Chapter 76: It’s Not Me Forcing You

Chen Luo looked atMi Ling’s smug smile and shook his head slightly, feeling a sense of admiration.

“Very well, Mi Ling. You have successfully predicted my prediction?”

Chen Luo chuckled, acknowledging Mi Ling’s formidable talent in battle, which earned her the title of “Goddess of War, Blood-Red Rose Flame Princess.”

Compared Chen Luo, Mi Ling was still much weaker. In a real fight, she would never have the opportunity to unleash so many fireballs.

If Mi Ling and Chen Luo were at the same level…

‘No way, no way. You don’t actually think Chen Luo would engage Mi Ling in a direct fight, do you?’

‘I’ll make my escape first. I’ll find an opportunity to take you down from the shadows.’

‘A formidable opponent, I’ll never engage you head-on, it’s too dangerous.’

‘You say I have no shame? Ha, the not so shameless ones are already dead.’

Chen Luo wasn’t feeling any pride either. These were controlled, weak little fireballs. If not for the fast frequency of her releases, it wouldn’t have hit Chen Luo despite his carelessness.

The gap between her and Chen Luo was still too great.

Chen Luo laughed, “Don’t worry, there’s no way a level one zombie possesses the intelligence for prediction. If you encounter one that can predict, just run. It’s completely beyond what you can handle.”

“Alright, everyone, spend the morning training this technique with your respective partners. After lunch, we’ll set off.”

At noon, they had sausages for lunch, but many people feared they wouldn’t live long enough to finish their meal.

Chen Luo said, “We have a total of 52 people. 12 people will stay behind to guard the base, taking turns.”

“The remaining 40 people will form teams of 4, making ten teams in total. These ten teams should maintain a good distance from each other but stay close enough to provide mutual support.”

“Each team will have a walkie-talkie for communication in case of emergencies.”

The dangers in the apocalypse not only came from zombies but also from other survivors. If everyone scattered too far apart, they might encounter dangerous situations when encountering larger groups of survivors.

With only four people, they wouldn’t have to worry much about encountering one or two zombies since zombies don’t run.

Upon hearing Chen Luo’s words, many people breathed a sigh of relief. They were truly afraid that Chen Luo would scatter them to different locations.

The teams were composed with an aim for a balance between genders, preferably having one physical combatant in each team.

Before setting off, Chen Luo calmly stated, “At 6 PM or upon completing the mission, everyone should gather at the villa area. Today’s mission is considered half a day’s work. Each person needs to collect three Level 1 crystals. If a team fails to complete the task, the entire team will be penalized, and there will be no dinner upon returning. Consider it as punishment.”

The initial punishment was relatively light, but if teams consistently failed to complete their tasks, they would not be allowed to return until they succeeded.

Except for Chen Luo’s team, everyone would travel on foot instead of using vehicles. There were still a few scattered zombies in the vicinity, providing them with an opportunity to practice their skills.

Everyone suddenly realized why Chen Luo had intentionally left some zombies during their previous clean-up operation. His foresight was truly admirable and earned their respect.

Chen Luo only observed from the car for a moment before driving away. He had done his best to provide guidance and make proper arrangements for them. If they still met unfortunate fates, it would be their own responsibility.

It was not feasible for him to personally protect each and every one of them like a bodyguard. This was the apocalypse, not a game of house. Danger lurked everywhere.

With preparations made for potential casualties, Chen Luo left to venture into areas with a higher concentration of zombies in order to obtain more crystals.

Arriving at a street where the number of zombies had started to increase, Chen Luo instructed three individuals to disembark from the car. “Dazhu, Mi Ling, you two will handle the zombies, while Mi Li, you provide them with buffs and collect the crystals.”

Mi Li wore a bitter expression. She would rather fight the zombies herself than have to collect the gory crystals. If she had to blame someone, it would be herself for not having combat skills.

Dazhu had reached Level 3, and Mi Li had also reached Level 3. With Mi Li’s buffs, Dazhu’s defense and strength were now comparable to Chen Luo’s.

Dazhu served as the warrior, Mi Ling as the mage, and Mi Li as the priest. They had a complete lineup of warrior, mage, and priest.

With all of them being Level 3, dealing with these Level 1 zombies, or even zombies that hadn’t reached Level 1 yet, was a piece of cake. These zombies posed no challenge for the three of them, but finding Level 3 or Level 4 zombies was not something Chen Luo could easily come across.

Chen Luo drove slowly behind them, observing their progress.

However, Chen Luo wasn’t just idling by. He took out a homemade textbook and began teaching Rice, who was nestled in his arms, and the Archmage sitting in the passenger seat, providing them with nine years of compulsory education.

Chen Luo said, “Now I’ll teach you pinyin. In the future, if you come across unfamiliar characters, you can just look them up in the dictionary.”

Mi Ling couldn’t help but find it amusing. Was this something human should do? Teaching cats and dogs how to read?

Eight zombies attacked, and it was the largest group they encountered this afternoon.

Su Dazhu was about to charge forward, but Mi Ling stopped him.

Mi Ling had a feeling that she could use a new spell.

She released a fireball that was twice the size of her previous ones. If the diameter of her previous fireballs was five centimeters, this one was ten centimeters.

As the zombies approached, Mi Ling threw the fireball into their midst and controlled it with a sense of intuition.

Suddenly, the flames exploded, taking down five of the zombies. The remaining three remained lively due to the limited range of the explosion.

Mi Ling was thrilled. Her intuition was indeed correct.

Chen Luo chuckled lightly, noting that the Thunderbolt King had recently grasped a similar skill.

With only three zombies left, Mi Ling chose to kill them one by one, as the previous spell had drained her considerably.

After killing over a hundred zombies, both Mi Ling and Mili ran out of power. ^[1]I will be using power  instead of mana, because I don’t want to make it sound like a game. LOL

The BUFF that Mi Li cast had stronger effects but required greater energy consumption, and she constantly cast it on Su Dazhu, who couldn’t hold on for much longer.

While Su Dazhu wouldn’t be in mortal danger, sustaining injuries was inevitable.

Chen Luo and the Thunderbolt King stepped forward, easily killing over two hundred zombies.

The proportion of first-level zombies was relatively low, around one-third of the total.

After checking the time, Chen Luo began to head back.

Upon Chen Luo’s return, everyone had gathered.

Those who were injured received some treatment from Wang Ling, their injuries weren’t severe.

However, what made everyone’s expression turn grim was the death of one person.

The deceased was a male member of Chen Guang’s team, a first-level ability user, who was hit by a spell in the head and died on the spot.

Seeing the morale of the group drop, Chen Luo calmly said, “Don’t blame me for being too demanding and pushing you into battle. It’s this world that is too cruel.”

Originally, many people had doubted Chen Luo’s words. Were there really so many zombies capable of casting spells?

But in the afternoon, at least one-third of the zombies suddenly displayed spellcasting abilities.

If you don’t move forward, the world will force you to move forward.

Chen Guang wryly smiled and said, “Ah, this world of Cao Dan.”

Two teams failed to complete the mission; Chen Luo didn’t show any mercy. He starved them for a meal.

It was just one missed meal, not like they hadn’t gone three days without food before, right?

In the evening, all the members absorbed first-level crystals. First-level crystals contained more than twice the energy of the lowest-level crystals, and their quality was completely different.

Shu Yun has reached the third level. Originally, she could only absorb 11 pieces of the lowest-level crystals in a day, but now she can only absorb 7 pieces of first-level crystals.

This is just one example. Most people can only absorb around 1.5 pieces. The remaining crystals are collected by Chen Luo.

Anyway, you can absorb as much as you can. Any excess should be handed over.

Chen Luo hopes that someone can absorb more because it indicates faster growth.

………..