Noah turned toward the doorway, only to see a monster shrouded in black mist standing there.
Its shape resembled a wolf. Its eyes glowed blood red, and foul saliva dripped continuously from its mouth.
The old man and the young girl also sensed something was wrong and turned to look. The moment they saw the wolf monster at the door, their face drained of color.
The wolf monster didn't hesitate at all.
With a sudden burst of strength from its four limbs, it lunged straight at the high school girl.
The girl froze on the spot, her mind completely blank. She could only watch as wolf monster closed in, its rancid breath spraying across her face. She didn't even think of using the Talent she had just awakened.
The old man leapt up from the hospital bed, trying to save his granddaughter, but he was far too slow.
Just as tragedy was about to strike, a large hand suddenly reached out from the side.
Right as the wolf monster opened its jaws to bite down, its head was grabbed firmly. At the same time, another hand seized its hind leg.
Bang!!
Before the wolf monster could even struggle, it was hurled away by an overwhelming force, smash heavily heavily into the wall.
It let out a miserable howl, blood foam spilling from its mouth. Its limbs twitched weakly, it was clearly on its last breath.
The one who had acted was none other than Noah.
Ten minutes had already passed away since Awakening. During that time, his four core attributes had quietly changed.
Strength : 10
Agility : 9
Constitution : 10
Spirit : 9
Both Strength and Constitution had reached the upper limit of ordinary people, and in the very next breath, they broke through the limit.
The wolf monster looked ferocious, but in truth, its physical condition wasn't much stronger that an ordinary wold on Blue Star. With Noah's current physique, even fighting barehanded, subduing it was effortless.
After dealing with the wolf monster that had burst into the ward, Noah rushed out without pausing.
Not far away, a spatial rift was slowly, clear evidence of where the monster had come from.
Another wolf monster had leapt onto the nurse's station. Inside, a nurse was slumped on the ground, her eyes filled with terror.
Just as the monster was about to pounce.
Noah arrived in time.
He delivered a flying straight to its waist, instantly sending it flying several meters away. It crashed to the ground and struggled helplessly, unable to rise again.
"Th-thank you... thank you..."
Ignoring the nurse's repeated thanks, Noah grabbed a nearby chair and charged into another room smashing it down hard onto a wolf monster that was about to devour someone.
In a very short span of time, all three wolf monster that has emerged from the spatial rift were dealt with by Noah alone.
The corpses did not disappear.
Instead, the three wolf monsters lay together, lifeless and still.
Noah had originally thought that security personnel would arrive to handle the situation, and that he would probably need to give another statement or two. To his surprise, no one came at all.
When he asked around, he learned the reason, similar monster attacks were erupting all over the New Sea City, and the limited manpower of the public security bureau was already stretched to its limits.
Noah didn't take part in any follow up handling. His injuries had fully healed, and he was too lazy to return to the school dormitory, so he simply went home.
He was a native of New Sea City. After his parents passed away, they had left him a house, so he didn't need to worry about having nowhere to live.
"So... this is a monster attack?"
The class group chat was already flooded with related messages.
While Noah had been dealing with wolf monsters in the hospital, New Sea University had also been attacked by monster from another world.
They weren't wolves, but a group of skinned creatures about a meter tall, very similar to the goblins of legend. Like the wolf monster, they were also shrouded in black mist.
At the same time, major websites were dominated by trending topic such as "National Awakening" and "Monster Attack."
Noah soon learned that another monster attack incidents were breaking out all over the world.
Fortunately, the monsters were generally weak, and their numbers were limited. Although casualties were unavoidable, they did not pose a large scale threat.
Rather than a crisis, it felt more like a reminder, or perhaps, a warning.
After that wave of global monster attacks, frequency of spatial rifts appearing dropped sharply.
Noah opened his attribute panel and looked at the Instance option.
Newly awakened Individual were all at Zero Grade. To advance, they had to pass instance challenges.
There were two types of instances:
Trial Instances and Advancement Instances.
Clearing a Trial Instance granted rewards and growth value. Once the growth value reached 100, an Awakened Individual could enter an Advancement Instance. Passing it would allow them to advance to a higher grade.
Staring at the instance option, Noah fell into deep thought.
His personality wasn't extreme by nature. The ruthlessness buried deep inside him would only surface when he was truly pushed to the brink.
One could even say he lacked ambition and was fairly content with the status quo.
With the ability to grow simply by breathing, he didn't need to work hard or take risks. As long as he stayed low key and waited until his strength reached a sufficient level before entering instances, everything would be easy, a smooth, overwhelming victory.
Why not do that?
Under normal circumstances, Noah really would have chosen that path. Even it it meant growing a little slower, it wouldn't have mattered.
But today's experiences had changed his mind.
First, an assassination attempt.
Then, a monster attack.
Noah finally understood just how dangerous his situation was, and how little sense of security he actually had.
Becoming stronger could no longer be delayed.
"You all forced me."
Noah's gaze sharpened as he decisively tapped the instance option.