The Villainess and I, her Zombie

The past ten hours could be described only as torture.

Without water, without a moment of rest, all the southerners in the facility were forced to run around with weights exceeding their natural carrying load limit while dodging the projectiles shot from training machines in irregular intervals.

"What is...! The...! Purpose of...! This...!"

Mika was wheezing while trying to catch her breath.

"Oh?"

Bruiser 97-F who was passing her with much bigger weights than anyone else put together strapped to his back, stopped by her and tilted his head.

"Miss Mika? Are you alright? If you stay in the same place for too long you will get hit by a rubber ball."

He said looking around in concern.

Still, the people operating the training machines were concentrating fire on the rat-faced man running much farther ahead, so two teenagers were safe at least for the moment.

"Say... what is the point of this exercise...?"

Mika gasped and asked.

Her strength wasn't all that bad compared to the Sloth soldiers, but her endurance was a completely different matter...

"I don't know. But they told us to do it, so there must be a reason."

The buzzcut boy shrugged his shoulders and fixed the straps of his weights.

"Yeah... but what is that reason...?"

The ashen-haired girl groaned and straightened her back.

"You know how they are shooting at us? On the front lines our gunners don't use something as silly as rubber balls, but live ammunition. Maybe this training is meant for you to get used to instinctively getting out of the way of fire?"

Bruiser 97-F shrugged his shoulders and guessed.

"...is that so... but then why are you here with us...?

Mika furrowed her brows and asked.

"Ah...! I... I often get injured by friendly fire on the frontline because I sometimes pursue too far after the enemies..."

The boy explained and blushed.

"Wait! Are you saying that no one will stop using those weird projectile weapons even when their allies get in the way?! Isn't that dangerous?!"

Mika's eyes got filled with righteous anger and she asked in disbelief.

"Miss, you don't understand, if the gunners stop shooting, some of the monsters might slip by. And a titan-class roaming around the sea of mist is a terrible hazard for the cities and villages supplying us with food."

Bruiser 97-F explained politely while starting moving again and got Mika to follow him.

"The last time that happened, the damages to the crops were so high that we had to request the southern territories leaders to get us some emergency supplies."

He continued explaining while picking up the peace.

"By the way, those emergency supplies are the same ones that have gone missing and those people are supposed to find."

The boy added pointing with his chin at the adventurers in a brand new high-quality gear, running ahead in the hail of rubber bullets.

"I see... hey, don't you think that your colleagues are really going after that short man...? Isn't that a bit odd?"

Mika noticed and asked.

"I don't know. Maybe they don't like how cocky he acts all the time. Here you don't want to stick out too much."

Bruiser 97-F said, but then he laughed.

"Scratch that, you don't want to stick out too much on the battlefield either. The titan-class monsters will focus on you to break the defense line."

He added.

"...! I-I see..."

Mika flinched and mumbled under her breath, taken aback.

Then she glanced at the eleven timers counting down in the corner of her vision - that have replaced the single timer counting down the time remaining on the Acedia skill.

(37:39:27)

(61:39:27)

(85:39:27)

(109:39:27)

(133:39:27)

(157:39:27)

(181:39:27)

(205:39:27)

(229:39:27)

(253:39:27)

(277:39:27)

The sheer amount of space they occupied was enough to make it unsettling, not to mention how they all counted down in perfect sync towards the time when the girl and her friends will have to face the titan-class monsters on the frontline.

Still, to do that, they would need to finish this first objective - the training...!

Mika couldn't stop worrying that maybe those higher-ups that bruiser 97-F was talking about, simply weren't taking the special quest seriously.

Still, considering that one of their soldiers, medic 7, had the apprisal+ affinity that allowed her to see active quests of the people she apprised, that shouldn't be the case...

Unless...

*thump* *thump* *thump*

Suddenly the three rubber balls shot through the air and got embedded into the ground dangerously close to bruiser 97-F's feet.

"UH-oh, that's enough of a chatter, they noticed that we're slacking off...!"

The boy snickered and rushed ahead with at least twice the speed.

"Hey! Who's slacking o...?!"

*thump* *thump*

Mika water to protest but then two bullets grazed her hip and dug into ground behind her.

"...!"

The ashen-haired girl closed her mouth and hurriedly accelerated despite the exhaustion taking over her.

Even if she lacked the endurance, she was able to use her great strength to make each step a lot longer by basically constantly jumping horizontally.

By utilizing that technique she was able to not only pass the Dandelions but even her friends.

"Mika, aren't you tired? Maybe we should request that they let us rest?"

Corvus livened up as soon as she got into the reach of his voice.

"N-no, I'm fine...!"

The ashen-haired girl blushed, happy that her beloved Corvus was worried about her, but at the same time, something inside her was telling her to show him that she's not some kid who needs to be looked after.

And to back her words up, Mika accelerated even more and started catching up to bruiser 97-F.

That's why she missed the annoyed face that Corvus made as soon as she gave him an answer he didn't want to hear.

"What? Are you angry that you can't luck or lie your way out of this exercise?"

Ti running a few steps ahead of him smirked and whispered mockingly.

"Did anyone asked you for your input?"

Corvus scoffed angrily and faced the other way...

*thump*

'WHOA...!"

Just in time to notice and dodge an incoming rubber ball that would otherwise hit him in the head resulting in at least a concussion - if he was lucky.

"Tsk...!"

The white-haired young man clicked his tongue and concentrated on running and dodging.

The same exercise continued for another five hours before they were allowed to change the location.