Stagnant Water of Apocalypse

Chapter 3: First Hunt

I looked at the secondhand black carbon compound bow I had bought. The seller told me that he had given up using it due to his lack of strength to draw its string. And although he was sad, he also handed some aluminum and carbon arrows at a low price.

Out of curiosity, I notched an arrow into the bow and then drew it with all my strength. My muscles were stretched to their fullest, and yet it still feels quite heavy.

"60 pounds draw weight is about this much tension, huh?"

Back in Survival Life, I had plenty of experience of using bow. But since it was a game, I could draw and aim it easily as long as my stats met the minimum required stays for the how. However, in reality, there were many things to care about when using a bow. Aiming it alone was so difficult as the bow shook along with my arm which was exerting power to draw the bowstring. It was truly a big fat lie when games and novels show how a slender girl could easily draw bowstring.

I put my bow down before moving towards my PC. I went to MeTube and put my inquiry in the search column. It was a habit of mine from Survival Life to analyze a problem once I encountered them.

"These days, you can learn many things from the MeTube." With a little English proficiency, you could literally learn about a lot of things. I was never a bright student back in school. However, with subtitles on, I could interpret the words and roughly understand its meaning.

"This is how you hold your posture." The western uncle in the video stood with his legs open at the same length as his shoulder. His arms were naturally stretched as he slowly lifted the bow.

The uncle screamed something while looking at the screen. Based on the word 'One more' I guessed he was telling me to try again.

"This, is, surprisingly, hard." The uncle said it was still too early to notch an arrow at this point. He shouted that at least a thousand times of drawing practice was needed before moving to the next step.

As I was clearly aware that this practice would protect me from any danger in the future, I crammed every single thing the uncle did to my brain. But this is truly no joke. The once light bow gradually became heavier and heavier as beads of sweat formed on my forehead even though all I did was lifting a bow.

"Whoa..." Let's take a break for a few minutes. I had continuously lifted the bow without resting. Admiration blooms in my heart towards the white uncle in the video. I'm sure he'd hunted a lot. On the other hand, I'm just a beginner, a noob. Though, in Survival Life, I was a master of all kinds of weapons.

Just like what was instructed by the uncle on the video, I lifted the bow for a thousand times until my body was bathed in sweat.

And then, as I played the video once again, the uncle said now is the time to practice lifting the bow while changing the direction of my legs. It was a good technique for quick aiming.

"Oh, my gosh." I groaned.

I swear I will master it. After all, one of my few strengths was that I always finish what I put my mind into. Of course, there were some exceptions like becoming rich or going to a prestigious university.

Trying to imitate the uncle's movement with a straight face, I could slowly feel the cramps in my muscles. When I looked at the clock on the wall, it had been three hours since I started.

I decided to call it a day since the Apocalypse wouldn't happen tomorrow. There's still a month and a day left for me to work hard in mastering it.

"Oh, my gosh. I'm dying." I fell on the bed as I screamed those words out.

Out of reflex, I almost closed my eyes. Then I jerked up as I remembered I would suffer from muscle pain once I woke up if I fell asleep now. I certainly didn't want to enter the forest in that condition. It's better to do it right now while my muscles were still relaxed.