fall apart at any moment. There's something up ahead in the darkness. A pair of gleaming white spots appear. They sway left and right as something thuds into the ground heavily. The sound of stressed concrete comes as the white spots expand to become a pair of horns. Alabaster white horns the length of my head curl atop a fuzzy face. My lips stretch wide in disbelief. No...no freaking way! It's too early! Even for the System, this is too much!

"E-Err..." Yin doesn't know what to do as she stairs down the colossal being lumbering towards us. It's twice her height, an absolutely brutelike monstrosity. A thick axe is held in hands which could crush a man's head and a goat-like face stares at us in-between its oversized ox horns. "M-Minotaur?!"

"Stand your ground! We killed those zombies, we'll kill this thing too!" Mr. Sung rallies his men who awkwardly glance at each other before charging in.

"W-Wait! We need a plan!" Yin shouts, but they've already disturbed the beast. Purple gleaming eyes snap open and stare directly at the construction workers with their flimsy homemade weapons. It's enormous, taller than the tallest of normal men and thicker than the strongest strongman. My heart beats, seeing her consider going to help the members of the Sung Construction Co.

"Yin! What level is that thing!" I haven't gotten a chance to speak to her since she slew those Daemonic Zombies but I assume she must be Lvl. 10 or higher. Since I'm only Lvl. 6, the creature before us just shows up as a bunch of question marks.

Lvl. ??? Daemonic Minotaur Soldier

"It's...I can't tell. There's just question marks!" Yin's voice breaks as she calls back to me. "Is that bad?!"

"Get back! It's a high level! You can't kill it!" I run forwards. My promise to stay out of things is thrown to the wind because this is truly the worst case scenario. "Run! RUN AWAY!"

The System...it's unleashing something even Yin, who I've poured my time and energy into power leveling, can't see through. This is too sick! It really wants to kill us all!

"Hold the line! We can do this together!" Mr. Sung has too much faith in his men. The trash can lid in his hand looks like a frisbee next to the monstrous beast in front of him. A thick black hand stretches out of the darkness, with four fingers. It seizes Mr. Sung's makeshift shield, and I watch as the gargantuan fingers clench down with overwhelming strength and crush the thin metal into nothing. "AHHHH!"

"Mr Sung!" His men rush into the darkness as Mr. Sung is pulled in along with his shield. Yin trembles as I reach her side. Behind me, I can feel Penelope struggling to keep up. She's only Lvl. 3.

"Oh my...god..." Yin's eyes are fixed on the darkness. Terrifying sounds come out though it's hard to see what's going on in between the two apartments.

*Crunch*

"AHHHHH-"

*Slap*

"NUUUUUU!"

*Crack!*

Things fall silent in an instant. All that can be heard is moaning and this horrible dripping.

*Plop*

*Plop*

*Plop*