Chapter 31: Courage Training
“Ahem… kids don’t know any better.”
Off to the side, Chaoyang gave a little cough to smooth things over for his “cheap” sister.
“But it’s true, isn’t it? Uncles, aunties, it’s already the apocalypse. You can’t possibly expect us kids to be the ones protecting you, right?”
The adults: “……”
…Fair point.
If they really had to rely on a few children to protect them, they might as well throw away their pride.
“Cough, cough… w-we didn’t mean it like that,” Wang Defa spoke up weakly. “It’s just… we need some time to adjust, you know?”
Chaolu stroked her chin at that.
Hmm…
That was reasonable too.
These adults had never faced danger before—let alone fighting zombies, they probably couldn’t even run properly if they had to.
“Alright then, I’ll train you,” Chaolu’s eyes lit up as she came up with an idea. “I don’t have to go to school anymore anyway, I’ve got all the time in the world! Let’s start by training your courage!”
The adults: ???
…Train how?
By noon, they found out—
Chaolu had actually dragged back a zombie!
They were resting at a farmhouse near the highway. The adults had just finished lunch and were about to take a nap when Wang Defa went out to relieve himself. That was when he saw, right there in the courtyard, a zombie with a rope looped tight around its neck. The sight scared him so badly his urge to pee vanished instantly.
“Ahhhh! Zombie! Ahhhh!”
He scrambled back inside in a panic, practically rolling on the ground, too terrified to even close the door behind him.
The other adults inside the house heard him and immediately erupted into terrified shrieks, wailing like banshees—so loud they even drew the attention of zombies in the distance.
Chaolu, out in the courtyard: “……”
Mibao and Chaoyang, who were trying to nap inside: “……”
…So noisy.
The noise ended their nap, so the two of them got up, rubbing their eyes as they opened the door.
And then—
They just happened to see Wang Defa scrambling and tumbling past their doorway.
Mibao: “……”
Chaoyang: “……”
“…Brother Chaoyang, what’s Uncle Wang doing?” Mibao stared blankly for a few seconds before looking up at him. “Is he trying to be a turtle?”
Only turtles crawled like that.
Chaoyang took a deep breath. “He’s scared out of his wits.”
Chaolu had discussed the zombie-catching plan with him beforehand, so he knew there should be a zombie in the courtyard right now.
Half an hour later, the old house finally quieted down.
By then, the adults had also finished listening to Chaolu’s explanation—and all of them wore expressions of utter despair.
So… from now on, except when they were asleep, they’d have to stay together with that zombie?
Even during meals?!
Good lord, how were they supposed to eat like that?
That zombie wasn’t just scary-looking, it reeked horribly too…
Ugh.
Just thinking about it made them want to vomit.
“No refusing!” Chaolu lifted her chin with a stern expression. “You’re all way too timid. Just now, the moment you saw a zombie, you were screaming your heads off! If it hadn’t been tied up, you’d all be dead by now!”
Hearing that, the adults guiltily lowered their heads.
…Alright. Maybe they had panicked a little.
“So, starting today, we’re training your courage—until the day you can face a zombie suddenly popping out without screaming in fear.”
Chaolu declared firmly.
The adults’ faces instantly filled with despair.
How long would that take?!
“And you two as well,” Chaolu suddenly turned to Chaoyang and Mibao, who were watching the show from the sidelines. “From today on, everyone trains with me!”
Everyone: “……”
The sky is falling!
…
Mibao and Chaoyang didn’t need courage training, so the next day they were made to start running laps around the courtyard instead.
In Chaolu’s words: “You two don’t have the strength to fight zombies, but at the very least you need the ability to run away!”
So, the only thing the two little ones had to practice was running.
While the two of them jogged laps around the yard, Chaolu spent her time using the zombie to scare the adults.
The adults screamed and shrieked every time, their noise often attracting nearby zombies.
As a result, Chaolu had to split her attention—training the adults while also scrambling up the courtyard wall to shoot arrows at any zombies that came too close.
Since arrows were being used up too quickly, Chaolu even had to lead the adults into chopping down trees and making new ones.
Every day was exhausting.
After a whole week of this, the adults finally began to adapt to being around zombies.
They had no choice—no matter how scared they were, seeing one every single day, being jolted awake by terror over and over… eventually, you just get used to it.
Besides, screaming in fear was tiring too.
“Very good. Next, you need to learn how to strike at zombies!”
Chaolu looked at the adults with a face full of satisfaction.
She might have been small in stature, but her presence was commanding.
By now, the adults had completely started treating her like a little teacher.
“Teacher Chaolu, w-we can manage hiding from zombies, but actually killing them… we just don’t have the courage,” Li Xiangyu stammered.
The others nodded quickly in agreement.
Chaolu clapped her hands. “Courage is built through training! The fact that you don’t scream anymore when you see one is already the greatest proof!”
The adults: “……”
Couldn’t they get just a little break?
“Uncles, aunties, you can do it!” Mibao, who was still running laps, saw the adults’ discouraged expressions. She raised her tiny fists to cheer them on: “You’re the best!”
Having shouted that, she went back to huffing and puffing as she kept on running.
This immediately made the adults too embarrassed to complain.
Look—even little Mibao could get up early every day and keep running. They were all grown adults; how could they admit they couldn’t endure as much hardship as a child?
“Train! We’ll train!” Wang Defa gritted his teeth.
The other adults clenched their jaws and nodded as well.
“There’s a zombie here, I’ll give you a demonstration.” Chaolu walked up to the zombie, which looked rather sluggish at this point. Holding a machete, she positioned it at the zombie’s neck. “When killing zombies, you must go for the head! Either chop it clean off, or smash it until it’s pulp!”
With that, Chaolu swung the blade down hard at the zombie’s head!
The zombie went still instantly.
The sight was a bit gruesome, and the adults couldn’t bear to watch.
But they forced themselves to endure the nausea and look closely, learning from her movements.
Even Chaoyang, who was still running, didn’t cover Mibao’s eyes. Instead, he let her watch.
Children shouldn’t have to see something so bloody, but… this was the apocalypse.
So sooner or later, she’d have to face it.
Rather than letting Mibao grow up as a fragile hothouse flower, it was better to cultivate her ability to protect herself.
And clearly, Mibao’s tolerance was stronger than Chaoyang had expected.
Maybe it was because she had witnessed the death of the convenience-store sister on the very first day of the apocalypse… or maybe it was because her “system brother” had told her that after dying, that sister would still exist as a system.
So in Mibao’s mind, everyone who died was simply living on in another world.
That was why she wasn’t afraid.
Time passed bit by bit, and before long, they had already spent half a month there.
—
At the same time, Ji Ruwen—who had been unconscious for nearly a month—finally woke up.
The moment he opened his eyes, Ji Ruwen felt as if his whole body had stiffened into a steel plate. It took him a long while before he could finally sit up.