Chen Mu had no objections to Dong Junwei's proposal. After all, the more self-defense abilities each person had, the safer the team would be.
Though the actual impact of this increase might not be significant, at least it meant the team wouldn't be a liability during critical moments.
Besides, in this environment, survival was all about struggling through tiny opportunities. Giving 99% effort to gain a 1% chance of survival was still worth it.
Considering that Tang Jing might not have as much strength, Chen Mu divided his weapon into two and made an iron rod for her.
He didn't dare give her a bladed weapon, fearing she might accidentally cut herself while swinging it.
Tang Jing shook the iron rod in her hand and asked, "Do I aim for their heads?"
Perhaps noticing the scattered rice on the ground, several rice weevils stealthily crawled out.
Chen Mu replied, "Hit them around the mouth area; that's the softest spot."
Rice weevils didn't have a proper mouth; their front end was a long and thin proboscis-like structure.
"Okay," Tang Jing said and stepped forward first.
Wei Dalei was worried about any unexpected situations and followed closely with his wolf-toothed club, guarding at the side.
The process of the fight was actually somewhat comical.
Although Tang Jing was brilliant, she clearly had no experience in fighting. Gripping the iron rod, she suppressed her discomfort and tried to smash down vertically on one of the rice weevils.
However, the first strike missed the rice weevil completely, creating a loud bang as it hit the ground. The weevil got startled and ran away.
Tang Jing was unwilling to give up and chased after it, delivering a second strike.
Though this time the hit landed, it only struck the weevil's back.
These small beetles had extremely tough shells.
Tang Jing swung the rod at the rice weevils, but it barely did any damage. However, the attacked weevils hastened their escape.
Seeing that she couldn't catch up with them, Tang Jing switched to another weevil.
But no matter how many strikes she made, they either missed or just tickled the weevils, posing no real threat.
Out of breath, she returned and shook her head, "I can't do it."
Chen Mu couldn't help but find her failure amusing.
"Next, I'll try," Zhao Xiaoyan stepped up as the second contender.
For safety reasons, Dong Junwei only allowed one person to take action at a time.
Wei Dalei's expression turned serious, holding the wolf-toothed club closer.
However, Zhao Xiaoyan's "accomplishments" were even worse than Tang Jing's. Throughout the whole time, she only hit the ground, never touching a weevil.
"It's okay, everyone just needs time to get used to it. You won't become experts all of a sudden," Dong Junwei smiled.
After that, one by one, the others took their turns.
Since boys generally had more strength, Chang Junyan managed to hit a weevil's foot with his strike, causing it to scurry away in pain.
Surprisingly, the best result came from the usually meek and agreeable Qian Fei.
Seizing the opportunity, he swung the rod at a weevil's face, smashing it into a ball. Then, like he was venting, he crazily struck the weevil's body more than a dozen times.
The tough shell finally broke, and the weevil was reduced to a pile of mush.
Dong Junwei was the last one to go.
Although she usually looked like a queen, when she actually swung her weapon, she wasn't much better than Tang Jing. The difference was that Dong Junwei was more composed, striving for maximum power and precision with each strike. However, she still couldn't kill a single weevil.
In the end, all together, only Qian Fei had truly killed a weevil.
Dong Junwei's forehead was slightly sweaty as she returned, catching her breath. She chuckled and said, "It's easy to talk about it, but it's not so simple in reality. Even these small, non-resistant rice weevils are not easy to kill."
As she spoke, she handed the iron rod back to Chen Mu.
"Rice weevils are indeed quite tough; in gaming terms, you could say they have high armor," Chen Mu joked, casually taking the weapon from Dong Junwei.
However, as soon as he held the iron rod, it felt scorching hot, and he immediately withdrew his hand.
"Clang."
The iron rod fell to the ground.
"What's wrong?" Dong Junwei didn't understand, thinking Chen Mu just didn't hold it properly, so she bent down to pick up the iron rod.
Chen Mu hurriedly shouted, "Don't touch it."
For some unknown reason, the iron rod had become scalding hot, as if it had been in a fire. Although the temperature wasn't high enough to burn the skin, it couldn't be touched barehanded.
But he reacted a bit too late; Dong Junwei had already picked up the iron rod again, looking puzzled as she asked, "What's wrong?"
Chen Mu was extremely surprised, "Aren't you hurt?"
"What could be wrong?" Dong Junwei was puzzled.
"It's not hot?"
"What? This rod?" she asked.
"Yeah."
"I don't feel anything," Dong Junwei became even more puzzled.
Half-believing, half-doubting, Chen Mu tentatively touched the iron rod again.
The next moment, he recoiled once more.
It was still scalding hot.
But when Dong Junwei held the iron rod, she felt nothing.
What's going on?!
"Da Lei, you try it," Chen Mu said.
Everyone gathered around, and Chen Mu explained a bit, arousing their curiosity.
Wei Dalei reached out to take the iron rod, but like Chen Mu, he quickly pulled back his hand due to the burning heat.
Almost everyone tried, but none could touch it.
The iron rod was scalding hot.
But Dong Junwei seemed unaffected.
"Maybe this is the Class President's ability?" Tang Jing blew on her hand and suddenly suggested.
"Could I... have awakened an ability too?" Dong Junwei half-worriedly and half-excitedly asked.
"Other than that, there seems to be no other explanation."
"But what ability is it? Aren't you afraid of getting burned?" someone wondered.
"Maybe it's... changing the object's temperature?" Chen Mu proposed.
Tang Jing added, "It's possible, but not certain. Chen Mu, give the other piece to Dong Junwei. Uh... let's swap for another iron piece."
Chen Mu nodded and turned the other half of the weapon into a rectangular iron block, handing it to Dong Junwei.
Dong Junwei took it, feeling a bit puzzled. "What do I do now?"
"Press your hands tightly against it, concentrate your mind... I don't know how to describe it exactly. Just try to feel it yourself," Chen Mu offered a not-so-professional suggestion based on his own ability.
Activating abilities was indeed a process that was hard to put into words; it was purely a feeling.
But soon, Dong Junwei exclaimed with delight, "I feel something."
"What?" Everyone was surprised.
"It's like there's heat being transferred to this piece of iron from my hands," Dong Junwei said while concentrating even more.
"The Class President probably awakened her ability after being highly focused during the previous battle," Tang Jing speculated.
Chen Mu recalled Dong Junwei's serious and nervous expression when she held the iron rod and nodded in agreement.
However, during their lively discussion, something extraordinary happened.
Threads of blue smoke began to rise from the iron block in Dong Junwei's hands.
Evidently, the temperature rise surpassed what the iron rod had shown earlier.
And Dong Junwei herself remained completely unaware.
"Holy crap!" Everyone was astonished.