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Thirty citizens had volunteered—almost as many as the total number of pioneers. Though it seemed like an excessive number of support personnel, Justin thought it best to err on the side of caution. During battle, people's focus narrowed, and even the most well-guarded areas could be overlooked in the heat of combat.

After all, this was the first full-scale monster wave they would be facing. No one could predict the appropriate number of defenders for a situation like this. It was entirely possible that they could end up with too many volunteers sitting around, doing nothing and just collecting rewards. Conversely, there might be too few, leading to casualties.

"We actually had more initial volunteers," Zachary said, standing by Justin's side, "but I filtered out the ones that looked like they'd be a problem."

"What kind of problems?"