Disaster Strikes - Chapter 9:

Chapter 9 Learning Resources

(TN- Charcoal = Mu Tan)

“Wait a minute.”

On this morning, Charcoal suddenly spoke, stopping Chen Mo who was about to go out for morning exercises.

After a brief moment of astonishment, Chen Mo noticed that Han Xue, who usually left for morning exercises earlier than him, had not yet gone out. Then, under Mu Tan’s mysterious gesture, Du Fangyan also unusually got up early and dressed, and the four of them left the room together.

“Isn’t Qing Qing coming?” Han Xue asked.

“Even if the mentor gave up on her, she shouldn’t give up on herself,” Du Fangyan’s face was slightly unpleasant, but he just shook his head and said nothing.

“What’s so secretive?” Du Fangyan wasn’t in a good mood. He liked to sleep until he naturally woke up. The weather outside was too cold at this time, making him unable to stop shivering.

Charcoal looked around and, after confirming that no one was paying attention, whispered, “Last night, I overheard a conversation between them five. Starting from today, Mentor QingHong will teach basic skills.”

Charcoal’s words made everyone’s eyes light up, looking eager to try.

“Isn’t this a good thing? Why call us out?” Han Xue was puzzled, her tone cold.

Obviously, it’s because of the conflict with Lu Yi on the first day of school, and the others didn’t step forward.

Charcoal, with a sly look, sighed, “They have already agreed to bribe Mentor QingHong before today’s class. This was a rule set by their families before they came to the academy. You should know that the school’s practice equipment is specially processed by the Lord of Disaster, using these equipments to train basic skills can be said to be twice the result with half the effort. If the mentor opens the back door for them, won’t our gap be even greater?”

At these words, everyone’s faces turned ugly.

Different from those adult starving ghosts, as abandoned orphans, they simply did not have enough contributions or resources to bribe the mentor.

Charcoal continued, “And I heard that because they have been teaching us, the enlightened starving ghosts, for years, the mentors at the academy have mastered some special techniques, especially suitable for improving basic skills below level 10. So, if we can gain the favor of the mentors during the academy period, it will be a great improvement for us!”

“Unconventional methods!” Han Xue’s face was cold, “My mother told me that perseverance and hard work are far more important than any talent and cleverness.”

The others remained silent, this was really bad news.

Chen Mo was also pondering his own situation.

However, he only had 1 contribution point. If he used it to bribe, he was afraid it would be counterproductive and be misunderstood by Mentor Qing Hong as an insult or mockery.

“In fact, I have an idea,” Mu Tan took a deep breath and looked at everyone, “I know everyone is in a difficult situation, but we can try to concentrate our resources on one person as much as possible. Let the person in our little group grow first, and then help others. What do you think?”

“Hmph.” Han Xue sneered, “No need to say, that person must be you, right?”

Charcoal said naturally, “Yes, but this is not just for me, but for everyone’s sake. This is the most reasonable way to arrange resources for our little group.”

“Sorry, I have something else to do, and I can’t accompany you.” Han Xue bypassed Charcoal and ran towards the crowd of people doing morning exercises.

Chen Mo also politely said, “I’m afraid I will disappoint you. I really don’t have anything valuable to offer, but thank you for your reminder.”

After speaking, Chen Mo also began his morning exercises for the day.

Du Fangyan didn’t know what he said to Charcoal but he looked frustrated and returned to the dormitory alone. Du Fangyan stood still for a while before slowly walking back.

After the morning exercises, Chen Mo came to the cafeteria.

He noticed that four mentors were on guard in front of the cafeteria door, their faces very serious, as if something had happened.

Charcoal, Du Fangyan, Du Qingqing, and Han Xue stood at the entrance of the cafeteria. When they saw Chen Mo, they waved to him, signaling him to come over.

There were many people in the cafeteria, most of them were in small groups, discussing their basic attributes and the strength of their basic skills, and some were discussing the wonders and interesting stories in the academy.

The four of them carried trays full of gruel and sat down at an empty table.

“Last night, a starving ghost died in the training area. It is said that he was one of the strongest in his class, and he was about to participate in the starving ghost trial in less than ten days. However, this morning, his body was found in a corner of the training area.” Charcoal said solemnly.

Gathering this kind of news and intelligence was his favourite thing to do.

“I just heard about it. It is said that the basic boxing level of this starving ghost is at least Lv8, with strength and speed both over 15 points, but he died like this.” Han Xue said.

This kind of attribute value was definitely the strongest person in Chen Mo’s class besides Lei Wu. With just basic attributes and basic skills, he could suppress the other few adult starving ghosts in the class.

“Ah, how will the school handle this?” Du Fangyan was a little frightened, constantly looking around, as if it was not safe here either.

“I just overheard a few mentors talking. They said that according to the usual practice, because there was no movement at the scene of the incident last night, and no one noticed anything unusual, it will be considered a suicide as the investigation result.”

Upon hearing this, everyone couldn’t help but sigh.

In the world of disasters, the weak never receive sympathy.

Even in the academy, although there are strict regulations against harming others at will, if the victim does not even have a chance to call for help and dies silently like this, the academy sees it as a deserved death and is too lazy to investigate further.

Now even such a strong person can die in the academy without any explanation, let alone the group of people at Chen Mo’s table.

“Hey, Traveller, weren’t you the last one back last night? Did you hear anything?” Chen Mo’s face turned quite ugly.

Last night, he did stay up quite late practising basic telekinesis. He had also moved several times during that time, proud of mastering basic telekinesis Lv1, but he never thought that danger was so close, and he completely failed to notice it.

It seems that he will have to be more careful in the future.

Seeing Chen Mo’s shaking his head in an unpleasant manner, everyone stopped asking.

“What are you going to do!” Du Qingqing’s frightened voice made Chen Mo and the others look over, their faces changing.

Lu Yi, the brazen one, had once again approached Du Qingqing and sat down next to her.

Du Qingqing showed a look of fear, very scared, and moved closer to Du Fangyan. Du Fangyan looked at Han Xue, but after the previous experience, Han Xue was too lazy to bother with these trivial matters. Mu Tan didn’t need to say more, pretending not to have seen anything.

Chen Mo was speechless at this, she is your sister.

However, this time, Lu Yi did not act again.

He chuckled and actually placed the tray in his hand in front of Du Qingqing.

A hot and fragrant smell came from the tray, containing several pieces of fish fillet, a small dish of curry, a few slices of bread, and some mashed potatoes.

Compared to the gruel in everyone’s trays, it was a world of difference.

Gurgle.

Everyone couldn’t help but swallow their saliva, even Han Xue was no exception.

Lu Yi proudly said, “This is for you.”

“For me?” Du Qingqing couldn’t believe it.

Looking at the wonderful food in the tray, she couldn’t help but swallow her saliva again.

After a moment of hesitation, she was overcome by desire, unable to resist, and bowed her head to eat the wonderful food in the tray.

“How about that, if you follow me, you can eat these delicacies every day in the future.” Lu Yi reached out his right hand and stroked Du Qingqing’s hair.

This time, Du Qingqing did not dodge anymore, just kept eating the food in the tray.

Seeing this scene, Han Xue was really angry and laughed coldly. She really didn’t understand what she had done in the beginning. Now she didn’t even want to look at it again. She lowered her head and continued to eat the gruel in her tray. Du Fangyan was full of shame, but he couldn’t help but look at his sister’s tray and swallowed his saliva.

After a while.

After eating the food in Lu Yi’s tray, Du Qingqing, pulled by Lu Yi, reluctantly followed him away.

It was not until the two of them had walked far away that Du Fangyan looked at Han Xue and asked, “Why didn’t you speak up for her? She’s still so young!”

“Disgusting.”

Han Xue seemed to feel that it was a waste of breath to say another word to him, so she got up and left directly.

“Wait a minute, little sister.”

A person at the nearby table suddenly stopped Han Xue, seeming quite interested in her.

It had to be said that compared to Du Qingqing’s greenness and innocence, Han Xue’s aloofness and arrogance were another kind of charm. Without saying anything, everyone knew what this guy wanted to do.

But it was different from Du Qingqing.

Han Xue’s attitude was obviously more tough and deterrent.

Even though her strength was not considered strong, no one would doubt her determination to resist. This was also a necessary condition for the survival of the disaster victims. Even if it meant death, they would bite off a layer of your skin.

“Do I know you?”

Han Xue said coldly, “Get lost!”

Seeing this, the man was quite tactful and didn’t bother Han Xue anymore.

In the classroom.

Han Xue was still sulking about what had just happened, looking like she could explode at any moment. The three of them didn’t dare to approach her, so they chose to sit in a corner. Chen Mo and Mu Tan had no expression, as if they knew nothing.

Du Fangyan’s face was red, his eyes filled with bloodshot veins, constantly looking outside the classroom, as if waiting for something.

It was almost time for class, and besides Du Qingqing, Lu Yi had not come.

The mentor, Qinghong, arrived at the classroom as usual and stood on the platform looking at everyone.

“Students, starting today, I will teach you the training methods and application techniques for twenty basic skills related to natural disasters. Each of you should choose one or two skills to focus on based on your own strengths.”

With that, she took out her notebook.

“Now, each of you will report the basic skills you want to focus on.”

“Gao Shu.”

The first to stand up was Gao Shu, who was sitting in the front of the classroom.

“I want to focus on training basic assassination and basic body techniques.”

Without waiting for Qinghong’s response, he took out a small bag of shiny stones from his storage space and respectfully handed them to Qinghong.

Such blatant bribery made even Chen Mo, who was somewhat prepared, speechless.

“Energy stones, at least a dozen.”

Mu Tan took a deep breath, murmuring softly, looking very envious.

After Qinghong took the energy stones, she hummed and recorded them in her notebook.

The other several adult starving ghosts who followed suit also gave bribes one by one. Such blatant bribery was quite different from Chen Mo’s educational philosophy, but in the world of disasters, it was quite normal.

Qinghong did not refuse anyone who came, or perhaps everyone gave her the satisfactory amount she had in mind.

“Gui Tu.”

When it was Gui Tu’s turn, he stood up and said, “I want to focus on training basic chopping and basic blocking.”

Unexpectedly, after Qinghong glanced at him, she said lightly, “Don’t aim too high. With your talent, learning one basic chopping skill is enough. Next.”

This made everyone understand.

Without bribery, you could only choose one basic skill to focus on. The different results of this choice would lead to a difference in results, similar to having a Level 7 basic skill versus two Level 6 basic skills. Naturally, the latter was better for surviving the starving ghost trial task.

Although others were angry about this, they could do nothing about it.

When it was Lei Wu’s turn, he simply said, “Basic elements.”

He seemed to have no intention of bribing, showing extreme confidence in himself. Qinghong was not surprised by this and remained quite calm.

Soon it was Chen Mo’s turn.

He stood up and said, “Basic telekinesis.”

After recording all the students in the class, Qinghong looked at her notebook and frowned, “There is still one missing, Lu Yi?”

Gao Shu stood up and whispered something to Qinghong, while taking out a small bag.

After taking the bag, Qinghong opened it and looked inside before tossing it back.

“Since he’s sick, wait for him to get better before coming to see me.”

Seeing this scene, Chen Mo knew without thinking that Qinghong was not satisfied with what was in the bag, or she was displeased with his behavior of disrupting her class.

Immediately after, Qinghong left the classroom quickly.

When she returned, she was carrying a huge wooden box containing various types of equipment and props. According to the records in her notebook, she distributed these items to everyone.

Chen Mo received a walnut-sized, gyro-like magical prop.

“These are the training props for the starving ghost students, which can help you better grasp the basic skills and are also one of the welfare measures provided by the Great Sorrow River Disaster Academy.”

The students who received the training props instinctively began to practice in the classroom.

Chen Mo was surprised to find that controlling this gyro with telekinesis seemed to be easier than controlling the keys to the library. The gyro not only floated effortlessly but also flew around him in a very stable arc.

Through this gyro, he could more delicately sense his telekinetic state.

Several people who noticed the situation here couldn’t help but show surprise.

“Wow, when did you master basic telekinesis?”

Mu Tan exclaimed, looking very envious.

He had chosen to focus on training basic body techniques and was given two weighted sandbags by the instructor, which also had magical properties.

“It’s just luck.”

Chen Mo’s modesty made Mu Tan think he was hiding something mysterious. With his legs tied to the sandbags, he was obviously a bit awkward in his movements.

There were a total of twelve students in the class, and Qinghong’s time for guidance was quite limited.

Everyone noticed that she spent significantly more time guiding the four adult starving ghosts, almost three to four times more than others, and would demonstrate and explain personally, while with others, she would just end the guidance after a few words.

This was obviously the result of the bribes earlier.

The adult starving ghosts were content with this and, intentionally or unintentionally, showed a proud look.

Qinghong’s guidance soon came to Chen Mo.

“When did you master basic telekinesis?”

“Yesterday.”

“Not bad.”

After praising Chen Mo briefly, she began to explain and guide. Many of the things she explained were practical knowledge not found in books. Unfortunately, her guidance time for Chen Mo was also short, and it was soon the next student’s turn.

But even so, Chen Mo still felt that after Qinghong’s explanation and guidance, many things that had been unclear to him suddenly became clear, and he benefited a lot.

“It’s a pity that the teacher’s guidance time is too short.”

Chen Mo looked at the several adult starving ghosts and felt a bit envious.

“Let me add one more thing!”

After going around the class, Qinghong seemed to remember something and, after attracting everyone’s attention, loudly said, “If you don’t want to die in the starving ghost trial, you must ensure that your main basic skills are raised to Level 5 or above, and it’s even better if you can reach Level 10.”

Soon it was time for class to end.

Under Qinghong’s command, everyone returned the training props. After Qinghong confirmed each one, she officially announced the end of class.

(End of chapter 9)