Disaster Strikes - Chapter 58:

Two days later.

In this calamitous world, there were no sun, moon or stars, so there was naturally no auspicious purple qi or scorching sun overhead.

Although this didn’t mean that one couldn’t practice Tong Zi after returning, the effect would undoubtedly be greatly reduced. This involved the concept of the unity of heaven and man in the martial arts system.

“In the midst of movement and stillness, abandon distracting thoughts, refine one’s determination through a thousand trials, combine with the innate yang qi of the human body, refine essence and transform qi.”

Knock, knock.

Chen Mo who was practicing Tong Zi in his room was interrupted by a knock at the door.

“Who is it?”

“Hello.”

Thinking it was Tian Tian visiting Chen Mo was surprised to hear a strange soft female voice outside and he stopped his practice. Opening the door Chen Mo saw a plump fair-skinned woman standing outside dressed very provocatively with her chest almost bursting out.

Before Chen Mo could ask anything, the woman, a female natural disaster, looked at him provocatively and asked “Hey handsome, want some company? Just 2 points.”

“Sorry, I have something to do.” Realizing who the visitor was Chen Mo closed the door and continued his practice.

Knock, knock. But shortly after, there was another knocking at the door.

Annoyed by the interruption Chen Mo said impatiently, “Didn’t I tell you not to bother me?”

“Giggle.”

The familiar laughter made Chen Mo pause and then he somewhat awkwardly opened the door to find Tian Tian, his neighbour from across the hall.

She laughed and asked, “Who did you think it was?”

Knowing that this clever girl had already seen through everything Chen Mo replied irritably “Just a stranger who knocked on the wrong door.”

Tian Tian walked around Chen Mo’s room, then impolitely sat on his bed as if it was the most natural thing to do.

“At first, there were fourteen trial takers but in the end only five of us passed the starving ghost trial. Who would have thought that most of us adult starving ghosts would be wiped out.”

Tian Tian looked at Chen Mo, “You don’t keep in touch with them anymore?”

Chen Mo shrugged. “As you know, after you guys left I stayed there for a few days. Then I went straight to the academy after getting back, got my graduation certificate and didn’t have time to add them as friends. Why, what’s up?”

“Of course, it’s to form a team.”

Tian Tian said longingly “Compared to fighting alone and dealing with other natural disasters on your own, forming a team not only gives you access to shared spaces, team skills and also most importantly you have teammates you can trust. The success rate of missions will also increase significantly. My ability tends to be supportive, so I need teammates to complement me. Although Lei Wu is arrogant, I have to admit that he is a qualified captain, don’t you want to join?”

Chen Mo agreed that forming a disaster team would indeed improve their chances of survival. But as far as he knew to establish a stable team, members needed to meet certain conditions or have special team contracts, it wasn’t as simple as just anyone could form a team as they thought.

Temporary grey teams on the other hand had fewer requirements. However these teams were quite unreliable, as teammates could betray each other anytime if the benefits during a mission were tempting enough.

“I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint you. While Lei Wu plans to establish a team, I don’t intend to join him. After all, there can only be one leader in a team.”

Chen Mo’s words stunned Tian Tian.

“You also want to form a team?”

“I do have that intention.”

Chen Mo looked meaningfully at Tian Tian not hiding his intentions. Although Lei Wu looked down on her Chen Mo didn’t discriminate against her. Instead he valued her interpersonal skills, even if other members joined the team later, the ability to gather intelligence would always be valuable.

Compared to Lei Wu, Tian Tian seemed hesitant in respond to Chen Mo’s invitation and did not immediately reply.

“In that case, let me think about it first. I’ll let you know when I’m ready.”

It must be said that while Tian Tian’s first goal was to join Lei Wu’s team she did not reject Chen Mo’s invitation to form a team. After all in her eyes Chen Mo’s performance during the trial was commendable, just a bit weaker in strength.

So it would be better to wait and see, assess Chen Mo’s specific potential and then try Lei Wu’s side.

After all, Chen Mo’s team was still in its infancy, with nothing solid yet, so there was no need to rush.

“It’s okay, I just have this idea for now, I don’t have suitable teammates yet, so I also need time to prepare.”

After Tian Tian left, Chen Mo calmed down and resumed his practice again.

But because practicing Tong Zi in the Disaster world was too inefficient, after persevering for a few days he completely lost confidence and gave up on the idea of practicing in this world.

“Instead of slowly practising here it’s better to go to a mission world and try to maximize my advantage with traveler’s talent. After all according to the rules of the Disaster world, the trial of the starving ghost do not count as natural disasters’ monthly contract tasks. I can go to a mission world at any time now.”

Level 1 natural disasters have one opportunity each month to perform tasks in other worlds. Whether this opportunity is used, depends on the individual needs of the natural disaster.

“But before that, I need to go back and see if that piece of yuan yang bone is still there.”

Chen Mo planned to return to the place where Stone had lived before, to find the yuan yang bone he remembered. He had come through many trials and tribulations to get here and he hadn’t expected to go back so soon.

“I also need to take a good look around the gathering place, I don’t know how long I’ll be living here in the future, I can’t just wander around blindly.”

After leaving the apartment area, Chen Mo wandered all the way to the Justice District.

The Justice District was located on one side of the square, with a statue of a metal balance standing tall, surrounded by many light brain screens.

A large number of natural disasters gathered here for long periods of time. They would state their basic conditions and seek suitable partners to form temporary teams also known as grey teams.

Usually, the members of these teams would pledge their points as collateral and complete a contract here.

If a team member dies during the mission, the pledged points of the others in the team would be deducted.

“Level-1 natural disaster, strong in strength, three skills, equipment can be checked, seeking a hardware-qualified team!”

“Level-1 disaster team, five members, missing one, looking for someone with strong resistance or an auxiliary ability, priority allocation can be given!”

Under the metal balance, natural disasters kept shouting, waiting for the right moment to seek a better team.

After circling around Chen Mo found that the most popular individuals here were psychic assistants or one could say psychic medic assits. Next were those with physical prowess, followed by gunmen, elemental mages, and perceivers. Due to the larger number of individuals with strength or agility prowess, there were often strict requirements for equipment attributes.

He had originally wanted to inquire about the specific requirements for forming a team here but seeing so many natural disasters gathered here he gave up. It would be better to come back and inquire when he was better prepared.

Leaving the Justice District he passed through somewhat of a secluded street, where Chen Mo stopped.

There weren’t many people here, but there were more than ten individuals quietly waiting on either side of the street with animal skins in front of them, covered in writing.

After carefully observing Chen Mo realized that the writing was actually information about their fathers. These people were actually searching for their fathers in this way, leaving Chen Mo somewhat speechless.

This was indeed a characteristic of the Disaster world.

Although from Stone’s memories, Chen Mo also knew that apart from the families established by the Level Four Disaster Lords, the vast majority of natural disasters were born without fathers. It was only after achieving certain accomplishments that their mothers would reveal the identity of their fathers, which might lead to a father-son recognition scenario and certain privileges.

But Chen Mo never expected that natural disasters would also search for their fathers in this way. Today was indeed an eye-opener.

Continuing forward, Chen Mo stopped in front of a hemispherical building. Behind this hemispherical building were small square houses of various sizes, Chen Mo looked at the sign above them.

“Is this the training area?”

When natural disasters improved their skill proficiency, they needed to continuously release skills to complete the improvement. However during this process, in addition to the cooldown time of the skills themselves, they were also limited by their own energy consumption. Once the energy was depleted, they needed to slowly recover before continuing to improve.

But in the training area, natural disasters could choose a specific fixed skill for repeated release by paying points. The independent space inside the training area would recover the energy released by the natural disaster and then re-input it into their body, creating a cycle that allowed them to no longer be limited by their own energy levels.

As a result, with a continuous supply of energy, natural disasters could rapidly improve their combat skills proficiency in a relatively short period.

Chen Mo tentatively walked over.

Prompt: What skill would you like to practice?

“Psychic bullet.”

Prompt: Psychic Bullet is an E-level skill. The price for renting the training space is 100 disaster contribution points per hour. Would you like to rent it?

“No.”

At this stage, Chen Mo naturally wouldn’t use points for this purpose.

Instead of spending valuable disaster contribution points on training here, Chen Mo preferred to use his traveler’s talent to stay in the mission world for a long time. Keeping a low profile and being as discreet as possible to avoid conflicts he would not have to worry after depleting his energy, he would gradually improve his proficiency level.

However, this did not mean that Chen Mo would never need to improve in the training area.

Imagine, releasing psychic bullets at a rate of once every five seconds without interruption. The results of an hour of training would undoubtedly greatly improve the proficiency of psychic bullet skill, perhaps even enough to surpass Chen Mo’s practice outside for one or two months.

In that case, if he became rich with points in the future and his skill proficiency reached a critical point, such as going from Level 6 to Level 7 or Level 9 to Level 10 he could consider coming here for temporary intensive training.

(End of chapter 58)

(TN – It’s the Sinhala and Tamil New Year festivals here in Sri Lanka now, wish you all a prosperous New Year!)