Chapter 49: How Can You Despair Without Trying?

Jiangcheng’s Lower District.

As mentioned before, this was a stretch of abandoned land.

Yet in an era of calamity, when every inch of earth is precious, even forsaken terrain finds countless purposes.

Besides hosting farms, the Forest of the Obsessed, prisons, and waste disposal systems, the Lower District serves another critical function—a training ground.

Special arrangements, though occasionally permissible, are best kept from prying eyes. Thus, Guan Junyuan pulled a few strings and secured a semi-military, semi-civilian facility—a half-indoor, half-simulated wilderness garrison training field in the Lower District.

On the training field, Ye Chao was drenched in sweat!

He wished it weren’t so. He loathed exercise, detested sweating, abhorred appearing so wretched!

But there was no escape; three baton rabbits were nipping at his heels.

Despite the muzzles affixed to their mouths and the padded gloves strapped to their feet—ensuring that even at full strength, their kicks wouldn’t kill—still, they could inflict pain, injury, and stomach cramps.

Dodging, sprinting—Ye Chao stumbled as one baton rabbit swept his legs from the side, sending him airborne. Before he could land, another rabbit launched a flying kick, propelling him even farther.

“Gurgle...” Ye Chao instinctively rolled, finally managing to absorb the impact as he hit the ground.

Yet, even clad in protective gear from head to toe, he was battered so badly he nearly regurgitated his recently consumed nutritional meal.

“Your landing was rather textbook,” Guan Junyuan commented, rubbing his bald head.

Had Xu Tiange been present, he would surely have agreed—he’d taught Ye Chao to fall countless times; it was the only technique Ye Chao had mastered. Beyond that, everything else was a jumble!

Fang Ju, who had brought the meal, looked mortified, nodding in agreement. “I always knew Ye Chao was weak, but I never imagined he couldn’t even handle three half-year-old rabbits...”

Indeed, that was the crux of the matter.

Ye Chao wasn’t facing adult baton rabbits, but three half-year-olds, each barely over a meter tall and weighing thirty to forty pounds.

Yet even so, he was being tormented nearly to death.

“Oh? So you’re stronger than him?” Guan Junyuan turned, glaring at Fang Ju, eyes and head flashing with cold light.

With his keen social instincts, Fang Ju sensed danger instantly.

“I... I suppose I’m a bit stronger than Ye Chao—not by much... but I can handle three rabbits like these,” he replied cautiously.

“Hmm, not bad, not bad.” Guan Junyuan nodded, then addressed the stern site manager nearby. “Open cage two, please. Three adult rabbits. Thank you.” He turned back to Fang Ju. “You—cage two.”

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“Ah?” Fang Ju’s legs turned to jelly.

Adult rabbits! One was manageable, two would mean a beating, three... could a man even last thirty seconds?

“What are you whining about? Go!” Guan Junyuan barked.

“Teacher, I—I was just here to deliver food...” Fang Ju was even more embarrassed. What foolishness! Why hadn’t he slipped away quietly? Isn’t staying alive good enough? Why linger and watch?

“You think you’re exempt?” Guan Junyuan sneered. “Fang Ju, your father told me you’re aiming for the Urban Management Academy to take the easy route.”

The Urban Management Academy—formally, the City Management Institute, a junior college. Nearly every city had one, including Jiangcheng. Those who couldn’t get into good or bad universities and found direct employment a pity went there as a compromise.

Graduates were often directly assigned jobs, absorbed within city departments—a mediocre, unremarkable option.

“Your grades aren’t stellar, but you have no glaring weaknesses. With some effort, you might not make the Top Four, but business or agricultural colleges are within reach.”

“Young man, if you don’t try hard now, you’ll regret it later!” He grabbed Fang Ju by the neck and tossed him into cage two.

With so many students, why did you end up delivering food? Don’t you know why?

Meanwhile, at cage one:

“Come on! Work hard! Young man, without struggle, how will you know despair?”

“When you feel small, weak, and useless, don’t despair—at least your judgment is sound.”

“How is it—painful, confused, dark? Don’t worry. Survive this darkness, and another will surely await you.”

In the real world, Ye Chao was doing his utmost to contend with three half-year-old rabbits—in essence, trying to minimize his beatings.

In the virtual space, Alpha Ji cheered for Ye Chao excitedly. Yet her words of encouragement seemed only to deflate Ye Chao further...

“Can’t you say something useful?” Ye Chao, aching and furious, couldn’t help but snap, despite his usual temperament.

“I really can’t...”

There was no way—her favorability rating was negative! Thus, encouragement became demoralization, chicken soup turned toxic, and Alpha Ji simply couldn’t help herself.

Still, the favorability meter ticked up: +3, +5, +7... constantly rising.

Essentially, the worse Ye Chao was beaten, the uglier his falls, the stranger his poses, the more favorability he gained.

But there was a problem: “Can’t you steady your camera? If you did, my favorability would increase even faster!” Alpha Ji complained.

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Ye Chao was indeed getting battered, but she saw little—only scattered fragments.

If she existed in reality, she could only move within Ye Chao’s field of vision, rolling and tumbling with him—so dizzy she’d nearly vomit.

In the virtual space, she could only see what Ye Chao saw—her perspective even more restricted!

The training ground had cameras. Alpha Ji tried to hack one for a fixed-angle view, but—she couldn’t get in! The camera’s protection was unexpectedly robust; she couldn’t even find the door.

Utterly helpless, she turned to Ye Chao for help.

“What am I supposed to do!” Ye Chao was nearly beside himself with frustration. After all, he was just a youth yet to venture far from home.

“Do you know chickens?”

“Of course I know chickens—I know them damn well!”

Originally, this was a prime opportunity to practice skills like Clone Technique, Invisibility, Mirror Image, and so on. But Alpha Ji refused to cooperate, insisting those were ultimate moves reserved for life-or-death moments; using them in training was wasteful, yadda yadda...

She had a point, but Ye Chao had no patience for reason right now!

He was furious and miserable!

“So you know how to curse—remarkable!” Alpha Ji applauded. “Have you noticed? Chickens are extraordinary animals. No matter how their bodies move, their heads remain stable, because their brains are too small to process complex moving images.”

“So I think you should definitely keep a chicken as a pet, and mount a camera on its head...”

Ye Chao certainly knew about chickens.

A fearsome social creature! With even greater reproductive prowess than baton rabbits—one per day, astonishing! Possessing some of the most toxic anti-human genes and latent abilities in existence! Once they flock together in flight, they block out the sky, leaving nothing alive in their wake!

“You want me to keep one of those dangerous things?”

눈_눈

Three years is a generation gap; thirty years, a chasm. That’s how wide and deep it truly is.

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