"Although I'm not your instructor, I hate seeing people crying and sniveling in front of me," the young man in standard soft armor said coldly. "After I take you to the dormitory, you can cry to your heart's content. Otherwise, you won't even have the strength to cry in the future."
Several children turned pale with fright and didn't dare to make a sound. The little girl named Minnie clenched the corner of her dress with her small hand and lowered her head, trying hard to hold back her tears.
The young man in standard soft armor glanced at the children, not bothering to scold them any further. He went to the counter, opened a drawer, grabbed a bunch of keys from it, turned around, and said, "Follow me." Then he left the hall directly.
Dudian immediately followed, and the other children picked up their backpacks on the ground and followed as well.
Following the path in the woods, they came to a row of low and shabby wooden sheds. The young man in standard soft armor stepped forward and opened several doors, saying, "This is it. Choose an empty bed by yourselves. The special training starts tomorrow morning." After that, he casually threw the keys for opening the doors to Dudian, who was not far from him, and then left directly.
Dudian held the three keys in his hand and looked at the row of shabby wooden sheds, frowning slightly. It was obvious that these were specially built for them to live in, and they were completely incomparable to the magnificent, unique, and sturdy buildings around. Even in the slum area, these were relatively inferior houses.
Are they making us experience hardships? Dudian knew that the special training didn't start tomorrow morning, but from this very moment.
He walked to the doors of the three rooms and took a look inside respectively. The layout of each room was the same. There were four beds in each wooden shed. There were no straw mats for padding, and some of the wooden planks were still stained with dark corrosive substances. He quickly scanned the rooms and selected a relatively clean wooden plank, put his backpack on it, and occupied it first. He planned to wait until everyone else had chosen their beds, and then go out to find some leaves or weeds to wipe the bed.
At this moment, the other children also came to choose their beds one after another. When they saw the shabby and worn wooden planks inside, they were all stunned. Then, they couldn't bear it and stopped at the door of the room. Even the boys pursed their lips slightly in grievance. The little girl named Minnie squatted down and started crying again.
Well! As soon as Dudian saw this, he knew that he had thought too much. Most likely, these children wouldn't step into this room for a while. After all, they had grown up in the residential area and had never seen such a harsh environment.
He immediately put the keys to the other two rooms at the door and kept the key to his own room in his hand. Then he went to the woods beside the shed and quickly picked up some dry leaves and green grass. When he returned to the room, he wiped off several black moldy patches on the wooden plank. He secretly regretted that he should have brought a mattress from home.
The other children watched Dudian busying around alone. They all stopped feeling sorry for themselves and stared at Dudian in a daze. After a while, one of the older children gritted his teeth and said to the other children, "Let's stay here for now. Endure it for a while. It will definitely get better."
In despair, hope is always needed for encouragement. When the other children saw that someone could adapt, they suddenly felt that it wasn't so unbearable. One by one, they silently chose their beds.
This older child chose Dudian's room. He seemed to be a bit curious about Dudian and took the initiative to say, "My name is Mekin. What's your name?"
"Dudian."
"You don't seem to be afraid of getting dirty." Children were just so straightforward.
"Actually, I have a mild case of mysophobia," Dudian said.
"What is mysophobia?"
"…It's nothing."
Mekin scratched his head, not knowing what else to say. He saw several moldy patches on the bed board. Remembering Dudian's previous method, he immediately left the room, picked some green grass outside, and came back to wipe the bed. But the moldy patches on his bed were too big. No matter how he wiped, it was still black. He felt a bit dejected and could only find some leaves to cover the moldy patches.
Dudian glanced at him and said, "Actually, it will be much better if you let it dry in the sun."
Mekin was taken aback, clapped his hands, and said, "That's right. I almost forgot." He immediately called out to the previous few children and said loudly, "Everyone, move your bed boards outside to dry in the sun, otherwise they will rot inside."
When the other children heard this, they immediately got mobilized.
Mekin looked at Dudian. "Don't you need to dry yours?"
"I can't move it."
"I'll help you," Mekin said immediately.
This was exactly what Dudian was waiting for. Although he could have directly asked for help, he had been a person who didn't like to ask others for help since he was a child. He said, "Thank you." Then, he and Mekin carried the bed board together and moved it to the open space outside.
Before long, another young man in standard soft armor led a group of children over.
This young man in standard soft armor looked at the bed boards spread out on the open space, was stunned for a moment, frowned slightly, but didn't say anything. Just like the previous one, he casually opened several rooms, let that group of children choose by themselves, left the keys, and then left.
That group of children looked at Dudian, Mekin, and the others curiously. Then they looked at the beds in their own rooms and were all stunned. After a while, they also followed suit and worked in pairs to move the bed boards to the open space outside to dry in the sun.
...
"Are the accommodations for these children all ready?" Dashani came to the window. In her hand wearing a white thin silk glove, she held a metal tube. If Dudian were here, he would recognize it as an old-fashioned telescope. She slightly opened it and looked towards the open space at the end of the woods behind the spire building. Immediately, she saw a row of wooden sheds that had been built not long ago on the open space through the telescope.
"Everything is done as you ordered. The environment of the accommodations this time remains the same, and the supply of hot water and bedding has been stopped," Tob said respectfully. "I believe they will quickly adapt to the hardships. This time, I'm confident that I can train a hundred 'Scavengers'!"
Dashani nodded slightly. Suddenly, she saw a group of children moving bed boards in front of the wooden sheds and laying them on the dry open space. She was slightly taken aback. After a while, she put away the telescope and said, "You need to discipline this group of children well. The number of those who pass the assessment every year has been decreasing. Only by improving the teaching methods can we maintain a stable number of Scavengers. In addition, the establishment of the guards is close to saturation. It's better to dispel their idea that they can still become guards even if they are eliminated."
Tob lowered his head and said, "Yes!"
...
...
In the evening, the children worked together and helped each other move the bed boards back to their respective rooms.
Mekin opened his backpack, took out a quilt from it, and spread it on the bed board. This immediately made the other two children who had chosen this room envious. He smiled and felt a bit proud of his "foresight". He lay down comfortably and started chatting with the other two children.
Dudian used a set of changed clothes as a cushion under him, closed his eyes, and reviewed the knowledge he had seen from the super chip in his mind.
Before he knew it, he fell asleep. When he woke up again, it was five o'clock in the early morning of the next day. It was still dark. What woke Dudian up was a harsh strange cry. When Dudian and the other children got up together and went outside to take a look, they saw a half-human-high creature that looked like a bird. It was stretching its neck and crying in front of the wooden shed. The sound was extremely harsh and sharp, as if it could penetrate the eardrums.