Ch 17: Opening a Survival School Before the Zombie Outbreak

After breakfast, Zhao Tingting got in touch with Fu Qing, saying that Maomao’s ears had been bandaged. She even sent over a video of him, full of energy, happily eating his “patient’s meal.”

A whole plate of freeze-dried raw meat was laid out, along with a black tiger shrimp and a bowl of kale salad. Maomao lay nearby with his two hind legs stretched out, crunching away in bliss.

Fu Qing thought of her own breakfast of vegetable buns and boiled eggs: “……”

What did it mean when a person lived worse than a dog?

Zhao Tingting quickly followed up with a voice message. She said that while chatting over dinner the previous night, she had heard Qin Yufei and the others mention a few things and guessed that Fangzhou was some kind of “martial arts school.” So she had stayed up all night buying some things as a token of thanks and insisted they accept them.

Probably afraid that Fu Qing would refuse, she kept her lips sealed and did not mention what she had sent. It was not until later, when Fu Qing stood by the window of the principal’s office drinking water and watched several large trucks drive into the campus, that she nearly spat out a mouthful.

Ten treadmills, twenty wooden dummy posts, several punching bags, multiple sets of protective gear, and various kinds of fitness equipment, enough to build a fully equipped gym.

Zhao Tingting jumped down from the passenger seat of one of the trucks, leading Maomao by the leash, and tried to stuff a silk banner reading “You Saved My Dog’s Life” into Fu Qing’s hands.

“Maomao is an important member of our family. You’re basically the one who saved our family member’s life. My parents are very grateful. It’s just a small token, not even one ten-thousandth as important as Maomao is to us. Please, you must accept it,” she said solemnly. “Otherwise, we’ll have to publish a thank-you announcement in the newspaper. Oh, by the way, are you short on student enrollment? Would a Huazhou Daily front-page headline work? Their editor-in-chief had dinner at my house just last week…”

Fu Qing developed a splitting headache and hurriedly restrained the young miss Zhao before she could start waving money around.

Looking at the truckloads of equipment, she ultimately decided to establish the gym in the sports hall on the south side of the track field. In the center of the room, she would hang the “You Saved My Dog’s Life” banner along with a large, professionally retouched portrait of Maomao as a gesture of thanks.

Zhao Tingting was very satisfied with this arrangement.

She had not forgotten the nine students who had come to help. In addition to the gifts for the school, she gave each of them a brand-new fruit-brand smartphone and tablet set.

Everyone summoned to the principal’s office was overwhelmed and cautiously looked to Fu Qing, unsure whether they should accept them.

After what had happened the day before, they instinctively read Fu Qing’s expression like children gauging a parent’s mood.

Fu Qing said, “Take them.”

With the principal’s permission, they happily hugged their boxes.

Fu Qing turned to Zhao Tingting. “Things have been chaotic everywhere lately. Be careful when you go out from now on.”

As she spoke, she felt a wet nose nudge her calf. Looking down, she saw Maomao grinning up at her, tail wagging furiously.

Fu Qing rubbed his big fluffy head. “If something like this happens again, there might not be anyone around to help.”

Zhao Tingting had not thought much of it at first, but hearing this, she could not help falling into thought. “Now that you mention it… there have been quite a lot of social news stories lately. Is the overall environment getting worse? Are people becoming more hostile?”

Reminded once already by Fu Qing, she looked down at Maomao thoughtfully, still deep in contemplation when she left.

That very night, she sent another message, saying she had asked her family to hire a sanda coach and would start classes next week.

“Maomao is going to a dog training school too. We’ll work hard and train so that if we run into unreasonable people again, we can protect ourselves.”

After listening to the voice message, Fu Qing could not help but fall silent.

With that kind of drive, even if the apocalypse truly arrived, this girl would probably do just fine.

And since she was starting to train now, if she really stuck with it for a year, she would be strong enough to protect herself by the time the end came.

That would count as repaying the generous gift of the gym.

She just had not expected that Maomao would be going to school too…

Fu Qing had never imagined that in her search for people to attend classes, she would end up dragging even passing dogs into it.

She genuinely could not picture what a Samoyed, round as a snowball, would look like acting mighty and domineering.

The next day, news of the gym’s opening was announced to all students through the forum.

At the same time, the story of Qin Yufei, Song Rushuang, and the others acting bravely was edited into a post and pinned to the top of the forum homepage for an entire week, giving them plenty of recognition.

For the next few days, whenever they attended class or trained, they would occasionally catch people staring at them.

They were surprised to discover that helping others felt so good. The joy of it even outweighed the happiness of receiving gifts worth tens of thousands.

*

This unexpected incident brought a subtle shift to the atmosphere on campus.

Over the following week, its afterglow lingered.

Specifically, people trained with greater enthusiasm, and some students’ gazes toward the principal grew more subtle and heated.

After pushing through the initial difficulties, the students gradually adapted to life at Fangzhou. As Fu Qing observed their increasingly brisk walking postures, she sought out Hao Zhenye.

When he realized she had come looking for him, Hao Zhenye appeared somewhat surprised. He closed the door of the teachers’ dormitory room and slowly stepped out, looking at her warily. “What is it?”

Seeing him like this, Fu Qing suddenly felt a sense of familiarity.

Even without relying on the system as her eyes, she knew there was nothing in Hao Zhenye’s room worth guarding so carefully.

The teachers summoned here, apart from a few hours of monthly leave that could be exchanged with points and items like the game console Fu Qing had given Bai Tang, possessed no personal belongings of their own.

In essence, they did not even count as “living people,” but were merely remnants forcibly pulled back from their graves by the system, wandering this world like faint souls.

Even so, Hao Zhenye had retained the habits from before his death.

When eating, he constantly watched his surroundings. If someone approached his safe zone, he would instinctively bare his fangs and release a dangerous aura that warned others to keep their distance.

All of it made him out of place, almost like a monster.

Among the teachers, Granny Liu had died too early. Bai Tang had always stayed inside her safe room. Zhao Yunxiao, like Bai Tang, had been protected layer upon layer and had never directly faced external danger.

In a certain sense, Hao Zhenye and Fu Qing were the same kind of people.

They were both survivors of the apocalypse.

Just as beasts were domesticated by civilization into gentleness, humans were domesticated by the apocalypse into brutality.

Years of high-pressure living were enough to completely change a person. Even back in a civilized world, Hao Zhenye had already forgotten how to live normally. The constant vigilance and instinct to guard his territory were also a form of confusion and displacement.

Fu Qing suddenly understood his attitude toward her all this time.

With his strength, he could easily have become the leader of a small group in the apocalypse. Being abruptly summoned by the system and forced to accept another person’s arrangements without understanding anything clearly went against his survival principles.

That Hao Zhenye was willing to stay for the salary did not mean there was no resistance in his heart.

He was not the same as Bai Tang, Granny Liu, or Zhao Yunxiao.

The thought flashed quickly through Fu Qing’s mind before she spoke. “Have you seen the new gym the school built?”

Faced with his obvious wariness, she remained calm, almost as if she simply ignored it.

After a brief hesitation, Hao Zhenye nodded.

“I put the wooden dummy posts in the sports hall. If physical education classes need them later, you can arrange for the students to practice with them.”

Judging by his skills, he had clearly trained before. He should be very familiar with how to use a wooden dummy.

Hao Zhenye finally spoke. “Wooden dummies aren’t as effective as moving targets. I’ll still have them practice in pairs, taking turns feeding targets. But when there’s nothing else to do, they can hit them for fun.”

If the students had heard that, they would certainly have complained.

Redefining “for fun.”

Fu Qing did not mind. They were free anyway. As long as they could be put to use, that was enough.

“Also, these are the new pieces of equipment the school purchased. Get familiar with them in advance.”

With a wave of her hand, several objects suddenly appeared in the corridor, outlined in stiff, rigid silhouettes by the daylight filtering through the corner windows.

The hair on Hao Zhenye’s body stood on end. By reflex, he raised his palm to strike.

Just before making contact, he suddenly snapped back to his senses and forcibly halted his movement, looking at Fu Qing with suspicion.

Fu Qing reached out and rested her hand on one of the figures’ shoulders. “Did that startle you?”

“Twenty-four-hour sparring partners. They don’t get tired, don’t feel pain, can take a beating, and even draw aggro. Not bad, right?”

She patted one of the “little zombies” on the shoulder, looking quite satisfied.

Hao Zhenye: “……”

*

Half an hour later, the first practical combat class of the morning officially began.

On the field, the students, assembled into four ranks, stared blankly toward the front of the formation, faces pale.

Ten zombies stood beside Hao Zhenye. He himself looked uncomfortable too, his expression even sourer than usual. “Starting with this class, PE and advanced practical combat will be introducing brand-new teaching aids. In practical combat, besides basic sparring technique drills, we’re adding one more item: live simulation. You’ll take turns fighting zombies. If you successfully kill one, you swap out. After you’ve each gone through a round of kills, class ends. If you can’t kill yours, you stay after and keep going.”

The students: “……?”

You call this a teaching aid?

Also, since when did universities have detention??

Other people’s detention is “Solve this problem before you leave.” With them it had turned into “Kill this zombie before you leave”……

The students were suffering inside, but they did not dare say a word.

Those ten zombies had cost Fu Qing a full 150 teaching points. Each was a standard 180 centimeters tall, lean-built and tightly muscled, like mass-produced human mannequins, except each wore a different color outfit for distinction.

According to the system description, these “realistic zombies” possessed both strength and agility, and could adjust their movement patterns on their own. Because the system made them from special materials, they could withstand almost unlimited attacks and automatically restore themselves. Calling them the best teaching aids was no exaggeration.

Of course, that durability was not truly limitless. If countless people attacked at once, or if someone threw them into an industrial shredder, these realistic zombies could still be destroyed.

As for appearances, in Hao Zhenye’s eyes, there was no difference between them and ordinary zombies.

Their skin was deathly pale, devoid of blood. Some areas had rotted into a bluish-gray. When he had brushed one by accident earlier, he had felt that icy, soft texture.

If you pressed down, the skin would cave in, leaving a small dent that recovered slowly, disgustingly so.

Their bark-dry, cracked lips hung slightly open, exposing black-red ulcerated gums. In their ashen eye sockets lingered a veil of death.

Fu Qing’s pre-class briefing had already told Hao Zhenye that once the switch on their backs was activated, the zombies’ rolled-up eyeballs would flip down again, their shrunken pupils locking onto nearby prey.

Their eyes were the marker of whether they were “on.”

Hao Zhenye reached out and pressed a spot along one zombie’s spine. A series of “ka-la ka-la” clicks came from between the zombie’s clenched teeth.

The students all stepped back in unison. Hao Zhenye kept a blank face and said nothing.

Also, according to Fu Qing, that was the realistic zombie’s startup sound effect.

A moment later, a low, hoarse voice emerged from the zombie’s mouth: “Please select a mode. If you wish to change settings, please adjust by voice command.”

As it spoke, its eyes also fixed gloomily on a student in the front row.

A random kid was frightened to death on the spot.

“Why is it only staring at me?” The targeted student was on the verge of tears, feeling as if the air around him had dropped two or three degrees.

Hao Zhenye did not answer the zombie’s question for now. He made a gesture for everyone to look over, then pulled a gleaming short blade from his pocket. With one arm he hooked from behind to clamp the zombie’s neck, while his other hand drove the knife in cleanly through the zombie’s eye.

Before the students could even react, they heard a wet “puchi,” and the blade had already sunk most of the way into the zombie’s skull.

After a brief daze, they screamed in unison, like an entire row of squeaky chickens.

Hao Zhenye cleared his throat impatiently. “Quiet.”

Everyone snapped their mouths shut.

The zombie did not move. The knife was still buried deep in its head. It opened its mouth and, without emotion, broadcast: “Kill confirmed. Time taken: 3 seconds.”

Then the area around the zombie’s eye began to writhe in a bizarre way, as if alive, quickly spitting the knife back out. The eye restored itself to normal.

Hao Zhenye picked up the fallen knife and, this time, swept it across the zombie’s throat.

He used a great deal of force. The blade cut through skin and flesh as smoothly as if slicing mud. The zombie’s head, robbed of support, tipped back with a slight movement, revealing most of the cross-section where tendons and blood vessels interlaced. Only a thin strip of skin still connected it.

The students: “Ugh—”

The nearly severed head calmly broadcast again: “Vital point not hit.”

Hao Zhenye said, “Reset.”

Flesh squirmed. The severed head reattached to the body.

The students stared, dumbfounded.

“That’s how it works. If you understood, split into groups of ten and start rotating through practice. Those assigned to kill the zombie, go pick up weapons to the side. Everyone else keeps drilling hand-to-hand.” Hao Zhenye flicked his hand. “Dismissed.”

As he spoke, he activated every zombie one by one and had them wait for orders.

Then, despite himself, he glanced at them. They were lined up in neat rows, practically standing at attention like soldiers.

Hao Zhenye had killed countless zombies, but he had never “worked with” them. He had never seen them obediently standing beside him either. Right now, he felt uncomfortable in every possible way.

If even Hao Zhenye felt like this, the students felt worse.

Last week, they had already seen all kinds of zombies as holograms in the zombie characteristics class. They had thought they were used to what zombies looked like and would not be afraid anymore, but the moment they saw “living” zombies, they realized projections were child’s play.

A projection could not replicate the details of rot, the blood stains under fingernails, the oppressive sense that these things might lunge at you at any instant.

Only when standing in front of them could they truly feel that these things were only a hair’s breadth away from living humans, yet were very real monsters that fed on people.

Almost instantly, everyone remembered the zombies they had faced with their own eyes during the drill. Their calves went weak.

Instinctive fear drove them, every cell screaming at them to run, only to be forced down by reason.

This is class. This isn’t real. There’s nothing to be afraid of……

But once weakness appeared in the heart, it became impossible to bring out full strength again.

Even among the few who managed to force themselves to face the zombies, their minds went blank. The fighting techniques they had only just started to grasp were forgotten completely.

They charged on pure instinct, only to be easily pinned by zombies whose physiques already far surpassed most adults.

One hundred and eighty centimeters tall, fully muscled, tireless no matter how long they fought, with only one vital point, and if you did not hit the brain then even with arms or legs torn off they could still keep coming. Even if they were not zombies, that kind of opponent would be hard enough.

And on top of that, the students also had to avoid being bitten.

The moment a realistic zombie’s teeth or saliva touched a student’s skin, it would stop immediately, then deliver an abnormally cruel, emotionless line: “You’re dead.”

With just a few extra mistakes, some people could “die” several times in a single minute.

So very quickly, the entire field filled with a lingering chorus that would not end:

“You’re dead.”

“You’re dead.”

“You’re dead.”

“You’re dead.”

The students: “……”

This is mocking us, right? It is, right, right?!

There’s no need to rush to remind them how useless they are!

Most outrageous of all, the realistic zombies were linked to their student wristbands.

They soon discovered new lines of synchronized information appearing on their bracelets:

【Beginner Zombie Mode: Kill Failed (Time to Death: 8s)】

【Beginner Zombie Mode: Kill Failed (Time to Death: 21s)】

【Beginner Zombie Mode: Kill Failed……】

The students who noticed the prompts all fell silent.

Too humiliating.

Not even able to last a full minute. When the apocalypse really came, would they even survive a single day?

Luckily, luckily they had found out a year in advance and still had a chance to train……

Another group was worried about something else: Would these records affect their final grades and points?

All those anxieties piled up in their minds. Gritting their teeth, everyone fought even harder.

But strength never bends to sheer will. No matter how determined a newbie got, they could not turn into an expert overnight. By the time the bell rang, fewer than a third of the class had successfully killed a zombie.

In the end, everyone’s results would show up on the teachers’ wristwatch. Hao Zhenye stared at the records, his brow furrowed so tightly he could probably pinch a passing fly to death. “Anyone who didn’t successfully kill a zombie during class, find time during the week to rent a realistic zombie and complete the kill. Any kills you fail to complete this week will double next week, then double again the week after, and so on. If you still haven’t met the kill requirement by the end of term, your participation grade will be docked.”

With that, he flicked his sleeve and left without looking back, abandoning a crowd of students who collapsed onto the ground the moment he was gone.

“Teacher Hao’s ‘demon drill instructor’ persona will never collapse.”

“Someone save me, I think I’m going to fail!”

“I’m starting to miss last week’s practice. Yeah, it was exhausting, but at least I didn’t have to experience what it feels like to have a zombie chewing on my skull.”

“You’ve got to be kidding. Like killing zombies isn’t exhausting? It’s exhausting and disgusting…… Holy crap, what’s this sticky stuff on my head? Is that zombie saliva?”

“Who still remembers our final is killing five zombies within an hour?”

“You didn’t have to remind us!”

“Thank god practical combat is an elective. There aren’t many classes a week……”

“By the way, are you guys ignoring what Teacher Hao just said? He said PE class is bringing in the new teaching aids too.”

After that last person said it in a dead voice, the surrounding area fell instantly silent.

Everyone stared at one another in terror, then wailed in unison: “……No way!!”

*

By the end of the day, almost the whole school had heard the rumor: the school had introduced a terrifying new teaching aid.

The students who had chosen practical combat already made up more than half the student body. They spread the word at lightning speed, vividly describing to the farming-class students how cruel, unethical, and inhuman the realistic zombies were, and warned them to be extra careful during PE.

PE happened to be scheduled for the last period that day, so when class began, every student who showed up walked as if their feet weighed a thousand pounds.

They did not know what awaited them, but it felt like it would be misery.

Sure enough, the moment class started, Hao Zhenye did not disappoint. “This class, you’ll split into groups of ten and do a chase battle against the realistic zombies.”

“There are two victory conditions: kill all zombies, or, with zero deaths, check in at every marked point. If you don’t finish within thirty minutes, it counts as a failure.”

As he spoke, he pressed the white watch on his wrist. The watch face swiftly transformed into a portable holographic projector, displaying in midair a large, crystal-clear 3D map of the campus, visible to the entire class.

Scattered across the map were several blue, teardrop-shaped markers pointing to the insides of buildings or high places, as well as wooded areas and intersections.

“The zombies’ speed will be adjusted to match the average adult running pace. If the distance between a zombie and the pursued target exceeds fifty meters, the zombie will automatically proceed to the nearest unchecked marker point until a pursued target appears within fifty meters. If a marker point is also within fifty meters, then regardless of where the pursued target is, the zombie will go to the marker point on its own.”

“The zombie chase battle also counts toward your grade. In the end-of-term total, the bottom thirty percent will be penalized.”

The students understood immediately: these rules were designed to force them into head-on combat with the realistic zombies.

Already tormented into near-collapse by practical combat class, they fell silent, their hearts thudding with dread.

When people were pushed too hard, they rebelled.

“This isn’t fair!” someone shouted quickly. “There are ten zombies. How can we possibly kill them all? And zombies don’t get tired. If they keep running at a steady pace, they’ll definitely catch us, not to mention we also have to run around checking in.”

“Ten people, ten zombies. Very fair.” Hao Zhenye gave him a cold glance. “If you can’t kill them, run faster.”

Either kill the monster, or run far, far away. Do not give it any hope of catching you.

There was no other choice.

The boy shrank under Hao Zhenye’s gaze, but still forced himself to keep arguing. “But in real life we don’t need to run around checking in, and we don’t need to keep sprinting nonstop. In a city there are hiding places everywhere. We just need to move a bit at a time, find somewhere to hide, and then recover our stamina.”

That was how zombie novels he had read always went!

Climb one tree at a time, inch along slowly. Who ran for a whole hour? Did he think they were machines?

“And in real life zombies won’t lock onto us and chase forever. According to what Teacher Zhao said, zombies have limited vision. We can find ways to shake them off. If we observe the environment properly, we won’t end up in a situation where ten zombies are chasing us at once.”

He laid it out with logic and evidence.

“Teacher, there are many ways to win. At the very least, you should let us practice more and build up gradually. Right now you’re just torturing people……”

The classmates who used to be the pursuers at least got tired, but zombies did not.

A pursuer that never fatigued was a brutal torment to both body and mind.

And the assessment also involved points, and points directly decided whether their parents might be able to enter a shelter. That was a matter of life and death.

The boy believed he was right.

For students who were naturally weaker, they could have made up for it with endurance and pacing, but the PE arrangement made them lose right at the starting line. The athletic kids had practically locked up a chunk of the top thirty percent already, and the rest of those spots would be seized by people with better physical conditioning.

Among those left were many girls, and some boys too. They had almost no hope of scoring high, only of not falling into the bottom thirty percent.

If it were not about points, fine. But since it involved points and the lives of their loved ones, he felt he had to fight for it.

This was simply unfair!

Hao Zhenye was unmoved. “If you have objections, you can skip this class.”

Then he turned his gaze away. “Check your groups. First batch of students, get ready.”

The boy was provoked by being ignored. He clenched his teeth and shouted, “Then teacher, demonstrate it for us. Show us how the weak can win!”

A few girls also mustered their courage. “We also think this is unfair…… We can’t get any points at all……”

……

Fu Qing was coming back from the fruit shop. Passing by the field, she happened to hear the commotion inside.

With nothing better to do, she changed direction on a whim, intending to see exactly what was going on.

Hao Zhenye did not betray the impression he had left her at all. Not even halfway through the second week, and he was already facing a collective student protest.

Fu Qing moved a few steps closer with interest.

When they noticed her, the students preparing to revolt quieted down.

For some reason, even though the principal wore an expression that said, “I’m just passing by to watch the show, don’t mind me,” her presence still felt stronger than Teacher Hao’s.

Amid the heckling of several students, Hao Zhenye’s face had already turned iron-blue. When he noticed Fu Qing, his gaze snapped over, and he said, purely to vent his irritation,

“Since you want a demonstration, let the principal do it.”

Fu Qing had just reached into the plastic bag she was carrying and felt a peach. She froze, lifted her head, and let out a “Huh?”

₊˚.🎧📓✩