At 4 p.m., we had already divided the supplies for the team and Q.Minh (a new member, also joining quite coincidentally) for the inventory of all seven of us. We also reported the situation to the military, along with the strongest evidence (they had downloaded the video, made multiple copies, and sent them to the main headquarters), and they sent 20 elite soldiers to handle it. We also learned that V.Minh was still unconscious and recovering in the town hospital (which the military had just taken over). Meanwhile, we were sitting in V.Minh's vegetable garden, admiring the trees, vegetables, flowers, butterflies fluttering by, enjoying this peaceful scene comfortably.
And Truong appeared.
"The military has sent 20 people to investigate, so do we need to intervene anymore?" Truong approached, sat down, and said to us.
"Do they still have any questions?" T.Hai asked.
"The gunpowder and chemical matters," H.Anh said.
"So what are they planning to do with the chemical issue?" T.Hai continued asking.
"They will search your house-" H.Anh was saying when T.Hai suddenly exclaimed.
"Joking! I have to get all the chemicals from the basement!" T.Hai shouted and ran off.
"Why such a hurry?" H.Anh asked with confusion.
"I will continue Fritz Haber's legacy!!!" T.Hai shouted loudly while running at full speed.
"Why Fritz Haber?" I sighed.
Truong watched T.Hai leave, feeling speechless, then turned back to us.
"I asked about whether we should continue to advance, and the old officer explained as follows:..."
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Flashback
"Oh, that's because the kids volunteered, it was their team captain who spoke up!" the old officer explained.
"Team captain? Really?" Truong asked in surprise.
"Yes, it was him!" the old officer nodded.
"But in the recent battle, to minimize casualties, V.Minh resorted to a dangerous tactic and fell into a deep coma..." Truong said with some emotion.
"You seem to care about your friends, the officer appreciates that. But, at this point, the schooling and education in the town are suspended, we don't know when they will resume, the kids should study on their own, except for days when the involvement of a mage is needed. Understand?" the old officer suggested.
"Oh... Yes, sir," Truong replied, now more calmly.
End of flashback
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"So we also have refugees like everyone else for what?" I replied, pretending to be knowledgeable, and handed our phone to everyone to see.
TWELVE ATTEMPTS TO DESTROY THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE IN CHINA FAILED !!!
TWO KRAKENS OVER 100 METERS IN SIZE ATTACKED SADO ISLAND, JAPAN.
HALF A MILLION ORC TROOPS FROM SOUTH VIETNAM ARE ADVANCING TO OCCUPY SURROUNDING AREAS.
10 ISLANDS IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN HAVE COMPLETELY COLLAPSED!
SRI LANKA FALLS INTO CHAOS, 2 MILLION DEAD!
"All news about Asia!?" H.Anh sighed.
"Australia is less affected and not as severe, somehow Europe is still okay, North America is completely fine, South America is starting to have major disruptions, mostly coastal populations, so the main participants of the Anti-Human faction will be mainly fish people, sea monsters, and Fantasy sea creatures, the Arctic is the SEA, the Antarctic only has scientists, and they've all returned home, Africa is in chaos like ants and lost contact with the outside world!" Truong replied.
Everyone remaining was suddenly stunned.
"Why do you suddenly know all this?" T.Hai exclaimed in surprise."Quoting V.Minh's comments from January 3, 2020..." Truong chuckled."I see..." Q.Minh said, "Everyone, have you ever thought about using the Inventory to store prohibited substances? Why isn't it more common?" I said, "Exactly! Inventory consumes mana every second, meaning continuous mana maintenance is required, and the area occupied consumes more mana. The amount of mana consumed per second will directly subtract from the natural mana regeneration rate, which depends on the magical energy concentration per cubic meter and the efficiency of mana absorption. If the natural mana regeneration drops to a negative level, it will affect health. More importantly, awakening magic is very difficult, most awakeners tend to become malicious, which is why witches are prevalent in the magical community, and also why magic is not widely spread... and almost vanished." Truong and everyone else applauded. "Once in a while, you come up with such quality remarks!" H.Anh praised. "What, is there something strange?" I pretended to be unaware. "Simple, easy to understand, usually you just blabber about sharing porn actors, porn movies, naked girls. Suddenly today you say something profound..." Truong said in surprise and a bit of admiration. "Anyone who takes the 'end of the world vaccine' must have matured." T.Hai chimed in and laughed. "That's so weird!" Q.Minh commented. "It's... normal," I shrugged and said, then turned on my phone and showed everyone a picture of Yua Mikami. "She's absolutely beautiful!" I drooled. "Let's see!" H.Anh said. "Let's see!" T.Hai said. "Let's see!" Truong said. "Let's see!" Q.Minh said. "Indeed a beauty, both stunning and attractive!" I complimented while drooling. "Agreed! She's gorgeous!" T.Hai blushed, both amazed and stunned. "Don't need to comment further!!!" H.Anh added. "Right, H.Anh's comment about girls is always... 'accurate'..." Truong said. "Everyone shouldn't watch, but... when something 'tasty' like this comes up, it's a waste not to." Q.Minh said, her voice clear and assertive. While we were all watching, Dat returned from the hospital. He happily said: "Guys, V.Minh's condition is much better now. In about five days, he'll be discharged and back to fighting." "Oh hey, is no one listening!?". Dat said louder and approached. "Oh, what's this, let's see!" Dat curiously peeked. So all of us watched porn together, like a bunch of peeping toms, perverts, and creeps. We continued watching for another 30 minutes... "Sigh, young people these days watch so much useless stuff..." the old officer (Still the same person) sighed, patted my and Truong's shoulders, while the female nurse (Also the same person) beside him chuckled. We jerked, screamed, and stood up abruptly. Seeing our reaction, the old officer sighed again, "I don't know how you guys outlasted the defensive capabilities of Tonga for so long!" "Fortunately, sir..." Q.Minh quickly replied. "So it turns out you guys are also curious about 'forbidden fruits', huh?" the female nurse teased with a mischievous tone, looking straight into Truong's eyes. "Oh, it's not...," Truong blushed, trying to explain, his voice faltering. "Anyway, I don't care. Our kids are the same age as you guys, they finished their lunch, right?" the old officer asked. "Well-" Dat was about to reply when the old officer interrupted. "I know. Dat eats at the hospital canteen, and the rest of you finished devouring a quarter of your friend's dragon fruit already..." the old officer looked at a pile of dragon fruit peels in a corner, "But it's okay, the compost from the peels will make excellent fertilizer. Now, you guys go take a nap!" "But..." "GO TAKE A NAP RIGHT NOW!!!" the old officer shouted. We ran like the wind into V.Minh's house, into the room, and went to sleep. The old officer commented and sighed, "Kids these days... you have to yell at them to make them listen, more stubborn than when I was young...". The female nurse heard that and responded with a playful tone, "That's what makes them kids!"
- 2:00 PM -
"Everyone, wake up!" Truong stood at the door, addressing the five of us, who were lying lazily on the mattresses.
"Just 5 more minutes," Q.Minh mumbled.
"Let them sleep a bit!!!" H.Anh pretended to sound intimidating, but to no avail.
"Alright then..." Truong started to relent, but suddenly thought of something. Without much fuss, he adjusted the thermostat to 16 degrees Celsius, then locked the door, grabbed all the blankets and pillows, and left the room.
- 2:05 PM -
"Truong, open the door, it's too cold!" H.Anh shouted, trying to push open the door (which opened from the outside in) to no avail.
Q.Minh and Dat huddled together, lying curled up in a corner.
"It's okay, just stay here, it's warm enough!" I said, opening the wardrobe door to let some warmth in, then closing it. "Just sleep through it!"
"Whoever used fire magic to heat up or electric magic to neutralize the thermostat!" T.Hai complained.
"V.Minh knows fire magic, but he's in a deep coma now, and Truong uses electric magic!" H.Anh replied.
"That's crazy!" T.Hai exclaimed.
"Why don't you use wind magic to make it warmer!" H.Anh kept trying to open the door.
"I can't control the temperature of wind magic! Why don't you use earth magic and your wood magic to find an escape route?" T.Hai asked again.
"Are you crazy? V.Minh will barbecue me for damaging his house!" H.Anh retorted.
"I know my light magic and ice magic are useless, so I'm not trying to escape either!" I replied.
"Damn it, what do you use that's so certain?" H.Anh asked.
"A high-tensile steel wire connected to a 10-meter heavy metal block," Truong replied casually while sipping his tea.
"Why is it so hard to open then?" T.Hai asked, even though both he and H.Anh were trying to open the door together but failing.
"Let me explain it to you guys." Truong said.
"Start by calculating the force that the object applies to the rubber band. The force that the object applies to the rubber band can be calculated using Newton's second law: F = m × g. Where: m is the mass of the object, equal to 200 kilograms; g = acceleration due to gravity, we assume to be approximately 9.81 m/s2. We calculate the force F = 200kg × 9.81m/s2 = 1962 N, or F = 1962 N. Now, let's calculate the force needed to stretch the rubber band to 10 meters. The force needed to stretch a spring or rubber band can be calculated using Hooke's Law: F = k × Δx, Where: k = spring constant of the rubber band (we don't have it, so we need to calculate it), Δx = change in length = 10 meters. First, let's find the spring constant k of the rubber band. We can rearrange Hooke's Law to solve for k: k = F/Δx, substituting the values, we get: k = 1962/10 = 196.2 N/m. Now that we have the spring constant k, we can calculate the force required to stretch the rubber band to 10 meters when the door handle is pulled: Fdoor = k × Δx = 196.2 N/m × 10 m = 1962 N. So, we need a force of 1962 N to open the door." Truong explained patiently.
"See, physics is very interesting and useful..." Truong took another sip of tea.
"Interesting indeed. So what do you want?" H.Anh asked, annoyed, and pushed the door.
"Go outside to study..." Truong said.
"Are you V.Minh 2.0?" T.Hai joked.
"So, study or be trapped here forever?" Truong wondered.
"STUDY! STUDY! STUDY!" H.Anh shouted.
Truong removed the wire, opened the door, turned off the thermostat switch nearby.
"Oh, DARN IT!" H.Anh exclaimed.
"Let's go study!" Truong said cheerfully.
[So the six of them went outside to enrich their knowledge during this peaceful time.]
• January 11th, 2020:
- Morning:
H.Anh rubbed his eyes, holding a gray earth magic textbook, reading aloud the content: "The magical energy stream is the flow of mana atomic particles moving freely and capable of penetrating through matter. The mystical gas stream consists of mana particles with two invisible crescent moon-shaped mana atoms combined into a spherical form, creating a blue energy and transforming into an independent stream with wind, this movement creates areas rich in mana (10% of the Earth's surface), poor in mana (30% of the Earth's surface), and void of mana (60% of the Earth's surface). The earth magic stream is composed of mana atoms that move similarly to an underground water vein, called earth magic veins, there are three main types of earth magic veins: white earth veins (energy of white magic), black earth veins (energy of black magic), and elemental earth veins (energy of elemental magic), but where there is a wealth of white earth veins, it creates Sacred lands (Temples, Churches,...), places rich in black earth veins create Dark lands (Haunted houses, places with heavy atmosphere,...), and where there is a wealth of elemental earth veins it creates Nexus (Cities with unusual activities but capable of providing life). The interaction and mutual annihilation between earth magic veins create neutral zones (Balance in magical energy). Each planet has a magical shield to prevent the invasion of celestial energy, however, it may be temporarily or permanently weakened under the influence of celestial energy (Energy created by summoning rituals of inner and outer planets, while reducing the real level of existence).", finally, he groaned and banged his head on the table twice, "Why do I have to study this...!?"
"So you wanted to study magic before!?" I replied.
"I thought it would be easy, those isekai protagonists just get reincarnated and possess unbelievable powers!" H.Anh banged the table, saying.
"Stop fantasizing, this is the real world, not a cartoon..." Trường said indifferently.
"Do you think we can change subjects?" H.Anh mumbled.
"Alright, let's finish studying magic today." T.Hải said.
"Just study all day, I'm just getting into magic, don't understand anything yet..." Q.Minh chimed in.
"Never mind you!" H.Anh retorted.
"Hey, it seems like you're missing a part, the part that says 'Those who have the ability to use magic are those who have an influence on this energy stream' and 'When awakening the ability to use magic through a random way, a portion of life force (about 20%) will become innate mana, a source of mana that allows the user to not need to use external mana.', along with the interaction between innate mana and external mana (Gas and earth streams) will emit an invisible magical aura from the creature, the more innate mana, the clearer the aura, which correlates to the creature's strength." Q.Minh continued reading the content in H.Anh's book.
"Be quiet!" H.Anh snapped.
"Quiet, H.Anh, I'm studying..." Đạt said, still focused on absorbing knowledge from the book about restoration spells.
T.Hải remained silent.
"Learning humility like this..." I said sarcastically, looking at H.Anh with a clearly mocking look.
"Stop it!" H.Anh growled.
- Afternoon:
"I don't understand anything...!" I lay sprawled on the table and sighed, shifting my gaze away from the English passage in front of me.
"Here, if you don't know, look it up in the dictionary, your English is still quite poor so try translating each sentence." H.Anh handed me an English-Vietnamese dictionary and continued studying English.
I nodded, turned to Trường, and said loudly: "Hey, Trường, from now on it should be 'Environment', not 'Enviroment'."
"Thanks..." Trường clapped.
"No need to be so pleased..." H.Anh rolled his eyes.
"H.Anh, what is NaCO3 called in English?" T.Hải asked.
"Oh... Sodium Carbonate, it's soda I think..." H.Anh pondered before responding.
"Great!" T.Hải looked at the result on his phone, "Correct according to Google!"
"If you have a phone why ask? Such a waste!" Q.Minh, sitting next to him, said.
- Evening:
"I'll cook tonight, and let's take turns with others tomorrow, rotating every day." I tied the apron and announced.
"You used to be such a playboy, yet you know how to cook?" Q.Minh teased.
"Of course! Deliciousness knows no bounds!" I confidently said, opening the refrigerator next to me, wrinkling my nose, "Where's all the meat!?"
"It seems the meat supply has been cut since January 4th, all reserved meat or those that went bad expired on January 7th." Trường said.
"Too bad, but it's okay, 'let me cook!'" I confidently declared, then searched and took out carrots, tomatoes, cabbage, and eggplant. I sliced them, then added lettuce and coriander and mixed them into a salad. I used some leftover carrots, squeezed them into carrot juice using a juicer, poured them into glasses for all six of us.
"Admit it, the salad is both aesthetic and delicious, where did you get so much experience?" Q.Minh took a bite of the salad I had just made, praising it.
All the remaining people also enjoyed the food and praised it like Q.Minh.
"I usually help my parents with cooking!" I said.
"Really?" T.Hải raised an eyebrow.
"Sure, everyone knows how to cook, don't they?" I said nonchalantly.
"Yes!" Trường said.
"Yes!" T.Hải said.
"Yes!" H.Anh said.
"Yes!" Q.Minh said.
"Yes!" Đạt said.
"Well, at least we have that in common!" Đạt commented.
"Right..." Q.Minh replied.
"Cooking also has its own fun!" I said.
"Yeah, can't forget the times we laughed our heads off because of a failed dish..." H.Anh took another bite of the salad.
All of us laughed, only to argue again over who would wash the dishes.
Correction, at 11 PM on the same day, more than 300 Ghouls (A type of zombie-like undead creature, with basic functions such as running, biting, growling,... but with the ability to phase through walls.) invaded a town on the way to Thai Nguyen province, we did not participate because we were already sleeping at that time, the army deployed 50 soldiers equipped with guns, enough to confront them, and they managed to secure victory after 20 minutes of battle. There were no casualties.
• January 12th, 2020:
- Morning: We studied Chemistry, and Hai was asked questions a lot (about 350 times in 6 hours of study).
- Afternoon: We studied Physics, and it was Truong's turn to be asked (400 times).
- Evening: Truong cooked, and he made vegetarian pho rolls for us. The dipping sauce was surprisingly good, not too salty, sour, or bland.
- Today we defeated 187 Hobgoblins. (Hobgoblins are humanoid creatures similar to Goblins but twice the size, ranging from 6-8 feet tall.)
• January 13th, 2020:
- Morning: We studied Math, and Dat and I had to ask Q.Minh questions less than 200 times.
- Afternoon: We studied Literature, and I swear H.Anh taught with such passion, making the lesson interesting and easy to understand.
- Evening: Q.Minh cooked, and he made snail soup with tofu, bananas, herbs, and snails (mandatory ingredients). The snails were sourced from the fields near our house, and he also got 50 pieces of banh cuon (steamed rice rolls) with dipping sauce (including papaya and chili) from the military.
- Today we continued to defeat 28 Anti-fire Ents. (A type of Ent species, humanoid plant creatures with the biological functions of both plants and animals except for high-level reproductive capabilities like citrus fruits. These Ents are those individuals of the species that can withstand temperatures above 1000 degrees Celsius.)
• January 14th, 2020:
- Morning: We studied History and Geography, the material was long and dry, wish V.Minh was here to make things easier.
- Afternoon: We studied Biology, and today's session was a bit different, we combined observing natural leaves (under the supervision of over 10 military personnel) with theoretical learning.
- Evening: Dat cooked, and today he got 24 fertilized duck eggs from some local farmer. Additionally, Dat cooked fried rice with pickled vegetables and garlic (no beef). The reconnaissance team of bandits has returned, and I noticed they even brought UAVs for surveillance. They reported that most of the notorious gangs have been captured. Tomorrow they will continue to hunt down the remaining ones. As for dinner, we enjoyed porridge with herbs and a little bit of beef with the military.
- That evening, we encountered a Rock-Coverer (a type of zombie covered in a hard, rock-like shell all over its body, belonging to the Mutant Zombie species, a physical branch of the Undead).