Disaster Strikes - Chapter 10:

Chapter 10: Pulling Ahead

After lunch, Chen Mo, who had finished running a lap in the exercise area, arrived at the library promptly at two o’clock, opening the door.

The good news was that after these few days of exercise, he felt a significant improvement in his physical strength. At least after running a lap, he no longer felt as breathless as before.

Today, after tidying up a messy bookshelf, he took out a book on basic psychic knowledge.

Following the brief explanation and guidance from the mentor in the classroom, he compared the knowledge in the book and tried to delve into its mysteries.

During this process, the library key became his training tool. Under his psychic control, it kept making various movements around him. After long-term practice, he discovered that even this minimal use of psychic power would constantly consume his stamina.

Yes, it consumed stamina.

However, this attribute of stamina was not displayed on the attribute panel but was influenced by the basic strength value, which was endurance.

And when stamina is depleted, recovery is influenced by the basic physique, which can be called recovery power.

It’s not just stamina.

After energy is depleted, the recovery speed is also influenced by the basic physique attribute.

Fortunately, although Chen Mo’s strength value was not high, his physique value was 14 points, which meant he recovered stamina quite well.

Soon it was six o’clock in the evening, the time the library closed.

After organizing the borrowed books, Chen Mo locked the library door and then went to the 510 office.

Prompt: Loulan has awarded you 1 point of contribution to natural disasters. Do you accept?

“Yes.”

Chen Mo once again received 1 point of contribution to natural disasters as a reward.

Seeing the 2 points of contribution to natural disasters in his chip, Chen Mo, who had been eating porridge for days, instinctively wanted to reward himself. After all, the low-grade meal brought by Lu Yi during breakfast not only made others salivate but also made Chen Mo long for it for a long time.

However, when he arrived at the cafeteria, faced with the consumption of 1 point of contribution to natural disasters for low-grade meals, he hesitated for a long time and finally chose to give up.

Compared to the temporary desire for food, he had to save some contribution points for the future.

One hundred days of study time, if he could consume reasonably and accumulate 80 contribution points, it would be considered a considerable amount.

Night.

Chen Mo ran alone.

One lap each in the morning, noon, and evening. For Chen Mo, it was already a high-intensity exercise. However, the diet was just porridge, which couldn’t keep up with Chen Mo’s physical consumption. These days, he had visibly slimmed down at an alarming rate.

But compared to physical fatigue, the spiritual fulfillment and satisfaction made him even more satisfied, as if his whole body was filled with positive energy support.

Prompt: Your speed +1.

Chen Mo, who was panting, noticed the prompt and was slightly stunned. Just as he was pleasantly surprised and at a loss for what to do, the chip transmitted another prompt.

Prompt: Your basic footwork level +1.

Chen Mo looked at his attribute panel and indeed saw the words “Basic Footwork Lv1.”

Basic footwork represents walking speed.

It seems that after Chen Mo’s hard training these days, he has achieved initial results. Not only did the basic attribute of speed improve, but even the basic footwork, from nothing to Lv1, was achieved.

As for the importance of basic footwork, it goes without saying.

If you can’t win, run.

Compared to the evasion attribute of basic agility during combat, basic footwork has the initiative of long-distance pursuit or escape, which is also quite important in Chen Mo’s view.

But this also reflects from another perspective how lacking in exercise the stone was, so much so that he was abandoned by his mother.

After the unexpected surprise, Chen Mo gradually calmed down.

Then he continued to find a secluded corner and used psychic power to train with the stones that were visible everywhere. The brief explanation and guidance from the mentor in the classroom made him enlightened in many ways, making his practice more focused at this moment.

And because of the murder case last night, Chen Mo was much more cautious during practice, guarding against anyone attacking him. Even if someone approached slightly, he would show a vigilant expression.

It was late at night when Chen Mo returned to the dormitory.

“Hey.”

The low voice of charcoal made Chen Mo, who was about to lie down, turn around in surprise.

“Haven’t slept yet?”

The sky was already completely dark, and the light from the street lamps outside shone into the dormitory, allowing Chen Mo to vaguely see charcoal’s movements.

Charcoal didn’t speak, but Chen Mo saw his suggestive gesture and looked in the direction he pointed, only to find that Du Qingqing had moved from her original bed to Lu Yi’s side.

Chen Mo nodded without saying a word.

But he could feel that charcoal seemed to be mocking him.

For Chen Mo, this kind of thing was indeed quite shocking, but he had already decided to adapt to the survival rules of this world. In the disaster world, the weak had little choice, especially those who were weak in both potential and courage to resist. This cruel world would crush them to dust.

As Chen Mo lay down to sleep, charcoal sighed again.

“What’s wrong?”

Charcoal turned over.

“In the afternoon, I saw them going to the mentor’s office. They should be receiving additional guidance.”

From his words, it was not difficult to hear his resentment.

Charcoal continued, “When they were in class, they received more guidance than we did. Now they are receiving additional guidance. At this rate, we will never catch up with them. This is too unfair.”

Additional guidance?

Hearing this, Chen Mo also felt envy in his heart. Of course, he knew what this meant.

But he had no way.

After all, he couldn’t bribe the mentor like these several adult starving ghosts. In disaster world, this was quite a common thing, not worth making a fuss about.

“Ah, what can we do about it?”

Chen Mo turned over and fell asleep drowsily. He was really tired.

…

A month passed.

The starving ghosts in the academy continued to leave and start their trials, while people from the outside world kept coming in.

Unknowingly, Chen Mo had completely adapted to college life in this world, eating the simplest food and undergoing the most arduous training.

And in this month’s time, through continuous training, he has also made considerable progress.

Not only did his basic attributes increase, with Strength increasing by 1 point, reaching 9 points and Speed increasing by 1 point, reaching 8 points and even his basic skills have greatly improved, to Basic Boxing level 1, Basic Footwork level 1, Basic Blocking level 1, Basic Psychic Power level 2.

After two laps of running, the morning exercise ended.

Chen Mo adjusted his breathing and walked towards the cafeteria, opening his data panel again.

Name: Traveler.

Level: Starving Ghost.

Talent: Stone Skin.

Qi and Blood: 140.

Defense: 7.

Speed: 8.

Strength: 9.

Physique: 14.

Spirit: 23.

Energy: 10.

Basic Boxing: Lv2.

Basic Chopping: Lv1.

Basic Footwork: Lv2.

Basic Blocking: Lv3.

Basic Psychic Power: Lv3.

Equipment: None.

Skills: None.

In this month, Chen Mo’s progress can be said to be quite huge, not in vain for his hard training. At least he has initially pulled away from Du Fangyan and Charcoal and approaching the strength of the three abyssal starving ghosts.

With a high amount of mental power and a basic psychic power level at Lv3, he has initially formed a certain combat capability, and his 14 points of physique and Stone Skin talent have also given him more possibilities.

After breakfast, Chen Mo came to the classroom and naturally sat in his old seat.

“Just now, the basic assassination level of Lu Yi has reached Lv7.”

Charcoal’s words made Chen Mo incredulous, “How is that possible so fast!”

Just a month ago, Lu Yi’s basic assassination was only Lv5, and now it has reached Lv7 so quickly.

Although both are 2-level increases, the difficulty from Level 5 to Level 7 is clearly not comparable to that from Level 1 to Level 3. This sudden realization dampened Chen Mo’s sense of satisfaction, bringing him back to a sense of calmness

“Not only the basic assassination but it is said that his basic agility has also been upgraded from Lv2 to Lv4. Now Kuno is in trouble.”

Charcoal was somewhat gloating, no longer sighing about the unfairness a month ago, as if he had resigned himself to it.

Chen Mo’s face looked even worse.

Chasing someone who is already better than you but works just as hard is truly despairing.

His progress this month has been quite significant. According to his estimation, even Han Xue might not have made as much progress as he has. However, compared with these several adult starved ghosts who have received additional guidance from the mentor, the gap seems to be even greater.

“We must find a way!”

Chen Mo made up his mind that he must find a way to make up for the gap and cannot let this gap continue.

The morning passed somewhat depressinlgy for Chen Mo.

Two o’clock in the afternoon.

Chen Mo opened the library door on time.

After a month of careful arrangement, the library had become quite neat. Tens of thousands of books were placed in their respective positions according to classification, and the library looked neat and pleasing to the eye.

Not only that.

The previously damaged temporary reading tables and chairs had also been repaired by Chen Mo.

The once dim room had also become more spacious and bright due to his adjustment of the bookshelf positions. He even thoughtfully added a water dispenser and a skull decoration in the corner of the room.

The library had completely entered on track, and many people even chatted with him.

“Hello, where can I find the data formula for calculating equipment quality?”

Chen Mo, who was reading with his head down, grabbed the key controlled by psychic power next to him and answered. The person asking was a tall girl with fiery red wavy long hair, and her figure was very tall and slender. Her long legs, covered in black stockings and high heels, were so alluring that they made people’s blood boil. Due to the contact with various civilizations in the disaster world, any kind of dress was not surprising.

“On the second layer of the third row of bookshelves.”

After Chen Mo informed her of the location, the girl turned and left.

At the prime of his life, Chen Mo couldn’t help but glance at the girl a few more times. After instinctively swallowing his saliva, he suppressed the restlessness in his heart and continued to look at the book in his hand.

The book was called “Application Techniques of E-rank Skills.”

Due to the relationship with the light-brain data chip, the disaster world was almost a world full of data and grade classifications. Therefore, many books would use data to deeply introduce and analyze various situations.

Chen Mo’s math skills were quite good, so the so-called data in this world was not too difficult for him to study.

According to what this book said, the biggest advantage of E-rank skills is their extremely short cooldown time and various negative states.

The best way to use E-rank skills is not to release them directly in the ordinary sense, but to intersperse them between two ordinary attacks. By alternating energy consumption with physical consumption in the attack interval, three times of damage can be dealt in a short time, which is the most optimal way to release them.

Compared with ordinary attacks, the damage of E-rank skills is not outstanding.

However, they often come with constantly accumulating negative states. Through continuous accumulation, the lethality of these negative states will become more and more considerable, until they become the last straw that overwhelms the enemy.

The more Chen Mo read this book, the more he felt enlightened.

It turned out that the combat of the natural disaster people was not as simple as he had imagined.

(End of chapter 10)