Chapter 122: The Tiger King’s Shadow

Inside the suffocating, tension-filled interior of the Survival Space, the air felt thick and heavy, practically clinging to the skin like a damp blanket. Nobody dared to utter a single word, breaking the oppressive silence only with their shallow, ragged breathing as they stared unblinkingly at the glowing light screen mounted against the wooden wall.

Outside, the undisputed apex predator of the ruins was closing the distance with terrifying deliberateness.

The Tiger King’s massive, muscular body moved through the ruined amusement park with a terrifying, effortless grace that belied its immense weight. Its heavy, bone-crushing paws crushed broken toys, twisted steel girders, and splintered wooden benches into fine dust with every single step. Thick, lustrous golden fur rippled rhythmically over its powerful, corded shoulders, and its long, razor-sharp claws scraped menacingly against the cracked concrete as it stalked forward.

The beast had finished devouring the vital Core of the Streak of White in a matter of seconds, treating the rare leader-grade creature as little more than a light snack.

Now, its piercing golden gaze was fixed directly on them.

Ethan stood rigid in front of the display monitor, gripping the wrapped hilt of his combat sword so tightly that his knuckles had turned stark white. His back still ached heavily from the brutal aerial assault on the tower, and his left shoulder throbbed dully where the Lightning Bat’s electricity had scorched his nerves.

Yet those physical injuries weren’t what made his stomach twist into a tight, icy knot.

The Tiger King was looking straight through the invisible spatial barrier, staring intently at the exact coordinate where the Survival Space was hidden from the physical world.

It knew they were there.

"Is it... is it really coming for us?" Sofia whispered, her voice trembling uncontrollably as she clutched frantically at Ethan’s sleeve. Her face was completely drained of color, as pale and translucent as old parchment. She had exhausted nearly all her spiritual energy fighting the elite bats just minutes ago, and her trembling fingers couldn’t even manage to conjure a single spark of frost.

Ethan didn’t answer right away, his dark eyes locked onto the screen with grim focus.

On the monitor, the Tiger King stopped abruptly beside a broken, rusted carousel and lowered its enormous, majestic head. Its brilliant, vertically slit golden pupils scanned the surrounding empty air with a chilling, unsettling intelligence that far surpassed any ordinary monster he had ever encountered.

Then, it took another deliberate, heavy step forward.

The concrete ground trembled beneath its paws like an impending earthquake. Its heavy claws dug deep into the stone, leaving four massive, parallel grooves behind like deep gouges in soft wood. Even through the flat, neutral lens of the light screen, the creature’s sheer, overwhelming physical mass was profoundly intimidating. Every single movement carried the casual, terrifying power of an apex predator that had never needed to fear anything roaming the ruined earth.

Daisy leaned heavily against the wooden wall behind them, pressing a trembling palm hard against her throbbing, aching temples.

"The spiritual pressure it’s radiating..." She breathed out the words in a strained, ragged whisper, her eyes squeezed shut. "It’s entirely unlike anything I’ve ever felt before."

她的 high-level Mental Ability had already been pushed to its absolute breaking point during the fierce psychic clash against the Streak of White. Yet even now, battered, drained, and half-fainting, she could vividly sense the Tiger King’s crushing, oppressive presence leaking right through the dimensional barrier like a toxic tide.

It felt precisely like standing at the base of a massive mountain that was actively fracturing and collapsing inward upon them.

"I can’t suppress a monster like that," Daisy admitted quietly, biting her lower lip until it turned chalk-white. "Not in my current exhausted condition."

Tessa had barely managed to regain her footing after burning through her reserves with her Life Link Ability. She tried to stand tall and independent, but her legs shook violently under her weight, forcing her to lean heavily against the edge of the sofa for support.

"My energy hasn’t recovered enough to heal anyone else," she added in a defeated, breathless whisper.

Ethan cast a slow, assessing glance across the women huddled in the room.

Daisy was mentally and physically tapped out. Sofia had no elemental ice left to fight with. Tessa could barely stand upright without falling over, and his own internal injuries had only just been patched up by the healing essences.

If the Tiger King somehow found a way to tear open or breach the Survival Space, none of them possessed the strength left to mount a meaningful defense.

His chest tightened painfully.

He had successfully survived the deadly Snake King, the terrifying Winged Zombie, and countless other horrifying encounters since the world ended. But every single one of those brutal victories had drilled a single, unyielding truth into his mind: there was always something far stronger, crueler, and more terrifying waiting just around the next corner.

And this time, he might have finally stumbled into an insurmountable wall—an opponent he couldn’t outsmart, outrun, or easily escape.

Outside, the Tiger King drew closer and closer.

Three meters away.

Two meters.

It finally stopped less than two meters from the exact spatial coordinate where the invisible pocket dimension was anchored.

For several agonizing, breathless seconds, the massive golden beast simply stood frozen, staring blankly into the empty, desolate air.

Then, slowly, deliberately, it raised one massive forepaw.

Its razor-sharp claws extended outward with a sharp, echoing click, each one easily large enough to eviscerate a human body in a single swipe.

Sofia gasped, grabbing Ethan’s arm with both hands. "Ethan..."

He raised his sword defensively, though he harbored zero illusions about how useless a steel blade would be if an apex Quasi-King beast possessed the terrifying raw power to rip open a pocket dimension.

He had no concrete way of knowing whether a Quasi-King-Level creature possessed the dimensional perception to shatter a spatial barrier. He certainly couldn’t afford to test that horrific hypothesis with everyone trapped defenseless inside.

Nor could he safely teleport outside and trigger the Space Anchor Point leading back to the relative safety of the library shelter.

The precise microsecond he materialized in the open air, the Tiger King could crush his skull before his nervous system even registered the transition.

Ethan’s mind raced at a frantic pace, searching desperately for an angle. Think. There has to be a way out of this trap.

The Tiger King’s deadly, clawed paw began its downward descent toward the hidden boundary.