Universal Sign-in: Ascending to Godhood With My 10x Rewards!-Chapter 47: Approaching the Northern safe zone

Reaching the gate, the two shivering guards willingly stepped aside, giving way to all eight of us.

I stood next to Marcus and Jericho, holding Katie’s little hand as we all stepped out of the gate and paused briefly, inhaling the clearer air that cascaded in the city, floating along with the night’s growing cold that slapped against my cheeks.

I gazed skyward.

The moon hadn’t surfaced yet. In fact, the golden, almost melted figure of the setting sun still hid behind a wave of passing clouds.

Katie’s grip on my palm tightened. I looked down at her.

"Are you okay?" I asked with a soft voice.

And in less than a heartbeat, she raised her head. Her twinkling orange pupils seemed dull, but her bright smile suggested otherwise. She nodded, tilting her head as she said, "I’m fine!"

Clearly, she was terrified. No matter how mature she was, the little girl — in the end — was only a little girl. I could feel the slight tremors in her hand, and even her voice seemed a bit shaky.

I clenched her hand tight. Her eyes widened.

I flashed a warm smile. She smiled back.

"Please don’t mind my daughter," Katie’s mother voiced out from behind us, "she’s really scared of the dark."

I gave the woman a knowing look as I grinned.

I can tell.

"It’s okay, ma’am." I said, "I was just like that when I was her age."

"Th–thank you."

"So... that’s enough idleness," Jerry spoke out, "Richard," he turned back, gazing at Richard with his cold blue gaze, "where to?"

Richard stood just behind Katie’s mother, along with the two other soldiers.

"Uh.." Richard stepped forward, scratching his head. "I’ll take the lead."

Marcus shrugged, "Go right ahead, bud."

The young soldier nodded and immediately stood in front of all of us.

"We gotta hurry it up," that one shirtless soldier from yesterday spoke with a gruff voice, "we need to get there before it’s too dark."

Katie’s trembling hands clenched mine even tighter.

"We will." I declared.

Jericho and Marcus nodded in agreement.

We all know that no monster — the ones we’ve encountered at least — can kill the current us. Well, maybe except the Endorath, and maybe an Avendar can cause a lot of damage, but we can still take down one or two. But a whole horde of them is a death wi–

"How long did you say it’ll take again?" Marcus asked Richard.

Richard breathed out slowly, clenching his fists as he fixed his posture, voice turning more grim and serious as he declared, "Two hours."

The shirtless soldier whistled.

The third soldier groaned for whatever reason.

Katie’s mom gently grabbed onto Katie’s forehead and kissed her as she whispered something incoherent into her ears, causing me to raise a brow.

Katie just smiled.

We began to move, completely exiting the H² subway station as we headed deeper into the city on foot. Our destination, North.

We didn’t encounter many monsters on the way. And that made me feel like the monsters had somehow reduced, which was really odd to me because a couple of days ago, the entire streets of City H had been packed with monsters.

But now, the evening was calm. Strangely calm. And the only sounds that tore through the evening’s strange calm were those of our footsteps hitting against the debris and the echoing, almost hypnotic crunch sounds that resounded wherever we walked.

Yes, in some streets we encountered small packs of Rethons, but those things looked more unfed and hungrier than the ones I’d seen last week. These looked desperate for flesh, as their open mouths constantly dripped out black, gooey saliva.

But, of course, none of those malnutriated monsters could attack or even come close to any of us.

My very presence made them shiver in fright and scurry off in fear. I was a walking red flag to them.

And this very fact surprised the soldiers, Katie, and Katie’s mom as they simultaneously looked at me with bewildered eyes. But none of them, Richard included, could even say anything or ask me about that matter.

After all, the highest expression of awe was always a silent one.

Jericho and Marcus, on the other hand, didn’t look the least bit shocked, and they didn’t even turn back to look at me. It seemed like they had already grown accustomed to everything that seemed weird about me. And Marcus had already witnessed something similar at that bridge when I got the Rethon Slayer title for the first time.

Either that or they believed that the three of us had grown strong enough to become genuine threats to Rethons, monsters that possessed less strength than the screeching Ferins we’d dealt with for the past week.

Which, in all honesty, I deemed the truth.

The rest of the journey was smooth.

No live monsters, no loud yells, no roars or pain-filled screams, and no running. Just silence and decayed corpses of both humans and monsters alike.

After about forty minutes of walking, Katie called out to me with a soft voice that broke through the fragile silence.

"Mr. Nameless," she said, breathing evenly, "where exactly are we going?"

I don’t even know myself.

I inhaled, looking up to the radiant moon that showered its pale light on us.

It’s night.

"We’re going somewhere safe," I told Katie.

"Mnkay," she nodded.

"It’s been oddly quiet, don’t you guys think?" The third soldier suddenly asked.

What the-?

Don’t jinx it, man!

"Don’t jinx it." Said Jerry in a low voice.

Thank you!

Jerry’s hands remained inside the pocket of his coat, and his eyes remained focused ahead, staring at the road in front of us and the young soldier who led us. Marcus stood beside him, occasionally muttering words into Jerry’s ear, and they even chuckled together sometimes.

I shrugged.

Marcus never closed his mouth.

At least I wasn’t the one suffering from his constant stream of words this time.

"Yes, don’t jinx it." Marcus supported Jerry.

"How about we pick up the pace now, guys?" Richard, who stood at the forefront, said.

I raised a brow.

The pace we walked already seemed like the perfect pace.

"Why, though?" I asked Richard.

"Well, that’s because we’re almost there. We’re just twenty minutes away from there. But if we pick up the pace... we can get there in under fourteen minutes."

"That’s valid." Jerry turned, gazing at all of us, "Let’s pick up the pace!"

Alright then.

We increased our pace and walked two times faster than the speed we had before.

To the soldiers, Jericho, Marcus and I, this was no problem. But to Katie and her mom, it became increasingly difficult for them to keep up.

Katie’s breathing skyrocketed, and she began to complain about her aching knees.

Her complaints got to the point that I could no longer ignore or tell her we were almost there, so I just raised her and put her on my shoulders, where she sat comfortably. And I held her hands.

"Is this better?" I asked.

Katie giggled, "Yes, it is!" She looked back at her mom, "You okay, mom?"

The woman replied with a solemn voice, "Yes, sweetie."

Eventually, the sight of ruins, corpses and destroyed buildings that even Katie had gotten used to seeing at this point faded as we kept walking, replaced by smooth, cemented grounds, cleaner air, and fading odor.