The Place Where Everything Begins - Chapter 174: A Chance (3)

Within the middle of the temperate forest full of deciduous trees, myriad types of vegetations, and countless small wild lives…

*Rustling*

*Rustling*

The sounds of grass being stomped resounded out as four people rushed as fast as they could in a direction leading to the river.

“We are roughly half a mile away from the creek!” shouted Rachel as her face looked a bit flustered from the strain put on her body and mind.

Following behind Rachel closely were Jeremy, Trevor, and Kate, who was the last one and struggled hard to keep up with the three.

After all, Kate was a woman, of which her body was not as strong as men’s. As a result, her speed was not as fast as Jeremy’s and Trevor’s.

As for Rachel, she was an exception as she could even run a bit faster than Trevor…

Right now, Kate seemed to be ready to fall to the ground at any moment from her soaking-wet body and breathless symptom. She felt too tired from the long sprint…

*Wooof!*

*Graaah!!*

As the four were rushing as fast as possible, suddenly, the sounds of barking and growling came from behind them.

It was clear that those sounds originated from the incoming wolves as they were inching closer and closer to the four people.

At this time, the distance between the wolf pack and the rescue team was roughly 500 meters, which was considered not too close and not too far.

However, if the four people decided to delay for even a moment, the wolves could breach the gap between the two sides in no time.

Rachel and other people knew if the situation continued to proceed this way, they would be caught up somewhere around the riverbank.

‘From the looks and sounds, there must be ten… no… fifteen wolves at the very least. Furthermore, there might be the so-called wolf monster coming along with them. If they catch up with us….’

Rachel thought to herself as her expressions became more and more flustered with each passing second.

As the distance between the two sides was still quite far, Rachel didn’t know the exact number of her predators. She was not even sure if there was a wolf monster coming along with the wolf pack or not.

At the same time, Trevor’s face also morphed into a distressed one as he wasn’t ready to die yet. However, the only thing they could do right now was to run, so he ran and ran; Trevor ran like his life was on the line…

Within Trevor’s mind, there was still a sliver of hope lingering there, at the deepest part of his mind, so his speed started accelerating up instinctively without him realizing it.

Eventually, due to his adrenaline rush, Trevor sprinted at the fastest speed in his entire life.

At this moment, it appeared that Trevor had brought forth something called ‘human’s potential’, which was considered a latent or dormant capability hidden within most human’s bodies that would usually come out when the situation was truly dire.

Shortly after, Trevor overtook Jeremy, catching up with Rachel in the forefront in no time.

That meant the only one left behind at the farthest back was Kate…

After seeing Trevor leaving her behind alone, Kate’s face looked nothing but dreaded. After all, she was also not ready to die yet.

“No! Wait for me, please!” shouted Kate as she tried to increase her speed up, but to no avail, as she was too exhausted mentally and physically.

Not every human could bring out their full potential in dire straits. Obviously, Kate was unable to do so like Trevor.

Unbeknownst to Kate…

A small rock covered with green grass situated not far ahead of her…

As Kate was too busy looking behind her to see if the wolves were catching up to her or not, she didn’t realize the rock’s presence, so she stumbled on it unpleasantly.

“Kiaaaa!” screamed Kate in surprise.

*Thud*

Kate eventually fell on the ground face first, causing her forehead to bleed out of fresh blood profusely.

When the three people had heard the screaming noise coming from behind them, they promptly turned to look at the source.

To their shock, the three people saw Kate raising her head, looking up to them from the grassy ground with a pleading look. Her forehead had a small, deep wound, oozing out fresh blood, dyeing her entire face with red color. Even Kate’s leather armor had bloodstains on it…

Kate’s mouth moved nonstop as she looked at the three sprinting people, but words never came out of her mouth; only despair was written pretty clearly on her face right now.

She knew what to come next from the incoming growl and snarl originating from behind her, but she didn’t dare look back for fear of the harsh truth.

“H… Help…”

At the moment, the world seemed to slow down as the only word that managed to come out from the faltering mouth was ‘Help’.

She wanted her three companions to come back…

She wanted to be helped as she didn’t want to die…

Nonetheless, Trevor and Rachel could only close their eyes with a tormenting look plastered on their faces without stopping their footsteps even a single second.

Upon seeing so, Kate knew her fate had gradually come to an end as she closed her eyes in sadness and despair.

‘Sorry, Kate…’ thought Trevor as he held back the remorseful feeling overflowing within his heart.

‘I will remember your sacrifice…’ Rachel thought as she also felt guilty for leaving her teammate behind.

The two of them knew all too well that if they hesitated and went back to help Kate, all of them would just become wolves’ meal.

There was no second chance of life; at least after coming into this shitty Tutorial, they knew there was none so far.

The two of them realized that after they failed, they died. No more, no less…

Around five seconds later, Kate’s figure was engulfed entirely by the wolves’ silhouettes as the latters fed upon her entire body in delight, chewing her flesh and bone like Kate was a delicious, sumptuous meal.

Having heard the munching sound and satisfied snarl from behind it, the muscular Gnoll, who was running at the forefront of the army of wolves, promptly furrowed its furry eyebrows in dissatisfaction before turning back and opening its mouth to scold its underlings,

“Graaaahh! Goooh!”

As the low growl was heard, the wolves that had only taken a bite or two of Kate’s delicious flesh promptly stopped their actions.

Albeit still not satisfied with their meal, an order was still an order, so the wolves continued chasing after the three remaining humans again.

Just like that, the chase continued with only one or two seconds of delay at most…

Not long after, the wolves and Gnoll were only around two hundred meters behind the three humans.

Right now, the distance between the three and the river was roughly four hundred meters, of which they would barely make it to the riverbank before being caught up with the wolves.

Having run and play along with the current situation for fun, Jeremy suddenly frowned, albeit only for a split second…

‘The feeling of being watched comes again. From the looks, there is only one cupid watching over this place. So, it should be Yuriy, who is responsible for the human camp as he must have put some interest in Rachel. After all, if she dies, the chance of the human camp winning against the kenkus will decrease quite significantly.’ Jeremy thought while analyzing the situation he was in.

To be honest, Jeremy felt pretty annoyed with the cupids’ meddling with the Tutorial, but he couldn’t do anything regarding the matter. The thing Jeremy could do was to play his own games…

At this time, Jeremy had finally decided his subsequent courses of action after finishing analyzing the situation.

Jeremy, who ran at the last position among the three, just some meters behind Rachel as Trevor had overtaken Rachel earlier, suddenly opened his mouth and shouted,

“We can’t make it like this!”

Having heard Jeremy’s words, the two people looked even more flustered as Rachel opened her mouth to ask,

“Do you have any good plan?”

Rachel appeared to be almost out of breath from running at high speed for such a prolonged time, but she still persevered as she, too, didn’t want to die like this.

Meanwhile, after hearing Jeremy’s words, Trevor only kept his mouth shut as he thought that it was better to conserve his breath, not to make him feel tired so quickly.

“Yes, I have one…” said Jeremy lamentingly as his voice appeared to be a bit helpless and downcast.

Having heard Jeremy’s voice, the other two furrowed their eyebrows in unison as they could somewhat guess what his following words would be.

Sure enough…

“I will be the bait. Hopefully, I can lure some wolves away to lessen you guys’ pressure. Farewell, Trevor, Rachel; it’s very nice to meet you…”

Jeremy said with a resolved expression on his face.

Before the other two could reply, Jeremy suddenly shifted his running direction as he turned right before speeding up in that direction.

To the shock of Trevor and Rachel, never in their wildest dreams would they think that someone was willing and daring enough to sacrifice himself for strangers.

The middle-aged man, Tommy, had acquired so much respect from them right now.

Having expressed their gratitude inwardly at Tommy’s selfless sacrifice, the two continued sprinting towards the riverbank at an even faster speed.

‘The humans are separating into two directions? That won’t help you survive my clutch as you, humans, will all die anyway…’ thought the Gnoll smugly after seeing Jeremy diverted to another path.

Right now, the smug Gnoll only knew that it wouldn’t be scolded by its great leader anymore as its pack had already killed one human today.

Simultaneously, the Gnoll opened its mouth while pointing its index finger to the right side in the direction where Jeremy chose to go.

“Wofff!” shouted the Gnoll as a command aiming towards the wolves following behind it.

Having heard its leader’s command, more than ten wolves abruptly changed their direction to the right side, following closely behind Jeremy.

‘My deduction is right as after separating from Rachel, the feeling of being watched had suddenly disappeared. It looks like the cupid, Yuriy, is not interested in anyone else, except for Rachel…’ thought Jeremy after finally feeling free from being observed.

‘Like this, my plan to overthrow the second stage has officially begun…’

Jeremy thought with an evil grin while sprinting away from the wolves, as it looked like all his previous plans from the moment he set foot inside the Tutorial’s second stage were just a prequel.

Unbeknownst to those furious wolves chasing behind Jeremy, right now, its supposed prey had become faster and faster, gradually leaving them behind in no time.