Epoch of Twilight

Chapter 188: Training

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It was a shared cafeteria. Both civilians and soldiers were sharing the same space for their meals. The survivors who had been talking stopped their conversation as soon as they saw Luo Yuan enter the cafeteria, and began to whisper instead. A few of the soldiers also began talking about him. Fatty Xie was taking up a whole table by himself. The man looked really upset, and left the place after stuffing a bun into his mouth. Luo Yuan thought he must have somehow offended everyone.

Huo Dong sneered as he watched Fatty Xie leave. He knew those people had been trying to show of until they had found out that Luo Yuan was actually a lot more powerful than them. Now they were trying to build a bond.

“If you want some bonding time with him, better make sure your brain is stronger than his Zhanmadao,” Huo Dong thought.

“What’s happening? I don’t sense anything good here,” Cao Lin told Huo Dong, pulling on his shirt a little as she stepped back.

Huo Dong shrugged and said uncertainly, “I have no idea. You could check with Brother Luo.”

Cao Lin glared at him for a second. She was definitely not going to ask Luo Yuan such a stupid question. He had such a sensitive dignity that even standing next to him made her terrified. She had been suspecting how Huang Jiahui was able to control his temper. They got in line to collect their food, which was free of charge. It was not a luxurious breakfast, but there were buns, porridge and meat soup, which was more than enough to motivate them. The women covered their mouths as they held back their tears. The food made them too nostalgic. It brought back memories of the old days, before the mutation outbreak.

“You’re the new arrivals? Have whatever you want, don’t starve yourselves. Anyway, you guys don’t seem to have been starving for a long time. There were a few of you who died from indigestion due to excessive food intake,” the military chef told Luo Yuan and his people.

"That’s sad. They must have gone through so much trouble to get here." In fact, Luo Yuan felt indifferent about those tragedies. He had simply said something just to be polite. "I’d like five buns, a bowl of porridge and some soup. By the way, what time is lunch and dinner here?"

“We’ve been quite busy recently and we’ll still be in the upcoming weeks, so there’s no set time for meals. It’s up to you. You eat whenever you want to eat.”

The man kept talking while he did his job, “There are only a few days of the good times left. Things will be different after we’re past the rehabilitation area. They’re going to implement planned economy policies. Food supply will be based on tickets. In other words, you won’t ever feel full, but you won’t die either.”

Finally, they got their food, split into two groups and sat down. The survivors sitting beside their table quickly finished up their food and left. Obviously, that was a side effect of the earlier incident.

“Cowards!” Lin Xiaoji could not bear it. He took a big bite on his bun and said, “It tastes awful.”

“We should consider ourselves lucky to even have food,” Wang Xiaguang said as she recalled what the chef had said. “We might not be able to have this kind of food again after we leave. By the way, what happened earlier in the morning? I heard Cao Lin and Huo Dong talking about it.”

“I knew that something was wrong!” Huang Jiahui said. She looked at Luo Yuan and then back at Huo Dong.

Luo Yuan continued eating his food. He did not seem keen on explaining. Huo Dong replied, “Someone was trying to challenge Brother Luo, but ended up getting scared instead.”

“I thought it was something bigger.” Wang Shishi looked disappointed.

“What were you thinking then? Did you expect some killing to have taken place?” Huang Jiahui glared at her.

“Are any evolved people staying with you?” Huo Dong asked curiously.

"I’m not sure. We went to bed at around 3 a.m. and came here as soon as we woke up," Huang Jiahui said. Then, she looked at Luo Yuan again. He had not said a single word, and she thought that he was acting strange. He had not said anything else after talking to the chef just now.

In fact, Luo Yuan did not have time to talk. He needed to focus on controlling his powers instead. For example, normal people did not need to control their strength while walking or staying still.

That did not require a lot of thinking or planning on their part. Luo Yuan, however, had to adapt to his new abilities as his powers increased.

Walking was the easiest as it did not involve a lot of muscles. Eating was the most complicated, because he needed to calculate the strength he would need to use on his chopsticks and how much pressure he needed to apply to different parts of his arm. That was why he had no time to answer their questions.

Luo Yuan needed to go through those experiences again every once in awhile. It was something new to him, but he already had the clues he needed in order to train. It usually took him 3 to 14 days to acquire a new ability.

When Luo Yuan finished all his food, he began to sweat. Once he felt better, he turned to the women, “All of you need to be more careful. Not every survivor is a good person.”

Circumstances could change a person, especially those particular ones. It was a very quiet day, so Luo Yuan kept practicing on his Will and Sensory Perception. At the same time, he was waiting for the departure of the aircraft. Fatty Xie was not as passionate as the first time they had met anymore. He had gotten embarrassed and he always made sure to show Luo Yuan how upset he was. Luo Yuan did not give a damn about him. He only went to the training court, the cafeteria and his dormitory. Half of the training court was taken up by a shooting range and the other half was divided into training rooms, which were open to all survivors. Of course, there were some soldiers training there as well.

The new guns were extremely powerful and could smash their targets in one shot. The bullets were 7 centimeters long, heavy, and plated with copper. They could not afford to waste them, so they would recycle them after every single shot. The soldiers who had arrived at the base with Luo Yuan would talk to him with gratitude and tell him some classified information.

According to that information, Zhou Yicheng had become the new Camp Officer, although he was currently at the rehabilitation center. Apparently, the situation seemed to have subsided as everyone looked quite relaxed. Luo Yuan was learning more about himself by using the training equipment in the training court. If 13-point Strength was the human limit, then 14 points definitely made him a legend.

He could free throw 400 kg and grab 30 kg. Considering he weighed 75 kg, both achievements were far beyond the world record. Due to the space constraints, Luo Yuan could only run a short distance. He could roughly run 100 meters in three seconds.

Three seconds was the length of time it took for a complete cycle of respiration. He didn’t have to hide anymore as there was an increasing number of evolved people joining the camp. Luo Yuan had tried to keep a low profile in the past few days, because he needed to learn how to control his Strength. However, in the next few days he had started an extreme intensive training program in order to get rid of the old side effects.

Apparently, the equipment in the training court was just for strength testing, so he had to make his own intensive training program. There were many ways to conduct intensive training. For example, he could ask both Huo Dong and Lin Xiaoji to help him train at escaping bullets, or he could tell them to hit him with an iron bar so he could control his muscle strength and protect himself that way.

He could not avoid getting hurt. Every single time ended with him throwing up blood or having a bullet hole in his body. Any survivors or soldiers nearby got frightened and pale as they watched his training. Even Huo Dong and Lin Xiaoji were worried that they might hurt him, and felt relieved when Luo Yuan woke up the next morning feeling alright.

Luo Yuan realized that his power had increased once again as he kept using his Will to cure his wounds after each injury. He also realized that his power had been enhanced in just a few days’ time, but he was not sure what the key factor was.

These days, he could hardly get hurt by regular guns. The bullets would just get stuck in his solid muscles once they penetrated his skin, and all he had to do was force the disfigured bullet out of his muscle fibers. That was the effect if he got shot from a short distance. Getting shot from a long distance was even less effective.

During their stay there, Luo Yuan asked permission to go out to check on the giant lizard, but the request was rejected. He decided to endure their treatment of him and see what he could do once he saw Zhou Yicheng.

A week later, four soldiers were waiting for Luo Yuan and his people at their dormitory when they came back from the cafeteria. Fatty Xie and a dirty woman were there as well.

“Our superior wants to see you,” one of the soldiers said.