Chapter 75: Morale

"Retreat."

Xiang Weiguo's order came, and First Squadron began retreating. Gao Yuan's group silently formed a line, and then the Zhang Zhe in front of him said softly, "There are too many zombies, still no use..."

Xiang Weiguo said a few words, he was encouraging these volunteers, telling them they performed very well, although they failed in the exercise, they wouldn't face a large number of zombies in real combat.

Normally, there should have been a discussion about the pros and cons after the exercise, but now there were only encouragements, the part about pointing out problems was canceled.

After praising and encouraging First Squadron fiercely for the exercise, the following drills changed, having only one squadron face a hundred zombies, and in such drills, the volunteers undoubtedly won.

Xiang Weiguo's only relief was that other squads couldn't watch the exercise because he anticipated what would happen, although he hadn't expected the situation to be more serious than he imagined.

The morale of the other four squadrons wasn't affected at all, but for First Squadron, which was the first experimental subject, the overall morale was low.

The exercise ended, and the team headed back inside.

The usual laughter was gone, replaced by a group of dejected people.

"Ah, today's exercise..."

Several people looked towards Zhang Zhe, who exhaled and said, "Today's exercise didn't go well, we all know what happened, I won't say more."

Li Xiaodong said softly, "Zombies are fiercer and faster than real people. If it were real zombies today..."

"So what if we die!"

Zhang Zhe, with an indifferent face, cut off Li Xiaodong's words. He stood up and said loudly, "What else can we do? What else! A zombie can only kill me once at most, right? Can they kill me twice? I've long felt that living is meaningless!"

Gao Yuan said softly to Zhang Zhe, "Captain! Watch yourself."

Zhang Zhe waved his hand, "What's there? It's the apocalypse, brothers, every extra day we live is a bonus, right? Let me tell you, I never expected to live until we drive the aliens away. Joining the volunteers, I knew I'd die by zombies sooner or later, but what of it! What of it! Am I scared? I'm not scared! Are you scared? Who here is scared?"

Gao Yuan said loudly, "Anyway, I'm not scared."

Zhang Zhe clapped his hands and continued, "Right! What's there to be afraid of? We kill as many as we can, and leave the rest for others. But, let's get back to the point. What's our purpose? It's to clean up small-scale zombies, those massive waves of zombies? What are guns for? What's the use of machine guns and tanks? Roll the tanks over them! So we're basically not going to encounter large-scale zombies, so what is there to be scared of?"

Gao Yuan gained a whole new appreciation for Zhang Zhe. This guy, he had a knack for boosting morale, first mentioning the worst-case scenario and then saying that actually, the situation isn't that bad, thereby changing people's perception.

There was a renewed spark in everyone's eyes, and the deputy squad leader, Sun Wang, also smiled and said, "Exactly, our leader Xiang is a special forces instructor. Don't you know him by now? We are the support; the military is the main force. With Leader Xiang in command, we won't get surrounded by zombies. What do we have to fear?"

"Exactly."

"That's right. We're not likely to go into the city anyway, how many zombies could there be in the countryside?"

At this point, Zhang Zhe waved his hand and said, "Stop the nonsense, what else is there to talk about? Come on, let's eat up all the instant noodles, I'll go boil the water!"

Li Xiaodong said, "But we have no bowls, should I go borrow some from the canteen?"

Zhang Zhe sneered, pointing at the only wash basin in the room, "What's that? Isn't that a bowl for eating instant noodles? We'll soak them together and eat it that way; that's the spirit. Just wait for me."

Zhang Zhe ran off excitedly, and after a while, he returned with a thermal flask.

The only basin we have is shared by ten people for face washing and foot bathing, but now it's time to soak some noodles.

It seems that Gao Yuan didn't find anything wrong with that either.

"Soak them all?"

"Soak them all!"

Zhang Zhe put all ten packs of noodles into the basin and, as he poured in water, said, "Here are the rules, one bite per person, taking turns. If the noodles you chose can't be finished in one bite, then step aside and watch others eat. If you drop any and waste them, just get out of here on your own. Let me make it clear, I'm only eating three bites!"

Zhang Zhe's declaration had some style to it, but then you think about it, with ten people, three bites each would pretty much finish it off.

The boiling water was poured in, and the instant noodles gradually softened. Zhang Zhe produced a pair of chopsticks whittled from branches and said, "I'll go last. You start, Gao Yuan."

Faced with noodles soaked in the washbasin, Gao Yuan was somewhat unaccustomed; he ate very politely, then passed them along one by one until the bowl reached Deputy Team Leader Sun Wang.

Sun Wang gave Zhang Zhe a meaningful look, to which Zhang Zhe chuckled, "Eat!"

Sun Wang sighed but still took a polite nibble. By then, less than a tenth of the noodles had been eaten.

When it was Zhang Zhe's turn, he also ate politely.

One by one, everyone took their chopsticks, and by the third round, there was only a little more than half left in the basin. At that moment, Zhang Zhe finally smiled.

Placing his chopsticks in the basin, Zhang Zhe looked around at everyone and smiled, "Today, I'll open your eyes to what 'a packet of noodles per bite' means."

Zhang Zhe picked up a mouthful with his chopsticks.

Gao Yuan was stunned; he had no idea a person could eat so much in one mouthful.

A packet of noodles? Zhang Zhe was being modest; he had gathered at least two packets on his chopsticks, because the massive clump of noodles looked so impressive.

Zhang Zhe tilted his head back, put the noodles in his mouth, his chopsticks slowly moved down, and his mouth quickly chewed and swallowed, without a single strand falling out.

"Damn! Boss, you're shameless!"

"That's too ruthless!"

Zhang Zhe's bite was solid. He finally lowered his head and offered the chopsticks, saying with a satisfied face, "All right, your turn. Hey, if you can't compete, don't blame others."

What was there left to eat? Only some broken bits remained in the basin; Zhang Zhe had just swallowed at least three packets in one go.

Gao Yuan was up again, he took the chopsticks, then sincerely said, "Boss, I respect you. I respect your shamelessness and your skills. You even use tactics when snatching noodles to eat. I truly admire you!"

What's that saying about no shame being a point of pride?

That describes Zhang Zhe to a T.

Zhang Zhe laughed heartily, "Can't help it. Even if you know how, you still can't do it. I'm not bragging, but try it next time if you get the chance. I've practiced this. Also, you have to snatch these instant noodles. Back when we used to eat five packets each, that was really eating instant noodles. This, this is just sampling the flavor. Speaking of flavor, it's really good. Come on, let me have a sip of the soup, this is what you call original broth for the original food."

Gao Yuan picked up the basin and somberly said, "Brothers! A sip of soup each, must finish it, just to keep Boss from getting any. Let's choke him with it!"